Convention Update and Snippets

I stole this photo of us happy card making fools from my friend's Facebook page.  We were wrapping up the make and take party at the end of the convention.  I am in the lower left corner, next to my is my pal Joan.  Above me is my friend Lora, whose photo this is and next to her is our buddy Lin, who won the big deal ultimate grand prize giveaway.  Peeking out in the back is Mechele from the Stamp Doctor. She's a great lady and you should buy lots of stuff from her so she can afford to come back to town.

I didn't take pictures of my haul yet (believe me, it's quiet extensive) but here is a photo of a hot trend from the convention.  I know glittering on acetate is old school but they've added in a new twist.  First off, throw away that Staz On pad that never works anyway. Stamp On It sells images pre-printed onto acetate for you.  No longer do you have to mess with "glitter glue" that may or may not dry clear as promised; now they use clear stuff like crystal lacquer, diamond glaze, etc. Its a stunning effect.  The background paper is pearlized so it looks extra stunning when embossed in a folder.  The company I sell, A Muse Studio sells lots of different colors of pearlized paper called Shimmer Couture.  You should buy lots from my so I can afford to have the the Stamp Doctor come back to town.

Dies from all sorts of manufacturers such as Spellbinders, Cheery Lynn, Marianne, etc. continue to be hot, hot, hot (and the reason we'll be eating ketchup soup for the rest of the month).  There were lots of samples of the fabulous things you can do with your dies including glittering them, stacking them up and pairing them with other dies.

An interesting note about the convention was the people I know there and what we bought.  You see that top photo?  Every single one of us in the photo (minus Mechele) bought a stamp of Arizona from B&J's Art Stamps. We had a good laugh as we all pulled out that stamp to show each other.  Everyone one of us bought the stamp flip flop card die from Mechele, along with the matching borders, pop up piece, and coordinating stamps.  Amongst the 4 of us, there were several other duplicates.  Several other friends I ran into showed off their purchases--which were also in my bag. Not only do we share a love of paper crafting, but we tend to have the same tastes in products!

Before this post gets any longer, here is my snippet card that I am bringing to Pixie's Snippet Playground. She is always after us to use up those bits and pieces, waste not, want not and all. I made this iris folding card the other day using a pattern lovingly sent to me from across the pond by Hettie. For the snippets I've used up a bunch of strips of a paper. I've been hoarding the background cloud paper as well because it has been retired and I'm afraid to use it all up, which is silly as it fun and should be shared.

Thanks for sticking by this looooong post with lots of links!

The Fine Print: By the way, I thought it funny that glittering was such a hot thing at the convention because I had begrudgingly pulled out my box filled with jars of loose glitter to make the Merry Monday card I showed yesterday.  That's one thing I didn't need to buy!  There was also a booth that had iris folding and 3D paper tole crafts that made my heart go pitter patter.  That's one way I differ from my friends, but I did try hard to get them to buy the paper tole sheets because they punch out now--no fussy cutting needed!