Creative Weekend in Orlando

Wow, what an amazing and inspiring weekend Denise and I had in Orlando attending the Collins Group Fall Education and Trade Show. They have this once a year at various places and this year's destination was Orlando, lucky for us! We spent the weekend taking classes, learning about new product, new techniques, and being inspired by some of the biggest companies and celebrities in the scrapbooking industry. We sat through classes by Prima, Tim Holtz, Bazzill, Hero Arts, My Favorite Things, Copic, Hapton Art, Graphic 45, and made dozens of make 'n takes from countless other vendors. It was a blast and we plan to bring it all back to you through classes, demos, samples, and new product.

The weekend started on Friday evening when we arrived late for our Prima workshop where we made the most amazing painted canvas book.




The finished product:





What a fun class that was, learning new techniques and working with their beautiful flowers. We have ordered their new lines and hope to be receiving a HUGE Prima order soon. We would love to do this class at the shop, it was so much fun and such a beautiful project.



The next day, we had classes from 8:30 to 5:30 and we took different classes to learn as much as we could. My classes consisted of a jewelry making class with Prima where I learned to make a flower necklace (look for a Blog tutorial coming soom when the Prima order arrives). Next I had a class from my favorite paper line, Bo Bunny where I learned to make an entire chipboard album using their new Olivia line (see store for a sample).




My third class was with Bazzill learning how to properly stitch paper. I may do a Blog tutorial on this as well. My final two classes were with Hampton Art and these were my favorite. Hampton Art makes Smooch, those colorful cute bottles that look like nail polish. We sell them some but honestly I never really knew what to do with it. These classes opened up a whole new world to me. The first of the two taught us to use their new Smooch spray, similar to Glimmer Mist, and we made a super cute photo frame with grungeboard die cuts, Smooch spray, stamps, coffee stirrers, and acetate. The second class was learning how to marbelize with Smooch. This was amazing! Such a fun and easy technique with a dramatic finished product.



I just loved this! It was my favorite project from the weekend!
Here's another project done with Smooch:




While I was enjoying my classes, my mother (Denise) spent her day learning from Hero Arts, My Favorite Things, Graphic 45, Creative Imaginations, and the famous Tim Holtz. Look for her Blog about her experience and photos from her classes, ha! Who am I kidding, my mother doesn't Blog, that's what she had me for so instead, just come by the shop, she'll show you everything she made and tell you all about it.



After the classes, we spent the evening in a Sample Making Frenzy where every company had a table set up for make 'n takes. This part was so much fun but even between the two of us, we couldn't make them all! We did, however, squeeze in time for Tim Holtz's "Sit and Do" which he appropriately named it since it took about 20 minutes to make. It was worth it though, look at this amazing tag:


Ok, so that's not the greatest photo but you know it's cool, it was made by Tim Holtz!



We also made samples using product by
Little Yellow Bicycle
Canvas Corp

Heart of Texas
Copic Markers
Justrite Stamps
Bo Bunny
Outlines
Creative Imaginations

and more!



Sunday was the final day and the day to shop! We visited all of the participating companies and placed tons of orders. Although, I have to admit, I missed the entire first half because I slept until 11:00am! That was the first time in 10 months that I actually slept through the night without having to wake up and feed a baby and the first time in a long time that I got to sleep past 8:00, I took full advantage and it was amazing! So once I finally made it down to the show, I assisted my mother in ordering from the following companies:
Graphic 45
Smooch
Copic
Quick Quotes
Justrite Stamps

Stacy's Stamps

Prima
Bo Bunny - Brand new Valentine's Day line
Canvas Corp

Little Yellow Bicycle

Creative Imaginations - Luminarte
Ranger
Plus more!



So be sure to look for lots of new product coming in the next few months and also look for some upcoming classes on marbelizing with Smooch, Graphic 45 collage, Tim Holtz tags and/or jewelry, and a beautiful oversized Family Canvas display (sample will be in store)




Plus we'll be having demos in the store for new product as it comes in. Keep checking our Blog for info on these upcoming events. Oh, and one more thing I forgot to mention, we are working on getting some scrapbook celebrity visits to our store and we have Nikki Sivils confirmed (info coming soon!), but we are also looking to have Stacy from Stacy's Stamps in the spring, the designer of My Favorite Things, and Tim Holtz some time next year! He said that when he comes back to HSN he would like to do things here so we are working on getting him in our store. In fact, if you want him here, send him an e-mail, let him know he has lots of fans at Scraporium and we would all love for him to come visit us!



Well, I am pretty sure that is the longest Blog post I have ever made and if you read through the whole thing, you deserve a prize. Be sure to leave a comment on this post about anything at all and we will randomly select a winner on Monday, October 4th to win a collection of goodies from this weekend. You will receive a Hampton Art stamp set, ink pad, Quick Quotes new line of paper, Ranger canvas Album, and a few other goodies. Don't forget to by midnight Sunday night to be eligible.