Great American Scrapbook Convention

I spent all day Thursday with a few friends at the Great American Scrapbook Convention in Arlington, TX. It was a long and hectic day but loads of fun. It took me all of Friday to recuperate! There was way too much to see, but I managed to make my way through all the aisles and spent way too much.

I didn't see anything that I would say was new. There was chipboard everywhere - albums, shapes, mini-books etc. - and lots of clear acrylic items. Since I'm more of a stamper than a scrapper, I was more interested in stamps and what I saw was mostly clear. One vendor, Inque Boutique (www.goinque.com) had very inexpensive stamps and stamp sets. Some were clear and some were unmounted rubber with EZ mount. The rubber was either lime green, aqua or pink - a pretty change from the regular color! They also have a rather unique stamp storage system. It's much like the Stamp 'n Store sheets which are 8 1/2" x 11" slick coated rigid sheets punched for a 3-ring binder. The Inque Boutique storage comes in the 8 1/2" x 11" size or 12" x 12" and is a thin clamshell "box" which is also punched for a 3-ring binder. The nice feature is that it closes like a box so there is no chance of any unmounteds slipping off and falling out, but it also very thin. I think this will be a great solution for tiny stamps as well as alphabets. I bought a few to give it a try.

My most favorite booth is always Heartwarming Vintage/Crafty Secrets (www.craftysecrets.com). I just love their products and samples. Their senior designer, Vicki Chrisman, is a fellow blogger who I have known for a year now. It's always great to make real-life contact with online friends, so it was wonderful to get to see her again and chat for awhile. She has a gorgeous blog so be sure to check it out: http://vickichrisman.blogspot.com The photo above is of the two of us, though we both hate having our pictures taken!