Event | The Scrapbook Expo

Reported by Maria Del Pinto

The Scrapbook Expo has several shows across the country; each one features a fun crop event where folks get together and crop the day and night away.

For those who have never attended a crop, here is how some of the crops work. Each person rents a table workspace and brings all of their supplies and pictures that they may need to work on their projects.  

The point of this type of event is to create the opportunity for an individual to work in a very creative atmosphere with other folks who share their enthusiasm to create memorable pages. The shared creative ideas are a lot of fun, and people often make new friends at these types of events.

Each day of the crop part of the show has a different theme. In the one I recently attended, Friday was a fun “Old West Crop Party” theme. There are prizes for creativity, enthusiasm and more. The show also offered attendees of the crop event some great equipment like die cut machines, paper trimmers, scrapbook software (compliments of Kodak), cricut machines, and more for croppers to use during the crop.

They even had pre-packaged scrapbooking kits that scrappers could order to make during the event.

The Expo also offered a broad selection of classes in digital scrapbooking and media.

On the show floor, there were many “Make & Take” opportunities for attendees to participate in. the projects were varied and had a wide range of appeal.

There were also plenty of free Technique Demonstrations to watch throughout the show, one of which was at the JudiKins booth.

Judy was on hand to demonstrate her technique of combining cool stamps with other products to create fun mini works of art. My favorite stamp was her new “Galaxy Spiral Stamp” which is from her retro collection.

For this project, she combined dye-based inks, glitters, and

Diamond Glaze to create a fun effect on glass and plastic. The soda can lid (project on the right in the picture below) is stamped, then the color is heat set before adding the diamond glass (which is allowed to air dry).

The JudiKins booth featured a vast assortment of new rubber stamp images. Here is a sampling of some of the new images 

and the sample card project. She has more project ideas , directions, and instructional videos on her website.

The next booth to catch my eye was the Button Farm. I just loved their wall of products, which included 7 Gypsies, Tim Holtz, and some very interesting curios. 

They also offered pre-packaged altered album kits. All the supplies need to complete the project are in the kit. They offered some fun designs. I like the fact that I would not need to hunt out various unique products on my own to finish the kit like the one below. For those who do not have time to plan a project, the complete step-by-step directions are always included in these kits.

My next stop was the Little Windows Brilliant Photo Jewelry booth. Their display of photo jewelry just made you want to stop and look closer.  

Their fun jewelry making kit includes an epoxy resin that is not toxic and does not have the usual strong odor that most epoxies have. Plus, it is created to work well with photo prints.

Here is a sampling of the different types of pieces you can make with this product using a variety of techniques.

Quick Quotes had a fun "Make & Take" that featured their flip flop shoe book. This kit features a real pair of flip flops as the album cover. Then the pages are attached in accordion style. This is a very fun and cute kit.

They also had a fun display from their Club Q which offers crafters a choice of either a page kit or an altered art kit.

Technique Tuesday, featured ideas and kits that were geared towards toward the busy crafter. They had page layout kits, chip board, clear stamps, and more.

Another booth that caught my eye was the Charity Wings.Org booth.  They were hosting a fund raiser “Make &Take”  event at the show, where they were making cute cards to raise money for charity.

Charity Wings is a non profit organization (California Non-Profit Org. 501(c)(3)) that empowers creative people who want to make a difference in other peoples lives and help raise funds for various charities and organizations (this show raised money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society). I enjoyed the wide selection of "Make & Takes" mini workshops,

scrapbooking classes, and digital media imaging workshops.

This show offered an abundance of paper craft supplies. The selection of embellishments was more tempting that you can imagine. They also had basic rubber stamping supplies, chip board books, altered art supplies, stencils, embossing powders, glitters, adhesives, and incredible deals on patterned paper.

It turned out to be a great mix of altered art, stamping, and scrapbooking combined. One of the things that really stood out at this show is that the "Tim Holtz" line is extremely popular and people are finding lots of creative ways to use the products. I also noticed the pre-packaged scrapbooking and altered art kits were widely available. No matter what your experience level is, there was a kit to suit your needs.

For more information on upcoming workshops, 2011 show schedule, discount coupons, or vendors,  I would recommend checking the Scrapbook Expo show website.

Have you attended any scrapbooking shows? What was your favorite project or workshop? We would love to hear your thoughts on these type of shows?

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