finer than frog hair: ScrapFest 2008: The Vendors, Round One

Okay! Here we go! There were a total of 27 vendors this year at ScrapFest, significantly fewer than last year. We did not manage to visit them all - but we would have, had time permitted! Line wait times ranged from the shortest at 5 minutes (American Crafts) to 20 minutes (BoBunny) to the longest at 120 minutes (Reminisce). Technically, The Creative Imaginations team may have had the longest lines, but as we got in line for those about an hour before "opening," I cannot adequately judge the line wait time. I had to come up with some simple way to organize these folks, so I selected alphabetical order. I'm splitting this between two posts so that page loading might be slightly easier for some folks... Lot's of snaps here! As always - feel free to comment or email me for more information!

Don't forget you can enlarge most pictures for more detail... right click and open in a new window!

American Crafts These folks have some wonderful product lines. I just recently bought several of their double sided paper collections and love them all! They also offer those nifty "flair" items that look like buttons (remember office space?!) I just recently figured out that they actually have adhesive backings to be used as embellishments. "Thickers" are theirs as well - the glitter, chipboard, foil, foam, fabric, and vinyl thick letters and shapes are great highlights. In our project below, we also used their "details" embellies that feature felt, stitching and lots of layers. Mine is from the 'fashion tiffany' line. Love these bright colors! Their rub-ons are also a favorite, lots of styles and they are very easy to use. Our make-n-take was super quick, very simple, but lovely and fun. I'd be proud to give this card away!

Archiver's I almost didn't include this one because I botched it so badly from the sample! But I figured that wasn't very fair to our hosts. This card was much nicer before I got to it! Placed the trim on the top rather than the bottom then scored it crooked so I turned it on it's side to camouflage that... the stamping and rhinestones weren't terrible, but sigh... everybody has one of those projects, no!? If you have an Archiver's near you, you really should check them out. They've lots of great products and classes available. And I am here to facilitate your positive crafting experience! (That a good thing - not like enabling an addiction!) Autumn Leaves Autumn Leaves along with some other brands (Blue Moon Beads, Crop In Style, Westrim, and DMD) make up Creativity, Inc. We used a clever clear stamp set which helped us build a license plate. I searched for an image of the set on their site... but it didn't come up. Being as I used the set, and I watched Edwina buy one, I know they do exist! (Designed by Peter Horjus one shopping site lists the item number as AL-RS-3169) I enjoy using the Autumn Leaves clear stamps and have several sets. I have had good success with die inks as well as pigment. By the way - Miss Fiona is my car adopted in July of 2005 and she is very excited that she will have her very own monogrammed holder to store her registration and proof of insurance cards in the glove box!

BoBunny To be honest, I sometimes tend to overlook the BoBunny products, I have no idea why. They are very nice to work with. This quick Christmas mini-book was fast and easy. The colors in this Christmas Line are just a little different than the traditional ones, and I really like them. The rub-ons are like buttah! Best ones I used all weekend. Details for the recipe are provided in the picture.

Cosmo Cricket Yea! Raise your bones and yell, it's Cosmo Cricket! This stuff is golly gee good! I've been a fan for a while now... my older favorites were the Cogmso and Get Happy lines. Now I have new favorites! For the make and Takes, we each selected a Blackboard piece and an adhesive die cut to match. From there we selected a few pieces of coordinating paper and viola! A super cute card! The day we queued up the paper theme was Jacks World. I love the quirky images here and can't wait to use them for a new baby album for someone soon (or maybe at least finish some of Ian's pages from 20 years ago! ) And you know, you never know when you might need a giraffe! The fellow behind the table looked a me like I was quite nutty when I asked for j,r,a,f... then he was like... oh, yeah! The rub-ons pictured here were ones I won during the Haunted House project class we made using the Haunted line. I had to rush up to Archiver's and get more goodies after I played with these! The "Crafting Kits" are great because they include the self adhesive dis cuts, journaling blocks, 'striptease' paper, as well as the rest of the 12 x 12 papers in the line. Actually some of the other lines have 8 x 8 crafting kits as well. There are also matching ribbon, stamps, and more to design with. And then there is Mr Campy. My new buddy! First of all S'mores have got to be my true official favorite dessert and he is one tasty guy! These products were also on my list at Archiver's but they ran out! Luckily, I have an Archiver's near by so the local store got some business when I returned home! NO crafting kit available this time so I kind of created my own! I'm for sure seeing a theme for Volume II of our Canadian Adventure Memories!

Creative Imaginations This vendor is always a hot topic at ScrapFest. All the vendors do nice things... but these guys seem to do big things! We passed through twice, catching two of the six projects they offered. In addition to these, there were wall hangings, frames, and more. Day one morning was this very cute stand up recipe card holder, which could also be changed slightly and used as a place card holder for a festive dinner. Both of these projects were designed by Samantha Walker and I believe that you can see the details in the product sheet in the photo. Morning of day two was this memory keeping box. Lots of choices as to which rub-ons you wanted to use. A lovely piece worthy of giving as a gift if I didn't want to keep it so badly! I find Creative Imaginations products are of very high quality.

Doodlebug Design Before I even got on the plane, I knew I was going to Archiver's to buy the New Doodle Bug "Crushed Velvet" flocking and "Sugar Coating" glitter. I was thrilled we'd get to use similar products from this bold, bright color pallet on our make and take project. The velvet and sugar coated brads are to die for and the paper lines are scrumptious! You can see a close-up of the texture of the paper and embellishments here Miss Edwina in Action! I have to give these guys props for best booth decor. Check out some of the displays they had on hand! Be sure to check out the individual projects by enlarging! Fun, Fun, Fun! I just adore that square black card below. So simple: using the la-di-dots paper, attach some of the velvet braddies randomly and viola! There were tons more I haven't space to share... These colors are HOT!

Die Cuts With a View & Ellison Cool! New toys! We used the new and improved Sizzix Big Shot. No more crank! Push a button and the sandwiched die just cruises through! The project featured papers from Die Cuts With a View and we finished it off with Stickles.