Paper Trail 6 Review

Well the past ten days have been quite the roller coaster… but we had a great show and made it back alive!

I was accompanied by my designer friend Karen Bearse.

We left on Friday, July 17 so we would have plenty of time to drive the 727 miles to Schaumburg, site of the Paper Arts Show put on by Crafter’s Home and the Craft & Hobby Association. Made it to Fremont, OH where we stopped for the night.

We rolled into Schaumburg with no major disasters along the way. When we arrived at the Renaissance, we noticed that there was a big event going on at the hotel and every. parking. space. was taken….Of course we didn’t know that until we drove as far back into the parking lot as we could go. I realized, with horror, the only way to get out was to back out Big Daddy and Scotty all the way! And you know how I feel about that! Sorry for grainy pic…

Karen was outside directing me as best she could and we managed to get about 100 yards back, all the while trying to avoid Mercedes and other fancy cars packed in on every side. A lady came up behind us and started yelling that she had to get by or she would be late to work. She took a photo of us and kept yelling to move. I had to pull forward, undoing 30 minutes of backing up! It seemed to be getting a little easier so I kept trying to reverse up the hill until we saw a security truck pull up. We had a lovely chat with Jose who ended up hopping in Big Daddy and backing us up to where we needed to be- but not easily! He even agreed it was hard… The minute I got out to direct him, the skies opened up and it started pouring rain causing me look like a drowned rat.

We unloaded all our stuff for class in front of the hotel and I drove Scotty over to the Security Center where I was given a beautiful pull through parking spot that I could use as long as I needed!

We went to check in with our newly remodeled luggage cart decorated the week earlier by my 9 year old granddaughter and 11 year old niece sporting bright pink and zebra striped Duck Tape. We were quite a sight, I’ll tell ya.

There was some hitch with our Renaissance hotel reservation but Carlys, the resourceful reservations person, was able to fix us up with a great room (she may have wanted to get us out of the lobby)…

We checked in and proceeded to get ready for our class first thing in the morning.

I was a little nervous to be teaching in front of so many store owners but they were nice and interested and it turned out just fine!

 

We had some beautiful samples that were created by my local designer friends. This layout is by Susie Bentz– love it!

Here’s a video about how the new Sizzix Stitchlits dies work:

We cleaned up from class and had a nap- having been up till 3 the night before- which was the best thing ever! Anyone else like naps?

David and Cheri treated us to dinner at Lou Malnotti’s and we had us some Chicago style pizza.

After that was a stop in Target since I had left my phone charger in an Ohio hotel 🙁 First time I ever did this but probably not the last. That night we picked up Ann Butler at the airport. I’m not sure she was expecting such a welcome wagon with Scotty tagging along for the ride…

On Monday morning we went over to Prime Publishing, home of FaveCrafts, and filmed some videos.

Here’s a fun little Washi Tape Birthday Box- we also created a minion out of something you would never expect. Wait and see 🙂

My friend Simone and I

Heading out to go park Scotty in the Convention Center. Thankfully this was not hard at all. I drove in a ramp, parked, disconnected the trailer and pulled right onto it’s green carpet parking place with the dolly. It was great having three people- there is no way I could ever have done this without Ann and Karen’s help!

Later that night we took part in a sample making event. Each store owner could go around the room and create a project they could bring home to their stores as a sneak peek for what’s coming soon. We made a Needle Book and it was quite the hit!

 Then we started getting ready for class at 8 AM the next day. Long story, but we were up till 2 doing that…

If you think life on the road is relaxing, you would be WRONG! 🙂

If you know friends that you think would be interested in following along on the journey, please share this post- the more the merrier! You will find live updates and BTS glimpses posted on my Facebook page, Instagram and Twitter as they happen so please connect with me there!

More coming about this trip- you have to see how handsome Scotty was for his trade show debut- check back soon…