Paper Trail 6 Review… Continued

Here is more from the Paper Trail 6…. I didn’t realize how much happened on this trip!

On Monday afternoon, after our visit with our friends at Fave Crafts, I pulled Big Daddy into the Convention Center and Karen Bearse, Ann Butler and I set to work.

The thing that took the longest was raising the canopy. This is one heavy piece of plastic covered canvas with very old weak stitches in the seams. It was hard threading the awning through the tiny channel on the top of the camper. Thankfully we had three people because there is no way this could happen with just me- one to thread it, one to pull the other end and one to hold the heavy canvas. We finally figured out we should lay it on the top of the camper and move it that way. Duh.

Elena from Charity Wings came over to see what was up…

Even though we had a metal pipe frame holding it up (my husband’s idea), it still wanted to sag in the middle.

But we did our best… with a lot of help from Duck Tape.

and our tall Craft & Hobby Association CEO, Andrej…

We set some vintage benches, metal pails and watering cans with flowers around the bottom of the posts to stop folks from bumping into the poles and taking the whole thing out! Gotta love that purple carpet…

We got the awning up, banner strung, and samples out and then it was time for the Crafter’s Home Sample Round Robin.

After a long night of prepping (whole other story…), it was Tuesday morning.

and time to make our Sizzix ScoreBoards Sewing Box!

We set the table up for class and chatting, just like an old quilting bee. I was so happy everyone was able to complete the project in an hour and a half -whew, that was close! Always pushing the envelope 🙂

After class, we went downstairs to finish setting up Scotty. There was a Meet and Greet at 5 and we set out our berry baskets full of candy, turned on the party lights and welcomed our guests!

As I mentioned in the last post, Scotty was in fine form and looked simply spectacular for his debut at the Paper Arts Show in Schaumburg.

Before I left, my son gave me this cool gadget with macro, fisheye and wide angle lenses for my iPhone. Here’s a shot of the inside with both views- regular and fisheye. You really can see so much more!

Inside was very cozy. We had the vintage ledger out for all of Scotty’s visitors to sign in. There were trailers in abundance! I have been given so many trailer presents which I love- I use them to decorate the camper with- and then there are the great jewelry pieces that I wear on the road- thanks everyone!

The Meet and Greet was a huge success judging by the amount of visitors, photos take and candy eaten…

On Wednesday, the show opened! Although there were not a huge number of vendors, there was lots of traffic and most of the vendors that I talked with were very happy with how they had done. It seems that people come with money in hand and if you are there and have the time to show your product, you will sell it. We never had a break and I actually didn’t get a chance to walk the show! Lots of store owners stopped by to claim their dates for the next Paper Trail Tour coming up in September and October this fall, so it was great to have everyone in one spot and get that schedule filled up.

My talented Inspiration Team was well- represented here- they made most of the samples for me. See the campers lining the roof of my rock guard behind the top of the suitcase? Each team member made their own little camper so now I feel like they are traveling with with me- such amazing and generous friends.

On Thursday, we worked with the new Sizzix Stitchlits Flowers & Leaves dies to create mini Needle Books for Make and Takes in the booth. Our Cre8time event was to make cards for the Children’s Miracle Network– thanks to all who sat down and gave their time to bring a smile to a sick child.

I think we filmed five videos in the booth- FaveCrafts, Blitsy, PaperCrafter’s Corner,  Charity Wings and the adorable girls from the Canadian scrapbook magazine. I even did an interview that was translated and streamed to Brazil! Crazy!

Here I give Stephanie from PaperCrafter’s Corner a trailer tour and look through the new collection.

Manuola is showing us how to use Stitchlits!

Finally it was Thursday afternoon and time to pack up. With the help of our friends from Charity Wings and others, breakdown was very fast.

We had been invited to our friend Madeline’s for dinner. She had prepared a delicious Mexican meal and margaritas. And believe me, we needed them after what happened on the way to her place. Tune in one more time to hear the adventure packed and exciting (and not all in a good way) conclusion to our journey…

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