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Sunday, June 5, 2011

Scrapbooking Convention: Here I Come

This weekend was the Great American Scrapbooking Convention - conveniently close to home. And good for me, too, as this was one of my 101 goals.


I picked up my scrapbooking/paper-crafting mother-in-law and we headed to Arlington for two days of the three-day convention.

I have NEVER seen so many women in one place before - the queue to enter the convention show floor to shop stretched from one end of the convention center to the other. Unbelievable.


Of course, I've never known any scrapbookers to pass up photo opportunities!


The show floor featured booth after booth of every type of scrapbooking/paper craft product imaginable. It was like one giant store.


I even spotted a few unfortunate husbands, drug along for the afternoon.


In addition to shopping, there were opportunities to "Make and Take." These were basic hands-on demonstrations to try new products and techniques.



And plenty of sales staff eager to demonstrate the newest things - including flexible adhesive sand and distressing tools.



In addition to displays and mini-sessions on the show floor, for an extra cost you could sign up to take specialized workshops. I took two classes on digital techniques. Who knew that a girl who uses Photoshop nearly every day at work still had so much to learn!?


All in all, the convention was a great experience. I think in the future I'd skip shopping the convention show and stick with the classes.

Despite The Boy's teasing, I'm not much of a shopper. But I'm always ready to learn a new thing or two.

4 comments:

  1. Do only women scrapbook? If so, why don't men?

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  2. That's a great question! I personally don't know any men that scrapbook, but I don't know why they wouldn't. Is there a cultural norm that casts women (primarily) in the role of "memory keeper"?

    There was a man in one of my digital techniques class. He seemed very interested in the process of learning digital skills along with his wife.

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