An Inspirational Weekend, by Betsy

Hello, Memory Bound friends! 

Today's post is brought to you by Betsy, one of our very talented staff members. Betsy and a group of Memory Bound gals took a road trip to Scrapfest in Minneapolis last weekend to take some classes and bring back some great ideas to share with our customers. Betsy was kind enough to take photos of along the way and prepare this narrative of her very fun and inspirational weekend! I'm sure you'll enjoy "riding along" on Betsy's road trip! Thanks so much, Betsy! :)

Janet

 

Scrapfest 2012 

Betsy Knoblock Grabinski, Memory Bound Staff Member and Paper Crafter  

I’ve been paper crafting for as long as I can remember. I recently found a couple of trip books I made about family vacations from my childhood and can officially say I was 10 years old when I caught the bug. After three years working at Memory Bound and seeing all the amazing events there are for crafters like me, I was super-excited to have the opportunity to go to Scrapfest 2012 at the Mall of America in Minneapolis this past weekend. 

We had a group from Memory Bound go to classes on Sunday, but I decided to make a weekend out of it and registered for events on Saturday as well. I had no idea what I was in for, but with classes taught by Teresa Collins, Tim Holtz and many other crafting rock stars, how could I go wrong? 

I registered for 6 classes on Saturday. In the morning, my classes included an album from Simple Stories using their Summer Fresh line, a Christmas mini-book with paper by Echo Park and was taught by web guru Jessica Sprague, and a card/layout class with Jillibean Soup’s Macho Nacho line. Classes are 45 minutes long and most of the projects really need 2-3 hours to complete, so things go super-fast and I realized quickly that most of the projects wouldn’t be finished when the class ended.

Simple Stories Summer Fresh Album class mass of supplies – I hit the ground running with this fast-paced class.

Oh yeah, and the one-and-only Tim Holtz was there!

  My cousin Sarah joined me Saturday afternoon, which included two classes taught by Teresa Collins and one by the designers at Graphic 45/Canvas Corp. One of the really cool things about this event is getting to interact with the product designers. Teresa Collins talked about how she got started scrapbooking (her mother’s unexpected passing) and what inspires her paper designs (her background in interior design influences a lot of what she creates).

Jessica Sprague, who also has some fabulous online classes, instructed a class for a Christmas mini album with paper she designed herself – Echo Park’s Verry Merry line.

 

I actually got a couple of things completed in this class! Jill Yegerlehner, the “Big Bean” of Jillibean Soup taught this class of two cards and layout of her Macho Nacho line.

Teresa Collins teaching a mini album class using her Vintage Finds line.

 Doesn’t her paper look a lot like a vintage wallpaper book?

Me and the glamorous Teresa Collins.

This was one of the large classes taught in the rotunda in the middle of the mall with shoppers watching from above and the constant smell of Cinnabon in the air.

The class, taught by Graphic 45 and Canvas Corp, was a printer’s tray using their Trousseau paper line and materials like burlap and washi tape were used for details.

This is my cousin Sarah and I with our “finished” projects – just need to add the photos of our grandparents and we plan on giving them to our moms for Christmas.

On Sunday, I took three classes. The first was presented by one of favorite companies October Afternoon, whose home office is in Apple Valley, MN just 20 minutes from the mall.

We used October Afternoon’s Woodland Park line to create this mini-book called “The Story of my Life.”

My next class was by We R Memory Keepers with an emphasis on several new tools including the Lucky 8 Punch and the Sew Stamper. The instructor was the actual designer of the Lucky 8 Punch series, which she talked about having the idea for in the middle of the night. She even holds several patents through her innovative work with the company. 


Demonstration of the Lucky 8 Punch from We R Memory Keepers:

My last class was a card class with the ladies of Jillibean Soup – Jill Yegerlehner, Jenifer Harkin (who lives in Des Moines!), me and Kimber McGray.

After jam-packed days of paper-crafting madness, I took a little break before heading home – a yummy brownie and soda at the cozy (and quiet) Nordstrom Café.

I hope you enjoyed your ride with me to Scrapfest 2012. If I go next year, I will:

1)  Bring my rollie cart. My bag got heavy before noon on Saturday.
2)  Pack a snack and a bottle of water. With that many classes, there wasn’t much time to eat.
3) Come up a day early and do make & takes. The lines were long and I couldn’t fit them in the schedule. 
 4) Be ready to be inspired!! I knew I would learn some stuff, but I had no idea how inspiring the people who create the products we use are. And they love to share their ideas, their challenges and their inspirations with us.

* * * * *
 Note from Janet:

Some of Betsy's completed projects are posted at Memory Bound! Be sure to take a look at them the next time you're in the store.

 

Layout from the We R Memory Keeper's class:

Love all the details!

 

Several adorable cards from the Jillibean class: