GASC

Good morning Bloggers!

It's a crazy-hot day here in Dallas.  

(99*F, in case you were wondering.

It's gonna be a looooong summer.)

I spent a blissfully happy weekend in Arlington at GASC. 

It was my first time and I LOVED it.

I took 3 classes with some beautiful projects-- I'll post those over the next couple of days. 

I feel the need to devote today to the most important aspect of GASC---

The Show Floor!

I couldn't wait to get in there and see what there was to see!

It was HUGE and there was soooo much crammed in there!

It was crowded, but not as crowded as other years, I'm told.

 Rebecca at the Prima Booth

 Melissa Frances mans her own booth!  

I got to meet both her and her husband.  

Sweetest people ever!

There were lots of nice Make & Takes to do, but I was disappointed at how expensive some of them were.

They were super-cute though!

 

There were also lots of nice demos going on.

 (Ok, so this photo is obviously cropped.  The demonstrator was super nice, but between the fact that I was focused on the cool flowers on her apron, rather than her face AND the fact that she happened to be in the middle of a sentence when I snapped the pic, it didn't come out very flattering.   Like, the kind of unflattering that would force me to hunt someone down and bash them with some large blunt object if they ever posted a similar photo of me on the Internet.  So, in the spirit of Sisterhood, I cropped.  I hope she doesn't mind.)

I finally got to see exactly how this works.  

It's way easier than it looks on UTube. 

Needless to say, I'm sold & asking Santa to bring me one for my birthday.

And sooooo very many amazing samples.  

Inspiration everywhere!

 So many ideas for acrylic shapes.  

I can't wait to use some of them!

 I thought this was so cool!  

I love the idea of ordering personalized Mr & Mrs paper for a wedding album or Thank You notes  or name paper for a new baby album!

Well, I do live in Texas now!

I love the idea of these canvas home-dec projects.  

Seems like a really nice way to bring scrapping out of the album.

 Thinking I need a sign like this to hang in the hallway.

Love the message.

 I thought the bead "doorknob" on the front of this heritage album was a genius idea!

Several companies had some of of this retro 40's/50's style supplies.  

One of the things that I inherited from my Gram is her mother's hand-written cookbooks.

I think this is the perfect way to preserve them!

Of course- I also did gobs & gobs of shopping.

Here's a some of the loot that followed me home:

I had to have a couple of new scrappy (and non-scrappy) shirts

 (Please excuse the wrinkles.  These poor shirts spent several hours mushed at the bottom of the shopping bag while I wandered the show floor.)

 I love the little messages hidden on these shirts.

 She Fights

 She Soars.  

I bought this one to wear to my yoga & ballet classes.

She Rocks.

Cuz I do.

I got some new tools:

 New colors to make my home-made glitter mists with.

 New colors of StazOn & some big flowers that were a fantastic deal at Accent Scrapbooking.

 Because I have wanted these for months

..... and cuz I wanna be Tim's baby mama....

 I was able to round out my collection with some new colors.

Super cheap Spellbinders from Art Gone Wild.

($3 each!)

I mostly use them as misting masks, but they're cute when embossed too!

Seriously- one of the coolest tools ever.

Review will be forthcoming!

Of course, I bought lots of cute stamps:

 My first Unity Stamp set.  

Now I can see what all the fuss is about.

 I'm so diggin' the retro thing right now!

Sam at the Technique Tuesday booth was fabulous. 

I think they got more of my money than any other booth.

Love them!

Ok, so I planned for this.  

I knew I was going & I saved for weeks beforehand. 

I walked in the door with cash to burn, expecting to spend like crazy.

What I didn't expect were the amazing bargains that I found!

Here's some of what I found & what I spent on them:

(And if one of you is mean enough to add these up, I beg you not to email me the total. 

I prefer to live in ignorance.)

 Grab Bags from Melissa Frances.  

$10

These weren't my best bargain, but they're so flippin' cute that I don't care.

 Ticket pads/journal spots from Melissa Frances

$1 each.

Seriously.

$1.  

 Free.

Yup--Free because I spent $25 at Melissa's booth.

 Ok, I know.

I need more paper like I need rabies.

But they were $3, $5, $8.

And I have a trip to the beach coming up in September.

That's my excuse & I'm stickin' to it.

(And if you have seen the partying flamingos in the MAMBI stack, you understand.)

 Cuz a girl just never can have too many blingy or pearly swirls.

And they were $1.

 Usually, I make my own.

Way cheaper & I can customize them.

But when you get a 4 pack of different colors for less than $10, even I can be persuaded to hop on the bandwagon.

 Huge Grab Bag kit from Jenni Bowlin.

I'm familiar with her, but have none of her products (ya know, till now).

A Grab Bag just seemed like a good plan.

And it was only $20.

Well worth it.

 I never typically buy more than 2-3 of a given paper.

I have way too much to want to re-use a pattern.

But I found these in a sale bin for $3 each.

They have 25 sheets per pack.

The colors in the "family" paper coordinate well with the beachy stack that I bought and I like the idea of being able to use it though out an album.

(And knowing my family, there will be more than enough pictures from this beach trip to fill 6 albums.)

The paper lace is something I thought I could alter multiple ways to make it look different, and when I get sick of it, I know enough other scrappers who can make use of it.

 For $3/$1 for the whole set, even if I only ever use it once, I will feel it worth the money.

And I already have plans for the cupcake stamps!

1/2 off Studio Calico?

Uh, Yeah!  

I'm on it!

I was good though and mostly only bought the State Fair line.

Because I have State Fair pictures to scrap.

Really, I do.

Another Grab Bag, this one from Quick Quotes.

I'm such a sucker for a Grab Bag.

And the fact that it came in a great big, super-cute, lime-green shopping bag didn't hurt.

 I think these might have been my best bargains of the day.

I'm a HUGE Fancy Pants fan.  

Journaling books, rub-on sheets & packs of over-lays for $1 each and huge 50 sheet paper grab bags for $5 each.

No possible way to beat that.  

Believe it or not, I did find time to eat a real meal,

Yumm. Baked Potato bar.  

Though I didn't realize how many bacon bits I had on there till now.

Maybe this wasn't as "less bad for me" as I thought.....

meet some great new people 

(waving to Pam in Houston & Kim in California!), 

and take 3 classes in between all of the shopping.

Stay tuned, I'll be sharing those class projects over the next 3 days.

Alright, I fessed up.  

I showed you mine, now you show me yours!

What scrappy stuff did you buy this weekend?