Yesterday I went to the 11th annual CKC-Mesa Scrapbook Convention. This is one heck of a convention! It was held in the same convention hall as the stamping convention I went to last month. That’s where the comparisons end.

The scrapbook convention had 49 vendors, golf carts to ferry you from your car to the front door and several vendors offering make&takes. Did I mention the 49 vendors!!! I don’t think I’ve ever seen the stamping convention with this many booths. There were also tons of cars in the parking lots and a huge crowd of people inside. While I would have enjoyed walking around with less of a crowd I have to admit that it added to the ambiance of the event. Things just seem more exciting when you have a buzzing crowd in attendance.

I was barely in the door when I saw the DollarScrapbooking.net booth. It was a small booth with big deals. It was obvious that I wasn’t the only shopper impressed with them because the only way to look around was to get in the check-out line and shop as you snaked your way through the booth. Li’l Davis Designs’ booth had a lot of low priced deals and a shop/check-out line much like the one at DollarScrapbooking.net.

Xyron was there and I found a friendly rep to give me a demo of the Wishblade personal media cutter. When I decided that I’d like my own computerized cutting machine I did some researched and decided that the Wishblade was the way to go. It costs a bit more than the Cricut but you hook it up to your computer and it can cut out any of the fonts you have on the computer. You don’t have to buy all those font cartridges so I think in the end that will save me money. Now, the problem is that I got the machine at Christmas and still haven’t used it. I had that “I don’t know where to start” problem. The demo went a long way to make it seem more familiar and I fully expect to be playing with it in the next few days. Boy, it will sure be nice to have my husband off my back… “are you ever going to use that thing?”

 I have to share with you my favorite find at the show. It is an assortment of double sided papers I purchased from Scenic Route Paper Company. These are funky and colorful. They are a cardstock weight that is perfect for using as an ATC base. The gals working the booth were both friendly and cheerful. When you are shopping in a big crowd that’s a find in itself! They had tons of great designs but I managed to limit myself to five on this outing. (Remember that 200lb gorilla on my back? He also says, “Why do you have so much paper?”

The only negative things in my mind are a golf cart driver who didn’t want to stop and give us a ride back to our cars and the “no stroller” policy. Don’t get me wrong… I am all for the “no stroller” policy. The problem is that I saw lots of strollers on the sales floor. What makes this worse is that they hassled a friend of mine about taking her walker onto the sales floor. They insisted she display a handicap sign or they wouldn’t let her take it in. That makes me wonder what the stroller owners had to show to get in.