I had fun seeing the throngs of women shopping AND scrapbooking - I'm talking about an area the size of a football field filled with hundreds of round tables with three or four women on each table and tons of supplies - all scrapping. And laughing and eating junk food and then taking breaks from scrapbooking to go to the retail booths and buy more scrapping supplies. It was a hoot. There were contests (dance contest above) and music and, well, the whole thing just tickled me.Our booth was PACKED every minute. The line was constantly long, and they were buying tons of stuff. One reason we were so popular is that we had a little bit of everything. Scrapbooking paper, stickers, wood projects, scrapbook kits, AND fabric, pattern books, pre-cuts, AND purses, jewelry, scarves, darling clothes. There was literally something for everyone.
Here is Carolee, ADORNit owner and Misty, the marketing manager. Misty was in charge of the Expo - look at that smile! I think that Carolee is so smart to expand her business from scrapbooking to all kinds of things women love. Of course I'm thrilled about the move to fabrics and patterns and I've spent a few paychecks on purses etc. Alison, Carolee's daugher is really good at picking out and ordering the best purses, clothes and jewelry which makes all the difference in who shops your booth and how much they buy.
This is Jenn - a cousin of Alison and the mother-daughter team of Janet and Molly. Jenn and Molly spent two solid days at the cash register. They are both smart and so quick and cool under pressure. My favorite job was bagger because I got to see what everyone bought.
We had a little corner with our new fabric stuff - that's my quilt behind me. The most popular fabric was our new Western line which is called Buckaroo - I couldn't believe how many people stopped to ooh and ahh over the Buckaroo quilts and bolts of fabric. So many of the younger girls told us how much they want to learn to sew and make some of these things. Sewing is definitely having a resurgence right now which makes ADORNit's timing perfect to design and sell fabric in addition to paper.
Here's Janet advertising the Busy Women Scrapbook kits that she puts together. She chooses the BEST selection of scrapbooking supplies with cute sample projects. Women sign up for an automatic mailing to get a kit every other month. It's a real deal at $20.00.
Check out the crowd. It was solid women inside the booth at every table and display.
