Happy 4th of July! Great American Scrapbook Convention

This is another 4th of July card that was made for a very close friend; she always appreciates any type of card she receives from family and friends. The little piece of chipboard found inside of the card was purchased at the Great American scrapbook convention I attended, with a friend, this past weekend. It was my first SC, so you can imagine the excitement, inspiration, and numerous purchases I encountered...haha!

The chipboard, found inside of the card, was stamped with a couple of Papertrey Ink images from the Let Freedom Live set. The Fiskars star punch finally arrived, although a little too late to make more cards, so this card has several punched stars used for embellishments. The main image was colored with Copic markers.

Here are a few of my favorite memories that I brought home from the SC:

- Sitting for two hours watching a demonstration at the USA ArtQuest booth. I learned how to use various products Susan Pickering Rothamel sells, such as Great Tape and mica chips.

- Attending a 7 minute card class sponsored by Boxer Scrapbook Productions; great way to use up the multiple of paper scraps lying in a stash folder.

- Winning a fabulous prize from Fiskars (of course I had to go and buy a tool needed for this prize, but used a 50% discount coupon for it!

- Sitting down with several vendors, including Kim from My Favorite Things and Melissa Forsyth-Sampaga, for some one-on-one demos. Melissa spent quite a bit of time going over the Scor-Pal and I came home with one...Kim gave some great tips for using Copic markers and I purchased a few stamps sets from her booth. I enjoyed the Spellbinders booth where Mary was very helpful finding a die set I wanted to buy and did!

- Enjoying the many make and takes items I brought home, several made at no cost to me. Okay, okay, so I did break down and buy some of the products used for the make and takes :-D

- Finding a place to rest my feet and meeting some very friendly ladies who shared their love for scrapbooking (my love is cards). I also sat next to a woman who was so happy to have made the trip to the convention and was thankful she was able to afford a few little items to take home (she's single and on a fixed income.)

- Shopping at a Dollar Store...haha! We don't live near one, so it was a treat shopping for a couple of inexpensive items we need at home. I also found some of those old time clothes pins to wind loose ribbon around. I think Michelle Wooderson showed on her blog several months ago; the ribbon really does look neat and the pins don't take up much room.

- Thankful my friend, Lois, invited me to attend with her because it was definitely one of the most fun times I've enjoyed with crafts.