Stamp Crazy!

July 13, 2010
Wow, again it's been months since I updated.

I went to the Rubber Stamp and Scrapbook Expo in Tinley Park this weekend. I have never been to that expo before and I checked out the exhibitors online to see what I would see. The show and what they had there was way better in real life. It was unbelievable how many stamps out there that were so neat.

There was one booth that had these stamps that were like a double image, so then when you folded them it would turn into a 3D image of a shirt, dog, other animals and other types of clothes.

Another booth had some Cuttlebug and Sizzix items, and lots of Nestabilities items too. Creative Memories and Close to My Heart were there too.

There were so many stamps for every occasion and so many different fonts, designs, and images I was just in awe. There were artsy type stamps, funky shapes, cute flowers, lots of cute baby and kid stamps. I also saw LOTS of Halloween and Christmas and other holiday items there too. If I had a million dollars to spend I am sure I could have easily spent that much money there! There was also a booth with just about every ink pad with a reinker in every color imaginable.

There were three memorable booths there. One was Bugawumps. They have a lot of bug and insect stamps-very cute and unusual. Funky sentiments too. They have a website and a blog. Website: www.bugawumps.com Blog: http://Bugawumps.blogspot.com
I purchased a dog stamp there and a goofy looking dude cooking on the grill. They also had the coolest chalk but not chalk that you could use to color in images. It was softer than chalk but easier to apply and you could blend in with lots of colors. I also learned a little bit about how to do shadowing and shading with colors and so that the images look like the light is reflecting.

Another HUGE booth was Rubbernecker stamps. They had LOTS of selection in all holidays, kids stamps, adult stamps and artsy ones. Very, very nice place. Hard to make a decision of which ones I wanted. I brought home one of a little girl in a strawberry dress, and of a cat tangled in Christmas lights. Super cute. I've made a card with the strawberry girl.

Probably the most memorable and awesome booth was Sweet Stamps. (www.sweetstamps.com_)

The owners were super friendly and taught me a few things too. She had (as all of the exhibitors) had samples of cards they've made using a variety of stamps. Many of her cards looked like she was using lace to embellish her cards with. I mean I've seen some talent at the expo, on 2 peas and on Etsy, but I've never seen this kind of talent. If you go to the website, you'll see what I mean. She demonstrated how to do the parchment crafting and it's really not that hard. I picked up a kit to use and I've decided I wanted to learn this technique. I can make cards with lots of variety, but I need more techniques too.

I loved the stamps there too. I had such a hard time deciding what I wanted to buy-again I could probably have bought one of everything in there. They were super, super nice and friendly. Her booth was the first I saw and it was beautiful too. She was super organized, and it was really easy to figure out her layout. You could really find everything you needed. They had some inkpads in lots of colors too--I think I'll be ordering online from them soon! :)

Without further ado, here are some pictures of the stuff I got, as requested by some friends on ScrapCentral! :)