An Awesome New England Visit! Part 2 + Giveaways!!!

Hello again this week! In my last post, I showed the sites and goings on of my time down the #PaperTrail in New England, but this post is all about the two stores I visited with Eileen and Amy while in Westbrook, Connecticut. (By the way, check out their blogs for great recaps of the trip as well.) The stores we visited were Paper Craft Clubhouse and Beautiful Impressions, and here is the interesting thing...THERE IS ONLY ONE BUILDING BETWEEN THEM!!! That is right...they are on the same block (Right on the main square.), the same street, and in the same town! How cool is that?!? They play very nice with each other in case you are wondering, because I sure was and of course I asked! You can literally get all your crafty shopping done in one outing between these two stores! They are very well stocked! The folks in Connecticut are so lucky!

Sorry for the glare, but this is the cute cute scrapbook store Paper Craft Clubhouse, where we visited first!

This store, whose owner is Tracie Larson, was large and spacious and so well stocked up! It was a scrapbooker's delight, and definitely housed tons of mixed media goodness too! I love the way it is set up.

Lots of Tim goodies!

Wendy, Dyan, Dina, Stamper's Anonymous, and Ranger goodies were all along this wall.

Sizzix dies were scattered throughout the store as well.

There were lots and lots of rows of loot. You could pick up Maya Road, Graphic 45, Prima, and the list goes on and on!

The large classroom could hold over 30 students...WOW!!!! There was even a die punch area! Very impressive!

Doesn't the trailer look grand outside of the window?!!

Then it was time to move the trailer up a bit and visit the unique and beautiful dollhouse style Beautiful Impressions stamp store. 

Can you believe that this is a stamp store? WOW!!! I could live here! The architectural delights were enough to invite me in! I was in vintage house heaven here!

The owner Terri Wyzykowski, was delightful and such a great hostess.

Each room in the store may be small, but it packed a big punch! There were so many stamps, and from companies I've never heard of. There was definitely a mixed media vibe throughout the store, which of course I loved! There was a little bit of everything, and what she doesn't have, she will order!

I loved all the B Line Stamps!

There were nooks everywhere where you could find great books and magazines! Of course, I bought a few!

 

 

 

 

The samples throughout the store were fabulous! Many were made by Terrie Lightfoot, a fellow All Things Tim Yahoo  member, whom I met at the store!

The paper room.

The paper room also housed an Art Bar where Amy and Eileen demoed. Don't you just love the fireplace behind the samples? LOVE!!!

WOW!!! The chandeliers throughout were gorgeous, but this one in the paper room with it's ceiling medallion was gorgeous!

The crown molding was amazing!!!!

There was a classroom space for eight downstairs as well, filled with items to use and play with.

The gorgeous banister of the stairway led upstairs to more teaching space that Terry also rents out as office space to those that need it. I got to eat fabulous pizza upstairs as well! DELISH I tell ya!

What a day!!! We were exhausted, but the sites, buys, and especially the demo visitors were wonderful! Thank you ladies for visiting us! Thank you store owners for hostessing us! AND...Thank you Eileen Hull and Amy Bowerman for inviting me on the New England  #PaperTrai!!!

You all know how I love to give things away to you! So, comment on this post, and I'll pick several winners who will score some loot that I managed to pick up along the trail and at The Collins Show! Check back on April 15...lol...to see if you've won!!!

I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!

An Awesome New England Visit! Part 1 of 2

Hello fellow crafters! Many thanks to all those that followed along the #PaperTrail and #thecollinsshow, although I was a bad Face Book poster upper. Sorry...I was having too much fun, and had so much to do. The trip was fabulous though, and I met so many people, and created a lot of projects in classes, AND did some helping with Eileen and Amy's large feat of demoing Eileen's fabulous goodies! The sites, projects, and stores were fabulous, and I thought I'd show you some photos of the trip and the show in this post, and then I'll you two of stores we visited in the next post.  Grap a snack and a drink...it's lengthy!

I flew into New York City, and then grabbed a shuttle to meet Eileen and Amy in Connecticut. I finally got to see the trailer in all it's glory, and then it was off to Massachusetts.

The Collins Group are wonderful people who help brick and mortar store owners and studio business owners like me, find and buy products from companies they represent. They have these mini trade shows a few times a year, and they bring in the manufacturers and designers to teach us how to use their products. So fun!!! They were a wonderful group of people who hostessed a great event!

The trailer was loaded with tons of stuff that we toted inside the hotel where the trade show was. Then we gussied it up to have interviews and have people create little works of art.

There was a ledger to sign, and lots of goodies to create with that Amy brought along.

I was the first to be interviewed. That was hard!!! Amy and I created Artist Trading Blocks...so stinking fun!

Dina Wakley and Dyan Reaveley joined in on the fun too, and many more people as well.

 

I had soooo many classes, but along with all my cherished Ranger classes,  my favorite was the Purple Cows class where I was introduced to using those colored waxes I talked about in my 2013 CHA post...remember? Oh my gosh! I have wax on the brain now, and I cannot wait to design some encaustic classes!

My buddy Diana Hetherington joined me in several classes, and we had a great time...especially in this one!

Of course, my favorite project was in Tim's Ranger Class! I even finished it! LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!

After all the classes were finished, the companies had Make N Takes! Eileen and Amy were busy busy showing how to make Mini Albums!

They housed all the beautiful samples using Eileen's dies in vintage suitcases! They were darling!

 

There is Norman in the middle of the samples! He was one busy gnome! He followed all of our adventures!

After the show ended, we loaded up and headed back to Connecticut so Amy and Eileen could demo at some stores. Along the way though, I spotted an old church that was so beautiful. Eileen stopped and we took a look around. I have forgotten the name of the town...Old Lyme maybe???

In Texas, you don't find many churches like this anymore. There are some in the smaller towns that are off the main highways, but not many.

I loved the old rock walls that are built around the buildings. There is no mortar between the rocks, and all the rocks are found right on the property. They are just stacked up...so unique and beautiful!

 

Graveyards are right behind the churches. Again, this is not something we see in Texas. Cemeteries are huge and usually on the outskirts of our towns. I love the differences! Texas is a teen compared to how old things are in New England, and not even born to the ancient sites in Europe.

The church had one window that was stained glass, but it was behind the other window. I think it's been remodeled to protect it.

After our "Squirrel" visits along our drive, we stayed the night in Old Saybrook, where we ate at an awesome place called The Monkey Farm...delish and so much fun. Then the next day we were off to the near by town of Westbrook, right off of the Long Island Sound. What a gorgeous place! This is where we visited stores, but more on that in the next post.

Of course I had to step on a beach while in New England, so it was off to the Westbrook West Beach.

This gull was a ham for the camera! He kept swooping around so I could take his photo.

If I'm not mistaken, that white cottage in the center of the photo, is where Tim taught classes last year for the Beautiful Impressions Stamp Store.

 

The beach was the perfect way to end the #PaperTrail!!!

I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!