What a great weekend!

I'm back home again now and all the hard work in creating new designs and making up samples was worth it. It was a really busy weekend which began by travelling to Birmingham and checking into our usual hotel before heading off to the NEC where the Personal Impressions stand had been built and was being filled with all the new products, and then tweaked and polished in readiness for the influx of visitors the next day. This is my demonstration stand all nicely set up for action...and lovely and tidy before I get started of course! It was icy cold as there is no heating in the massive hall on set up day and, of course, the huge doors are constantly open so that companies can bring all their goods through. We finished around 7.45pm and then headed back to the hotel for a meal and a well earned night's sleep!
Day two, Sunday, and it's an early start and the first time that one really notices all of the stands which seem to have miraculously grown overnight! Everything is sparkling, shiny and new looking but there's no time to look as we need to get ready. I discovered that my cards, popped into the cupboard below my table for safety, had been squished under boxes when an electrician had to do a running repair in there - so I had to do some repairs myself first thing (yes, the electrician did get out alive.....just! As you can see, Tim Holtz was demonstrating the wonderful new additions to his range on his table to the left of mine.
I was a lot happier than I look in this picture at my work area! You can see some of the rest of our stand behind me. To the right of me was the board showing all our latest stamps - including new clear stamp sets.

It's always exciting to see what reaction the

new images will get as you may imagine. I'm pleased to say that the comments were very positive!

Here are a selection of the cards that I made using my new designs. The owl is from a clear set of four bird images - you know how I love birds!

Of course, I had to come up with new shelves! This is the Toy Shelf and there is also a new Wizard shelf for all the Harry Potter fans and aspiring magicians out there! The "Dream" card has one of my retro stamps along with some gorgeous K&Co acetate die cuts. The vibrant panel is made with alcohol inks used on a new canvas sheet that Personal Impressions are selling - it's fabulous stuff!

The day went very quickly, even though it was 9am - 6pm with just about no breaks all day. A busy day always goes fast. I met lots of people who I only ever see at the show, so it was great to catch up with them and find out how they were doing. That evening we had a meal and an early night!

I will post "part 2" tomorrow, as the Blogger is working very sloooowly tonight and keeps freezing. So, I shall say goodnight and do check back tomorow for more and also for pictures of exciting Candy! Lindsay