Crafting with a Crazy Old Woman
After completing our Make-In-Takes we all went into a big ballroom where we were welcomed by Heidi Swapp and my fabulous new boyfriend Doug (aka Mr Bazzill) and introduced to our teachers for the weekend.
Day 3 has been another very busy day for us. In addition to the 10,000 square foot store we visited yesterday, Scrapbooks Etc. set up a 2,300 square foot store for us to shop in here at the convention. It opened today at 9am and yes, we were there to shop and yes, we bought more great stuff. Registration for the main part of this weekend's events began at noon and we finished up our shopping just in time to grab a snack and get registered. Once that was done we went to our room briefly before it was time to attend "Technique Boutique." In this part of the event we got to put together some FABULOUS Make-N-Takes. Some of them were just fun on their own and some of them were pre-work to be completed and used in the main classes we will be taking tomorrow and Saturday. It was lots of fun and I was very impressed with what we got to make. My experience is that sometimes make-n-takes can be kind of cheesy, but these were not.
This last picture of the day shows me back in the hotel room surrounded by our shopping bags from the day. After the picture we went through all the bags and looked at all of our new treasures.
These next pictures show you the second large shopping area which was full, full, full of paper, paper and more paper. The huge area in the center was fully stocked with TONS of patterned paper and against the wall all the way around was the Bazzill cardstock---EVERY color of Bazzill cardstock! Also to die for was the HUGE wall filled with ribbon, ribbon and more ribbon. I only got a little, but I wanted it all. The last picture shows you their fabulous die cutting area. As I think you can tell by the pictures--In addition to be housing so much wonderful product, the store was neat, clean, well organized, and well lit. I hated to leave.
Next it was back in the bus for the 1/2 hour trip to Bazzill's 10,000 square foot flagship store, Scrapbooks Etc. I have to tell you that I have seen a lot of scrapbook stores and none tops this one. As I walked around this store it was killing me that I couldn't pop in here to shop whenever I wanted to. It has two very large shopping areas. The first one shown here houses all of their embellishments, tools, and their beautiful new fabric area which rivals any great quilting store. The last two pictures on this entry show their classroom. It is to die for! I would feel like I was a true professional to ever teach in this room. It is also used as a crop room, but there is another smaller crop room in addition to this one. WHY OH WHY IS THIS STORE SO FAR AWAY!! I will also mention here that without this store, there would be no Bazzill. My boyfriend Doug originally ran an engraving business which bore his grandfather's last name and his wife opened the scrapbook store. She talked him into beginning to peddle paper and Bazzill was born. Thank you Mrs. Doug! Why are all the good ones already taken? This one is even my age!
These pictures are from the Bazzill factory. The first big machine you see here gathered 25 sheets of our precious Bazzill paper and shrink wrapped them to prepare for shipping. The woman shown on the next machine is watching over it as it gathers 2 pieces from each color and feeds them in to make assortment packages. And finally you can see Mr. Bazzill in the foreground of the last picture where one of his employees is cutting paper to size. Here's and interesting fact---See that big bin full of blue strips of paper near where he is working? There is a 1/2" overcut from each large sheet of paper to make sure that the edges of the final cuts are even and free from yucky edges. The remaining 1/2" strips are dumped into the large bins. They fill about 4 of these bins each day, but even this is not wasted. This excess is shipped to Mexico where they pulverize it, bleach it, and make it into toilet paper. Really---I'm not kidding. So----If you take a trip to Mexico and have an occasion to use a restroom there that has been stocked with Mexican toilet paper, you will have used Bazzill paper in yet another way.
There was so much paper here! It was heaven! The warehouse portion of the Bazzill Factory was just like a giant Costco stocked floor to ceiling with nothing but Bazzill paper. Six hundred colors! Nirvana! Bazzill just celebrated 10 years in business. The name was my boyfriend Doug's grandfather's last name. Over 500,000 pieces of cardstock are sold each day by Bazzill alone. We use a lot of paper girls! All Bazzill paper is made in this country except for three. The Dotted Swiss and the Bling are made in England, and the Criss Cross line is made in China. The paper starts out in these large sheets and is then cut to size in the warehouse.
Our first stop on the bus trip was at the Bazzill factory where Mr. Bazzill himself welcomed us. Once inside and before the tour began, He and I were standing right beside each other, so I passed off the camera to Janice and had her snap this picture of us. Many other girls had their pics taken with him, but I was the first. I will just let you know that I found him very good looking. These pictures don't do him justice. His real name is Doug and he's my new boyfriend. I've decided we're going to get married, but don't let on, as he doesn't know yet. He began the tour in their "creative room," where we learned a lot of interesting facts. There were women in our group from England, Australia, and even a group all the way from Japan with their interpreter!
