Creative Escape Day 2----On to Scrapbooks Etc!

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!

Creative Escape Day 2----Bazzill Factory

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.

Creative Escape Day 2----Paper, Paper, and more Paper!

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.

Creative escape Day 2----Mr Bazzill

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!

Creative escape Day 2----Off We Go!

Day two begins----Here are Janice and I at the crack of dawn this morning waiting to board the bus for our tour. Once on the bus, we took a picture of ourselves (Aren't we cute? and can you tell we're excited?), and a picture of Amy our bus's hostess. She was a real kick and had some funny stories to tell us on our drive. For instance in one town here in Arizona (I can't remember the name), it is illegal to put your burro in your bathtub. Anyway, we're on our way! Next stop---the Bazzill Factory!

Creative Escape Day 1

Well girls, it's time for my report from Day 1. We left Reno EARLY this morning and arrived safely in Arizona where it was---are you ready for this?----112 degrees! It's a good thing that this event is held indoors or I'd be in serious trouble. We are staying at the Sheraton Wild Horse Resort. It is very nice and VERY big. Between finding our room, the gift shop, a restaurant to eat lunch and the location where the event will be held, we got quite a hike. Home Depot is having an event here as well and they were being served lunch when Janice and I walked by. They had a table full of treats and desserts for the Home Depot folk. No one was peeking so Janice veered over there where we crammed all of these granola bars into my purse. That's us---the Granola Thieves! Janice assures me that once the event gets going, we are going to need plenty of sustenance that we can get to quickly and easily. After eating we retired to our room to relax and prepare for a big day tomorrow. We just finished watching the movie "The Back-Up Plan" and it was really cute. We got some good giggles and I recommend it. Tomorrow will begin early for us. We have to board the Bazzill Bus for our bus tour at 8am. I don't know what Janice was thinking when she signed up for that time. She says that she doesn't know either since since she also doesn't like to get started that early. Believe me though, we WILL be up and ready to go in our best walking shoes. We will be touring the Bazzill factory and visiting their 10,000 square foot flagship store. I can't wait! I promise to take lots of pictures and get lots of ideas to share with all of you. I can see already that it is going to take more than one post each day to do it. The blog will only let me add five pictures at a time and I'm going to need to share more than that with you.

Until tomorrow----

Tahoe Paper Bag Album Class

At last I'm getting back to you all with info on the Tahoe Paper Bag Album Class. I'm also posting the pictures of a few of the inside pages. The paper bag book has 8 pages resulting in 7 different 6X6 double page layouts as well as the front cover. As I mentioned before, the title for the front of your book will be cut for you in class and it can be anything you like. I have the supplies for only three people to do this class, and two people have already signed up from my previous post, so unfortunately I have room for only one more of you to join us. The price for the class is $27 and it will be held at my home in Reno on September 11th at 2pm. I am not putting and end time to this class. Since it is being held in my home, I can work with you until your album is done to your satisfaction. My estimate is that it will take from 2 to 3 hours. The final sign up will be taken on a first come, first served basis, so if you're interested get back to me as soon as possible.