It's so different being on the other side of SENZ. While I enjoy teaching and being in the classroom, I loved being out and about with everyone. It was lovely to spend relaxed quality chatting time with some of my favourite people in the booth I had created with my hubby Paul, friends Tana & Lianne, and amazing neighbour, Willow.
Of course we had the kids products on display – a basket full of ribbon from Jacob and diecut pieces from Abby & Braden…
It wasn't long before the booth was full. This pic shows the paremeters of our booth, it stayed this full for a lot of the time we were there.
Along with those people that knew me through my teaching and retreats came many that didn't. Every other store had big signs saying who they were. I was asked over and over "So what store are you? Where are you from?": I ended up putting up a sign that said:
Nic Howard
Scrapbooking teacher, designer, writer.
And just a girl with too much stuff in her garage.
And so we spent the weekend getting to know everyone better. Lianne and I had an enourmous amount of fun in the demo area. We started out all very structured, showing the basics of working with resin, but by Sunday afternoon we were experimenting with all sorts of weird and wonderful ways to colour the resin in the molds. Some were highly successful, you'll see the gorgeous marbled heart worn as a necklace one day I'm sure, and some were not. Pouring alcohol inks into the mold and pouring resin in on top does not work. Just sayin'.
Check out Lianne's amazing works of art on the wall in the booth. These are all resin pieces with chipboard.
So all in all, a fabulous time was had by all.
Conclusions:
1. It was wonderful to spend time on a project with my hubby. He was a trooper, he stood at that till and worked all day every day, chatting and serving customers without barely a break. When we returned home and I told him how incredibly amazed I was at his people skills, his answer was "I got 17 phone numbers and an invite to a hen's party, I think it was worth it honey". Hmmmmm….
2. SENZ brings all types together in a way that no other event in New Zealand does. We had stampers, we had scrapbookers, mixed media artists, retailers, consumers and the cafe guy that couldn't believe how many caramel slices he could sell in one weekend. The show had a buzz that was happy, people were enthused and that in turn was inspiring – it felt so good to see the craft (my craft) so alive.
3. You cannot place the alcohol ink in the mold before adding the mixed resin. This will not work. The resin will push the alcohol ink to the sides of the mold.
4. You should wear gloves whilst removing alcohol messes from molds.
5. If someone looks at your red stained hands at the service station on the way home from an event and says "Bad day, was it?" You should just agree. Going into detail about resin and molds is not nearly as much fun as what they were probably imagining.
6. Resin and molds are HOT. They are THE new hot thing. While we taught many, many consumers about it all, we also taught retailers, many of which will now be stocking the items. While I originally said I wasn't going to stock the molds after I sold out, the enthusiasm was so high, the excitment about something new was so extreme, that I decided to stock more. Not only have I come home and re-ordered the old designs, but I have about 10 new ones. These are a few weeks away. Look out for my re-stocking of items, but also look to your local scrapbook store. They'll have it too, and it's fun to shop local.
7. My last conclusion. People are good. From the friends that jumped in the car and travelled hours and stayed in a motel to be there, to the other friends that worked out demos and make n takes with me, to the EFTPOS guy that gave me his number and promised to be there any time I needed him, god I wished my eftpos broke down but it didn't, to the amazing attitude of retailers and consumers alike, it was just fabulous. Some of my biggest smiles this past weekend came when people bought the kids' ribbons and diecuts and I knew they were doing so just to support the kids in their school holiday money making ventures. I know they were doing that and I appreciate it fully. So did the kids. The life lessons they learnt from the project was awesome. The work, the need to pay costs, learning about packaging and presentation and realising that some wouldn't sell. It was all a great learning experience.
Thanks everyone for an amazing SENZ experience. And thanks to my fabulous hubby, it was awesome to spend time on a project together.
Leave a Reply to Liz Gregory Cancel reply