The thing about trade fairs, though, is that they never come cheap. First of all, you have to pay a pretty large sum of money just to get in; even though their sole purpose is to sell stuff to you.
The purpose of the entrance fee (I suspect) is to make you feel obliged to then buy a lot of things marked “bargain” or “sale” or “three for the price of two” to make up for that extra money you had to pay to get in there at all. Sneaky, but it works.
Browsing around among the stalls at a fair like this, even if you’re not really all that much of a scrapbooking fanatic (as I kept telling myself…) - it’s very easy to still find yourself picking up some plain cards at one stall, a few sheets of coloured paper at another, a box of little flowers at a third, some pretty ribbons at a fourth… Paying for each item to separate salesmen keeps you in the illusion that you have hardly spent any money at all!
I think I had not quite grasped before how much scrapbooking has been growing as a hobby also in Sweden. I browse my Australian friend Rose-Anne’s blog sometimes – she keeps making beautiful cards at incredible speed and mentioning names of tools and things that go way over my head. (I still have no idea what a cuttlebug is!) Walking around this scrapbooking trade fair made me feel even more like an amateur. So many things I had no idea how to use! And in spite of that, the amount of money in my purse kept mysteriously shrinking.
Luckily I had only brought a limited sum of money, and the decision not to use my credit card. So I got out before I got ruined! And here’s my booty:
Now all I need is someone with a birthday coming up soon so that I’ve got a reason to make a card!
.~.~.~.
The exhibition hall where the trade fair took place is an interesting place in itself. I’ll get back to that in my Picture Book blog next week, I think.
5 comments:
Who would have thought that a scrapbooking trade fair would provide such delicious pictures! And I have been able to shop along with you! If I can't go shopping, the next best thing is watching someone else do it! When I was a child, I could hardly wait to go shopping for school suplies every yesr. The smell of the crayons and fresh paper, the beautiful notebooks, and I imagine this would be something like that. It looks like you got a cutting board? My daughter-in-law wanted a cutting board and cutting wheel for her birthday; so much quicker than scissors! Next, you MUST post what you have made with these things, and show us how lovely your creations are! I've been meaning to tell you how much I love your duck on the sidebar, he looks SO cold, he's barely dipping his foot in the water!
Thanks Ginny. Yes, it did remind a good deal of shopping for school supplies! ;) And the cutting board I think was probably my best bargain, I have been wanting one of those but not knowing where to buy one.
My sister in law scrapbooks; has for many years. She makes wonderful ones using photographs which she takes ad nauseum. She drives everyone crazy with the photo taking becxause they're usually posed but the end result, in the scrap book, is stunning. I bet you'll have fun with this.
when i retired in 2006 one of the girls in my team made a wonderful scrapbook of my 13 years at the company. I don't scrapbook myself, but i do love looking at the finished product. I agree with Ginny, when you use your booty be sure to take a photo and post it. you can even make a card, post it and give it to online friends. fun shopping with you and I think you have what we call Spring Fever. that means we are tired of winter and filled with desire to Do Things
I have actually been "sort of" scrapbooking all my life, long before it turned into a special hobby industry with all the prefabricated items that you can buy nowadays. I always pasted my photos into albums, adding notes and tickets and postcards and other things. I also used to make poster-sized collages mixing pictures and quotes etc to give to friends for birthdays or other occasions. What I have not been keeping up with is all this stuff that you can buy now which is especially made for the purpose. I find it fascinating that there is such a growing market for it, while at the same time the world is getting so digitalised.
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