Surtex 2012: Year 2

 As I'm continuing with Surtex follow-up and chatting with companies about exciting possibilities, I thought I'd take a moment to fill you in on the show! First off, I must say that in trying to get my 3 suitcases under weight for airline baggage fees, I accidentally sent my camera with my husband to take home in his suitcase, so all I was left with was my iPhone for pictures. Sadness...

So, after flying in from Kansas City, MO on Friday night, it was time to wake up early and head to the Javits center for the last day of set-up. With 2 suitcases, a huge box, a tube full of banners and Starbucks in hand, we took any cab who would take us and headed to the Javits center to set-up my booth. My good friend Laura (Laura Parke // A girl who makes, from here) came to help me with the show and we were able to get everything set-up with a few hours to spare.



This year I was in a smashing new booth location #325 which was a 10'x10' booth, which means, more space to cover and decorate. With my booth design, I wanted to do something a little different and build upon what I did last year. I kept banners on the side walls, and also rented some shelves to put current and up and coming licensed products on. On my back wall, I created a layered and overlapping effect of my work, where I printed my artwork and photography showcasing my artwork over-sized onto large foam core boards and then created a few paper pinwheels to give the wall more dimension.

 {Hope Chest stationery & fabric}

{Hip Holiday stationery}

It was really fun to see all the products together on the shelves! I picked up my up and coming new stationery with Blend, the licensing division of Anna Griffin, Inc. which was absolutely delightful to see! My Hope Chest fabric collection which is coming out in July is also made into this beautiful high-end stationery complete with glitter, foil, die cuts...the works! In addition to Hope Chest stationery items is my Hip Holiday collection, which will also be coming out in my first ever Holiday fabric collection! I just LOVE this holiday collection and all the items it comes in!

{My awesome Wellspring licensed products!}

Also added to the shelves are a handful of the gorgeous metal products from Wellspring! I absolutely love these pieces and the colors they are in! My husband spray painted these 3-tier holders to take them from drab to fab.
 

 {Some of my NEW Stationery product coming out! Stay tuned...}

My new iPop magnets were sprinkled about, holding up the stationery on the magnet boards. There's a lot of new designs that just came out, that I'm excited to show you in the near future!

{Hope Chest display outside of the Anna Griffin booth at the National Stationery Show}

Another little treat for me was seeing this Hope Chest display with my designer bio on the outside wall of the Anna Griffin booth, to promote Blend's stationery items. What a treat! I love the butterflies and the kite they made! 

Ok, back to the show...Laura and I got in early opening morning (thank goodness!) and found my whole back wall to be on the floor! Gasp! Just when we thought we'd have time to eat our breakfast leisurely, we found ourselves in crisis mode repairing everything as fast as we could before the show opened. It was pretty stressful, but we were focused, amazingly calm, and just tackled it. I was completely overwhelmed by the kindness of so many of the other artists exhibiting who came over to see if they could help us, and bring us anything we needed. 
 
My booth was across from Kate Spain and she and her husband completely saved my life! They brought over tons of 3M Command Strips for me to use to patch my wall back together. Which is a huge lifesaver because I had taken almost all of my adhesives back to the hotel the night before and didn't have enough to use for a whole wall. Note to self: Bring LOTS of extra 3M Command Strips and keep them throughout the show. OH, and another Note to Self: NEVER buy non-3M duct tape! In my mad-dash through Lowe's I grabbed duct tape not even thinking that there were other brands or qualities out there. Now I know! Non-3M duct tape is not very sticky and with the overnight humidity in the Javits center, it was just a disaster.

After the stressful morning of the first day, things went really well. I had a blast seeing current clients in person after months of communicating over the phone and e-mail, as well as meeting new clients with fun, new possibilities! I'm still working on follow-up and communicating with new companies and will be able to gauge the awesomeness of the show more after a few more months. Overall, I had a blast and am really excited for the potential.

I roomed with 3 other girls, my friend Laura and Morgan & Carrie from Ampersand Design Studio. I heart every one of these girls! We had a blast going to fab restaurants and hitting up shops after the show ended each night. More about that in the next blog post...stay tuned!