Have you ever attended a Consumer Rubber Stamp Show? If you enjoy papercrafts, it’s definitely worth the time and money, even if you don’t stamp and never will. (Of course attending one of their shows may change your mind) I had the privilege of attending Adventures in Stamping in Akron, Ohio, this last weekend. What a fabulous event!! I came home so inspired-and I didn’t even get to see everything! I was only able to go for Sunday, which is a shorter day, so I didn’t sign up for any classes. I wanted to spend all my time in the Exhibit hall.

The first booth I came to was Stamps by Judith, one of my very favorite companies. Judith and her daughter Heather design all the stamps, and Judith gives a great demo about how to get many uses from one stamp. I will be reviewing her new instructional CD soon.

Next I found my good friend Lauren Ferguson all covered in glitter as she gave demonstrations in the Sparkle N Sprinkle booth.
Unfortunately for me, the talented Lauren always draws a crowd and we didn’t get much time to chat. Her acrylic art pieces were gorgeous! She introduced me to owners Margaret and George Myers who showed me some of their 250 (yes, 250) different colors of glitter and embossing powders. Of course I had to have some, so watch for some glittery projects coming soon.

Farther down the aisle were booth by Art Gone Wild, Inky Antics, Darcie’s Country Folk, and Stampers Anonymous. Owner Michelle allowed me to photograph her with some of her works.
I especially liked all the layering she was doing, and I had to have the Clever Cuts template she was using on many of her cards. I can’t wait to play with it and show you my creations!

Susan Pickering Rothamel was signing copies of her books in the Marco Paper booth, and teaching a crowd of us different ways to collage, using techniques form her book The Art of Collage.
Marcos had a wonderful new paper called Touché Cover that has a very unique feel. The collages she was making with the Mica Color Watercolor Paints were fabulous-made my fingers itch. Of course some of both ended up in my bag.

Something completely new to me was the incredible jewelry made in the Outlines Rubber Stamp booth.
I couldn’t believe the sparkling baubles being worn by the booth personnel were made from paper! The stamp I wanted was so popular that it had been sold out, so it’s on order and I’ll be posting some jewelry as soon as I get it.

There were a couple trends I noticed in almost all of the booths. Layering – sometimes as many as 8 layers- made a huge impression – especially if your images were small.



Circles were everywhere. Many companies had stamps with words written in circular form, and several punches were available to compliment the look. Dimension and pop up cards were also big. If stamping just isn’t your thing, use some of these ideas as jumping off points for your other designs. Images can be hand drawn, printed from your computer, or purchased as stickers or papers. My only regret from the show was that I ran out of both time and money.