Sara's Blog

As many of you know, my friend and HOTP designer Shauna Berglund-Immel was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year. This weekend our amazing Laura organized a Cropping Out Cancer event with all proceeds going directly to Shauna and her family. Between the auction and the crop fees and all the people around the world who couldn't attend but still gave money, the event raised about $7,000. And best of all, Shauna was there! She looked great and even had enough energy to stay all day even though it had been a chemo week. Looking around the packed hall, I saw HOTP employees scrapping next to people who’d traveled from California and Arizona to attend. Stacy Croninger, editor of PaperCrafts magazine, gave her Saturday to come from Utah and do make and takes.

It is amazing to me, the power of goodness and spirit of generosity in people in the face of a crisis. For more info on Shauna's battle, check out her site at: www.immel-lifeline.com. Please keep Shauna in your thoughts…we love her and want her back at HOTP soon!

Home early from Las Vegas...two whole days early. BUMMER. Two whole days early and $120 poorer due to my emergency root canal. I love trade shows and I’m missing all the fun and I gave away my ticket to Cirque de Soleil and my bottom lip is the size of a grapefruit and I feel five years old. And the only thing I can eat is soup. And ice cream.

Oooh, ice cream. Okay, maybe things aren’t that bad.

Trade shows are so glamorous! After meeting part of the crew at the
Portland Airport at 6:30am (yes, that’s AM) we head down to Vegas for a whirlwind day of setting up the 50'-long booth and, for me, teaching classes and doing a Vendor Night for a buying group of retail stores. My class is part of Maria Nerius’ all-day Creativity Workshop. I’m scheduled to teach 100+ scrapbook stores at 3:00 and by 2:15 I’m frantic because the convention center has misplaced my 19 boxes of class kits. Miraculously, they appear at 2:45 and I have a minute to catch my breath before opening boxes and handing out kits. WHEW!!! They should NOT do this to a Type-A personality! The projects, mercifully, go smoothly and the retailers seem to have a great time. (It might be due to the Jolly Rancher inside each kit.)

Even though I’m all wound up from Art & Soul, I need SLEEP! I leave for MemoryTrends in Las Vegas the day after the Vendor Faire, so I must say a temporary goodbye to my collage treasures and pack up my green HOTP shirts!

My wallet is several pounds lighter after the Vendor Faire...Belinda and I went crazy for the collage treasures: Vintage French text, ephemera bits, old buttons and trim and hand-soldered jewelry. I’m mad for my newest finds: A gorgeous, battered old Victorian photo album and a 1930's vintage post-bound ledger.

My last class of Art & Soul is soooo relaxing. We got two gorgeous heavyweight manila file folders and an array of paints and stamps and told to go to it. I love the folder idea...it’s perfect for keeping those “inspiration” pages I tear out of magazines. I think I’ll make one for Paulette to stash her travel memorabilia when she goes to Italy later this month…I see lots of possibilities here!

(Hope Belinda gets that blue ink off her hands sometime soon. Oh, well, in this crowd it’s considered a badge of honor!)

I love little handmade books, especially my new Tin Can Journal. The name might sound a little funny but it really is made of a tin can. We cut, we filed, we punched holes and set eyelets and I’m all ready to make more of these little treasures and fill them with quotes and sayings. Now I just have to find some patterned tin cans....

My Mr. Rogers class was AMAZING and I’m so excited by the techniques I learned. I love how Sally Jean made us collage and paint quickly and trust our first creative instinct—definitely something I’m working on for all kinds of art projects. We also did amazing things with charcoal pencil to highlight sections of our collage. I love my finished soldered pieces!

(The other great thing about A&S...I got to see artsy friends I haven’t seen for awhile like my Portland Sisterhood pal Linda and my UK industry chums Michelle and Claire.)

It’s finally here: Art & Soul! It’s my fourth year attending this fabulous event and I’m so lucky it’s right in my own backyard. If you’re familiar with Somerset Studio magazine, then you have an idea of the kinds of classes they teach at Art & Soul: Bookbinding, metal work, jewelry, fabric, collage...the list goes on and I could have spent a small fortune on classes but I restrained myself (mostly because the event is sandwiched between my South Africa trip and the MemoryTrends trade show and I simply don’t have time). Only three classes this year: Mr. Rogers Neighborhood with my soldering idol, Sally Jean Alexander; Tin Can Wearable Journal and Fabulous & Functional Folders. Of course, the icing on the cake is always the Vendor Faire, where you can buy one-of-a-kind handmade pieces made by the instructors, or art and collage materials.

Even better, I have one class with Paulette and another with my favorite classmate—my big sister Belinda!