Celebrating Canada's 150th Birthday with presents for You!

Do you ever just sit back and think about how lucky we are to live in a beautiful country like Canada? In many areas of the world people struggle daily just to provide food and clean water for their families. Some are persecuted for their beliefs, their gender or even their race. That is why it is so important for us to take time to be grateful for our lives. We need to celebrate the opportunities we have living in Canada.

In celebration of Canada's 150th birthday My Grandma's Teacups,  Southern Ridge Trading Company and Emerald Creek will be hosting a blog hop featuring their designers tribute pieces to Canada. Join us June 29th and 30th as we visit each of their blogs and spread Happy Birthday wishes across the country.

Be sure to check out the rafflecopter at each stop and see how to collect entries to win the grand prize of a Spellbinders Platinum 6. We will also be giving away goodies from Southern Ridge Trading Company Canada 150 line. Be sure to mark your calendars for a virtual cross country celebration.

Cathy Potosky 's Junk Journal Mini Album.

Hi everyone, my name is Cathy and I'm am very excited and honoured to be sharing a project here at My Grandma's Teacups, thank you so much for having me Tracy!

For this mixed media project I put my own twist on a Tim Holtz Worn Cover book. I had grabbed it up for a steal of a deal, even though I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it at first. Then when this opportunity came up, I thought....I know exactly what I want to do and then came across my SRTC Life chipboard piece and thing started to fall into place. I turned it into a kind of "junk journal", but for myself and pics of my kids. 

My kids are adults, my oldest lives with her boyfriend and my son is busy with work, his girlfriend and his car. So my "Life" book is going to be for pics I take when we are all actually at home at the same time. And they might not be pretty LOL The pics going in here are going to be selfies and they could very well be of all of us right when we wake up, hair a mess etc. It's rare that we are all in this house at the same time so now it's Mom imposed selfie time when we are and each pic will get printed and put into my "Life" junk journal! :)

I started with Distress Oxides on the inside cover, splashed some water to get those wonderful splotches and let it dry. I then stencilled over that using the Walnut Stain for a hint of the wildflowers on the inside.

I used some old paper from my stash because I liked the little sentiments in the corners and got my Distress Oxides ready to ink the front and back covers of my junk journal.

Once the ink was dry I used the wildflower stencil (it is one of my faves) and translucent texture paste on the front cover so it adds texture but no colour. On the back cover I added a touch of shimmery paint to jazz it up a bit.

I then went to work on embellishments. So many embellishments so little time!! I love flowers of all kinds and had the leaves in my stash. Dyed the flowers using Distress Spray, Distress Oxides and some Finnabair Spark paint.

I got out my Distress Paint and the gorgeous Fractured Ice Embossing Powder and my "Life" chipboard. Painted the word and then embossed it. I love the texture from this ep and loved it with the paint. The top pics are just close ups of how the Distress Oxide looks on the worn cover and paper. I love how it looks like an old water stained book.

For my inside pages, It was very simple. I used brown packing paper (Amazon used it in their shipments, I may or may not have a lot of it in my house) and for half of the sheets I crumpled them up tight, flattened them back out and ran my Distress Vintage Photo (another fave that seems to end up on every project!) You can get the binder clips to attached to the worn cover, I just used purple hemp twine and a piece of natural twine I had to tie in my pages. 

Details on the front cover include gemstones for the butterfly body and the flower centre and you can see the clear texture paste on the cover too.

For the back cover I used another piece from SRTC. I just love this chipboard, it can be front and center like on the front and it also makes it a great anchor piece for embellishments like seen here on the back. Added gemstones for the butterfly and the flower centers and a little silver rose charm from Emerald Creek.

And last but not least the spine of the book. I added beads from my stash, charms from EC and a zipper pull I found in a basket of stuff (everyone has a basket of random stuff in their craft space right?)

Be sure to check with Tracy of My Grandma's Teacups and ask her which Southern Ridge Trading Company chipboard pieces she has.....you are going to want to play with these!  Thank you so much for stopping by everyone and I hope you have a great day!

Guest Designer Cathy Potosky will be joining us this Wednesday to share a tutorial on a beautiful Mini Album.

My name is Cathy Potosky and I am a papercrafting addict. I love paper and started my journey as a cardmaker, simple, embossed, sometimes fussy cut and that was all. Now....I have discovered mixed media, all things Tim Holtz and Distress, Dylusions journals, Dina Wakely paints and stamps. Just to name a few of my favorites.

I also love some amazing Canadian companies that create intricately designed chipboard, Southern Ridge Trading Company and the beautiful full of texture embossing powders from Emerald Creek Craft Supplies and beautifully hand designed scrapbook paper collections from   Wild Whisper Designs.

I am inspired on a daily basis by my fellow Design Team members, other creators that share their work and their stories, colours I see on my walk to the bus stop, and textures I notice in the strangest places. 

I love sharing over on my blog http://amethystalcove.blogspot.ca/ and I am on instagram probably way more than is healthy @cathymp2119

6 Tips to create a High Visibility Craft Booth

Let's face it, you could have the most amazing product ever created but if you are not able to get customers to come into your booth, then you can't show them how great it is.

You only have a a few seconds to catch the attention of shoppers before their eyes settle on something in the booth down the aisle.  What can you do to capitalize on those first few Seconds?

1. Incite their curiosity. 
Shoppers are expecting to see racks and shelves and counters in your booth. If you can prominently display something that is different your potential customers will be naturally drawn towards your booth to figure out what is unique in your space. In our recent booth for Scrapfest we hung a vintage parasol with flowers in it, and a glass chandelier from our booth frames. They could be seen from a distance, took no floor space away from our products and became quite the conversation pieces. They were also great landmarks for happy customers to direct their friends to.

2. Make them laugh.
One of the things that I invested in for the booth was a foam board poster that said "a good friend shops for scrapbooking supplies with you, a best friend helps you hide the stash when you get home." We hung the poster on the canopy frame facing the main aisle. Hundreds of crafters stopped to read the sign giving us an opportunity to chat with them and bring them into the booth. We also helped over 50 people take photos of themselves and their BFF in front of the sign. Those pictures were posted all over social media where my Web address is prominently displayed on the bottom of the poster. Not only did we get customers from this sale, but also free advertising from social shares.

3. Offer more than they expect
Being a veteran Scrapfest shopper I know how dry the arena can get when you are walking for hours on end. Visitors to our booth where offered free water bottles while they browsed. Shoppers were surprised that we were giving water to everyone without need for purchase and it placed our booth in their mind as a friendly courteous shop.

4. Be true to your brand
I can honestly say that anyone that saw our booth knew immediately what to expect as far as products. We spent a large amount of time planning which elements would best represent our brand. The shabby chic feel  we achieved let our customers know we were a boutique type business that specialized in high end supplies from around the world.

5. Give them a reason to stay in touch
We handed out over 500 business cards to patrons of the show and with each card we made sure to connect a reason to keep it. Some customers were interested in additional pieces for a collection, some were looking for new lines that we are ordering in. Several people had an interest in classes and workshops and there were even a few that were interested in having their designs featured on this blog. Whatever the hook, we ensured that each customer felt invested in our business and knew that the information on the card was key to staying connected.

6. Be a problem solver
No one store has every product. If a customer has a particular item that they are looking for, go out of you way to find the business that has it. Do not give vague directions and send them on their way. If possible, personally bring the customer to the appropriate vendor. It will keep you in the mind of the customer as well as the vendor that may send business your way.

Well there you have It!  6 tips to increase your booths visibility.  Try one or try them all and I am sure you will see your foot traffic soar.

Bonus Tip

Smile at Everyone!  It is really hard to walk past someone when they are looking directly at you with a big smile on their face. Give it a try, bet you can't ignore them.