Papertrey Ink's First Ever Stamp-a-Faire!

I still can't stop smiling about the absolutely amazing time that I had at Papertrey Ink's first Stamp-a-Faire last weekend :) I've been meaning to share pictures and a synopsis with you all, but I haven't quite gotten over my "PTI hangover" yet ;) So without further ado, here they are! (Sorry that the pics at the top are off center and out of order, I was have a lot of trouble in blogger today and after over an hour of messing with it, I gave up).

The first pic on the left is one of my favorites of the day. The second pic shows Design Team member, Heather, who came to our table to share scrapbook pages of her on Christina's husband's whale watching boat!

Some shots of us at the make-n-take tables. We got to try out the new PTI ink, and then Nichole put a video of Suzanne reviewing it up on Twitter where she said "it's the most wicked awesome ink EVAH!" And yes, pop dots DO make Christina excited ;)

Due to airline point restrictions, Suzanne and I flew into the Blue Grass Airport (cute name, huh?) in Lexington, KY. When we got there, we went to get our rental car, and a younger guy with a very thick KY accent asked Suzanne if she was even from America!! LOL We laughed about that for awhile :) As we walked out, we had to pose with the jockeys and horses. Then we got our purple Ford who Suzanne dubbed "Barney" (but remember, in Suzanne talk that's "Bah-ney").

This is the inside of our hotel room that thanks to my hubby using his rewards points, we were able to get both nights for FREE!! So there are so perks to him traveling all the time for work afterall ;)

Right after we arrived, we met Sara, Chere, and Christina, who drove together from Indiana, and were staying in a hotel close to us. We ate at Longhorn.

Sara used her timer on top of the car to get a group shot of us :)

We heard that we HAD to try this famous ice cream place called Graeter's, so we went in search of one after dinner. This is after a stranger laughed at me because I didn't realize we were still in KY, then he gave us wrong directions, and we arrived and the Graeter's was closed! It was still an adventure :)

For breakfast? Why, Dunkin Donuts, of course! We are true New Englanders ;)

Christina even brings her own cup!

Finally, I could get Suzanne the coffee that I have owed her forever.

This photo, I must say, is one of the most creative, ever. Suzanne took a photo of us on the escalator on our way up to SAF at the convention center.

The line to get in:

The neat bag that we received at registration:

And what was inside! 3 stamp sets, 2 packs of patterned paper, prima flowers, square and round coasters, treat boxes, epoxy stickers, glitter brads, and a clear frame.

We also got this nice poster, that I got all the DT's autographs on and will proudly display in my craft room :)

There were lots of displays of cards to look at all over the perimeter of the room. A lot were the cards made for the releases and let me just say that they looked almost like different cards in person, they are SO much better in real life!

The theme of the day was travel, and they had a map set up with pins and flags so we could all pin where we were from. We definitely represented Massachusetts! We also got passports that after completing a make-n-take we received a stamp to fill it up.

Now THIS picture I LOVE :) Suzanne is a celebrity and this envelope was HER idea that Nichole featured on the release countdown and gave Suzanne credit. So when we saw it, she had to pose :)

I think this picture says it all...now THAT is a big smile :)

This is where we ate for dinner. I had some fabulous cajun fish tacos, but the company was even better.

And the dinner guests:

I felt honored to get to sit across from Lizzie Jones, who designed the music themed stamp set that came out a couple of releases ago. And her hubby was pretty cool, too :) On her right (well, actually her left) is Maureen who I really enjoyed getting pointers from on how to get published. I knew I had seen her before (um...Paper Crafts?!?!)

Next to Suzanne is Lynn who has also been published multiple times and gave me some wonderful advice :)

We finally made it to Graeter's!! Let me just say that it was TOTALLY worth it! I had coconut chocolate chip ice cream and it was oh so delicious.

The whole gang! Sean (Lizzie's husband) was so sweet to take not one, but about TEN photos of our group...with TEN different cameras :) Sara actually had a hilarious one where we had an extra member join us ;) Check out her blog here to see it. Also in the front row is Taheerah who joined us later for dinner and ice cream.

All of those suitcases you see were decorating our tables earlier in the day, but at the dessert reception, they were FULL of PTI prizes! Here's Christina picking out which one she wanted. None of us won, but it sure was exciting for those who did and getting to hear about the goods!

Suzanne getting Nichole's autograph. Nichole: "But Suzanne, I wanted YOUR autograph!" When I told Nichole who Suzanne was she goes "You're asterix Suzanne asterix?!" (her name on the forum is *suzanne*)

When I asked Heather for her autograph she didn't have a table, so Michelle offered her back. It was so cute and funny :)

Nichole was so kind and everything I could have imagined. After we went in the photobooth, we had an extra photo, so we signed the back saying that we had a "wicked" awesome time, and we gave it to Nichole. She was so touched and said that she has a special shelf in her craft room and that is where it would go...W O W! Suzanne, Christina, and I will be on Nichole's shelf. Now THAT is cool :)

The whole Design Team:

I have been to two Stampin' Up Conventions in the past, so I thought I knew what to expect, but I was so wrong. This was 1000x better. I got to meet all of the design team personally and talk to them, they were all so sweet and gracious. I got to make 10 make-n-takes that my favorite designers created. I got to meet people from all over the world who love PTI just as much as me. And some of them even recognized me from the forum! (that made me feel really special). I made some new friends that I am so excited to keep in touch with, I got such inspiration from the displays and from what all the talented attendees were working on. I got an AWESOME goodie bag (you have no idea how excited I was about that :) I LOVE gifts hehe) with an exclusive PTI set. And I got to spend time with some of my closest MA friends. In fact, I wouldn't have been able to come to SAF if it weren't for Suzanne, who asked me to come along, bought our tickets in seconds before they sold out, and even let me use her air miles for my plane ticket! Suzanne, I cannot thank you enough for the best trip ever, you truly are an amazing friend, and I am STILL smiling about it :)