What an exciting show we had in Manchester! It was the first time we were exhibiting over there. Ann Palazzolo and Amy her “niece” were at the booth and they had a blast that week end! In less than 4 hours, we sold out Rose Window. It was the first time we sold out so quickly. Sometimes we sold out by the end of the show on Saturday afternoon but never after only 4 hours on the very first day of the show!!!

Anyway, Amy was so excited that she posted an article on her blog (see below) and it was a real pleasure to read about her experience. Hope you will also like it.

“What a crazy, fun, exhausting, emotional weekend! Don’t you just love that God can use 1 event to do so many things?! I got an email several weeks ago from a distant relative asking if I would be willing to work at a scrap booking convention. It sounded like fun, a little out of my area of “expertise”. Ok…honestly, I’d never done a scrap book page! I have 2 drawers of supplies , thousands of photos and a bunch of good intentions!

These women buy the product the first day, go to their hotel rooms and work all night and come back the next day to show us the finished product.

Bags and bags of stuff!!

Another proud woman who stayed up half the night!

Friday, I was up bright and early to go to the scrap booking show. I still couldn’t really fathom that the whole convention center would be filled with scrap booking vendors, surely, there would be lots of other stuff there….NOPE!! I had no idea this secret, passionate society of people existed!

It is a group that has no age barriers, no race barriers, no religious barriers! Women of all ages flocked to this place~many from hundreds of miles! These ladies plan ahead, book hotel rooms, sign up for classes, and they prioritize!

They map out their route to different vendors on a map! In the evening, they go back to their hotel rooms, “crop” and scrap book well into the evening and get up early to do it all over again!! It takes strategy, devotion and an iron bladder to be one of these women!

They are organized, opinionated, strong women. Its like an athletic event!! They haul totes, sometimes on wheels, huge bags over their shoulders and smaller bags hanging from their finger tips. It was insane. I was telling one of the woman there about how new this craziness was to me and how much I admired their dedication and she asked if I’d ever been to the stampers convention.

Indeed, I have not. ” Well.” she said, “They are REALLY passionate, more so even, than this group! ” I don’t stamp, but I just may go to experience it. There are lines of T-shirts with slogans for scrap bookers, with witty sayings on them…there are trucking companies that move each vendors stuff from one show to the next~its an amazing industry!

The company I was representing, Lea France, makes a cool kind of stencil template for scrap booking. I was thrilled to find out, when I researched them before the show, that their products are made in the USA!!!  I talked to people who were complete strangers, for those of you who don’t know, I’m a shy person.

I am so thankful that I got to know Ann better and came to realize that scrap booking should be considered an athletic event!

Amy bean”

Lea France participated in two shows recently, one in Ontario, CA, and the other in Seattle, WA. I could not attend, but my buddies Dawn and Ann teamed up in Ontario. We exhibited there a few times this year. Dawn and Ann tell me they were very happy to see familiar faces back in the booth.

Guess what? We are expanding! I want to welcome our newest team member, Michele, who will join us officially in 2012. She worked the show in Ontario and was a big hit. Check out the photos!

Photos of the Ontario Show

Ann (on the left) and Dawn set up and ready to welcome customers at the Ontario, CA show.

Ann and her friend Mel at the Ontario, CA show.

Donna Farris (on the right), a wonderful lady who blessed both Dawn and Ann with many words of encouragement and joy!

Alice Baccus (on the left) one of Carine’s angels, and Debbie Nichols, her friend.

Debbie Nichols won the secret game on Friday at the Ontario, CA show because she was the first person to present a layout using the Stained Glass stencil.

Michele (with the white name tag) lives in Southern California and will be joining the Lea France team in 2012. We are very excited to work with her next year. Our first show will be in Anaheim, and we can’t wait to be there!

Rae Kalklosch (on the right) and Tammy Chandler are two enthusiastic ladies who come to see us every time we show in Southern California. Way to go Lea France fans! We really appreciate your support.

Sabrina Garcia wanted to share her layout with us before the show closed. She knew she couldn't finish it, so she took a photo of it and came to the booth to share it. Thank you Sabrina for running to the booth to share your wonderful design.

Photos of the Seattle, WA Show (it was our first anniversary of the first time we went there).

Dawn and Ann showed a lot of new designs and had a great time hanging out with some of our former customers – and also many new ones.

On Friday at the Seattle show, Amy O’ Brien won the secret game because she was the first lady to buy more than four templates.

On Saturday at the Seattle show, Christina Burnaby was our secret game winner.

Christina was our last customer Friday night. She purchased Rose Window and Quilt. Then she took them to the “evening crop” and completed them that night. On Saturday, she stopped by the booth to show Dawn and Ann her two pages. Lovely work! We are glad she came back, so we awarded her the secret game prize of the day.

The scrapbooking shows are always such a lot of fun, so I wanted to record a video of our demonstration for those of you who never had a chance to attend this kind of event. Those events are so energetic, we meet new people that discover the concept of Lea France Photo Collage or returning customers bringing their creations and their friends. It’s always nice to talk about a way to do creative scrapbooking without investing upfront in a lot of tools or embellishments.

The Santa Clara Scrapbook Expo show was so fun:

• all the Lea France team were there (Dawn and Ann)
• for the first time, I was very lucky to have all my family at the booth
• and finally we introduced the Léa France™ secret game.

The secret game was so fun, like the name says, you don’t know how to win!!! This time, we decided to make the first lady that brings a layout at the booth the winner of the game but next time, the game will be different!!!

But better than a thousand words, the photos are talking by themselves.

Need  to go back to the website? Just click here www.leafrance.com

Bonne Journée

Here are the photos from our Portland show. I wanted to thank you personally Susan Carlson that came to our booth to share her scrapbooking page ideas with Dawn and Liz. Thank you Susan!!!

I definitively like the Flag Layout with a 5 by 7 photo, it gives new scrapbooking pages ideas using a bigger photo than a regular 4 by 6 picture. The Flag wave reminds the rhythm and the music notes… Excellent creativity Susan, congratulations!!!

Don’t hesitate to email your creative scrapbooking page ideas, we’ll post your pages on the blog for everyone to see and get inspired!!!

Here are the photos from our show in Anaheim!!

A lot of ladies came by our booth to show their pages, it gives scrapbooking page ideas for all of us, how nice!!!!

This show has been such a special one, because it was in my home town area (I live in Fremont).  Being able to see friends and familiar customer’s faces was so delightful. I even had my friend Len Cook, an excellent photographer taking some photos at the event. Enjoy his great pics. Since I met Len, my pages are more beautiful because my photos are better!!!

I always enjoyed Len’s classes, he has this talent to turn difficult things to very simple. If you live in the Bay area and would like to improve your photographic skills, well you can go to Len, you won’t regret it.

Len Cook is noted primarily for his willingness to share his experience and knowledge through private mentoring, college lecturing, and community education classes.
Experience as a photojournalist, chief photographer, and director of photography with a staff of 13 photographers establishes Len’s leadership credentials. Technical problem-solving wizardry allows Len to produce creative and different looks for every session. There’s always a new twist.
Added to his extensive film-based experience (more than a MILLION frames of 35mm film exposed!) is 10 years of experience supporting computer applications like Adobe Photoshop. Len knows software! He has earned the Adobe Certified Photoshop Instructor credential.
You are invited to visit Len’s instructional web pages for more info:
http://www.meetup.com/Fremont-Digital-Photo-Freeschool/
http://regerec.com (Fremont Recreation Department, you must do a SEARCH for photography in the activities tab.)

It was the second show of the year for Léa France and it was so interesting. French Photo Collage is becoming so popular now. Customers were pleased to discover a new concept and appreciated to put the accent back on their photos.