The Busiest Week of the Year at Marco's Paper

The title is a little misleading -- it's actually the busiest ten days of the year for us. When we're on the road, customers often mention that they'd like to come visit our store someday. This is the week I always recommend.

For Karen and me, the "week" starts Friday while we're setting up for the Novi Rubber Stamp & Paper Arts Festival in Novi, Michigan. It's at the Rock Financial Showplace on Grand River, about 25 miles northwest of downtown Detroit. This is one of the biggest shows of the year -- the show starts at 10:00 on Saturday morning, and there were years when it was at the nearby Expo Center that the line has started forming at 7:30 (and that was outside in the hot sun). At "The Rock" (that's their nickname -- not mine), the line is inside the building, but it still snakes most of the way around the building when I go out to pass out flyers before the show starts. This weekend, we're going to do the same layout we did in Massachusetts in June -- a 50-foot booth, with Susan Pickering Rothamel from USArtQuest on one end and Tim Hammonds from Scor-It on the other. In-between, Sue Nelson from Heartprints.net will be demoing Cuttlebug, Sizzix, and Spellbinders embossing dies and Copic Markers. And for the first time, we'll also have the new electric Big Shot Express from Sizzix! It retails for $169.99, but we'll have it on sale at the show for $135.99 (no other discounts available).



It never ceases to amaze me how many customers in Novi will pass through my checkout line and end our conversation with "See you next week!" As soon as the Novi show ends on Sunday, we shift into high gear all week for the Summer Stamping Gala at our retail store in Dayton, leading up to Stampaway USA XVII at the Sharonville Convention Center in Cincinnati on Saturday, August 8 (and Friday evening August 7 if you bought a ticket for the Preview Party in advance so you can come and see our goofy costumes).

You have to see our store during a convention week to believe it -- IT ROCKS! We have classes, free demos, make it & take its and more scheduled all week long. Since Detroit and Cincinnati are so close, many of the vendors stay in the area all week. So we always schedule several to make appearances in the store -- this year, we have Susan Pickering Rothamel from USArtQuest, Mitra Friant from Impression Obsession, Sarah Justison from The Paper Cut, and Polly Weed from Polly's Pals on the schedule. Others seem to drop by unannounced as the week goes on . . .



. . . even Zoe will be on hand a few times to greet her adoring public!

There will be extended hours at the store all week -- if you're in our area, you'll want to come by every day. If you get worn out, Walter has a cot in the back that he uses for naps (if you were 95, you would too!).

Want to see more? You can look at a list of all of the events for the week at http://www.marcopaper.com/summerstampinggala.pdf or see it in calendar form at http://www.marcopaper.com/classes.htm

Then get on the phone and call the store at 937-433-7030 to reserve your space -- just about everything requires advance signups (even the free stuff), and spaces are filling fast!

Stop by -- have fun -- take pictures (and then send them to me -- I'll put the best ones on the blog along with mine next week).