Play! Product Playground 1

Now that I've had a few days at home to unpack, I want to share some of the goodies I received at the BPC Play! in Anaheim event. As many of you know, I rarely pay attention to the manufacturer of my products and just use and buy what I like. However, I was impressed with the manufacturers and companies that were part of the Tuesday evening Product Playground. Each company had a representative that shared about their product and most of the companies had something for each participant at the event. A couple of the smaller, newer companies also gave away product, but rather than something for each participant, they drew names for their giveaways. So, today I'm sharing about and linking to five of those companies as a way to say "Thanks!" (I'll be doing a couple of similar posts in the next few days as I work through all my new stash!)

But first, I wanted y'all to see the bag we received from BPC when we checked in for the event. This happy green bag contained our Play! T-shirt (which I wore to Disneyland), a Play! book, an American Crafts ruler, a Precision Pen, a pencil (that has Make Time To Play engraved on it), a colorful eraser, a name tag and lanyard, and a coupon for a flip book.

Here's a quick video of my flip book - it's pretty goofy, but was totally FUN to make!

Ok, now a peek at some of the manufacturer's products. The large stencil masks are from a new company, Hazel & Ruby - they drew names and gave away a ton of stencil masks, some fat rolls of washi tape, and rolls of fun tissue paper. I'm excited about the size of these stencil masks (which can be used over & over again) because they could be used to add lettering to a layout or in a variety of home decor projects. There was another new company at the Product Playground - Chickaniddy Crafts, that shared their first two paper collections. They gave away several items, but unfortunately I didn't win one. :(

The 6x6 paper pad came from Echo Park Paper. We can never have too many double-sided 6x6 papers, right? Jen Gallacher was there and shared a slide show with photos of their newest paper collections, too. (Jen is also a guest on this week's Paperclipping Roundtable, which I've been listening to today.)

From Basic Grey, we received a pack of attach-me stickers. This is a good point in my post to tell you that it was pretty chaotic during the 3 1/2 hours of the Product Playground - there were balloons everyone, a balloon man walking around making fun things for participants, tables along one wall with displays from some of the manufacturers, a cold cereal bar off to one side in the back, which was replaced halfway through with the flip book company. Even though I had a seat on the front row that evening, I missed some of the presentations (because I was talking or getting cereal or having a flip book made or taking photos). I'm sure May Flaum told us, but when I got home I realized I really wasn't sure what these attach-me stickers were for! [sheepish grin] Luckily, I found a great video that showed me how to use them and I had to try it. I pulled out a brochure and added it to my 2010 album.

This brochure pulls out so it's easy to read all the information (although if the brochure had been folded differently, it would not have worked as well.)

Amy Tan herself was there to present some of her products. The highlight was that she had the new baby, Jack, with her. She was exhausted after four days of CHA, but she has such a wonderful upbeat personality and it was so much FUN to get to visit with her a little the next day when we were taking photos. She presented us with a package of resin bow embellishments and a package of transparent letter stickers. You'll definitely be seeing these on layouts soon!

Layle with Simple Stories presented each of us with the Magic Moments album (that could have been used as an autograph album at Disneyland) that I might use for the photos of my day at Disneyland. She also brought products from their new DIY line and walked us through a make-&-take project. This time I was paying attention, but I didn't actually complete my items until earlier today!

The idea behind this line is to pick a  foundation, add layers, then embellish . . . and you have a fun element to add to your layout or pocket page. Here's a closer look at my completed 3" x 4" pieces.

Honestly, this is just a very small portion of what I brought home! I'll be sharing more with you over the coming week (or two). Have you used any of these products? Did you see anything new that you want to try?