I have been meaning to write this for a while so here it is. I decided to sign up for the Scottish Trade Show in October last year and if I am honest, it was crazy thing to do at the time. As a family we had just been through a major incident with my husband. It’s a long story but he found he had two blood clots in his right arm caused by a metal plate he had put in to support his collar bone in 2022 from a biking accident. Anyway, the operation was success, but it was a stressful time. I had also turned 50 in the September which I was kind of dreading as my Dad was diagnosed with MND soon after turning 50… these circumstances are probably what propelled me to think SOD IT let’s do the Trade Show I need to push myself more life is short so that is why I signed up to do the trade show.

The truth is it was great for me on many levels. I caught up with so many current stockists and gained quite a few new stockists too. It made me feel a lot more confident in my brand being able to display my vision of what LPC is. You rarely have an opportunity to get all your cards out and display them. I also LOVED the fact they were displayed in a rustic scandi manner. We had to apply string last minute across the boards to hold the cards on the display, but I loved this element. You didn’t really notice it, and it fitted in with my look too. I want the cards to feel like I have been making them in a wee bothy. They are not too fancy they are simple but pretty. The card is great quality though and thicker than other cards at 350gsm they are also beautiful to write in with a fountain pen all important factors to me.

So, to be completely transparent here are the stats

• ORDERS AT THE SHOW - 12
• NEW CUSTOMERS - 8
• CURRENT STOCKISTS - 4
• POTENTIAL LEADS  - 10

Now this may seem not so good to some and great to others to me I was very happy. The main thing I LOVED though was chatting to customers and meeting people face to face it was FAB.

It was also super nice to meet JOY NEVADA whom I have been chatting to online awhile and it was lovely to finally meet her and she won an award! So many lovely items to look at these shows. I am drawn to colour and things that are different and there was plenty of that.  YO STUDIO was another stand out one for me and they also won an award. Sarah at Pencil Me In asked why I didn’t enter and to be honest it was enough this time for me just to be there I was happy with that x