I apologize to SBO members who read this on the message board, I'm just copying and pasting what I wrote:
If you have never been to a Creating Keepsakes Convention, I highly recommend it! I was actually kinda nervous about going, don't ask me why because I don't know but at the end of it all, Patti West and I were very sad to see the end come.
First, I packed just my basic supplies like trimmer, basic tools like eyelet setter and stapler, journaling pen, pencil, wet and dry adhesives. Having an adhesive that is fast and easy is important because most classes go at lightning speed. You need something to poke holes with because you do use brads.
I also packed casual clothes and good walking shoes. I brought my Crop-In-Style Cropper thing on wheels, empty without anything in it. Even though you can't take it into the classes or in the Vendor Faire, it's good to have to store things in such as purchases made, water bottles, and snacks. Our classes were in the Convention Center, not in the official CKC hotel so I found it very handy to be able to get stuff out of my cropper whenever I needed to. All you do is pay for "check" it kinda like a coat check. You can get a 3-day pass for it, and then you don't have to worry about it.
Patti and I decided to skip the evening crops....I had not read good things about the crops and then did not hear many good things about the crops from the people who attended them. I brought photos but never needed or had time to use them or scrap them.
I signed up for classes for Thursday night, all day Friday, and Saturday afternoon. As Patti said, we had decided to
volunteer Saturday morning which is a 4-hour shift - although I know of one girl who volunteered for just an hour. If you volunteer for all 4 hours, you get $30 to spend on CK books/magazines/or t-shirts.
I ended up buying The Big Picture Book, as well as Digital Designs by Renee Pearson and Cathy Z's sequel to her first book.
Just Between Friends
(Thursday, June 01) 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm $28.00
My first class was sponsored by Melissa Frances. It used the pink and green papers shown on the homepage of the website:
http://www.melissafrances.com/ We made the accordian keepsake album shown here:
http://www.melissafrances.com/products.asp?id=32#They are really cool paper-mache albums. Absolutely awesome. I'd like to finish mine before I post any pictures. That class was $28 and really worth it. It was a really small class so everyone in there got one or two door prizes.
Patti took the Paper Tapestry class that night too...and then we went and met my sister at a bar where they were watching the Buffalo Sabres and spent the night at my sister's apartment.
On Friday, we got up early because we qualified for the free early pass to the Vendor Faire at 9 am, and we didn't have class until 9:50 am. Patti bought a bunch of stuff at Basic Grey and I decided to just make a walk-through to get a lay of the land before I started shopping. Wow. How cool it was to have so many scrapbook stores/vendors/manufacturers all in one spot!
I put my ticket in for the Vendor Faire door prize and lo & behold I was the very first winner of the weekend. People would later find out my name and tell me they saw my name on the winner's list! LOL My prize was not all that exciting. Basically it was a $10 GC to Lickety-Split Scrapbooks but all they sold were expensive page kits that I was not interested in. Luckily they did have little embellishments that were 6 for $1 so I bought a bunch of spiral paper clips and a bunch of photo turns and a few jumbo buttons with my $10 GC. And a cute monogram "J".
Anything But Basic With BasicGrey
(Friday, June 02) 9:50 am - 10:50 am $15.00
Then Patti and I had our first class of the day together. We ended up getting there late because we didn't read our schedules very well, lol. We weren't able to sit together because the class was sold out and we were late. We were able to sit right behind each other though so we could still talk although there was NO time for talking. The class went VERY fast. The class was called
Anything but Basic with Basic Grey - not sponsored by Basic Grey but by an online store. I didn't realize that about CKC - I had assumed all classes were by the manufacturers or by CK staff. The purpose of the class was basically to show you how to use some of the busy papers so they could sell you stuff. It was interesting but NOT a "must-take" class that I would recommend. Then again, busy patterned paper doesn't intimidate me so it's a matter of opinion.
"Simply Become Who You Are" With Lisa Bearnson
(Friday, June 02) 11:10 am - 12:10 pm $18.00
My second class was "Simply Become Who You Are" with Lisa Bearnson. I do recommend classes by CK teachers because quite often they have a lecture along with having you make something. I wasn't sure I'd like the lectures yet Lisa's were very inspiring that encouraged you to think in new ways about your motivations for scrapping and how to make it more meaningful for you and your family. Lisa was awesome. I know there are some people who are not fans of hers so I admit I was expecting not to like her - yet she is really an amazing woman, a real woman. Maybe that sounds corny - oh well. I would
highly recommend this class.
After that class, I decided not to bug Lisa Bearnson for a photo or an autograph because I knew I'd see here again for another class with Patti. However I did run into
Erin Lincoln right outside that class so I asked her if I could get a photo with her. I told her I would be in one of her classes later and she asked me which one. It's called "Get Down and Dirty with CK" so she said "Oh that's the one with the Chippendales." I must have given her a look like I believed her because she told me she was just kidding but I was really thinking it must be a new line of chipboard! She laughed when I told her that.
Patti took the Stamping class and loved it. She doesn't know much about stamping and had heard that the class wasn't that great but she thought it was excellent!
So Patti and I had a long break between classes after I ran into Erin Lincoln. We did...what else? SHOP!!!!!! and spent lots of money.
Good deals in the Vendor Faire. Deluxe Designs- most diecuts were only $1. I bought the following: (in various colors)
Funky Flowers,
Spring Flowers,
Whimsical Flower,
Large Funky Flower,
Paisley Sprig, and a
Geisha Girl in Red for my mother.
I bought a ton of stuff from Technique Tuesday....
BackRounds,
Just Picked,
Petal Pushers, plus I got two stamp sets for my secret sister at another site. I got the
portfolio for free because of how much I spent as well as receiving a special collectors' edition stamp.
I also went to the woman who taught the Melissa Frances class and bought another paper mache album and tons of papers. By that time we were pretty tired and wanted to check into the hotel.
We got our room and rested for about an hour before heading back to the convention for classes.
Ok...I really wanted to type out the rest but I just can't do it justice tonight. I'm still really tired because we hardly had any sleep since Thursday!!!! Check back tomorrow for more highlights, and maybe some photos!
Oh yeah, thank you to those that came out of lurkdome! :) Hugs.
Best moment of yesterday: The sampler ezine at Scrappin' Trends came out. (It is in PDF form). I am on page 9 Layout titled: 3 Boys and a Pillow; and I am on page 17 altered bottles: Love Potion #9 from my CK HOF entry. Even though there is no pay or compensation for this, I am thrilled just to share my creations with the public.
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