I have spent today recovering from another excellent CKC in Valley Forge. I commute and attended classes and shopped all 3 days.
Class Reviews:
1. BOXER PALOOZA: I took this class last year and knew I wanted to take it again this year. I was so glad it was the same format. Ideas on screen and approx $70 of products given away to each attendee. Instructor, Angie, has a great sense of humor and joy and I thoroughly enjoy her. It didn't hurt that in this, my first class of the weekend, I won a $15 gift certificate to their booth! My favorite giveaway??? I think the transparency.
2. LATEST AND GREATEST BASIC GREY: I take this class every year. Shelby, as usual, an effective instructor. This year we got to use brand new papers not yet out in stores and fresh from the printer. I finished 4 lo's in class and bought the matching second page at the booth for $12, reasonable.
3. GIFTS GALORE: Good ideas, color instruction sheet for future use, and great suggestions for how to use each gift. I enjoyed this one.
4. THE EXPANDING ALBUM: though I am not a fan of SEI paper I took this class as I love to include many pictures in my albums. This is a girlish theme and will become a gift for my niece or granddaughter. Excellent ideas that I will use in the future for sure. The 4x6 page protectors are the bomb and we were told that they did not have them in stock, hard to find, not worth shipping, etc. Well, I went to their booth and talked to the man behind the cash register who pointed out that their 4x6 small album actually contains 5 of those protectors for $2!! BINGO I bought 3 and wish I had bought more! I can use the covers for something else like autograph book for the kids, just replacing the protectors with paper! I won a box of 6 different kinds of pink ribbon in this class. We finished the album due to great instructor and wonderful directions. Everything cut for you and lots of space to work. I wish they would repeat this class with a boy theme as I would be all over that next year. What I learned: attach jewels to outside of page protectors as well as rubons! What a concept! Will do that in the future. And now my albums will be quite interactive.
5. ALL ABOUT ME: The colors on this project are drab/heritage style even masculine, but I will use it to record my life for my grandchildren. I arrived late and easily caught up with their color instructions. I found the instructor helpful if not too deliberate at times. I was surprised that her background as the owner of the company, was in printing. I would have guessed that she was a second grade teacher given her delivery to a room full of adults at times. Project turned out well and I just need to finish the chipboard letters on the front for it to be ready to journal in and add photos. I won paper I think, in this class...like a page kit. Also got discount coupon for their booth.
6. BEYOND THE SQUARE: New presenter, new company, Simplicraft. I liked this class and finished all but addition of photos. I learned a little about those shaped papers that I own and never use. Instructor was good in delivery and how she explained design principles as she went along. So she told you why you were doing something so that you might be able to do it on your own and know why...not just glue this here, glue this there. I like it and liked the result. Would take a class from this presenter again.
7. SIMPLE SUMMER ALBUM: Delightful presenter Mandy. Kept it lively and allowed us to all do our own thing. Kept up a light banter as we worked and checked in on us as we went along. I did more than half of the album and finished it at the crop. Cute concept with the bag. Enough extra supplies to finish some pages on my own to complete as there were 2 empty page protectors in this album at the end. Was thinking I would love a class like this on Baby's First Year or Firsts.....
8. 4 PAGES/BAZILLION PHOTOS: Ok, we all love QQ and Michelle. Great layouts that I finished in class. Best thing? Waterfall album attachment that I can now duplicate! Free quote coupon as usual.
9. SIX DEGREES OF STAMPING: Well, the instructor, Terri, was a dear. Sweet and likable, but very nervous and worried about doing a good job and telling us that at every turn. She was such a dear though that I felt so sorry for her and wanted her to do well and calm down. She was a good instructor and can probably stamp her way across the globe. She has an excellent teaching style, minus the nerves and was actually funny at times. One can see that with some practice she will be very good. I think that I would take another class from her because I think she has a lot to offer. I don't know if this class was of her design. If not, and Terri, if you are listening...you will do so much better in the nerves dept if you have originated the material. And if you did, then you just need more practice and know that inside of you is an awesome teacher.
10. DELIGHTFULLY EASY TECHNIQUES: A Technique Tuesday class. I always seem to take one of these and I always learn something. You can emboss those tiles!! And we used two in class as frames, stamped them, etc. I loved this class. Great instructor. I just have to glue down those frames and finish a few odds and ends for these layouts to be complete. We really concentrated on the stamping which was fine for me. I won a 12x12 nested heart tile set!
11. CLEARLY CREATIVE ACRYLIC: I like the finished project and only needed to do the last page in the Saturday crop. Instructor was excellent and really knew her stuff. Good color instructions, overhead and hands on instructor assistance made this class delightful. I actually learned how to add bling by the end and had great success later that night at the crop. Because she did not have a flower in the kit that was needed we all got a free double page kit at the booth. And we all got a door prize of, yes, a second double page kit at the booth. Problem? by Saturday afternoon there were slim pickins in the booth. Not complainin, just sayin. I seem to always take an acrylic album class as I figure the more I work with it the more I will want to try one on my own. Well, I can tell ya, not happenin yet.
12. BUTTERFLY KISSES: I took this class as a filler as I waited for the crop to open. Too late in a long day and the layout was really not wonderful. I learned that I never want to put a doily on my layout again and that mixing colors of chalk ink on a doily looks bad. This instructor needs more practice for sure and is not a natural at it. Don't know that I will take a class by Canon again. Canon needs to beef this one up a bit.
Phew! Saturday night crop....lots of giveaways and guess what? I won again!!! I won a red CKU shldr paper holder filled with great stuff. The best thing?? There was a paper piercer in there and I have wanted another one just in case I lost the one I have now. I use it for so many things!! I was thrilled when I found that out!! Many more giveaways than I remember and a lively emcee in Terri, our nervous stamp instructor. She was great Saturday night and has a voice that you can listen to all night long. There was also a group in the back of the room selling EK Success stickers, etc. for $1.50 and several vendors came in trying to reduce their shipment home by selling off product at ridiculously low prices. I was able to finish several class projects which was my goal. I do hate those round tables though.
Best Purchase: my 4x6 page protectors in those little SEI albums
Best door prize: I won 5 for God's sake, but I love that little paper piercer!! I think that there were also those Flip Pages in there...another way to expand your album. Love that!
What would I do differently???? Maybe take Wednesday off and do the crop just to get my juices flowing. I might not uber schedule myself on Saturday, but it worked out well this time. I may need some later morning classes next year as the traffic this year was horrendous. AND...I would take Boxer Palooza mid or late day if offered as it is a great class in which to recharge!
I did notice that many booths were much smaller than usual at this very large vendor fair. QQ was not even 50% of their normal size. Who's Your Daddy and Skinny Cow were missing ( hey I woulda paid for the ice cream!) and Boxer seemed bigger. The lady with the buckets of embellies, cork , etc was not there, can't remember the name of that booth. Melissa Frances wins for prettiest booth, and they were very large. The Button Farm moved out of the corner and had a nice space on the floor with so many more offerings than in their first year. I noted no "grab bag" type of sales as have been seen in the past. I also thought that there were far less coupons offered than during my first visit 4 years ago.
Still heard complaints about the hotel situation, no washcloths, loud music and people from the convention that shared the space with us this weekend....the Apostolic Church convention...fire, brimstone and scrapbooking at times did not go together. At least this year we had lovely weather, low humidity, no rain and electricity!!
I hope that they keep the 3 day concept with the Wednesday crop...wish it were the sketches crop or an album crop.....hint, hint.
I will now set about to use these supplies that I bought, finish these projects and save for the next convention.....and is there any chance that CKU will return???
Tiredly yours
Renee
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