Boo Hoo

Boo Hoo….CKU is all done. This was really fun. I really enjoyed making new friends, and even though I am thousands of miles from home and dearly miss my hubby and girls, it was nice to be away from home and once again hang and be silly with like-minded scrappy gals!

Today was class day – four classes sponsored by four very different companies. First up was Jennifer Moody from Luxe Designs who was pinch hitting for the ailing Emily Adams (a 6X10 album using their black, white & red papers, rubs, ribbon and “jots” journaling tags). I have to say that I love LUXE products. The papers are a hardy thickness, and have rich colors; their rub-ons are so easy to apply and the color ones are super vibrant; Brandan Brazel from Piggy Tales (a “cutie pie” chipboard slider book with barn doors). Piggy Tales is a relatively new company, and their latest line of paper is made with 100% recycled paper, and the inks are soy inks! All their papers are named for fairy tales or children’s rhymes like “Jack & Jill” or “Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater.” Brandan’s brother is one of the owners of the company. She is a sweet lady with a southern twang to her voice, and this was her first CKU. Her project was a chipboard board book with the sliding doors on some of the pages. It is a very cute project but lots of cutting with a craft knife, which was slow going for some students. They also have a product called "barn doors" which are little flaps that open....
Michelle Van Etten from Kaiser Craft (a 3-part hanging frame using bling, paint, more bling and flowers). Kaiser Crafts is a line of products to keep an eye out for I think. Their papers and other products are really awesome, so if you haven’t heard of them yet from CHA then you will hear about them soon!

And then finally, Tim Holtz from Ranger (an 8X8 wooden mirror frame using Grungeboard, Fragments, crackle paint, dabbers and distress ink.) Tim always teaches great, technique heavy classes and his “Generation Grunge” class was no different. We played with Distress Ink, paint dabbers, Crackle paint, Fragments and Grungeboard. He is like a walking infomercial – ladies would run out to the CKU bookstore and buy up all the Ranger and Tonic products we were using in class afterwards! Tim is also generous though – our class kit to take home included a paint dabber, Crackle Paint, an ink blending tool and some new – not yet on sale- mini Grungeboard. BTW, the mirror frame is an inexpensive wooden frame from IKEA.

I was able to finish all my projects in class, though that was not the norm. I had to hustle in the Piggy Tales class, and I ran overtime into a bit of lunch time. And, other than drying time for the Stickles, I finished the Kaiser class early. All in all, the projects were cute, and even if one or two wasn’t my taste, I still learned some new techniques or got to play with new products – and that is always good.

We only had a short break between the last class and commencement, so me and the girls hung out in the lobby bar. Commencement started with the announcement of all contest and other prize winners. Continuing with my poster winning streak from Anaheim last year (shared with Jessica), I won for best use of Chicago theme for my poster “Da Chicago Family.” Made it worth carrying this thing on the plane…plus I got a great picture with Ali Edwards. Moments after that my name was called again for a student raffle….and this was an awesome prize….a new PINK Sizzix Big Shot. Ooohhhhh…….I can feel your envy. I am real excited about this and have just finished cramming it into my suitcase for the flight home. Note: The t-shirt I am wearing in this picture was one of the more popular ones in the bookstore - it reads "It's all fun and games until someone loses an eyelet." The back has a small owl with CKU 08. Very cute. Tim Holtz tees were also super popular. The one that says "Embrace Imperection" sold out.

So without doing any real shopping here – other than t-shirts at the CKU store, I think I will be able to get everything into the two suitcases I brought (which were both very light when I flew out), though they will be crammed tight and very heavy. The best goodies we received – I think – were the album kits from CK (the bonus Coaster album and a Lisa Bearnson album), the big cardstock packs from Wausau, the tools like the Fiskars cutting mat, Tonic craft knife, all the stamps and inks and pens, and of course – thank goodness for all the tote bags.

The weekend flew by as usual, and I know I will be reminiscing for days to come.