Creative Escape 2010: day 3

Hey there, hope you enjoyed the weekend? Geez, it went by SO fast, unreal !!

Finally ... I'm back ... ready to share "day 3" of my Creative Escape 2010 adventure. Thanks to all who've enthusiastically let me know that you're excitedly awaiting the details, I'm happy to share them!

So this brings me to Friday, the first day of CE classes. The day began with a delicious breakfast (the food served to us by the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort is phenomenal, btw!), which they begin serving as early as 6:00 AM if we want! (now you know why I was too tired/sleep-deprived to blog from Arizona, I was having fun from sunrise til the wee hours of the morning, LOL !!) Classes begin at 8:00 AM sharp, so that means an early AM wake-up.

But before I do a show-and-tell of the classes I feel compelled to mention the "drink stations" that are outside the classrooms ... all the soda (and ice!) you could possibly desire, including my fave, Dr. Pepper! We are so PAMPERED at CE!

My first class was with Claudine Hellmuth. Although she's primarily a collage artist, she taught us some amazing and fun techniques with paint (I love to play with colorful paints!) that we can apply to our scrapbooking craft. We made a "tile" with each different technique, and assembled the tiles onto a canvas to showcase our collective work of "art".
Me and Susan from Atlanta working on our canvas projects:

(In my Friday photos, you'll notice that I'm wearing a shirt that says "ESCAPE The Ordinary, CREATE the Extraordinary * AZ 2010" ... isn't that fabulous?!?!)

Next it was on to Pam Black's class ... we made a mini-album that's attached to a "display stand", meant for your desktop so that you can enjoy seeing the project/photos often!

It was filled with tons of cool techniques and details, and one that I especially loved was a "yo-yo flower" that we made from fabric (the polka dots). Oh so cute!

After a delicious lunch (and they never forget us vegetarians ... we were treated to a marinated vegetable wrap, yum!), it was on to class # 3 with Maggie Holmes. She gave a presentation on photography techniques for scrapbookers, and then we made a cute mini-album to compile all of our "fave photos":
And the surprises continued during Maggie's class with a visit from the Prize Patrol !!! The CE staff made unannounced visits to classrooms ... rolling in a cart of scrapbooking goodies to pass out to everyone, it's great fun!

My day of classes wrapped-up with my favorite scrapbooking teacher/designer, the ultra-talented and creative Heidi Swapp. We made a wall hanging, complete with ruffles and bling, with a mini-album attached to it via a binder mechanism. So you can just "flip" through memories anytime!
Notice the "ribbon roses" at the lower right corner of the project? We made them! Take 2 strips of ribbon (we used a shimmery organza fabric and a wispy tulle) and twist them together length-wise, then glue it down, an inch or two at a time, onto a piece of cardstock, all the while shaping it into a circle or "flower" shape. Add a pretty embellishment to the center and voila!, a ribbon rose, gorgeous! And simple! I must give a shout-out to the volunteers who were with my class group throughout the event ... so kind, and always assisting us with a smile!


Then there was a short break after classes to relax before being served a gourmet sit-down dinner! And of course, the veggie option was delish ... tofu enchiladas! (yes, only scrapbookers would photograph the food too!)

Another fun surprise during dinner was when I unexpectedly saw my friend (and former CE '09 teacher!) Debby Schuh walk by! Neither of us knew that the other was attending CE this year ... like me, she signed-up at the last-minute.
So after we devoured a gourmet cheesecake dessert, it was on to the Friday Extravaganza. We all reconvened with our class groups for an "extra project", plus more goodies, of course! We made a "Simply Imagine" hanging magnet board designed by Heidi Lynn Schreiber in the gorgeous event colors:


And while we were enjoying all of the Friday night festivities, the CE and hotel staff was busy delivering even MORE goodies to each of our rooms! What a TREAT to walk back into your hotel room, on the verge of collapse from all the fun, and see a pretty package of delights waiting on your bed! The gift included a stunning charm bracelet (with turquoise & black beads and silver hearts), a pad of cardstock, a magazine, a gourmet brownie, and custom-color, limited-edition glimmer mist made especially for CE in the event colors ("Navajo" turquoise for 2010, and "Piglet" pink and "Parakeet" green for the previous years)! So. Much. Fun. !!!! :-)
After the Friday evening CE festivites, the night wasn't over! Heidi and the gals from her digital scrapbooking design company, House of 3, aired their weekly webcast in front of a LIVE studio audience - us! Right from the Crop Room at CE !! It was quite exciting! And the excitement grew for me and my friend Susan from Atlanta when Heidi called me and her up to be LIVE ON CAMERA (!!!) and talk about CE, whoa! We were stunned and nervous and thrilled all at once! You can watch a recording of the webcast HERE ... Heidi invites us to join her on-camera about 5 minutes into the broadcast, if you want to fast-forward past all the CE giddiness, LOL !! Did you check out the funky GIGANTIC balloons decorating the CE Crop Room? I think they were about 3 feet in diameter!

As I've said, CE is NON-STOP fun !!! :-)

I'll be back soon with the 4th and final day of CE goodness, and my farewell to Arizona. Thanks for stopping by!

Have a great week,