Inspiration Unlimited 2012

For my long time followers you might remember that I had the fun privilege of teaching at Pre-Inspiration Unlimited last year. It's Teresa Collins' premier scrapbooking event held at Green Valley Ranch outside of Vegas about this time every year. And last year, it was my first ever event that I stayed and attended as a student and LOVED every minute of it!!

So when I was asked again if I'd like to teach and attend again this year, I said absolutely. Now I don't want you to think I get in as a student for free...I don't. I pay the same tuition as the other students and I am spoiled just as much as the other students and I LOVE it all!! Teresa and her team are amazing hosts and this event is beyond amazing thanks to Ginger from Down to Details. She coordinates EVERYTHING and makes everything so much more amazing.

Here's a sneak peek of the classes I'll be teaching at "Pre-Inspiration Unlimited" this year. This day of classes is open to ANYONE in the area that would like to sign-up at attend. Or heck with this short of notice, drop by the Green Valley Ranch and see what classes are still open. I know my Doodlebug and Echo Park/Kiwi Lane classes haven't filled up completely.

Doodlebug Cards & More

Sponsored by Doodlebug

Echo Park + Kiwi Lane Layout Class

Spooky Decor Class

Sponsored by Imaginisce

Teaching at SENZ 2011 NZ Scrapbooking Cardmaking and Craft Expo

Let me start off my scrapbooking adventures in New Zealand with this funny picture (below). After the Senz event was over, Jodi, owner of Scrapaholics hosted a special VIP evening of cocktails and yummy food. But the part that made me giggle the most were the plates and napkins. Jodi purchased them from a specialty store called Martha's Backyard for my visit. I thought it was a fitting tribute to my trip and this Independence Day holiday today! 

Senz 2011 is a yearly consumer event focusing on scrapbooking and paper crafts and features many stores and some New Zealand and Australian manufacturers' booths. It's a great place to be inspired because they have so many great classes, especially when they invite a manufacturer representative (me) from the US to come teach!! 

Me in the Scrapaholics Booth (day before event)

The event was first class and the Scrapaholics team were among some of the hardest working and pleasant people I've ever worked with at a consumer event. This is Jodi, owner of Scrapaholics and my best friend because she brought me my first Dr. Pepper after 5 days there. She found out it is my favorite, but you can't buy it in New Zealand unless you go to a specialty US store OR Jodi's shop. So she showed up with a cooler full of DP just for me. I was so excited I had to capture this moment on my camera!!

Jodi, me and my first Dr Pepper in NZ

Did I mention how NICE everyone I met was in New Zealand? Seriously, they're patient and sweet. I especially liked Hebie and Helen. Helen was so sweet and brought us food to eat for lunch. Because like ALL convention centers the food is never really worth it, especially for the money it cost too!

Hebie and Helen, Teachers at Scrapaholics

Here are the great customers and staff of Scrapaholics at our Cocktail night. I showed them how to put together party corsages to wear for the evening using the i-bond glue gun, roly rosies & petal roller and silk flowers all from Imaginisce.

Isn't the name of Jodi's shop PERFECT in every country...Scrapaholics. I think we all consider ourselves one! And after my first purchase there they were nice enough to send me on my way with a loyalty punch card...with a reminder that I have to redeem it within a year (I hope).

Front of the Scrapaholics Store (love her logo)

I was honored to be among some of my favorite scrapbook personalities as teachers at this event. The very talented and bubbly, Trina McClune and the ever popular (and shorter then me) Nic Howard were there too! I wished I had time to take their classes too!!

Trina, me and Nic

I can never express my gratitude and appreciation to Jodi of Scrapaholics, KK and Suping Lee of Kays Company (distributor) for bringing me out to New Zealand. And thanks to Imaginisce for sponsoring the classes with so many great products...the Kiwis loved it all!! It was a trip of a lifetime and so wonderful to connect with so many people that have the same passion for paper and this industry that I do. They were lovely hosts and I hope they come to Utah one day so I can repay their kindness. Thank you!!

More details about Senz and Imaginisce (and GIVEAWAY) can be found over on my post on the Imaginisce blog. Previous posts about my travels to New Zealand include "Lost in Translation," "Hanging with my Kiwi Friends" and "Making my Way to New Zealand."

Teaching and Creating at CK Scrap & Play (...a late recap)

Since I haven't posted anything crafty in a while I thought I'd start of talking about my great experience at CK Scrap & Play in Provo this past October This was a darling class they offered called Time of My Life, sponsored by Teresa Collins. But of course I had to change it up from it's original version, but loved using this darling Maya Road album and all the fun TC papers. I added the new Roly Rosies from Imaginisce to the cover and I cut the title and tab labels with my Cricut using black vinyl. 

These Roly Rosies are simple die cut spiral flowers that you simply twist into a rose. You can ink the edges, sand them, add glitter or whatever you'd like. Imaginisce currently offers 3 skus of these but I know from an "inside" source that they're releasing more (wink). And don't miss out on how cute the i-rock rhinestones look on the album cover...and yes, they melt to the plastic surface with ea

If you'd like to see how easy these flowers are to make and learn about the colors and styles available, check out my cute friend Erin Bassett's Roly Rosies, Popup Posies blog post about them...she also created a great video that's worth watching too!

Okay now about the event and the fun I had there. First I have to get give a huge shout out to the CK Events team. What always impresses me the most about these events is that no small detail is overlooked. Everything from the decorations, to the darling name badges and centerpieces. I think it shows they care so much about the attendees to take the time to do all of it. 

Now here's some pics...

Me with my newest friend Lori Chadwick...loved her!

The Marriott was a great place to Scrap & Play

Oh did I mention that I was one of the featured teachers? It was such a fun group to teach and although I needed to fill up an hour and half, I loved every second (oh except when my cordless mic quit). The students totally made MY experience the best!! But all the teachers there were fabulous and boy there was a lot! 

Me at the Microphone

Candy Bar...loved this!! 

Me teaching up on stage!

So many fun scrapbookers from ALL over!

They had a great on-site store...fun shopping!

Me, Bridget and the cute LaRita Godfrey

I'm going to end my post with a HUGE shout out to my awesome team of friends!! These ladies volunteered their time to come help me with the class. It's hard teaching 100 ladies how to use the i-rock and i-top tools and these gals made my job so much easier! I always have so much fun with all four of these gals and they always keep me laughing. Thank you girls!!

Jen, Janet, Lori, Bridget, Amy

Soon I'll post another post about how much these group of ladies make me laugh...and yes it involves stickers and mustaches!! 

Own a Cricut? Wish you did? JOIN ME at the first SWARM Event!!

Do you own a Cricut? Maybe you don't own one yet, but it's on your Christmas wish list. Everyone who owns, or wants to own one, should attend this event. First, because what you'll gain from the education is worth so much (including seeing me). And second, an insider source tells me the GOODIE BAGS alone will include product valued over $300...because it includes a GYPSY (my most favorite tool ever!) and so much more!!

It will be WORTH the price of your ticket to attend and you get TWO free meals!! 

Come join me as we learn about all the great Cricut products AND learn about other "hot tools" in the industry. Yes, I'll be demonstrating the i-top and i-rock tools from Imaginisce. I also hear other great manufacturer's and their tools will be there to share as well. 

Date  October 9, 2010

Time  9am to 9pm...12 hours of cropping goodness!! 

Location The Grand Hall at the Gateway (open air shopping mall...yummy location), 29 South Rio Grande Street, Salt Lake City, UT 84101 

Cost $135.00 Buy Now!

Provo Craft is proud to host the inaugural Swarm! What is a swarm? A place for Provo Craft enthusiasts to gather and work on cards, layouts and mixed media projects while enjoying the company of other passionate crafters. Provo Craft will have Cricut Imagines, Expressions, Cuttlebugs, and Yudus available during the event for everyone to use.

Awesome Giveaways

And we have amazing give aways—2 Scrapbox Storage Systems, 4 Cricut Imagines, Martha Stewart Cake Machines, Cricut Cake Machines, Cartridges and more!

Everyone will be taking all four classes during the crop. The classes are:

Yudu
Provo Craft will be demystifying the Yudu Process. We will be showing everyone how to apply emulsion, burn a screen, rinse a screen, what ‘spidering’ is, the correct way to transfer an image to a transparency, using the new foil and flocking, the toddler platen, the sleeve platen, why you need a registration panel, and of course, screen print! We will have over 7 spooky Halloween images to pull on an item that you bring. Imaginisce will be on hand to blink out your pulled image with their i-rock tool!

Gypsy with Jennifer
Jennifer is the master at the Gypsy! She will be educating all on how to link a cartridge, updating your gypsy, how to delete a layer, converting a CDS file to a gypsy file, uploading a gypsy file, welding, and more! Jennifer will be providing Gypsy files after the class for all to upload! Oh, and if you do not have a gypsy, no worries—you will be getting one in your Swag Bag!

Cricut Imagine
Provo Craft will have Imagines set up for everyone to use during the swarm to enhance their cards, scrapbook pages, etc. We will have all the cartridges for you to play with during the event. The class will review all the facets of the Imagine product, especially how to incorporate regular cartridges with the Imagine!

Cricut Expression
Every wonder what the Center Point key is? How about the Line Return? Multicut? Autofill? Mix and Match? Portrait? Well this is the class for you! We will be reviewing all the keys on the Expression to enable you to use your Expression to its full capacity. We will also show you how to UPDATE your Cricut Expression!

• Provo Craft will provide lunch and dinner at the Swarm from Le Croissant (YUMMY!)
• Our Swag Bags are stuffed to the gills with a Gypsy, Custom Cuttlebug Folders and fun products from our partners.
• Creative Xpress will have their store on-site for all your last minute needs and products for purchase.

Tickets for the Swarm are available on the Cricut.com Website under the Special Offer Section.


Hotel accommodations and travel are not included in the price of the Swarm. 

See you there!! 

My First Scrapfest...

Some of you have asked me what the heck "Scrapfest" was and why I was at Mall of America for three days....obviously these are my non-scrapper friends. Scrapfest is a three day event hosted by Archivers and held in the huge Mall of America in Minnesota. We don't actually "sell" product to the 10,000 attendees, but we do hold daily demos (also known as Make & Takes) and teach classes. Let me tell you, I explained how the i-top tool works so many times that I even dreamt about the tool!! 

It all started with a quick kids meal at Arby's once we hit the enormous mall...but my most favorite part of Scrapfest are the people, my friends from the industry and fans I've chatted with online but met for the first time!!

We were lucky enough to score the Archiver's classroom which made it much easier to get personal and really work one-on-one with all of our amazing ladies. Thanks for reminding me why I love teaching so much!!

Sometimes you have to get a little goofy...this was after a long, long day of working!

Amy

I did all the shark pictures because my daughter has a recent fascination with sharks...so these are for her.

Yes, when you have a few minutes to eat your banana then you have to take it!!

So Sunday was the only day we didn't have an early morning and we were VERY excited to sleep in. That was until 6:30am when the fire alarm in our hotel went off and we all had to evacuate. One plus...gorgeous sunrise!

Here we are with all the evacuate-ees of our hotel...we later found out someone was heating up their bagel in the microwave in their room and over cooked it. The smoke set off the smoke alarm!!

We ate at a couple of fun places while in Minneapolis area. Our co-workers Nicole & Matt Holmes (Matt grew up in the area) took us to Fat Lorenzo's...favorite local spot for pizza and it was yummy!! It was my friend time trying Gelato and all I can say is ..."why did I wait so long...yummmm!"

We had so much fun eating out at Twin City Grill with Julia Sandvoss (Glue Arts) and Madison Parker (Echo Park) the first night we hit town. We laughed and laughed and the food was amazing!!

I had so much fun! I forgot how much I LOVE teaching consumer classes and working a consumer event...loved everyone I met and cannot wait to return next year.

I posted more pictures over on the Imaginisce blog as well...check it out if you want to see more!

Teaching at CK Scrap & Play Event

I am very excited to announce that I'll be teaching at Creating Keepsakes Scrap & Play event October 15th & 16th in Provo, Utah. They held this new event this spring and it was a huge hit! I'm thrilled to be part of this and teach all the great scrappers how to use the i-top and i-rock tools!! Oh and even more excited to be teaching along with Margie Romney-Aslett...we are going to have a ball! I'm even more thrilled that me and my cohorts will be staying to crop & party ALL NIGHT (and day) LONG too!! 

Registration for Scrap & Play opens this week (June 23rd to be exact) and personally I think it's a great deal for this event. You get to crop for 24 hours...there's free spa services, chocolate bar, classes and cropping!! LOVE IT!! Oh and it's only $125 (only $100 if you book a room at the Marriott Hotel). Here's a link to more information. Be sure to register soon...the awesome CK team is trying to keep this event small and more personal and you won't want to miss out. See you there!