Home home on the range...

It is good to be home! I had a fantastic time at Creative Escape and, while most of the classes were very good, what I have decided made the event worth the very pricey tag attached to attending was the company I kept! These women in my life are so funny, so talented and such good people, that we could probably have gone to a Motel 6, cropped on the floor, had order in pizza and still have had an amazingly good time.

Will I do Creative Escape again...probably not. Do I have any regrets about paying the huge admit fee, the hotel for four nights and the plane fare? Not a one. I think after almost twelve years of scrapping, I am ready for something more. The classes that I thought were so excellent all taught me something I did not know (and there is a lot I don't know, believe me) or were clever and well thought out. I want to attend an event where all of the classes are of this caliber.

Here is a brief review of my favorites:

Tracey Niehaues' "My Thoughts Exactly" folder class was so darn cute and so much fun to assemble. The products, K&Co, are one of my favorites and the concept was top drawer. I'll post pics to go with these tomorrow and will label them. Tracey was low key, patient and focused on the class, the steps to complete the project and the students. She was the top teacher in my book!

Chris Randall's Simply Swanky Memory Jewelry: WOW! Can I just say what fun I had in this class and how much I not only learned but immediately spun off some things I just have to create. This was the soldering class...I already have a trip to Home Depot booked for flux and soldering and some pieces of glass. Guess what people are getting for Christmas? lol. I would have to say that Chris ties with Tracey for top teacher of the event in terms of techniques taught and inspiration to create more.

Jennifer Wagner's Purse-onal Memories Album: loved the papers we used, the BE purse, the mini album inside and the fun concept. I spun off a bit from the one Jennifer had designed and made mine more collage-y and a tad more vintage. I didn't finish the mini album that goes inside but this is one project I will finish. I liked Jennifer's teaching style...she is easy to follow and her ideas led me to create ones of my own. I had been avoiding playing with this purse kit because it seemed too cutesy when I saw other samples in the stores and on-line. I like this one.

Heidi Swapp's "Today" memory board: I loved the canvas but the green design Heidi did hers in did not work for my room so I learned the distress ink techniques that Tim Holtz taught Heidi and did my own thing. I think Heidi's was cute but not for me. I will be playing with canvas a lot more.

The pictures are of the amazing mountain range surrounding our resort, our group at the soldering class, four of the gals from the Ruban Rouge group and our ten! And yes, some of us dropped our shoes, hiked up our pant legs and climbed into the fountain...it was just too much temptation not to!