All photos in this post were taken using the ShakeItPhoto app on my Ipod Touch.
Friday
At 7:00 am on Friday morning I hopped on the train to catch a bus to downtown Bellevue. I arrived at the transist center a little after 8:00 am. I grabbed a wrap and a big coffee at a conveniently located Starbucks and headed down the block to the convention center.
I picked up my class tickets and vendor faire passes and settled down to plan my schedule and eat some breakfast.
My first class wasn't till 9:50 am, so I decided to hit up the vendor faire when it opened at 9:00 for us early entrance folks. I got in line at about 8:30 and it was already super long. Some women had been waiting there for hours already. Crazy!
This is me waiting in line. Coffee has not yet quite been absorbed. I got into the vendor fair and right in front was the famous dollar scrapbooking booth. There were a bunch of Karen Russell Creative Imagination products, so I got sucked righ in line. I got some papers, some rub ons and a little minibook. I also snagged a cute little Heidi Swapp crank-rolling sentiment stamp. I spent about five dollars. Score!
My first class was actually a Technique Tuesday class, based on an Ali Edwards layout and featuring a stamp set that was designed by her. I always find the TT classes to be of good value, and this time was no exception. We didn't finish the project (of course) but the instructor was funny and I did learn a few new stamping techniques.
My second class was a big two-hour class taught by Tattered Angels. It was a project based class, and I was excited to try it out, even though the project was mostly pink. ;)
The class kit was HUGE. It had the project book (a file folder minibook thing), a few different colors of Glimmer Mist, a bottle of Glimmer Glam, a spray mask, and a whole bunch of other goodies.
The instructor Annette was very funny and knowledgeable. I had a great time. My hands were purple and pink from all the spray ink by the time we were done.
I took a brief break for food (because by that point is was after 1:00 pm) so I didn't faint from hunger. I then decided to brave the vendor faire for a more in-depth shopping expedition.
I spent quite a bit of money at the Tattered Angels both (as one might expect). Everything was either on super sale or clearance. That is the great thing about attending the last CKC of the year I guess--none of the vendors want to take any of the old inventory home with them!
I took a walk to escape the madness of the convention for a bit, and then decided to head over to Paper Source and Barnes and Noble for some additional retail therapy.
I went back to the convention at 6:00 for another class, which was sponsored by Studio Calico. So... I really had mixed feelings about this class. The positives were: good value in product received, design of class layouts were very cute. The giveaways were fun. Negative things were: Didn't really get the Studio Calico feel. (and speaking of this, NONE of the vendors at the vendor faire had SC product. What's up with that?) Would have liked to see SC products used in the class. Sure, there was a unique SC stamp in the kit, but that was the only SC product there. Why were we using Maya Mist instead of Mr Huey? Also, despite the fact that I'm sure Davinie is a very lovely and sweet woman, and makes some lovely pages, as an classroom instructor she was neither engaging nor dynamic, and didn't really take ownership of the class... Probably because of this, the class was VERY short, probably only about 25 minutes long.
In my very personal opinion, if I was a new to Studio Calico person, this class really would not have inspired me to either really check out their products or to become a member of their community. So, marketing failure.
That being said, I am still a fan of SC, but I would have to give this a thumbs down recommendation for any future classes they teach, unless they seriously step up their game.
After that, I got a ride over to the Hilton (on a shuttle, since it was a long walk to the hotel) and went to the crop. This was a really bad idea on my part. I was tired, going by myself, my bag was really heavy, and I kind of just wanted to go home. Let's just say that you can OD on a hobby, and it's not a situation I would try to repeat. I'm glad I did it for the sake of knowledge, but I don't think I would ever sign up for a CKC crop again unless I was A) staying at the hotel where the crop was, and B) going with friends.
I stayed for about two hours and then called it quits. I really didn't get anything done, and the swag bag was full of old things that were SO not my style. I donated the rest of the bag to the ladies at my table. The shuttle had stopped working by the time I left (the last one didn't show up) so I trekked back to the transit center and caught the bus back to Seattle.
At least it was a lovely night.
Saturday
Saturday was a bit more relaxed, though I did have to get up pretty early. My first class was at 8:30, but because weekend parking was free, I drove out to Bellevue (much more luxurious) and parked at the Bravern. I attempted to get coffee there, but the only coffee shop wasn't open until 10:00 am. This is how I knew I was in the suburbs. ;)
Fortunately, my friendly local Starbucks was open early.
We completed a whole binder worth of techniques. It was glimmer-madness. In a good way.
I did one last lap of the vendor faire, and then headed up to Trophy for my victory cupcake. I got hazenut and chocolate. And I halved it with Greg, so it wasn't such a bad thing. ;)
And... here's a bonus video (for sticking with me through all these bad lo-res photos). It's kind of a "haul" video. Enjoy.
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