Creative Escape kicks off...

The big event has officially started, kicked off with the CE store opening at 10 a.m., registration at noon and afternoon activities, including Technique Boutique and the Trunk Show. After setting up my table for the Trunk Show (more on that later), I went and relaxed with a little Scrap Therapy at Technique Boutique.


This was a collection of small scrappy tasks to complete to save time during different classes, to practice techniques before class or to just have some plain ol' fun with paper and glue. The ladies in the photo above were trimming frames out of 8 x 8 cardstock for the class I am teaching. Fiskars was kind enough to donate the paper trimmers so everyone could learn how to cut those frames straight out of the middle without cutting the frame we wanted to keep for the project. Some of you reading this may have already taken a class from me where you learned this. It's really a fun and easy technique once you've seen it done.


Kits2Remember donated four panels of 8 x 8 acrylic to every CE attendee and Bazzill gal Heidi Lynn was kind enough to create a cute "Girls Night Out" mini book as an extra kit.

Meanwhile, Heidi Swapp, Jenni Bowlin, Kolette Hall and Tim Holtz had interviews with Arizona radio personality Terri O. It must be a lively show because there were sure a lot of shouts of glee from the nearby scrappers.


Off to shop!



In the CE store I found an adorable Halloween home decor piece created from Cosmo Cricket paper and, ahem, K2R acrylic. Cute idea! (And no, I did not design this, I promise! I wish I knew who did, I really think it's cute!)


Early in the afternoon, I ran into Echo and Karen from The Red Bee in Tustin, CA. Karen and her Scrubby (Scrap Husband) own the store and were kind enough to sponsor me in the CE Treasure Hunt contest. (There store is also the one where I got the green flower-accented purse so many people have complimented me on in the past few days!) In return for sponsoring me for the contest, Karen and Echo got their CE tuition FREE! Whoo-hoo! I had a lovely Italian dinner with them tonight. It was tasty food and great company!

At 2 p.m., the Trunk Show started, which is where the attendees get to meet the teachers and check out some of their work. Here is what my table looked like:


Since I was the "Treasure Hunt" winner, I went with that theme, with a treasure chest, treasure and blingy "sand." (CE organizer Lisa was the one who had mentioned it in passing once a few months ago - thanks, girl!) It was fun to meet people and answer their questions about my projects. Many of them were excited to find out they would be creating an acrylic album (this has been kept under wraps for months!) punched and wire-bound with the Bind-it-All. I signed a number of autographs (surreal!) but anyone who asked for my autograph, I asked for thiers on my CE event bag.


And here is a much better photo of my Canadian Mountie bus partner, Leanne. She gave me a great Mountie pin I will be proud to add to my fast-growing collection of pins!


Emily was the lovely lady who gave me my paint can in the CE Paint Can Swap. She did a beautiful job of creating it to match my scraproom ... all done in fabulous blues and greens!

After the Trunk Show, it was the exciting kick off welcome presentation. I was the first teacher introduced ... here are the two photos of the crowd that I took while Heidi and Mr. Bazzill said a few lines about me:




And it was a proud moment to see the K2R logo on the sponsorship banner of a national event.


As a thank you, Heidi presented all of the teachers really cute purses she had picked up in the Orient (well, except for Tim, who, in leiu of a purse got a fabulous stone stamp that means "enjoy the journey," one of his catchphrases) ... mine was a lovely shade of green!


See that big necklace around my neck in the photo above? After the welcome presentation, the CE Yahoo! Group gals presented each of the eight teachers with a glorious necklace chain full of hand-made charms. All I could say was, "WOW!" I didn't count them myself, but supposedly there are 86 charms ... how incredible! Thank you to each one of you who made extra swap charms to give to us!


And, last but not least, there is this group of gals from Texas, a half-dozen or so of them, who are just a delight. They were kind enough to send an adorable Texas-themed gift basket to my room, full of goodies like a boot-shaped ornament, Bluebelle flower seeds, a pink bandana and so much more.


A big YEE-HAW thank you to you, ladies! You made my night!