Okay! Finally! Between finishing up a couple projects and photographing everything…this was no small feat.

This is gonna be a loooooooong post. Grab yourself a freshie and some munchies….it’s gonna be a few.

I have to say that this year’s Creative Escape was awesome on sooooo many levels. I can’t say it topped last year’s event…..how can you beat the magic and excitement of the first one ever??? But I can’t say it was worse either! It was just grand in all it’s own ways! Last year I was fortunate enough to go with my homey (yes I did just say HOMEY) Lisa. It was a BLAST!!! She didn’t go this year and I missed her! BUT…I did get to hang out with my Westside peeps (yes I did just say peeps) including Janet pictured here with me in the photo below. I have known this woman since 8yrs old. CRAAAAZAY! She was my roomie and I had so much fun with her! Thanks for making this Escape possible for me girl! Love ya! The other photo is the whole gang! From Back to front is Jonni, Char, Shelly, Monique, Lisa, Me, Kathy & Janet. We are missing Norma, Maria and Odette in this photo! They hung with us too! We were all in the “Hydrangea” group so that meant we were in the same classes together the whole weekend. Too much fun! These photos were taken Thursday night after everyone arrived and checked in. Then it was off to “Technique Boutique” where we went to different booths and worked on little mini-projects that we would later be using on our bigger class projects. This “Escape” banner was a bonus project they gave us that night. I had fun putting it together when I got home. It’s going to hang in my scrappy area. I have to say that the Thursday night “Technique Boutique” event was a HUGE improvement from last year’s. It just didn’t seem as crowded and the flow of the whole thing seemed to go much smoother. Kuddos to the CE Team for that!

Janet and I didn’t get to the “Trunk Show” that night because we were pretty exhausted by the time we did all our stations and we were starving for dinner. (remember I am eating for two…LOL) The Trunk Show is a room filled with tables where each class instructor has their work on display and you can meet each one individually. Pretty cool stuff. After we rounded the gang up it was off to Carlos O’Brien’s for Mexican food. YUMMY! There…we ran into my good buddy and one of this year’s CK Hall of Famers, Jamie Harper! Good to see ya girl! She was nice enough to take this group photo for us! Woot! Woot!

What’s next? We all just hung out in someone’s room for a few hours and giggled and laughed and snorted like we were 13 again. I went to bed that night with a busted spleen….SERIOUSLY!!!! (That was the word for the weekend…..SERIOUSLY…we WORE it out!)

And so after breakfast Friday morning….the classes began. The first one we had was Chris Randall’s Simply Swanky Memory Jewelry. This was the class I was actually dreading before the event so I was glad to get it done and over with first. We learned how to solder. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy and fun it was. Chris was an amazing instructor. I don’t know how on earth you use a tool that reaches over 1000 degrees in 7 classes full of 90+ women and not end up with someone rushed off to the emergency room with 3rd degree burns. THAT speaks volumes about Chris!!! Her projects and charms were amazing. It had my brain spinning with cool gift ideas for Christmas. This necklace is the one I made in her class. I was proud of myself at the wire-working I did on this. Here is the front and back view. Can’t wait to try this again! Oh….and that class was sponsored by Simply Swank…check them out!

Jennifer Wagner’s “Purse-onal Memories Album” class was next. Jennifer was adorable and a great instructor. It’s not fair to compare her to Rebecca Sowers so I won’t. She was Rebecca’s replacement at the Escape since for reasons not mentioned Rebecca wasn’t able to teach like originally announced. I was SERIOUSLY disappointed by this. Rebecca is one of my biggest scrappy inspirations. Oh well. Jennifer was great like I said….her style is completely different. Her project was simple, fun and cute. I didn’t post a photo of EVERY page in the album but you get the gist. I think I am going to have to make another one of these in a different theme. You all know how much I LOVE mini-albums! Wink!

Our last class of the day on Friday was Heidi Swapp’s “Today Memory Board”. This class was sponsored by Canvas Concepts and it was my FAVORITE of all the classes!!! I had never worked with canvas before. It was soooooo much fun! I will be hanging this in my scrappy space as well. I am quickly running out of wall space! LOL Heidi is an amazing instructor and I LOVE her products! I love to see different ways I can use my stash of scrappy supplies and this canvas memory board has ENDLESS possibilities!! I am offically addicted to Heidi’s masks! Love them!

Okay….so…the Mexican food buffet we had for dinner Friday night was just what my prego belly needed. Yes….Mexican for the 2nd night in a row. I could eat Mexican for every meal…..SERIOUSLY. After dinner was the Friday Night Extravaganza. This was sooooo flippin’ cool! The concept, the cards, the 2006 CE Alumni Instructors…..lemme explain. We took a little voyage with the help of one of Heidi Swapp’s favorite books EVER WONDER by Kobi Yamada. It’s a book of questions. I will be getting this book. Very inspirational. Heidi invited each of the 2006 Alumni Instructors to come back and each select two questions from the Ever Wonder book. Each chose questions with a personal inspiration and then they each created a playing card representing that question. We were dealt a hand of 16 of Heidi Swapp’s cute jumbo playing cards. We completed 8 that night and then took the products home with us to create the other 8. The photos and instructions are in our Creative Escape books. Those things are the BEST thing ever. I didn’t end up finishing much that night. Being preggers….I run out of steam pretty early these days. But here are some scans of Pam Black’s cards. I would have worked more on my cards but I opted out for a professional massage instead.

H-E-A-V-E-N!!!!!!!!!!

Kathy had her mobile massage guy come out to the hotel that night and we all took turns with him. ‘Nuff said.

Saturday morning came way too quick for me. I COULD NOT pull myself out of bed for breakfast and our first class at 8am. From what I understand…I missed the BEST class & instructor. This was Tracey Niehues’ class called “My Thoughts Exactly Folder” This class project was made to help organize our ideas and thoughts. I did actually finish this project today here at home. I really wanted to get it done….it’s soooo stinkin’ cute. I took a few photos of it to share. K & Company’s new “Bailey” line was used to create this beauty. Love it!

………………..I did make it to the second class on Saturday morning. This was Lesli Spafford’s card class. I was enjoying this class a lot. Lesli is a friend of mine that I have gotten to know through shopping at Scrapbooks-Etc. in Mesa, AZ. She’s a doll and it was fun to see her in her element at Creative Escape. I am a card nut right now so it was cool to learn a few new card-folding techniques and just create at a medium pace. We did five cards and three tags. Can’t wait to re-create these with different products.

Rhonna Farrer’s class was next. I love the amazing talent of this woman! The class that was presented from her at Creative Escape left me baffled. While the products were the coolest I was sitting there pretty shocked that all they did was stamp the entire two hours. I say THEY because once I realized what the class entailed….I kept everything packaged up. I didn’t want to create a “21 Challenge journal” with all those amazing rub-ons, stamps, and papers they gave us. I’m sorry….they didn’t give us the stamps or inks….that’s why…I guess the stamping was done the entire class. Instead I will be creating some sort of mini-album (surprise!) with those products for a gift or to sell on Ebay. Rhonna is great but I think the format or content of the class left her SERIOUSLY short-changed. Bummer.

Last class of the day was Heidi Lynn’s. This was the “Simple Layout” class. This isn’t exactly my style but the idea behind it was to create layouts and make a calendar. I am excited about this because I have someone special in mind to make it for as a gift. I didn’t take pictures of all the layouts because I still need to add photos. The class only included 5 layouts which I thought was strange. They sold the other 7 layouts in a kit for $37.00 at the onsite store. But they did include THOSE layouts in our idea book. I plan on just re-creating something similar to finish it. I will post the finished project when I get it done. You know I have to share!

This weekend was jam-packed full of good friends, good food, and good times. It’s worth EVERY penny if you get the chance to go. The little details. The free stuff. The new people you meet, the things you learn, the inspiration you recieve and not just on a creative level…..It’s AMAZING. I will post a few photos of the freebies and giveaways as well as some random pictures I took of my girlfriends. It truly was a CREATIVE ESCAPE!!!
Saturday night with the Keynote speaker after dinner was something I was especially excited for this year. It was Alison Tyler Jones. I adore this woman. She had us laughing, reflecting, pondering, crying, snorting…….SERIOUSLY….she was AMAZING. She left me feeling like I can be a better Me…..for me. Not just for everyone else…..that will happen naturally. Her spectacular slideshow presentation with her inspirational message was SERIOUSLY the icing on the cake for the weekend. After Stacy Julian’s incredible message last year….I thought it would be impossible to top. HOLEY SMOKES!!! Great job Alison! I emailed myself a few of my favorite quotes she mentioned as I was sitting there. (yes on my crackberry) Here were a few:

Worry is not preparation

It is only possible to live happily ever after on a day-to-day basis.

Sorry I don’t have the names of the people who those quotes are from. I wish EVERYONE I know could have heard this presentation. I know this sounds cheesey but it truly was life-altering for me. Powerful stuff.

Anyway…..I think that’s about it. oh……I do want to say thanks again to my honey, my friend Teresa and my sis Hillary for helping me out with the kiddos that weekend. They made it possible for me to be there.

I can’t forget to say thanks to all you girls I had such a blast with! I am honored to call you friends! Let’s do it again next year shall we?

-Shanna