How I Spent Last Weekend or What I did at CKC

I signed up for 5 classes but after taking one look at the vendor faire, I knew I needed to take another class- I had too much shopping time for too few vendors.  The Charlotte faire isn't nearly the size of the Valley Forge faire, the only other CKC I'd attended.  It was a GOOD faire and I was more than able to spend WAY too much money, just not BIG so it didn't require the time to browse that I'd allowed.  There were a LOT of premade/laser cut LO vendors and a LOT of vendors selling precut ribbons.  I was bummed not to see Dollar Scrapbooking or another vendor from VF (don't remember name) that sold pop dots and other goodies for $1.

I don't have pix of everything but what I do have is:
Make and Takes

Studio Calico's Misting and More.  Loved this class!  Some great techniques and a great chance to use SC's Mister Huey mists.  The BOGO coupon from this class was great.  I walked away from the booth with 2 sampler sets and 2 individual bottles of spray.  Also, I won a set of stamps as a Door Prize (DP)  (there were 2 or 3) and EVERYONE in class was given a full set of stamps (I think it was SC's last show and they were getting rid of some stuff.)

Lickety Split's Gifts Galore for Food II

I wasn't sure what to expect or if I'd like the class because I don't care for premade/laser cut LOs and that's what LS specializes in.  In the end, GREAT class and I'd take the class III they're developing for next year.  These weren't rocket science projects and easily found online but honestly, I don't think I would have ever made any of them if I hadn't taken the class and now, I think I'll be making quite a few.  They also gave us the makes to create a birthday countdown calendar that goes on a muffin tin (to be made at home).  The only thing we needed to supply was the tin.  I put it all together last night- very cute.  I don't have a picture of it but the nice thing is that it can be easily bagged up and saved flat for another year while the tin can be used for another calendar (I think I'll make a Halloween one.)  There were quite a few DP's including a LOT of extra bags of M&M's purchased for class.

Technique Tuesday's In Bloom.  Again, this wasn't rocket science and I've actually made several of these flowers myself but several were new, there were some tweaks that were nice to learn, and it makes for a nice little guide.  Everyone got a coupon for the booth for a small set of stamps with a $10 purchase.  Quite a few NICE DP's in this class.

These are some flowers I've made on my own prior to this class.  Again, not sure I NEEDED this class but I'm pretty happy with the output.

Technique Tuesday Explosion Box (still working on that one).  This was the class I picked up and I'm really glad I did.  I'd considered it but passed initially.  I love the box- the big problem's going to be finding photos for it.  The only problem I ran into was that the outer "page" of the box seemed a bit too big and I had to do quite a bit of trimming last night to get it to fit into the lid.  "" for coupons and DP's.

CK Material Girl layouts (I'm working on the first, I probably won't do the 2nd as instructed as I didn't care for it).  Overall, I like the first though not as much as I thought I would.  The sticky fabric was kinda neat to work with- I may look into getting some.  A few DP's but I don't remember what.  No coupons.

Prima Marketing's Get Your Grunge On.  The album is nice but probably nothing I couldn't have done on my own.  However, I hadn't worked with a chipboard album before and there was a FABU tape that Prima puts out that we used for binding some page edges.  While the class was pricey, the kit was HUGE.  I probably won't use near the number of flowers included on the album because while the pages ARE boyish, I just don't think putting too many flowers in it is.  Overall, good class with a killer kit of goodies (including a fab reusable wood/plexi box full of chipboard letters.)  No doorprizes or coupons but the kit was intended to make up for the lack of DP's.

I also went to the Friday night crop.  I hadn't gone last year so didn't know what to expect.  I've heard mixed reviews of the goodie bag everyone gets- I thought it was great!  I had no problems with the amount of space we each had to work in and the lighting was good in my world.  There were lots of vendors that set up for either the whole evening or just 20min or so.  Sorry I missed the cool shirts at Quick Quotes, thrilled I was the first person to discover Technique Tuesday setting up and I was able to grab first choice of their grab bags.  There was one game played based on a TV show... "what can you do in a minute" or something like that... sorry, not a big game/reality show watcher.  A LOT of REALLY nice DP's and what floored me was that EVERYONE got a DP!  NICE!