Designing Devas @ CKC Convention - Mesa

My sassy friend, Ilene, and sweet friend, Gwen, @ our CKC Convention in Mesa on Friday morning. Suffice it to say that we had a fabulous time, got loads of exercise walking & "weight lifting" (our totes full of product & class supplies), had 2 fantastic classes (not bad - 2 out of 3), were totally exhausted by Sat. @ 5:00 p.m. and spent waaaay too much money (but please don't tell our hubbies)!!! ;-) Though we were heartbroken that Spellbinders did not host a booth, we still managed to have a great time, find lots of bargains, and enjoy ourselves tremendously!
The Technique Tuesday card class, A Greeting for Every Reason, was AWESOME, both in terms of product, techniques, prizes, useful tips and quality teaching! Best teacher I've ever had in any class (a former college professor, so not surprising)! Our Paper Crafts Joy of Card Making class by Phoenix's own Kim Kesti was equally fabulous!
If you ever get an opportunity to attend a CKC Convention anywhere, we wholeheartedly recommend it!!!

Paper Crafts Card Contest Entry @ CKC Convention - Mesa

This was my entry for the Paper Crafts Birthday Card Contest @ CKC-Mesa. When they were about to announce winners @ the podium I got momentarily excited because I could see the bottom card in the winners' stack had an orangey flower, but soon realized it was NOT my card. Only my 2nd time entering, so I shall try again! All the (about 15) entries were very good, we felt. Certainly glad I didn't have to choose the winners. Hopefully Gwen will post her fabulous card on her blog for you to see too! ;-)
My glittered accents show up better if you click to enlarge the photo!
Papers: PTI's Vintage Cream, MS Brown & Bazzill textured CS
Stamps: PTI's BB: Retro & Heartfelt Basics
Bling: White Flower from a Michael's FloralSwag Colored with Prismacolor Eggshell Marker; Doodlebug's Sugar Coated Brad; Art Glittering System's Orange Crush Transparent Glitter

Friend High Heel Shaker Card

My favorite card of the 3 we did in our CKC class is this one! I've rarely made a shaker card & this to me is just too cute & so "girlie" with those shaker beads & flower sequins inside the shoe!!! Again, the "hello friend" is a transparency, Gwen!!! Tee-Hee!!!
Interestingly, the "card" is actually a piece of stationery folded in half, also a unique & fun idea to keep in mind. It's a lightweight cardstock rather than just a sheet of paper, but keeping that in mind, I often see bargains on stationery when shopping - just always need to "think outside the box" in this hobby to push your possibilities & expand your options! ;-)
Embellishments: Doodlebug Design, Inc.'s Flower Sequins & Beads

Girlfriends Tent Card

This is the front & back views of the 2nd card we made in the Heartstring

Designs class. It is suggested that you could add a photo and/or message inside, but I also think a photo on the back swirl paper would be fun, especially if you're going to display it where you'd see it from front & back! If you're mailing it, your girlfriend can glue the back narrow bottom flap, but I also like it just left with that little flap holding the tent up. That way you can always open it to read the inside message or see any photo you've placed inside!

Gwen "needs" details, so I'm adding them here too! The black frame is mat board (just like in picture frames!) & phrase is printed on a transparency & I colored in the little flower over the "e" from the back with a marker. On the back I decided to add the pink to the "braid" in the design to make it pop!

Paper: DCWV's All Dressed Up line

Embellishments: Making Memories' Mini Blossom Paper Flowers &

brads; Doodlebug Designs Flower Sequins; transparency phrase

Queen for a Day Belly Band Card

Queen for a Day is just one of the cards we created in Heartstring Designs class @ CKC Friday. A fun class which uses matboard embellishments in very fun, unique ways on cards!!! On this one, that's a matboard crown!
Paper: DCWV's All Dressed Up line
Embellishments: Doodlebug Designs Flower Sequins; gems & transparency phrase
Ink: Ranger's Worn Lipstick Distressed Ink

"Open, Open, Open" CKC Convention!!!

How do you sum up the MOST FUN a papercrafting girl can have in just 3 letters & one word: CKC Convention! OMG, I just cannot believe how utterly wonderful, exciting & fantastic it was! In case you can't tell, this was my first trip to a CKC Convention & I hope there will be many more! The classes were phenomenal; we learned so much & the product you took home to play with, the many prizes & unbelievable vendors & products available literally overwhelmed me & "made my head hurt". I mean that in the best way possible, though I truly had a splitting headache when I finally got home last night. That was partly because I had too much fun to stop & eat properly yesterday & because I was way too excited to get enough sleep before we went.
Shown above are my 2 dear friends Gwen on the left & Ilene on the right, anxiously awaiting the opening of the vendor faire Friday morning. We weren't anxious or anything, but we arrived @ 7:00 a.m. & our first class wasn't until 8:30!!! ;-) Truthfully, none of us drives to downtown Phx. much, so we made sure we allowed plenty of time so as to not miss a moment of fun! Ilene's the main person responsible for getting me into cardmaking in the first place & Gwen is totally responsible for getting me into blogging & I love them both dearly for it!!! Gwen's probably going to flog me if I don't start creating & posting like mad these next many days because she knows what I spent the bulk of my Stimulus Check on!
And that's without even mentioning the added bonus of the Bazzill Warehouse Sale here this weekend! Yeah, I know, they tried to totally kill me off all in one weekend, but I still love both CKC & Bazzill anyway!!! I did manage to hit the Bazzill sale for a bit on Sat. a.m. before I returned with Gwen to convention. I won't even tell you what a gigantic savings I got because I really don't want you to hate me! Suffice it to say, it was more than worth the sacrifice I made to get up really early 2 days in a row to "steal" 275 sheets of gorgeous 12" x 12" Bazzill (including a bit of their scalloped & punched-edge) papers!
Now I'm totally on product overload, which surprisingly often causes me to NOT be able to create -- I know I'm weird; what can I say?! Somehow I'll try to muddle through this "awful dilemma"!!! ;~}