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In 2003, City Planner Jenn Bertsch visited Creating Keepsakes
University in Indiana. For anyone who has ever wanted to go, here is a
little glimpse into her weekend...
My adventure started on Thursday when my dear
friend Laura Gayle left on a 7am flight to Indy. When we arrived we went
straight to the Sheraton so we could register and then do all the make and
takes. Our registration pack was filled with all kinds of goodies like a
toolbox filled with adhesives, brads, pop dots, some Making Memories things,
Undo and all kinds of other things. We quickly then moved into the main
ballroom where all the vendors were set up.
My first celebrity meeting was Anna Griffin. She ROCKS!!!! Very down to
earth and friendly, she even signed my bag. As you all know, I am a big fan
Anna Griffin papers. Next celebrity sighting was Julie Scattageria (I have
probably butchered the spelling of her name so please forgive me) she was
doing the make-n-take demos for Bradwear and Alphawear designed by Karen
Burnston for CI. Julie is a bundle of nonstop energy!!! She screams
enthusiasm (I also had the great pleasure of taking a class from her, but
more about that later)! Next I met Jennifer Ditz (HOF), she is so nice and
probably the main reason I went to the Indy CKU, so I could take a class
from her. She even remembered who I was from 2peas!!!!!
There were so many people there that it was getting a little hectic and hot,
so Laura Gayle and I decided to go hit our first Scrapbook store in Indy,
well a few hundred dollars later it was time to leave. We also got a 20%
discount on our entire purchases there! Very Cool! They had all of the new
products and tons of stamps, inks, carrying cases, you name it!!!!!!!!! My
LSS does not carry FMNDesigns, but this store did and I think I bought one
of each!!!!! I think I’m addicted to shopping for scrapbooking supplies!
Well, aren’t we all!
We left the store in time to go to the opening night Pep Rally! Oh my
goodness! 600 women in one ballroom all as crazy as me!!! We sang songs and
got all pumped up for the next two days. They also showered us with great
goody bags of product just for attending! During the pep rally they
introduce you to all the instructors and sponsors, so you get to see who
everyone is! After the pep rally was over LG and I headed to the lobby bar
to just sit and relax for a few minutes and while we were there we met 2
great gals who became our buds during CKU. Lisa and Ramona from Ohio. They
were there with a group from their LSS (the Mixin’ Chicks was the name of the
dorm).
While we were hanging out with Lisa and Ramona I went to go check out the
crop that was going on and try to find PaulaD (from Scrapvillage). We had
exchanged phone numbers but it was just absolutely crazy there! Lo and
Behold as I’m wondering around looking at peoples name badges I bump right
into Paula she was cropping with her dorm the Scrapadelics! Paula and I were
able to meet Lisa B and get our picture taken with her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got
really nervous around Lisa so I didn’t really ask her much, but sometimes
that happens to me! Oops, I’ll do better next time!
After all that excitement it was time for bed! I think I fell asleep in
about a second after my head hit the pillow, dreamt about scrapbooking till
the wake-up call came!
Well that was the first day, you’ll just have to wait a little bit to hear
about Friday and Saturday!!!!!!!! I bet you can’t wait……… trust me it gets
even better!!!!!!!
Well, lets see where did we leave off yesterday… Oh
bedtime, whew, I needed that sleep! The wake-up call came in around 6am so
that LG and I could start our day. We stayed in the AmeriSuites right next
to the Sheraton. (LG has connections with that hotel!). After a little
coffee and breakfast we headed to our first class!!! I must preface the
class situation with letting you know that when I registered I got every
class I chose. Just call me a lucky girl!!!
At 8am, we were the first ones in line for our class, “ 3-D Techniques and
Wire” taught by the incredible Rebecca Ludens. It was a great class!!!!
Trust me I’m not very creative when it comes to wire (I can bend it with my
hands), but by the end of this class I had made a wire treble clef note and
a wire word with beads on it!!!! We focused on how to use the basic wire
working tools. We also got to try out a new product created by Rebecca that
are die cut shaker box sets!
For our next class LG and I had to part ways, she went to the “Deluxe Color
Blocking” class sponsored by Deluxe Designs. I went to “Whatchacallit” that
was sponsored by Creative Imaginations and was taught by one of my favorite
scrappers, Karen Burniston. This class rocked!!!! You would not believe the
cool stuff we made and all the great stuff they gave us!!!! She showed us
different ways to come up with creative titles and cool ways to use
stencils, sticker letters, and precut letters to make terrific titles!!!!
Did I mention the cool stuff they gave us? Lots of Shotz things and Sonnets
stuff!!!! Karen just Rocks!!! I highly recommend this class! By the way, LG
said that her class was great too, it was taught by Margie Romney-Aslett and
Laura Gayle said she was hilarious!!!!
Now it was time for lunch, we went to the food court of the mall that was
attached to the hotel. I know, not very exciting but my next class was
“Stamp Your Art Out” with Jennifer Ditz (whose work is awesome!!!), and I
wanted to be first in line. I’ll admit it, “GEEK” is stamped right across my
forehead!
“Stamp Your Art Out” was sponsored by Hero Arts and I wish it had been a 90
minute class instead of a 60 minute class. We made a fantastic LO using
shadow stamps and flower stamps. Hero Arts also was very generous and gave
as some great products! I liked everything so much I even had to go and buy
some more! The real treat in this class was the opportunity to see the REAL
pages that Jennifer Ditz, Renee Camacho, Lisa Russo, Tracy Robinson and Jana
Millen (hopefully I did not get Jana’s last name wrong) created. Jana’s page
was truly one the best LOs I have ever seen!!!!!!! Jennifer and Renee are
both extremely talented and nice, what a combination!
Next we had “In Stitches” with Candace Cook. She is the sister-in-law of
Rhonda Soloman. Pixie Press sponsored the class. We learned the basics of
stitching like doing the backstitch and a French knot. I had a little
trouble with the French knot but after some assistance from everyone around
me I finally figured it out! To tell the truth, I think my mind was a bit
fried by that time because of everything I had been learning all day.
Remember, I have “GEEK” stamped on my forehead so I was actually listening
intensely to everything in all my classes. So for a change of pace I decided
to do one of the other projects for the class than the one everyone else was
working on. I thought the card might be a little better for me to handle
than trying to do the LO!
Finally, it is time for our last class for the day, “Shake, Sparkle,
Shimmer” by Rebecca Ludens, sponsored by JewelCraft and Artistic Wire. I
should let you know that by this time my mind was shot!!!!!! I think it was
overloaded so I went into class intending to just listen. Well, of course, I
didn’t do that. I had some issues making my shaker box, My LO was not coming
together and I wasn’t understanding if I was supposed to glue the vellum
down or not and I became obsessed over the vellum issue. LG was ready to
disown me as her friend by this point I think!!! Oh well, even with all my
issues, Rebecca was one of the best instructors!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She also told
us that new episodes of DIY Scrapbooking would begin airing in April!
Now instead of going back to our hotel and taking a nap like we should have
done we decided to go shopping at the other scrapbook store in the area. The
shop was only supposed to be about 20 minutes away, but of course we left in
5pm traffic, so lets just say it took us a while! Thankfully, I have an
incredible singing voice (LOL) so LG got to be showered with my lovely
renditions of every song on the radio! Okay, before she has time to deny
that she loves my singing, let me tell you about the store. It rocked!!!! We
spent a lot! I bought the flower stamps we used in class, lots of This and
That frames, ink pads, and who knows what else!!!! Oh, and we got another
20% off everything we purchased!!!!
It was a much speedier drive back to hotel at 8:30pm. We were a little
delirious, but we were having a great time! We stopped by the crop that was
going on and checked it out. It was packed, people were everywhere, the
tables for the dorms were all done up and the dorm girls were all dressed in
their costumes! I ran into PaulaD again! She was dressed in her Scrapadelic
hippy outfit complete with long blonde wig!!!!! She was a riot! Their
centerpiece was the best one! Hopefully she has a picture to share with us.
After picking yet another bag full of goodies for stopping by the crop, LG
and headed back to our room. We sorted through all the things we made,
bought or were given and then it was time for bed! All this and there is
still another day!!!!!!!!!!!! Stay tuned!
Well here we are at the
third and final day of CKU! I must add that this day was also my Birthday!
This was the perfect way to spend my birthday too!!! It starts out pretty
much like yesterday, showers, coffee, breakfast and line. I did decide to
carry a lot less today, because yesterday I was lugging around too much!
Our first class today is “Tagging Along” sponsored by Deluxe Designs and
taught by Katherine Brooks. Katherine was fantastic!!!! She taught an
awesome class. The tags we made were incredible!!! I have decided though, I
am twistel challenged! Most of all, I just loved her, she had such a great
personality! LG told Katherine it was my birthday and Katherine gave me a
copy of her “Tagging Along” Idea Book!!! How cool is that! Then I open up
the book and it is truly amazing. There are also a couple of City Planners
who contributed to the book as well! Deluxe Designs were very generous.
Everyone should take this class! Can you tell how much I enjoyed this
class!!!
The next class we headed to “Shabby Chic Design” taught by my Shabby Chic
Guru Julie Scattaregia! She was so much fun I do not even know where to
start! Every time someone had a unique and new way of doing something they
got to bang the chicken! We learned fabulous techniques for aging our
pre-made products and made the pieces for a beautiful LO! Her LOs are so
beautiful in the magazines but to actually see them in person was to die
for!
Well time for lunch now, we did our usual go to the food court and come back
to the class area to eat.
My 1:00 class was “Texture for All Season’s” taught by Tricia Barrett. She
is the owner of Lil Davis Designs, who sponsored this class. What an amazing
class!!! It was so fast paced the hour just flew by. We made four Season’s
tags that are so cool! I learned it is a lot easier to use Walnut Ink in a
spray bottle than the way I was using it. And now I am too embarrassed to
tell how I was using it before. I got to meet Jenni Bowlin (HOF HM last
year)! She is incredibly nice and she designed all of the TAG-A-PEELS that
are now on the market. You will all definitely be seeing my tags on some LOs
soon!
Now remember we are getting to that point in the day when mind is starting
to overload. The 2:30 class was “Boy, Oh Boy” taught by Deana Lambson of
Simple Scrapbooks. I thought it was tough with two boys, Deana has
five!!!!!!!!! I would say she is definitely qualified to teach about boys.
This class was more of an inspiration type class to expand your thinking on
boy pages. I did get to read my poem out loud about Patton and LG won the
Simple Scrapbook Design Book!
If you can believe it we are up to the final class of CKU, this was “Dare to
Detail” taught by Emily Waters and sponsored by Making Memories! Everyone
won something in this class! Like yesterday at 4pm I should have stayed away
from doing any projects, but I did not listen to myself because the things
we were going to make were too cool. So, of course, on my first project I
have a melt down because when I pulled my ribbon through the eyelet it
pulled the eyelet out of the tag! Arghhhhhhhhhhhh! But never fear I will fix
it! I just decided to listen for the rest of class and assist LG with her
projects when she would let me! Emily was a great teacher and just adorable!
I can’t believe it is almost over! I thought LG and I would go shopping for
a little bit for NSBR items but it seems she needed some more scrapbook
related items so off to the scrapbook store we went again! I used much more
restraint this time when shopping, but I still found a few more things I had
to have, after all, remember it was my Birthday and they had FooFaLa stuff!
The final event of CKU was the Commencement. At the commencement all 600
woman were back in the big ballroom cheering and screaming! CK announced all
the winners to all the contests, gave out tons of raffle prizes and let us
know that they raised $10,000 for the charity Homeward Bound! We scrappers
are such generous people! LG and I sat with our new friends LisaG, Ramona
and the Mixin’ Chicks. LisaG won an Epsom printer, how cool is that! Instead
of handing out diplomas at the event they have everyone stand when their
state is called, so of course LG and thought we would be the only one’s from
Florida, but to our surprise there was one other person, who knew! So if you
are out there let me know!
After the commencement it was time to do a little Birthday celebrating with
my best bud LG and then off to bed so we could fly out on Sunday morning to
get home to our families!
I can’t stress enough what a wonderful time this was at CKU! Everyone from
Lisa Bearnson, the instructors, the students and everyone else involved in
the event were fabulous! This is definitely an experience I will remember
for a lifetime!
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to share it with y’all!
-- Jenn Bertsch
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