hello again bloggers… i've finally had a chance to sit down to post about last week's travels to minneapolis. it was a jam packed weekend and so amazing! first off, i was invited to participate in the creative connection event. i heard incredible things about this event last year, but after checking it out, i realized it was part of "where women create" magazine so i knew i would never be part of that. well never say never right? earlier this year i was contacted by jo packham founder of where women create and asked if i would consider being featured as their first "man" in the magazine for their new feature "the men who make it"… seriously? of course i would! to say i was honored would be an understatement. so fast forward to last weekend, and in a full circle moment, i was invited to attend the creative connection event. this incredible event is all about empowering women in business. from designing and creating, to blogging and running a successful business, there are so many types of workshops, seminars, and keynotes to attend. i was part of a pitch slam team where up and coming designers could pitch their product ideas to a panel of "experts" to get feedback and input. one of the nights was an autograph party where numerous authors from all types of creative books were on hand to meet everyone and connect in completely creative forum. it was really cool to be a part of and i thank jo and her team once again for allowing me to take part in it all – i can't believe it!
well in addition to the creative connection, we also attended scrapfest at the mall of america. this annual event hosted by archiver's is over the top huge and located throughout the mall. there are demos, make & takes, and loads of workshops. i attended the event with another ranger signature designer claudine hellmuth who also taught and demoed as well as colleen and mario. i taught 5 workshops with approx. 60 students in each for a total of 300 students over the weekend – whew! my workshops were located in the rotunda which is an open arena 4 stories tall with a huge "jumbo-tron" screen that displayed my powerpoint for the class. it can be a bit intimidating when you look up and see people on the upper levels looking down watching. this year the students had an hour and 45 minute class time which was great since we were able to create and finish the artful journal project. we worked with distress, perfect pearl mists, art parts, kraft resist, kraft glassine, and a few idea-ology findings to assemble a cool mini book. thanks to all of my students who shared in the creative journey of the class, and the ranger and archiver's teams for their help in the workshops – i couldn't have done it without you guys…
in addition to workshops i also demoed 3 hours a day in front of the archiver's store in the mall. this was a great opportunity for attendees to get a more up close and personal look at the products and a chance to ask questions. it was a great turn out each day and always fun to take time to just play with products. so now i'm back in the studio getting unpacked and then repack to head out tomorrow on my final crafting cruise with scrapmap. more on that in tomorrow's post. enjoy today…t!m
