As promised I wanted to do a write-up so to speak about my experiences at CU and what it means to me. Sometimes there is an experience soooo inexplicable that one can only tell it by showing a story or series of pictures. I want to start out by expressing a HUGE Thank You and pay homage to Tresa Black for bringing this Ah-Mazing event each year. There is a lot of work that goes into putting on such an memorable retreat. Just a small list of things that she preps for and I could never imagine matching this Uniquely Fabulous Multi-Tasker; Planning: Now to some planning entails details. Every last one of them were Fabulous from the Communications with CU attending members to a blog resource and newsletters. That is just the information portion....then there is the Theme: CU 2011 had an awesome theme "WINGS" how to spread our wings of inspiration, this was demonstrated in a group project by the attendees which I'm so excited to see how that turns out. (This project was a collaboration of a "Twinchie") Of course colors that also go into the Logowear.
This year the color scheme was Red, Black, White, and Grey. These were also done in our Handmade gift bags that were all sewn by Tresa's hand (A wonderful piece I treasure each year), If that weren't enough we have a charm swap we do that was incredibly led by Erin Grotegut who was also our jewelery class instructor this year where we learned and created handmade bobble necklaces...can I say ADORABLE. Then more classes; Oh My all the classes are INCREDIBLE! I can only imagine the work it takes to arrange, organize, create, and make 55+ kits with these CU Instructors this year and Tresa even did an awesome schedule rotation based on Sororities, I was in Megha Inka; Friday- We had the Card Boutique until the Student assembly ran by: Sheila Bennett, and Donna Smith. Can I interject here how FABULOUS these gift card and sentiment cards were soooo full of awesomness. Then after our Student assembly that is when I got to take Erin's class for the necklace. Saturday morning was so much fun taking a scrabooking class learning how to make ribbon flowers and tacky glue with Nona Davenport I loved learning how to use the pleated ribbon in such a fast easy way. After lunch I was able to retreat into a wonderful Altered clipboard class with Denise Anderson-Turley, this was one of my FAV's because Christina assisted in contributing to my Ribbon Frenzy addiction. (One I didn't know I had till now!) Then it was Chrissy Dunham's class which I found very interesting in using vintage combined with Fabric in scrapbook lay-outs. I'm not a very good stitcher or sewer for that matter but Chrissy made it all seem so easy and I have to thank her for my new border punch infatuation. :) Of course one of my last-classes of the CU season 2011 was Jen Royal's Bookmark corner card. Now how ingenious was this...a great gift idea and especially for those who LOVE to read.
Now, try to imagine for only but a moment what it takes to co-ordinate, organize, create and multi-task all of these elements into a Fabulous four-day weekend. Uhm....Okay I know I couldn't do it but that is all apart of why CU is so dearly apart of my annual schedule come rain or shine or even after a nice ER visit prior to my departure and coming home to learning I was in a serious state of medical crisis. Nothing can hold me back from this endearing weekend. There is so much more to CU then just the above that I don't know how to share it all at once...so what I did as the Doctor ordered this weekend was relaxed and created some StudioJ lay-outs that I wanted to share. I was not able to get in all the photos that I wanted nor did I get some of the class photos I wanted in either. However, I'm safe enough to share our CU blog so you can visit the secret class pictures and read a lil about them or even visit some of the links above in the Instructors to see what they've posted.
One part of CU that is my favorite is the "Friendships"! Each year becomes more endearing then the one before. Not only are there so much talent and different unique stories behind each individual we all have one thing in common and that is our love of crafts, some seriously needed relaxation and down-time to just create for ourselves. This common thread if you can imagine is like a silk diamond spindle to me; delicate, unique, and utterly priceless. So without further ado I share some of my CU StudioJ memories of CU 2011 with you:
Each page has a story for me...I can not wait to put it in my Cranberry Faux Leather Album that should arrive within the next 3 days. I don't know about you but if I were a betting lady I would say if you have the time and start saving today that next year I just may be able to CU at CU 2012!
