CKC - St. Louis

I went to CKC last weekend in St. Louis and had a blast.  (I won't talk about the part where, in a desperate attempt to save a little $$, I stayed at a lower-end hotel than the Drury Inn that was the conference hotel, learning that in my hotel, where I was in a room on the third floor, there was no elevator!  Needless to say, all my heavy scrapping supplies were stored in my van for the weekend when I didn't need them.)

This was my second CKC trip, and as I try to explain to my family, it's the one getaway that I get for myself each year.  The kids don't quite get that, because Steve and I both travel a bit for work.  All they know is that we're gone, we come home, and we pull something out of our suitcase for them. 

I met a new friend who lives only about 45 minutes from me, perhaps less, and hopefully will get to crop together once in a while in town.  (Hi Mary!)  And of course, I took some great classes and did more than just a bit of shopping.  Honestly, I don't think I spent as much as I did last year.  I had a little birthday money to burn, and I burned through that pretty quickly, believe me!  

The Paper Element had a few classes taught by Jolene, and I picked "Looking Thru Clearly," which was a great home decor altered project.  Jolene's husband creates wood pieces for her designs, so they're really stable and durable.  This was a set of three frames in graduated sizes, using transparencies in the middle of the first two.  I still have to finish mine, so I'll post a picture of that when it's done.   (Check out their new 2008 paper lines here!  My favorite is Isadora.)

Scrapbooks N Stickers had another class this year with Junkitz products.  Can't say what it was, because it's a gift for someone!  But it made me kinda sad...  No more Junkitz...  Kind of makes me want to buy it all up like mad so that I won't ever run out!

Oh, and, I can't forget to mention Piggy Tales.  They've gone green with their new lines, and they're great!  I'm so happy to see the scrapbooking world begin to try to go green.  While I love this hobby, personally, I think we're pretty darn wasteful.  As consumers, we buy tons of paper that we can't ever use up, driving the manufacturers to make more and more...  Not exactly a green industry.  But, at least Piggy Tales is doing something.  The new lines are all printed on recycled paper with soy-based organic ink.  (And that Twinkle Twinkle Little Star line is darn cute!)  I spent enough to get a blue spruce seedling free, if that tells you anything.