So, you see… back in October of last year, I thought it was a BRILLIANT idea to run my next Northwest Crafty Escape Weekend (the twice-a-year retreats I hold in Bellevue, WA) in April, the weekend IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING the Stampin’ Up OnStage event in Salt Lake City.  It will be fun, I said!  I’ll have lots of new displays and samples, I said.  I’ll have the scoop to share on the upcoming annual catalog…

and all of those things were true.   And we had a TON of fun!

But I also neglected to think of how little sleep I get when I’m at OnStage… plus how little sleep I get when I’m at the retreat weekends.  And so, let me just say, back to back amazing crafting weekends are fun, but not nearly enough sleep is involved.   But in the end, it was totally worth it and it has been great (though the fall retreat will be a bit more spaced out from OnStage than this time!)  So, I thought I’d share some of the photos from the event so you can see what I’ve been up to!

So the weekends always start with me clearing out much of my craft room so I can take all my tools with me for people to use

And then I cart everything over to the hotel we run the Crafty Escape Weekend at!  This time was great because our group size grew enough that we needed 2 banquet rooms, which made it fun having more space and room to craft, spread out, and goof off!

We had displays, a crop store, a swap my stuff table (which was seeing some amazing items being gifted on that table this weekend!), and of course, everyone got their own large space.

And I think for all of about 3 hours total of the event, I even had my table clean so I could craft on it.

It was like my mobile command center for all things retreat plus some personal crafting at the end of each day.

I always start out the weekend with a goodie bag full of fun crafty stuff plus a make & take packet with details for projects they can make with the items in their goodie bag.  In this case, I designed 6 cards for them to create using their goodie bag and the tools over on the tools buffet.

I love how the name placecards and other elements really make the tables cheery each time!  This was my table with my completed Enjoy the Little Things project kit all done and set up.  Isn’t it cute!?

Oh, and you see the water bottles that were decorated with some designer paper and the Flower Fair stamped flowers?  Check out what one of the gals at the retreat did with hers!

She took it off the water bottle and then picked off some of the extra flowers from her namecard and made them into cute cards!  I LOVE it!

We had crafty challenges, like this one to use at least 3 products from the goodie bag in one project

I ran some classes (3 total over the course of the weekend)

Ate some yummy food

And folks got a lot of crafting done… and not just paper crafts!

I also love our Pajama Party we run on Saturday night.

I usually give out challenges for the evening and my favorite was to show us your Crafty Super Hero costume.  I think this was Lady Crafts a Lot and Sir Inky Fingers… or I may have the names a little wrong, but I LOVED the creative costumes!

Professor Paper

And the super villian – OOPS, who knocks their drink all over your almost completed project

And we learned what happens when you try to run an embossing folder through the big shot with the magnetic platform (PSA – either your BigShot cutting plate or your embossing folder will not make it out alive!)

But I still managed to get some creating done while I was there, which if you know how much I talk at retreats, you know that is an impressive feat!

So, all in all, another fun weekend full of friends, crafts, and lots of laughs!

Next up… Northwest Crafty Escape Weekend – Fall Fun!
September 2016

I’m trying to finalize the dates of our next Northwest Crafty Escape Weekend… it should be Sept 16-18, but I’ll be able to confirm that by the end of the week.  Consider joining us next time and be a part of the fun!