CKC Review 3- Friday PM Classes

I want to be able to blog about other things too, so I guess I better work on finishing up my CKC Manchester reviews.

The fourth class I took Friday was the Basic Grey class. I had read about it on the CK forums, so I was prepared for a huge, fast-paced class. We really did complete 4 layouts in an hour! I didn't finish the titles though because I thought I might want to use different words. The layouts were beautiful! I especially liked working with the Stella Ruby paper because I have such a hard time using some of BG's big patterns that I tend to avoid the manufacturer altogether. I felt inspired enough though to go buy some more at the vendor fair. The thing I did not like about this class was the instructor- she really rubbed me the wrong way. I felt like she was constantly talking down to us and insinuating that we are stupid. Just because I do not use a craft knife every time I scrap does not mean that I do not know how to use it- I just prefer not to! The thing that really bugged me was that she basically tricked everyone. After they had cut out their letters, she said that the best way would have been to use the straight edges of the paper to minimize cutting. She also said that if she'd told us that before, we would have been confused. I do not confuse that easily thankyouverymuch! I do not want to say the class is bad, just that I do not learn the best with those types of instructors. Her sanding hints were very useful though.

In summary:
Event Name: Basic Grey Latest & Greatest
Cost: $16 (1 hour)
Recommend: Yes, if you can't just get the class kit
Finished?: Mostly
Hints: Just be prepared for a fast-moving class with no personal interaction with the instructor.

Before I took my next class, I got a nice break for shopping at the vendor fair. I spent way too much money, but got lots of cute things. My hint on that- shop around. I saw items that had a significant price difference from one booth to the next.

My penultimate class was "Wanted!" I hate to be overly critical, but this class was a waste of time. Basically all the instructor did was hold up a board with a layout and tell us to copy it. Cute layout, worth a $5-7 page kit, but that's all. You can more or less figure out how to do the layout just by looking at the thumbnail example on the CKC class list. The one thing I learned was how to make "buttons" using chipboard, pp, and eyelets.

In summary:
Event Name: Wanted!
Cost: $16 (1 hour)
Recommend: No
Finished?: Yes, with time to spare, and I did more to my layout than the example
Hints: Good for a beginner, but otherwise, save the $ for shopping.

Phew, are you tired yet? Six classes was a lot, and by the end of the day I was completely exhausted, but I loved it and would do it again. My last class was possibly my favorite. Super fun/nice/happy/amazing instructors, lots of student-teacher and student-student interactions, cute project, new techniques. This is one of the only classes where I actually learned a technique. We learned how to use the Strano Ribbon Stiff. Such a cool product! It makes your ribbon stiff so it won't fray and so you can run it through die cut machines, punches, etc. That plus the inspiring instructors (including the founder of Strano Designs herself and the founder of scrapbookeronline) would have made the class worthwhile, but we even started a cute mini book and learned another technique- how to bind the book using ribbon. We did not do any of the internal book pages, but the instructors showed us samples, gave us lots of ideas, and even included a bunch of extras in the class kit.

In summary:
Event Name: Strano Designs Ribbon Mini Book
Cost: $25 (1.5 hours)
Recommend: Yes
Finished?: Finished the cover and binding of the book (what they intended us to do).
Hints: Check out these links: Strano Designs; Scrapbooker Online