Our first day of Spark was jam packed of fun classes but it did not stop there since we have a whole other day of more classes, a blogger panel, and another musical performance.
We had missed the Dear Lizzie boutique set up at Spark the first day so we stopped by first thing the in the morning. I picked up some gifts there. 🙂
Margie gave a run down of the day’s events for us during the Welcome session. She is so hilarious that she everyone cracking up. But she is best at inspiring everyone and connecting super talented women to create a great event.
Our morning class that we attended was the first Mixed Media class with Donna Downey. For the “From the Heart” class, we used pan pastels on canvases to create a mixed media piece layers the pastels with stamps and tags. I had never worked with pan pastels so i had a lot of fun using a new medium. Did you know you have to create a porous surface for it to stick to? how do you do that on canvas? Well, adhere a piece of tissue paper to it of course!
Here Donna is showing my mom and other Spark women how to create shadows on our hearts by flicking with the applicator.
We had a free hour in the morning which allowed me to catch up on my reverse applique shirt. Brioche, my traveling gnome bun, chilled out as I documented his travels.
There was a group of the sweetest women who came all the way from JAPAN. Yes, they came from JAPAN! They had met Margie when she went over there to teach some classes so they all stayed in touch and then came over for Spark. They took photos of everyone using Instax cameras and added our pics to mini books so we could right msgs right there.
During the process of my mom making her shirt, a little pull was created on the patterned fabric part. Instead of my mom having to redo the entire thing Amy just showed my mom how to fix it by adding a little fabric flower. Lemons… lemonade!
After lunch there was a blogging panel. April was the moderator for hour as we got to ask the 4 panelist (Allison Czarnecki, C. Jane Kendrick, April Atwater, Brittany Egbert) questions about blogging. Of course I ask the boring technical/legal questions. Whatever.. that interests me instead of asking about what to do with negative comments. (ignore them- duh!)
Group A headed back up after the blogger panel for the 2nd mixed media class. Christy Tomlinson taught this class which was a take off form her She Art class that she offers online. We used paints, paper, inks, rub-ons, on canvas to create a unique piece of artwork. Ofrouse I decided that I did not want to have a girl on it so I put a big heart that I stitched together with rub-ons. Different but fun. Still a work in progress at this point.
I don’t think I could get tired of that view…
Our last class of the day, and of Spark(!), was about felting. Emily Falconbridge, hails from Australia, but now resides in NH- so need to hang with her in New England!- and she is a fibers maven. She taught us how to felt soap using some wool, soup, water, a felting needing, and our hands. It my seem weird to cover soap with wool but wool is naturally anti-bacterial so it is a great soap cover.
Our closing dinner was fantastic but shall also be known as the cupcake incident… you had to be there.
After the dinner we settled in for closing announcements where Margie thanked everyone involved who helped pull off such a great event. Of course tears were shed, esp when Margie thanked her daughter Megan for all her help.
Ending out Spark, we enjoyed a performance from Sarah Sample. I had beenlistening to her music at work since I heard that she would be at Spark. It was so great getting to have such a fantastic, intimate performance. Best was that we sat with Sarah on Friday during lunch and got to chat with her about her music, recent move, and family. She is so sweet, funny, and talented.
Said bye to Amy!
Mom and I headed to Dear Lizzie for the after party. We hung around there for a bit, got lost going back to the hotel because of a detour, then had a ‘midnight’ snack at Sonic!’
Check out a quick video I did from the performances we had in the main hall. This brought back memories, as well as reminded me to record much more! I think I was just lost in taking it all in!
And last but not least… A Giveaway!!!
Well I have 2 giveaways in fact!
Between my mom and me, we sorted out some great goodies to part with since we have SOOOO much stuff. We have some scrapbooking paper, chipboard pieces, a mini book, rub-ons, and other embellishments to giveaway. Since there are 2 giveaways and we did not exactly have 2 over everything to spare, there will be some differences in the kit. But this is the general idea of it. Plus I’m sure I’ll be able to sort through my person stash some more and add to it prior to shipping.
To win…
1) Leave a comment telling me how you are creative, how you keep you spark lit.
2) Tweet “I’d love to stay creative by winning some great @sparktheevent swag from @iamahoneybee http://wp.me/pzEAP-1BB” about the giveaway. And come back and leave a separate comment!
Contest Ends midnight on Friday 10/4/11
UPDATE:
winners are Jamie and Sierra!
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