Amy Tan

I had the pleasure of attending Spark : The Event this year. This was the 3rd Spark, so I will often affectionately refer to it as Spark #3. Every since I learned about Spark from Liz Kartchner’s blog from the first event I knew that I would have to make it out to Utah and get to get my creative juices flowing and have a lot of fun.

I will save you all the horrendice details about my trip to Utah. In summary it involved  a cab ride, tears, lots of photo calls, texting (which I hate), stress, running, and 2 plane rides. We arrived in Salt Lake City 3.30 east coast time so my mom and I were very tired but VERY relieved to be there. We were able to enjoy our Thursday in SLC, Park City, and to have a great photo session with the super talented (and funny) Collin Kartchner– to be shared later.

So that brings up to Friday- the first day of Spark….

Registration started at 8 but we were up bright and early!

Noah’s Event Center was the facility that housed Spark. Margie and Team did a lot of hard work decorating entire building. Out first glimpse at Noah’s was this entry with the book paper lights and vintage luggage.

Welcoming decor greeting all the attendants.

The Main Hall was  elaboratly decorated with ribbons, yarn, pom poms. fabric wrapped hoops, and sewn paper garlands.

Margie explained how all the decor has been reused from her own stash or old from second hand stores. She also said that when they break down the event the pieces will get a new life when it is transformed for another Spark.

Each table had a center piece, which had been used and transformed previously! Giving something old a new life makes that piece so much more special. Each setting had a box and note book for us to use during and after attending Spark.

After checking out the Main Hall, we went back to the 2 vendor halls to check out the shopping we could do. Each vendor was special in their own way from specializing in handmade shirts, vintage clothes, baked goods, an

At one of the tables I found this amazing vintage pink metal cake carrier. Such an amazing find for jsut $12!!!

And then we began! Margie came up and talked to us about what Spark really means and how we get to become Spark Sisters from the event. We get to make special connections with other creative women who each bring a different skill and perspective to the table.

Mindy Gledhill took us on an activity that had us writing down goals, people we admire, and things that make us happy in our new Spark journals. She also serenaded us with some songs. I really love her music so you should check it out too! Love the song Anchor.

We all broke up into our groups to attend the morning classes. My favorite morning class was the jewelry making class taught by Cathe Holden. We made nest necklaces. We used shimmery beads to represent eggs and wrapped around them with wire to create the nest. I used to different colored wires for an extra level of detail. Lastly, I stamped on a metal tag to complete the necklace.

Group A also took the stamp carving class in the morning taught by April Meeker. This class was a bit more difficult but still rewarding because it was something completely new for me. Knowing how the pressure of the carving tool, as well as what you carve out, allows you to create a unique handmade stamp.

Then all the groups broke for lunch. Mom and I grabbed our lunches and immediately headed outside to enjoy the beautiful view.

We had a post lunch update where Margie introduced Amy Tan. In addition to having her own business of designing handmade shirts, she has her own scrapbooking line with American Crafts.

I loved the 2 hour long junk journal class where we took an old book and began to transform it to create an album for a scrapbook. I had altered a book previously for a Liz Kartchner class but this was very different and fun. I love how you can start with an old book and apply various techniques to alter it to get such different effect and finished product. I am going to complete my junk journal and use it as the scrapbook for the long weekend in Utah.

After the junk journal class we had our session with Amy to make hour reverse applique shirts. I love the process and I can really see myself making more shirts for gifts and myself. I love hand sewing so the process was fun and relaxing. The best part of the class was hearing about Amy’s vast experiences as a small business owner of a fashion line called Amy Tangerine, who creates specialty reverse applique tops. She explained how she was discovered, she started the shirt alteration business with a vendor market fair in NYC and how the rest became history.

After dinner we particiapted in make and takes from 7-9pm. There were several stations throughout the building that had different designers and product manucturers set up having us do quick crafts. My favorite was the earring station on the roof because I liked the pace of the craft and the look of the earrings. Friskar’s set up was also really fun because we made Halloween flags. I’m so predictable and boring that I only used orange and black to design my flag. Of course mom used all the color possibilities on her flag.

And that was DAy 1 of Spark the Event #3.

Stay tuned for my Day 2 recap!