Preparing for CreativeLive

My experience with CreativeLive began in February when Lain Ehmann announced on the Paperclipping Roundtable that she would be teaching a 2-day class in San Francisco. I knew literally nothing about it except for that it was local(ish), taught by a scrapbooker I've long admired, and that it was free. I decided that if I could find a friend who wanted to go with me, then I would apply. In general, I am not a person who is afraid or reluctant to do things alone, but I knew the experience would be even better with a friend to share it. That, and I wasn't thrilled with the idea of driving to an unknown location in SF during rush-hour traffic without having a navigator.  

I asked my friend Jennifer if she was interested in going. She was, but wouldn't know for quite some time if she could get the time off from work. When she finally got the thumbs up, we both filled out our applications. The application process wasn't bad- just some questions about our scrapbooking history and style, social media presence, and things like that. I turned in my application. Almost immediately, I got a message saying that the 6-person studio audience was already filled. 6 people?? I'd been picturing 50-100.  hen, a few days later, another message came saying that one spot had opened up. I turned it down, saying that Jennifer and I had been planning to do this together and to keep us in mind if there was a second cancellation. Thank goodness there was. We were both in!

There was a catch, however. We had one day to open a Groovebook account, order 100 photos (using the provided free coupon), and send the receipt to the CreativeLive staff. If you are not familiar with Groovebook, it is an app that takes the photos off your phone and automatically sends you a printed book of photos for $2.99/month. It's easy to use... assuming you take photos with your phone. I have taken exactly zero photos with my phone, ever. Steve helped me figure out that I had two choices: take 100 photos on my phone in the next few hours and use those, or move existing photos, one by one, from my computer to my phone. I chose option 2, even though it took over 2 hours to do the transfer. I didn't want to bring junk photos to a scrapbook workshop. It was worth the time and stress to bring photos I wanted to scrap. I placed my Groovebook order on April 30 and waited for it to arrive.

Meanwhile, I had other preparations to do. I had to find something to wear that was TV-appropriate (no patterns since they cause strobing, no logos, etc), suitably dressy, and warm enough for the chilly studio. Everything I owned was out for one reason or another (mostly because it wasn't a solid). I HATE shopping, but headed out on two occasions and found some possible items.  

The next step was accessorizing. I had a mental picture of what I wanted, so I headed to Beads on Main where the always-helpful staff guided me through making this necklace.

Here's a close-up view:

With my outfits and accessories set, I took some time to think about the topic of "Scrapbook Your Story." I wrote this blog post about some of my older layouts that do the best job of storytelling.

As the big day got closer and closer, I became increasingly worried because my Groovebook hadn't arrived. Jennifer's hadn't either. On the night before Day 1 of CreativeLive, I checked my mailbox... still no Groovebook. I grabbed a random envelope of printed photos and threw it into my bag without any clue what was inside.  

Jennifer and I made last-minute arrangements, agreeing to meet at her house (25 miles from my house, and 32 miles from our destination) by 6:15 am.  San Francisco traffic can be bad, but 1 hr 45 minutes should allow plenty of time to travel 32 miles and arrive at the CreativeLive studios before our 8:00 am call time.  I set my alarm for 4:30 and went to bed...