The Michaels Makers Summit 2016
Earlier this year in the spring, Michaels opened up a contest to submit one photo of something you created. The prize was a trip to the 2016 Michaels Makers Summit this year. I submitted my wood burned feathers.
The time between the contest and when the winners were chosen was months and I completely forgot about entering. You can imagine my surprise when I received an email from the Michaels team letting me know I was one of 50 lucky winners. The 50 winners, plus Michaels team of super amazing Makers would be coming together at the most beautiful place to learn and create together. This trip was seriously amazing! I wanted to share it with you, and to offer my public thanks to the Michaels team for including me in this amazing trip. I’ve wanted to be a Michaels Maker for some time now, and this has absolutely cemented that desire. What a fabulous company!
Blogging goals!
Here is my recap of the most wonderful CRAFTcation I’ve ever taken! Also, I had so much fun at this Michaels Makers Summit with such a gracious host, that I wanted to pay it forward. I’ve put together a super fun little package of my SWAG from the summit that I want to share with one of you! See how you can enter to win it below!
The Michaels Makers Summit was held at the very beautiful Carmel Valley Ranch, in Carmel California this year. The beautiful Ranch property is in the Carmel Valley, which extends from the coastal village of Carmel-by-the-Sea into the heart of the Santa Lucia Mountains. Because of its location, the climate tends to be warmer, sunnier and less foggy than the coast. The weather was beautiful while we were there!
Day 1:
We were greeted by the amazing Michaels team at a beautiful poolside registration desk to get us all set up for the events to come.
Look at that beautiful blue sky! From there, they took us to our individual rooms. I call it a “room” because that is what they called it, but really it was more like an amazing little condo in the forest.
After some time to get settled, we headed down the hill to the most beautiful dinner, with a very special guest! The level of detail that was present in every single aspect of this beautiful summit was just breathtaking. Those place mats were cut individually on cricut machines! Isn’t that incredible?
We had the amazing pleasure of meeting the wonderful Sarah Michelle Gellar at dinner. She was very kind and so generous, sharing with us her new exciting ventures!
Day 2:
The next morning the fun began! The classes offered were simply amazing, and so much fun!
First I had a lovely jewelry making class taught by Michaels own Nina Owens. I will confess, I was so excited to get started that I forgot to take any pictures of this process! But these are the amazing bracelets I created in this fun class! I made one for me, and one for my young daughter.
I finally learned how to properly use a crimping tool, and the right way to start and finish a bracelet! One of the first things I did when I got home was to find my stash of Jewelry making stuff, I’m excited to make some more!
Next it was off to the lovely “Flower Arranging” class. We made some pretty table place settings, and had a lovely lesson from Mikie Russo on fall floral arranging! You can check it out here on the Michaels facebook page: Live Facebook Floral Arranging Demo with Mikie Russo
My favorite tip was to use the stem of the florals you cutting to insert into the foam pumpkin! Instead of throwing it away, it became a free floral pick. How genius!
After the Floral Arranging class, we were driven down to the beautiful Organic Gardens for lunch. I took a picture of this little plaque because I thought it was just the most amazing idea! And the Gardens are beautiful!
Lunch was just as beautiful as the setting around it!
Again the level of detail was just beautiful. It was so inspiring! The table decor at lunch had me itching to get my fall decorating going at home. I just loved this little sign on the table!
How did they know that was my mantra at this Summit!? Haha it was a little bit intimidating being among so many amazingly talented creatives in this setting, but every single person I met was so kind and welcoming.
After an amazing lunch, we were off again to more amazing classes! Next I had the privileged of being taught some watercolor techniques by the fantastic Jane Davenport!
She provided several of her own prints for us to practice with, which was lovely. We also got to use the most amazing watercolor paints from her new line!
You can’t see it, because I was trying not to be a creepy stalker so I didn’t take any pictures, but sitting to my right was Kimbo from A Girl and a Glue gun! Seriously one of my very favorite Craft Blogs! See above about being brave and the incredible amount of talent that was here at the Michaels Makers Summit with me! (She was very sweet about my geeking out lol)
The last class of the day was the Macrame Class taught by the inspiring Annabel Wrigley, from Little Pin Cushion Studio. I was not really sure what I thought about Macrame before this, but now that I’ve learned a few basic knots I’m completely hooked!
It’s not completely finished yet, because I want to add some fun yarn tassels, but this is what I made in class. Isn’t that amazing?! I had no idea I could do that! I don’t think it’s too bad at all for my very first time ever!
After a full day of creativity, we were treated to dinner next to the Vineyard. This boho style dinner was just as amazing as the others! And what a fun idea, right?
I absolutely adored the coloring page table runners! and look at those beautiful flowers!
It was hard to leave this beautiful place, with all of those beautiful people. Though it was nice to get home to my family again, and I think they might have even missed me while I was gone! Thank you so much, Michaels, for this amazing opportunity to attend your Michaels Makers Summit! I had the most amazing time!
Here are my winning feathers with the amazing Heidi Swapp light box and instax camera that we received, and of course my Michaels Makers Summit name badge, which I’m never, ever throwing away!
I felt so lucky and blessed to be able to experience this once in a lifetime opportunity! I want to pay a little bit of their amazing generosity forward so I am going to share some of the fun SWAG they gave us with one of you! Head on over to my Instagram to enter to win this fun little Michaels Makers Swag, including a Fujifilm Instax Mini Camera!
*Open to US residence only. Permission was granted from Michaels to host this giveaway, however,
This contest is not affiliated with Michaels, Fujifilm, Heidi Swapp, Jane Davenport or Instagram.
This is my own personal SWAG from the Michaels Makers Summit, which I am choosing to share with a lucky winner!
