Cruisin' The Caribbean With Tim

Tuesday, September 27th

Day At Sea

Workshop #2

and

Some Giveaways

We started our first full day at sea with an early class.  My group would be working from 9:00 to noon, and Group B would get their turn from 2:00 - 5:00.  If you're thinking that three hours learning from Tim sounds like a good thing, well, you would be right.

We assembled all the pieces to form a very cool travel journal that opens like a gatefold card.

Above, my work space, looking way neater than it usually did.  The base of the journal were Wendy's art parts and two of Tim's large binder ring pieces.  We had a good variety of paper to work with, and as usual, got to keep all the extras.  More on that later.

The two shots above were taken in the classroom and somehow came out very orange.  Next, some photos I took when I got home.

Our class kits had all the papers we needed for our pages, all cut and scored for us.  We just had to do some folding and closing openings with tissue tape to form some pockets.  We also got tags and little paper bags that we could put in the book.  The back cover (which I did not photograph) has the same paper as the front, and we added some idea-ology pieces to it, which meant the inside of the back cover had exposed brad prongs.  Which bothers some people....I confess, I'm one of them.....so I covered the offending hardware with a tag and the "journey" die cut.  We had a Vagabond and lots of dies available in the 24/7 studio, and that's when I did that.

We also had lots of tabs and a canvas page, perfect for attaching pins and charms.

Aside from lots of inking and spraying, I did not decorate any of the pages.  I brought a journal with me that I was using and think I'm going to save this one for a future trip, so no point filling it with cruise related stuff.

Before class started, I walked around and took some pictures of friends.

Nancy and Pam

                                    Gloria and Christine                                   

Andrea and Stephanie

And someone was nice enough to take this one of me and three of my best art pals.  We've been sharing and collaborating on projects from some great distances for years, and had a wonderful time working side by side on this trip.....and sharing some great meals together too.

Val and Elena

Me and Pat

At every class we'd walk in and our class kit would be waiting for us, which included a written description of the project and materials, and most of the elements we'd need to complete the piece.  I say most, because some were just too large to fit in the kit, and were distributed during class.  And then there would be other things that weren't necessary for the project, but could be an option.  Tim had some very generous sponsors.  In some cases we only used a small piece of paper, but received an entire 12x12 package.

Prepare to be dazzled with what we received during classes:

Paper packs from Graphic45, Tim, Core'dinations, Prima, and Cosmo Cricket

Yes, this is a Martha Stewart scoring board

At different times we received the glue glider and Tim's tissue tape

holder and two rolls of tissue tape.

Also in this photo, the custom stamp Tim has made up for each cruise

with the cruise logo.

Tons of tags, tickets, and other small paper

embellishments

Embellishments galore, all from the very

best companies.  We didn't get anyone's leftover junk!

More paper

Stamp sets

A variety of letters; chipboard, rub-ons, and Tim's own

plastic alpha parts

More bling

And more from Tim's own line

Now you know why we're advised to bring an extra suitcase on these trips.  I left NY with two half filled bags, and returned home with two stuffed to the max.  And I haven't even shown you my purchases and gifts yet.

Cruisin' The Caribbean With Tim

Monday, September 26th

Coco Cay, The Bahamas

and

Workshop #1

We arrived at Royal Caribbean's private beach, Coco Cay, early in the morning, and Pat and I were on the first tender out, assuring us of our choice of location.  I had no idea their beach was so huge; much larger than any of the private beaches of other cruise lines I've been on.  No need to get there that early, but we settled in and began the tough job of total relaxation.

Our ship as seen from the tender:

the sights as we pulled into shore:

in a couple of hours few of these chairs would be empty:

 

lots of chickens wandering around the food area looking for a handout:

You know that expression, "hotter than hell?"  Well, without having first hand knowledge of just how hot that is, I'm confident that Coco Cay approached that.  We were on fire!  So much so, that I had to quickly snap a photo of something I received from Stephanie before I ate them all they melted.  I only ate them to prevent a mess in my bag, really.

Can you see that she had the candies printed with the cruise logo, and in Caribbean colors?  How clever is that?  And delicious too.

Pat and I hung in there until around 11:30 when a BBQ lunch was ready.  After some salad, ribs, chicken, rice and corn, we baked in the sun on a long line to get back to the ship.  Apparently we weren't the only ones who found the island to be a bit too toasty.

Usually Tim's first project on a cruise is some sort of travel journal, so we'd have it to work in for the remainder of the trip.  But because of the itinerary, he couldn't do that, but he did want us to do something creative in the limited time we'd have after the ship sailed.  So we worked on:

                                                                             

The Cup of Creativity was an insert for a travel coffee cup, and we incorporated a few cool techniques to create it.  A good beginning, and we wound up with something that we could use for the rest of our voyage.  My group did this from 4:00 - 5:30, and Group B worked on it after dinner, from 8:00 - 9:30.

                                                                                  

   

We got lots of goodies to use and take home, but I'll show them all together (for greater dramatic impact) in a later post.  I will show you the kit we all received and would use in all our projects this week:

Cool apron and some very basic supplies (thank you, Ranger!).  Everything else we'd need for each future project would be in our class kits or on our work tables to share.  That's one of the best things about taking classes with Tim......you honestly don't have to bring a thing with you.  And when you're traveling a distance to get there, that is a huge help.

Tomorrow is a day at sea, which means a long workshop and our travel journals at last.                                                                                                                                                     

Cruisin' the Caribbean With Tim!

My body may be back in NY, but my head sure isn't.  What a wonderful week we had on the beautiful Freedom of the Seas.  But, the journey began before we got onboard.  First of all, a few weeks prior to sailing we received our cruise documents and the name badge holder from ScrapMap:

And inside the zippered compartment was the booklet showing which group we were in and the schedule of classes.  For the first time, we wouldn't have to wait until we were on the ship to get that information.  Whoo Hoo!  I could see right away that I was in the class group with just about all my favorite peeps.

I made some ATCs and pins to trade and just give away.  Here is my ATC, front and back (with apologies to The Beach Boys):



This is the pin I made.  I used an inchie stampboard and the cool Lady Liberty stamp I received from Gloria during last year's cruise.

And here is how I presented them:

I just did a simple ATC and attached the pin right to it.

I also wanted to give a little something to both Tim and Mario.  Knowing how they both are into Starbucks, I thought coffee cup cozies (if that is in fact what they are called; I really don't know) would be nice.  I had some NYC fabric from the City Quilter and actually sewed the suckers.  I am no seamstress and the stitches are wonky, not to mention I sewed Mario's so the writing is all upside down, but I think the graphics are nice enough to compensate for my lack of sewing skills.  Oh, and let me mention that they are reversible.  Here they are, first Tim's, then Mario's:







My friend and cabinmate Pat and I left for Florida a day before the cruise began, and stayed at a Disney resort....Port Orleans.....fun place, one big Mardi Gras, and upon entering we received these, to get into the spirit of things:

I thought I took some photos while there, but apparently I left that task to Pat, so whenever she gets her pictures uploaded I'll share them, but all I have are these two of our room.....and our luggage.  Why I thought the luggage was important to document, I don't know.

Saturday night we met up with Elena and Bernie and had a FABULOUS dinner at Joe's Crab Shack in Orlando.  I've wanted to eat there for the longest time, and really enjoyed it.  Thanks, guys!  Again, no photos taken.  What was I thinking?

Finally, Sunday arrived, and Elena and Bernie picked us up and we drove to the ship.  We were onboard in time for lunch, our cabins were ready right after, and our bags came fairly quickly as well. Pat and I were unpacked and settled in before dinner.  Afterwards we had the welcoming reception where we were introduced to Tim's great team, and had the opportunity to swap and get together with both old and new friends.  Here are some of the swaps I received.  I say some, because I keep finding more, hidden in pocket and luggage compartments, so I'm sure there are more.

I wasn't part of the organized charm swap, nor did I make any charms, but I still managed to receive quite a few from some very generous cruisers.  These are only a few.....the rest made their way into a project several days later.



And then, everyone who is a member of ATT got into this group photo with Tim.  Notice all the official ATT t-shirts?  Being tall, I am somewhere in the back row. 

Check out my friend Val's blog for a good look at the ship.  Clearly  she was better at remembering to take photos than I was.

To be continued......