Anna Griffin Creates, Atlanta Georgia

Tag I made Especially for Anna Griffin
One of 11

The Anna Griffin Creates event was at the Ritz Carlton in Buckhead, Georgia, November 13-15, 2015.  This was Anna's first foray into 3 day weekend events and it was a success.

Invitation 

Invitation came surrounded by pink paper lace
created on a Cricut

Mailed Evite for Tour of Anna's facility
also cut on a Cricut

The initial invitation was so beautiful for "Anna Griffin Create - A Weekend of Beautiful in the Making."  Of course the invitation was created on a Cricut Explorer Air.  A couple of weeks later we received another beautiful invitation in the mail informing us that we were going to visit while in Atlanta Anna Griffin Inc.  This is where all the magic is created by Anna and her worker bee's. This would be our final actiity on Sunday, November 15.

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I decided that this was an event not to miss. I had purchased so many products including a Cricut Explorer Air of Anna's from HSN over the past year.  In fact, it is the ONLY time I tune into HSN - when Anna and her products are being promoted. It didn't seem to matter to me that I  already owned since 2008 Circut's competitor cutting machine -  the Pazzles. What finally made me jump into the Cricut world was the fact that I could design from my iPad or my Mac or my PC without being hooked up to the computer. Then I could connect via wi-fi my computer to the Cricut.  Only the Cricut has to plugged into the wall. The final jump to purchase a Cricut was because of Anna's beautiful intricate designs.  I first went looking for similar designs for my Pazzles because I felt that my Pazzles could cut theses intricate designs but found nothing close to her designs and  therefore the only way to get Anna's designs was to purchase a Cricut Explorer Air.  I bit the bullet last January and included with the purchase was two of her cartridges that are amazing.

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Through the year Anna had introduced another machine in her gold colors called the Minc. I watched fascinated Anna demonstrating on HSN the ins and outs of this machine. Also available on HSN are dies Anna has designed that can both cut and emboss.  These work with a Cuddle Bug.  Of course, Anna has available on HSN a Cuddle Bug also in her gold colors.

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When I saw she was having an event where we could get hands-on experience with great teachers like Cara Miller  I thought "this is for me!"  I had already taken some of Cara's classes online that my friends had recommended. They are great.

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As November 13 approached, things "out of my control" started piling up. My husband was experiencing some serious medical issue.  Plus,  I had to go to my home town 125 miles away to deal with a couple of issues that only I could resolve.  This was all adding up and I was becoming very stressed.  Thankfully, none of those issues were life threatening. I also realize that this is what life is on a daily basis. Deal with it. . .

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What really appealed to me about CREATE was three days of not having to cook, wait on anyone, worry about things that were too far away to deal with when I would be in Atlanta. And, I had never been to Atlanta!

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I am fortunate to have the space to have a weekly playday at my home which starts at 10 am and goes to about 4 pm.  One regular to this weekly "playday" - Dawn -  has started to share the playdays so we can alternate our homes every other week.  I managed to entice Dawn to come with me to Atlanta. I was so excited when she agreed to join me at Anna's event even though she does not "yet" have a Cricut.  She thought, "what a better way to learn all about the cricut and then if I like it I will purchase one".  Yea!

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I had been to several 3 day events like this in the past.  One of the most wonderful events was the one that Spellbinders and A Gilded Life had at the Langham Historical Hotel in South Pasadena a couple of years ago.  There I  realized that at the first nights dinner at these events, everyone at your dinner table - usually 10 per table - makes something to give the other nine.  I had been so embarrassed since no one had told me that before and there I sat receiving and not giving.

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This was not going to happen again to me.  Now, what little handmade item could I make to share with strangers?  Recently I started selling my handmade cards at https://www.etsy.com/shop/sillysalcreates. I loved making these cards so much that I ended up with an abundance of them and decided I would see if I could sell some of them to make room for new ones and continue to produce these cards. I needed a smaller version and so I reduced the size of my card from a 5" x 7" card to a 3" x 5" tag and used a single layer  of card stock and started decorating. 

Ten of 11

Since I was going to an Anna Griffin event I decided that I should incorporate Anna's flowers and tags  along with all the flowers I use from various sources, to design theses one of a kind "tags".

Eleven of 11

Interspersed in this blog are all 11 of the cards I made - 9 for the table guests and one for Anna and one for my online Cricut teacher Cara Miller.

Dawn made these creative little books for us.  Each a "one of a kind" book created out of one 12" x 12" piece of paper.

Book made for me by Dawn

As it turned out there were 180 ladies at Anna's event.  Ten to a table and we, Dawn and I, were the only ones who had made something for everyone at our table.  Our table-mates were surprised and thrilled with their gifts and Dawn and I were so happy to perhaps start a tradition with Anna's followers.

In the next blog I will show you "what all" was in our "Swag Bag" extraordinaire that we received when we signed in to Anna Griffin Create's event.  I will also tell you about our four classes we all took all day Saturday and have photos of what we made. So much fun! Lastly, I will tell you what Anna gave away at 3 pm on Sunday.   She made us promised to share and not hoard anything we took home at the close of her event.  I most certainly did and will tell you more next time.