Tuesday, April 11, 2006

SHE

Okay, so I've finally found a few minutes to share about my "SHE" experiance at CKU. Let's just hope Payton doesn't manage to destroy too much while I'm on the computer. Hehe! Anyways, to put it simply, it was amazing. The class was taught by Heidi Swapp, and she totally created and came up with the concept of the "SHE" album. She was inspired by this book by Kobi Yamada, and then she just took it from there. The class had about 114 women in it, so there was alot of us! On our first day we were all given these plastic containers FULL of Heidi Swapp products and everything that we would need to make our album...so fun! Everyone was super excited.




You can see in this picture the little instruction booklet that came with all of our stuff...it made it so easy to follow along. Heidi's page is on the left hand side and all the insructions are on the right so it's pretty fool-proof and makes it possible to work at home. This album is so involved with lots of techniques and stuff that there really was no way to finish it in the 2 short days we had there.

This picture of Heidi speaking isn't the greatest, but it just gives you an idea of what it was like...she was at the front with a microphone and she would explain certain teachniques and whatever else we were working on, and she had images up on the screen for all of us to follow, etc. So cool! It was such a neat experiance 'cause at the beginning of our first class, Heidi just explained about the album and what it means to her and stuff...the whole room was crying within the first 5 minutes! I liked that this wasn't just a "cut and paste" type of class...it really made everyone think about that certain "she" in her life that she was doing the album for...whether it was for a mother or a sister, or a daughter or a grandmother, or even ourselves...we all had to come up with "She" statements for each page. Some of mine for example, are "She is a woman", "She is in love", "She loves to dance", "She has a life within her", "She lives for her daughter"...and then I'll do journallin on each page. I'm excited to get working on my album and do all of my journalling, and of course I'll share the finished product. It may take a while, though! So anyways, here's a picture of my workspace and then Kim and I with Heidi and her team (Liz, Emily and Jodi). They were awesome and just helped out with everything. Liz even made all the ladies in the class "she" rings. You can check them out here. There were just so many extra things that we got out of this class that made it so fun!! On our one night where we had an evening class that was supposed to finish at 9pm, Heidi and her team all stayed with us till about midnight (Kim and I left a little earlier than that!) but they ordered us pizza and just chatted with all of the students. It was so laidback and fun and neat to chat with Heidi and share stories.


And finally, here are 3 of my almost-finished pages! These were the ones I completed at CKU, and I'll have to finish the rest on my own time. Most of our class time was filled up with learning different techniques using Heidi's products, and then we have the instruction booklet to actually finish our pages.

Whew! So....lost of photos and blabbing today. But I didn't want to leave anything out...for me and for anyone who's interested!! You can check out Heidi's blog here for her take on the weekend and some more pictures. FYI...the picture of all the little piles of projects that we were working on is my stuff! I feel so special she took a picture of my little work area. Hehe! Anyways, on our last class with Heidi, she let anyone who wanted to share one of their "she" statements, or who they were doing the album about and it was so great to hear what people had to share. Of course there were more tears...one woman shared how her mother has beat breast cancer 3 times, another one shared how strong her mother was when her brother passed away...all things that people were including in their albums. Who are the "SHE'S" in your life? Who are those special women who inspire, uplift and motivate you? The whole weekend just really made me think...I'm doing this particular album about myself, but I want to do another "SHE" album about all those "SHE'S" who are so special to me...my mom, my daughter...my grandmas and my sisters...my mother-in-law, my friends...I get teary just thinking about all of the things I want to write about them! Anyone who's reading this, I challenge you to do a "SHE" album of your own...maybe it'll just be a little journal that you can write about all the "she's" in your life, including yourself. Trust me...you'll love it!

8 comments:

Janna said...

talia, what a BEAUTIFUL album!!! wow!!! thanks so much for sharing it... incredible!! can't wait to see more!! (i know, i'm greedy;)

janna

Evelyn said...

I took this album track in Stamford and love it. Heidi is an awesome teacher and her team is great! I liked learning the new techniques. Wasn't too crazy about the spray paint but it was an experience. I still have my "She" ring. I was so afraid I would lose it. The "She" track is about so many things-strength, love, empowerment and more.

Evelyn

gloria said...

WoW.

It all looks so *moving*!!

I hope to be able to take this class sometime soon...Do ya think she'll be coming to Oz??

:)

Anonymous said...

So amazing. I rarely travel to scrap...just too much of a pain in the neck. But, I could be motivated to travel for something like this!

Unknown said...

Nice review...I was in the class, too, and did about 3 pages as well. It was so wonderful though; after listening to Heidi explain her concept, I thought, how could anyone want to take any other track?

Vee said...

that's for the recap
seems like you had so much fun!!
TfS :)
heidi is awesome

Kim said...

Great pics of all your stuff Tal! It makes me want to work on my stuff, but life is busy.

chanel said...

wow, this is so cool - i would love to go but australia is a bit far to travel! I am inspired to do a SHE album - and love the work you have done!