Last year when I went to my first Spraguefest I was excited to go to Chicago to meet my online friends in real life and to meet the awesome Jessica Sprague and Carina Gardner. This year I went to Spraguefest in Las Vegas most excited about reuniting with the friends that I made last year. I have so many pictures from the few days but fortunately I can share with you my layouts.
The first event at Spraguefest was the opening reception! There was lots of squeals of joy and laughter as veteran Spraguefesters were reunited and at the first meeting of online friends in real life.
After the reception, my roommates and I trekked over to my favorite hotel on the strip – the Bellagio. The arboretum was beautifully decorated for fall with a scarecrow and pumpkins of all sizes. Of course we also admired the Bellagio fountains.
We had two classes on the first full day of Spraguefest. The first was a color class taught by Carina Gardner. We mixed red, blue and yellow paint to create the colors in the color wheel. She also went over color theory concepts that I found fascinating. The second class of the day was a hybrid class taught by Heidi Swapp. We were supposed to print out 18 pages from a digital kit that we received last week but I decided to bring double sided paper from my stash and make my own hybrid album. This is only the second time I used the bind it all and I found it very stressful!
We had a photo editing and album class with Jessica on the second full day of Spraguefest. She went over how to create a pop art effect with photos that we took at the opening reception. Then she showed everyone how to use templates. I used this time to make the layouts above. In the evening Candace Stringham gave us a crash course on night photography. I took my newly learned camera skills out on the strip and did some experimenting. I think I see a tripod and a new lens in my future!
Spraguefest ended with a morning meeting to give away prizes to the participants. I originally won some 12×12 paper but I traded a wonderful person for an awesome camera strap!
Thanks to Jessica Sprague, Carina Gardner, Heidi Swapp, Candace Stringham and the JessicaSprague.com team for all their efforts. Spraguefest was so much fun and I miss my friends already.
Update: You can find more Spraguefest layouts here.
Beautiful pages Kelly. You have done such a nice job capturing this year’s Spraguefest. What was the highpoint of the weekend for you?
Hi Kim. Thanks for stopping by the blog. The highlight of the weekend was actually after Spraguefest was over. I went to M&M world with 3 of my friends that I met online since 2009. One of them lives in the Vegas area so we went to her house to eat a late lunch and to meet her 4 boys. I have seen pics and heard so much about them and they were just as I imagined! After that we had parting drinks at Margaritaville before I headed to the airport. That time spent with my friends was the highlight.
Great seeing you again at Spraguefest. Your layouts look awesome!
Thanks Miki. And thank you for being so awesome to trade me the camera strap! I love it. My friend Bridget says it looks very “Twilight” and I love Twilight. Hugs!
It was great meeting you.I really appreciated that you started the ball rolling on exchanging the ATC’s at the reception. YOur photos are wonderful & your Lo’s great too
Kelly – how awesome!! It was fabulous to see you again – love your LOs…I might get around to mine in a month or two…or ten…. 😉
Hi Meg. I am quick with scrapping this Spraguefest but I have only scrapped the group photo from last year! I need to go back and do last year’s layouts now!
Awesome layouts! I can’t wait to get some of mine done, too! It was a wonderful weekend spent with great friends! I learned so much this weekend…my head is just spinning! Thanks for being my friend!
I can’t wait to see your layouts and it is so awesome that you did your first digital layout this weekend! I hope it is the first of many! Hugs!
Super LOs Kelly! I love all the photos from the Bellagio! Wow! Such a fun weekend!
I can’t wait to see all your photos Jana! You and Joan were the unofficial Spraguefest photographers and I can’t wait to see what great photos you took! 🙂
Glad to hear you had a good time, Kelly! 🙂
It was great to meet you, Kelly! And, your layouts are superb! And, you are one QUICK scrapper, my friend!
It was wonderful to meet you! The secret to my quick scrapping is to use templates and keep things simple. I have a Margaritaville layout in the works but it will have to wait until I catch up on my sleep!
What wonderful pictures and layouts! Looks like you had a good time!
I think sometimes digiscrap can get a little lonely. It was wonderful to see and hug old and new online friends in real life. Plus I love being around people who love to take photos as much as I do.
Kelly im so happy we got to hang out this weekend. It was so much fun. I’ve missed you. I hope we can get together again soon. LOVE LOVE your layouts. AWESOME. Hugs to you my friend 🙂
It was so much fun to see you again and a joy to meet your boys – including my favorite! LOL! Hugs!