Michaels Makers Summit 2015

As you may know, for the second year in a row I have been part of the Michaels Makers movement along with a number of other creative bloggers.  An honor on its own, but even more fabulous is that the Michaels team invited each one of us from all over the country to beautiful Sonoma, California to be part of the very first Michaels Makers Summit! It was an amazing time with an amazing group!

So what did we do there?

Well let’s start from the beginning!  My adorable travel mate, Courtney from A Thoughtful Place, the 2 bloggers that likely live closest to Northern California, were stuck at the airport for a 4 hour long airline delay.  

Despite that we were excited about getting there and meeting the rest of the Makers.  Then came the traffic jam.  When we landed we were picked up by a beautiful town car at San Francisco airport and greeted with a lovely to-go lunch.  All was well until what should’ve been an hour trip to our hotel in Santa Rosa, ended 2 1/2 hours later due to horrendous Bay Area traffic.  

We arrived at the hotel with a 15 minute window to get dressed and ready for our dinner at the beautiful Long Meadow Ranch. We laughed it off and headed out to dinner!  While we missed the flower wreath headband making portion of the evening, we made it in time for dinner. The farm to table dinner was delicious, and the Michaels team exceeded our expectations–every detail was exquisite.

The next day we were whisked off to an amazing estate overlooking the hills of St. Helena and were greeted by this gorgeous pool.  Why yes, those are foam letters floating in the pool!

…And then we crafted!  Michaels partnered with Creativebug to bring us four awesome craft classes taught by their talented instructors. Creativebug is a subscription-based site where you can experience the joy of making with hundreds of video classes taught by top designers and artists. We learned image transfer, paper flowers, watercolor, and weaving, I learned so much! Who knew image transfer could be so diverse?

I spent the day crafting it up with other creative minds and making new friends, it just doesn’t get better than that!

The next morning we were back at the estate atop of the hill for a scrumptious catered breakfast and a few final words by Michaels Executive Vice President of Marketing. Not only is he a wealth of information on all things Michaels, but a very nice and down to earth gentleman.  He held a Q&A forum at the end of his talk and answered every question in as much detail as possible.  He really opened my eyes to the business that is Michaels, but also to what is one of their most vital core values; making.

Have you met this year’s Michaels Makers?  If not, make sure to head over to the Makers page, and check out their bios here, they’re an amazing bunch!  Like we did last year, each of these creative bloggers will be sharing a new project each month, so make sure you check us out on social media at #MichaelsMakers to follow along throughout the year!

TRY CREATIVEBUG FOR FREE!

Each of the classes we took at the Summit (Image Transfer, Paper Flowers, Watercolor, and Weaving) are now available to you online for free!  From now until August 22nd, you can head over to FREE on Michaels.com to recreate your own version of our projects or make your own unique creation.  I was blown away, and you will be too!

Lastly, one of the most memorable takeaways from this trip was meeting and spending time with my roomie, Jen from JenniferRizzo.com. We didn’t know each other before the trip, but we had such a great time bonding as we talked about our families, and decorating, of course!

To no surprise Michaels outdid themselves! I will be forever grateful for this amazing opportunity not only to get to meet the PR team I’ve been working with for the last year, but to spend time with my colleagues, the Michaels Makers! Thank you Michaels!

Don’t forget to follow us on social media at #MichaelsMakers and if you create your own Michaels or Creativebug craft, use #MadeWithMichaels so we can all check it out!

See you next time friends!