REVIEW HomeMade with Cricut Canada Event-2022!

Last year Mandy and I attended the Cricut HomeMade Event Hosted by Jen not knowing what to expect….well, we LOVED IT. (Read about it here!!!) So when registration opened this year we signed up immediately,!! We have had countdowns going, holds in our calendars and lists of all the ways we want to make the weekend awesome! It is not easy to be unavailable to the family for a full weekend but we really wanted to prioritize this time. Such an amazing experience to be surrounded by your hobby for a full weekend! Where you don’t need to plan any of the crafts, do the shopping or the research. It all comes right to your door and live through video. We primarily craft for our kids so it is such a treat to put away the kids craft to do list and focus on some fun different projects. All the skills we learned we absolutely will find a way to incorporate into our daily kid crafting life! Not only are we super happy we did it again but we cannot WAIT until next years session!

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The Rundown

Hosted by: It was a HOMEMADE event by Jennifer Tryon! She is absolutely amazing and really knows how to host a virtual event successfully
This event is a Cricut CANADA event! Which is amazing, not often do we get to attend events that are Canadian based. However it is open to everyone and there were lots of people from all over the world!

Language: All sessions were hosted in both English and French and the live sessions were spoken in both languages during so the entire group got to enjoy together. I found they made the transition between the two languages easy.
What does it look like? It runs on and off for 3 days plus the box opening pre-event!
- Pre- event: Thursday night: BOX opening!!
- Day #1 Friday: Evening start, opening, two class (one included in the base conference and one “add-on” class. It was the perfect way to start the conference. Last year they only had one session the first night which wasn’t enough so this was perfect!
- Day #2: Runs the full day but thankfully they don’t start too early! Be prepared to learn! There was 5 sessions with breaks for lunch and dinner. It depends how many classes you registered for as some were add-on and some were speciality classes.
- Day #3: a mix between included classes, add-on classes and the closing ceremony
Cost: $279 (including shipping!!) for the base conference. This includes access to all of the main sessions (for 1 year!), the private facebook group AND best of all. ALL OF THE MATERIALS. You can also buy additional add-on classes and speciality classes (they are different) and cost is dependent on what you add on. They do have a “give me everything” bundle for $459.

The Unboxing Event!

This years unboxing event was maybe one of the most fun nights EVER! You get shipped this MASSIVE box with everything you will need for the conference and since we don’t know what is in it Jen hosts a live session where we can all open the box and get excited together! It is SO fun! Mandy and I were absolutely thrilled to be asked to join the event as a special guest during the box opening!!! It was so incredible!! Literally the highlight of the conference!

The Classes: From Coasters to Glass Etching!

Infusible Ink Tote Class:

The first class was creating two infusible ink tote bags! It was such a perfect start to the weekend as everyone was super excited to make something and wanted to dive right in! The first tote went over the basics for beginners but had some handy tips for us that have used the material before. The second bag was more complex but it allowed us to learn some more advanced techniques to build our knowledge.

Keychain Engraving Class:

This was the second class on Friday night and it was SO. MUCH. FUN! We loved learning about and getting to create with an engraving tool. Even though we have both had our Makers for quite a while we had not ventured into this type of crafting before. Surprisingly, it was more straight forward than I thought it would be. I do think being able to follow the class and having that step by step instruction was essential for this type of project. Without the instruction and tips we likely would have found it frustrating.

Mug Press Class:

This was one of the Speciality classes that we took as an addition to the conference. We are newer (ish) to having a mug press and thought it would be helpful to learn some proper techniques. We did both the 12oz mugs and a set of stackable where we layered 3 colours of ink. We have both agreed that every mug needs to have a patterned ink unless it’s a layered solid look to really get a crisp professional looking mug! This class was a great example of not only learning quite a few tricks and tips but also seeing new designs we may not have tried before.

Pop-up Card Class:

Saturday was such a busy day that we decided to defer completing this class in favour of finishing our mugs and prepping for the next session. Thankfully all the classes are available for a year so we can complete it at our leisure!

Infusible Ink Coasters:

Infusible Ink seemed to be a theme for this conference with three of the sessions using this material. However since all the applications and blanks were different it didn’t seem repetitive at all. Making these coasters was a fun lighter class to break up the longest of the craft days.

Etched Cake Dome:

Glass etching is not something a crafty mom with little kids would necessarily do so this was a nice break from our norm to try something outside of our regular crafty box. The cake dome is super cool and converts to a chip/veg and dip thing and can be used in a few different ways. We decided to go with Jen’s polka dot because who doesn’t love a good polka dot! Not going to lie to you, the dots were not easy to line up (cut out of smart stencil vinyl) on a rounded dome but in the end we found you couldn’t really tell if they weren’t lined up. The etching cream needs a lot more time being applied than we maybe had the patience/energy for considering how many dots there were! Overall, we did enjoy this project and learned A LOT but next time we will etch a smaller surface! ha

Home Organization:

When we saw these absolutely adorable glass jars with a bamboo lid and spoon we were thrilled! They are so adorable our minds were racing about all the places we wanted to use them. We also got to try out the new black smart sticker cardstock with the metallic pens. While this class seems straight forward, we loved all of the teaching about design space and how to really create something from scratch.

Kids t-shirt making Class

We absolutely LOVED this class! There is nothing I love more than crafting with my kids. My son is now old enough that he was able to do almost all of the steps by himself which was very cool! We used infusible ink markers and one of the toddler size blank t-shirts to make his cool custom t-shirt! They also send one of the iron-on decals too in case people wanted to use we he of course did but I don’t find them quite as easy to work with as other materials.

How to make it SUCCESSFUL!

I set up a second screen so we could watch the sessions on a larger screen and then work on design space at the same time. I cannot even explain how essential this is.
Organize your materials per class before it starts (I used an over the door organizer from the closet and it worked perfectly! Also, if you don’t have one – they are MAGIC – highly suggest this one!)
We set up a coffee & snack cart! It was so amazing to have beverages and food at the ready because we got so into the sessions we didn’t want to have to leave! We had also picked up a sandwich platter from metro so we didn’t have to worry about cooking breaks!
Doing it together! If you have a friend that loves to craft, do it together! We made it into the ultimate girls crafting weekend!