The Pinners Conference

​The Pinners Conference was May 8-9 in Minnesota this year and it was my first year going.   There was a huge variety of classes and booths and it was tons of fun. I bought the VIP ticket which got me into the Thursday night party and unlimited classes on both Friday and Saturday.  
The VIP party came with a swag bag that had jewelry, a macramé kit, washi tape, a t-shirt, coupons for the vendors and so much more.   They also had great door prizes and there were about 8 vendors that had free make and takes.  

Make and Take items at VIP event

Some of the gifts in the swag bag

​There were hour long classes on painting, stamped charm bracelets, signs, hand lettering, wall hangings, bath bombs, cooking, wood block printing, calligraphy, organizing, journaling and lots of sewing classes.  
I took classes on soap making, wire wrapped jewelry, hair styling, macramé, leather jewelry and string art.     

String art class by Knotty Nail

Wrapped in Wire class by Candie Cooper

​If you weren’t interested in taking a class, at least half of the booths offered make and takes for a small fee or even free.  Goody Beads had lots of different make and takes for $5-$10.  Michaels had free pom poms to make.  
I made a coaster for $5 on this beautiful refurbished vintage sewing machine.   I didn't care that much about the coaster.  I just wanted to use the machine!

I made this tile for free at the Pebeo booth.  It uses paint that’s meant for glass making. 

​This clock was made at the Build Bar booth for $15

This make and take was free for VIP ticket holders:

Overall this was a great event.  There were a few things that could have been improved. 

• There were a lot of booths that were similar with the paint on wood theme.   
• The fragrances of some booths were pretty strong so I tried to avoid them.   I had a class after the bath bomb class in a closed room.  They had to open all of the doors to try to get the room to air out a little bit.  
• Some of the class kits weren't quite right.  The wire wrapped jewelry class had leather pieces that weren't cut the right length so they had to replace those pieces.  The macrame plant hanger class had the same sort of issue.  I didn't finish the plant holder because I didn't have enough cord.   I did win a macrame hanging though!  

I'd definitely do this again and with the VIP ticket.  It was definitely worth it for me.