I had a wonderful birthday weekend!  Thanks for all the sweet wishes.  Hair was off the chart amazing.  It's in my top 3, and I'd go see it again tomorrow.  If it travels anywhere near you, don't miss it, and don't take the kids.  It's definitely a date night play.

CHA preparation has taken over my life, but I'm not complaining.  It's amazing and worth every moment of searching for crazy things like orange teapots.  I made a video today of my absolute favorite new product coming out at winter CHA.  Fiskars is so awesome.  I asked for this product and they delivered.  I have to pinch myself every once in a while to make sure this is all really happening.  I'm one very happy fiskateer.



Thanks for stopping by today!

I'm off to the windy city.  If you'll be at CHA this week, stop by to see me at one of the many places I'll be hanging out.  You can't miss me, I'll be one of the crazy girls dressed in orange from head to toe.  Here's a link to my schedule.  I'm so excited about this trip.  I hardly slept at all.  Thanks for stopping by.

The time is flying by me faster than I can count.  This is the card I made for our last card swap of the year with my stamping group.  We meet during the school year and take time off in the summer.  We'll get back to it in September.  The theme was sympathy and this single layer card was a personal challenge for me.  I'm trying to get back to a simpler way of stamping.  The grey block behind the image is direct to paper with a grey inkpad.  It didn't cover completely which was a happy accident.  I stamped the silhouette over it with versafine ink and the same ink with the butterfly which is fussy cut out and the sentiment.  A few gems finish off this simple design.  I think it works for sympathy or even for illness or other losses.  

In other news around here.  One month left of the school year.  I'm teaching bunches.  I was at the high school all week and even taught a couple of Kyle's classes this week and we both survived.

I've been having a blast making plans for CHA and creating class samples.  So many exciting things happening this summer.  I'll share my schedule when it's complete.  I hope to meet up with lots of artsy  friends while I'm in Chicago.  It's my first time there and I'm hoping to sneak in a few fun Chicago snacks and sites before all the CHA fun begins.  If you have any suggestions or tips, please share them.  

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by today!

Well, now that I've had a day to reflect on all the goodness at CHA, I have some thoughts to share.  I'm so thrilled to say that I see a trend toward vintage.  Last year there were just snippets of vintage here and there mixed in with tons of adorable.  I have nothing against adorable, but really there needs to be a balance.  I'm happy to say that vintage got much much bigger this year.  I didn't see nearly as much adorable.  I saw lots of glamour and vintage and sewing.  All my happy things everywhere I looked.  I also saw rubber stamps, really truly rubber.  Most of them were cling mounted, which is a great way to bridge the distance between clear stamps and wood mount stamps.  The man at the Hampton Arts booth told me that rubber stamps are making a come back.  Oh, a girl can only hope he's right.  I saw lots and lots of mixed media in the samples in the booths.  So much inspiration everywhere I looked.  Spray ink and paint were everywhere.  I saw lots of black and white and sparkle.  It was so classy.  Metallics were big too.  I may be coming back into style again.  

I had such a good time with this make and take.  This was from a new company called Ecogreen Crafts.  The ATC base is recycled and it's on my must buy list now.  It has a great weight and heft to it.  I think it could take anything I can throw at it.  The dye ink is all low VOC and all that good stuff and it was a nice big oval pad that was easy to hold in the hand. I loved their stamps.  They're all designed by Julie Andrus and come in sets of cling mount on rubber.  This one was one of my favorites.  The little embellishments are recycled glass and I lovey love those.  Such a wonderful company, very friendly and a great make and take.  I'm sure we'll be hearing lots from this one in the future. 

Oh now this was a favorite company for me, too.  This little charm beauty is a make and take from Vintaj.  Another company that's new to CHA.  Lots of pretty metal here.  The butterfly is a metal charm that was plain and flat, sort of a bronze color.  I ran it through a cuttlebug folder with a shim of metal under the folder where the charm was.  We ran it through 3-4 times, back and forth, and it embossed!  I never would've thought you could emboss a heavy metal charm in a cuttlebug folder.  Then I went around to the decorating part of the booth where lots of alcohol ink got dropped on the charm and smeared around.  I used copper and silver mixatives and pool and lettuce inks to get this patina look.  The other little metal pieces are from Vintaj, too.  I can totally see incorporating some of these beauties into my button charm bracelets.  I know we'll be hearing lots from this little company.

This is the make and take from Glitz Designs.  I just had to show you because flowers are all the rage and this one is unique and was pretty easy to make.  I made mine fast, so it's a bit wonky, but I'm sure you could do a better job with more time.  Again look at all this vintage.  I'm so happy.  Ok, so first the middle part.  It was a long strip of patterned paper about an inch or two wide and probably 12" long. We spritzed the front and back with liquid spray starch.  This made it soft to work with, but then it dried crisp.  Very cool trick.  We rolled it and then twisted and scrunched it gluing it to a small piece of paper. We used hot glue, man I hate hot glue, but it worked here.  I always burn my fingers with that stuff.  We trimmed the paper around the edge of the inside part with scissors so the paper underneath didn't show.  Next we took a coffee filter, I know a coffee filter!  and we sprayed shimmery ink on it. I don't know what kind it was, no name on it.  We smooshed down the coffee filter and folded it under and glued it to another little scrap of paper.  Once it was all hot glued down, we glued the top piece on and the pretty rhinestone in the middle.  Glitz Designs really rocked this make and take.  So unique and funky.

I made it off the mountain yesterday to go to CHA.  Yippeeee!  It was a brief, but grand day.  I was busy working for Scrapbook Royalty most of the time, but did get a few breaks to peek at some things I was interested in seeing.  I've got make and takes to share with you later.  I shot this brief video of Zutter's new Distrezz It All tool.  It's the one tool I really wanted to see and there are no videos out there of it in action.  They were kind enough to show me and allow me to take this video to share with you.  I love that I can run it through one way and it distresses the heck out of it in a way I could never do by hand and the other direction it's a lighter more hand distressed look.  This will be a great tool to take with me when I teach classes and will be wonderful to use at home when I'm working on a project with lots of distressing or a swap.  I find that hand distressing really hurts my hands after a while and I love power tools.  This baby will be available in March and retails for $30 something.  I forgot exactly how much he said, but it's a tool I can get a bunch of use from.  He let me use it after I shot the video and it really does have some power behind it.

catching up

Just a quick bit of random stuff. I've almost recovered and dug out from the CHA madness. I've got some deadlines looming, so I'm creating stuff I can't share yet. Darn it. I won today on the Maya Road blog. They had lots of fun peeks with giveaways and I was there every day peeking. I stopped by their booth and fell in love with the clear Maya Mist. It's just sparkly like you can't believe and you can spray it on anything. The video I took of it didn't turn out well. In fact a bunch of the stuff I tried to shoot was blurry. That's what I get for taking my new micro tiny camera I guess.

I actually worked today. It was my 4th substitute teaching day since I started back in October. The jobs have been pretty scarce. The retired teachers get first pick and I'm sure their retirement money took a dive with the rest of us, so I can't blame them. I just wish I could work a bit more. I taught middle school PE today. Such a fun age, but so turbulent for them. There is so much drama with those middle school years. Not a single kiddo I chatted with felt they fit in. Each and every one said the social stuff was really tough. You see we had free play time today, so I made time to check in with them. I've known most of these kids since kindergarten. It's been a few years since I've seen some of them. I wasn't able to teach for a few years while we home-schooled Kyle. If you have a young teen in your life, be sure to let them know they are special to you and that they have unique gifts to share.

Tonight I hosted bunco at my house. I've been playing with the same fun group for about 6 or 7 years. We play each month of the school year and take summers off. Tonight was a Valentine Tea theme. I made little sandwiches and very pink cupcakes for dessert. We had all manner of tea and a little wine, too. Fun times. I'm lucky to have such great girlfriends to get together with every month. You know the bunco part is just an excuse for a girls night out. LOL

here ya go...

Oh my, a girl just can't put her feet up and rest. I see the people are wanting details from the comments and emails. And, I'd be bugging me, too. Really we all want to know what's new and fabulous, don't we. In fact that's the question I asked almost everyone I chatted with while I was there. CHA was wonderful. I really did have quite a bit on my schedule which left little time for walking the floor. I was able to squeeze in four classes. I'm in love with beeswax and I think I need to play with it lots and lots. It smells like art time in Kindergarten and that is a very happy place for me. I did not see Paris, much to Kyle's dismay. I did see Suze Weinberg who is witty and funny and so much more entertaining than Paris. A woman actually screamed "It's you!" at her like she was a rock star. She said "well, who else would I be." She just cracked me up. I guess that does happen to crafty rock stars, but I wouldn't know. Not a single person screamed at me, but I did get to meet lots of folks that I only knew as little avatars online. I made up little bags of bath salts with my cards on them to hand out. I hope that helped to relieve some of those tired feet. I used them and my feet were much better than last year. Ok, on to the photos, which is what you stopped by for anyhow.

May Arts Ribbon...yummy...
For my moose loving friends...Hanna Stamps
New goodies from Spellbinders:
Studio 45...the yummiest papers ever!
7Gypsies....such a great booth:
Cosmo Cricket...love these game like spinners:
Who doesn't love Jennie Bowlin...fabulous milk bottle buttons:
Art Declassified is my all time fave stamp company....
and more art declassified loveliness...
These are a few things I made in classes...MSE:
Golden Paints class samples:
Magenta class was fabulous:
Kandi gave an intro to encaustics:


Thanks so much for stopping by. There are absolutely tons of sneak peeks out there. Happy blog hopping.

why am I awake at 4AM?

I've been busy all week making lists, packing, buying new little things I'll need.  I went to bed last night ready to rest up and charge the batteries for a very busy few days ahead.  I'm going to CHA this morning and didn't have to get up until 6, a full 8 hours of rest was planned.  So here I am thinking maybe I can sneak in another hour if I get back in bed quickly.  No time for a nap today.  

Just in case somebody out there (hi Mary) doesn't know what CHA is, it's the Craft Hobby Association trade show.  I'm going with two hats this year.  I'll be there representing Scrapbook News and Review with a press pass and I'm working a bit for Fiskars to help pay the hotel bill.  Mostly, I'm hoping to learn new things, catch up with friends, see all the new releases, and just play for a few days amongst all things crafty.  I've got my camera batteries charged, gel insoles for my shoes, a cute new bag and sweater, and adorable business cards.  If you'll be at the show, stop by the Fiskars booth and say hi.  I'll be working a make and take Sunday afternoon and Monday morning.  

On a side note, today is my sweet hubby's birthday.  Stop by his blog and wish him a happy birthday if you have a minute.  He and Kyle are going down to look at the boat they are taking on their big 4 day fishing trip to Mexico this summer and are having a seafood lunch.  We had cake last night for an early celebration.

Thanks for all the sweet notes about my MIL.  It looks as though surgery is in her near future.

I'll be back home late monday night with stories and pictures.  I'm even bringing two cameras just in case I need a back up. 

More thoughts on CHA

Cruising around the net this morning, I see that I missed so much at CHA. One day on the floor was so not enough. One of the places I missed was Kitchen Sink Stamps. I met Maria, the owner, at a fun cupcake party the night before the floor opened. She was just such a warm and wonderful person who is passionate about her work. I meant to stop by her booth to see the 3 step stamps she told me about. I never made it to the booth, but stopped by her site this morning. Oh my, you need to check out the samples in her galleries. Her acrylic stamps work on 3 or 4 steps to create the most amazing flowers. The roses and daisies are over the top.

I went by to see the Copic booth on one of my first stops of the day. Their supplies had not arrived, and the booth was nearly empty. So sad, but the demo was there with her own supplies. Michelle showed me this amazing Spica glitter pen. I am telling you that there is no other glitter pen out there like this one. It rocked my glittery world. So smooth and even and no clumping up. I meant to go back later to see if their supplies had arrived, but didn't make it. I'll be looking for these pens for sure.

I am also noticing lots of little things that came in my press kits that I just didn't have time to comb through while I was there. Did you know Pentel makes a clickable permanent marker? It works like a sharpie, but it clicks open like a pen. Such a handy little thing. The eyelet outlet has a really unique kind of eyelet. It attaches using a pen, no loud tools necessary. I love this adorable pink spray bottle that is about the size of a large marker called mist it by Inspired Crafts. Oh, and I got these amazing glue dots in a class...I know everyone has glue dots. But, I'll bet you don't have pop up glue dots. They are like glue dots on steroids. They are a mix between a pop dot and a glue dot. Very handy for attaching heavy things. There are these cool erasers called Moo that don't leave crumbs all over when you are erasing, just one smooth thread that is easily removed. I can see these will be helpful with colored pencil work.

I hope you aren't bored with all this yakking, but I want to share with you before I forget. I have a hot lunch date with my honey, and he's tapping his toes. Gotta run for now. Happy Valentine's Day.

Some of my favorite things

So sorry it took me a while to get back to you. I've been busy with my real life duties. People demand to be fed and need clean socks. I also met with both of my card groups and helped out at my parents. I taught my first card making class today and it was a success. Of course there was much needed sleep to find. My body was threatening an all out germ war if it didn't get some rest. So, on to what you want to know....

Here are a few favorite things from CHA.

Maya Road was a top pick company for me. They have these wonderful 12" x 12" flexible black plastic diecut sheets in 6 designs. I can see masking possibilities with these. They had cute diecut chipboard and plastic keychains that need to be stamped and inked. Yummy flowers that wanted to jump in my pocket. They also had some adorable little clear stamps in single packages.

New tiny shapes of grungeboard by Tim Holtz idea-ology with lots of cardmaking possiblities or even jewelry making uses. I know some people think that grungeboard smells, but it just smells like leather to me. A 3" scallop circle punch by EK success that hardly weighed anything. I don't like to use heavy things. Martha has some more of her new border punches that also emboss coming out. They look like fun if you are willing to spend your money on her stuff.

Die cutting...wow! There is so much happening here. I think this is really going to explode. If you don't have a die cut machine just hang on for a bit. Spellbinders had a prototype of an electric machine, not computerized. Basically it works like any of the hand crank machines without the crank, just press a button. I loved this, since I have issues with my hands. They were not allowing pics, but somebody out there may have sneaked one. The new machine is called Xcalibur. The new Slice was very popular with the computerized die cutting crowd.

I saw lots and lots of felt everywhere by many companies. It wasn't that fuzzy kind you buy in sheets for 25 cents, but a denser type of felt die cut or maybe even laser cut into amazingly intricate designs. Some was self adhesive like the stuff from Queen & Co. Big fat chunky glitter was on lots of samples.


I saw lots of clear stamps by every company out there practically. I'm not wild about clear stamps, but if you love them then you have alot more choices coming soon. I saw a trend toward cling mount on rubber stamps by most companies and some that offer a choice of cling mount or wood mount like CHF. There are a few that offer wood mount only, but that seems to be dwindling. A new company called Unity Stamp has some very cool stuff that's a hybrid of red rubber cling mount and wood mount. You have to check out the video on Craft Critique of their stamps.

Tsukeniko has a new line of inkpads in 24 yummy colors called Memento. They come in full sized pads and also in dewdrops. I love those little dewdrops, but how the heck do you store them. Well, check out these prototype racks they had in the booth. I could use some of these if they decide to make them. Maybe if we let them know, it will happen. So, I guess we might all need more ink! LOL

I saw more companies going green. Recycled paper was big. I love companies that are socially aware. Fiskars wins big with me. They were taking donations for developmentally disabled children in exchange for engraved scissors. They engraved a brand new pair of scissors for each person right on the spot in exchange for a donation. I have no idea what this cost the company, but judging by the length of the line it had to be a major donation.

Kits were big. Anything you could imagine was available in a kit somewhere. I love the idea of trying out something new with a kit. There were kits for soldering, jewelry making, watercoloring cards, memory clocks, and so much more. What a great way to start on a new little venture in crafting.

I'm not going to talk about paper because honestly anything your heart desires is available. I can't even believe how much paper is out there. If you want it, you should be able to find it. The economy may be having trouble, but it seems like everyone can afford a little paper or ink to help craft away the blues. I didn't see any sign of a recession at CHA.

CHA Afterglow

OMG....what fun! I am almost at a loss of adjectives to describe the last few days. Every single person I met was amazing in their own way. First of all, I'm so happy I got to meet up with a few of my Craft Critique pals. Sarah is overflowing with energy right up to her adorable pink hair. Martha and Kim are cutting edge artists behind the big camera lens. I love that they are working on their next post or scrapbook page constantly. I don't know how I got in this group, but I'm honored to be a part of it.

I want to share with you my top pick from CHA. I absolutely fell in love with ART Declassified. They make cling mount red rubber stamps marketed in CD Cases. The owner of the company, Karen, took me on a tour of the booth. She shared with me the stories behind her stamps. Each stamp has a little story. Many of the people are family members with names. Her daughter's eyes are featured on one of the new stamps. I love this. What a wonderful personal touch. Ok, are you ready for the part that almost knocked me over. She got a better price on production of her stamps, so she lowered the prices. You can pick up her stamps for $5.98 to 18.98 per set. How amazing is that. It was so refreshing to talk with a business owner who is interested in much more than the bottom line. Here is a link to all of her newly released stamps.

This is a pic of the adorable make and take gum holder I made in their booth along with a pin that Karen gave to me before I left. The stamp set is such a fun one, and the pocket holder is a project I made a while back using their stamps. More CHA dish soon. I need to get my stuff unpacked and organized.

CHA

I am off to play at CHA today and tomorrow with my fellow craft critique pals. I hope to have a ginormous amount of pics to share with you when I return. We are posting lots and lots of stuff on craft critique this week. If you want to know about all the new crafty goodies coming to your shops soon, please stay tuned. Today we have a carnival of sneak peeks listed and a little blip on how you can win some goodies.

Stamping Fun

Take a peek over at 2peas stamping board this week. So many talented stampers are posting challenges and tutorials to help get the creativity rolling here in the depths of winter. I see two challenges posted already tonight and many more to come soon. The link above takes you to the master list of all the challenges. What a fun group it is over at the stamping 2 peas crowd. I've hosted challenges in the past, but am not able to this round. I'll just be playing along. Now, I need to get out there in the recycling bin to find a tyvek envelope to play with. And, I need to see where some cheesecloth is, that's for another challenge. See, I told you it would be fun.

It's been a good, busy day around here. I helped out at Mom and Dad's earlier. Then this evening I made a reservation to stay overnight at CHA next weekend. I've been perusing the amazing list of who will be there and trying to plan a strategy. I think the most important thing will be to have a couple pair of comfortable shoes and lots of water.