this n that

Just a fun friends card I made for a contest, but didn't quite meet the mark. I love it anyhow. The stamp is by inkadinkado. Don't those girls look like they are having fun.

Feeling just a bit sad that I'm not going to CHA this week. It was so much fun last time and I am consoling myself knowing I'll go in winter again. I won't miss the sore feet. I have to tell you that I've never had sore feet like that in my life. If you are stuck home like me, take a peek over at Craft Critique. We have a carnival of sneak peeks up for your viewing pleasure. I've had a ton of fun looking at everything. Maya Road is up there in my faves so far. I'd love to hear if you have any faves. Stay tuned for posting from the floor starting on Friday or Saturday from the Craft Critique team.

I'm teaching my first stamping classes in the next few weeks. There are a couple of samples over there on the right along with links to the shops where I'll be teaching. I'm hoping to teach something new each month. It's been a goal of mine for quite some time. I was out there in blogland reading last month and somebody posted a prompt...."what are you waiting for?" What indeed. So, I set out that day to get it moving. I'm really excited to start teaching again, to adults this time around. What are you waiting for?

paint

This is a card I made with a bunch of paint. I love playing with paint. It's the sample for my book review up today over at Craft Critique. Supplies used: golden fluid acrylic paints, foam stamp, watercolor paper, grungeboard, laminate sample, grosgrain ribbon, stazon ink, penny black stamps, and krylon copper leafing pen.

Thanks for the funny comments on my post of my messy craft room. To calm your fears that I am a complete slob, please know that the rest of my house is very neat and tidy. I do laundry regularly and the dishes are clean. It looks much better today than the photos.

I had hoped to be sharing a post with you today about my yard sale treasures, but mother nature had other plans. We got snow instead of yard sales. Here is a view off the front deck this weekend...


Happy Memorial Day to all. Thank you to those who have and are serving our country.

brayer fun

Still busy here inking things up with my brayer. I have a review up today at Craft Critique on the subject. When I wrote the article, I assumed everybody has one of these handy tools. Well, we all know what happens when we assume. I thought I'd go into a bit more detail on using one of these nifty tools here.

First of all, don't be afraid of this tool. It's fun to use and cleans up easily with a quick rinse in the sink. I put down some old paper under my project to protect my work surface. One of my favorite ways of recycling is to use an old phone book. Tear off the front page and put your paper to be colored on top of it. Brayer to your heart's content, then tear off the top page and recycle it. You now have a fresh page to work on your next color. Also, while you have your brayer and ink rolling, make a bunch of backgrounds. I usually ink up tons of stuff at once and then have a stack of backgrounds ready to go for later. I tend to make alot of A2 sized cards or arches based on the same size which is 4 1/4" x 5 1/2". Ink up whatever size you work with most or use whole sheets that you can cut down later.

Ok, just how the heck do you actually make a brayer work? Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here are some tutorial links that might help.
~Brayered Sky.
~Bouncing Brayer.
~Video tutorial of Brayered Cuttlebug Ink Embossing.
~Crayon Resist.
~Brayer resource thread with links to samples, ideas, and techniques.

I'm certain that there are more video tutorials out there showing a brayer in use, but I just can't seem to find more right now. If you know of any, please share the link and I'll add it to the list. For now, here's another card I made using my trusty brayer and the plastic wrap technique.



I hope you are getting some crafty fun time this week.

easter eggs, grungeboard, mom, and a new baby girl

What the heck do these things have to do with each other? Not a single thing except they are all things happening in my life right now. I'll start with mom who is raring to get out in the world now that she is finally feeling better. We went out to breakfast yesterday and did a little treasure hunting at our two favorite thrift shops. I've been waiting months to take her out to play. I'm so thankful that she is feeling well enough to go out for a couple of hours. We parked close and moved slow, but we did it. Then when I got home I got a call from my cousin telling me we have a beautiful new baby girl in the family. She does not yet have a name because her parents are getting to know her first before they name her. I think that is so wonderful. Her big brother wanted to know who was bringing the cake to the birthing day party. How adorable is he? So his meemaw went to the bakery and got a cake. Awwww.

This is the easter egg part of the story. I was inspired by my talented friend Jennifer's card that she sent me. I used her idea of silver embossing and painting on my egg basket for this card that I'm swapping with my card group this morning.
Supplies: Northwoods rubber stamp image, silver detail embossing powder, twinkling H2O's, K&Co pink patterned paper, Cloud9 green patterned paper, SU green & white CS, ticket punch, corner rounder, and pink ribbon.

And finally, the grungeboard. I did a review of this product today on craft critique if you'd like to take a peek.

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.

Wear Red

Today is the beginning of heart health awareness month. There is a fun movement on to wear a red dress today to help bring awareness to this issue. I'll wear my red socks and sweater with my jeans, but wouldn't it be fun to wear a dress like this. This is stamped on patterned paper and cut out. Darn near everything on this card is embossed. The definition seems to fit for heart health and I cut it from a 1940's dictionary that I love to use. It's so much easier to create in a clean room. I spent the better part of yesterday shoveling out my mess. Ahhhhh....

Also, I have a book review up on Craft Critique today if you'd like to take a peek.