Post CHA summary

So it's been a few weeks since CHA Summer in Chicago, and I am finally going to post some thoughts and more photos.  There was so much to see and despite the fact that it was a smaller show, based on what others had said, I still missed some of the vendors booths - yikes!

So even though the show is suppose to encompass all crafts, I would say 80% of the show was dedicated to the papercrafting world (which is okay with me).  Some trends that I noticed (not in any particular order):

*woodgrain
*butterflies
*zebra/giraffe prints
*mini alphabets
*canvas
*mixed media (was the buzz word of the show and probably for awhile)
*more generic prints - could be used for more than just Halloween and Christmas
*lots of vintage feel still


So I think that sums it up , I will post more photos from the show when I get home.

As promised more (random) photos from CHA ....

Art by Wendy Vecchi

In love with grunge board in this LO

Drive by of Chicago

With Donna Salzar - not ready for the camera

Le Blanche stamps - goregous stamps, booth and art work displayed

My favourite Valentine line from Jillibean Soup

Paper wreath from Jillibean Soup

More yummines from Jillibean Soup

Make and Take from Tombow

Gelato and other mediums from Faber Castell

Me being silly with "chapstick" Gelato from Faber Castell workshop

Me with Mou Saha

Claudine Hellmuth at Ranger Booth

Me with Claudine

Mario Rossi, Wendy Vecchi, Tim Holtz  (in case you didn't know)

Maya Road cuteness

In love with the felt beads

Pssst.....

Hop on over to the Pointer Scrapbooking blog - she's giving out blog candy for commenting!

A CHA video to share

Here's a video of Tim Holtz doing a demo of his new Snow Cap mixative at the Ranger Industries booth.  I'm sorry for the poor video - it's my first one ever that I've actually posted. I now know for next time what not to do!

What an awesome week!

CHA was a blast, despite the sweltering heat and humidity. My days were filled with checking out the booths and coming back to report to Heidi, the owner of Pointer Scrapbooking, with what great stuff we saw.  With all 4 teachers there, it was great to collaborate on our ideas and wishes for the store. Lots of yummy stuff to come!!!!   Below are some photos I took and I will try over the next week to report on what we saw.

So we drove to Chicago (actually Simon drove, we chatted and slept). So in total it was about 11 hours to there including all the lovely toll booths like the one below.

The gang from Pointer Scrapbooking

Some inspiration from the show. I'll post more during the week.

Quilt made from Sticky back canvas and various techniques, plus Claudine Helmuth's studio paint.

Simply inspiring at Claudine Hellmuth's section of Ranger's booth

Wreath at Jillibean Soup

Loving this collection from Jillibean soup

Mmmmmm Gelato medium from Faber Castell

Crate Paper's booth of inspiration

I can't wait!!!

Leaving soon for the Craft and Hobby Association conference (CHA). For those who don't know, this is when all the craft vendors get together and showcase their latest and greatest items for shop owners to peruse. I'll be attending with Pointer Scrapbooking, the store I teach at. We are so lucky that Heidi the owner invited all her teachers to attend. I'm so excited, as this will be my first show ever!!!  I will try and report back what lovely stuff I spot during the week!

CKC Buffalo Review

Sorry everyone for not posting much these days, I have waaay too much on my plate.   I am happy to report that I spent the past weekend at the Creating Keepsakes Buffalo Convention with my crew of happy scrappy friends. If you've never been to a CKC, you should attend. I've been going for 4 years now, and this year did not disappoint.  I did plenty of classes to keep me out of the vendor faire which sort of helped. I will note that the vendor faire was much smaller than years previous but there were plenty of places for me to still spend my moolah!  Anyhow, below are a review of the classes I took and hopefully it will help a fellow scrapper who plans on attending another CKC.  I will note that I have a boy only, so I tend to take classes geared to that direction. I also judge a class based on how much product you get for the class price.  So here goes. I will post photos later this week, if I remember.

All Boy - Queen & Co. :  I always love their products, so this class did not disappoint for giving me solid boy layouts. 4 pages made with exactly enough product. Everyone in the class won a prize too.

Scrapping with Sketches - Creating Keepsakes: Didn't learn anything new but they did give us an entire pack of Basic Grey paper pack. Layouts were so that I could easily change it up easily enough with the paper pack to gear towards my boy photos.

Perspectives by Ali - Technique Tuesday:  Used Ali's new paper pack, part of Ali's stamp set and again, solid layouts that I will use. Nothing new learned. Teacher was a bit confusing but the layout is not difficult to do at all. I won a prize of their chalk inks but gave it to one of my crew who recently lost her scrappy stuff in a flood.

30 Minute Layouts - Prima: Despite having a boy, I love Prima Products with a passion. Cari Fennel taught this class and we made 3 lovely, flowery layouts with plenty of Prima product left over.

Boy Mini Album - Prima:  Again another solid mini album made with Prima products. Taught again by Cari, who is an awesome teacher and super nice.  The photo of the class sample is "meh" but the one we did in class is much better. Plenty of Prima product left over to play with and believe it or not - most of it was geared to boys!

Mixed Media Album - Strictly Scrapbooking:  Used My Mind's Eye paperline. The photos for the mini album were dark and did not do the album justice. Loved the end result and loved playing with the glue gun in the class.

Terrific Trends - Studio Calico:  I was so happy that they were offering classes this year at CKC. Even happier that Kelley Purkey was teaching them too (she is super nice). We misted with the Mister Huey sprays on a layout and made a card too. I didn't learn anything new, but it gave me a chance to play a bit with their products. (I also won a gift certificate as a door prize to their booth, and was very happy that I got buy stuff at their booth!)

Mixing and Matching - Faber Castell:  I was happy that this class was added. They gave everyone a kit to take home and which we didn't have to open, as there was plenty of product on the table for us to play with. I wanted to try all these mediums and loved that we got to play. Disappointed with my "art" but I will try and make them again.  I will say that our teacher was a bit flakey too but we all survived.

MIA

Sorry gang that I have been MIA the last little while. I've been so busy with life and so tired from running around that I haven't had a chance to sit down and blog. But now I have a little moment to write. I have been trying to be creative these days and made a few projects which I hope to share with all of you shortly. 

In the meantime I'll share some other work I did last month for DT/teaching.

Here is a mini album I made using Fancy Pants Like Father Like Son line and was my May project for Crop Chocolate. 

Speaking of Crop Chocolate, I had to finally say goodbye to that design team job.  It was too much on my plate, working full time, teaching at my LSS  Pointer Scrapbooking and being on this design team.  My energy now will be focusing on doing more work of my own and perhaps get more stuff published (or at least attempt to get published).

This past month at Pointer Scrapbooking I've been teaching a new class for me, called Rapid Fire Scrapbooking ( 6 pages in 2 hours). The idea being that every month the class would make 6 new pages that they would have completed for their album.  Here's a sample of one I did for the class.

I will try and post some of the layouts and creative stuff I've been up to soon!

Some stuff that has been keeping me busy....

As promised here are the cards I took with Nicky Manel in her watercolouring class at Pointer Scrapbooking.  Ignore the image though of the top right one, I totally messed up the image Nicky gave us and went on my own to do one using the technique she taught us...it's obvious I need more practice. Nicky is an awesome teacher, so if you get a chance, go and take her class.

I recently completed this kit from Basic Grey using their Curio line of paper. Awesome paper line.

There was so much left over in the kit, that I decided to go on my own and make some more cards, inspired by the kit. I didn't put any greetings on the front yet, as I like to have lots of generic cards and put sentiments on before I give them.  Here are the cards I came up with.

And as promised here are some layouts I did recently. (Click on images to get larger view)

It's been a long, long, time...

Sorry for taking such a long break from blogging. It's been busy around here and this weekend being Easter and a long weekend, I'm hoping to get lots of crafting done!

I'll post some of the lovely things from Scrap Fest.  If you are ever in K-W or Oshawa and love all things scrappy, definitely go!

I was so excited about getting this apron. Scrapping Turtle in KW was giving away this for buying $30.00 in  Fancy Pants stuff. Like that was hard!?!?

 Caroline from Maya Road came and did Make and Takes. How could I not do this awesome tag!

 Mr. Fancy Pants himself was doing this Make and Take. It was a very large scrunched flower using their coffee filter papers, PP from FP and glimmer mists. So much fun!

 This was the Make N' Take I created for Pointer Scrapbooking booth. It was fun teaching this and meeting all the wonderful people in the 2 hours I did this at the booth.

 This lovely card was from the Art House and it was again Karen Ellis' largest Make N' Take with the whole crop participating. Love the techniques and will definitely be doing more of these in the future!

 Here was a make n' take we did in the crop. Forget the woman's name but she's a distributor of all things scrappy. Anyhow, it is suppose to be a decor item using the new Tim Holtz easel die on the back, but I'm going to use this on it's own as a card,  and save the easel for another project. Loving the easel BTW!

 This make n' take is from the Learning Factory. Love, that they always do a mini album. Will definitely have to "jazz" this up though. Not sure what I'm going to do with it.

 And here is one of the prizes I won from Mr. Fancy Pants himself. Love this line!

 And the other prize I won by working my butt off! Had to race another woman shaking jelly bean filled water bottles (had to be there).  Wahoo - always love the classes and workshops coming out of the Art House Studio. Now I have no excuse!!!! Thanks Karen!

Last night I took an amazing class with fellow instructor, Nicky Manel in watercolouring stamped images, at Pointer Scrapbooking. Will definitely post those pictures later this weekend with all my layouts I did at Scrapfest too.

Found this Awesome Blog and Scrapfest

Looking forward to the challenges and especially to try and use up my current stash. Loving this new site called Counterfeit Kit Challenge.  So now I have to challenge myself to make them up!

Also just got back from Scrapfest and had a fabulous weekend with my scrapping Peeps! I even won a couple of prizes too! If you ever are in the area and want a fabulous weekend of scrapping, shopping, make n'takes and just all around great scrappiness, definitely come!  I'll post photos later of some of the make n'takes, as well as some of the pages I was able to complete.

Speaking of pages, I forgot to post the stuff I did for Crop Chocolate's Chocolatier challenge, Spring/Easter.  Here  is a layout using Echo Park's A Walk in the Park.

I Don't Bake Cakes

But I will make these diaper cakes and tons of fun doing it too.    A fellow Girl Guide leader is about to have  just had a baby girl.  So we threw her a shower on Monday, sans leader.  Here is the diaper cake I made for her (love making these things!)

Well this week has been pretty crazy. I'm still trying to get back into the groove of things after my trip to Atlanta but I think I have too much on my plate and it feels  like an never ending cycle!  I was able to squeeze in some crafty goodness though. And even got to try out my new Ranger Craft Scrubbie.

My "caked-on, baked-on" painted hands

 Cracking open the Craft Scrubbie

Craft Scrubbie did not let me down!

 Even though the class is now done. I'm still working on my She-Art girls from Christy Tomlinson's class. She'll be offering it again as a download in April and I think it is definitely worth it for anyone wanting to dauble in multi-media art. She gives plenty of videos with great instructions. I'm going to take her next class She Has 3 Hearts Art Journaling  too.
Here is one of my girls from week one.

Speaking of Art-Journaling. I also did this for my cover of my art-journal that I plan on doing.  I used Claudine Helmuth's canvas to cover a sketch book. I then painted it with water colour crayons.  I added some quote rub-ons from Rhonna Farrer (these are ancient!)  And stamps from Pink Paislee-House of 3, Parisan Anthology (I so love this line)

I'm also working like a mad woman trying to get projects I owe to stores done. Here is sneak peak at a mini-album I am doing for Pointers Scrapbooking and will be teaching in April.

Love Ya Ranger!

So being away for the week in Atlanta, I came home today, to this lovely package! It is my prize pack from Ranger for leaving a comment on their blog. I encourage everyone to go and leave them some love...you never know when you'll get something in return.

I'm most looking forward to trying out the new Tim Holtz stains and the craft scrubbie, but all of this stuff is truly yummy! I'll post some results from me playing around with my new stash!

Right now Ranger is also taking applications for Ranger U. Go check out their site for details, but you have until Monday to apply! Keeping my fingers crossed that I get in!

I'm getting on a jet plane...

Leaving for the lovely city of Atlanta, Georgia tomorrow. I've never been, but will be attending a conference there for work. Of course, half my luggage is scrappy creative stuff, but I think that is partially how I am going to keep my sanity at the hotel. Will try and post if I can during the week, and if not I'll post on Friday with my adventures.

Go check out the amazing blog candy!

She Art Canvas

I've always loved the look of multimedia art and wanted to do some art journaling. I've only dabbled in it a bit and was kind of scared to try it out, but really wanted to get inky-painty-like.  When Christy Tomlinson from Scarlett Lime said she was doing an e-course called She Art, I was very interested. Sign up is now closed but she is doing it again as a download starting April 11. It is so worth the money! In the first week alone I learned so much from her.  Here is this weeks She Art I created.  It's my first and I see a few of her flaws but I will just embrace it!

Design Team Stuff for Crop Chocolate

March's Design Team theme is travel on Crop Chocolate. Go check out all the fabulous work from all the Chocolatiers. So I can finally showcase my projects this month.

First up is a box I made DS for carrying his toys in when we go on car trips. I used an old Maya Road tin and altered it with Echo Park's Little Boy collection. I measured a 1" stripe of the candy stripe paper for the outside and adhered it with glossy accents.  The inner blue dot was decorated with stickers from the kit then cut to 5.25" x 4.25". I then used Glossy accents on the inside ridge of the box to adhere the paper. Easy!

Here is my layout using the Making Memories Passport kit.  I used the packaging to mat the photo and then cut the script paper to mat the previous. I fussy cut the flowers to make a photo anchor.  The blue stripe was cut to make a ribbon banner and "road trip" was cut from the blue also using the Slice Travel card.  I also used My Little Shoebox letters in the title.  I finally outlined the centre with a black pen.  All embellsihments are also part of the Passport kit - I love those canvas tags!

Speaking of tags - I made a luggage tag with the kit also.  I'm going to write my info and laminate this baby. I'm hoping that it doesn't get too abused the hands of the luggage handlers!