greetings from sunny (and HOT) anaheim - today was my first day at cha and i spent the morning in seminars for designers - got some good info, met some great people - both the presenters and other attendees. all in all a good investment of time i must say. though i did not appreciate one of the presenters getting a little condescending to us "stay at home moms who think we are designers" - seems to me that is pretty much how the bulk of us got into this...guess i will show her.
i am rooming with suzanne of course and her friend tina who fits right in! i, of course was relegated to the lobby in my pajamas cuz i get up so early. then i came up at 7 to get ready and boy was she cranky!!!!
tomorrow the floor opens and we can go walk around and see all of the new products and i will get to see so many of my friends that i only get to see when i am here. that is really the best part for me. i have two days to try and see EVERYTHING i want to see and my list is long! i will be hitting the provo craft booth first of course and harrassing my buddy jim colby over there. i will also be visiting jen cushman, who i met today, at the ice resin booth - i have been wanting to check that stuff out. of course i will go do tim's make n take as always. and i will get pics and post them to facebook as i go so be sure to friend me if you haven't already!
and now i am gonna fall over and sleep because it is well after midnight my time and as you all know that is WAY past my bed time!
well i leave in about an hour for the airport - cha here i come!
many of you know the story of my friend katie renz who died recently from stomach cancer. we are all wearing a periwinkle ribbon in memory of her so i wanted to show you mine and also post the video tutorial on how to make the layered tulle flowers i showed you last week.
boy oh boy have i got a packed schedule getting myself together for cha - i leave friday morning! monday pezza and i went out for big girls day out - i needed to get my hair done (buh bye gray roots) and she was off from school so they said to bring her along. we started at starbucks and sat by the fireplace with a little snack. of course she insisted she needed her hair done too and luckily they weren't busy so the girl really laid it on for her. her fave part is the "hair bath" which she giggles hysterically through. then i couldn't see her while they were doing her hair but it seemed to take a long time. well when she rounded the corner back to where i was she was not only trimmed up but blow dried AND CURLED - hot stuff i must say! oh was she pleased with herself. she colored for awhile but then got bored and started wandering until my girl came up with an idea and suggested she fold the load of towels they had just washed. well she was all over that and did great. charmed everyone in the place of course as she can be really good at that when she wants to. next we hit famous footwear - i found nothing but she ended up with tennies and boots both on clearance - sweet! then met with trev for lunch at cici's - he is struggling, trying to change jobs and general eye-opening this is life and roommates suck kind of stuff. but he is doing well and such an awesome kid! next we headed to the bare minerals store in the mall where i got a few new eyeshadows and pezza dipped her finger in all the samples and colored her hand like a rainbow. then she asked the salesgirl if she had any lipstick because she explained - her chap stick at home had no color. so the sales girl put on some lipstick and boy was pezza thrilled.
i have a pretty packed schedule - saturday morning is business seminars and then i am meeting up with a super talented long time friend and ex DT for me - sandy dunne coming all the way from ireland - i cannot WAIT to meet her! i think we may go to suzanne's copic class to heckle from the back of the room. saturday night is a mixed media workshop with basically bare albums. i am also taking another mixed media workshop and a workshop with luminarte - YAY! the MOST exciting thing is that i am helping out for crafters workshop stencils as usual and i just found out i will be helping in a workshop they are doing with julie fei-fen balzer - SHUT UP! i LOVE her stuff and her style and cannot wait - it is called collage 101 and i am betting i will be picking up some great info as i help her out! all of this will be perfect timing because i am heading up a brand new challenge group over on Color Me Creative!
This is FREE to join - not a paid class (that will be launching in early spring!) we will have a new challenge every 2 weeks as well as lots of opportunity to chat about tips and tricks, ideas, tutorials and maybe even some prizes from time to time! we will have a kick off party on the main page of color me creative on feb 8th! but head over NOW and join the group!
finally i DO have a project and video tutorial for ya today! speaking of mixed media -
yep mixed media is as simple as just using a variety of mediums when you create - so here i have created a shimmering background with perfect pearls and stamps. here is a video showing how i did it:
{hubby is making fun of me right now because i am apparently typing with much determination over here...}
next i stamped my main image with versamark and embossed with clear embossing powder. after melting it i painted over the image with twinkling h2os.
this was a fun card to make and pezza and i made quite a mess creating with our different supplies. i like art best when it is free and fun and MESSY!
so head on over to the group and join me - even if you have never done mixed media stuff before!
happy monday :P i know i know oxymoron right!? did everyone have a great weekend? ours was fabulous! to kick it off we got a little bit of snow. pezza was very excited to be out in it to play and we took bubba out for his first snow day - he LOVED it. i knew he would. our older maine coon loved loved loved playing in the snow when she was young. i have pics at the end of this post. i tried my hand at some homemade king cakes. Meh....they were ok i guess but NOT rouse's good. hubby loved them though. then saturday night hubby made dinner for me while i napped on the couch - how awesome is that?!?!?! then sunday he took me out clothes shopping and got me loads of new clothes which i needed badly. got some for himself which he needed even more and then a few summer outfits for pezza that are SO freakin cute! she picked out a hot pink tulle skirt and told me it was "the skirt of her dreams" BAH HAHHAHHAH. she was super well behaved which made it that much better. then we went and ate chinese food - yum!
i am getting SO excited for CHA! i cannot wait to see all of my friends and get to the wonderful classes i am scheduled for. see all the new goodies coming out up close and personal. word from a fairly dependable source says there will be no cricut gala this year which is super disappointing because those are always the highlight of the trip. pezza and i will be heading out to the salon today for hair appointments and i should be set to go!
i have a video tutorial to go along with my project today:
how sweet is this image??? tiddlyinks of course and colored with colored pencils of course!
and the embellishments are done with one of my fave perfect pearls techniques but i haven't done it in ages:
and you should see them in real life - so smooth and shimmery! they are made with cardstock, UTEE and perfect pearls and you can see all about them here:
and here is bubba the snow cat:
look at that gorgeous tail - a maine coon's pride and joy! and i think he is going to be a big cat. he is not even 9 months old yet and he is the same size as tiger - our other maine coon and he could continue growing for another 1-2 years!
i had 3 posts yesterday!!!! hahahhha - i have been so lax and then do that to ya! i do seem to suddenly have a lot to post :P today pezza and i are venturing to the skating rink so she can try roller skating for the first time. we were going to do ice skating BUT she changed to roller skating which will not only probably be easier it is also a whole lot closer AND cheaper!
i am also brewing something up with suzanne over on Color Me Creative so I will let you know all about it as soon as i can!
i wanted to get this one posted - my first Some Odd Girl image! these are super cute and really fun to color. i used the current mojo monday sketch:
I am also entering it in the following challenges:
wow has it been COLD!!! i usually do pretty well in the winter because i am always way too hot but lately - i am FREEZING. Suzanne musta put a curse on me for always wishing for snow! despite being frozen all day we had a great day! pezza was up super early and i was down in my studio about to start on some collage backgrounds so i decided we would do them together - she did all of the techniques right along with me. i love when she is behaving and listening and can do some art with me. i try my best to give her the basics but let her be free to make it her own - like when she chooses crazy color combos and makes "mud". some of our experiments went better than others and you'll see them soon once they are done. we also got a jigsaw puzzle going. i love them! i was on disability toward the end of my pregnancy with pezza and having so many problems. so my mom flew up to help out and we did jigsaw puzzles all day long waiting for pezza. i had to give them up for awhile but now pezza is old enough to get them out again. she helps me with them - she is pretty good and getting better.
i can't show y'all our collages yet but i CAN show you a layout i did:
these are pics from our trip out to my dad and step-mom's in utah. i love utah - it is SO beautiful out there. so of course we were anxious to get some hiking in.
my layout was inspired by the january challenge over on the spotted canary site. i came across it when looking at the class list from joanns and then i saw the challenge. it was actually in conjunction with a set of video tutorials and featured a really cool 3in1 layering punch by ek success (i think they are the ones who do the website maybe...?) anyway i did not have the punch but i have my cricut and the elegant edges cartridge and came up with something very similar. i used it on the border, the tree piece and the title lettering
i used foam tape for several of the layers to add some dimension. the stamp is one of my old stampscapes.
the best part is the strings of seed beads - that idea i got from the video/challenge!
so did y'all see the pinterest cha board i have going? did you see the webster's pages flowers? well as i was browsing through them i saw one set and i thought hey, i remember making those...anyone else think that? so which ones did i make?
oh yea baby! check out that fabby tulle flower! wanna see the webster's pages ones?
fun AND easy!
BTW - i used the current SCS sketch and am also entering this in Papertake Weekly - buttons, bows, bling or blooms
my image is a digi from A day for daisies - oh how i adore her style! she is colored with colored pencils.
here is a better look at the tulle flower. i will have a video tutorial on it for ya next week! i am working on a flower series for FaveCrafts. what do y'all think of the flower?
cha is coming! cha is coming! oh it's better than christmas!!!!!!! i love love love seeing all the friends i have made in blogland and getting together with them. i also love seeing all of the wonderful vendors i have built friendships with too. and of course all the new goodies coming out up close and personal! but for those not going - most vendors/manufacturers release pictures leading up to cha so be sure to check your favorite ones and see what they have coming for you! i have been using pinterest to keep track of some of mine - there is no way to remember it all! you can see my pinterest board HERE to see what i like in addition to my most favorite items i am showing today. for the first time i am NOT taking the ranger/tim holtz class *crying real tears* just couldn't manage to get in. even more so i wanted SO SO much to take the ranger/vintaj class - probably one of my fave new items are the collabs between vintaj and ranger and vintaj and sizzix - *swoon*
i DID manage to get into a Luminarte class - the makers of twinkling H20s that i am really looking forward to. they have such an amazing array of shimmering products!
the other 2 classes i am taking are mixed media classes - so excited for those! i have an online mixed media class coming this spring on Color Me Creative which i am really excited about - there will be two actually. one will be mixed media for stampers - a basic class. the other will be mixed media advanced and lean more towards art journaling and pieces you can hang on your wall.
and then i will also be helping in a class called collage 101 taught by julie fei-fan balzer!!!!! SHUT UP! i couldn't get into the class but this morning i was chatting with jaime echt of my beloved crafters workshop stencils about helping in her booth like i always do and she asked me to help in julie's class - turns out they are sponsoring it which i should have guessed considering julie designed some fabulous stencils for them that are just out now. which brings me to my next fave cha thing - the new crafters workshop stencils - i LOVE these things. they are so versatile! doodling, spray mists, modeling cream, paint - you can even use them to emboss in your cuttlebug or other die cutting machine! check out my videos showing you how:
victoria case also designed some new stencils for them - check them all out on the CWS blog!
i will also be working for the awesome diana crickin the scor pal booth all day on tuesday demo-ing the No Shims.
in addition there is some really neat stuff coming from my fave webster's pages, cool stuff from prima, and as always great new paper collections. what else have you guys seen of the cha sneak peeks that i may have missed? what is your fave thing so far? who is going? who wants to get together for dinner one night?
