Day One at CHA

I am here in Chicago for the Summer Craft and Hobby (CHA) Show. Today is an "education" day. For me this means, take a couple of classes! I took a class with Melissa Frances and Hero Arts.

Here is the supply kit for the Melissa Frances class. It was called "Totally Techniques."

Here is the front cover of the little book we made. It had too many pages and I didn't even come close to getting done. We used MF silver glass glitter on the cover and I loved it! It isn't a blinding bright silver, but kinda reminded me of little crushed up mirrors, if that makes any sense. I really liked it. I didn't follow the project design 100% for this cover. I used the image of the little girl instead of two bright gold glittery letter. We used a really cook MF ephemera kit. It has little several photos like the one above, the ribbon above and other trims, some white pearls, and I can't remember what all else. It was cool though. And we used some really wonderful vintage ephemera stickers. I will probably have to order this stuff.

Here's another little photo thing from the ephemera kit.

Hero Arts sponsored my second class. It was a Christmas-themed class. We made greeting cards. This is a photo of some of the stuff I brought home with me from the class.

We also brought these stamps home with us. This is a special "retailer" pack of stamps.

This is another special package of stamps put together for retailers to use in their stores for customer classes, demos, etc.

The leaves are little felt leaves. They're a new HA product.

This card uses two of the new Christmas tree stamps, a new felt snowflake, a new background stamp and lots of little red crystals.

This is a little pop-up card that can hold a gift card. It was easy to make. This card uses new snowflake stamps.

This tag shape was cut with one of the Tim Holtz alterations dies. It's also a gift card holder.

Believe it or not, we made a tiny gift bag out of an envelope. I smashed it back flat for transport home.

I liked both the classes. I'm definitely going to order some of the new Melissa Frances stuff.

Tomorrow I have an 8am class with Hampton Arts and then all day at show trying not to spend too much money on new store inventory.

Wednesday morning at 7am (GAH! - I'm NOT a morning person!) I have a class with Crafty Secrets, will go to show for just a bit and then back to Houston.

I'll take photos tomorrow of the stuff that I'm ordering! My must see vendors are Stamper's Anonymous, Advantus, Stanislaus Imports, Melissa Frances, October Afternoon, Maya Road, 7 Gypsies, Ranger, May Arts, Crafty Secrets, Tattered Angels, Prima and a few more. There's a new place I'm going to visit - Bottle Cap Inc. Maybe I'll end up ordering some cool bottle caps. We'll see!

It'll be late again tomorrow night before I get a chance to blog. Stay tuned!!!