Day Two at CHA - Advantus Booth

I have no idea why this photo is sideways in this blog. I've uploaded it twice and it's done the same thing twice. ACK! Anyway, this was a sample project at the Advantus (Tim Holtz) booth. You can see the new nameplates, and the new foliage items. FUN!

This photo shows the some of the new Salvage stickers. They said that these stickers fit on the grungeboard shapes.

Here's a not so great photo of some more of the new Tim Holtz stuff - tiny safety pins, tiny paper clips and tiny brads that look like screws at the top. When I say tiny, I mean TINY! I was surprised how small these things actually are.

Here's a shot of the new mini masks. They are very small when compared to the regular masks. We used these on a make-n-take. You'll hear the sad story of my make-n-take in a bit.

Here's the new bead chain. I was surprised how big this stuff is. Think giant (and I mean giant) ball chain. I didn't take a photo of the new link chains, but I ordered them too.

We got a little swatch book of the grungeboard. They are discontinuing the current patterns of grungeboard (stripes, dots, harlequin etc) and will be coming out with new patterns. They didn't say when this would happen.

So here's my sad make-n-take. I cannot stamp at make-n-takes, classes - you name it. We used this grungeboard shape, put on the masks (which weren't so great either, since they were used about a bazillion times), painted everything including the masks, then overstamped everything and took off the masks. Then we put distress ink over it all - that makes the masked part show up. Then we took a baby wipe and wiped most of the distress ink off. There are two of the foliage pieces used here. Then we got to stamp a letter using the newest alphabet stamps. This is where the Lisa can't stamp part comes in. It's a pitiful letter "L".

I ordered all of the new Idea-ology products and the new grungepaper. It is thin. It's just about like paper. We also used the new mini stapler thing on the tag. It stapled great on the grungeboard. I ordered in 3 of the mini staplers. I was surprised how good the mini stapler worked.

Day Two at CHA Introduction

Today started with a class with Claudine Helmuth, "Mixed Media Madness". After the class, I was coming down the escalator and I thought "a shot of the lobby would be cool." By the time I got my camera out, I was almost at the bottom. Oh well! Lots of activity today!

I think I'll do several posts today. I'll start with the Mixed Media Madness class.

The first photo is a shot of the class materials. I picked the "warm" set of colors. We got several of the new Studio acrylic paints, some Studio gesso and multi medium, a mini mister, a sheet of sticky-back canvas and a set of the Studio paint brushes. I really like these paints. They are a creamy consistency and very pigmented. I also liked the brushes.

The second photo is the class project and a book that we got. It has projects using the sticky-back canvas.The third photo is a close up of the project. It was essentially a technique primer using the paints, mediums and sticky-canvas. On to the next post - the first one about my shopping extravaganza today!

Classes today at the CHA show

Today I took 3 classes at the CHA show. The first one was a class with the Golden Company. I was thrilled to find out how to be able to apply a faux beeswax finish with acrylics to my art. They had us make a little swatch board with the three recipes we used. The photo of the swatches isn't the greatest, but the "yellow" recipe looked exactly like the beeswax that I have used. The photo is a little dark of the faux beeswax finishes.

If you are interested in these recipes, drop me an email and I'll send them to you. There is also info on how to age the beeswax faux finish. I'm very excited about this technique as I love the look of beeswax, but hate the mess. I'm a mess magnet. Today in this class, I got paint all over me. If there's paint anywhere near me, I'm soon wearing it! The class teacher has published a book about this and other techniques. I'm supposed to get a free one at the booth tomorrow, so I'll provide the name of the book tomorrow.The next class was using the Melissa Frances "Attic Treasures" collection to make a little book thing for photos. Here's my work space at the end of the class. I am a mess!

Here's the front cover of the book. All of the pages in the book are bingo card reproductions on heavy chipboard. I love this bingo card book! I think it was 8 pages. I'll have to see how much this is tomorrow when I go to the Melissa Frances booth. The following pages are some of the pages we created. I really like the vintage word cards. Melissa Frances has two sets - a girl and a boy set. I think I'll stock some of these if the pricing is reasonable. The photos are of the girl set.

The last class I took today was a class making the pendant trays. We used an epoxy called "easycast." We constructed our pendants, filled them with the epoxy and they are curing tonight. Tomorrow I will pick up my pendants at the sponsors booth. I'll upload photos tomorrow. There were about 40 people in the class and it was fun to look at everyone's work. We had to place all of our pieces in a safe space so they could cure overnight.
Tomorrow morning at 7am, I have a glass with Claudine Helmuth. It's a class about her new "Studio" line of products. Claudine always has good mixed media tips to share. The show is opening tomorrow! I have my list of must see vendors.
More tomorrow!

In California for the CHA show!

Hi everyone!

I'm in not so sunny today California for the CHA show. I actually came early for a meeting for the day job. The photo above is taken from the balcony from my hotel on Huntington Beach this morning. I was up at 5:30am. The time difference always throws me off here in California. I have since moved to a hotel closer to the show.

Tomorrow I am taking 3 classes since I had to come early for the day job. I'm taking a class with the Golden Company called "Seductive Encaustics, Acrylic Beeswax Surfaces", "Exploring Attic Treasures" by Melissa Frances and the last class is "Collage Jewelry" using the pendant trays that I sell at Collage Stuff. I'm excited about the classes! If the light is any good at all here in the hotel room, I'll post photos of my class projects.

The show starts Sunday. I'll be here two days for the show. I'll post more photos every day!

True Love Collage Sheet ATC

This ATC features an image from the new "True Love" collage sheet by Collage Stuff. I darkened the Collage Stuff pink paper lace with some Worn Lipstick Distress Ink. The mini sequin hearts are also available at Collage Stuff.

Winter ATC

Here's my entry for the Collage Stuff December ATC swap, "Artist's Choice." The background is a polished stone done with Adirondack's alcohol inks and silver metallic mixative. I haven't done the polished stone for a while, so this was fun! I used some paper lace as a stencil along each side lengthwise with a Ranger Pearl acrylic paint dabber. It's kind of hard to see in this photo. The girl image is from the Collage Stuff "Noelle" collage sheet. I overstamped the image with one of my favorite text stamps. I inked it with the pearl paint and it turned out pink pearl as there was some pink already on the stamp. It worked out fine. I never clean my stamps. The "winter" was generated at the Acme.com label making web page. I found the silver do dads in my stuff. I recently got one of the Zutter round it alls and I love it. It rounds thick corners effortlessly.

Christmas Ornament ATC

Here's my Christmas ornament ATC for my Collage Stuff November swap. Happy Holidays everyone and be merry!