CHA Update

Hey there People!  I thought I had better pop in before someone sent out the Search and Rescue team to find me!

CHA was a blast!  Daisy was the ultimate hostess and treated us to a luxury weekend at the California Grand Hotel and a wonderful tour of Disneyland.  Sherry and I ended spending the afternoon exploring Disneyland together until our feet demanded we head back to the room before a FABULOUS dinner at Club 33 with all the E-Team plus a long time friend of Daisy's.  I finally got to meet E-Team members Linda Ledbetter and Linda Duke for the first time!  Let me just say that Linda L is as cute as I thought she would be and I'm sorry that her class schedule prevented us from spending more time together!  Linda D is a RIOT!  I ended up walking most of CHA with her and had fun being in the shadow of stamping royalty!!

You are probably wondering where are all my pictures of the new product coming out.  Uhhhhh.  Let me explain.

This year, I did a lot of meeting people in the industry (one of the perks of following Linda D and Sherry around).  And I'm not the type to ask for photos with them.  Not that I wouldn't love photos of these creative icons, but mostly because that would mean I would have to have my photo taken.  And I HATE my photo taken.  Yes, I know.  I need to get over that.  But that didn't happen this past weekend! haha.

Let's see if I can remember who I met:

Karen (imastampin on SCS) and Wendy (wendybell), who were both in the original challenge chasers group way back when I first joined SCS.

The wonderful duo of Stacy and Jeff, owners of Spellbinder's.  And I got to say a quick hello to Heidi Blankenship   , who I was on a previous design team with in the past.  And the absolutely adorable Juliana Hudgins.  I have to say that her new dies from Spellbinder's are something that I originally didn't think I would use, but after seeing them in the various projects the Spellbinder's design team came up with, and working with the die at Juliana's make and take, my mind was racing with different ideas for them!  As soon as I save some pennies, these dies are going to come live with me!!

I also met Donna Salazar.  She also has some new dies out with Spellbinder's and are also on my wish list.  I'm afraid I may have to start working more to afford all of these dies that I want from Spellbinder's new release!!

Then I got brave and begged the incredibly talented Wendy Vecchi to please, please make the different modeling films in her art parts line on a roll.  I would love to use that stuff for "sculpture" ideas floating in my head, but don't want the limitation of the size of the sheets. 

And the grand dame herself, Suze Weinberg.  I got really brave and stopped Suze when she was passing by me.  She was so nice!  She was very encouraging in my growing interest in making jewelry and using wax as a medium. 

As far as products, I went off the paper craft trail and did some exploring of other booths.  I have been finding myself wanting to explore more mixed media type creations and wanted to see what was out there.  Let me tell you, there is sooo much out there to spark your creativity!  I want the ENTIRE line of Viva Decor products.  I played around with some ArtDeco paints for glass and fabric (which I also want).  Then there was the Ice Resin booth.  Oh yes!  I'm going to get my desk top cleaned off so I can start pouring!! And there were other companies creative paints and molding compounds that I need to look into more.  Very cool stuff. 

And no pictures.  I'm such a bad blogger!  I was just caught up in the products and asking questions that pictures were forgotten.  One of these days I'll get it all together!!

I will be patting myself on the back as well as tooting my own horn in my next post.  I even have a tutorial to go along with all the self congratulating!!  'Till then.........

CHA!!

Hey People!  Things have been rather crazy around here (as usual!).  I'm just dropping in real quick to say that I'm running around like a chicken with her head cut off getting ready to hit the road to CHA (craft and hobby trade show, for those of you who may not know)!!  Daisy is hosting Sherry, Linda L, Linda D and myself for a wonderful weekend of walking around Newport Beach, Disneyland and of course a in person view of all the new craft and hobby goodies that are coming out in a few weeks!!

I'm hoping to post a few pics along the way, but we'll have to see if I can figure out my new camera, the borrowed notebook from my kid first! hehe!!  Technology and I have a love/hate relationship!

'Till then....

CHA

OH MY!!  It's Monday!!  My weekend is a blur with all the CHA (Craft and Hobby Association) hustle and bustle!  For a newbie, it is rather overwhelming.  So much to see (and not see, as I don't think I made it down every isle).  When going through my pictures I realized a couple of things

Trying to take pics with the natural light resulted in a lot of blurry pictures.

One must not get so enthralled by what she is seeing and experiencing, that she forgets to actually take pictures.

But with those thoughts in mind, I did manage to get some photos.  Grab your cup of your favorite beverage and get comfy.  This is gonna be a bit long!!

Everybody waiting for the doors to open



First up...I FINALLY got to meet Bad Sherry and Daisy.  I have "known" Sherry for 5-6 years now from our cyber conversations, but now I have finally gotten a meet her in person.  Daisy is as sweet and genuine as they come and loved hanging out with her, her oldest daughter (and her good friend!) and Sherry all weekend.

Where to begin from here?  Friday night I got to take a class from Jenni Bowlin.  She is a doll and I love her colors in her line.  I think I could put the Chili Pepper color on almost all my work.



 Next...some eye candy.  I have to say that I was probably more enthralled with the amazing samples than the new product coming out! LOL!  There are some AMAZING artists out there!

Art parts by Wendy Vecchi..........can't wait to play with these!!

O.M.G.   Having a brain freeze as to which booth this was at, but, seriously!! Look at the incredible DETAIL and work that went into this sample!!

Check out the door knob!! New embellishment from Graphic 45.  OH yeah!!  They will be fun to alter with!!

These incredibly beautiful and detailed stamps are from a company in Germany called LaBlanche.   GORGEOUS!!  They are made of a  type silicone and are mounted on a hard foam.  Personally, I think they are just gorgeous pieces of art in themselves!!  I did stamp with them and was surprised at how easy it was to get a good image.  These would look lovely stamped tone on tone with just a hint of a color wash or copic accent.  Or, just plain.

Check this out.  Made from a configuration box.  OH MY!! The incredible details!  The whole concept of it! Amazing.

Steampunk jewelry using Idea-ology pieces.  Too cool



WAIT!! Next up is a total "newbie, geek, starstruck" story.  While I was checking out the works from the designer competition at the Ranger booth, I happen to glance up. OMG!  There is Cheryl Darrow from TenSecond Studios walking around with a camera crew (RUMOR ALERT!!  Whisperings that the camera crew was NOT just recording for Taco Tuesdays....can't wait to see what THAT is about!! With Cheryl and Megan...it could be anything!!)

ANYHOOS!!  So there I am looking at the designer samples, glance up and see Cheryl.  I seriously DO NOT know what into my noggin'!  I let out this scream "OMG! IT'S CHERYL" and run up to her, gushing how big of a fan I am (I am SUCH a dork!).  I am willing to bet that the look on her face was "who the HECK is this?!" 

But guess what?

I got my picture with her! LOL! 

So of course, I then made my way over to the TenSecond booth....Can't wait to play with the new molds

Just check out these wonderful samples!

Love the cross.  I have a collection of crosses over my couch. 

What a darling idea to use one of the new Big Daddy molds as a frame for the picture.  Notice the new Alphabet stamp set too?  It looks WONDERFUL on the metal

 Again, just incredible samples

And one of my personal favorites!! Love the glitter skull!! You can bet you'll be seeing a copy of this from me!!

I did take another  photo with both Cheryl and Megan when I got to their booth.  But is is sooo blurry! sniff, sniff.  

Other highlights:  Meeting Dawn Lusk, another SCSer that I've "known" forever (that picture was also blurry).  Dawn is mom to Amber, aka Bambi64, who I cyber chat with almost daily.  Met Lori Craig (SCS) who is just beautiful and TALL!! LOL!  I got to meet Deb Felts and her friend Connie (sorry, another brain freeze on the last name), Taylor, Jamie, Val............you know....all the SCS royality. 

Saw Claudine Hellmuth, Wendi Vecchi, Tim Holtz, Jennifer McGuire.....met Kim Kesti and Jessica Witty.

Well.........that is pretty much my weekend in a nutshell!  I'm now back to reality and the laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning that did not magically get done while I was gone! Hopefully, I'll find some creative play time in the next day or so!

Till then....................