Back from CHA

I had so much fun during my short trip at CHA. I can tell you I have a brand new appreciation for store owners. I have no idea how they make any decisions in this place! It was like total sensory overload!!! By the end of the first day my eyes were glossed over....everything started to look the same. There was just more and more and more patterned paper! Sadly, I left CHA with very little on my 'must have' list. There were lots of things I found to be pretty but not a lot that screamed, 'Buy Me!' Of course not owning a store, I couldn't actually place any orders, but you get the picture. One fairly recent product I had previously paid no mind to, I now think is totally cool after getting a chance to play with it.....Tim Holtz's Grunge Board!

Emily and I spent all of Saturday walking the floor. When we got to the Ranger booth, we spied Tim Holtz and Ali Edwards. We sat down and did a make and take using the Grunge Board, then contemplated whether or not to ask to take our picture with Tim (Ali had moved on). When there was a good opportunity we approached him and had a little conversation about Adirondack pads and asked for a picture. He was so nice!!!! Talks to ya' like you're a friend... Here's Scoopy, Tim, and I.

One of our stops was also at the Cornish Heritage Farms booth. Right away I spotted Keri Sereika and Scoopy spotted Lisa Strahl. We were able to meet Keri but had to wait for a bit to talk to Lisa as she was busy helping a customer. While waiting we perused the CHF booth. I got to see some images from the Rubbage Bin, Kim Hughes, the Elvis line, and Thomas Kinkade and if you look in the back left corner of this photo....Thomas the Train is coming! Now my kids are too old for Thomas but I sure would have enjoyed having these when they were younger.

I met lots fabulous SCS folks. Trudee Sauer, Debbie Olson, Ellen Hutson, and A Muse's very own Michelle White worked the Copic booth. It was fabulous to see Trudee and Debbie in action. I was able to see them demonstrate the airbrush system and their coloring techniques. Cool stuff! I also met some of the Copic staff and they were just the nicest people. Here are some other folks I met (forgive me if I left anyone off!): Jeanne Streiff, BadSherry, Kittie747, Linda Duke, Jami Siebley, saw Taylor Van Bruggen from afar, EarlyMorning, Willowsmom....I know there were more. Everyone pretty much looked like their blog and/or avatar pictures. Some were taller than expected and some were shorter than I expected but their faces were instantly recognizeable. We spotted Elsie from the Love, Elsie line at her booth. Heidi Swapp was working at her own booth as well.

The best thing about my trip was meeting the A Muse gals that I'd never met before in person. We all had dinner together at the Cheesecake Factory and Michelle has the group picture over on her blog. This is one group of fabulous women! That's all for now! I'm a little swamped from taking some time off for CHA and have a lot of catching up to do.

Off to CHA!

I'm so excited to be going to CHA this year! This will be my first experience with it. I won't be gone long...back on Monday night, so I'm not sure how much I'll really be able to see. If I can take pictures, I will, and post them here but there is a general rule about no pictures unless permission is granted. I hope to at least get pictures with people, like the A Muse gals I've never met in person.

I have lots to do today to prepare for my trip. Have to get a 'to do' list for my husband with the boys' schedules, finish up laundry, pack, charge my camera & phone, etc. Made the trip to Costco last night so the family would have food.

Here is a post of a card that will be in an upcoming class at Stampin-in-the-Rain at Bothell Country Village. I make two samples...one for me, one for the store. I usually keep the boo-boos for me. This one is a boo-boo. The sample for the store is perfect! It doesn't have any ink smudges at the bottom and the sentiment is aligned better. The prima was a last minute addition when I designed my card. This is a notch card, with the notch hiding behind the Prima. If you are interested in participating in the class, just call them directly. The number is to the right, under my schedule.

Okay, that's it for me. I have much to do. I'll be back on Tuesday.

Thinkin' of you

This is a card I designed for a class recently. It was a class for general cards. It's a very girly card, don't you think? I like girly things but unfortunately, my husband and two boys don't appreciate girly things much. haha. I also love pink. For this card I used the Fairy Dust notecard and stamped the Gerber Daisy (3-4105E), Spiral Daisy (2-4092D), and Astro Flower (2-4089C) using Versamagic Pink Petunia. I put clear Twinkle Dot stickers (using both micro and mini dots) in the centers of the flowers to bling it all up a little. I then stamped the Splendiferous Day sentiment (8-8329C) in black and mounted that onto a scrap of Plum notecard and trimmed the edges with my mini scallop scissors. To make a ribbon tab like I did, you can staple the piece of ribbon to your bottom layer, then mount your top layer over it so no one sees the staples. How's that for a handy tip?!

Fly The Coop

I'm not really sure why I made this card, LOL. I think it would be more appropriate as a girl's graduation card, or maybe a Bon Voyage card (oh, that just gave me an idea!), or a card for a daughter going off to college but the idea popped into my head and I just had to let it out. The sentiment 'The Journey Is The Reward' has to be one of my favorite sentiments. It's very versatile. I've often seen it paired with the stack of books, to represent the journey one takes through reading, I've seen it paired with a moving vehicle like the Vespa Girl or the Wheely Girl, and it can now be paired with the Elzybells Girl in Car. You could even pair the sentiment with the Prego Gal or Expecting Mother to represent the journey into motherhood. I don't ever think I've seen it paired with the birdcage and the bird flying the coop. This is a very simple card to make....a nice 5-minute card, really, but in it's simplicity I think it holds great meaning. It holds hope, anticipation, excitement, and something bittersweet as it almost always means goodbye. Not a goodbye forever, but a goodbye. So when I mentioned Bon Voyage, it made me think of my friend Michelle H., who is moving to Italy this week. ITALY!!! Her husband is already there for a new job so she will be travelling with her two young children (one under a year old). It's a bittersweet moment because it's a time full of hope, anticipation, excitement, and a goodbye. But it's not a goodbye forever, just a goodbye....and a good luck.

Card deets: (All products by A Muse) Fairy Dust notecard; Stamps: 2-7112E Bird Cage, 2-4042E Birds, 9-8236B Journey; pink edged sheer ribbon; Saffron marker. The bird was stamped onto a scrap of Celestial Blue notecard, then cut out and popped up with a pop-dot.

Saltbox Studio

Today I decided to share some cards I made using the new Saltbox Studio line of clear stamps, distributed by A Muse Artstamps, Inc. I love the art style of these stamps because they are so different from any new product out on the market with the latest influx of acrylic stamp companies out there.

Now I don't know what it is about sheep that makes us think of babies but the first card I HAD to make with this sheep set was a baby card. I will have to remake this onto pink, though. My niece, Jenny, is due to have a baby girl this Spring. Our family is so HUGE (Jenny herself is one of 8 kids and one of 18 grandkids) that we are a true flock. So, this card (once redone in pink) will be welcoming her new baby to our big flock.

My next card is a simple one. For the past few years I have volunteered my Wednesday nights to a program at my church called Pioneer Clubs. It used to be called Pioneer Girls but is now supposed to be able to include boys. However, at our church the boys have their own program so ours is just full of girls. Anyway, I thought this would be a cute, simple, mail friendly little card that I could mail them for Easter.

Have you been to the Saltbox Sampler? It's the Saltbox Studio's blog and it's chock full of fantastic information! Beth, the Saltbox gal herself, has been showing a coloring tutorial using markers and colored pencil together. She's got samples of the image in its various stages of coloring so you can really see how it's all put together. She promises more tutorials so you should make sure you keep checking her blog. Her design team is fantastic, too, and they have lots of samples on their own personal blogs and the Saltbox Gallery. The nice thing about the Saltbox Gallery is that the samples are separated by stamp set so it's easy to find just the thing you are looking for.

Well, that's it for me today! I hope you all have a wonderful day. I have lots of things to finish up before I head out of town this weekend. I'm so excited to be going on a little weekend trip but it seems weird to travel without my husband and kids. I've never done that before!

A Muse Valentine Card

I taught a Valentine card class last week at Stampers Ink. Two of my A Muse Addicts peeps were there...Rhonda and Nicole. It was so much fun! Nicole has announced she is moving so I knew this was one of the last times I would probably see her for a while. I'm so bummed...we were just getting to know each other and develop a friendship. Nicole is a FABULOUS A Muse stamper! She is just finishing her last week as the January Guest Designer over on Linda's blog. Don't get me wrong now, because Rhonda is a Fab-O A Muse stamper, too!

Here is a sample of one of the cards we created in my class:




I had so much fun creating this card!!! One of my favorite stamps is the birdcage. Paired with the new Little Bird stamp and sentiment from the latest Valentine release (you can get them here), plus some yummy A Muse ribbon....well, you get some serious cuteness like this!

I'm looking forward to sharing more creations with you this week. Life has been pretty busy for me lately, and looks like it will continue that way for a bit, but I tried to get ahead a little this weekend and have taken pictures of some cards for you in advance. This way, it doesn't take me as long to get a blog post up. My next class is Saturday, Feb 16th at Stampin-in-the-Rain so I'll be sharing some card samples for that throughout the week. Be sure to contact the store directly to sign up.

Test your IQ

So I was blog hopping today and came across Linda's blog post about a fun little IQ test. These are my results:


***Your IQ Is 125***
Your Logical Intelligence is Exceptional
Your Verbal Intelligence is Genius
Your Mathematical Intelligence is Genius
Your General Knowledge is Above Average
A Quick and Dirty IQ Testhttp://www.blogthings.com/quickanddirtyiqtest/

It's really just for fun but try it and test your own intelligence (this is NOT a scientific test!)