2014 CHA MEGA SHOW Highlights

Hello and Happy 2014!  It’s Jennifer’s friend Rhonda (aka Daria for those of you on Facebook), one of the many designers in her Crafty Card Gallery App and her co-conspirator on the Creations by Crafty Card Gallery magazine.  Many, Many Thanks to Jennifer for making possible another fun and amazing trip to the CHA 2014 MEGA Show! Along with being a great friend and person, she is definitely a positive influence on improving my crafting skills and introducing me to new interests.If you haven’t already tried it, Zentangle® is a surprisingly easy and very cool method of using repetitive patterns to create art.  Please visitwww.zentangle.com to learn more.  Founders Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas are very inspiring!  Here’s the tile I made during their workshop:    

3D printers, conductive paints and fibers, and laser cutters are a few of theexciting technologies finding their way into the everyday crafter’s world.  Maker Spaces are helping to make this happen and the possibilities really are endless.  Tony and Matt from Maker House are awesome.  Check out their website and YouTube channel: http://makerhouse.org;http://www.youtube.com/user/artfirevideos/videos.  I still have to find a shepherd’s hook that I like to hang it on, but I already put together my own DIY solar light hummingbird feeder after watching one of their videos.              It was wonderful to see so many newer companies.  Here are some of my favorites:As you can tell, my Copic coloring skills on their make-and-take tag are not the best, but Some Odd Girl Stamps (http://www.someoddgirl.com;http://www.youtube.com/user/SomeOddGirls) designs and people are very cool.  

 Freckled Fawn (http://freckledfawn.com) also has delightful people andsome super cute embellishments, including these Wood Chips:

 This is a lovely sample that Taylored Expressions (http://tayloredexpressions.com;http://www.youtube.com/tayloredexpressions) gave us.  I am excited that one of their design team members said she teaches at a stamp storerelatively nearby.  Please check out her blog: www.ablogcalledwanda.com.

 Since I could not find a direct website, I am hoping that our stamp store will carry Little B products.  They have a Perfect Positioner and Designer Dies that are ingenious; Noell Hyman of Paperclipping.com has a great overview video on YouTube: http://youtu.be/TuT1v8Dy_6M.   Little Bembellishments also have amazing detail; hopefully you can see the leather like quality of the baseball:

​You can never go wrong with Lawn Fawn (http://www.lawnfawn.com)!  I love their stamps with coordinating dies.  And I really like their new paperdesigns and lawn trimmings colors.  If you ever need inspiration, their YouTube videos are really well done:  http://www.youtube.com/lawnfawn. Here are a couple of the cards that their awesome team showed us how to make:    

 And then there are the companies that continue to surprise.  We all know the paper stacks from Die Cuts With A View(http://www.diecutswithaview.com), but did you know they also have Blue Moon Beads and are introducing chalk pens?  So much fun:

 

I was drawn to the new midi StazOn colors in their beautiful packaging (http://www.tsukineko.com;http://www.youtube.com/user/ImagineCraftsvideos):

 My favorite class was the one with Karen Burniston featuring her new dies, which can be seen on her YouTube channel: http://youtu.be/-EovQwpI_BI .  She has teamed up with Elizabeth Craft Designs (http://www.ecraftdesigns.com;http://www.youtube.com/user/ecraftdesigns).  They are known for their wonderful Peel-Off stickers, but are now also bringing us these innovative dies.

 Finally, can you believe this was put together in literally 6 minutes at theFiskars booth?  

Granted, most of the pieces were ready to assemble.  All we had to do was punch the Daisy Mae Intricate flowers, decorate the hexagon foil embellishment (cut and embossed with the Fuse Creativity System) with alcohol ink, spray the paper pieces with an iridescent spray mist, and assemble.  Some other CHA exclusive projects can be found on Fiskars website: http://www2.fiskars.com/Inspiration-Projects/CHA-Exclusive-Projects.Thanks again to Jennifer for this amazing opportunity and Thank You for reading this post!  I hope you enjoyed seeing the 2014 MEGA show with me.  Yes, I do believe art (and crafts!) really is (are) for everybody.   

Crafty Card Gallery January 24, 2014

#CHASHOW / die cuts with a view / Elizabeth craft / fiskars / freckled fawn / Karen burniston / lawn fawn / little B / maker house / Some odd girl stamps / stazon / taylored expressions / Zentangle /

CHA day 2

Today was our 2nd day at CHA. it was sort of a hodge lodge day but pretty cool. We got up early for our class – but were not willing to stand in the LONG line for Starbucks. 

So we went to our Zentangle class – given by Maria Thomas and Rick Roberts – the creators of Zentangle.  If you’ve never seen it, Zentangle is ” an easy to learn and relaxing method of creating beautiful images from repetitive patterns.”  I bought a Zentangle book a few weeks ago and have been practicing. I LOVE it!  I find it incredibly relaxing and I have total angst about drawing!  So they were great speakers and talked about how they developed it & you could see their passion. It was really motivating…  So while they spoke they drew Zentangle on the stage. It was beautiful
Here’s one of my tangles for comparison
Then we went & had my Starbucks and a really early lunch and then went out to the show floor. 
We got a cool stamp and saw these cool stackable letter stamps (GENIUS) from Mason Row

Then we saw some cool LED ribbon 

Then we saw an AWESOME presentation about Maker Spaces – I got to play with the doodler (which had an amazing Kickstarter

And got to see them cut using a laser printer 

You have to love these cute robots from Maker House – those guys are super creative and smart. It was neat just to talk to them and hear what they are doing

Then we went to make a pendant with Crystal clay and played with the crystal katana – check out their cash register – and talked to the designer who gemmed up the kitchen aid. 

We made died flowers at RIT

And then made a cute card with mitres corners at Little B (they have some super cute stuff!) 

And then we made a now using the Brilliant bow maker by little pink lady bug

And did a cute make & take at art impressions

And then at Lawn fawn a card!

And then we went to the Silhoutte booth and I got to see how to do smooth heat transfer (I have the kit but have never used it) 
He was great at taking it apart
We also saw the Brother scan and cut. Pretty cool technology. – it scans an image and then cuts it – but there’s a rumor the Cameo may have some capability later this year.

And we saw a great tangle 

And then we met up with friends for a Copic class where we learned to color photos that had been turned into black and white – called tracing memories. 

It was a great class but there wasn’t enough time!!!
Here’s Rupert who caused me lots of angst:

All in all an action packed day!  We did more than this – but these are the highlights!

Come back tomorrow for day 3!
Goodnight!

Crafty Card Gallery January 13, 2014

#CHASHOW / art impressions / brilliant bow maker / brother scan n cut / Copic / crystal katana / lawn fawn / little B / maker house / mason row / RIT / silhoutte cameo / Zentangle /