CHA Summer 2011 - Day 3

 Another great day at CHA with lots of goodies, a class, make and takes and a couple of interviews and one technique video posted on my YouTube channel curtesy of the lovely Holly Simoni at the Spellbinder's booth! It is taking some time to get things uploaded tonight so please be patient! Meanwhile I'll share a few pictures and sit and chat with you guys here on the blog for a little bit!

The first thing I heard from anyone I knew today was, "did you hear the big thunderstorm last night?. Ummm, nope!  And for those who know what a light sleeper I am, there are only two possible explanations, the hotel is near the airport and so they have mega noise insulation, or I was so tired I passed out last night!

A little walking around and I am off to the Bella Blvd Summer Mini album class. OK, I am thinking that life is weirder than weird, the lady that sat right in front of me and that was sharing a bottle of zig glue with is from... Montreal!  She teaches at a store in Dollard Des Ormeax (DDO), a suburb in what is known as Montereal's west Island. If you follow my blog, you know that I'll be visiting Montreal in less than two weeks!  Honest! The Bella Blvd class was very well organized, it is always easier when everything is well organized and though really cute, this album was simple and the two hour class was over in about 72 minutes! Still a nice album to take home to finish. 

I visited the My Little Shoe Box booth and Helen gave me a guided tour on video!  I especially liked the names she gave her Audrey collection.  Watch my YouTube video to find out why! She signed my smash book and wanted a picture of the two of us with it for herself. Since they were taking a picture with her camera, /i couldn;t really miss such an opportunity, now could I!

Next I walked around the floor again and the lovely Teresa Collins was in her booth!  I wanted to catch a picture of her on the QT with a chandelier but she caught sight of me as you can see and honest truly insisted that I come around and have my picture taken with her!

Teresa also gave everyone around a short tip on taking more flattering pictures by holding the camera from a higher angle looking down.  So my friends that's your tip direct from Teresa today!

A little bit of time spent in the Graphic45 booth, but I've got to go back to that one in the morning.  It was crazy in there as they were just about to have a drawing!  However Diane was nice enough to film a hello for my friends at Not Just Scrapbooks and Artsy Addicts! As usual, G45 has  one of the most striking booths in the place!

A stop to say hello  to Madison who I first met years ago in Florida!  I did order 3 collection packs for my layout class which will take care of our Holloween, Christmas and a special class. You can see a video of Madison giving my watchers the scoop on my YouTube channel at http://users.yourtube.com/mccplg

Next I stopped at a couple of the CHA newcomers, one made in the USA company called Glimpses, where Linda gave me the low down on who they are and what they are about and then a South African company called FabScraps. There is a very short video as the booth was so busy it was almost impossible to get around in there!

 

If you haven't seen the LaBlance stamps you have missed the coming of age of silicone embeded stamps designed by a very elegant hand! I should have taken some close up snapshots

Want to find out how to get good results using multiple Spellbinder edgibility dies? Holly Simoni is your gal!  Holly was nice enough to do a video shoot to explain how to do it right evey time using the grand Calibur!

Well that is a wrap for tonight, though there is alot more to tell. I would put all the video.s up on the blog too, but that would just be too huge a post! Here again are some pictures of some of the spectacular projects I've taken.  Oh and I'll post my Maya Road video tomorrow!

I have a think for the Prima designers. All but the last project which is from the Echo Park booth! Enjoy!

CHA Summer 2011 - Day 2

Ah yes, CHA (the Craft and Hobby Association Trade Show) or call it my idea of what heaven would look like!  I had an overwhelming great time today and I was very lucky as well!

First because that is always what is most important to me, lets just say that I cought up, albeit too briefly because of classes and appointments, with some long time friends, Cathy R and her daughter Melissa, both of whom I am looking forward to having lunch with on Thursday and also the beautiful Britten P., one of my wonderful Florida Buddies that I miss so very much!

OK back to the show! So after running around for the first hour with my mouth open and my jaw on the floor as it always is when I get my first glimpse of the unbelievable artistry that is everywhere at CHA, I went to the Faber Castell mixed media class.  Can I show my lack of suphistication by saying OMGosh, the products! Never mind the products in the class kit those had just about everyone drooling, I also was the happy winner one of their three door prizes as seen in the picture! For those of you who know me from my time in Little Rock, do you recognize the lady that I sat next to?  She is such a nice lady and again, what were the odds that I would sit next to someone who knew two of my best friends!  This is turning into an interesting show in a few strange ways!

A quick lunch with Kim from Oregon, and we are at the 3M booth where I'm one of the winners of their draw! 

A few more hours around the show talking to people and shooting video which is slowly being uploaded to YouTube as I write this.  I'd like to appologize for the quality isn't everything I would have liked. My battery kept on working, then not working, then working again, so I lost track of intros and what not! You can go to my YouTube channel to watch some prima, and more on that new tag scanning thing with the owner of stkr.it

After running over to the hotel to eat half a sandwich I'm off again for a 6-8pm class with Helen and her team of designers at My Little Shoebox.  I don't think there is anyone that is kinder, softer and I mean that in a huggable, squishable kind of way, than Helen Chu. The class was an acrylic mini album so you just know that I was in 7th heaven.

Now feast your eyes on some of my other pictures from day 2.

Stay tuned for more CHA fun and do go on over to my YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/mccplg.  Thanks for reading!

Sorry it is getting late and CHA is both fun and exhausting! I'm excited for tomorrow where I have one more class, and lots of booths to visit! Nite all!

CHA Summer 2011 - Day 1

It's been a long, fun day and life is really good! That may because I've made it safely to CHA and have already had a lot of fun! I flew into O'Hare at 9:30am Central and went straight to the Hotel shuttle area.  No matter how much a hotel wants to, 10:30 am is very early to check people in when you're busy! I had to wait a couple of hours around the lobby, which in all fairness, was  more than 3 hours earlier than their regular check in time! While I waited for the room to be ready,  I had brunch and had the chance to speak briefly with two ladies who own/work at a scrapbook store in Switzerland. Apparently, Switzerland is one of those places where scrapbooking is growing and doing well. Though they did bemoan the lack of European produced paper coordinating lines. They have to import most of their supplies form the US!

After checking into my room, I had just enough time to get over to the convention center, register and get over to my first workshop! It was fun, but what was amazing was that outside that first classroom, I met two people. One is named Linda, the sister of someone opening a new scrapbook/stamping store in Cincinnati called Stamping Buddies, which is funny first because for those who don't know, I live 15 minutes from downtown Cincinnati and second, because I run a scrapbook meetup group called the Scrapbook Buddies! Linda's sister has big plans and I'm really excited to see what she will do! I hope she continues to dreams big! The other person I met is Jannet, someone I first met in a scrapbook store when I went to visit my friend Jessie last year.  Jannet recognized me!  What a memory! Jannet is part of a number of people here at the show from the Scrapbook Cottage in Glascow, KY, two hours south of Louisville and a very successful store that also organizes some pretty big events!

The Globecraft workshop was interesting and their products were much, much better than anyone I spoke to expected. We all felt sorry for them because some of their products had been delivered somewhere else in the convention center and they were still trying to hunt them down. So we did the pumpkin kit instead of the one they had planned and we are to pick up the remaining two kits from their booth tomorrow! The pumpkin is so cute and is actually a few layers of chipboard, each layer having it's own canvas (picture image). Mine is not quite finished as I want to be able to remove the picture and send it via mail. So I didn't adhere the flowers, straw, twirled wire etc that were provided to embelish the kits. The globe on top of the picture is fairly deep, so it would certainly be fun to do something with more embelishments under the dome as well. I'll share more of these projects over the enxt few weeks.

After a break in my room which is only a 5 minute walk away, I returned to go visit the Innovation Sneak Peak Media and Buyer Event of the show!  Lots of cool things, Faber Castels Gelatos, more on them tomorrow as I'm taking their mixed media class then. Also interesting, the  new metal embelishments by Epiphany and the decoratables which are embossing folders that also cut out some of the designs. Very cute and the samples are awesome!

 One of this years big innovations is those new scanable QR codes. Talking codes is one of the two companies that were present! You know they are little squares that have squiggly lines that remind one a little of UPC codes? I knew that they were becoming widely used as links to websites. They are all over CHA this year as website links. What I learned is that you can record voice info on them!  WOW! AND, it is really, really easy to use!  Just take a moment and click on the link above and enjoy!  They do a great job of showing you how they work! Once you've done that, think cards and scrapbook pages!  Awesome!  I an definitely going to use those even as training aids on my layout pages I make for classes!

The last event for me today was the Taste of Rosemont where we all get to sample what the local restaurants had to offer. I'm afraid we all pretty muched stuffed our faces!  They ran out of food about one hour into a two hour event!  I feel sorry for the late comers!  I met a nice lady named Kimberly who owns the Sassy Scrapper in Grants Pass, Oregon. We'll be spending a little more time tomorrow after our respective workshops!  That is fun too as we get to see each other's projects!

Well time for bed!  Stay tuned as I navigate the floor of the show tomorrow!

Coupons for the week of July 17th-23rd, 2011

WOO!HOO! I'm off to CHA tomorrow! I'll be updating the blog and posting video's starting Tuesday when the show opens! 

AC MOORE
Click here for the AC Moore 50% off coupon and here for this week's ad!

ARCHIVER'S
See the email ad that I got which includes a link to a 25% off coupon (one item.) which is good until July 24th.  Also buy 10 get 10 sheets of cardstock good until the 19th. Did you know that you can get 50% off copies every Tuesday in July? In addition, they have announced a contest for who makes the best decorated 7Gypsies tray with each in-store winner winning a $100 store card and the overall winner getting $1000. Last year the entries were simply amazing!

HANCOCK FABRICS 
Here is the latest email.

JOANNs
Here is the link this week's email. Lots of coupons good until the 23rd. $5 shipping, 4 40% off coupons good online or at the store and a 25% off your whole online order!

HOBBY LOBBY
Click here to see this weeks in store special and a 40% off coupon.

MICHAEL'S  
Go to their interactive weekly ad and see what they have in store for you this week! Here is a copy of the weekly email I got. 

NEW FOR KNITTERS!

LION BRAND YARN
Here is the latest email from Lion Brand.

MARY MAXIM
Here is the latest email from Mary Maxim.

Thanks and have a great week!

M-C

For the record, by posting the coupons here, I am not endorsing any of the stores, just including them for your convenience and mine! Nor do I purport to have listed everything or not made a mistake.

Busy Bee Buzzes In

It has been a hectic few weeks with loads of projects getting done and lots of plans getting made!  Amongst other things, I finished a 34 12x12 page Baby's First Year scrapbook for my newest niece Caroline.  I didn't dare share any of it with you guys until the album made it to Alaska which it did, just this week! I'll post the pages to my gallery in a few days!

I've also been working on making 50 wedding invites for a dear friend of mine in Montreal.  They have been quite a challenge but I am so pleased that I was able to put together a great many of the symbols that mean so much to her and her fiancé! It is my own fault if they took so much time, I designed them with 19 different pieces that needed to be printed, cut, scored, folded, and or glued!  Really, I need to have my head examined, but they did turn out well! Here are a couple of pictures.

In the middle of that, I've been hosting a Birthday card swap with my dear rec.crafts.scrapbook friends, (the newsgroup regulars who are now on Facebook) and though that hasn't taken up tons of time, it has taken up some!
And of course there are the layouts for my July class.  We will make 6 pages and the cost is $25.

I have a couple of trips coming up. The first is to CHA (Craft and Hobby Association) show in Rosemont, IL a suburb of Chicago the week of 18-22 July.  I plan on blogging and posting videos! I am so excited to be going again this year and this time, I get to attend a few workshops! After a week back at home, which will include giving my monthly layout workshop, I'm off for the long drive to Montreal to drop off the invitations.  I'll spend one night in Montreal followed by a few days in Quebec City to visit my brother and his family while they are on vacation and then back to Montreal to spend more time visiting with old friends! 

Your Coupons - Week of July 11-17, 2011

AC MOORE
Click here for the AC Moore 40% off coupon!

ARCHIVER'S
See the email ad that I got which includes a link to a 30% off coupon (one item.) which is good until July 13th.  Did you know that you can get 50% off copies every Tuesday in July? In addition, they have announced a contest for who makes the best decorated 7Gypsies tray with each in-store winner winning a $100 store card and the overall winner getting $1000. Last year the entries were simply amazing!

HANCOCK FABRICS 
Here is the latest email.

JOANNs
Here is the link this week's email.

HOBBY LOBBY
Click here to see this weeks in store special and coupon. Another week where I just must go to HL!  This time they have a weekly sale on McCall patterns, $0.99 each with a max purchase of 10.  If you sew or like using pattern papers for other proects, this is such an aswesome deal, especially if you consider that patterns cost around $15 each!  Love pattern sales! Now if I could only get sewing, LOL!

MICHAEL'S  
Go to their interactive weekly ad and see what they have in store for you this week! Good week to buy T-Sirts as they are $2.00 each this week! 

NEW FOR KNITTERS!

LION BRAND YARN
Here is the latest email from Lion Brand.

MARY MAXIM
Here is the latest email from Mary Maxim. It's been a while since I got a new one!  What's up with that Mary Maxim?

NEED TO SELL THE FOLLOWING:
I upgraded to a Big Shot Pro machine so I need to sell the following:
- Brand New Still in Box Grand Caliber Machine - $99 + shipping
- Blue Big Kick with new mats, only used a few times. $45 + shipping (sold)

If you are seriously interested, please contact me and I will send you a Paypal invoice!

Thanks and have a great week!

M-C

For the record, by posting the coupons here, I am not endorsing any of the stores, just including them for your convenience and mine! Nor do I purport to have listed everything or not made a mistake.

Did You Know...
That Archivers, and Hobby Lobby will allow you to show the coupon on your smart phone and just enter the code in their registers? That Michael's will scan the coupon code directly from your smart phone?

AC MOORE
Click here for the AC Moore 50% off coupon!

ARCHIVER'S
See the email ad that I got which includes a link a 30% off coupon (one item). Good until June 28th!

HANCOCK FABRICS 
Here is the latest email.

JOANNs
Here is the link this week's email.

HOBBY LOBBY
Click here to see this weeks in store special and coupon. Just a note, I didn't see a code on their coupon so you might have to print this one out if 40% off as many paper trimmers as you could possibly want actually floats your boat!

MICHAEL'S  

Go to their interactive weekly ad and see what they have in store for you this week! 

NEW FOR KNITTERS!

LION BRAND YARN
Here is the latest email from Lion Brand.

MARY MAXIM
Here is the latest email from Mary Maxim.

NEED TO SELL THE FOLLOWING:
I am upgrading to a Big Shot Pro machine so I need to sell the following:
- Brand New Still in Box Grand Caliber Machine - $110 + shipping
- Blue Big Kick with new mats, only used a few times. $45 + shipping

If you are seriously interested, please contact me and I will send you a Paypal invoice!

Thanks and have a great week!

M-C

For the record, by posting the coupons here, I am not endorsing any of the stores, just including them for your convenience and mine! Nor do I purport to have listed everything or not made a mistake.

 

Coupons for the Week of June 18-24 2011

AC MOORE
Click here for the AC Moore coupons, two weeks worth are included!

ARCHIVER'S
See the email ad that I got which includes a link to two 30% off coupons (one item, and cardstock). Good until June 22nd!

HANCOCK FABRICS 
I had to sign up again for these, so sorry, nothing right now.

JOANNs
All I got from JoAnn;s coupon wise this week is an online code for 40% off. EED173.  Also on sale this week 40% off die cutting machine and accessories and $9.99 on DCWV 12x12 stacks. Here is the link from the email.

HOBBY LOBBY
Here are this weeks specials including a 40% off 1 regular priced coupon. They are also having a 40% Scrapbook Blowout sale with loads of items at 40% off. This is also the week that Simplicity patterns are $0.99 each!  Whether you sew or love using pattern paper to make paper flowers, this is one of the weeks to go and buy all the patterns you may want!

MICHAEL'S  

Go to their interactive weekly ad and see what they have in store for you this week! 

NEW FOR KNITTERS!

LION BRAND YARN
Here is the latest email from Lion Brand.

MARY MAXIM
Here is the latest email from Mary Maxim.

Have a great week and please let me know if you are looking at and using these as I'm not sure ?I need to continue these posts when no one comments.  Thanks!

M-C

For the record, by posting the coupons here, I am not endorsing any of the stores, just including them for your convenience and mine! Nor do I purport to have listed everything or not made a mistake.

 

Coupons for the Week of June 13-18 2011

New this week: I've added a couple of links for the knitters out there!

AC MOORE
Click here for the AC Moore coupons, two weeks worth are included!

ARCHIVER'S
See the email ad that I got which includes a link to a 30% off coupon (one item). Good until June 15th!

HANCOCK FABRICS
Here is the web version of the latest email I got from them. Click here for 40% off instore coupons (1 for notions, 1 for fabric) good until June 15th!

JOANNs
Here is the latest email with coupons that I received from JoAnn's!

HOBBY LOBBY
View the weekly specials email I got here! Go here to print your 40% off one regular priced item coupon. Amonghst other specials, Spellbinder dies are 40% off.

MICHAEL'S   

Go to their interactive weekly ad and see what they have in store for you this week! 

NEW FOR KNITTERS!

LION BRAND YARN
Here is the latest email from Lion Brand.

MARY MAXIM
Here is the latest email from Mary Maxim.

Enjoy!

M-C

For the record, by posting the coupons here, I am not endorsing any of the stores, just including them for your convenience and mine! Nor do I purport to have listed everything or not made a mistake.

What a week!  I've been sick, again!  Sinus and ear infections have me down and this antibiotic is making me just a little woozy then again, maybe it's taking Zertec,or to be precise one of it's genric forms. Anyhow, I didn't get a whole lot done this week.  Just five 12x12 pages in the baby book, two cards, and a bunch of posts on Facebook. Oh and I attended part two of my favorite class ever, with the every talented Marion Smith!  I love that we learned the old fashioned art of book binding!  Maybe I'll offer a class of my own doing that!

There are a few things I haven't shared with you yet so I thought now might work! First a coupld of pictures of a larger size mini I made using the various butterfly inspired paper collections:

Next a few birthday and congratulation cards.  I'm actually pretty proud of myself!  I took out and used some cookie cutter diesfrom QuicKuts that I had purchased and put away before our last move.

So what's on my creative to do calendar?  Let me see:

A. Finish my little niece Caroline's baby book;

B. Finish and send or deliver my Mom-in-law's 70th birthday album.

C. Prepare the kits for my the class I'm giving next Wednesday.  You can see the 6 layouts on one of my previous entries, here.  This means a lot of cutting, since when my students come to the class, all they do is adhere everything to the page!  So the flowers must be cut, the doillies cut and misted, all the mats, paper pieces etc need to be ready.  Everything for each page is then packaged separately to make the class super easy.. It's a lot of work, but I really enjoy the time I spend with them each moth! And last but not least:

D. I also have 50 wedding invitations to create and put together by the end of the month! 

E. I nearly forgot, I am also hosting a Birthday card swap for an online group of crafty friends which needs to come on and go out by the end of the month!

Phew... I guess I am busy! As for July? The only things I expect to work on is my monthly layout class.  The thing I am looking forward to the most? CHA, the Craft and Hobby Association summer show in Chicago!  My room is reserved, my pass purchases and the workshops scheduled.  I am so looking forward to it!

Coupons for the Week of June 6 - 11, 2011

Archiver's coupon updated 6/7/2011.

AC MOORE
Click here for the latest from AC Moore, including a 50% off coupon good until the 11th!

ARCHIVER'S
See the email ad that I got which includes a link to a30% off coupon (one item). Good until June 15th!

HANCOCK FABRICS
Here is the web version of the latest email I got from them. Click here for 40% off instore coupons (1 for notions, 1 for fabric) good until June 15th!

JOANNs
Check this out, only good until the 7th.

HOBBY LOBBY
View the weekly specials email I got here! Go here to print your 40% off one regular priced item coupon. Amonghst other specials, Spellbinder dies are 40% off.

MICHAEL'S  

Go to their interactive weekly ad and see what they have in store for you this week! 

SCRAP-MART
Scrap-Mart has a monthly coupon code. I have3 not yet received the June code. If you have, please let me know what it is so I can post it!  thanks!


For the record, by posting the coupons here, I am not endorsing any of the stores, just including them for your convenience and mine! Nor do I purport to have listed everything or not made a mistake.

Enjoy!

M-C

 

Elegant Eclectic Butterfly Mini Albums

I recently made a couple of minis, out of some of the collections that recently came out that had butterflies and similar color pallets!  I wanted to share a few of the pictures, first of the super mini (6x6) which I sent to my swap partner Loretta! I want to thank Loretta for her pictures, mine weren't as good as hers and so she agreed to share hers! I'll post the other mini separately, when I get a chance!  There are also video's available on my You Tube channel if you'd like to see those.



I really love this shot Loretta took of the
decorations I put and made for this mini.



Prima flowers, some lace, crystal lacquer on the letters,
flowers on the rings and a little bling that is what this
book is made of, LOL!

The Butterfly is also from the Pink Paisley Butterfly Garden
Collection and the white pearl flower is from Zva Creations.

I pierced holes and ran and tied lace to use as tag holders.
The white lace was tied here and the blue on the other side.

There are three tags slipped into the lace on the left hand page!

Prima and Zva flowers, and ephemera are used on these
pages that I wanted to leave open for larger pictures.

The little tags shown here out of their pocket, go into the
bird nest ephemera which I pop-dotted up for dimension.

The pocket is created from a Prima journaling tag from
their Botanical Collection. I proped up using folded cardstock.



This mini in a mini is held together with a pink crystal
brad which is inserted from the back allowing the
legs to be hidden under the flowers.

 I hope you like the book!  Here is a list of the products I used:

Paper Collections:
Pink Paisley Butterfly Garden
Prima Botanical
Webster's Pages (Various)
BoBunny Gabrielle

Flowers
Prima Marketing
Zva Creations
Wild Orchid Crafts
Recollections

Metal
Tim Holtz swivel clasp
Prima, Marion Smith Trinkets

Beads are from Michaels

Lace
Miscellaneous