I just had hubby draw a name — and the winner of the $20 gift card from Michaels is……
Nadia (WithGlitteringEyes.blogspot.com)
Congratulations, Nadia!!
Please contact me so I can get your gift card in the mail.
And a big thank you to all who took the time to leave a comment. I really appreciate it.
Linda
Tomorrow, May 3, marks the beginning of the Circleville National Scrapbook Day event on the Cricut Circle message board. Many are posting on their blogs, in addition to posting on the message board. Be sure you check out these very talented crafters and have a fun-filled weekend.
A Day in the Life of Horsebunny – http://www.horsebunny.blogspot.com/
Croation Crafter – http://www.croatiancrafter.blogspot.com/
Multi Crafter Amy – http://multicrafter-amy.blogspot.com/
Paper, Craft, & Scissors – http://papercraftscissors.com/
Sara Andrews – http://sarawandrews.com/
Scrapping for More Fun – http://scrappingformorefun.blogspot.com/
With Glittering Eyes – http://www.withglitteringeyes.blogspot.com/
The show was a little more crowded today than it was on Saturday, but it was still easy to navigate through the aisles. Our first stop was at a booth where a line of people had formed. I figured there was either a really cool demo going on or a celebrity was in the booth.
The booth was Electic Products and they are the makers of E6000 Craft Adhesive. They are introducing a new spray version of E6000 that has no odor. In their booth was author, designer and TV host Mark Montano signing and giving away copies of his newest book, The Big-Ass Book of Bling. Of course hubby and I had to stand in line, and we both got an autographed copy.
It was funny because when Steve (hubby) first found out what we were standing in line for, he grumbled a tad. But while we were in line, they handed out some sample tubes of E6000. Steve started talking to the representatives about their various products and asked if they make any industrial adhesives. He found they may have an adhesive that will work for his latest project at work. Then he was a happy camper.
I went back to Jinger Adams’ booth to get some more information on her Over-the-Door Armoire. Her booth was pretty busy this morning. I found out the retail price — it is going to be $250.
I also asked where it will be available for sale. Kristy told me tthat the initial plans are to sell it first on HSN and then have it available in stores. She said to keep an eye on Jinger’s Facebook page and blog because they will make an announcement when they know for sure.
I found a couple of cool new tools today that I am excited about. The first one I found at Craftwell’s booth. I wanted to try their new eBosser machine and they had several out to demo. The nice thing about the eBosser is that it is automatic — no handles to crank. I got to run some cardstock through it with one of their embossing folders. The machine makes a nice, deep impression. Since the embossing folder I used makes a card, you can also see it makes the score line to fold it.
Here’s a picture of the eBosser and some felt flowers that were cut with the machine using a die:
After I did the demo with the eBosser, the lady showed me a prototype of Craftwell’s latest goodie — it’s an airbrush system for crafters, the eBrush. The nice thing about this is that the air compressor is the base of the unit — and it’s very compact. There is a spot in the top to hold the airbrush. It will take up little space on your work area. She mentioned a fun use for it — using food-safe colors to decorate cakes.
My second fun discovery was in the Zutter booth — they make the Bind-it-All, among many other products. They are introducing the Bow-it-All, a nifty tool to make bows of many styles and sizes. It is a board with metal pegs that you move around to make the sizes and shapes. The extra pegs and tools store in the sides of the board and it comes in a pink bag.
Here are 3 photos of the large display showing the Bow-it-All and many of the bows it makes.
Stacy, the lady who did the demo, is also the designer of this neat tool and I’m sorry to say I didn’t get her face in the photo. She is working with a black one — the pink version is what is going to be for sale and it will come with a pink case. The board measures 8″x 13″ and it comes with what she calls “helping hand” pegs. They are for holding the piece of ribbon in the back, if you are going to wrap it around a card or scrapbook page. There are little clips that go around the two “helping hand” pegs to secure the ribbon while you make your bow.
Oh, and the way you tie the bow off — Stacy said it forms a “C” shape in the back — ensures that the bow will not come untied. You can tug on the tails and the bow stays tied. That is a great feature.
Stacy made two bows while I was there, a small one and a larger double loop one. She made the small one with seam binding and it measures about 3/4″ — look at how pretty that tiny bow turned out. She did not put the extra piece of ribbon in the back of this bow — you will notice on the larger bow that it has the extra piece to wrap around. The ribbon on the large bow is 1 1/2″ wide and the bow is about 3 1/4″ wide. I got to bring both bows home with me so I photographed them on a piece of floral cardstock.
The suggested price on the Bow-it-All is $24.95 and they will be available in the spring. This is going to be another must-have tool for me. I love pretty bows and while I think I do a decent job of tying a single bow, the ability to make such a variety really appeals to me. And to be able to make such nice, tiny bows — that is exciting. My arthritic hands won’t be struggling with tiny loops.
We ended our day back at Craftwell’s booth. They were having drawing and were giving away an eBosser. They started by giving away four embossing folders first. These are large folders, 8 1/2″ x 11″. The lady standing in front of me asked me what would a person do with the folder if they don’t have the machine and we both chuckled. Then her name was called as a winner of a folder and my name was called next! It must be a sign that I need to purchase an eBosser at some point.
Today, CHA’s winter exhibition opened in Anaheim, California. I do not believe the show is as large as previous years, but there is still so much to see and do. I took a lot of pictures so I can share some of the excitement.
First up, I will show you Die Cut With a View’s booth. They always have an outstanding booth — I can’t believe their display this year. To sum it up, you certainly can’t ignore the elephant in this room:
I found out they made the elephant by using a topiary frame. They covered that with newspapers and then added their own paper on top. The blanket is gorgeous — it’s made of what looks like a turquoise quilted lame fabric and the embellishments are all done with beads.
I had to take a pic of the tail too:
They also have a cobra in their booth — made of jewelry findings and chain. He is just amazing.
Here are some of the stacks that are featured:
And finally, some framed art on the outside of their booth:
Our next stop will be Jinger Adams’ booth. She is in the new exhibitor’s section and it was good to see both her and Kristy today.
And here is Jinger’s over-the-door Craft Armoire that is getting a lot of attention. The first picture shows it closed and the second one shows it open.
As usual, Graphic 45 has a stunning booth:
One of their new collections, French Country:
Another new collection, Secret Garden:
I made it a point to stop at We R Memory Keepers’ booth to check out their new Envelope Punch Board. I watched a demo of it and was even able to make one myself, along with a card. This is a really neat tool and after using it, I will definitely be purchasing one.
This is what the Envelope Punch Board looks like:
Measurements for envelopes are listed right on the board and it tells you what size paper to cut and where to place your paper on the board. There is a punch at the top that cuts out the little areas where the score lines meet. It is so much easier than trying to snip that little piece out with a pair of scissors. Once you score and snip it all the way around, you then fold and assemble your envelope.
It also has a corner rounder punch on the back of the board so you can round the corner on your flap.
For the card, I got to use one of their Lucky 8 punches. I used it in conjunction with a doily border punch and ended up with a fancy oval to attach to my card. Sorry about the blurred hand in the background.
I folded the doily in half and added it, along with some embellishments, to my card. I think it turned out cute.
In the new exhibitor section I found another neat tool — it’s called a Laser Square. It has a mat that is magnetic and you place your paper on it. The paper is held in place by magnets. They are strong magnets and can hold several layers of paper, so if you do a lot of matting your page will stay in place. The laser is powered by a 9 v. battery and it enables you to line up all your work on your page. They said it helps line up your paper for stamping too. I think it will also work great with cards.
The company is called Kellycraft and the man said his wife came up with the idea at 2 in the morning — I guess she woke him up to share her idea. They also make Laser Skins so you can customize your Laser Square.
The Copic booth and some of the cards on display:
The Prima booth:
One of their new lines, Hello Pastel.
Another new collection, Sunrise Sunset:
Some layouts on display:
And look at this gorgeous work of art:
Prima and Leeza Gibbons have teamed up and she has a collection called Wishes & Dreams.
Leeza was in Prima’s booth today.
Another new exhibitor is Farm House Paper Co. They have a great display and a nice product line.
BoBunny’s booth was very busy when we walked by.
This is the back of their booth, with close-ups of their displays:
I spent a little time watching the demo in Purple Cow’s booth. The lady was showing how to use their craft iron and encaustic wax paints. She cut a piece from an old silk necktie and was coating it in wax on a piece of paper.
Here are a couple of finished pieces that were on display:
This picture shows a napkin with a picture of Queen Elizabeth on it and how the lady incorporated it into her cover:
I plan on going back to Purple Cow’s booth so I can learn more about this technique.
I haven’t knitted in years, but this display using Bernat yarn caught my eye. The afghan was so soft.
I have a lot more pictures to post, but for some reason it is taking forever to upload them onto my blog. I have been working for several hours now just to get these up. Since I want to be back at the show when they open in the morning, it’s time to call it a night.
My final picture will be of my one purchase today. I hadn’t planned on buying this, just knew that I was going to at some point. I had my dear hubby at the show with me today, and when we stopped in the booth to look at Klic-n-Kut’s Zing die cutting machine, he must have noticed me drooling because he said to go ahead and buy it. The lady said they brought a machine with them and it is at their hotel. She is bringing the machine to the show tomorrow and I can bring it home with me. I am very excited! It will be a week or two before I can play with it though — I have several embroidery orders I have to get out first.
I received a couples on inquires on my Pig Card With Pinwheels asking what eyelash yarn is. Eyelash yarn is a novelty yarn that has long strands (that resemble hair) coming out from the main thread. It looks like a strand of eyelashes. The yarn I used for the pink fringe dress on the pig is from Bernat and is called Boa. I found it at my local Joann’s store.
Many years ago when I was into making dolls and teddy bears, I learned a technique to make something similar to eyelash yarn using grosgrain ribbon. I used this technique using wide grosgrain ribbon to make eyelashes for some of my critters. I simply glued the eyelash ribbon behind the eye buttons and had nice, long black lashes.
To make a fringe from grosgrain ribbon, cut a strip of ribbon.
You will notice that the ribbon has a bound edge on both the upper and lower edges. Take your scissors and trim one edge off the ribbon. You want to do this on just the one edge.
I then take a pin and start raveling out the threads that run the length of the piece of ribbon. I usually do just a couple at a time, and then repeat until all the threads are pulled out.
Once you have removed all the threads, your ribbon should look like this. Notice that the color is not as bright as what you started out with. The brighter color can be seen on the top strip of the ribbon.
Then you can cut your ribbon into pieces and lay them on top of each other to fill in your cut shape.
For the pig’s dress, I layered all my yarn on top of each other on the cut Cricut shape, glued it down and then turned the piece over and trimmed the yarn to the shape of the dress.
Boy, it has been a long time since I posted anything on our poor ol’ blog. I have been busy with the embroidery business, which is such a blessing after being so slow last year.
I want to share a couple of flowers I made with one of the new EK Success Dimensional Punches. EK released four new punches for making flowers and I was able to find them at Joann’s. The new punches are: Doily Petals, Gerber Daisy, Dahlia, and Carnation. The one I used to make these two flowers is the Doily Petals punch. These are the first two flowers I made — I haven’t had a chance to try the other punches yet. But after making these flowers, I am looking forward to playing with the other punches.
Before trying to make a flower, I watched a couple of videos showing how to use these new punches. The video I watched on a blog called Tinker Planet really helped. She showed making a flower using the directions given on the back of the punch package and then showed her method. I made the blue flower using her method.
I cut two strips from a scrap of 12″ K & Company paper for my petals. I put tape at the bottom of each strip using my ATG gun, just as shown in the video. I wrapped my two strips around a chopstick. But instead of gluing a pearl or gem in the center of the flower, I cut another strip of petals and used just six petals from this strip. I wrapped them tightly around a very small paint brush and then glued them in the center of my previous two strips, to hide the hole in the middle.
As in the video, I pulled all my petals down — just like peeling a banana. Here is a picture showing the side view of the flower.
The second flower is my creation. When I was looking at the strips of petals after punching them, I was reminded of a Spellbinders flower die that I have. The only difference is that it is a round die — so the petals are all nicely in a circle. I wondered how I could get the petals on the strip into a circle.
I thought maybe I could score the strip and then fold it, like making a rosette, and get it into a circle. I put the strip on my Martha Stewart score board and started scoring a line on each petal. I scored right next to where the petal joined the bottom strip, scoring just once on each petal — but always scoring on the same side of each petal.
Then I folded along each score line and folded the petal until it was almost touching the next petal. When I got to the end of the 12″ strip, I joined the ends. Then I punched out a 1″ circle and glued my rosette onto it. I made two layers and glued them together. Then I took a third circle and put in the center of the flower and added some Flower Soft around the edges.
This flower is also cut from a scrap of K & Company paper. I guess it looks OK — it reminds me of a sunflower. And here is a side view so you can see the layers and dimension.
Recent Comments