Back from CHA

Hello!

Well, I'm home from CHA in Los Angeles tonight... and it was a crazy, idea filled, speed walking, Starbucks drinking, make-n-taking, FANTASTIC weekend.  Tomorrow is CHA's last day, but I think that we saw all that we could see!  This was my first time away from my little guy and big guy, which was harder than I thought it would be... but I'm sure that they're both happy that Mommy came home ready to make crafty messes all over the house!  I'll share pictures of all the great projects  and trends that I saw tomorrow, some of my favorite booths were Cosmo Cricket (duh, right?), Pink Paislee (it was totally awesome, I mean, seriously, a-ma-ZING), 7 Gypsies (of course), Ranger (you could barely see the booths with all the throngs of people in them), October Afternoon, JilliBean Soup, Glitz, Maya Road (had the best Make-n-take, hands down!) and I loved all the samples in LifeStyle Crafts!

Can't wait to start sharing the inspiration!
Andrea

Inspired...

Hello!  Around Christmas time I was cruisng around all of my favorite blogs and came upon Tim Holtz's 12 Days of Tags, which made me drool over how awesome and inspiring and creative and awesome (did I already say that?) he is!  And, so I decided to try one of the techniques that he demonstrated, which was creating your own stamp pad from foam stamp pads.  I loved the idea of it so much that I decided to do a class on this technique.  Here's a sample from the class:

{Cherish Card}

So you might be thinking... "Okay, wheres the technique??", so here it is... the bird was all done with this technique!  Yes, that's right!  The multi colored bird was not done with stamping markers, nor was it colored in, it was done with Reinkers, Stamp Foam, Staz-on black inkpad and embossing powder.  Cool, huh?

I'll be teaching this technique class at Collective Journeys February 5th.  Please call to sign up (909)793-2200 - I really think this class is cool, you'll create 4 cards and 1 tag using this technique so that by the end you'll be a pro!

:) Andrea

A Classic twist on a baby shower

I'm throwing a baby shower for a fantastic friend of mine... she's having a little boy in a few months so we asked the Daddy if he wanted to pick the theme.  I was a little concerned about this, the Dad prides himself on his "unique" tastes, but I really like the theme he picked although it's a little challenging.  It's hot rods, or classic cars - which is really fun and cool but it's a hard theme to keep baby-ish.  So, I came up with these for the invitations,

(Front of Invite, lift tag for wording)

(Close-up of Silhouette Car)

I cut the car using my Silhouette SD machine, and added a little bit of silver stickles for the trim which totally made it!  Hey, it might be for a boy, but glitter is right for the mommy!  I put the car on a tag with a few embellishments and tied the tag to the invitation... why? you ask?  Well, we liked the little cars so much and it was a lot of work so we put an insert with the invitation asking people to bring back their invitations to be entered into a drawing for a prize BECAUSE the mommy will then take the tag off and use those as the thank you cards!  Awesome, right?  Double-duty work - which I LOVE!

The invitation wording was also really cute (can't take credit, my friend found it somewhere):

It's time to gather for a baby shower

But instead of ribbons and flowers

we're crank'in up the horse power!

The shower is in a few weeks so I'll keep sharing all the little goodies we make!

Andrea

The Whole Pictures

And here it is, in it's entirety!  I am crazy for this banner.  I think it's so pretty, and vintage and cool and ... I just really like the way it all came together. 

I had a great time yesterday, teaching this class to a fun group of ladies at Pages from the Heart in Monrovia... in fact, I felt like I did very little teaching and just chatted with new friends!  Kathy (Pages owner) is in the midst of moving to a new location, still in Monrovia, so if you're in that area after Tuesday, stop by and see the new shop!

Until tomorrow -

Andrea

And the last little piece...

Here's the final piece of the banner that I want to share with you before tomorrow.  I'm also sharing 2 cards that I made from the banner scraps. 

(V - Love Banner)

(Make Someone Happy Card)

(Hugs and Kisses Card)

You might think that the last card, Hugs and Kisses, looks a little familiar... and you'd be right!  A few posts ago I shared some Valentine's Cards that I taught at a class and I basically used the same layout, but switched the paper and left a little out and here we are!  I'm not sure which card I like best!

The banner class is being taught tomorrow at Pages From the Heart in Monrovia, which is full.  Sorry!  But if you're interested in a kit, please let me know!

Thanks!

Andrea

PS - I linked up with Be Different... Act Normal - check out her blog!

May I have another, Sir?

Of course, I would love to share another piece of my project with you!  I bet you've probably figured it out, but I do love a little suspense, so I'm sticking with it!  Here's the "O" - as in, OOOhhhh - I lOve this!

My inspiration for this project came on "Black Friday", when I was at my LSS and found Cosmo Cricket's Blackboard Flirt Album for only $1!  Can you believe that?  Me neither, which is why I picked up 5 of them, and now wish I'd bought 10!  I LOVE Cosmo Cricket's Blackboard... not only can you cover it with paper and not be worried about ugly edges or the back, but you can use color pencils, pastels, pigment ink, embossing powder, rub-ons or paint on it!  Super cool.  I love a product that lets me play and discover...

See you tomorrow for the last day of sneak peaks!

Andrea 

A little more...

And here's another little piece of the puzzle...

Don't you just love the little crystal drops? I actually purchased these when we were moving into our house 2.5 years ago to hang on a chandelier that I refurbished... it was this yucky brass color and I sanded it and painted it a mat black and distressed the edges to let the gold shine through and I totally lurved it... and then we realized that it wasn't going to work anywhere in our house... bummer. But, at least I was able to use the little drops still!

See you all tomorrow!

Andrea



Under Construction and a little bit of Love....

Hello, Hello!  Happy Wednesday to everyone... today seemed to drag for me.  There was so much that I wanted to accomplish but didn't, which is super frustrating!  I did, however, spend some serious time "fixing" my blog - specifically, my past posts!

Ever since I started my blog, I've been wondering how people get pictures in the middle of their posts???  The other day, my friend, who just started her own blog (click here to see) had pictures in her blog and I was all, "WHAT!!?  How did she do that?", which promptly started a long convo via text.  So, now that I have been let into the world of pics in posts, I've decided to go back through all of my old posts and add the pictures... which is turning out to be a very time consuming and boring project but I really want my blog to look professional so this is just the means to the end!  So please be patient with me... the post today was actually from October - opps!  It was in my drafts file and I edited it and posted it thinking that it'd back post to when I wrote it but I was wrong.  So, happy Halloween in January, everyone!

And last, here's a sneak peak at a banner that I'm teaching at Pages from the Heart in Monrovia this weekend... I'm only going to give you 1 letter a day to keep you coming back for more! 

(L - Love Banner)

I used mostly American Crafts Valentines paper with a little hint of October Afternoon's Thrift Shop paper. 

See you tomorrow!

Andrea

So Long, Halloween...

Well, Halloween is over and we had a BLAST!!!

A very happy little boy... I mean Space Ranger!

Pumpkin Bowling

"Bobbing" for Donuts

Forget apples, lets get to the good stuff!  Donuts!

Fiona and Puss 'N' Boots

Pumpkin Racing

Some of happy, trick or treaters!

Nominate me, please!

Hello Friends and Family!

Cosmo Cricket is asking for people to nominate their FRIENDS or FAMILY for their Design Team, so I'm pleading with you... you know how much I LOVE Cosmo Cricket... please go to their blog and nominate me!  Just click here and go to their post from Jan 17th and leave a comment saying that I must be on their Design Team!  You'll help make my dreams come true!
Andrea

Inspired and on fire!

Yes! I am back! I had my 1st class of 2011 yesterday, which was a huge success with a fun group of ladies who totally put me in the crafting mood! We made Valentine cards, which are such a welcome treat after Christmas! It's fun to get to use girly colors and flowery/heart filled paper with the message that someone loves you!

The first card is really more an all occasion card than a Valentine card, I mostly wanted to share the technique. It's very simple, I punched 12-2" circles from a double sided patterned paper, distressed the edges and then folded them into thirds. I didn't want them to be even, so the bottom of your petal should be a little bit narrower than your top, like a flower petal. I used Crate Paper's Restoration line, which I am banana's over!

The next card is my favorite. I often have to remind myself that just because I'm doing a "Valentine's Class", that my paper doesn't have to come from a Valentine line! So, I used the October Afternoon's Thrift Shop - One of a Kind - and it came out so cute! For the X & O I used QuicKutz Diesel Font and Katie Font, I liked how the 2 different font's made the card more interesting. The butterflies are a Stamp'in Up exclusive Sizzix Embosslit die which I cannot use enough! So fun! If I were to do this card for myself I would've sewn around the edges of the red paper, but in a class it's hard to find enough sewing machines for everyone! I used May Arts crocheted ribbon to create a "flower" pattern on the bottom of the red patterned paper, glued buttons for the center of my flowers - with bakers twine, of course! My DH says it's a phase that I'm going through, since I just bought a total of roughly... 2400 feet of bakers twine...

And lastly, this card is super easy but super cute! I used all WeRMemories valentine paper for this card, I even used their "Love Letter's Embossed Tag". I used scallop scissors for the edges of the green paper, I wanted it too look like a postage stamp since it's love "letters". I added a little bit of the crocheted lace (same as mentioned on last card) across the card, under the tag and a white ribbon and a pink ribbon vertically - tied a bow with my excess and glued it to the card. I used an old Basic Grey stamp set for the "LOVE" saying on the card. Like I said, it's very easy but oh so fun! I think this one might be going to my BF in Kentucky...

And last, I wanted to share a new blog that a friend of mine (we've known each other since I was born, literally) just created, which is an awesome idea! The blog is http://shop-2-give.blogspot.com. You should really check it out, it's a great concept... in fact, if it catches on we'll be helping so many people!

That's all for now! I have a Valentine's banner that I want to share before everyone is tired of pink, red and hearts! Is that even possible? Not in my world!

Andrea

Just a little longer

I know that I said I'd be back this week... but I'm still in Holiday catch-up mode with normal life (cooking, cleaning, laundry, work, samples) and I just need a little more time! We're going on a little mini-break without DH this week/weekend, hoping to catch up on work while we're in a secluded cabin in the cold mountains, then off to CHA (first few night away from my little boy - mixed feelings on that) at the end of the month and a scattering of classes, so I'm sure that you can understand that every bit of "extra" time (ya right, who has that?) is going straight to the hubs and boy! I promise, I will get my act together soon and return with extra vigor and craftiness!
Thanks!
Andrea