Let's take it from the top!

Hello!
I'm finally feeling better... it was a rough week around here(!) and I'm glad to say that I'm still feeling the creative rush from CHA - especially after looking at all the sample pictures again!

A nice, warm welcome!  The LA Convention Center is located by LA Live, which houses the Staples Center (Go Lakers!), and a ton of fabulously cool restaurants and bars! 

Our VERY first stop on the first day was LifeStyle Crafts - which had an amazing amount of fun and cute samples using their new CHA release, along with the Essentials and the LetterPress - It was really inspiring!

{Fun and cute card with LifeStyle Crafts new paper}

{New CHA Release - LOVE the fry box and the Chevron Border Die!)

{LetterPress Diamonds and "Thinking of You" with CHA Flower Die}

{Seriously cute felt flowers - turned into head bands - CHA Flower Die}

{If you remember my Peep's banner, you know that I love the 2x2 CHA Peeps die!}

{Seriously cute color combo, love the party idea - the banners are from the CHA release, the blue sunburst pattern is LetterPress}

And this is just a few samples from the 1st booth!  I know, you're thinking "WHAT??!!" and I'm all "I know!"  I took 274 pictures of booths and samples at CHA - There's no way that I'll be able to post all of them, so I'm going to try to pick my favorites, which is hard since they're all my favorites, which is why I took a picture of it! 

Some of you might be wondering about LifeStyle Crafts - they're formally QuicKutz and I think that with this release they're really showing their renewed spirit and commitment to the crafting world.  I know that some of you might have been wondering if they'd ever get back on track and I can honestly say that I feel 100% that they are.  I loved their CHA release, which was titled "New Beginnings" (appropriate, huh?), and I also love how their releases are geared towards crafters in general, not just scrapbookers!  And you might think that I'm bragging about them because I'm on their Design Team, but since they've now transitioned to LifeStyle Crafts, I am no longer on their design team so I do not get any kickback for singing their praises, except to say that I really do love their products and I think that they're weathering the crafting economy well considering all of the changes they've gone through.  Visit their blog here to see more awesome ideas and to learn more about the new company.

See you soon!  Baby crying...

Andrea

Just a little bit longer...

I'm sorry, but on Monday morning I came down with a stomach bug and have been down and out all week!  I promise, as soon as I can, I'll share my CHA pics and stories with you! 

Andrea

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!