A bit more CHA

I mentioned glitter being everywhere, well here's a fun new product from Plaid. On a side note, the ladies in the Plaid booth were so nice, I really didn't expect to spend so much time there. We started out with this product- Extreme Glitter. It comes in 11 colours and is really quite spectacular. It's almost like Mod Podge, but with glitter in it. It's not messy and it doesn't flake or wipe off. Here's a glimpse at the colours available.

And the rest of the colours. In case you're counting, keep in mind that the green in the above photo is the same green as the one in the bottom left of the photo below.

The make and take project for the Extreme Glitter was a wooden bangle, I didn't make one (not much of a bangle wearer here), but Emily, Lynn, and Beth all seemed to enjoy making theirs.

Here are some sample projects covered with the glitter. Some fun Halloween items:

And some cute baby projects:

Next we headed to the another corner in that booth where we tried One Stroke painting. I had never tried that type of painting, so it was interesting to learn the very basics. Sorry, no pictures of that, lol.

Next up is Daisy Bucket. I really enjoyed the samples in their booth, lots of fun projects! Like this cute little cupboard:

Some totally adorable cards:

This fun monster book:

Here's a look at some of their monster products. I really liked the colours and images here (I have no idea if this is a new line or not).

They also had a nice black and white line.

And finally, I really want that Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy stamp. :D

Next up is a bit of Pink Paislee. I only took a few pictures here. There's this fun line- I'm sure you are all aware of how much I love blue and orange together by now!

And some of the coordinating samples from that line:

That's all for now. I was going to discuss some of the general trendy type things I saw in another post. Thanks for stopping by!

I'm Home- CHA Update

I suppose you don't really want to see much of this:

or this:
What you probably want to see is CHA stuff... I'm going to try to show stuff that I haven't seen too much of on the blogs. There will be overlap sometimes, I'm sure. I'm going to start with my first day at CHA (which was actually Day 2). In addition to the rampant bird/owl invasion, there were lots of cutesy animals. Like these from Prima:

And these from Imaginesce
I'm sure you've already seen much of the Basic Grey booth. Here's another glimpse at their fabric:

As well as an up close look at the coordinating stamps for the Lime Rickey line. The birds are an interesting style. I like that there's a sentiment that says "Just Ducky".

Glitter is quite apparent everywhere. Here are just a few shots of some samples. I'll have more glitter on my next day's post on CHA. Here are some fun, glitterful displays by Canvas Corp:Doodlebug Design Inc.:and EK Success (Martha Stewart):

I really liked most of the lines by Pebbles. There's So Tweet:

Downtown: And Emily showcasing Linnie Bell.

I'm not sure if this product has only become more trendy this year, or if I'm just more aware of this product since I use it a bit more, but multi-coloured rub-ons were everywhere! There were still plenty of monotones available, but it really seemed like a lot of companies went all out with the colour. I really liked these ones from Little Yellow Bicycle.

That's all for now! I'll be doing some more updates over the weekend. Thanks for stopping by.

Next Up: Little Buddies

I thought I'd feature Little Buddies next from the gel-a-tins release . I love the well-loved look to these critters. One of the things that's great about this set is the variety of sentiments (they don't all have to be baby specific). Also animals can work on other themes as well. I think I may make some love bunnies- stamp one, mirror stamp another and add on a heart.

For my first card I kept it ultra simple. I love how quick and easy this layout is. If you had to make several thank you notes or invites for a shower, this layout is definitely ideal! I started out by stamping the dotted background about 3-4 times on a strip of chocolate cardstock in vanilla ink. I clear embossed that for added effect. I added some fancy trim (from Crate Paper's Blue Hill collection), some vanilla ribbon, and my sentiment and cut out, popped up elephant image. Rounding the corners always softens a card nicely, I really like doing that with baby cards.

Next up I made something a bit more elaborate. I love the look of the circle dotty background and the circle frame in this set. I wanted to feature that so I stamped this sweet little bear, coloured it with Copics, cut it out and popped it up. Then I found some SEI paper that went nicely with caramel. I cut out some letters from a Quickutz alphabet, as well as a few scalloped shapes and piece it all together. This card ended up being just over 4.5x4.75. I didn't have caramel ribbon that matched perfectly in 3/8'', so I coloured this strip with a Copic.

Flower Power

Woot! It's time for some new gel-a-tins releases. When I saw these I became quite excited. First up I thought I'd share a set that's quickly becoming my favorite: Flower Power. It seems that there really can never be enough flower sets. I like the bold floral images in this set and those leaves, they are fabulous.

Here's the first card I made. It was vaguely inspired by a card I made a while back with other floral images. I absolutely love making patterned paper with this set. I've also recently become quite obsessed with the sentiment flag (seriously, has someone made a punch for this yet, I'd buy it)

For the second card, I focused on those luscious leaves. I decided to make a leafy sprig by joining three of the same image. I used a blender pen with the ink to draw the stem. I also used the blender pen to watercolour the leaves. Next up came more stamped paper. I love the look of such a bold image in white on darker paper. I embossed the leaves for even more of an impact.

Love is all you need

Just a quick and simple (well quick if you don't consider drying time) card tonight. I was in the mood for a red, black, and white card today, so that's what I did. My one black ink pad seems a bit dry right now, so I became reacquainted with my Black Onyx Versafine. It is such a lovely, rich, true black. I paired that with the vibrancy of PTI's Pure Poppy. I used Lisa's Love Songs set. I really like the fonts in the set and how nicely they coordinate with the Friend by Definition background stamp. The card base is vellum cardstock stamped with that background in Fresh Snow. I added a scalloped strip of black cardstock and some satin ribbon and called it a day.

Supplies:
Stamps: love songs, Friend by Definition
Ink: Versafine Black, Pure Poppy, Fresh Snow
Paper: Pure Poppy, White, Vellum, Black
Accessories, etc.: Nestabilities, White Satin Ribbon

A Sweet Birthday

I've been having way too much fun making lined backgrounds with PTI's faux ribbon set lately. Once you use a grid block with this set, it is so easy to make beautifully lined up backgrounds. I also lean towards purchasing lined patterned papers, but I never find the colour combinations that I want.

I really like how Summer Sunrise, Raspberry Fizz, and Dark Chocolate go together. I started with the ice cream cone, using these 3 colours. Next, I chose 3 designs from Faux Ribbon and started making my patterned paper. I find that with diagonal stripes little deviations aren't easily picked up on. However, with the grid block you don't get many deviations. That is brown twill on there by the way, I find that my natural lamp + camera settings turn deep browns into an almost blacks. The ice cream cone was stamped with Vintage Cream onto kraft. I found that made a good cone colour.

Supplies:
Stamps: Faux Ribbon, Birthday Basics, Love Songs
Ink: Raspberry Fizz, Summer Sunrise, Dark Chocolate, Vintage Cream
Paper: White, Raspberry, Summer Sunrise, Chocolate, Kraft
Accessories, etc.: brown twill

Anniversary Card

I'm really not that into making Valentine's Day cards, but I love classic shape graphics- circles, stars, hearts, etc. I was thrilled when I saw all the other (i.e Non-Valentine's Day) possibilities that would work with the Heart Prints set. I will probably be making mostly wedding and anniversary cards with it, but with all the sentiment choices I figure a birthday card, inspiration, thanks, or friendship themes would work as well. I picked up the latest colour release too, Raspberry Fizz, and I really wanted to use just that with white to create a really nice contrast. I added in a touch of light pink. I found that both Sweet Blush and Pretty in Pink just didn't quite match. Pink Pirouette however seemed like a good alternative.

Supplies:
Stamps: Heart Prints
Paper: Raspberry Fizz, White, Pink Pirouette
Ink: Raspberry Fizz, Fresh Snow
Accessories, etc.: Swiss Dot Satin Ribbon

Also, in case you're a DoodleFactory fan, I thought you might want to check these out: Sweets'n'Hearts and Valentine's Remix and matching sentiments. There's a "Spread the Word" type of blog candy available here.

Happy New Year

Here's a card I made today for a colour challenge . It's been a few weeks, so I thought I'd take part in a challenge again. I'm not super thrilled with it, but that's okay. I was trying to put a slightly different spin on a fall-to layout. I really wanted some patterned Pretty in Pink paper, but I didn't want just solid dots. So I got out the stamp-a-ma-jig and stamped the dotted design from Big Bold Birthday several times over. I like the effect, but doubt I'd do that again. I SO don't have the patience for it.

Supplies:
Stamps: Big Bold Birthday, Faux Ribbon
Ink: Rose Red, Pretty in Pink, Old Olive, Fresh Snow
Paper: PTI White, Pretty in Pink, Rose Red, Old Olive
Accessories, etc.: White EP, SAMJ, circle nests, pop dots, ribbon