See You at CHA

  The CHA Social Committee has put together the See You at CHA Blog Hop event that has been going on this week as a way to share the excitement so many of us in this industry have over the upcoming CHA Mega Conference and Trade Show in January, 2016!  We are a group of Designers, Professional Crafters, Manufacturers, Educators, etc working in the Crafts and Hobby Industry.  We love what we do and we love to share that enthusiasm with all of you.   We are so excited that there is even a contest!

That's right.  Here is your chance to win a Visa gift card (which will be valid in the winner's country) worth over 600$ USD.   Now, that's exciting!!!!

The rules are simple:

1. Check out my blog post (mandatory)  leave a comment and answer the following question:  "What is your favourite  "Can't Live Without" craft tool or supply?"
2.  Tweet about the giveaway.  (Use #CHAshow).  The more you tweet the more chances you get.
3. Answer a multiple-choice poll about how you "Cre8time"for crafting (double entry value)

Anyone and everyone in The USA and abroad is eligible to enter.  Including participants and their teams.  CHA staff are not eligible though.

Now, getting ready to go to CHA  entails alot of preparation for me . It will be my 2nd time at CHA and  I plan as much as I can in advance.  My time there is short and packed, so I try to be prepared as much as possible.  Here are some of the things I do:

1.  Follow the See You at CHA Facebook Group.  There is a lot going on there and people are exchanging ideas, making plans, and sharing.

2.  Write out my itinerary either long hand or digital.  Making notes of reservation numbers, scheduled meetings,  when and where of social activities, classes, etc.

3. Print out copies of Hotel and Airplane information and confirmations.  Or/ and keeping digital copies of this information on my devices.

4.  Use apps on my iPhone to simplify my travel.  I like to use the Air Canada app to check on my flight(s) information, confirm my booking, pick a seat, etc... (So I don't have to do everything in number 3, even though I still do most of that just because people and digital systems are not fail proof).   By the way this  app makes check in a breeze, I can bypass the line and go straight to security, if I have no luggage to check.

5.  Make sure to have my passport and identification ready and easy to access, along with my iPhone to check in electronically at the airport.

6.  Bring my Planner!  That baby follows me everywhere.  In there I keep all the information I have already mentioned, just in a compact version. Plus I like to write in it, take notes, doodle and decorate it while waiting or sitting for a while.

Speaking of planners.....
 I will be doing a Make and Take of embellishments for your planner, in the Designers in Action section on the show floor at CHA.  I will be there on Saturday January 9 at 2pm, for one hour.  I will have a limited amount of product to use for this very quick and easy Make and Take.  I hope to see some of you there.  Thanks to Little B and Deflecto for their generous contributions.

 You can also check out the many talented Designer's Displays and Work at the Show, including mine. Our displays will be set up in the Designers in Action Section, for the duration of the show.


Now, to see the other posts on this hop you can click here:

Thanks so much for stopping by.

###If you are looking for my post for Creative Paperclay™ it's here.###


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Tropical Vacation Shadow Box

Ever wanted to make a souvenir shadow box of a favourite vacation?  Well, today is your lucky day.  Here is a project I made using Little B products as part of the Designer's Craft Connection's Blog Hop. I truly adore all the products made by Little B especially  the Adhesive Backed Notes, Tapes, Stickers and more that I can use in my planner and in my art work!  The products are very detailed, well made, and coordinate with each other in every one of the many collections.

To make this you will need a small divided wooden box like tray, this one was purchased at a Dollar Store.  It was painted in a creamy yellow with some Acrylic craft paint.  Two of the spaces were given a light blue wash to create the sky/beach background.

The decorating was done by using Little B paper products and punches.  There are three dimensional scenes made with adhesive backed notes and foam adhesives.  Several of the embellishments are also stickers and  tapes from Little B.

The  faux grass skirt fringe at the bottom was made with  White paper punched with the "Fringe" punch by Little B.  Later the 3 pieces of fringes were sprayed with some yellow ink. Once dry the fringes were layered in a staggered pattern and adhered with double sided adhesive.

To make the garland of tropical flowers as well as one of the flamingo's, the Little B "Tropical" steel Dies were used with several scraps of scrapbook  and card stock papers. Two different shades of shimmery pinks and some multi toned green paper made for pretty flowers.  The flowers were strung onto the raffia and each bloom was secured with a dab of glue to the garland.

To hang the shadow box on a wall, a choker style sea shell necklace was repurposed to be used as the hanger. It was simply strung through the hanger loops.

Here are some close up pictures of the inside spaces:

Note the space with the flamingos was made by cutting a piece of the Adhesive backed paper.  One flamingo was made with a pink scrap of paper and the Little B die. The two flamingos in the front are stickers by Little B, their legs are wires, so cute!  All the pieces were adhered with dimensional foam adhesive.

The bottom space was painted in blue and decorated with the dimensional Waves & Sandshores and Sea Shells stickers, all from Little B.

Above the beach scene the Hula Dancing girl is also another wonderful sticker from Little B which was adhered to a background made with gorgeous  tape, yes, All Little B!

In the top box in this picture more  Adhesive Backed notes were used by fussy cutting two of each sheet from the same pad.  More dimensional foam adhesive was used.  I just love the flip flops in the corner.  Of course they are Little B!

The tropical flower was made with the same die used in making the garland flowers plus two more die pieces from the very same set to create the centre bloom and stamen.

Using all the lovely paper tapes from Little B made decorating this shadow box easy, and so much fun.  Can you tell that I am a huge fan of this company and their beautiful products?

Thanks for stopping by, I hope that you get lots of inspiration from all the projects on this DCC Blog Hop!

Here is the list of Little B Products used in the project:

"Fringe" Punch #100638
"Tropical" Designer Cutting Dies # 100588
Tape #100632 ( .59 in, Gold Pineapples)
Tape #100569 (.11in, Green and Gold Stripes)
Tape  #100358 (.11in, Multi Colored Stripes)
Tape #              (.98 in, gold Foil Birds and Trees on White)
Stickers #100615 (Flamingo)
Stickers: #100164 (Waves & Sandshore)
Stickers: #100311 (Sea Shells)
Stickers: #100618 (Drink Umbrella)
Stickers: #100616 (Pineapple)
Stickers: # 100648 (Hula Girl)
Stickers:  # 100153 (Flip Flops)
Notes: #100095 (Summer)
Notes: # 100622 (Flamingo and Grass)

                                                          Click 
Other Products:
Wood Shadow Box With Divisions (7 inches square)
Acrylic Craft Paints in Sky Blue, and Yellow Daffodil
Double Sided Adhering Dimensional Foam Tape
Tacky Crafting Glue
Pieces of Craft Card Stock in pinks (Flowers and Flamingo)
Pieces of Green Scrapbook Paper (Flowers)
Raffia (Garland) 24 inches
One sheet of White Scrapbook Paper (Fringe)
Yellow Ink spray
One Choker Style Seashell Necklace (Repurposed)

Other Tools used:
Small Sharp scissors
Paint Brush

Here is your chance to win some awesome Little B™ Products:  To enter, viewers must "LIKE" the Little B Facebook Page and comment on the blog posts.  Get 2  points per comment, so the more comments the greater the chance to win!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
                                         

To see all the participating Designer's work you can click here:

Flower Making so Easy with Little B

Ever wanted to make your own faux flowers?  Today, I am sharing with you how easy it is to make some pretty Mums with a new to me product by Little B, called Pull Flowers.
I was pleased to receive this gift from Little B, a couple weeks or so back, when I attended a Blogger Event at CHA and Imet some very nice people there.  The following day I visited their booth, which was beautiful, and I participated in a make and take where I got to play with a paper version of making your own flowers.  Honestly, I was impressed.  Their products are well made and easy to turn any novice into a Crafting  pro in no time!

Here is a picture of one I recently made:

Here is a video I made of me making the same flower:

Note that I had to re-shoot the video and edit my mishaps, LOL!  Perhaps the following picture of the actual instructions as they are printed on the packaging will alleviate any confusion I caused in my video:

Thanks for stopping by today, I hope you enjoyed yourself.  Please leave some comment love, and you can also subscribe to my video channel and even follow me on my blog.

Have a crafty fun day!