Kanban Crafts

Another booth I had to visit while at CHA was Kanban Crafts.  I became aware of them just before the conference.  They are a British Company from Shipley, Yorkshire.  (Funny coincidence that I taught calligraphy at the Shipley Museum, but that was in Gateshead, across the river from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne - long ago and far away....).  Kanban Crafts makes exquisite papers and I am delighted to be bringing in a very yummy selection.  Here are the ones which should be here soon!

There is a slide show here!  If you can't see it, try switching browsers!

CHA 2011 - the Tim Holtz perspective

Oh, this kills me, I'm such a sucker for a music video.  I'm going to have to visit iTunes AGAIN.... (I'm paying attention even more because it's not U2).
If you're a Tim Holtz fan, then you've probably seen this, but it's worth watching again.  Tim Holtz's booth displays were spectactular.  I could have sat on the floor all day and just looked at them, but then I would have been a squashed puddle. 
It's dangerous to watch this just before I place my pre-orders!
Enjoy!

A Minute of Tim Holtz

Here is a far-too-short minute of Tim Holtz demonstrating at the Ranger booth at the 2011 CHA convention in Los Angeles.  Makes you want more, eh? 

He's charming, witty, informative and able to smoothly multi-task. Not to mention he designs amazing things!

CHA - Sunday January 30, 2011

Day 3 at the CHA started a bit later than the other days. We spent about 3 hours on a sightseeing tour of Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica. We found the stars on Hollywood Boulevard, cruised up to Universal Studios, had a fascinating climb via a twisting residential “street” up to Mulholland Drive and exclaimed at the mansions of Beverly Hills.

We drove out to Santa Monica to have a coffee and look at the beach and pier. Driving is pretty easy on Sunday mornings before noon in LA!

Back at the conference, I dragged my husband onto the exhibition floor where one of the first things we saw was the display at Die Cuts With a View was a real show stopper!

My husband hung around with me for a while absorbing the size of the show, watched me fumble through a demo and took note of the number of men attending.  Then he left me watching Tim Holtz to find some lunch!

Marie Browning was at the Tombow booth doing demonstrations – she has a new book hot off the press using Tombow markers. I revealed my klutziness during the creation of my make-and-take by gluing the wrong side of my paper. Marie "punished" me by sticking the ruined piece of paper to my shirt, which I completely forgot about and wore for most of the rest of the day....!  Great projects, great lady!
With a little bit of practice, I could become pretty adapt at using these markers.

The next stop was back at the Ranger booth. Oh! Look who was there! I was surprised Tim Holtz didn’t have a million women around him!  But if there were any more around, you couldn't have seen what he was doing.

I had been wondering about the formulation of the new Distress stains and I heard it right from Tim that they were basically fluid Distress Inks and are easy to spread.  Mix them on the paper when they're wet, and/or layer them over dry layers.

So I watched as Mr. Holtz wove his magic and took pictures and a short video, then I had to run off to grab some lunch before my classes.




I tend to love little things and instantly fell in love with his little ATC hangers! Watch for them on the site soon!

In the afternoon, I had two hours of business seminars – one was protecting your brand and the other was marketing for manufacturers. The first one was presented by a lawyer and was loaded with information and the second one might require more review to access how useful it was. Asleep yet?

After the seminars, I had a meeting with an advertising person at the Creative Crafts Group, publishers of Creating Keepsakes, Paper Crafts and Stamp It! Magazines. When I first tried to get near their booth, it was impossible..... Something about prizes and cake and a lot of women...   Sounded like heaven to me!

My meeting did finally happen and the information has been tucked away. Anyone buy these magazines? If not, maybe I need to advertise there!

I had a quick little visit with Simply Renee, makers of these very cool organizing tools. I love my spinning organizer and wanted to see what else they had. (One of our cats thinks this organizer is quite interesting, too, but has been fairly reserved about torturing the items on it.) 

I particularly like their swinging wall arm and think it would be a great asset when you are working on mulitple projects - just hang the items for that project together and swing the arm out of the way while you finish another project.  How many of us have more than one project on the go at a time?   Guilty as charged, Your Honour!

My last stop was at Dreamweaver Stencils where I met the lovely and talented Lynell Harlow. Unfortunately she got away before I could snap her picture, but I did get several demos from her assistants and will be getting a selection of her new stencils.

Laura really wanted to demo the rooster for me - and I have to say, she did an amazing job with Glitter Ritz and double-sided tape!

Dreamweaver demonstrator Laura playing with Glitter Ritz!

Another products I watched a demo for is Stampee's Stamping Transfer Foils technique.  Pretty cool stuff!  You can read about it on the Craft Critique site here.

All in all, it was an amazing trip and I didn't do too badly with my "game plan".  I just underestimated how easily it was to be pleasantly side-tracked!  Next time, I'll make sure to add another day to my visit when the exhibition floor is open!

A Little Diversion

The CHA is over for me, but it will take me a while to do the final post about it.  Since my husband came with me and it was his birthday yesterday, I thought I better indulge him some time.  :-)

While I was at the conference today, he did his research for our dinner plans.  He is a Hell's Kitchen fan and he knew the winner of the recent season was Nona, now head chef at LA Market restaurant in the JW Marriott near the convention center.....   Well, you guess it.....





This is where we had dinner.

Our waiter caught me trying to take this photo from our table into the kitchen. Nona was a blur!  But we got to see her often as she zipped around kitchen.

Our wonderful waiter asked her to come out and see us, but she sent back that it would be a while before she could get away.  After an hour we thought it was time to go, so I got up and took this:

I said "Smile!" and she sure did!  I added a "Congratulations!" and let her get back to work.  So we left with a great meal tucked under our belts and a whole lot of smiles.

Nona is a different kind of creative person!

So Happy Birthday Honey.  Sorry you didn't get to shake Nona's hand. But this is was way more fun than a handmade card from *me*!

CHA - Saturday, January 29

I hardly know where to start!  I guess with the first event of the day.  I'm not sure I got too much from the keynote speaker, but then maybe that's not what it's about.  It's not a workshop or a seminar, after all. I began chatting with the woman who sat down behind me.  Her name tag said Maria, but I couldn't pick up her last name in the gloom. After only a few words, I said to her - "I know you".  Turns out it was Maria Nerius who used to appear on Aleene's and Carol Duval.  She has a very distinctive voice.  So that was a fun start to the day!

Next to the exhibition floor and I made a direct bee line to Spellbinders.

And look what I found there.... 

In real life! - a recent project done by Becca Feeken .  Oh, my - it's back on her blog today again!  Let me tell you - Becca takes very good photographs, but it's spectacular to see her artwork in real life.

I looked around the booth a bit more and found another of Becca's gems.  Let me tell you, they better frisk me next time I visit their booth, because I  think this box wants to come home with me....  I adore this box! I'm sure it will grow little legs and follow me   :-)

 I was one of the lucky ones today and was there at the right time to receive a signed copy of Stacey Caron's new book. Spellbinder's Nestabilities Basics and Beyond.  Now how cool is that?  Thanks very much to Stacey and Spellbinder's for the fabulous treat!  This is a book well worth owning and is now available.

When I examined the book info, I saw the editor was Tanya Fox.  Whoa, hello! She was there, too. Tanya Fox used one of my stamps in one of her books and I finally got the chance to thank her! 

Did you know those naughty Spellbinders have released MORE beautiful dies to tempt us?  As soon as I get home, I'll add them to my site for pre-order.  Wait till you see these!  The order has been placed directly with Spellbinder's on the first day they were available, so we should be in good shape to get them sooner!

Included in the new book are these Christmas creations!  Again by Becca Feeken.  Thank you so much Becca for loving the Quietfire Rubber stamps.  After I took this photo we fixed the bow that had slipped. Now everyone could see the Naughty Nice stamp with the sweet pearl in the Nice box!

I was walking by the Ranger booth and guess who was there?  Heh, heh.  I got within about five feet of Tim Holtz.  That was another thrill of the day. I know that won't impress a lot of you who have had classes with him, but it worked for me!  I didn't stay at the booth long - I went back later to check out the Kraft Glassine.  And they have the cutest bitty dispenser for Tissue Tape.  It's on my list!

Another visit was to the Kaisercraft booth.  I talked to the cutest young Australian woman (Kaisercraft is an Aussie company) and picked up their current catalogue.  They are now producing their 6x6" paper pads in 6-1/2 x 6-1/2", which will help those who make 5x7" cards! (Yogi!  vbg!)

I had a good chat with the Kuretake rep and really want to get in some of their marker sets.  I talked to Canson about paper and ink!  Bored yet?

I had a seminar this afternoon on making videos from Kathy Cano-Murillo and Patti Wilkinson.  These ladies are upbeat and fun and gave some good tips for the newbie vid-maker.

And last is some yummy paper that doesn't show up better, but this won't be the last you see of it!



Thanks for reading!  I hope to have more tomorrow!

CHA - A Quiet Day for Many of Us

Let me just say that LA is one busy city!  We arrived in the dark last night and well, it was busy! 

The LA Convention Centre is in downtown LA, right beside the Staples Centre (the LA Lakers were playing tonight) and the Nokia Center.  We're staying at the Downtown Marriott and it's not too far from the convention.  There are hotel shuttles every half hour at least - and these are not little shuttle buses, these are coaches!  They open the luggage bays for everyone to load their boxes or wheelies.

The convention floor was not open today as it was another set up day for the exhibitors.  Let me tell you, if you have any craft supplies, there is almost certainly a booth here representing them. 

  

Most attendees today were like me, taking seminars or workshops (I registered far too late for workshops, but I experienced some fabulous seminars! - about things like taking a product to market, advanced Photoshop and new members info sessions).  These photos are of the entrance/lobby.  The convention center is HUGE! The place seems to go for miles with meeting rooms.  I'm sure the whole population of Courtenay could fit in here easily.  And have room for their second cousins....

 

 The convention center is as long as 17 football fields according to the local touristy info.  Somehow I don't think it will look this quiet tomorrow when the booths are open.

 

I'm here as a buyer, although I guess I could have come as a manufacturer or a designer - or, perish the thought, an exhibitor.  (I think manufacturers pay a lot more to be here though, so this weekend I'm a buyer.)

I got lucky this afternoon after a meeting with designer Judi Kauffman and slipped into onto the exhibition floor with her.  Yes, that was my chin dragging on the floor when I wasn't in danger of being run over by a fork lift.  I ended up lending a minor hand at one booth with some very wonderful people.

I'll try to get some pictures of the lobby tomorrow as well as some booths.  In my brief nosing around, I can say that EK Success has a BIG space.

Tomorrow at 8:30 is the keynote speaker.  It was originally Randi Zuckerberg, marketing director of yup-you -know-that-name Facebook, but that changed in the last few weeks.   Too bad! We'll have to see how her stand-in makes out.

Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow!  Thanks for reading - wish you were here!

P.S. Usually this conference is held in Anaheim and will return there next year.

Ainsley

My friend Lizard had her first grandbaby recently.  She tries to be calm about it, but we know better!  Here is a card I made in celebration of the event.  Congratulations to everybody!

Card Synthesis:
Blank Greeting cards and Envelopes
Core'dinations Cardstock from the Nostalgia pack
Kaisercraft English Rose Decorated 6x6 paper pad
Spellbinder Wizard or Big Shot
Sizzix #5 Frame Back
Spellbinders Nesties Ovals: large and small
Mitchell #2 Roundhand Nib
Schmincke Calligraphers Gouache: Supra White and Red Pearl mixed together
Pop Dots
Double-sided tape
Paper Flower
Pearls

Congratulations!

This is a card I made for my calligraphy tutor Fred Salmon (more about that in another post later!).  This paper was good to letter on.  And yes, it is crooked.....  Don't ask!

Card Synthesis:
Mitchell Roundhand Nib
Walnut Ink
Blank Card and Envelope
Cosmo Cricket Wanted 6x6" paper
Spellbinders Wizard
Spellbinders Labels 4
Core'dinations cardstock - Nostalgia

Created byhand Challenge... oops, missed the deadline

Missed the deadline by quite a lot actually!  Does it help that its been waiting to be photographed for over a week? 

Anyway, this was for the glitter challenge!  The reindeer is all glittered, but I couldn't seem to pick up the glint in the glitter.  It's beautiful!

Card Synthesis:

Echo Park Wintertime Paper

Sizzix Big Shot

Tim Holtz Reindeer Flight

Tim Holtz On the Edge Townscape

Glitter Ritz, Warm Highlights

Spellbinders Wizard

Spellbinders Standard Circles Large

Waxed Linen thread - Country Red

Cardstock - Nostalgia Assortment

Blank Cards and Envelopes

Thanks for looking!