Back from Summer CHA

I need to get better about taking pictures. I think I take great pictures, I just forget to take them! I had so many oportunities to take pictures of "stars" in the industry I just fortot to take the pictures. Setting up of our booth on Thursday was pretty easy. I think we were out of there by 5 pm. Other shows we were out around midnight. Friday things started out slow like they always do. The show seemed to have 25% less booths and about 10% less attendees that normal for the summer show. I had a great time with the make and takes. One day we did a scrapbook pendant, a tag with a pendant on it and then a bracelet with melt art. I had three chairs set up to make the bracelets and there was a line behind each of them.The bracelet was by far the most favorite. I was on my feet movin' and shakin' from 9 to 3 with barely one restroom brake! I actually left people at the table waiting for instructions so I could use the restroom. Time in the jacuzzi at our hotel was much needed that night but I was to tired to change and go down stairs. Robin Beam demoed at our boot on Friday and Saturday. She has such an imaginative brain! You can see one of my previous post to see what she demoed. I met many new people and created many new friendships.I was able to see the whole gang from Ranger because we were right across from their booth. I was also able to visit often with Kezia and her husband Paul from Tinkering Ink and saw a few others that I met at Ranger U. Here is a picture of a necklace that Kezia made using one of Amate's pendants and one of her digital designs.

Chicago

Wow! Jason and I went to Chicago for Summer CHA. Neither of us have been to Chicago before so, we went a day early to look around. Chicago is such a nice clean city and pretty easy to get around. We started out towards Navy Pier where we walked around for awhile. We saw people setting up for the Batman Movie Premier. Red Carpet and all. After Navy Pier we found our way to the Buckingham Fountain. The weather was pretty nice. It was hot like Phoenix except with humidity. As we were standing on one side of the fountain Jason suggested that we go to the other side and get a little of the mist from the fountain. Sounds like a good idea right? NOT! As we started to walk we did get a little mist but then the wind kicked up and we got drenched. I tried to get out of the way but couldn't. Once we were out of the water and looked at each other we laughed. Half of me was soaked like I had just gotten out of the shower (dripping wet, I could wring out the water in my hair) and the other side was completely dry! While walking around we also found some of the best Caramel popcorn at Garrett's. I am going to find out if they ship across the states. I could eat the popcorn all day. I think we will take the kids there someday. There is so much to do in Chicago. We barely scratched the surface.

Teaching at Mystic Paper

This Saturday I am teaching a Melt Art class at Mystic Paper in Downtown Mesa. You can visit www.mysticpaper.blogspot.com for more information and pictures of what we are making.

Almost ready for CHA

I would say that I am 90% ready for CHA. I leave in a week! In Anaheim we did one make and take for the whole show. This time we are doing a different one each day. I am still working on cutting paper for the make and takes. I even had my 14 year old son Stuart helping me. After a while he said he was bored and stopped. But I was sure grateful for the help he did give. Our final packaging is at the printers!!! What a long process to get packaging for products. I sure have learned alot about printing that I never thought I would know.

On a very happy and excited note - Robin Beam http://www.pearlesq.blogspot.com/ will be demoing at our booth! She will be at our booth #3051 on Friday from 1 to 3 and Saturday from 3 to 5. Here is one of her samples that she has made for us. Enjoy!

Final Day at Ranger U

These are some of the great women that I was privileged enough to hang out with and learn with. I tride taking a picture of Tim but it didn't turn out. The third day was filled with more Ink, Ink and Ink. We made another 16 tags to complete an aweome technique tag book. To say the least I think it was information overload. I think that we could have easily added another day and know one would have complained. Ranger gave us so much stuff to take home that the next day when I went to the airport my luggage weighed to much. I had to shift my stuff around so I wouldn't have to pay an additional $50 for 5 extra pounds. I think the luggage thing had gotten a little out of hand with the airlines. But oh well. After a very long story I made it home 10 hours later than I was supposed to but safe and sound. And that is what counts. I am very grateful for my experiences at Ranger U and thank Ranger U for inviting me. I almost forgot the most important part of all - I am now a Ranger Certified Instructor!!!

Compact?

Did you know that you could fit 7 grown women in a compact car? OK well not legally or comfortably. Most of us that were attending Ranger did not have cars. After Day 2 we were on our own for dinner. There were few choices close by for dinner. So 7 of us wanted to go to Cheese Cake Factory witch was about 15 minutes away. How would we all get there? We all crammed into a compact car! Someone has a picture of us in the car. I didn't get one because I put my purse in the trunk to help with space. Although at this point it probably wouldn't matter. I was sitting on Pennys lap with my back to the window. At some point a police car drove by stared at us. The police man drove a little past us and then turned around. We kept driving normal expecting to get pulled over. Either he never caught up with us or he couldn't find us. Kezia sweet talked the Hostess at Cheese Cake Factory to getting us in sooner than the 2 hour wait. They said that we would still have to wait 1 hour. So we all went shopping. The trunk of the car was empty except for a couple of purses before we started. Now look at it!

Day 2 at Ranger U

Day 2 were just as busy as day 1. Each day I started off with free breakfast at the hotel. Then off to Ranger we went. We started at 9:30 in the morning at ended around 5pm. Day 2 was filled with Ink, Ink and Ink! OK we also learned about Perfect Pearls. All was taught by Tim Holtz. It was pretty cool how we learned about each of the products. We made tags. At the end of the day we ended up with 12 different tags. In the past I have had a hard time with making the collage look or distressed look. Now I have no problem at all. The technique tags are so great. One side has the sample
and the other has a label with the instructions. Oh the possibilities are endless!!! These pictures are actually samples that Tim made. I only wish that we were given some of Tim's storage containers.