Category Archives: CHA

love you. that’s all.

Posted on January 25, 2016 | 7 comments

I love teaching, and I also love learning new things! Today I am practicing some new-to-me watercolor techniques that I’ve learned at Online Card Classes with the talented Dawn Woleslagle from Wplus9 Design. I’ve not really done much watercolor…at all. So, this was my first attempt at a watercolor background. I thought I’d screw it up, but Dawn’s instruction was great, and I was really happy with the outcome.

There were a lot of great supply option recommendations, and I realized that I liked the tube watercolors to pan, so for this card I used Prussian Blue and Sap Green Cotman watercolor and a flat brush to create the design. I took the background and added a simple sentiment from a loved Concord & 9th set, Love You. Mean It. I think this works for a great masculine card, and I’m excited to try some other fun backgrounds!

I had the opportunity to meet Greg – half of the fantabulous Concord & 9th leadership team at CHA a few weeks ago. Crafty people are such good people!

The long, cold days have been good for my crafting lately, and I’ve got several things to share over the weeks, so… see you soon! Have a great day!

7 Comments

Posted in CHA, Concord & 9th

Back from CHA and Seasons Givings Winner

Posted on January 16, 2016 | 4 comments

I’m back from a great week of Copic Classes and the Craft Hobby Association trade show in Anaheim, California! It was wonderful to see so many paper crafters, as well as the new products coming for the new year!

Thank you all so much for the beautiful comments on the Seasons Givings blog hop! Loved your grateful thoughts to start a new year! My winner is posted below, but I also wanted to share some of my favorite CHA moments…

I didn’t take too many photos, but I have a few… my photos are about the people. Echoing other shares I’ve read this week, there were lots of pretty things to look at on display, but paper crafting people make the experience like no other…

This first photo is from Plaza Square Park in historic Orange, California. A little chilly the day we visited, but beautiful none-the-less.

Here I am with my Copic teammate and friend, Cindy Lawrence and the fabulous Tosha Lyyendekker. We enjoy chatting about all things paper and crafts, but with Tosh in California, Cindy from New Hampshire and myself in the midwest, it’s fun to just chit chat about life in general. Love them!

While I was gone, I taught three fun workshops in Anaheim – Coloring Faces and Hair, Vintage Values and Monotone and Coloring Cloths and Accessories. I love teaching these classes, especially seeing a student’s progression through the two days – often students who have never colored with Copic before! Transforming and FUN!

After two full days of Copic classes for me, it was time to walk the show floor. This is Cindy and one of my longest known paper crafting friends, Jami Sibley in a full size teepee the Spellbinders booth! It’s always great to chit chat about the new finds and brainstorm ways we could envision using so many fun new tools!

And, such a great moment of the show for me was brief but fabulous as the Splitcoaststampers Crew – Dina Kowal – our insanely talented artist in residence, our amazingly fun and organized community manager Lydia Fiedler and myself were all together for about 10 minutes! Love working with such talented women!

I feel rested, revived and inspired after the trade show, and I’m looking forward to a fun new year!

Thanks so much for all of your support and encouragement of myself and your fellow paper crafters. We are a special collective, caring group, and I love that!

For my Seasons Givings hoppers, my winner is Robyn Smith, like so many of you and myself, she was most grateful for her family this year! I’ve emailed Robyn, and I wish each of you a beautiful, beautiful new year!

4 Comments

Posted in CHA, Copics

Hello from Las Vegas

Posted on July 23, 2013 | Leave a comment

I made it to Vegas for the Craft & Hobby Associations “Create ‘n Connect Summer Show”! I have a lot of meetings scheduled for today and tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing what all of my favorite paper and stamp companies have to share, as well! I’d promise pictures, but I’ve learned that I’m not very good at follow-thru on that. Maybe this will be the trip I surprise myself!

This was a quick and easy card that I put together with Blueprints 3 dies from My Favorite Things. When I say quick and easy, I mean like 30 minutes or less. The stitching takes a few minutes! {wink} I really, really like the Blueprints dies for speed and layering prowess.

When I was in Virginia at the end of May, I got to spend two whole days with my dear friend, Michele (and I just realized I don’t have a picture of us – so I’ve included one of the view for the majority of my vacation – from our family fishing dock, sadly my Vegas view doesn’t look anything like this! LOL!), and shortly after that trip she gifted me some of these pretty sequins. So easy to just drop on my card, and they are flat. Which reminds me, I’m pretty sure I still owe Michele about $17.67 for a stamp order that we shared the shipping on. I’ll need to get on that! I’d hate to lose such a dear friend over $17.67. LOL.

The sentiment is from MFT’s Sweet Roses set! And, the paper, well, I’ve had an attachment to this pretty paper for a while, and now I can’t find the original pad to source it. The troubles of a hoarding card maker.

So, we’ll see if I surprise you (and myself!) with images from Vegas! Until then,

be crafty. be happy.

Bee Yourself

Posted on January 28, 2013 | 3 comments

I’m alive! And, yesterday afternoon, I got to stamp!

I had sometime to myself yesterday afternoon, and I was excited to participate in the Featured Stamper Challenge at Splitcoast. Bonnie is such a fabulous card maker, so it was fun to peek through her beautiful gallery.

I love her style, and this card gave me a great excuse to ink up some new stamps that I just had to order after seeing them at CHA: Meant to Bee and Where My Honey Is from Darcie’s.

I do have a CHA Follow Up post coming. Maybe tomorrow. You know how that goes, but here are two quick photos from the week:

Jami (left) and I always try to spend some time walking the CHA show floor together, and stopping in to visit with Jackie (right) at Inky Antics is always a highlight. Jackie is just a doll, and her stamps are darling. She’s always in the Stamper’s Anonymous booth since her line and Darcie’s from today’s project are both manufactured by Stamper’s Anonymous. You’ll be seeing some *inky* goodness from her here on my blog soon. So many cute things. We always enjoy catching up about the industry, trends and life.

Hands down, people are my favorite thing about paper crafting. I love ink, stamps and embellishments, but some of my dearest friends are people that I share a paper chain connection with, and this is Phyllis. Phyllis and I *met* on the Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator site, SUDSOL over 10 years ago. We participated in swaps together and shared business ideas. For years she has been sending me CowTails, just because. I didn’t know what she looked like, we’d never met in person. So when we were chatting in the Copic booth and recognized each other at the same time, I was elated. She’s just as sweet and dear in person. Paper crafters are just *good* people.

See you soon!

3 Comments

Posted in CHA, Stamper's Anonymous

No fancy schmancy card …

Posted on February 18, 2010 | 9 comments

Just thought I’d share a favorite picture from CHA Anaheim.

I have loved working with this girl.

9 Comments

Posted in CHA, Random Stuff

‘Honey, I’m home’ and some Copic goodness….that means give-away!

Posted on February 3, 2010 | 203 comments

Wow! What a whirlwind trip. I’m finally home from an 11 day adventure with some of the most special people in my life – My Splitcoast family. My paper crafting friends. My pride and joy, DH and the girls. It was an incredible time. I’m going to make you suffer with a few of my favorite pictures…and then at the bottom, yep, it’s true, I have a Copic giveaway to celebrate something fun.

I love working with these people. LOVE. Each one loves what they do, and they give it 125% everyday whether it’s customer service emails, projects for clients, projects for the site, our Splitcoast Fan Club, our amazing membership. Really just about anything that involves the incredible Splitcoast community. I don’t even have to name them. I know you know them. I just wanted to get that out there.

Here are most of us playing at Disneyland the weekend after CHA. We were so tired, but had so much fun. Glad our families were able to join us – my hubby is in the gray t-shirt on the right and my darling girls are in the white sweatshirts on the right. Jenn’s sweet, sweet daughter is right between them in the Mickey ears. Daven’s three princess girls are on the left, with Jenn’s prince charming son. Though, we missed Beate (and her family) after we’d sent her home Wednesday morning, we had a blast. I’m grateful for our trip.

So, I’ve made you endure gushing about my family… LOL! Here’s what you probably came by for today. 🙂

Didn’t Sharon and Sally Lynn do a great job putting this picture together?

top row (l-r) Lori Craig, Sally Lynn MacDonald, Sharon Harnist, Debbie Olsen
bottom row (l-r) Nancy Zenke, Sherrie Siemens, Marianne Walker, Jennie Black, Colleen Schaan

Copic Marker was excited to add Jennie Black to the Copic Certification Instruction team last week. She was surprised and delighted, and the Southwest Region of the US will be well served. It was so fun that the entire team was there at the CHA show. These girls and the Copic staff are so fun to be with. Adore them.

To welcome Jennie’s sparkling personality onto the team we are offering a prize today of a Glitter 12pc set, retail value of over $30. Just leave a comment on my blog and when you’re done, go leave a comment on the other instructor blogs for a chance to win a prize from some of them as well (note: Some posted Tuesday, others are posting today. Read each blog closely to see when prizes are being offered) I will randomly choose a winner from my blog on Friday at 10 am central.

I know you are familiar these great girls, so visit: Colleen • Debbie • Jennie • Sally Lynn • Sharon • Sherrie

Also on the Copic note, I recently worked with Sharon to come up the colors for our teaching kits. The colors are great starting points. There’s a good variety of colors, in 2 and 3-color blending groups that should just about cover most anything a beginner would need to color. Hope this helps some of you considering the Copic plunge.

BV000, BV02, BV04
R20, R22, R27, R29
R81, R83, R85, R89
YR21, YR24
YR12, YR16, YR18
Y02, Y08
YG11, YG13, YG17
G40, G24, G28
BG000, BG01
B32, B34, B37
E00, E31, E33, E35, E37
W1, 0

Current certification classes that I have lined up (or am working on):

March 6th -Ankeny (Des Moines), Iowa – applications are currently being accepted, click the link on the right sidebar to make sure you receive information from Copic.
April 23rd – Indianapolis – applications not yet being accepted
June – Wichita, KS and Branson, MO – specific dates and locations pending – applications not yet being accepted

203 Comments

Posted in CHA, Copics

CHA SuperShow…

Posted on January 24, 2010 | 63 comments

Jami Sibley, Jenn Balcer and I at the CHA SuperShow yesterday in Anaheim, California.

Meridith Ethington and Tricia Ulberg….Meet Lizzie Anne. Their booth was right next to Splitcoaststampers booth at the SuperShow.

My beautiful, beautiful c0-workers….Beate and Jenn.

Kim Hupke is the coordinator of the amazing Spellbinders DT. Loved having her in our Splitcoast booth yesterday at the SuperShow.

This was our booth at the CHA SuperShow. I’ll spare you the furniture shopping pictures. Welcome to our house.

This was the end of the SuperShow, and we were all really tired…but happy. We get to work with amazing people.

I’m off to the CHA Trade Show this morning. I’ve got more to share later.

63 Comments

Posted in CHA

CHA SuperShow plans…make yours now.

Posted on November 18, 2009 | 2 comments

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iCEeqyvcvo[/youtube]

We opened our Splitcoast CHA SuperShow forum this morning. Check out Jenn’s video montage from our Orlando SuperShow booth. It was a fabulous time! Hope that many of our friends can make it to California in January.

2 Comments

Posted in CHA, Videos

On the flip side of CHA

Posted on August 2, 2009 | 9 comments

It’s 2:30 a.m., and we’re still up chatting and recapping in Florida about how wonderful it was to meet up with so many Splitcoaststampers over the weekend at the CHA SuperShow. We’ve attended several CHA shows, but this one was special because we had the opportunity host a booth and to visit with A LOT more members of the community. Thank you to each and every one of you that took the time and effort to attend. We have had a blast in Florida.

To our partner companies who hosted make & takes in our booth. The projects were all great. Between the I {heart} Splitcoast pin and your company projects, there were about 1500 make & takes completed in the SCS booth this weekend. We absolutely could not have done this without your support.

A huge thank you to JustRite Stampers, Lizzie Anne Designs, Taylored Expressions, eclectic Paperie, Crafty Secrets, Unity Stamp Company, The Cat’s Pajamas and, last but absolutely not least, My Favorite Things. You and your design team help were ROCK STARS.

I’ll be sharing more pictures in the next day or two, but this one is a quick favorite from the weekend. Daven, Jenn, Beate and I hadn’t all been together in almost 2 years. It was great to work together in the same room – since we’re usually scattered across the country.

Thanks again to everyone for all of the support, chatter, laughter, hugs & smiles.

Splitcoaststampers is the [B]#1 papercrafting site on the web[/B] because of you – our wonderful community.

9 Comments

Posted in CHA

Favorite CHA Find – Jenni Bowlin

Posted on July 22, 2008 | 3 comments

As a Kit Club subscriber, I was enamored by Jenni Bowlin‘s booth. LOVE, love, *love* that Jenni is in tune with card makers and altered artist. Many pieces of her line come in a smaller scale for us card makers. This is one of her 4″ chipboard books.

These are several styles of her 4″ chipboard books. They come with vintage inspired ledger paper inside each one.

Mini calendar cards – again on a 4″ scale. All of the calendars are perpetual and have beautiful line art on the header. You can see the full pack HERE.