simply me

pictoral highlights of cha

1 degree of separation celebrity encounter
on the Thursday before cha i taught at stamping details in Poway, CA.
in the middle of class a conversation began about the golden globes and our favorite tv shows that have either been canceled or we can't get enough of.

anyway, Claudine was quietly smiling, listening...
by the end of the conversation she revealed that she is a famous tv actor's sister.
take a good look she looks exactly like a female version of her brother.
can you guess who her brother is?

Claudine if your reading this, i am ready to come back to CA whenever you are!!!

for no other reason, here are some random happy pics from my cha week
tim's birds...god that man is an altered icon

found these 1/2 Styrofoam ball flowers in the basicgrey booth and their fricken genius

i sat with chris cozen (she's amazing!) at the Golden booth for a little while on the edge of my seat with all the product knowledge she had to share. i love mediums and even find myself intimidated by them, but no more!!
i just dropped her book Altered Surfaces: Using Acrylic Paints With Gels, Mediums, Grounds & Pastes  into my amazon shopping cart. it explains everything you wanted to know about how to use and apply the different golden mediums.

had to have a shot of this, me and my 1st product line release.
i totally look like a dork and i love it!
have a good weekend everyone!

we are off to buy cole a new big boy bed, he has had this one (wow, that post is from 2006? where has the time gone?) and he has finally outgrown it.

flip clips from cha

glitz
unity stamps
therm o web/mimi
accuquilt
vintaj
port-a-palette

i didn't video these, but tim holtz's new idea-ology stuff was really cool and as always hambly's stuff makes me swoon

check this fun video out by craft critique too.

also my new fabric scrapbooking line with prima will be out in MARCH!!! and has an awesome price point!
look for it at your local scrapbook stores as well as on my website.

edited - ok so you totally couldn't tell what die i was holding at the accuquilt booth because of the compression of the video, so i had to post a still...lol!

still makes me laugh!

Hanging at in Anaheim

Having an amazing time at cha! Hanging out with my sister in law nancy and eating banana splits!

Be back home on thursday.

going to CHA!!

here are a couple of sneak peeks of my new fabric scrapbooking line with prima. these are pre production samples, but you'll get the idea.

the fabric album is 8x8 and comes with 5 canvas (2 sided with batting between) pages and 5 page protectors so you can mix and match both traditional and fabric scrapbooking.

as an extension of the line, i have embroidered canvas tags, quilted elements and page/photo tabs (tabs and quilted elements aren't pictured)

here are some of the pages i did as samples for the prima booth.

canvas page (gessoed and painted the background) qnd quilted house. (house has pre cut and sewn cut outs).

painted canvas page and tag

stamped raw canvas and quilted bird

painted canvas page and tag

layout in page protector (these are not the real size- they will be 8x8) and tab

painted canvas page and raw canvas quilted  fleur de lis

  with fabric and paint around photo

raw page with fabric and paint around photo

this is my fav! so simple.

the flower on the cover is one of the quilted elements...happy stitching!!!

ok i am going to try and post from the road!!

see you in cali!

love yall!!

the ULTIMATE CRUSE rocked!

i really do not know where to start.
first let me say Jim West is frickin' HILARIOUS.
i have already signed on for 2 more scrapmap trips in 2010
(SO start putting your pennies, ok quarters in that piggy bank now.)
get this, IRELAND in the spring and AFRICAN SAFARI in the fall!!
trips of a lifetime!!!
i taught my new swatches class for the first time...
It is my new "ALL TIME FAVORITEST" class i have ever taught!
the students totally embraced their inner artist and got super-CREATIVE!
bill and i had so much fun with all the students, teachers and lets face it, a cruise ship in the middle of the carribean is just about the best classroom ever!

i got my photos uploaded and wanted to share some of the fun and excursions.
these are from key west, fl



jamaica - atv's

cliff diving


had to have a red stripe ( okay, okay, i had 2)

dunns river falls

"ya mon" - check out my rasta man!

margie has a couple really cute ones of bill all dressed up with his braids at dinner. i will have to get them from her!

so much fun!

E - A - G - L - E - S...EAGLES!!

just got back from the ultimate cruise
and quite frankly it was one of the best events ever!
made new friends,
danced with old friends,
made art and
drank many an umbrella drink!

will post more and photos about it tomorrow,
but today we are all about the playoff game in the downey house

"fly eagles fly,
on the road to victory..."

EDITED - um yeah that didn't go well...

new magnets have all arrived!

the newest magnets arrived today and are now available in the shop.
so pleased with how them came out!
check em out.
the calendar magnets are limited and are 40% off so get one quick!

just finalizing all the last minute packing and family stuff, going to go to the gym and then spend a quiet night with my family.

get all the hugs and kisses i can before spending a WEEK IN THE CARIBBEAN!!!

YAHOO!! can't wait to set sail with all you creative ladies!!

gotta love facebook

i love it when random photos from elementary school show up on facebook.
i swear it feels like that was a lifetime ago,
kinda like it happened in a land far, far away.
the picture above is of the girls varsity soccer team,
i was in 7th grade (belmar elementary school c. 1984).

this next photo is of my 8th grade graduation. (belmar elementary school c.1985)

this last one is of my third grade class

can you find me in all 3?

...................................................................................................................................

EDITED ok so most all of you got it!!

• soccer photo - standing 2nd from the left
• graduation photo - top row 2nd from the left
• 3rd grade - middle row 3rd from the left

i promise i will be back

just crazy busy getting ready for the ultimate cruise
(WE LEAVE IN 3 DAYS!!!)
i promise i will post something tomorrow!

inspiration journal beginnings...

i have taken a little time to start playing in my inspiration journal. my journal isn't a "thoughts" journal because if you have ever met me i will be the first one to tell you "I HATE TO JOURNAL."

what my inspiration journal is, is

• a place for me to collect bits of inspiration,
• a style guide,
• a visual journey of the artist i am,
• a place to play
• and a source for ideas.

Like an artistic security blanket, when it is full and bursting at the seems it will tell my story like a visual time capsule.

this will be an ongoing work in progress, but i wanted to share with you how i have gotten started adding to its pages.

the inspiration journals covers are a cotton print on the outside and canvas on the inside (the canvas makes it nice and stiff instead of too floppy), ribbon bound inside are12 white pages and 14 varied inclusion pages, covered button and elastic toggle.

adding paint, book text, stamps, photos, etc...

i love book text and masking tape!

paint swatches

more stamps (this converse stamp is my ALL TIME FAVORITE/postmodern design-hi tops in a box)

tattered angels and their screens

i love tags! not sure what i will put on them, but i love them just like this!

that blue on the edge of the page is turquoise duct tape...love that!

i skipped a couple pages that i left blank, but you can get the idea...it is all about building layers.

Ok so this is where the book would traditionally stop. but you can keep adding to it! i added an entire second signature (ok so you may have noticed i exchanged some white pages for green too). i haven't done much past the first signature.

this is my favorite part, it is barely added to and it looks like things are bursting out! i love stick-outs!

you can get one of the inspiration journals i recently made, ready for you to start working in, an assembled kit ready to make (includes the how-to video) OR simply download the how-to video and make one of your own!

let me know if you have any inspiration journal questions!!

Also, look for my january newsletter in your inboxes today...has some exciting CHA news in it!