I Must Have This

Bake On Vinyl Wall Art

$17.50

Scrapbooking Convention 2011 (continued)

This is Wendy Vecchi. She is one of Ranger's Senior Educator. She also designs art stamps and art parts. Her rubber stamps line is called Studio 490.  http://studio490art.blogspot.com/

I hounded this lady at the convention and she was nice enough to deal with me for 2 hours while I hung out at her table. She demonstrated her new product, Clearly for Art. It's pretty cool. The only way I can think of describing it is that it looks and feels like malleable Shrinky Dinks but it doesn't shrink. You can stamp on it, cover it, cut it, bend it, glue it, reheat and re-bend it. It doesn't tear apart like grungeboard which is the main feature. For her demonstration she created a flower and curled the petals. Then re-heated it with a heat gun and uncurled the petals.

While I sat at the table Wendy told us the difference between archival ink and distress ink. She told us that archival ink is permanent and distress ink can be changed with water. An example is if you create a card and want to stamp words on it make sure you use archival ink. If you use distress ink and spray water on it then the words will run with the water.  She also said that she uses a glaze pen for little touches because it adds dimension and is not too glossy. Wendy doesn't like straight ruler lines either. She likes free-hand lines and squiggles. When she teaches class she encourages people to get messy and make mistakes (Wendy didn't say those exact words Ms. Frizzle from Magic School Bus did).

I asked her how hard is it to part with her work because I have a hard time giving my stuff away. She told us a story of years ago how she spent months decorating the outside wrap of the gifts for her co-workers. When they opened the gifts ALL but 2 people ripped the paper while opening the gifts. She was like aaghhhh! Months of work gone in seconds. Only 2 people carefully opened the gifts and saved Wendy's hard work. I was in shock. What kind of dummy does that? Clearly it was hand-made wrapping. She said that was a lesson learned.

After hours Wendy finally caved in and gave me one of her tags.

Wendy used the glaze pen for the dots on the flowers, the buds on the stems and the border. See how the border is not straight - she likes it that way.

Here's some of Wendy's work that was on display. I spent so much time at her booth that I barely saw the last 2 rows at the convention but it was well worth it.  I  have a lot of pictures with the bald head because I bought the stamp.   

Some of the pics are blurry because I was trying to hold my purse and multiple bags of goodies. So heavy!  

Crayola Art, Part II

This is our 2nd Crayola Art project. We had so much fun with the first one we wanted to do it again but this time we wanted to do it bigger and better. I wish you could see it in person because it looks so much better.

Our first crayon project was done in a mediocre fashion (blog Crayola Art) because we were unsure of what the results would be and I didn't want to waste money. We discovered that melting crayons is very entertaining. Yes, we are easily amused.

2nd project compared to 1st project.

For this project we bought the 96-count crayon box and a 24x20 canvas. Not all 96 crayons fit on the canvas.  

The day we did this project it was about 7 degrees cooler. I can't believe 7 degrees makes such a huge difference. The crayons were not melting as quickly and only the blue crayons were melting.  I was afraid by the time the other colors started melting all of the blue wax would have run off the canvas. So we used our creativity (basically saying we cheated) and melted the other crayons with a hair dryer to keep the consistency and evenness.

 I just love these brilliant colors.

Warning: make sure you have a big cardboard piece or newspaper under the canvas because a lot of wax runs off. We now have crayon mounds on our porch where it spilled over the cardboard edges. 

If you don't want to waste the beautiful wax that runs off the canvas spoon or pour the melted wax into a snow cone or plastic cup. The container has to be something you can cut open. Voila...now you have a giant crayon tip. So the next time your children complain the tip broke off their crayon give them one of these. I doubt they'll be able to break it.

The spooned wax on left isn't as smooth as the poured wax on right.

Even the spoons look like art.

No joking, this was the kids' crayon container. Someone gave it to me from a radio convention about 15 years ago. I thought it was hilarious but I had no use for it. One day when company was coming over and I was in a hurry to clean I just threw loose crayons in the can and put it aside. The kids never really colored so the can was barely seen. In all the years no child ever asked about the can to to make me question my mothering morals so it always remained the crayon can. Now in retrospect and in my wiser years I see that I should have covered the words with construction paper. Live and learn.

 

Scrapbooking Convention June 2011

I went to my first scrapbooking convention this past June. My sister and I were supposed to go together but she remembered that her son was graduating from high school and couldn't go. Jeez, some people have their priorities messed up. I can't stand going places by myself so I decided not to go either. But at the last minute I decided that I would put on my big girl panties and check it out...alone.

I was absolutely not prepared for this madness. The hallway leading to the convention room was very sedate. There were sign-up tables for classes but I didn't feel an excitement in the air. Everyone seemed to walking at a leisurely pace. When I first walked in it seemed a little mundane and ordinary. My first thought was "I'll be out here by 1 o'clock." But as soon as I got past the first booths and turned the corner there was a buzz in the air and it looked like Christmas shopping had begun.   Everyone had bags in their arms. Oh happy, happy, joy, joy...shopping and scrapbooking all under one roof. My eyes were darting in every direction because there were so many beautiful creations and I didn't know where to go first. Finally I spied many women clamoring at a particular booth and when I realized they sold Graphic 45 papers I knew what the fuss was about. I love, love Graphic 45 papers. They have the most unique papers. Though the booth space was small we all squeezed past each other in a chivalrous manner trying not to knock each other down with our ginormous butts bags and purses. Bring lots and lots of money because in that first booth alone I wiped out 50% of my budget on pretty paper.

I didn't know we were allowed to take pics so I was doing the James Bond technique and secretly taking pics with my phone. Then as I walked around I saw ladies openly taking pics with their camera and I asked if that was allowed and they said (I quote) "We don't know and we don't care. No one has said anything to us." Kahunas. I need a pair of those.

Bring a big bag to carry all your wonderful goodies. Women from out of town were staying at the hotel in the adjacent parking lot. When I first pulled in the parking lot I saw women walking from the convention center towards the hotel lugging massive amounts of stuff.  I assumed the stuff was their own personal supplies for a class. But I was wrong. Carol Anne...I have seen the light...that wasn't stuff for a class, those were shopping bags. They were walking to their rooms to drop off the load so they could go back and buy more. Either these ladies are rich, crazy, shopaholics, or super savers because it takes a lot of money to buy that much stuff.

The pics below are from the Crafty Secrets booth. I wish I could have taken a picture of everything. They have very talented artists. Their displays make me wish I an artist extraordinaire because I want to re-create everything. I was still trying to be inconspicuous while taking pictures which is why I don't have a lot.  Later that day near closing time I found out that they didn't mind people taking pictures.  Ugh.

I'm a little obsessed with "Alice in Wonderland" and now that Graphic 45 has come out with the Magic of Oz I will be obsessed with it too.

I bought the stamp set to make this card.

These pictures are from Melissa Frances' booth. I did a sit-down with her for $5. All proceeds went to the Breast Cancer Association. This lady is so cool.

Here's the quick project I did with Melissa.