Sharing A Make’N Take

Feb 25, 2015

Sharing A Make’N Take

This altered chalk­board stand is the make’n take Car­o­line with Maya Road had me teach­ing, last week­end at Scrap­book Expo in Grapevine.  It was super pop­u­lar so I thought I would share it with you blog read­ers. Sup­plies Need­ed: Chalk­board Stand, Twine Cord­ing Gin­ger Root Brown, Vin­tage Felt Posies ~ Car­na­tion, Leaves, Trin­ket Pins ~ Vin­tage Round Pearl, Strips of Pat­terned Paper, Alpha Stamp Set, Archival Ink Tools Used: Scis­sors, Hot Glue Gun & Hot Glue Stick Instruc­tions: Using Archival Ink and an alpha stamp set, stamp your word onto a strip of pat­terned paper. Using a hot glue gun and hot glue stick, attach a leaf and word strip to the back of the felt flower. Cut a piece of twine cord­ing long enough to cre­ate a bow, attach bow to back of felt flower as...

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Create Mixed Media Art Retreat ~ Artists Faire

Sep 18, 2014

Create Mixed Media Art Retreat ~ Artists Faire

Tomor­row, Fri­day night, from 6:00–9:00 p.m. I’ll be par­tic­i­pat­ing in the 2014 Cre­ate Mixed Media Artists Faire at the Wyn­d­ham Gar­den North Hotel Dal­las. The address to the hotel is 2645 LBJ Free­way, Dal­las, Texas. I’ll be in the Cou­ture Ball­room shar­ing a table with Car­o­line Lau/Maya Road and will be sell­ing hand­made jew­el­ry and fab­u­lous vin­tage packs of assort­ed greet­ing cards, cab­i­net card pho­tos, jel­lo molds and more. These items are per­fect for col­lage, embed­ding into resin jew­el­ry and assem­blage art. Car­o­line is sell­ing all kinds of Maya Road good­ies. She always has some amaz­ing goody bags which sell out fast so get there ear­ly as you don’t want to miss out.   It will be a fun evening so stop by the table for a vis­it. I’d love to chat with...

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3rd Annual Creative Retreat ~ Bellagio ~ Class 2

Nov 22, 2013

3rd Annual Creative Retreat ~ Bellagio ~ Class 2

I shared a sneak peek of my “Tex­tile Col­lage Sam­pler” a few days ago and today I’m shar­ing a sneak peek of my sec­ond class “Charmed Memen­to”. In this class I’ll show you how to take a sim­ple wood­en spool and turn it into a beau­ti­ful piece of wear­able art. You’ll use pieces of linen burlap and scal­lop trim to cov­er the spool then add accents of iri­des­cent rhine­stone trim and vin­tage but­tons. You will cre­ate a unique charm hold­er from cop­per wire that will attach to the base of the spool to dis­play charms like a minia­ture hand­made cro­cheted doily lov­ing­ly cre­at­ed by my mom, a vin­tage but­ton, a glass bot­tle you fill with a bit of sand from Lake Como and a chan­de­lier bead ready for you to add words to from a...

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3rd Annual Creative Retreat ~ Bellagio

Nov 20, 2013

3rd Annual Creative Retreat ~ Bellagio

In six months I will once again get to enjoy the beau­ty of Bel­la­gio, Italy. This place is so mag­i­cal and if you want to see how amaz­ing a trip Car­o­line and I had all the while teach­ing, cre­at­ing and mak­ing new friends just check out these past blog posts. It was an amaz­ing adven­ture. Lau­ra real­ly knows how to put togeth­er an amaz­ing event. Every last detail is thought out and filled. AND are you ready for this… she just had TWO SPOTS OPEN for her 3rd Annu­al Cre­ative Retreat May 17th — 24th. It was sold out but sad­ly two ladies had to back out so if you want to expe­ri­ence a fan­tas­tic cre­ative retreat AND make some amaz­ing new friends you need to jump on this oppor­tu­ni­ty NOW as they will...

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Crop & Create ~ Winnipeg Recap

Apr 9, 2013

Crop & Create ~ Winnipeg Recap

My good­ness are you Cana­di­ans ever so lucky to have all the Scrap­book & Cards Today Crop & Cre­ate events avail­able to you through­out the year. Cather­ine Tachd­jian real­ly knows how to put togeth­er an amaz­ing event. There was not one lit­tle detail over­looked. Each table was draped, had a bou­quet of fresh spring flow­ers, choco­lates and an event sched­ule. She had make n takes for every­one to do if they wished Fri­day and Sat­ur­day nights, as well as an amaz­ing dessert bar. I’m still think­ing about this dessert bar. It was CRAZY insane amaz­ing. The class­es dur­ing the event were spaced nice­ly and every sin­gle per­son I met was so warm and wel­com­ing. Tru­ly awe­some. All day Fri­day and Sat­ur­day, you could find Cather­ine and Jen at the reg­is­tra­tion table or as I thought of...

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Imperfect is Perfect to me.…

Mar 29, 2013

Imperfect is Perfect to me.…

When I found this beat up old util­i­ty cart at Frisco Mer­can­tile I could not get my hands on it fast enough. I had been walk­ing up and down each and every aisle look­ing for some­thing to put in this very spot. I knew I need­ed it to be a cer­tain width and height, want­ed it to be an open piece so it would not close off the room too much, look nice and it had to be large enough to hold all the items seen. Well when I stum­bled onto this cart and saw that the price was $18.00 it was sold. Yes it is scratched, yes it leans a bit to one side (but it’s still lev­el) and yes it squeaks when the wheels roll but I think it’s imper­fec­tions are what makes it...

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CHA‑W 2013 ~ W should stand for Whirlwind

Jan 21, 2013

CHA‑W 2013 ~ W should stand for Whirlwind

CHA~W was a whirl­wind for sure. There were so many excit­ing things to see and do I have no idea where to start. To me CHA is like a mini reunion, it’s always won­der­ful see­ing old friends and mak­ing new ones.  Below are the adorable make n takes Car­o­line designed for me to teach each day of the show. I love that she always has a dif­fer­ent one each day. And can you believe some atten­dees have cre­at­ed every make n take I’ve done with Maya Road since my first show with them in 2007. The Maya Road make n takes were so pop­u­lar that each day by 1:00 we fin­ished all we had pre­pared and had to scram­ble to come up with a new one. My table is always crazy with a line...

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CHA~W 2013 Schedule

Jan 11, 2013

CHA~W 2013 Schedule

Just one more day until the fun begins and if you’ve got a flair for but­tons make sure to come find me and ask  for one of my “Delight In The Sea­sons” Flair But­tons. I have a lim­it­ed amount of but­tons to pass out and once they’re gone… they’re real­ly gone. Each flair but­ton will have a num­ber writ­ten on the inside. If I blog, tweet or face­book the num­ber that match­es the one on the back of your flair but­ton you win an auto­graphed copy of my book “Delight In The Sea­sons”. Car­o­line will pick the num­ber Mon­day, the 14th around 3 p.m. You must pick up the auto­graphed copy in per­son at the Maya Road booth #565 and have your flair but­ton to ver­i­fy you are the win­ner. If the win­ner does...

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Inspiration for a Crafty Weekend

Nov 30, 2012

Inspiration for a Crafty Weekend

Since I am clean­ing out and reor­ga­niz­ing my craft room, this week, which is total tor­ture but thank­ful­ly I have an awe­some neigh­bor, Jen­nifer who is help­ing me and keep­ing me on task. I just keep telling myself once I’m fin­ished it’s going to be so awe­some work­ing in it once again. These are just a por­tion of the emp­ty box­es I had to go through, emp­ty out and put stuff away. Car­o­line Lau is to blame for LOTS of these box­es. Any­way, I thought I would take a break and go through my blog post Archives and find some week­end inspi­ra­tion for you. I plan on mak­ing all my Christ­mas gifts this year and if you are as well, well there might be a few things to inspire you. Some­times it good to...

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An Afternoon in Verona & an Evening in Venice

Oct 2, 2012

An Afternoon in Verona & an Evening in Venice

Sep­tem­ber 22nd Car­o­line and I along with Lau­ra, her daugh­ter Vic­to­ria and a group of ladies from the retreat got up ear­ly that morn­ing to meet our dri­ver so he could take us to Venice. Lau­ra planned a stop in Verona so we could each lunch and site see for a bit. She named off some sites she thought we would love to see and sent every­one on their way. To which we all head­ed in dif­fer­ent direc­tions. Pho­tos 1, 2 and 3 are pho­tos I took in the Piaz­za Bra. There’s a foun­tain in the mid­dle with bench­es and trees. You can get cof­fee and gela­to and it has an amaz­ing view of the Roman Are­na. Pho­to 4 is of Juli­et’s Bal­cony. The area was super crowd­ed but still cool to see. Pho­tos 5,6, 10,...

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Still Here…

Sep 10, 2012

Still Here…

This is my work area due to the results of one insane dead­line after anoth­er which I have more approach­ing faster than I care to think about. I LOVE what I do and feel very for­tu­nate to get to do it but right now, in order to keep any amount of san­i­ty I have left, and depend­ing on who you speak with there is a very broad spec­trum to my san­i­ty, I must sur­ren­der to the fact that I can­not do it all. So for now I will be tak­ing a blog break and hope­ful­ly get back on sched­ule in a few weeks. I am head­ing to ScrapFest, Wednes­day (need to start pack­ing) to help Maya Road with set up for all their awe­some make-n-takes, teach some work­shops and host an area crop then...

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Chicago Art and A Random Quote

Jul 25, 2012

Chicago Art and A Random Quote

This stick­er, which was about 12″ long was attached on a board­ed up win­dow in down­town Chica­go. It was­n’t far from where I got off the train with Car­o­line and Emi­ly when we were head­ing to Navy Pier. This art piece reminds me of the kind of stamp Julie Fei-Fan Balz­er would carve. I like the way the artist has “You can feel it in your mind” mixed among all the doo­dling. This neat tile piece was dis­cov­ered as we walked out of a tun­nel and up more stairs than I want to remem­ber. I have no idea where this is but it was on our way to Navy Pier. I’m the one that looks like the total tourists when Car­o­line and I are on an adven­ture. I just fol­low along keep­ing my eyes...

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Fun at Navy Pier

Jul 23, 2012

Fun at Navy Pier

Fri­day, morn­ing after play­ing an awe­some game of Tetris try­ing to fit every­thing into my suit­cas­es Car­o­line, Emi­ly and I got on the train and head­ed for down­town Chica­go to see Navy Pier. We walked and walked and walked for what seemed like for­ev­er… I think Car­o­line and Emi­ly know how far we walked but are keep­ing it a secret from me. I swear, I thought they were try­ing to do me in.  But thank­ful­ly, there was an amaz­ing breeze, cool­er temps and loads of laughs along the way. Once we final­ly arrived, which was well worth the walk I have to say,  Navy Pier real­ly is a neat place to vis­it. We went into the mall and got a Jam­ba Juice and while walk­ing inside, Emi­ly noticed this neat kiosk that would take your...

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CHA-Summer 2012 Day 1

Jul 17, 2012

CHA-Summer 2012 Day 1

Today was a total blast of a day. It was a busy one with make-n-takes, teach­ing a meet­ing and more make-n-takes but it was a fun one. Here is a run down of day one… 10:00 — 11:00 ~ start make-n-takes in the Maya Road booth. Gail Hol­ley an instruc­tor for The Scrap­book Page and More was my first make-n-take attendee AND knew the pass­word *** I love Maya Road Pearl Bead Chain *** so she won a signed copy of “Delight In The Sea­sons”. 11:00 ~ take work­shop kits and sup­plies to my class­room then head back to the booth to do a few more make-n-takes. 11:45 — 12:50 ~ back to the class­room to set up for my work­shop “Wel­come Home with Maya Road.” 1:00 ~ 3:00 ~ Teach my “Wel­come Home...

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Maya Road Mid-Release Lisa Uppercase

May 17, 2012

Maya Road Mid-Release Lisa Uppercase

I can­not pos­si­bly explain to you all just how much I LOVE the new Maya Road Lisa Upper­case ~ Chip­board Alpha­bet. And not because they are named after ME but because they tru­ly are my favorite font style and size chip­board alphas Maya Road makes. When Maya Road dis­con­tin­ued their Philadel­phia Upper­case alphas (my first true love) I near­ly had heart fail­ure and let Car­o­line know I was not hap­py with that deci­sion and begged PLEASE NO NOT THESE but there I sat any­way with no more Philadel­phia alphas. I begged some more, plead­ed some more but they were gone, gone, gone!  BUT  NOW I have a new love and I real­ly do love these more than the first so all is well, this new set is the per­fect size and I’m super hap­py and Car­o­line...

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Felting Bunnies

Mar 1, 2012

Felting Bunnies

Late­ly, I have real­ly been inter­est­ed in the art of felt­ing. So the oth­er night while I was sit­ting with Alan watch­ing Amer­i­can Idol a few nights ago I  tried mak­ing a bun­ny. I can­not just sit and do noth­ing when watch­ing TV, it makes me a ner­vous wreck, so felt­ing is some­thing that works per­fect­ly for me.  THIS pic­ture TUTORIAL is what I used to make the bun­ny shown above. I thought instead of using yarn to make the head and body and felt to cre­ate the ears I could make them using wool rov­ing. This is an easy way to learn how to make adorable lit­tle bun­nies. Mine stands a lit­tle less than 3″ tall.   Last night, while watch­ing Amer­i­can Idol once again, I start­ed anoth­er bun­ny, but this time I’m going to...

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Need some INSPIRATION

Feb 13, 2012

Need some INSPIRATION

You need to check out the lat­est Maya Road Design­er’s Chal­lenge Inspi­ra­tion Book. Click HERE and you will see some real­ly super cute tags that sev­er­al of the Maya Road design team mem­bers cre­at­ed, after Car­o­line gave us a 7 prod­uct chal­lenge. And I have to show you this super cute neck­lace Shel­ley Hagan­man sent me for my birth­day. She makes the cutest flair but­tons. The flair but­tons for the neck­lace are mag­net­ic so I can put which ever but­ton I feel like wear­ing at the moment. And I must say I do think it is all about keep­ing calm and glit­ter­ing on. I find the glit­ter part eas­i­er than the calm part though… got­ta be hon­est. If you’re not famil­iar with Shel­ley’s etsy store “A Flair for But­tons” you real­ly need to take...

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The Oh So Non-Glamorous Side of CHA

Feb 5, 2012

The Oh So Non-Glamorous Side of CHA

I thought I would share with you some of the pho­tos Car­o­line, David and I took while we were all set­ting up the Maya Road booth for CHA‑W. It’s amaz­ing how it takes 2 days to set up and only 5 hours and 20 min­utes to break it all down, re-pack pan­els, shelves, signs and prod­uct as well as repack all the design team projects and get every­thing back in the crates ready to ship back to the ware­house. It’s crazy!!!  First you start with a few hand­fuls of these and a nice cold Diet Coke Then we start putting down the floor­ing (Ron­da, Lau­ra & Emi­ly)  After the floor­ing is down we start build­ing the walls (Ron­da, Lau­ra & David)  While putting up the walls we dodge fork­lifts and trees (not kid­ding the...

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Maya Road DT Member Canvases

Feb 4, 2012

Maya Road DT Member Canvases

I always find it fun to see what mem­bers of the Maya Road Design Team cre­ate when giv­en the same chal­lenge. Each CHA‑W Car­o­line gives the DT mem­bers a blank can­vas and tells us to alter it as we want, she only requires that we stay true to our style and include any Maya Road prod­ucts we want… it is such a fun chal­lenge. Dur­ing CHA I took pho­tos of each  DT mem­ber’s can­vas so I could share… I hope you’re ready for some amaz­ing inspi­ra­tion because this post is filled with LOTS! Andrea Wiebe Angel­la Pear­don  Anne Jo Lexan­der also known as Ania Car­o­line Lau Dina Wak­ley Emi­ly Pitts Julia Stain­ton Karen Grun­berg Lin­da Albrecht Lisa Pace that’s Me Ron­da Palaz­zari Shel­ley Hagan­man  I was­n’t kid­ding when I said loads of inspi­ra­tion. I...

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Artistic Journey Recap…

Oct 4, 2011

Artistic Journey Recap…

What an awe­some week­end! I was so lucky to get to cre­ate with so many won­der­ful­ly cre­ative and inspir­ing ladies. Weeks before the event began Car­o­line and Car­olyn put out a chal­lenge to those attend­ing Artis­tic Jour­ney to cre­ate a tag telling three things about them­selves. Once they fin­ished they then sent the tags to Car­olyn so she could cre­ate a won­der­ful win­dow dis­play. These are just a few of the tags sent.  I love how each one cap­tures their per­son­al­i­ty. Awe­some job ladies. Fri­day night, dur­ing our meet and greet each attendee was giv­en a can­vas apron to alter any way they want­ed.… Car­olyn and Car­o­line had sta­tions set up all over The Crafty Scrap­per with lots of trims, embell­ish­ments etc. for them to use. It was so fun see­ing how dif­fer­ent every­one’s...

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Always On The Go…

Aug 30, 2011

Always On The Go…

Since I have been a bit sen­ti­men­tal about how time seems to be fly­ing by so fast with my girls I thought I would share with you a mini album I cre­at­ed of lit­tle Noah when he was just a wee one… I would go over and watch him off and on some days when Car­o­line was bogged down with work. It was always so fun watch­ing him explore his sur­round­ings. I cre­at­ed this mini album doc­u­ment­ing one after­noon with him and as you can see he was “Always On The Go.” This is anoth­er album that is pret­ty easy to recre­ate if you need a fast album to make. The mini album, rubons, rib­bon and chip­board embell­ish­ments are by Maya Road. That pat­terned paper is Pig­gy Tales. Pages 1 & 2 Pages 3...

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