I'm Baaaaaaack.....

Hello, it's me.....the bad blogger.....I'm back after my trip to the Craft and Hobby Association (CHA) trade show and a two-day bout with a nasty migraine. This was my first experience at CHA and it was quite overwhelming. There is so much to see and do at the show that it's impossible to see and do it all. I was so engrossed in it all that I didn't get many pictures, unfortunately.

The first day there, I had a class with Suze Weinberg, called Melt Art Workshop. I have owned all the equipment and supplies for the techniques we learned for over a year and had never taken them out of their packaging, so this class was a great introduction. Here is the finished product - a Grungeboard book that we painted with Ranger Metallic Paint Dabbers. To that, we added a Grungeboard flourish, some rub-ons and the three pieces of melt art that we created:

During the class, Suze noticed the butterfly necklace I was wearing and insisted on getting a mold of it, so here is a picture of Suze, me, my necklace and her mold of it!

One booth where I spent quite a bit of time gawking was the Ranger booth. They had great demos and make-and-takes, but there was always a line for the make-and-takes, so I didn't bother. I did get a front row space watching the incomparable Tim Holtz doing some demos of his new Grunge paper and other products, and I finally remembered to get out my camera and snap a few shots:

And last but not least, I had the opportunity to spend about 20 minutes talking to Debbie Olson, one of my absolute favorite bloggers. Here we are at the make and take at the Just Rite Stampers booth:

So, it was a great experience, in spite of the fact that I had a cold. Thank you to Laetitia and Tonya from Scrap Chic Boutique for letting me tag along with them to the show - you ladies are the best!

And, while I was at the show, my sister had a birthday. Here's the card I made for her:

This is Sassy Suzie from Stampin' UP! I've had this set for about a year and it had never seen any ink, so it was high time. And since she is my OLDER sister, it seemed like a good occasion to use this set!! I used Taylor's sketch from January 16th (TECC51) for the layout.

The image and the first part of the sentiment were stamped on Papertrey Ink Stamper's Select and colored with Copic markers. I colored the edge with a purple Copic marker to match Suzie's top. The second part of the sentiment was cut out with my double ended ribbon dies from Spellbinders and then airbrushed with a Copic marker while still in the die. The background paper is some fun scalloped-edged paper from American Crafts.

I added some Stickles for her necklace and earrings to give her a bit of bling! The three lavender strips are embossed leaf paper from The Paper Company. I added black brads on the ends of the strips and put it all together. Pretty simple, but fun. And a good dose of purple for someone who loves it.

Sorry I've been out of commission for so long, thanks for bearing with me! I will do better this week, I promise! Thanks for looking!