The Usual Memorial Day Weather is Good for Something

I could have predicted clouds and rain today in Indiana. It is always yucky on Memorial Day. 'Yucky' is a very specific meteorological term describing gloomy holiday weather- specifically on the three long weekends of summer. I know it's not summer yet; that's probably what's always been wrong with Memorial Day anyway. I can remember so many Indy 500 races that were rained out on day one, and occasionally, on day two. Race Day Sunday was beautiful in the Hoosier state, but today looks like something out of Dungeons and Dragons. No offense meant to you fans of dungeons, dragons, dark, dank, drab or dangerously dreadful.

The yucky weather is perfect, however, if one wants to stay in one's slightly dark and not too dank basement making art. So I did. I can't post pictures of my first two projects. One will be unveiled Aug. 22 on Creative Therapy, and the other is a 1:1 swap for Heather Robinson of Creative Solace. Heather is a design team member for my art friend Kris Hubick of Retro Cafe Art. I sent a picture of my finished work to Kris to see if Heather would like it. Seems that she may.

I spent the bulk of the day finishing my son's scrapbook. I have kept a book for both children, recording in pictures their lives from birth to age 18. For my daughter's graduation in 2001, I stayed up all night right before her open house. That doesn't seem too unusual to the insomniac in me now, but it was quite unusual- and stressful- then.

So my son's book is done with 11 days to spare until graduation and 19 whole days until his open house. Sometimes I amaze even myself. I may have amazed my son, too. He looked at his scrapbook- page after page of adorable-ness, hour upon hour of labor- and he grunted.

My On-the-Scene Report from Colfax, CA: Check out Miss Vicky's Cut-It-Up

While in California recently for the first-ever ZNE Convenzione, I had the pleasure of staying with blog friend Miss Vicky of Cut-it-Up and scrapbooking fame. A published author and artist, Miss Vicky has an incredible shop in historic Colfax, CA. Check out my article on Vintage Indie. There's tons more pics, also. Thanks to Miss Vicky for the hospitality and to Vintage Indie publisher Gabreial Wyatt for running my random musings from time to time!

Cha Cha Cha! Lucky Me, Attending CHA

How lucky I was to attend the International Craft and Hobby Association's summer trade show Saturday in Rosemont, IL! I represented Hannah Grey Curiosities and Dry Goods as a member of their design team. The show had 400 vendors in four exhibition halls with over 5,000 attendees expected. This is the trade show for manufacturers and distributors to unveil their latest products to buyers for large and small scrapbook and craft stores.
While buyers for Michael's and Archiver's attend, so did the owner of my own local stamp store, Jan Biehl of Stamp-N-Toys in the tiny town of North Webster, IN. I even managed to run into Lisa Dawson, a fellow ZNE  Art member and owner of Your ATC Store.
The show was both overwhelming and frustrating- everything is for show only; nothing is for sale. Samples were few and far between, but I did come home with a few paper samples, including two packs designed by my friend Angela Hoffman of Gemini Angel's Art for Dream Street Papers. There were some amazing new products, a million and one paper patterns and rubber stamps, and I thoroughly enjoyed the F+W Media booth where some of the latest and greatest altered art books were on display. I got to see the lovely yet-to-be-released book from Kellie Rae Roberts called Taking Flight as well as blog friend Jean Yates' new book, Links.
I also was lucky enough to get to the F+W booth just in time for the free book/book signing by Traci Bautista of Collage Unleashed, which I had already studied with the ZNE Book Club earlier this year. I brought Traci greetings from Shoshannah, Mike and Heather, owners of Hannah Grey, and from another fellow Californian, the ubiquitous Miss Vicky. I later sat down with Traci at the Duncan booth to make a collage with her new papers and decoupage medium, which is already being sold at Jo Ann Fabric's (look for Traci's picture on the bottle). I'll be taking a class from Traci this October at Art and Soul, Portland, when I attend with blog bud Michelle Geller of  Hold Dear. So excited for all that!
While I was sitting at Duncan, trying to give my feet and arms a break (from schlepping my heavy bags of catalogs), I was chattering away with Jennifer before I even realized it was Jennifer Perkins of DIY TV fame and of the upcoming book The Naughty Secretary Club: The Working Girl's Guide to Handmade Jewelry.
I also got to meet Danielle Forsgren of Diva Craft Lounge at the Unity Stamp Booth. Danielle will be interviewing me July 30 on Blog Talk Radio at 3:05 pm EST, so it was great to meet her in person! She's a new Blythe collector as well.
My last burst of rubbing elbows with the famous and published- outside of staring at Tim Holtz up close- was chatting with Claudine Hellmuth, she of many books and a Martha Stewart show appearance, at the Ranger booth. Claudine has an exciting new line of products coming out, including 12 x 12 adhesive canvas paper, her own line of paints and a multi-purpose mixed medium, which she was demo-ing.
All-in-all, it was a day of mixed media and altered art heaven!