More New Craft Stuff!!

What, you thought I could stop at just five nifty craft items? Hah!

Here are some others in no particular order:

Love me some glitter paste! Cosmic Shimmer Glitter Kiss from Ecstasy Crafts has an applicator right in the lid!

Glitter goes on easily with Ecstasy Craft’s Glitter Kiss, which comes with its own applicator.

I can’t wait to try these new Translucent Gelatos® from Faber-Castell:

Translucent Gelatos give a watercolor look

The BowVy (a Creativation Innovations winner) from Little Pink Ladybug uses a hot filament to slice and seal polyester ribbon.

In action:

And a new online company, Love + Lemon, lets you pick from a plethora of craft supplies to suit every need:

Check out the sparkles:

Can’t you just imagine a box of these dazzlers showing up on your doorstep?

That’s it from the show for a while. It’s February and I have Valentines to post! So stay tuned … and thanks for stopping by.

Fabulous Finds Friday with Faber-Castell

I love making backgrounds so I’m thrilled with any new colorants, techniques, etc.

Check out this new, fun and easy Tea Stain Dye from Faber-Castell® — it’s as easy as making a cup of tea!

I love this sample, seen at the big craft show in January:

My first experiments were not at all as pretty as the ones above! I basically made background paper (which I have not photographed yet; I’m not that happy with it but let’s see what happens when I play!) But I do love how easy it is to use this dye. So there will be more to come!

Thanks for stopping by.

 

 

Fabulous Finds Friday — CHA Treats

I have a few quick hits on some Fabulous Finds from CHA.

I’ve always been a fan of Avery Elle, and this year’s collection of new stamps and dies prove my point. Check out these two adorable cards:

Cute, right?

Last year we were introduced to Ken Oliver’s Colorbursts pigment inks. This year he made it even easier to get that beautiful look but without the mess — just use his pre-printed sheets. Check out these samples:

Ken Oliver paper

So pretty!

(For more inspiration, check out Ken’s blog here.)

Stay tuned for more highlights!

CHA Report — Sizzlin’ Sizzix

It’s been about a week since I returned from the Craft & Hobby Associations MEGA Craft Show in Anaheim and I’m still sorting through my notes and catalogs! So much crafty goodness in store.

Over the next few weeks, I will share some snippets from the show, including new products, new tools, and all the cool stuff coming our way. There were lots of people there, sharing videos and Periscopes through out the show, so I hope my posts can add to the coverage and share a little of the magic that is CHA!

Today, I’ll start with a rather long post featuring Sizzix, makers of the Big Shot™ and other die cutting machines and accessories. One of the fun things at the Sizzix booth was this coloring wall, above. How clever is that for a crafty show? And it ties in with the company’s upcoming coloring books:

One thing I definitely can’t wait to get my hands on is Paper Leather, which actually does look and feel like the real thing — but better. It is easily die cut with both steel rule and chemically etched dies, as well as electronic cutters. It can be stamped, cut, embossed, inked, foiled, painted … just about anything you can do to paper, you can do to Paper Leather. It even goes through a printer. (Note: I have not had a chance to play with it at home, so it will need to be tested!) And it comes in several colors, including pastels.

Sizzix also highlighted its talented licensed designers with their own spots. It was such fun to meet them! If you love cute mini boxes and bags, you’ll have a plethora of choices, with each designer bringing a unique perspective.

Take a look:

The ever charming Stephanie Barnard® always has the cutest card making dies. Here she is showing off another cute one, a mini half card. (A larger version makes an A2 size.) I love how her cards are so interactive.

Lori Whitlock designs the great dimensional dies, like the adorable birdhouse and lantern shapes:

These are so stinkin’ cute I want to have a party just to use them on my table. (These will be out in April.)

There’s so much more from Sizzix that I need to split it into two posts! So come back tomorrow for Sizzix, part deux! And do check out the Sizzix Web site for more detailed info.

 

 

Mega Craft Show Report!

I survived another stint at the Mega Craft Show put on by the Craft & Hobby Association (CHA). And what an event it was! As you most likely know, this is the craft industry’s Academy Awards, Emmys and Golden Globes all rolled into one. More than 400 exhibitors showed up in Anaheim to showcase new craft products. Vendors came from all across the U.S., plus Canada, Australia, England, etc. and booths spanned all the creative arts: beads and jewelry, cake and food decorating, paint and art materials, floral decorating and paper, fabric/needlecraft, kids and general crafting.

In the next few weeks, I will try to give you a taste of some of the things I found there, from the biggies (Ranger, Sizzix, Spellbinders, etc.) to smaller, lesser known companies.

Let’s start off with something a little out-of-the-box — metal and chalkboard products from M-D Hobby & Craft. Here are some of their offerings:

Who knew you could be so creative with building material? (Well, actually any mixed media artist knows!)

Check out these darling bird houses:

And beautiful jewelry:

.

For more ideas, and how-to videos, visit www.mdhobbyandcraft.com.

Stay tuned for more CHA reports.

Fabulous Finds Friday — Craft Hot List

Yay! It’s finally out! My exhaustive report from the Craft and Hobby Association about what is new and hot and fabulous from the latest show.

You can see the entire report (in two parts!) on the Crafts ‘n things website. The CHA Hot List is listed under the Craft of the Week button. (You may have to register on the site, but it’s free. You simply register to join the Crafts ‘n things community).

It sounds complicated, but it’s not: go to http://www.craftsnthings.com, click on the Craft of the Day. You can try searching for “CHA 2013 Hot List” or …
click on the March archives, then scroll down to the

CHA 2013 Hot List

— it’s easy to find: it’s a big blue icon that says “March is National Craft Month.”

If you make it there, leave us some love in the comments section!

In the meantime, here’s a trendy bag made at the craft show:

Here’s a close-up:

The darling camera iron-on and spray paints are from S.E.I.
(Yes, that overspray is because of my sloppy masking! I get SO impatient…. sigh.)

Thanks for stopping by!

Fabulous Finds Friday — Oh, That Tim Holtz!

Oh, Tim Holtz, what have you done? Come up with more cool stuff, that’s what!

First up is new Metallic Distress Stains. Oh, how I am dying to try these! They are touted as being luminous, with a semi-translucent metallic finish, perfect for paper, ribbon, , fabric, wood … and even with the other translucent Distress stains for a layered effect. Like the others, they react to water. Oh, the mottling I can do!

Then we have clear Rock Candy Distress Stickles in a larger jar with a built-in brush. And new Distress Stickles Dry Glitter is sure to be a hit with its random particle sizes and shimmery clear finish. Yum.

And one more thing… A FREE TIM HOLTZ APP! The new app lets you keep track of your Tim Holtz products, create a “wish list,” watch Tim’s technique videos, click on his blog, and more.

Did I mention it’s free? Check it out:

For more info, visit Tim’s blog at www.timholtz.com

Way to go Tim!

Fabulous Finds Friday — Fiskars Fuse

Wow… how often can you write a headline with all Fs?

Hot off the press today is this letterpress. My Fabulous Find is a new letterpress machine from Fiskars. Called the Fuse Creativity System®, this bad boy cuts, colors and letterpresses in one fell swoop. Weighing 25 pounds, it’s no lightweight; it’s sturdy. The 12 inch platform offers plenty of space — including a built-in storage compartment, which I adore — and the whole contraption folds nicely to a compact, upright position.

Take a look:

And closed:

You know how impatient I am (I want to play NOW!!) so I loved that I could use it right out of the box, since the kit comes with everything you need to get going. You can die cut, letterpress, emboss or do a combination. It handles other dies, such as those designed for Cuttlebug, Vagabond and BigShot, but you will need a Fuse Adapter Kit (sold separately.)

I had a chance to try the Fuse (*see disclaimer) while writing an article for Crafts ‘n things about texture (watch for the article in the October issue!). The kit I tried comes with two adorable tag dies and plates. These were so easy to make because they cut at the same time they letterpressed. One pass and I had one of these:

I used the dies two ways: on the right, the black butterflies were letterpressed (pressed into the cardstock). I inked the plate using the black ink that came with the machine. Yum …  (I have since played around with various pigment and dye inks, which seem to work just fine.) The paper, by the way, is a slightly textured, thick paper from Paper Source. Sadly, the blush pink color I used is discontinued, leaving only Luxe white and cream. Love this paper for letterpress. But I digress….

The blue tag (made using a textured paper from Core’dinations) I did the opposite way, using no ink, so I got a raised impression on the front. I lightly sanded it to bring out the core color of the cardstock. This is a fun way to get double duty out of some designs (be careful with words or letters!)

Can you stand two more? Same process — inked up and letterpressed the right way for the pinkish tag; reversed and not inked for the blue tag:

(papers are the same: Core’dinations and Paper Source.)

Sigh. Now I want more dies. I want to play some more with this machine. See the demos here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Fabulous Finds Friday — Casting a Spell

More Fabulous Finds from CHA! (Oh, there is so much more to come!)

Spellbinders has done it again with dies from the adorable to the amazing. There are new borders, new nesties, and my current fave, a die that you cut, then fold and tuck in the edges to form a dimensional dynamo.  And don’t even get me started on the new embossing folders — they are double sided, so you get double the possibilities (even more when you consider the de-bossed side, too.)

Check ’em out:

A little layering…..

A little border cutting and embossing….

Embossing on thin metal:

And the new cut, fold and tuck dies….

(not the best quality photos)

I’ll have a few more photos to share over the next few weeks … but I’ll talk about more cool finds and hot trends in my super-sized Top 10 list from CHA that will appear in a few weeks on the Crafts ‘n things website. Hope you’ll check that out.

Those of you who were at CHA … what were YOUR favorite finds?

Thanks for coming by!

Fabulous finds… CHA edition

Here I am at CHA, the center of the craft universe! With a little help from my tech savy daughter, her hubby and my hubster I will attempt to post some great crafty finds.

From 7 gypsies: