Color, fabric, journal art

Yes, classes today on some of the themes I have been discussing. I need to go back to Spellbinders today and Get a better FB photo of Alison Kreft's line for Echo Park. Have the trusty DSLR with me but no computer. Hope you have all been checking out my iPhone photos on Facebook.
The Gala was a splendid event with lots of tributes to the pioneers of the craft industry. Crafters have lots of fun but are extremely caring and generous folk and that was honored, too.
So, I start today hoping to learn a lot and eager to fill the time between classes with exploring the show floor. I will continue to look for the popular themes and techniques of 2014 crafting. Feel free to ask questions here or personal message me on Facebook if you want some specific topic investigated.
I've got a breakfast date in an hour with a good friend and must be off. That's another great thing about the craft industry -friendships! I believe this is the 11th show I have attended. I started CHA shows in Orlando when Fiskars was celebrating its 360th Birthday. 365 years old this year. They are constantly innovating. It's always fun to check out their product line. Another photo spot today I think.
So people to see and places to go! I'll do my best to keep you informed.

Thoughts before Day 2 CHA

 I was really tired, I slept in. So, just a few notes. Last night at the International Group  reception several manufacturers were featured and I did take photos and gather info for later posts. General themes are details. The embellishments I saw were either intricate dies or detailed art for embellishments. Texture is big in Europe as it is here. I know I was going to look for techniques yesterday and layering and texture are both obvious. I've mentioned the use of bright clear pigments being featured and fabric and layers. Excited to see what becomes obvious as I explore more booths in detail today. For those of you who love vintage there still are some muted and distressed lines and the pastels are around and could work well with your style, though many pastels are in the more contemporary designs. I promise to look at as much as I can.
As many of you are aware, I adore fashion. I shopped my closet for trends before I came here. I'm also going to see what influences are translated. Some may be curious to what current trends I picked. The main themes for me were skinny jeans, op art, metallics, glitter and tribal. (Bummer that I lost a cool op art earring yesterday, a turquoise feather with a black and white spotted feather on top.) Sketchy hand drawn graphics, radiant orchid as well as some violet, cobalt blue, pleats and peplums pretty much rounded out my choices. Some of these like peplums may be on the way out for the more fashion forward crowd but some ideas are very solid for 2014. Of course, crafts are a little slower on trends, some don't translate well to paper and seasonal influences are stronger in crafts. Some trends don't easily translate well to certain segments of the market. So, trends is part of my mission today, too!

And the one word for CHA today is...

 Gilt! Gold was a prominent theme that popped up all day as I roamed around the floor at CHA. Other  things that caught my eye were red, white and blue color schemes in papers, bling, fabric papers, pocket page cards, wood veneers, and dyes and paints.
There are a number of boy lines which is a pleasant change as those used to be rarities. As the mother of 2 of my own boys and 5 step-sons and the proud grandma of 3 grandsons, this is something I notice right away as I tour a booth.
I wish I could post photos to my blog post from my iPad but I have not figured that out yet. So, I have not taken many photos. I plan to do so tomorrow and will post those toward the end of this month. Due to "stuff" at home that required a number of phone calls this am I did not make it to the breakfast business meeting but I did scooter over shortly after the doors to the show floor opened and I started riding around the venue.
Everything just looks better in person. Somethings just did not appeal to me when I saw them in sneak peaks on-line but got my nod of approval as I zipped by. I'm hoping to be more  systematic and specific in my observations tomorrow. I noticed a nice mix of products. It seemed a show or two ago there was an emphasis on clear stamps. Of course, there were a few stamp-only companies  which obviously were all about the stamps. However, in companies that carry a number of products, the line seemed quite comprehensive. Maybe I'll notice an over-whelming pocket page emphasis tomorrow when I look in more detail. While those items caught my eye today and were a lot of places on the floor,  they did not seem disproportionally dominant.
The yarn companies featured a lot of whimsical designs both to be worn and some, like Lion Brands creation of the Seven Great Wonders of the World in yarn, to illustrate the variety and versatility of the product.
Fiskars celebrates it's 365th birthday this year and I made it over to their booth right at the time of a small birthday party complete with original orange handled scissors and orange frosted cupcakes. Fun! Happy Birthday, Fiskars!
I took a class with Eileen Hull this afternoon. Eileen designs great products for Sizzix and has a wonderful set of box dies. These little boxes are delightful to make and to decorate for artistic expression or for creative gift packaging ideas. She also has some inks and stamps as new offerings. I found the ink a little difficult to work with when using a stencil, though, I loved the final result and the colors are wonderful.
This evening I went to the International event. Thirty-three percent of CHA members are from outside the USA. Crafting is alive and well everywhere. I will try to post more about this tomorrow. Right now the business of the day is getting to me and I need to fall asleep.
Always lots to talk about at CHA.

Trends, techniques and trade show talk at CHA

 Looking forward to today when the show opens. The sneak peaks have been out and you can check Nancy Nally's blog at http://www.scrapbookupdate.com: but, seeing things in person adds such a nice element to the reveals. It will be fun to see what designers are doing with the product, too.
Yesterday was a day of learning about trends and how those apply to the craft industry vs fashion, home decor, etc. and how crafting is influenced by trends in other industry.
Using social media in business was the topic at lunch and my day was rounded out with a panel discussion of DIY and a great class on decorative lettering which featured Tombow markers http://www.tombowusa.com and Peerless watercolor dry sheets http://www.peerlesscolor.com Both of these supplies have beautiful transparent qualities and are such portable convenience. I will need to play more and see if I can post designs I come up with. I think these will work well in my cards, mixed media and scrapbooking. Joanne Sharpe is a great teacher and I can easily recommend her to anyone looking for an instructor for classes on lettering, journaling or watercolor graphics.  Everyone in the class made their own creation, and I learned in the DIY class that classes where people learn techniques and get guidance to make their own design are more satisfying and successful than ones where you make a cookie cutter duplicate of  a class sample. I will vouch that is very true from that real life experience of the day.
Today, I will be looking to see not only what is available in the market (and we can hope that some of the best gets purchased by our local scrapbook stores); but, also how trends are influencing how some of the products are used. After all, some companies are producing staples in the industry, like Tombow and Peerless do, and we want to know new ideas for using these products in our designs.
So, my main objective today will be to not get overwhelmed by all the eye candy and attemp to get some nitty gritty observations. It may be too much to hope for, as this is a trade show where companies need to go all out to attract savvy business folk to buy their product to in turn sell to folk like you and me. A non-business person like myself is easily swept up in it all. Still, designers need to be analtical. I'll do my best.

Preparing to be awed by CHA

 I must admit that I was tempted to go to CES this year vs CHA. Those acronyms are Consumer Electronics Show and Craft and Hobby Association. Cameras and computers make me as breathless as stacks of pretty paper and embellishments. Pretty ended up trumping electronics.
I'm looking forward to learning more design over the next few months and just know all of CHA will be inspirational. I'm hoping to take an analytical approach to what I see so I'll learn something. I suspect, I'll be standing there ( or perhaps on a scooter, I think I'm stronger than in the past but not sure how these joints will hold up) with big eyes saying "Ooooo!", in Awe.
I love how clever everyone can be and how quickly they seem to put everything together.
Before I left home, I tried putting together a process video of a scrapbook page. No special page, nothing fancy. I thought that getting my process down would be a help to me more than a help to others, though I did illustrate a few points. Always a teacher!
Now, will you see it posted here? Not sure. I will post the LO when I get home and I'll likely film more and try to edit the footage, so to speak. It just may be too bad to show. I know, it wouldn't be the first bad You Tube video and it would be a first one done by me and could be forgiven. Still, I did not realize just how disorganized I can be when crafting nor how clumsy. It's not just the wonky left arm which did cut short a bit of the filming one evening. Maybe I should go for a comedy version? I may just need to "scrap" the project and try again.
As, I said, it's a learning experience. I know for sure I'll be watching the tutorials here to see if
I can pick up pointers. More likely, though, I'll just be gobsmacked with all the beautiful designs and awesome creativity.
I'll try and post a few highlights of the event in real time on the blog. It's not easy to do so in the middle of everything though. I may just end up with a summary post after the show is over.
Take care folks. Best wishes for a great 2014! (Nope, never did get the cards sent out, LOL!)

Photography and Me

RT at Night

Fairy Princess, Painting with Light

Two Views Walker Lake, NV

Barbetta, ITSA Studio

I've been busy, which has been mentally and physically challenging. Yet, I always say you do not learn much unless you stretch and test your limits.
I am learning more about photography and got a B in my recent course. I did not take the introductory class; but, I plunged into the intermediate one, and part way through realized I was maybe in over my head. Still, 895 out of 1000 points was pretty decent and  I'm very happy. An over achiever like me likes to get straight A's; but, as my dear DIL reminded me the grades do not go on the certificate. Not that I am trying for a certificate; since, I'd be about 80 by the time I could complete enough classes, LOL!
A real problem with getting better with photography is that I'd feel the need for a new camera. Since I get a lot of neck pain when lifting even light objects, I'm not sure I could handle the extra weight of a Canon 6D especially with one of those wonderful glass lenses. Still, a girl can dream. I really need to get a lot better before I could consider that step, though. I've included a couple of my best recent images in this post. I hope you'll see me get stronger at photography over time.
The best part about learning this stuff is appreciating the vision and artistry of others. So many people with great imaginations and talent.

Writing Posts in My Mind

 Alas, the blog got bumped down in my priorities recently. I've been writing posts in my mind, but they somehow have not made the way to the page. Today, I got some photos into my computer and thought that this page about scrapbooking should get me back in the groove.
As many of you know, I do love Debbie Hodge's classes/magazine, Masterful Scrapbook Design http://masterfulscrapbookdesign.com/ and Get It Scrapped http://classroom.debbiehodge.com/.
Right now on MSD, a color magazine and classes are the topic. I ran into my scrap room when this class came out and grabbed a few supplies. If you don't know me, you may not realize that primary colors are my favorite color scheme. I picked up a red, white and blue clock paper and what I thought was a similar hue dotted paper and settled on wood veneer for my yellow. As I laid down what I had found on the kitchen table, I noticed right off that the blue ink on the dot paper might have been the same hue to start but printed on a cream based paper vs. the white used in the clock face paper so had a greenish cast. I thought it would still work if I used more blue papers and separated the two patterned papers with some contrasting color.

The red and orange take on a bit of the underlying blue hue bit I liked the transparency, so I decided to live with it. I determined that my main color story despite my minor deviations was a split complimentary one on an 18 color wheel. Unfortunately, there are several "color theories" around or, fortunately (if you like options), so it can get a little confusing. It's a topic that I will possibly explore in a future post. At any rate, I decided to use blue-green and red/pink and red-orange and use wood veneer that one can view as either a neutral or the yellow of a basic primary color scheme. Grey and white were are used as my other neutrals.

I then gave some thought to the story. I was thinking of time for bed and considered photos of my sweet grandson and looking through the photos inspired my final page.

At this point, I had the basic page structure with photo, title and the start of an embellishment triangle. A journal entry and it could be considered complete.

However, maybe it was my inner Nichol Magouirk? (only because I know she likes to use some border strips and some stamping) Not sure what prompted me except a feeling that it did not feel quite finished. So...

Here is the final result. I used a small border strip that had my color story in stripes. A border remnant gave me another line of definition between the pattern papers and echoes the arches of the clouds and the circles of the clocks, the principal ribbon print, the bottom of the journal strip and the polka dot paper. The fuzzy ric rac ribbon echoes this, too. The ric rac repeats greener shade of the blue-green polka dot paper and repeats the soft texture of the velour wings and foam clouds. The shape of the clock hands repeats in the red arrow label, the small veneer arrow, the chevron of the blue-green ribbon strip below the photo and the actual clock hands in the print and the clock veneer embellishment. Circles recur in the prints, the epoxy stickers, the clock and camera lens shapes and the details of the translucent ribbon. Stars sprinkle across the page giving the sense of movement through time as does the clock with wings. This motif repeats in a paper clip at the top cluster. The clock with wings is watermarked stamped in the patterned papers. The stars and clouds draw attention to the sleeping baby. 

Black would have been too harsh a neutral with the pastels on this page. I chose gray instead, and it shows up several times in the papers, title alphas, border strip, a cloud and the twine.  The alphas and twine have a similar feel with diagonal stripes. The two photos and the camera epoxy make yet another triad theme within the page.

I think it is a success. I had a scary moment when I stamped with a bit of gray into the watermark image on the clock patterned paper. It looked much too dark. Ink Refresher lightened that up but stretched the paper to ripple it. Once dry, I attached the layout with plenty of strong dry adhesive to a thin sheet of patterned paper and saved the piece. Necessary, since I could not find another sheet of the patterned paper to redo the page!

I know scrapbookers often enjoy the process of the page and hope my effort in this blog post was interesting.

Lots going on right now. Retirees do wonder how they fit in life when they worked, and I'm no exception. However, I am finally getting around to clearing up that backlog of my life that's, at least, eight years old. It feels good. Now there's time to play and create, which is wonderful.