CHA - Day #4

Today was a big day, not only was it our last full day at CHA, it was reveal night. We had a full agenda and had to make the most of every hour of the day. We started out at the convention center early this morning. We had another full day of walking around, looking at anything and everything that we might have missed! We also took a few minutes to complete a few make and takes! I actually got April to pause and make one today, this is a major feat since she is usually going 90mph the whole day!

I mentioned on the blog last night that we were planning to go to Red Robin tonight and eat dinner and we had an open invitation to all subscribers and admirers to come and join us. I was so very happy that several of you took us up on the offer! We had about 25 folks total...including the Design Team. Here are a few pictures of our evening!

In this pic you can see April talking with Reyanna (Reyasunshine), Emille, Heidi and our own Emily Pitts. Check out that stack of onion rings there in the center....they were very yummy!

I think that Nik was having trouble making up her mind in this one!

Here is April and Joanna (spagirl).

What group of pictures would be complete without a shot of our Nicoles?

After dinner, we all piled into the parlor (they made fun of me for calling it a parlor) of our hotel room and settled in for reveal. Scarlet and April were working away as we all talked and laughed and tried to get in on the live chat. It was a little frustrating since we had a total of four computers on the same wi-fi connection. It slowed us all down a little, but in the end we made it!!! I hope that you are all as happy about this kit and I am....it is so cool! I can't wait to get back home and tear into it! Here are a few pics of all us counting down to reveal....

Scarlet working dilligently to get everything uploaded and ready to go for reveal.

Kirsty working dilligently to make us all laugh!

Nic, Stephanie and Nik laughing and cutting up while reading the message boards!


April, Kirsty and Scarlet checking out the gallery and message boards after the big reveal!

At the beginning of the week, April gave each member of the DT an assignment. She told them to look at everything and then narrow it down to 3 favorites. Keep checking the blog because each of them will be sharing their favorite items with you over the next couple of weeks. I also joined in this assignment and spent a good portion of the day going back and looking at all of the yummy goodies out there for my post. Like I said, stay tuned because there is much more to come.We have a team outing planned for tomorrow and I'll make sure to post some pictures of our fun for you all on Thursday when we get back home. We'll be traveling tomorrow evening so there won't be a blog post tomorrow night. OK gals, it has been a long week and my brain is rapidly shutting down! It's time to say goodnight and go to bed but before I go, here's a video teaser I'll leave with you. The source of the laughter will follow soon. Nite!

CHA - Day #3 - Picture Heavy

Hello again from sunny California. I can actually say that today, we got to see some real sun for the first time since we got here! It was still a little chilly, but hey, I'll take it over several inches of snow anyday.

I thought that I would start off the picture extravaganza by showing you Stephen's mad photography skills! This shot is amazing!


OK, that's enough of the outside of the building, let's get to the good stuff on the inside! First, here is Tim Holtz working his magic with Distress Inks and masks. I literally stood transfixed for almost an hour while he turned tag after tag into incredible works of art. I've never used masks before, to be honest, I was a little bit intimidated by them. Not anymore!! Tim is really great about answering questions and sharing tips while he is working. I asked several questions and he patiently explained his techniques and gave me some really quick and easy advice to get me started. I can't wait to get back home and give them a try!

As I was walking around today, I saw this cute little fellow peeking out of a crop cart. Imagine my surprise when it turned out that his mom, Erica (hockeygirl), is a subscriber and was as happy to see us as we were to see them! He's a handsome little fellow and he was absolutely adorable riding around in this cart. As they strolled away, he looked at me so sweetly and waved bye-bye.

Here we have our buddy Allison (scrapally) with several of the DT. I took this one on Sunday and notice that Nik, Nic and Davinie were all in pink.....they were working at the Pink Paislee booth that afternoon. We hung around and bothered them for a little while and then finally let them get back to work. It was a lot of fun to meet Allison.....she is a hoot!! She is a tiny little thing so we had to put her on a stool to make this photo work. Don't they all look so happy to be at CHA?!?!

After we left the convention center this afternoon, we headed over to Downtown Disney for our DT dinner. Now April is a Mexican Food junkie, so we had dinner at Tortilla Joe's. They seated us in this little loft area overlooking the resturant. It was great to be able to have a room all to ourselves so that we could chat, take pictures, laugh and cut up without disturbing any of the other guests. We had great food, good friends and a lot of fun!! Check out some of the pictures....


Here's the whole gang in our brand spanking new Studio Calico shirts. I'm so thankful that April and Scarlet thought to get us long sleeved shirts, it has been downright cold here at night!

I thought that this was a really good picture of Greg and April. They are just so cute together!

This is my favorite picture of CHA so far. What can I say, I just LOVE the sandwich! Nik, Dav and Nic are just the cutest things that have ever walked the face of the earth! It makes me happy when they are all together!

We had a great day and night! For all of you that are here at CHA we are going to try to all meet for dinner tomorrow night at the Red Robin on Harbor Street. We are going to try to get there around 6:00. We won't all be able to sit together, but it will be fun to have everyone in one place so that we can all get up and mingle a little. If you are here, we'd love for you to come out and join us for some food and fun! We won't be able to stay out too late though, the boss ladies will have us all together in one room for reveal night. This will be a first in Studio Calico history, so I'll make sure to take plenty of pictures and Greg will likely have the Flip out filming our every move!

Have a great day everyone.....goodnight!

Lorie

Welcome to CHA 2009!

Well ladies, I've been counting down the days for weeks and FINALLY it's here, CHA Winter 2009! This morning April, Scarlet, Amber, Steven and I headed out for the airport to begin our journey. We met Kirsty in LA and we all traveled to Anaheim together in our spiffy mini-van. It was really cool to finally meet Kirsty in person, I could listen to her talk in that neat British accent all day long!

We arrived here in Anaheim this afternoon and headed over to the Convention Center for all of the pre-show receptions. We started at the Making Memories reception at about 4:00. We were joined by Nicole Samuels, Stephanie Howard, Nicole Harper and Emily Pitts. It was awesome to see Nic, Nik, and Emily again and to meet Stephanie for the first time! After much hugging and introducing, we settled in to see the new products that MM has to offer. I can't give you too much information here, I mean I am following the letter of the law here that I was given by the boss ladies so don't be too upset that I can't spell everything out for you. Hint...Hint!

After Making Memories, we headed over to the Creative Imaginations reception. The have a themed party at each CHA, I don't know if you remember or not, but at the Chicago show is was a Lego theme. Tonight was Star Wars themed....complete with jazzy Star Wars music, Storm Troopers, Darth Vader, a very serious looking Luke Skywalker and a very short Chewbacca. We took some pictures that I'll make sure that we get posted tomorrow! Anyway, the reception was a lot of fun and we had a nice time chatting and catching up while we munched away at their buffet. They always have the best food!

Finally, we headed over to the SEI reception. They always have a big slide show production where they show all of the new product. This one is my personal favorite because it is an ice cream reception. We enjoyed ice cream sundaes while we watched the show. They also have this guy that gets up and makes a big deal about calling out numbers on tickets for prizes...you know the kind of guy that I am talking about. He gets up and drags it out as much as possible, calling out the numbers one by one, then asking everyone that is still in the drawing to raise their hands and such. Anyway, it was a lot of fun and Stephanie Howell ended up winning one of the new lines.

We've had a big day and it's time to pack it in for the night....the time difference is catching up to all of us! Make sure to check back tomorrow night for another blog entry. We will have lots of pictures and more stories to tell I'm sure.

Good Night!

Odds and Ends = Ornaments

I'm not one of those folks that can just look at a bunch of supplies and immediately have a creative idea for a project or layout. I've seen April and Scarlet do this several times when they are working on their monthly gallery contributions and it always blows my mind. They will lay out a bunch of stuff and then in about 30 min, there is this wonderful and creative layout. No sir, not me! I usually have to have some sort of plan or idea before I start.....but not today. I challenged myself to be more spontaneous and create on the fly.


I knew that I wanted to make some ornaments for our tree this year, a new tradition that I wanted to start. I'd played around with several planned out ideas and let's just say, they were not what I had in mind. I was sitting at my desk yesterday and decided to pull out some odds and ends and see what I could do with them. After all, I've watched the pros do it...maybe I could make it work too!


Here is what I started with:

April gave me a container of 7 gypsies clear buttons the other day and we talked about covering one side with paper and making some sort of design...so that is where I started. I laid them out on the October Afternoon paper that was my favorite from the Nutcracker add-on. After laying them out several different ways, I decided on this one:

I cut the paper into strips and then used Zip Dry to attach the buttons. Once the glue dried, I used my Basic Grey files to sand off the excess paper. Once I got all of the edges clean, used the Zip Dry again to glue them together. I used a little white thread in the top button to attach the ornament hanger.

April also gave me a little mini album from a few months ago. Instead of making it into an album, I took it apart and used a couple of the pages to make these little hanging ornaments. On the first one, I used MM paper and glued it to the backside. Then, I took my BG files and cleaned up the edges. I used a hole punch around the edges and then threaded the trim through each hole. For the final touch, I used some little chipboard pieces and wrote Joy on it to put in the middle. On the second one, I found some scraps from a make-it-take-it from CHA in July. It was a die cut from the Pink Paislee booth. I put it in the middle of the page and then added another one of those little pieces of chipboard with Love on it. I finished this one off with a piece of velvet ribbon. Take a look:

I found myself wishing for some glitter, something that surprised me, I never use glitter. Maybe I'll branch out a little and try some before we get the tree up next weekend. Well, these were nothing fancy, but just a little exercise to prove to myself that I could just sit down and make something without a plan. I hope that they inspire you to do the same!

I am thankful....

have you ever had so many things to be thankful for that you just don't know where to begin? That is where I am today, this day in America where we sit down and give thanks for the blessings in our lives. Let me outline just a few:

I am thankful for my wonderful husband. We've been together for 16 years and I grow to love him more and more every day. He is my best friend and we've been together through thick and thin. It warms my heart to see him with our daughter, he loves her with all of his heart and would do anything for her. He is a wonderful provider and he gives me strength. He is my rock.

I am thankful for my beautiful daughter. We tried for so many years to have a child and then to adopt, I had almost given up when we got the call that she was going to be ours. From the moment our eyes met, I knew that I would lay down my life for her and that I would love her forever. She has blossomed this year, growing into a sweet, funny, energetic little toddler. Everyday is something new and exciting. When I look into those blue eyes now, I am overwhelmed by the emotion, the love that I feel. She is the light of my world.

I am thankful for my best friend April. She is has such a good heart and is one of the best people that I have ever met. She is such a good Christian example for me and makes me want to be a better person. I that she is so creative, but not only that....she brings out the creativity in others. She encourages others to unlock their hidden potential and reach for the stars. She is my inspiration.

I am thankful for my good friend Scarlet. She is a wonderful mother and loves her kids so much that she is willing to make sacrifices for them. She is kind and works so hard to provide for herself and her children. She really cares about our environment and works very hard to instill that into her kids and the people around her. Some of us are not as dedicated as she is, but she is patient with us. She works even harder to make up for us slackers. She is my example.

I am thankful for our Design Team. I have not met all of them in person, but I feel like I have known them forever! They are witty, charming and amazingly talented! They make Studio Calico THE Place to Be!! Each one brings something different to the table and inspires me in a different way. It seems that many of you feel the same way, just from reading your posts about why you came to Studio Calico. They are my sisters.

I am thankful for Studio Calico. It has opened my eyes to a whole new world of creativity and fulfillment in art. Not only that, I have been blessed to meet all of you talented ladies through the message boards and blogs that I am now addicted to. I feel like I am a part of your family and you are a part of mine. Studio Calico is my outlet.

Well, that is enough introspection for today. I hope that you all have a chance to sit down and count your blessings today. I'll be blogging over the next couple of days about shopping on "Black Friday" and making homemade Christmas ornaments. For those of you in the US, enjoy your turkey day! I hope that you will all be here with us tonight for reveal at 12:00 EST!!

CHA Friends

Well friends, this will be my last post about CHA Chicago. I thought that it would be cool to show you pictures of all of the friends that we met while we were in the Windy City.

First things first, let's go ahead and announce the winner of the awesome MM stamps and acrylic block:

The winner is.........

Moonlightgrrl!!!

Please send an email to info@studiocalico.com with all of your info so that we can get your goodie package in the mail!

By the way, thanks to you all for your kind comments about the blog over the last few days, it meant a lot to me. I've really enjoyed sharing our CHA experience with you via the blog. It was a lot of fun to sit down and relive the day each night, it helped cement my memories!! Also, thanks for all of your sweet compliments on my little girl Natalee. I missed her so much this weekend and it was nice to share a little bit of that with you as well.

OK, now to the fun stuff. Here are some pictures of all of the friends that we met at CHA. I was teasing "the sandwich" and telling them that walking around with a Studio Calico T-shirt on was a little like being a ROCKSTAR. Out of nowhere, someone would come up and give me a big hug and tell me how much they love Studio Calico. There were even some that knew my name and recognized me from my avatar. It just affirmed for me how close knit all of our members are and how cool it is to be a part of the Studio Calico family! I hope that you enjoy the pictures and I can't wait to see you all again in Anaheim in January!

April and Scarlet with Kerry Lynn Yeary on Day 1.

Here is a picture of A&S with Jared our rep from American Crafts. We had a great time with Jared, he even joined us for dinner at Giordanos one night!

This is A&S with Vee. She caught up with us on Day 1 at the MME booth.

Lavern was so excited to meet A&S, it was really sweet. We met her the first night at the SEI party, be we didn't have a camera. I was so glad that we ran into her again the next day so that we could have an "official" photo!

This is A&S with Ann Davis(first row center). Ann is a subscriber who is also a breast cancer survivor. She shared a mini album with us that told her cancer story.....it was hard to read, but so well done that I could not put it down. I'm sorry Ann, but I could not remember your friend's names, I hope that they will visit us at Studio Calico so that we can get to know them too!

Here is our very own Divine Miss D (Davinie) with Holly from Pink Paislee.

Here you see A&S with Kelly Goree. Kelly was a victim of twin switch this weekend!! She had an encounter with Amber that was pretty comical.....she had a whole conversation with her thinking that she was talking to April. It wasn't until close to the end, when she paused for a second that Amber was able to tell her that she was not April. Very funny stuff!!

On Day 2 we caught up with Celeste and Dina down by the Basic Grey booth.

We also found Jill Hogans, Barb Novak (Babs), and Emily Spahn (JustEm).

We found Emily Pitts (Mlepitts) in the Expoteria on Day 2. I must say that Convention food left a lot to be desired, but it was fun to run into friends and share a meal and a few laughs!

I was really excited to meet Becky Novacek. She was our guest designer last month and she ROCKED the Apple Orchard kit!

On Sat night, I went to the 2 Peas reception with "the sandwich." We ran into Jenn Emch (nygirl), Vee and Michelle Skinner (michelleomega). It was close quarters in the room where the reception was held, but we were able to get them all scrunched together for a picture.

Last, but not least, here is a picture of me with my good buddy Elmo. I asked Amber to take this picture so that I could go home and show Natalee that Mommy knows Elmo. She loves Elmo and went nuts when I uploaded the picture this afternoon. She immediately started hollering Uh-oh, she can't quite say Elmo yet! Anyway, this picture was definitely a hit!

Well, there you have it, a photo journal of all of the friends that we met in Chicago. I know that there are some that are not pictured, some of the pics just didn't turn out due to the inexperience of the photographer (me). I'm sorry that we weren't able to get them all up on the blog, but we enjoyed meeting you regardless!!

I must sign off now and say goodnight ~ I am going to rock my little one to sleep, something that I missed while I was away, and then I'm off to bed. I'm finally going to get to bed before 11:00!!

Talk to you soon!

Lorie

Your favorite kit packer/blogger/pack mule/picture taker

CHA - Day 3 - MM Giveaway

Que music...

I would walk five hundred miles
and I would walk five hundred more
to be the one to fill your kits
with paper, trim and buttons galore.....

Yes ladies, I feel like I have walked five hundred miles in the last three days, but it has been so worth it!! I've covered a lot of ground, seen a lot of stuff and enjoyed every minute of it!! Hopefully, I've been able to give you a feel for what we have seen and tonight I want to give you a peek of some of the things that we have done. I hinted last night that I would show you my favorite part of the show tonight.......the "Make it, Take it" demonstrations that the manufacturers put together for your scrapping pleasure. These are quick projects featuring a new product, technique or tool that is available at the show. I got the DT and Amber together and we set off today to see what we could get into.....here are some pictures of our exploits.

First thing we went over to the Ranger booth to check out the new Claudine Hellmuth paints. This one also featured a new sticky backed canvas and fabric. You were given 3 sets of petals for a flower. The objective was to cover the canvas with the paint and then connect them with a brad to form a flower. Davinie, Nicole H and Nicole S were more than happy to sit down and play with the paints.

Since Nicole Harper is our resident paint expert, I watched her every move....of course, she didn't disappoint. She mixed and matched the paint to add accents and depth to the petals.


It was a great project and in the end you had a cute little flower pin to show off. It helped a lot of folks like me realize that paint is not so scary and would really make a great addition to a layout! Here is the example that they made for display....I wanted you to see it because it was larger and I was able to get a good shot so that you could see the detail.

Amber and I signed up in advance for a Pink Paislee session where we completed a really cool chipboard butterfly frame. This one was a whole project kit that that was developed for CHA and is available here if you want to check it out.


We covered all of the bases in this project.....cutting, pasting, stamping, painting and even doodling. I just happened to have some pictures of Natalee in my bag so I was able to complete the project, pictures and all. Here is my completed project for your viewing pleasure......

CHA has converted me, I will now promise to be a bona fide scrapbooker.....I even ordered an album for all of the layouts that I have planned in my head. Now I just have to figure out how I am going to find time to make those planned layouts a reality.....maybe I'll go over to April's and play in her scraproom?????

OK, now for the real reason that you ladies have suffered through this blog post....the MM giveaway. I will apologize in advance for the poor quality of the photo below....It was rainy here this morning and I couldn't get a picture in good light before we left for the Convention Center and then it was late when we finally finished for the day and the sunlight was gone. This one was taken on the tile floor in the bathroom at the hotel....do I get points for originality?

In order to be entered for a chance to win this acrylic block and these fabulous stamps, comment on the blog and tell me what you are anticipating most from the CHA new releases. It might not hurt to casually mention how cute my daughter is as well.....you just never know :) I'll announce the winner on Monday. We will be finishing up at the Convention Center tomorrow morning and then on the road all evening headed back to Bowling Green.

I hope that you have enjoyed these little glimpses of the festivities here at CHA Chicago. I have enjoyed recounting all of our adventures for you!! Stay tuned for the recap of our final day and the winner of the MM Stamping giveaway. On Monday the blog post will reveal all of the friends that we have met here in Chicago.

Goodnight,
Lorie

CHA - Day 2

First things first.....let's pick a winner from all of those wonderful comment from yesterday's blog post:

The winner is:

Tara

Please send an email to info@studiocalico.com with your information and we will get your fabulous SEI prize package to you!! Make sure to include all of your contact information.

OK, now to the fun stuff. Some folks here at the Convention Center in Chicago might have been rubbing their eyes and thinking that they were seeing double today....we decided to throw them a curve and bring April's twin sister Amber with us just to make things interesting. Check them out....do you think that you might get them mixed up??


Don't feel bad if you think that you might, several folks here got them mixed up today. April is on the right and Amber is on the left. It was actually kindof comical to sit back and watch Amber explain over and over again that she was not April. Several folks were really glad to see Amber until she told them that she was not April.....so if you are reading this and thought you saw April today and could not figure out why she acted like she didn't recognize you, it was probably Amber.

Now that we have cleared that up....WOW, what an amazing day!! I thought that last night was cool, but let me tell you, today just absolutely blew my mind!! First of all, the sheer size of the show doesn't register until you walk in and actually see row after row of booths. I had no idea that there were so many different manufacturers. When we walked through the doors this morning, it literally took my breath away. My first thought was, "How are we ever going to see all of this?" My second thought way, "I'm so glad that I wore my tennis shoes!" I mean seriously, we poured over a map last night and marked all of the booths that we wanted to visit, but I was not prepared for the vastness (if that is even a word) of the ground that we needed to cover. Fortunately, we brought reinforcements....Greg, Stephen, Amber and of course, "The Sandwich."

Once I gathered myself, I was able to really look around and appreciate the creativity that went into setting up the booths and the lengths that some of the manufacturers go to in order to entice you to their booth. There were all kinds....some were very elaborate, some very skimpy, some had too much product crammed into a small space, some had almost no product, some were well staffed, some were way under staffed. I decided to share some of my favorites with you tonight.

Here is one of the displays at Sassafras....notice the technique that they used to create the trees....amazing!


I also loved the way that My Mind's Eye displayed the new Laundry Line by Jen Wilson. They are truly "letting it all hang out."


Cosmo Cricket really blew my socks off with their themed die cuts and use of color. There was a mini album here that I literally drooled over! I don't want to reveal too much about it because I am going to work on getting the "boss ladies" to incorporate some of the ideas into a project kit!


The Rusty Pickle showcased their products with a rustic flair. They also had GREAT snacks and a cool chocolate fountain.


This is just a tiny peak of what we saw today, but they were some of my favorites. I will try to include more tomorrow.....I'm sure that I'll have more favorites after we cover some more ground. Speaking of tomorrow.....make sure to check back because I have a whole feature planned that will showcase my FAVORITE part of CHA. Also, we will be giving away another RAK, so make sure that you come back and visit.

I'll leave you tonight with a picture of all of the girls. Notice the new Studio Calico T-shirts that Stephen developed for CHA. It was sooooo cool to have people see the shirts and come up and tell us that they are a subscriber! It was really neat to meet folks face to face and talk about all of the yummy goodness that we have seen. If you are here and we haven't met, make sure to look for us tomorrow!


Stay tuned for more....
Goodnight,
Lorie

CHA + a giveaway

We left Bowling Green this morning at 6:15 and set out on our CHA adventure. Our little caravan made great time and we were here before I knew it....I'm sure that it was the good company and witty banter that made the time fly! We knew in advance that we wanted to be here in time for the Making Memories VIP party at 3:00, so we stayed on a very tight schedule. We made it with about 45 min to spare, so we had time to check into the hotel and freshen up a bit before heading to the Convention Center.

I was really excited when we got here, I could not wait to meet our design team members face to face after communicating with them all these months on the message boards! I got to meet Nicole and Nicole first....it was so cool! I've admired these ladies from afar, and then all of the sudden, here they are....standing in my hotel room....acting like we have been friends forever. I was really nervous, but they were so great that soon we were laughing and cutting up like we see each other every day. Once we completed the introductions, we loaded up and headed to the MM Party. It was so cool to go in and see product that no one else has seen before. Here are a couple of peeks for you......I'm sworn to secrecy about what orders were placed, you'll just have to wait and see later!



Once we were finished over at the MM party, some of us headed over to the Creative Imaginations reception. Greg took Nicole and Nicole to the airport to pick up Davinie and April, Scarlet, Amber, Stephen and I went over to the reception. We were in and out at Creative Imaginations pretty quick because we all wanted to meet back at the Convention Center for the SEI Party at 7:00. We also wanted to stay under the 30 min mark to keep from having to pay for parking again. You wouldn't believe parking....UUUGGGHHH!! Anyway, that is another story for another day, but I can't leave you without at least one little image of the sweetness that we saw....

The SEI party was really cool, they had this big slide show to show off each new line and gave away a ton of prizes. Again, we got to see all of the latest and greatest! One of the owners called this release some of the best product that they have ever showcased. I've got one little niblet here for you.....


One of the great things about attending these events is the great stuff that you are able to bring home and share with your friends.....with that in mind, we have an awesome SEI RAK that we will be giving away tomorrow! Leave us a comment on this blog and we will have a random drawing for some delicious goodies that we can't wait to share with you!

Once we were done with all of our engagements for the evening, we headed over to Giordano's Pizza for a well deserved meal! I love pizza and I have to tell you, this was the best pizza that I have EVER eaten. We had a wonderful meal and I really enjoyed getting to know everyone better and hearing their impressions of the products that we got to see throughout the day. Scarlet surprised all of the DT members with little packages tied up with string....she'll post pics of her creations later. Let me just say that I was touched by her thoughtfulness and astounded by her creativity and talent. Here is a peek of the packages.......


Well, it is after 11:00 and I must sign off and go to bed. I am the last one standing in our room, April, Amber and Scarlet have all had a visit from the Sandman and are off to dreamland. Tomorrow promises to be another fun filled day with lots of activity, so I must get my beauty rest. I'll make sure that we have pictures of our motley crew for you tomorrow instead of just a bunch of silly old scrapbook stuff.......yeah right!

Don't forget to post a comment to the blog to be eligible for that SEI RAK that I mentioned earlier.....I can't wait to hear from you!

Goodnight!
Lorie