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My favorite Finds from CHA 2012

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I am officially ruined! This year was my first venture to CHA {the Craft & Hobby Association} tradeshow in Anaheim, CA… Boy was I smitten. Now, I've been to many different types of trade shows, some that were more interesting than others.  When I walked into CHA I felt that I had found my place in this world. This was the trade show that spoke my language… The language of creativity! I wish I could share everything but here are a couple goodies that are up and coming…

Lifestyle Crafts

Start saving your pennies, Lifestyle crafts has all kinds of fun goodies that they are getting ready to release. The Evolution is the follow-up to the ever popular Epic tool and I can't wait until they release that later this spring.

 

Along with the new Evolution Lifestyle Crafts is releasing a new magnetic cutting tool with an improved cutting mat.  I can't even decide which one I am most excited for… The magnetic board is genius and I can't wait to give it a go.  We won't have to worry about our dies slipping anymore and wasting paper with a partially cut image! The new cutting mat is stronger and thicker so no more warping when you run it through the machine, YAY!! And I'm super excited for the new EVOLUTION!!

Lion Brand Yarn

I have many craft obsessions one of them being with yarn.  I love to crochet, I haven't done much on WhipperBerry, but it is one of my favorite hobbies.  I also love to use yarn when I craft, I love the colors and textures and how just a piece of yarn can had such dimension to a project.  I also tend to hoard yarn like crazy.  My favorite new line of yarn comes from the ever popular Martha Stewart via Lion Brand Yarn…

Silhouette

Silhouette is always a fan favorite and at CHA it was no different.  They had people lining up down the eisles to have a crack at dolling up their very own Silhouette bag with the heat transfer material.  Everyone loved it!

 

I can't wait until they release their new 12×24 cutting mat sometime this spring.  I promise you guys will be the first to know when that little goodie is up for grabs!

Now I'm left full of anticipation waiting for the release of all these fun goodies.  I go to the craft store now and I can't help but get excited about all of the fun items that are getting ready to hit the store shelves!!

Playtime

Now CHA is not all business.  It's a great time to get together with great friends and spend some much needed time together.  To start off the weekend we headed to Disneyland with a small group and had a MAGICAL time! We were celebrating Tauni's birthday…

From left to right, Mique from 30 Handmade Days, Steph from Somewhat Simple, Jen from Tatertots & Jell-o, Marie from Make & Takes, Kami from No Biggie, Heather from Dollar Store Crafts, Lara from Less Cake More Frosting, ME & Tauni from the Snap Conference!

We had a ball getting reacquainted over a handful of dinners and parties…

Beckie from Infarrantly Creative, Linda from Craftaholics Anonymous, Steph from Somewhat Simple, Yes, I'm the dork with the closed eyes, Kristyn from Lil' Luna and Jamielyn from I Heart Naptime.

We had fun getting to know crafting celebrities. Kristyn and I had the chance to meet Vanna White from Wheel of Fortune. She has her own line of yarn through Lion Brand and We had a ball at the Plaid booth with Cathie and Steve from Creative Juice on HGTV. They have a new line of craft products coming out soon!

Yours truly, Kristyn Lil' Luna, Cathie, Steve, Heidi from Sew Craft Create, Jamielyn from I Heart Naptime & Linda from Craftaholics Anonymous.

And of course if you are spending anytime with Lara from Less Cake More Frosting… We have to do a little more Disney shopping and goofing around…

 

It's a MUST!!  All in all, I had a ball at CHA and can't wait to go again next year!!

What's up today…

That's just to name a few, hop on over to the WhipperCafe to see all of the fun chats that are happening.  We would LOVE to hear what you think!

Valentine Snow Globe | Anthro Inspired

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I have to admit… I have fallen for the Anthropologie snow globes from this last holiday season! While I was putting all of my holiday decorations away I just couldn't part with my snow globes. I decided that I would make  a Valentine's Day version.  Here you have it… my Valentine Snow Globe.

I took my Anthro inspired snow globe and removed the trees and safely stored it for next year.  Then I used my Epic tool and my new Sweetheart Nesting Scallop Heart die  from Lifestyle Crafts to make the pink heart. I made two and then placed them back to back with two, two inch pieces of a paper drinking straw in the middle to secure to the bottom of the lid with some large 3D glue dots. For the tutorial on how to do that click here.

Then I used a fun felt Christmas tree ornament for the large heart.  You could of course, make another paper heart for the large one.  I just happened to have the perfect felt heart already on hand. I did the same with the two felt hearts.  I placed them back to back and placed two, three inch paper straws in between to help secure the heart to the lid.  They were a little wonky so I used a small section of the paper straw and some glue dots in between the hearts to secure them a little better…

Don't worry, people won't notice the straws at all. It will just look like you have beautiful hearts floating in your snow globe! What else do you think we can do with the ever popular snow globe?

Crayon Heart Valentines | Lifestyle Crafts

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Valentine's Day is right around the corner and today I thought I would share my "you color my WORLD" Crayon Heart Valentines, made with the new Sweetheart die collection from Lifestyle Crafts and heart shaped crayons made with melted Crayola crayons.

Isn't that fun?  I am always a fan of homemade Valentines for the kiddos classes every year.  It's also a bit of a challenge to make valentines that are fun, colorful and easy on their sugar intake for the day. 

I know this isn't a new idea by far… My neighbor made these heart shaped crayons several years ago after finding this fun idea in Family Fun magazine, but I thought it would be a perfect fit for the new Sweetheart Nesting Hearts from Lifestyle Crafts.  Cutting the hearts was super simple using my Epic three in one tool from Lifestyle Crafts.  The Epic tool cuts, embosses and can create beautiful letterpress projects as well.

But I am getting ahead of myself!  Before we can make the cards we need to make the heart shaped crayons…

You will need to gather all the old crayons in the house… if your house is anything like mine, that won't be a problem.  You can also purchase new crayons as well.  I will have to admit, the new crayons were easier to remove the labels from. I used an X-ACTO knife to make a slit down the length of the crayon to easily remove the labels.  The older crayons took a little more coaxing.

Once you've removed all of the labels, break the crayons into small pieces.  The smaller the better…

I also found that separating them into color families made for the best looking crayons, but that is completely up to you! 

You will need to use a heart shaped silicon baking mold to melt your crayons in.  I found mine at Michaels in the baking section and it worked like a dream.  The girls and I decided that we wanted our crayons to be a little glittery so we added about 1/2 a teaspoon of silver glitter to the bottom of the baking mold. Then we filled the baking mold with the crayons about 1/3 full. The mold I used was pretty deep so depending on what you use you will have to play around with this.

Place in your oven that has been pre-heated to 300 degrees and baked for 15 minutes.  The crayons will become completely liquefied so be careful when you pull them out of the oven.  Carefully place them on the counter to cool.  You want to make sure that you don't move them around too much and mix the colors more than you want.  Wait for about 20 minutes or until the crayon is solid again and then gently remove it from the mold and let cool completely.

I made 57 hearts with the Wilton Mini Heart Mold using approximately 200 crayons.

Now it's time to pull out your Epic Tool to make the heart shaped cards for you to place your new crayons on.  I used two different dies from the new Sweetheart line for this project.  The Nesting Heart and the Nesting Scallop Hearts work beautiful for this card.

I decided that since I wanted the focus to be on the crayons I used a basic white watercolor paper for the base of the card. 

Once I cut out the heart shapes, I used my rolling alphabet stamp to create the fun saying on the card. "Valentine… you color my WORLD"  I just LOVE that look!!

Of course I had to dress up the heart crayons with some Divine Twine from Whisker Graphics. I just wrapped the hearts randomly and tied with a bow or made little twine bundles for the decoration…

This is such a fun project to do with the kiddos.  My girls and I had  ball gabbing while we were prepping the crayons. After that it was a perfect opportunity to have a color class while we created our crayon concoctions.  From start to finish this is an easy and elegant Valentine treat that your little ones {or big ones} will love to share with their friends this Valentine's Day!!

Come back tomorrow I have another fun Anthro inspired Valentine project made with my Sweetheart dies from Lifestyle Crafts!

Here are some more WhipperBerry Lifestyle Craft projects…

   

Party favors, bakery boxes & bubble party favors  

 

Anthropologie Inspired Snow Globes | Tutorial

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A couple of weeks ago my Sweetheart was out of town and so I took my kiddos out for a fun dinner at one of our favorite places, The Elephant Bar at The District in Green Valley Ranch. The kiddos LOVE that place! I love it for two reasons… the sweet potato fries with the spicy ketchup and that Anthropologie is right across from the restaurant.  After dinner we headed over and I found the cutest snow globes in a jar! I just had to make some of my own…

They couldn't be easier to make!  Here is what you will need…

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