Convention Findings

  I cannot begin my post without mentioning that my prayers go out to all those affected by the senseless tragedy of the bombings in Boston on Monday this week. May the strength of our prayers, faith and actions allow us to be fearless, to continue towards peace.

  In my last post I mentioned going to an Heirloom Pro Rubber Stamp Convention being  held in town. Some of you may be familiar with this as they do hold events throughout the US each year. The downside to the show this year was that it was held in a much smaller space so there were only 23 vendors. It made for a madhouse crowd in the beginning, with some aisles so small it was impossible to get thru! Not to mention that many who were either in wheelchairs or pulling carry on suitcases were not so careful of the walkers feet! Unfortunately, there wasn't a whole lot of new product or demos.Considering all the fabulous new things that came out of CHA, it was disappointing.

  However, my friend LuAnn and I did manage to have a really fun time and make some purchases! Here are some things I picked up:

  I got three pkgs. of these darling brads from The Eyelet and Brads Outlet. They literally had hundreds! to choose from-anything you could think of- from mustaches to sock monkeys (LuAnn's fave) and everything in between.

  These Dylusions Ink Sprays are now a part of my growing collection-LOVE them!!!:

 I found this 12" x 12" stencil by Prima(for only $7.00 !!), one of only a very few seen at the show :(

 Further down this post I'll show you what I did with it so far. (if you last that long)...

 Another fun place to visit was Our Daily Bread where they featured Flower Soft and products to coordinate with it. Here are two pics of what Flower soft is:

  They come in many variations including sparkly colors, solids and mixes in teeny tiny bits meant to add soft dimension to flowers, trees etc.  Here is a sample detail on a card LuAnn and I each made there:

  

   It adds a special touch without any bulk. I've used this product before and plan on making a Mother's Day card using it.

   I have one more purchase to share along with some card samples I thought were just too cute to resist sharing here.I hope you'll agree :) At the same vendor my eye was completely drawn in by these gorgeous cards:

  Be still my heart!!! My fave is the one with the bright orange/red morning glories-YUM! I've never seen these flowers in this color, but who cares? Of course I bought the custom design die template (Spellbinders) to cut the lattice like pattern as many times as I wish! Yes, LuAnn bought it too:):)

  These card samples were displayed at the TooMuchFun Rubber Stamps booth:

    Great name for this company n'est-ce pas?? LOVE those shirts and jackets, and yes, besides the rubber stamps, they sell tiny buttons, bits, hangers and zippers- way cute!! Tempting as it was we didn't buy anything. I just found out they are going to offer their stamps in unmounted only beg. Sept. :) :)

    For those of you who follow along here you know I'm taking the 52 Weeks of Creative Abundance online course. At the beg. of each new month our wonderful instructor Christi gives us a new word to set the month's theme along with a new tag to create. Here is mine in my moleskine journal:

   Again, I pretty much followed Christi's idea. I used my new stencil above to create the page along with yellow acrylic, twinkling H2O, Sunburst Silks acrylic glaze and a mix of Ceramicoat Pearl Finish and Olive Green acrylic paint. The shimmer is beautiful. The patterned papers I used are all from my gelli plate prints. I just loved Christi's idea to use threads for the water!!! Our word for the month is "cultivate" and I chose these words representing what I wish to continue to grow and cultivate. Of course there are material things I'd like also but my thought is that if I focus on these non material things the rest will come.

 Anyone here yet???? One more photo:

  Background page in my large journal, playing with my new stencil and new Dylusions sprays in Lemon Zest, Dirty Martini and Calypso Teal.

  Please join me in linking up and/or visiting the talented artists at Art Journal Every Day, Paint Party Friday, Inspiration Avenue, Creative Everyday, and Mandarin Orange Monday.

  Thank you dear friends for all your encouraging and supportive comments regarding my "artful" birds in my last post. It means so much .

  "Until you commit your goals to paper, you have intentions that are seeds without soil." Anonymous