On the Road...

It has been a whirlwind the last few weeks! I traveled out to Lake Forest, CA to Sizzix HQ for a meeting which went really well (I think, I hope!). Then it was on to Minnesota where Karen Burniston and I taught at VIP Scrapbooks in Rochester, MN and also got to spend time with her sister Julie, her husband Randy and two adorable nephews. Randy cooked us Mother's Day dinner and I heard from all of my kids so that was a good day :-)

Then we drove back to Minneapolis to the Mystic Lake resort to teach classes at a retail event put on by Erickson and Associates. Here we met store owners and reps and were able to give tips and techniques for working with our products. It was great to talk to the store owners because I got to hear things from another perspective.

I showed how to make a badge holder from the Index Card box die by cutting off a flap and adding two Business Card boxes to the inside. I put my cards in one box and other people's cards in the other. You can also fit a few dollars for lunch and a tiny pen. On the back of the box you can put your badge. It's a great way to carry all you need in one place, especially at trade shows! 

We did a Make and Take the first night and the next day I taught a class called Stacking Candy Drawers. I made stamps from my Borders and Hydrangea die and fun foam. Stephanie Barnard's inks were used to stamp the flowers on the box. Loving these nice and bright colors! The flowers were outlined with black marker dots for a little extra touch. Adhesive pearls were added for the flower centers and a matching ribbon tied it all together.

 

We received some coupons when we checked into the casino- if you put $10 in the machine, you'd get it back when you cashed out. So each night we would go down and play the quarter slots... the first night we won $82, next night $38 and the last time $25. Since I didn't have my ID with me the first night, we decided to play on one ticket and split the winnings- lucky lucky me- Karen has a way with those slot machines! 

We visited a very cool paper store called Anchor Paper when we got to Minneapolis (thanks to June, one of our students). So all of my purchases there were covered by the money I won! Almost like it was meant to be...

On Saturday, I head up to NY where I'll be visiting the National Stationery Show, on the lookout for cool stuff. Will let you know know what I find!

Happy May Day!

I was just looking at a post of Ann Butler's and she has a sweet May Day flower cone project up to celebrate this mini-holiday. Read her blog post to see where this tradition came from. I love it! Here's my version for all of you, blog friends :-) 

I used the ScoreBoard Pro Cone die which I covered with pretty papers from the IOD Devotion collection at Creative Imaginations.

1. Coat the 12" x 12" piece of matboard with spray adhesive, then add the paper on top. With paper side facing the die, cut the cone using Big Shot Pro machine. 
2. Adhere red glitter gift wrap to a piece of scrap matboard and cut four scalloped edges for the cone. 
3. Cut a tag using the "For You" tag from the Sweet Treats for You Sizzlit set (coming next month from the Sweet Treats collection) from kraft paper and back it with red paper.
4. Assembly is so quick! Run a line of strong double sided adhesive down the edge of the flap of the cone and adhere to the opposing side. 
5. If desired, add a ruffle of crepe paper around the inside of the cone. Paper shred may be added inside to anchor the stems.
6. The flowers are made using the Bigz Hydrangea & Borders die (also coming very soon!)

I hope to post a video soon showing how to make the hydrangeas- stay tuned and in the meantime, Happy May Day to all of you!