More from CHA

Wow, I think my MM card did me in so I'll have to post a few more CHA pix that have been sent by some friends. Maria and I had a ball running around the trade show. She is also a Custom Crops Designer and she and Natalie have just completed a fabulous Cricut video. There will be more on that later and it will be available for preorder on the Custom Crops website SOON! In the meantime you can view the trailer Here. WooHoo! Here we are with Tim Holtz and our autographed Texture fades. Stay tuned. These may just be coming up at blog candy one of these days since I already own them ALL!

I'm sure you all have seen tons of pix by now of the ProvoCraft Gala. What an amazing time and how excited was I to be receiving one of the new Cricut Imagine machines! Here I am with the whole Custom Crops Crew (Susan, Amy, Patty, Maria, Me, Kelly and Libby). (How embarrassing to be in front like that but honestly, they made me move because we didn't all fit. Yikes! Now I remember why I'm sooo glad we don't have humidity. Sure does a number on the hair!)

Here's a group of us at the Cricut Cricle Breakfast. Maria, Susan, Melanie, myself and Diane. Thanks Joy for taking the pic! I was also especially excited to meet my dear blogging friend Audrey in person! Wish my camera had been in commission so I could have had a pic. HeeHee, she's a midget like me!

Friday and Saturday was the Super Show. Here's the retail portion of the Custom Crops Booth. Didn't it turn ou fabulous? We also had a demo area, a DVD preview area, Robyn (My Pink Stamper) and her BFF Carly , and the Make and Take area which was my home for the 2 days.

I really think I had the best job because I was able to meet so many wonderful crafters and even some friends from the Cricut mb and the sweetest gal who had made my purse card from the Custom Crops website. So sorry I don't exactly remember your name hon, I'm having a senior moment. LOL I know it begins with a "T" and it was so sweet of you to come back on Sunday to take a pic with me since I'd missed you on Saturday. Had to laugh because Aprile (Chirpin'Is Fun) sat there for a long time without realizing I was there. Lots of big hugs when she recognized me! And Rheba (DazyCutr) drove all the way from Tennessee to attend. I was so happy I was able to take a break with her and spend some time. This is Susan Edwards (also a Custom Crops Designer as well as BBTB2 sister) and I helping with the Make and Takes. (We're way back in the corner.)

Wow were Susan and I thrilled to meet fellow BBTB2 Designers Krista Norman and Penny Shuberg in person. They are the sweetest Mom and Daughter EVER! BTW, Susan also has a fabulous DVD called It's a Kid's life with 18 fabulous layouts begining with Back to School. You can have a sneak peek HERE and order it right on her blog just in time to start your child's school year off right. So that's about it for today unless you want to pop over to Haunted Design House for Fiendishly Fun Friday to see the faux tattoo I got at the Cricut gala and the seriously KILLER shoes my DH bought me. Let's just say we're keeping the THRILL alive! HeeHee!

Finally the BBTB2 Blog Hop Winner and some CHA Pix

Sorry for the delay, folks. I didn't get home until 5:00pm (Ca time) on Sunday night and CHA took more out of me than I thought. Although I was hot to craft yesterday I was a bit overwhelmed with my goodies and poor DH ( and the kitties) needed some attention. I managed to get some pix off my camera and also some sent by friends. The Trade Show opens each year with a parade of Bagpipers winding their way through the aisles. I happen to love bagpipes so this really adds to the excitement for me.

ProvoCraft always dominates both the Trade and Consumer Shows with a huge space and demos and make and takes for their products. Plenty of giveaways throughout the day as well. There was lots of excitement! Of course you all know by now that the new machine that both cuts and prints is called the Imagine.

Besides working with the regular Cricut cartridges there will be separate Imagine cartridges with images but also with colors and prints that can be applied to your cut selections with very professional looking results. It is my understanding that ProvoCraft has gone into partnership with Cosmo Cricket for both the cut and print designs for some of these first carts and they are ADORABLE! I think they will be working with other paper manufacturers as well.

For those of you worrying about the designs being too flat, (including me!), you also have the option of cutting and printing each layer of an image individually. Above are some of the examples scattered around the booth. This will be quite an investment with the new machine MSRP at $599 and the ink cartridges running at $34.99 for black and $39.99 for the color array. They did assure us that they would last from 50 to 100 full sheets of printed paper (which I really don't think anyone will do) so hopefully they will last a goood long time when printing just the images you select. There will also be new mats with better stick which will work in both the regular Expression and the Imagine and retail the same as the current mats. The difference besides the improved adhesive will be black lines that the Imagine will use for orientation for the printing/cutting feature.

I have more pix and will post throughout the week, but I wanted to do my long awaited drawing for the BBTB2 Blog Hop. (Finally, huh?)

AND THE WINNER of the $30.00 Custom Crops gift voucher IS

# 4 Jessica Wekenman. WOOHOO JESSICA!

Please email me at dlmundinger (at) yahoo (dot)com to arrange for your prize. Thanks so much to everyone for participating and for hanging in there. I hope to get some crafting done today, perhaps using some of the goodies I picked up at CHA.

More CHA Pix

No crafting today. My DH and kitties needed some attention. Goliath wouldn't even let me type on the computer without biting my fingers or pawing at my face. LOL The weather was beautiful so Dh and I went to the Wente Golf Course Grill for lunch and it was so warm and sunny we sat outside. Quite a change from the torrential rains we've had. Here are a few of my favorite pix of the booths at CHA. Do you believe this coat? It was at the Tim Holtz Idealogy booth and was made entirely of grunge paper. AMAZING!

I literally drooled over the ribbon at May Arts!


Nilda and I met up at The Scrapping Cottage Booth, one of the sponsors for The Cuttlebug Spot. LOVE their dies!

Shabby chic at the girl's paperie. GORGEOUS!

The trend was definitely vintage, and Graphic 45 had some of the best. Talk about inspiring! Maybe even too much so. I don't know what I want to do first.

But I hope to recover soon from sensory overload and become one Crafty Chica!

I'm HOME!!!!, The Winner, A Quick Card, and CHA Pix

Wow! What a fabulous experience. I can't tell you how much fun and excitement there was at CHA but after 6 days I must say I'm exhausted and glad to be home to my DH and kitties. Thank you Custom Crops for the wonderful experience! You guys are THE BEST! I have to say I went through a bit of a withdrawel not being able to craft (although we did have some fun at the make and takes) so the first thing I did was to make a quick card using a new brand of embossing folder from Crafts-Too available at Custom Crops. They arrived just before I left so it killed me not to have a chance to play. Although I bought them all, I think my favorite is the Leafy Tree.

This card literally took me 5 minutes to make (which was about all I could handle this morning) but I LOVE how it turned out. Premade card, pink mat, gorgeous embossed tree, and puffy conversation heart stickers I got at M's last year. It reminds me of a "Heidi tree." (Meaning Heidi Van Laar whose fresh clean style I admire greatly but can never seem to pull off. She's particularly fond of the tree motif, so what do you think Heidi?)

Hang with me here guys, I'll get to the giveaway winner of the My Pink Stamper Volume1 DVD but I'm dying to show some more pix. Day one at CHA we literally RAN to the Tim Holtz booth before it as mobbed. We did a gorgeous jewery make and take and took pix of hundreds of projects and new product. Besides all of the cool hardware and stuff I was most impressed with his new embossing folders coming out from Sizzix. Even if Tim's style is not your own, I guarantee you'll want to take a look at these (Of course I can't find my pix but just had to mention it.) Here's Natalie, Miranda, Tim and I. And of course one of just the two of us. On Wednesday morning Natalie and Miranda did the most AMAZING video with him. I can't wait to have a link when it's posted. Tim was just so personable and interesting. When I had him autograph his catalog I jokingly said "And make sure you write 'to Donna with Love' " and I couldn't believe it. HE DID!

The videos were fun and I was able to do a few without totally embarrassing myself (or should I wait to say that AFTER they're posted.) LOL We were quite upset to find out later on Tuesday that we'd lost audio on 5 of them, including my longest one with Kent Chesley, CEO of gcd studios and one of their AMAZING designers, Melody Ross (click on her name to find out more about Melody from Moxie Fab World). I follow their blog and couldn't wait to see their beautiful things in person. Fortunately they were still available on Wednesday and we JUST caught Melody before she rushed off to catch a plane. We were so busy doing the videas I forgot to take stills at their amazing booth but be sure to click on the links I have in this paragraph to see it all.

In some ways that little mishap was a blessing, because we were able to keep Cody (the videographer) and extra half day and do almost all of the videos we'd hoped for. I have to thank him for making making me feel so at ease, (and promising to photoshop the wrinkles, dark circles and bags under my eyes). Isn't he just a cutey!?

I was so excited to be able to do the Spellbinders video, ESPECIALLY because it was with Kazan Clark. I'm sure you know Kazan because she is not only on the Spellbinder's design team, but hosts the fabulously successful challenge blog 2S4U along with her friend Laura Davis. Both ladies were also my design team sisters on BBTB until their schedules became too crazy and we miss them terribly. It was so much fun interviewing someone I felt I already knew. Again, you'll need to stay tuned for the link, but here's a pic of the two of us. She's such a doll and I can't wait to get my hands on the new limited edition products as well as new Nesties, Pendants, Borders and Labels! Start saving ladies!

And now, what you've been waiting for! The winner of My Pink Stamper Cricut Fun DVD (chosen by random DH) is # 47 (please note that one comment had been deleted so I didn't count that one.)

"Tee"

who wrote "All very exciting. I so hope I am the winner, would love her DVD. Thanks!"

CONGRATULATIONS Tee! Please email me at dlmundinger(at)yahoo(dot)com.

Thank you all who participated and thank you Robyn for so generously donating a copy. For those of you who would like to purchase a copy of Volume 1, they are available at Custom Crops along with a preorder for Volume 2 and her great new clear stamps Everyday Occasions and Simply Sweet Occasions. That's all for now. xxD

The Cuttlebug Spot Black and Silver Color Challenge

This week at The Cuttlebug Spot is a color challenge featuring black and silver. I used my Star Nestablilites in a variety of papers. The background is embossed with the Cuttlebug Stars folder using glossy black cardstock and the stars themselves with The Chriawesome is a metalstmas Stars limited edition folder, available at Custom Crops, my favorite Swiss Dots, and the smallest one with the background folder again. (How convenient it was the perfect size!) "Awesome" is adhesive metal from M's.

Here's the dimensional view. I was very pleased with how easily the Nesties cut the glitter paper.

Inside is another glitter star with the sentiment printed on acetate and attached using a frame so the adhesive wouldn't show. I thought this could be used for a number of occasions, like graduation or a job promotion. I'll file it away in my male card drawer which is usuallypretty empty. Be sure to stop by The Cuttlebug Spot to see the great designs from my teammates.

We're still at CHA and today is going to be a busy day. The Custom Crops videographer is here and we'll be filming at a number of booths to bring you the latest and greatest. I'll be sure to give you links when they are available on UTube. In the meantime, say a prayer I don't totally make a fool out of myself. Never done any filming before...YIKES! Fortunately if I'm a total bust, Natalie and Miranda, the pros from Custom Crops can rescue me. Sorry no links, no time, but I'll add them later. Gotta go!

BBTB2 Sweetheart Love Stamp Challenge and Wow What a Party at CHA

Holy moley, I've lost track of the days! Day 1 of CHA was AMAZING but I'll get to that later (if I manage to stay awake). This week on BTTB2 the lovely and talented Marina has chosen the Love Stamp from Sweethearts. Fortunately I was inspired in time to complete the challenge before my trip. This traditional card was layered with the heart window cut through all of the front layers to reveal a sneak peak of the couple inside. The colors were inspired by our first BBTB2 contest of using purple on your Valentine. The stamp layer was embossed with one of the new HSN Cuttlebug folders and the"sweetheart" was cut from, oh oh, I'm having a senior moment. Was it Sweethearts too? I don't think so but I'm WAY too tired to look it up...sorry!

Inside reveals the full couple and the computer generated sentiment"You swept me off my feet" printed on a heart cut with my Nestabilities. I thought this would also be cute for an anniversary.

Here's the dimensional view. It's WAy past my bed time (for the third night in a row) and honestly I'd LOVE to amputate my feet at this point! BUT...

The ProvoCraft party tonight was sooo amazing! I was lucky enough to be chosen as one of the "cake walk" participants along with Nilda (WooHoo Cuttlebug Spot!) and unlucky enough to be the first one out but to my surprise, because of that, I received an extra gift besides the gorgeous Williams Sonoma cake gift basket in honor of the launch of Cricut Cake; a 2 cartridge gift of the Christmas/Noel and Designers Calendar. AND as if that wasn't enough, EVERYBODY was a winner. WE ALL received the Sweet Treats cartridge (which I did NOT have yet) and yes, you guessed it A CRICUT CAKE MACHINE!!!!!!!!! OMG! Thank you Provo Craft, and DOUBLE, TRIPLE, QUADRUPLE thanks to Custom Crops for inviting me to come along to CHA! You guys are THE BEST (and WAY too much FUN)! Tomorrow we'll be visiting even MORE exciting new products at CHA. Pinch me, I must be dreaming! Night night.