CHA Summer 2009

CHA SUMMER 2009 WAS CHA-TASTIC!

First, sorry this is a little late, but life happens.....first recover, then get swamped, then lose sleep and wake up and 5:00 a.m. on a Saturday for no good reason and get-r-done. That's just the way I roll and most of you know that and still tolerate me! LOL!

CHA Summer took place at the County Convention Center July 31 - August 1, 2009, in Florida this year and featured the first CHA Craft SuperShow open to the public. It was an amazing event to say the least. CHA always rocks, but having the consumer show on the tail end of it made it that much more fun and exciting. For those of you who aren't familiar with CHA, it is basically a big "market" for the craft industry. You have retailers and buyers from all walks of life and there are two shows each year, one in the winter and one in the summer. All of the latest and greatest upcoming craft products in the industry are launched and demonstrated and if you're like me, it's a total rush and you just get lost in all the possibilities!

CHA offers classes and forums and this celebrity panel of craft royalty were amazing as they presented “The Future of Crafts: Our Changing Face.” Host Terri O. questioned the panel about the past and future trends of crafting.

From left to right, host Terri O. , Kathy the Crafty Chica, Vickie Howell, Donna Dewberry, and Carol Duvall, who paved the way for television crafters! Each of these ladies offered their knowledge in the industry and it was exciting to hear how the industry has changed and how although the Internet has basically changed our lives, nothing beats a good ol' face-to-face crafting session and quality time with family and friends.

Me and my great friend, Donna Dewberry, who taught me to paint and help me create a path for myself in this industry and to whom I am forever grateful!

Many of you know I am a Plaid Ambassador and I'm so blessed to be able to use the many wonderful products Plaid has to offer and demonstrate them at the show! For this show, I was demonstrating Extreme Glitter and Simply Screen, both great new products. Extreme Glitter is already in stores and Simply Screen will be out in September I believe!

Go Team Plaid, from left to right, Sandy Bares, Shauna Lallatin , me (AngelaAnderson), Kasey Jones, and John Williams in front of the Extreme Glitter tree o' ornaments! Chris Williams must have been taking the picture, she rocks!!

Ok, so here's Simply Screen, check out the website by clicking on the logo! We've taken the concept of Silk Screening and made it simple. The reception to the product was flooring! I counted - at times 50 people were standing in line at the consumer show waiting to try this product!

Samples of cool applications of Simply Screen. Basically, you take an adhesive-backed screen, apply it to your fabric and you can either paint with a brush or squeegee paint across the screen. Lift and BAM - sweet success! You can also replace the paint for an adhesive product and apply metallic foils or glitter over the top........mmmmmmmmmm, glitter, focusss, focuss, must finish blog.

Connie rockin' the demo!

Me and Sandy el'promo Extreme Glitter-o!

Yummy Halloween Extreme Glitter Tree!

Miss Sandy and Sweet Chris!

Check out the fab ornament tree and these awesome wreaths! Even the wall is done in Silver Extreme Glitter! The fun thing about EG is combining colors on the inside of glass ornaments and shaking them up to see the results....great gifts for Christmas!

Kind of hard to see, but this tree was our office entrance, but also showed our popular jewelry lines. We have a new one called Petals a Plenty, kind of vintage and very cool. I love taking jewelry and using it collage style with my paintings!

This was the fourth wall of our both just showing peeps with product!

So of course, other great companies were there and there are always fabulous samples of projects. I didn't get much time out of the booth, but did snap a few shots. In the madness, I lost track of where some of the photos came from , but I believe these are all Ranger.

Paper florals, Wow!

Now, girlfriend, I KNOW where these next three are from, one of my favorite scrapbooking companies of all time ever.....Graphic 45, love their vintage style and their projects are always over the top. Even if you're not a scrapper, you just have to love the art.

Another favorite company of mine is Tattered Angels, love their Glimmer Mist products, chip boards and screens, check them out!

These next few I don't remember the product details, but how inspiring they all are, just had to share!

Oh and look below, images of fall and Halloween. As crafters, we must face it, the HOLIDAYS HAVE ARRIVED, so go forth, glue gun by your side, brush in hand and glitter in your heart and DREAM - CREATE - INSPIRE! ....and eat, holidays are all about the food, we all know that.

God bless you and your brushes! Hugs,

Angela

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Craft Room Makeover! Progress!

Many of you have asked me to post pics as my during my craft room renovation. We have decided officially that after the renovation, the room will be referred to as a studio rather than a craft room (he-he).

I'm posting pics of some things we have done so far (ribbon wall in walk-in attic above) and of the room being cleared out so that whatever "lucky" contractor we hire will be able to walk in there (yes I admit at times there was only a small path from the doorway to the table) and do what they need to do. As we remove everything, we are organizing it in boxes so that I can still work and meet my deadlines during the transition. I have also either thrown away or donated over 20 large bags of "art supplies" to put it nicely!

Our studio makeover days usually begin with Munch and Trixie waiting for cousin Kristin (my niece) to arrive! She brings kolachees and donuts so it's extra fun! They are looking down below at the kitchen door from the loft!

Here's Princess Kristin packing up!!

I am so blessed. My husband and I have only been in this house 7 years. When we designed it, there were no studio plans upstairs. From the time we designed the house until we built it, that is how fast my business grew. I knew I would need an area for this. So, we converted what was to be a walk-in attic into a studio for me - WITH A SINK!!!!! How much does that rock! I'm telling you this so you understand when you look at the room why the ceiling lines are so strange! God is good and I'm so fortunate to do what I love in my own home for part of my living. I still work outside of the home too part of the week, but everyday I'm just a little closer to my dream of doing my artwork full-time!

Once we pack things up, they either go on shelves in other rooms, like the bathroom below, or in my make-shift studio (husband's mancave - yes, he said I could). The mancave is where I am working until all of this is done.

Converted mancave pictured above complete with feathers on floor. I'm trying to be very careful since I'm invading territory so I put down a drop cloth!

This next few pics show my walk in attic area that leads to the hot-water heather. The door to this room is in my studio, so why not make great use of it!! I'm putting things in here that do not need to be climate controlled. On the right wall, I have surfaces to paint on and on the left is the Wall O'Ribbon, which has already proven to be VERY handy!

That's about it for now! Kristin and I will work on this tomorrow evening together and on Saturday, we meet with the first contractor...wish us luck!! If you have any ideas for us, we would love to hear them! Send them to angela@angelaandersondesigns.com!

Hugs and have a wonderful day!

Angela

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SERIOUSLY PINK GIRLY ROOM!!

What is hot pink, has zebra stripes, a New York skyline and fashion elements galore? Jenna's Boutique, that's what!!!

Jenna is a cutie and she wanted her room done in hot pink zebra. She has a passion for fashion and her mom, Jeaneatte, even has her own jewelry, purses and general girly stuff business called Jewels by Jeanette.

When Jeaneatte asked me to design this room, I was all over it. I LOVE to do little girls' rooms and she gave me free reign on this one! I always love to hear that! My sister Judy is an interior decorator, so when we team up, there's no stopping us really!

So we started out by having the walls painted pink and picking out the bedding and we just decided to add in a shopping trip to New York!

I started out by sketching in the skyline and then my niece Audrey helped me paint it in solid black. I then just took a brush and added windows with purple, neon green and pinks...added a little glitter so they would shine with the lights!!

Now this area was fun. I painted zebra on the ceiling and on the fan blades. Check out this ceiling medallion. It was white to start with, painted it black and added pink accents and a double-dose of bling!

This is such a cute piece of furniture from Potter Barn Kids. When it opens, it has message boards, drawers, etc., really cute. I added JF with scrolls above it so Jenna could have her own brand like Juicy Couture!

This is my favorite part. I had Jenna stand near the wall and did the old lamp trick to outline her shadow. So that is actually Jenna headed to that New York skyline with her dog Princess to shop baby!

I also painted little purses, shoes and jewelry hanging down from these scrolls. We even glued bling to the wall around Jenna's neck, the dog for the collar and various other places.

What shopping experience would be complete without a fitting room? This is Jenna's closet and I just painted scrolls and the words "Fitting Room" above it.

I created a lot of the accessories for the room too. These mirrors were just plain black and I added the fur trim around the edges and painted the scrolls. Another cool piece of furniture here, this unit spins around and all the storage is hidden!

Judy and I hung everything on the walls and placed all the chotskis! Mucho fun!

Judy helped add the fabric pieces to our lady here and I painted the chalkboard to the right hanging on the wall. Jenna's name is on it in pink glitter at the bottom, kind of hard to see in this pic though. This is one of the pieces that was on the episode of Paint, Paper & Crafts I filmed last year that aired recently on PBS.

More foo-foos, I painted Jenna's letters here.

All in all, everyone is very happy with the way it turned out. I have a sign to make for the door that says Jenna's Boutique and a few other little things to do, but I thought I would just have to share this for all those girly girls out there! Hopefully you can get some ideas for fun ways to spruce up your girls' rooms!

Hugs and God Bless You and Your Brushes!

Angela

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