Novi Rubber Stamp & Paper Arts Festival

Today, I went with Jen (aka Miss Boo) to the Novi Rubber Stamp & Paper Arts Festival. It was my first time at such an expo. I thought it would be bigger, but we had plenty of things to see and try!

I ran into Heidi and later RoseAnn and her friend Marie. And of course, I introduced myself to Tracey of Starving Artistamps...who produces my favorite line of quirky stamps...Doodlefactory!



She was pretty busy with demonstrations of their mosaic stamp line. In fact they are pretty awesome. I can't figure out which to add to my collection. The uniform square mosaics or the crumbly piece mosaics. Oh, I'm sure they have better names that that! But I'm leaning towards the crumbly. Not only that, each style has a positive and negative stamp. So well, I'm not the most decisive person so...well...I'm still thinking! haha Here is the example she stamped while I was there:



Heidi said that she was wondering if I had gotten to the SA booth...haha. Yes and I was really good. I only bought the Fairy Tale Princess stamp to go with the castle and 2 dragons. I got a large Ezner the owl and Mimo...b/c he was so woeful looking. I was so incredibly tempted to pick up the Parrot Pirate..but I refrained. Oh and the poppies...I wanted that one too. Okay, so I have a Starving Artistamp wishlist.

While at the Expo Center, I got to try out some liquid mask. It was pretty neat. But it's all about the money thing. Jen and I agreed that we could make a mask with a piece of paper, and put the $14 bucks towards RUBBER.

(And by Rubber we mean RUBBER...not Acrylic. I'm not the only Rubber snob out there! haha)

I also tried my hand at using a Surka glue pen...Ooooh...I would have bought that but they were sold out! We used it on a Thomas Kinkaid stamp which have been pretty popular lately. Squint, I'm sure you'll see the sparkles! haha. Okay, seriously, it's lovely in real life. I'll have to figure out how to get better pictures!



We made a small note pad on the Bind It All...pretty cool...still with that would arrive in my stocking! hehe. It is plain but after I decorate it, I will upload it here. I saw Judith of StampsbyJudith do a bunch of demos...wow can she make things look easy. Jen and I were so incredible tempted to buy the tree with all the little "ornaments." Only they were hearts and candy canes, flowers, bees, popcorn, ghosts, buttons...just about anything you could think of! haha. But, I decided that I would hand draw a tree and stamp in the objects from Year Round Fun 2...We'll see how that turns out!

I saw a lot of the acrylic scrapbooks and bunches of bottle caps...I don't understand those! And of course tons of stamps. But this had to be the show stopper!! Miss Boo is holding it...











ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!??! Why am I not starting my own stamp company? Really. B/c I know what I would love to see. Candy apples, poppies, strawberries...haha. Oh yeah...and trees with little items that aren't so pricey!

Oh, and I nearly forgot...Jen made a fabulous SCS name tag..and someone noticed it...another Splitcoaster of course. BDeyes9...aka Bev...who was the sweetest lady and fun to chat with for a bit. If you are Bev's kids and are reading this...get your mom tutored on how to upload her stamp creations on SCS. I wanna see them!

What else did I buy? Some EZmount for a good price and some new storage pages for unmounted stamps. I bought 5...and now I think I should have splurged...buy 10, get one free. But I'm happy with 5 for now.

Blog Award...

This afternoon, I found out I was awarded a Blog Award from Lisa of This 'n' That. Now wouldn't it be great if we could get awards like this in real life! haha. Nonetheless, I will enjoy the day today.



RULES:
I have to pick 7 of my favorite blogs and…
1. The winner can put the logo on their blog
2. Link the person you received your award from
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of the girls or boys you’ve nominated.

So...my nominations for this award will go to those who actually leave comments on my blog! See, it pays to take a little time to say hello. Though I do really like checking on on these bloggers too.

Barb the knitting stamper
Tattoo Terry
Kimberly in China (Okay, she doesn't comment on my blog...but I love reading about her adventures in China.)
Rhonda...who takes great
photos, stamps, quilts, AND cooks
Aunt Lin who encourages me to keep posting and is so complimentary

Okay...so that isn't 7...but that's okay. B/c it's my blog!!

Product Reviews...UHU

Recently, I was given some UHU products to review on my blog. I decided that today would be that experiemental day!

First I tried out UHU's Tac...adhesive putty. Back in college, we had to use putty stuff if we wanted to put up posters on our walls. Back then it was some sort of blue-green putty that usually was too hard to roll in your hands or it dried during the year and left spots on the walls.


Tac is white and very easy to knead into a small ball. Squishy but not sticky or gooey. Usually, I use scotch tape to tape up pix that the my kids have created or I tape up cards that friends have sent me. Not only will this Tac save me on my scotch tape expense, but it will make the displayed cards and papers look better without the tape hanging on the way!



I don't even want to post the other side of this door way...where all my bday cards are displayed. Lots of tape! I'll have to revisit this review in a few weeks/months to let you know how the Tac comes OFF the wall! haha.


The next product I tried was UHU Stic...a glue stick. Now, when I started stamping and trying to be frugal, I used a lot of glue sticks. This one is purple so you can see where you put it. Some other glue sticks that I have used tend to "flake off" after they dry. I could peel off layers without damaging the paper. And well..this does the same thing. (All the layers of this card have peeled apart without any difficulty.) While I wouldn't use it for my projects, it would be great for my kids' projects.



The third project which I reviewed today was athe UHU Scrapbookers Pen. Wow...I really liked this pen. I use Scotch liquid adhesive on a regular basis so I am used to liquid glue. The UHU Scrapbookers Pen is a clear, nearly gel-like glue. The neat thing about this pen is it's applicator tip which is beveled. It makes a nice tool for smoothing out the liquid glue on the paper.



The label proclaims:
does not wrinkle paper
washable
precise application
non clogging




I used it on this card...with decorative paper and thicker card stock. Indeed, it does not wrinkle the paper at all. As for non clogging...when I took the lid off, there was a wad of gelled glue that I mearly pulled off with my fingers. Easy, peasy. I did have to actually wash my hands with soap and water to get the residue off my hands. So if you are a messy paper crafter (like me), you will need to be a bit careful about getting this glue on your fingers. Or work near a sink! Don't smear the glue onto parts that will show...it will not wipe off and will leave a mark.

I'm really happy about how it adhered the decorative paper. And the lable says it is idea ofr paper and cardboard. I tried using it for the primas and it was a mess! I ended tossing them and adding more...with less glue. But those didn't stick after they had dried.

So, the UHU Scrapbookers Pen is great for paper...just be careful. I'm not a scrapbooker but I think it would work great on the back of those glossy pictures.

Late Night Mojo

I decided to try one late night card...



Then the challenge was posted so I did another.



Now I'm off to bed...

no mojo...

So today, after cleaning all day yesterday, well, I really thought I should stamp all day...

but it really didn't happen. My upline has asked me to make a card or project for her blog...once a month sort of thing. So I made one using today's color challenge. But I didn't post it anywhere b/c if it were MY blog, then I'd want an exclusive. So, Joy is getting an exclusive Dawn card. haha. I'll be sure to post a link when she puts it up on her blog.

Then, the Halversons are moving out of state. Today I watched two of her kids while the movers packed up her house. So I dressed up a Bath and Body Works Lotion (BBW), made a card, book mark and a pad of paper. No pix of the items but I do have the card pix.




Then after they left, I took the whinies to the pool...and no one was happy so we didn't stay long. Then it was dinner time, clean up time...

Finally a little more stamp time. Only well...nothing flowed. I wasted a bunch of paper and wasn't really happy...even when I started on 3 or 4 cards. Oh well...tomorrow is another day.




The card opens up with the vanilla layer. The blue layer is 4.25 x 5.5...single sheet. Used Coppyer EP for the glitz and edges.

Maybe the sentiment made me too sad to stamp...

Cleaning

Mondays are clean the house day here. I'm teaching the kids how to clean while we clean. And today..it is not going well.

Nice break...need to get back to the kids who are "folding laundry." Sounds more like rolling in the clean clothes and arguing...