CHA 2016

Hello! 

Hope your Sunday is going great!

I am down in Anaheim at the CHA (Craft and Hobby Association) Mega Show.  This is an annual event for retailers to see  and order the new releases. So much to see and look at!

I love that I get to come here with Jodie at Chico Scrapbooks and be a part of the excitement. Big hugs and thanks Jodie!

These are long days but it recharges all of our creative batteries for the upcoming year. 

I'm not taking as many photos as usual but are a few shots. 

On the way. Must have our airplane selfie, right?

A favorite stop is the ideology booth!  So much to look at with all the vintage goodness. Thanks Paula for taking good care of us. 

We also stopped by the Graphic 45 booth. Always a joy to see their set up and new papers. 

Getting ready for another full day on the CHA show floor. Stayed tuned for more updates. I will also post some pics on my Facebook page SY's Studio. 

Have a wonderful day. Happy Creating!

Hugs, Sharon

Sundays with Sharon-Grungy Botanical Wall Hanging

Happy Friday everyone!

So excited for the next Sundays with Sharon this weekend. This time we will be playing with Tim Holtz burlap panels, wallflower paper, texture paste and lots of idea-ology metals. Here is a peek at what we will be creating on Sunday at Chico Scrapbooks. 

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you have a great weekend. Happy Creating. 

Hugs, Sharon

Sundays with Sharon

Hello!

I'm so excited to share with you a new class series I am teaching at Chico Scrapbooks.  It's all about mixed media and art journaling and its called Sundays with Sharon.  Fun, huh?

My first class was last Sunday on January 15th.  We created an art journal page using Dylusions techniques.  The theme was luck and the color scheme was green.  My take on a St Paddy's Day page.

Thanks to Terri, Patti, Dede, Pam, Marge, Lynda, Rosemary, Annie, Ruby, and Eva for attending the first Sundays with Sharon and for making it such a great experience.  It warms my heart to see all of you having such a good time getting inky and creating!

A huge thanks to Jodie Beck, the owner of Chico Scrapbooks, for saying yes to my crazy idea.  Your support means so much.  Oh, and thanks for taking such great photos of the day!

 

 My pages to inspire the group.  I did a one page spread on water color paper and a two page spread in my Dylusions Journal.

First up a little discussion on how I chose my colors.  The one on the right looks like camouflage, ha ha

This is how we use our paper towels, aka kitchen roll to mop up the excess ink.  

What a fun day!

 

What a great day!  I so enjoy teaching.  It's all about seeing the joy in the faces, hearing the laughter, and knowing that everyone walked away with a new technique or skill.

Looking forward to the next Sundays with Sharon in March.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Hope you enjoyed the day with me.

Happy Creating!

Hugs, Sharon

Tim Tags - a Chico Scrapbooks Tradition

Happy Monday!

Hope your week is going well. I had a busy weekend at Chico Scrapbooks with a crop on Saturday and a Tim Holtz inspired Christmas tag class. 

Jodie, the owner of Chico Scrapbooks, has created a Tim tag set every December since she opened. This year I was honored that she asked me to help her design some tags. For those of you who know me it's no secret that I'm a fan of Tim's work and all things Distress. She didn't have to ask twice. I jumped at the chance to get inky.

Each of the backgrounds were created using Tim's techniques. Plenty of stencils, dies, and inks were used. 

Look how festive St Nick looks on the mowed lawn foil embossed background. 

This one is one of my favorites. I absolutely adore this background technique using the a Christmas stencil and mini ink pads.   What really got me excited was what I did with the Industrious stickers and UTEE. 

I wasn't sure it would work but to my delight it did.  I inked up the ornament die cuts, adhered the industrious stickers and then used embossing ink at add a couple of layers of UTEE.  It has a cool enamel feel and look!

I used some pewter stain to create a plaid background on the sleigh tag. It's subtle but adds some wonderful texture and shine. The sleigh is glittered with clear rock candy and filled with gifts, a tree, and a metal adornment wreath. 

The packages are rectangles and squares cut out of The Merriment paper stash.

Jodie created this snowy festive gent. He is cut out of a script paper and covered in UTEE. We do love our UTEE at Chico Scrapbooks. Hope you can see the gorgeous fibers on all the tags. Jodie has quite the talent for finding unusual and beautiful fibers to use on our projects. 

Our last tag features the layered snowflake over a harlequin background. 

Fun aren't they?  I had a blast being a part of creating something for a Chico Scrapbooks tradition. Thanks Jodie for including me. The icing on the cake was being able to teach these techniques in class on Sunday.  It makes me happy to see the ladies learning something they can use in future projects. 

Thanks Tim for all the inspiration and products that make tags like these possible. 

Thanks to all of you for visiting my blog and commenting and encouraging me  

I hope that you take time to enjoy the little moments that make this season so magical. 

Happy Creating!

Hugs, Sharon

Thanksgiving Recap and Christmas Preview

Hello!  How is your December going?  We are in full holiday swing now.

Warning!  Grab a cuppa and sit back as this is a photo heavy post. 

I just wanted share the results of my Thanksgiving culinary adventure. We went a little non traditional this year and had prime rib instead of turkey. Never cooked a prime rib before. Nope. Never. I was a bit scared but forged ahead. Turns out it was easier than I thought and it turned out great. 

Almost there. We cooked to about 130 so it was medium rare. 

My husband and nephew getting ready to enjoy the meal. 

Good day, good food, and good company. 

With Christmas fast approaching I am in full swing on some personal projects and some for Chico Scrapbooks. Some of the personal projects are gifts so I will have to share later. I can give you a look at the December tree at Chico Scrapbooks and a sneak peek at an upcoming class. 

This year one of the other designers at the store, Terri Camilli has been decorating a small tree to celebrate the seasons and holidays. I joined in about six months ago.  Take a peek at the December tree. 

All the ornaments and decorations are created with Tim Holtz Merriment paper stash and Tim Holtz Sizzix dies.   I made the rustic lanterns and the topper and Terri created all the others. She is amazing!

It was hard to see the topper but wanted to give you a closer view. It's an up-cycled project with paper towel rolls. Kind of funky but I'm happy with how it turned out. 

Jodie has traditionally done a Tim Holtz style Christmas tag class every year at Chico Scrapbooks. This year she asked me to help out with some of the designs. Here is a quick look at two that are still in progress. 

Whew that was a lot of photos, huh?  Thanks for hanging in there. I'll give you some more looks as I complete more Christmas projects. Hope you are getting some time to enjoy the season. 

Thanks for stopping by. Happy Creating!

Hugs, Sharon

Halloween Fun

Happy Sunday!

I have just been so inspired with Halloween projects this year!  Yesterday I spent the day with my crafty friends at the annual Chico Scrapbooks Halloween crop.  What fun to see all the imaginative costumes and projects!  You can check out the pics from the crop and all the other happenings at Chico Scrapbooks here on their Facebook page.

Here we all are in our costumed glory!

Jodie always has something festive waiting for us to make each event extra special.  Check out these goodies.  Little treat boxes filled with candy.

Chico Scrapbooks usually offers some optional kits for the croppers to work on while having fun.  This event featured these two.  The one of the right is my Halloween Treat box that I entered into the Compendium of Curiosities 3 Challenge 11.  You can see my blog post here. 

This box would be perfect on your desk or to give as a gift filled with Halloween candies!  There are still a few kits available so if you are interested contact Jodie at Chico Scrapbooks today at (530)345-9333.

I worked on some decorative wall hangings inspired by Shelly Hickox and the Faux Tarnished Silver Technique she uses.  Nobody does Halloween like Shelly!  For some great inspiration be sure to check out Shelly's blog Stamptramp.  I will share the project I made and some of the steps in another post.

I also was able to finish my version of Tim Holtz October tag!  That's a record for me this year as I have been sliding in at the last moment on these.  Look for the post on that one coming up this week.

Hope you are enjoying this wonderful fall weekend.  Take care and happy creating!

Hugs, Sharon

Falling Leaves Table Runner

Hello,

its finally beginning to feel like fall here in Northern California.  Last week we had day time temps in the 90's!  It is cooler in the evenings and mornings so I know the season is changing.  I am lucky enough to live in area where we get the fall show of colors with all the trees changing.  One of my favorite things to do is create fall leaves for my home decor and other projects.

I already gave you a peek at what I've created so far in this post Fall Leaves and More on September 29th.  I showed my place card and table runner.  I have added some more leaves to the table runner and its now complete in all its rich fall colors and leaves.

The dies I used to create my leaves and pumpkin are all Tim Holtz Sizzix dies. Really, you can't be surprised by that choice, hee, hee.  The newest die in his die and texture fade combo series in the Layered Leaf (660039).  I also used the Autumn Gathering Sizzlits Decorative Strip(657454),  Tattered Leaves Bigz (656927),  Garden Green Bigz (659436), Pumpkin Parts (660031), Mini Acorn & Pumpkin Movers and Shapers (657457), Baroque Bigz (656633) and the Textured Leaves Set Texture Fades (658251).

I have found that Kraft card stock makes the most realistic leaves when I want to color them myself.  Using a variety of reds, yellows, greens, oranges, and even a touch of purple distress inks I created backgrounds on Kraft using Tim's Wrinkle Free Distress Technique.  See list below of the Distress Ink colors I used. Then I proceeded to cut out about 100 leaves.  Yes, that one hundred leaves!  Mostly with the colored background but I also used some core'dinations Time Holtz Kraft-core Nostalgic collection.  Check it out at the core'dinations website.

The centerpiece of the runner is a dimensional pumpkin made with the Pumpkin Parts die.  I cut 12 of the base pumpkin, folded them in half, and glued together.  I used fibers from my LSS, Chico Scrapbooks to create the stem.  The pumpkin was glued to the Baroque die cut.  That whole assembly was glued to a length of burlap ribbon. 

I also created some mini pumpkins and acorns to next among the leaves.  These were cut from the Kraft-Core paper and crackled.  I topped it off with a length of sheer wired ribbon that I curled.

It will make a great centerpiece to the Thanksgiving table.

Or will work on the mantle or a console table.

Check out some of the details you can achieve with these dies, texture fades, and inks!

The options on this runner are only up to your imagination.  For a mantle only piece I would make the leaves cascade on one side so that they would hang over the edge.  A round or square center piece could be created by using a larger card stock or chipboard base.

Happy Fall.  Hope you can find some time to create a fall leaf runner for your home.  If you are in the Chico area I will be doing a class on the Fall Table Runner sometime in early November.  Keep an eye out on the Chico Scrapbooks website and Facebook page for more details.  As soon as I have more info I'll let you know.

I've got several projects in the works.  In fact I've got three holidays on my desk right now.  Of course, the fall/thanksgiving leaf projects.  For Halloween I've got some cards almost ready to show you as well as a just started mixed media canvas.  Third is some winter/Christmas experimentation going on.  The next die in the layered series is a snowflake!   I'm working on the best paper and colors for the snowflakes.  Lots to share this holiday season so please come back and check out what's next.

Distress Inks used for Fall Table Runner:

Barn Door, Fired Brick, Aged Mahogany, Spiced Marmalade, Ripe Persimmon, Rusty Hinge, Wild Honey, Scattered Straw, Mustard Seed, Peeled Paint, Crushed Olive, Seedless Preserves, Dusty Concord.

Thank You for stopping by.  Happy Creating!

Hugs, Sharon