Sunday-2pm

Leah and I headed out to the Stamp Expo yesterday about 10am. Leah treated me to a cafe mocha from Atomic Coffee and she got a hot chocolate. They have a drive thru now at the new Atomic Coffee by her place and we had them fill our thermal cups! We were all set! :)

There was a Craft Fair going on at the same time this weekend so it was extra crowded. Here's a picture of the hallway in front of K&Krafts with all the demonstration tables. Kay is the one standing in the striped top (she's about a third of the way down the tables--I know it's hard to tell in a photo). We started on one end and worked our way down to the far end. If there was something we really wanted--Leah went inside and looked for it (we got the last on the shelf of two different items!) Probably only my crafty friends will be interested in a lot of these photos, but it was an exciting day! :)

The next five pictures Leah took with her camera since she can get close ups a lot easier with hers. This is actually Kay's husband doing a demonstration. Fold a paper in half and make random cuts--can be wavy or straight.

Then he colored with a brayer--one section at a time--each in a different color. Went back with tiny rubber stamps and printed on top of each section so that it looked like background paper. It is a kind of Japanese paper, piece-work effect. Can print words in Black right over the top if you want to, but it looked beautiful just framed up for the front. (Leah forgot a picture of the finished product-hehe!)

There were some really pretty watercolor effect cards. The ladies hint was to color the lightest colors first and then darker right on top with the markers. Like the flowers here--she colored them totally yellow first and then added the orange in the centers. Then you have no gaps or white spots. She says it doesn't ruin the markers--rubs right off? Have to try that.

Hint: If the stems or some other part doesn't print all the way, you can take the color you need and rub the marker on a piece of tin foil (or whatever you have for painting--plastic lid or porcelain flower palette), then use the brush that you fill with water and touch on the color--can fill in any parts of the stamp that didn't stamp right. :) Good hint! I am sure you could use a small regular paint brush, too, if you didn't have a water brush.

They showed an embossing technique. You have to buy a specific type of paper that is white on one side and colored on the other-- it is on the thin side. You emboss like you would normally--then you rub with sandpaper over the raised parts. Gives you this white outline effect.

After we finished at the Stamp Expo and did our snooping and shopping, my feet were killing me. I stayed in the car while Leah ran in here to buy some fishing line and lure attachments so that we could repair Karma's old "da bird" toy--and fix the new one if I need to in the future. A likely prospect--hehe!

Leah was gone for a long time--got to snooping and found some interesting items for Miss Karma--hehe! There's a photo below. I guess I didn't get these in exactly the right order. Oh well. Don't think I've ever had this many pictures!! :)

This is our bounty from K&Krafts! Leah surprised me! She had still been putting money in every month into our craft kitty since we spent it all before Christmas for card supplies. I put in $20--she didn't let me put in more than that. (Was early birthday money from Ruby! Thank you, Ruby!)

The plastic container holds ribbons. We got one to try it out. I wasn't convinced it would work--but Leah was right--the ribbons did fit and it looks like it will work just fine. We could use two more for all the colors we have. There's a deckle cutter for the Cutterpede (yellow), a pad of beautiful papers, a new ink pad (called Castaway) & refill that you heat with an iron and it gives the effect of using bleach, a fancy corner punch, and three raised punches. Those of you who got Christmas cards saw the raised punch Christmas tree. I did post pictures, too, back then--part of the punch folds up so that you get a 3D effect. We have lots to play with!!

An empty bag and Karma tries to climb inside. Talk about optimistic!

Oh--we also got ten sheets of this new watercolor paper. It is made to use with the watercolor techniques--which I love to play with. :)

Here's all the stuff Leah found at the sport store! That is what took her so long (I didn't mind-BTW)--she found stuff to make toys for Karma with! Wow! She said we have to go back and snoop one day. She ran across the feathers by accident--went down the wrong aisle--and said there was a whole bunch of inexpensive weird stuff we could make toys out of for Karma! :)

We fixed up Karma's old "da bird" toy pole. The new one is the one with the feather toy on it.

Of course, it was difficult to even attempt to get a picture of them. Took many takes--hehe!

So--it was a busy day! Had lots of fun. Got lots of pictures. Hope you are all having busy, fun days, too!!!