Mini Book Binding Class- a few spots left

Julie and I are hosting another craft night at the Vintage Emporium in Long Beach. Since learning coptic binding from the very talented Lucia Farias Villareal (click on her name to read about this amazing book artist!) I have been addicted! I will teach you what Lucia taught me that got me on the road to making my own books and journals. Here are some pics from our last craft night. Julie always makes her shop so warm and welcoming, and a good bottle of wine is always enjoyed! Class size is always kept small. No experience necessary and there will be several papers available to make it your own. You can sign up on my class webpage here!

Lovely Touches-Artistic Affaire Les Sirenes

I am just overwhelmed with photos from Artistic Affaire, I even tried to cut down on the pics for this reason. It would take 10 hours to blog the whole event so I am just going to take a few favorite pics to show you that really make Kims event so special. Here they are:

{this is what greets us upon arrival. Always a beautiful name badge, a raffle ticket, free goodies, an itinerary, and a wonderful goodie bag filled with sponsor goodies}

{this is the bag, so cute and practical you can take it anywhere. The goodies were from: friskars, lisa kettel, the little pink studio, Jodee, romance cats and whimsy, simply me art, The tragic queen, cassis creations, Whimzy, speckeled egg, treasured herilooms and Farmgirl. Please forgive me if I forgot anyone!}

{the beautiful center piece}

{lovely chairbacks. I ended up cutting mine to pieces for my projects though!}

{the kit for Hollys pillow}

{my Julie Haymaker STAR, I loved the little felted pillow}

{my little Jenny Hernandez sculpted mermaid}

{my completed mermaid!}

{Melissa Phillips project}

{my almost done project}

{and last but not least, my carpool friend and neighbor Kathleen McCleary. Kathleen is one of the most sweet and genuine people I know. She has always been a great supporter of me by taking my classes at the Vintage Emporium. Thanks Kathleen! Loved being table mates with you!}

Les Sirenes Vendor Night

So all of the anticipation has come to this! My first time vending at a Kim Caldwell event. I was so nervous as to how I would be received, yet I felt very confident that my table set up was great. Yet for all of my nerves, it all seemed to go quite smoothly and I had good sales. The other vendors tables were amazing. I especially loved Deb Hodges set up. She has amazing clothes and they were flying off the racks! So here are some pics to give you a taste of what vendor night was like!

Here is another shot of my table. It would not have been half as wonderful without all of the lovely trays and dishes on loan from The Vintage Emporium in Long Beach, thanks Julie! By the way Julie is having open house tonight 7/22 from 11am to 9pm so stop by and say hi.

This is the treat table for all of Kim's guests, a darling little sand bucket filled with tasty treats. That's what great about Kims event, everything you do, there is some little gift or trinket awaiting your arrival!

And the treats! Oh my chocolate brownies, yummm! The food was so declicious at the Belamar, everything was freshly made and beautifully presented.

The sweetest surprise was a little gift all the way from China from my talented friend Earleen who couldn't make the event. She has just got back from 3 weeks in China, and knowing my love for Disney pin collecting bought me an adorable Minnie Mouse pin from China, hand delivered by guess who?

I also got the chance to meet Melissa Phillips from LilyBean Paperie I did not realize at the time that she was one of our teachers! Here are some of her amazing creations. She was so warm and welcoming I can't wait to start following her blog.

you must check out her blog!

And there is no way I could have made it all happen without the help of my mother Diane. She is not only the reason why I love to create things but she is also a great emotional support for when I get frazzled! 

Another lady that inspires me, the hostess herself; Kim Caldwell. There is so much that goes into planning these events, and dealing with all of us! She is so patient and all we see is the calm little ducky floating on the water, but her little feet are paddling away underneath. She sets the tone for her events as someplace warm and welcoming. That's why I will continue to go back. Thank you Kim.

more to come...... classes, swaps...

Mermaid fashion

Okay, so I am preparing for my wonderful long weekend event at Kim Caldwells Artistic Affaire Les Sirenes. I have my supplies and all my vendor stuff ready to go, but now what to wear? There is a mermaid jean contest going on, which I had NO DESIRE to participate in. Not because it didn't sound fun, but I knew I would be overwhelmed with creating things for vendor night. I also have this mortal fear of wearing any kind of "costumie" type outfit. Don't get me wrong, I love to see how all the fashionable ladies dress up, but it's not for me. Strange because I was after all a theatre major in college! But for me a costume was what put me in that mode of the character, so as I character, I can wear anything! But for little ole me, I just want to be little ole me, jeans, crocs, and no makeup!! So that's why I am surprised to say, that during my trip to downtown LA, I found a little mermaid inspiration! I am not going to join the contest, because it's hard enough to even wear the jeans! The treasures I collected are above, but you will have to wait and see the final product! As a side note when I went to the thrift store to find a pair a jeans to bling, I found a pair of Rock Revival jeans that fit me, for $6.50, regular retail: $186. Whoo hooo! What a Find! This will be my last post before Les Sirenes. I will be back with pictures video and TONS of goodies to share!
-Denise

From Thrift stores to Downtown LA- Shopping with Annette!

First I met the fabulous lady Earleen, and through Earleen met her equally fabulous buddy Annette. I met them both through attending Kim Caldwells Artistic Affaire events. Sadly both of them are in Arizona so popping over for a fun shopping trip is not always possible. But I got lucky, this summer Annette is staying in Coronado and we planned a shopping day together. We met at the Vintage Emporium, but Julie wasn't open! No problem we headed off to a few of Long Beaches local thrift stores and here are a few of my finds:

So the plates were .39 for the small and .69 for the large, the candlesticks were .99 except one which was 3.49 (leaded crystal). When I got home I found out that the plates are Fortecrisa Mexican glass and quite collectible. Now I am just going to take some epoxy and attach them, voila!

Then I found this wooden Calendar, with all of these month and day wooden tiles. As a special treat there is also holiday tiles!

And the Piece de resistance, this wallpaper border. Annette is going to die when she sees this!! When I found it, it was in a South Street Thrift goodie bag, which contained a broken wooden rolling pin and this roll of wallpaper. I could only see what looked like a vintage letter, but when I opened it up! Oh MY! Eiffel towers, hot air balloons, and even the forum in Italy! On top of that it's pre-pasted!!! 

Not really having any set plans I asked Annette if she wanted to go to downtown LA for some trim and bead shopping! Why yes she did! She hasn't been but had always wanted to.  We headed up the freeway and here are some of our finds:

Okay is that burlap ric-rac to die for!!!? Annette bought the WHOLE spool! I took advantage of .50 yard VELVET, yes .50 a yard! We found these goodies at Big Bargain Trims 623 E. 9th St. LA, CA 90015. They also have a large selection of seam tape! Tell David we sent you. He was a joy to buy from, great sense of humor. His shop is one of those that is filled ceiling to floor with trim and ribbon. If Annette and I weren't so tired we could have spent another hour or two there!

Some sweet beads I found at TRIM 2000 Plus. 820-9 Maple st. LA CA 90014

This place had a crap load of buttons, every shape, size, color. Grab a handfull of plastic baggies and go for it! Most are 3.00 per dozen. 

These were my favorites:

ooooohhhhhhh I like!

After a long day of shopping we went back to Annettes car only to find that Julie had stopped by her shop to do some cleaning, suddenly we were re-invigorated! Annette loaded up on some glass and jewelry and I found and adorable picnic basket. Julie called it a Toto basket and, yes it is!

Then we had to part. I had so much fun with Annette, I didn't want her to leave! She is truly fun to be around and a very genuine person, I am going to make sure I stay in touch with her.  Hopefully Annette will make it back up again for more fun! And maybe next time we can get Earleen out here (she was the only thing missing from this day) Thank you sweet friend!

-Denise

p.s. Annette did get a few pics and i will post those later!

Les Sirenes Countdown

I am so excited and a little nervous to be attending and Vending at Kim Caldwells Artistic Affaire Les Sirenes. An amazing Mermaid inspired weekend art retreat, filled with classes, friendship and fun. This is the first event I will be vending at. That's where the nervous part comes in. Will they, A) like my creations B) like them enough to buy them? I guess the difference between doing this type of show and an "open to the public" type craft show, is that all the ladies that go to this event are amazing artists in their own right! It's like selling a steak to Bobby Flay, singing a song for Beyonce, you get the picture! Anyway, at first I was focusing on selling what I thought they would buy. Then I remembered that I just need to be ME. I do banners, that's my thing! So I have lots of banners for sale. I also am known for my little coaster albums, so I made a bunch of those. Then I sprinkled in some kits for my brie boxes. I have already told myself no matter how I do, just being invited to vend here is a sort of success. Here are some pics of a kit I am offering exclusively to event attendees. It is a Les Sirenes mini book for all of their pics after the event. I negotiated with Kim to use the logo and glad I did, this book came out so adorable! 10 days and counting!

-Thanks for looking and see you soon if you are going to Les Sirenes!

-Denise

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th everyone!