I just returned from the Craft and Hobby (CHA) Winter Trade Show in Anaheim, CA, in the Convention Center next door to Disneyland. It was great seeing lots of new and fun products as well as lots of friends. I attended several of the educational seminars that were packed with information. I took so many pictures (almost 300), so I have bunches of photos to go through so I can post them (much less than the 300) and  show you the things that caught my attention.

But I want to go ahead and post a link to one of the fun events of the trip. I, along with my friend Karen Embry, participated in a flash mob dance “She’s Crafty” before the opening of the show. It was organized by CharityWings.org to earn money for charity and the flash mob consisted of almost 100 artists, designers, business owners and more. It was my first flash mob but I was enjoying the moment and kept forgetting to count the dance steps.

Please check back soon to see my photos from CHA of new products, great displays, and more.

Phyllis

I’m really looking forward to attending CHA, the trade show for the Craft and Hobby Association for a few days and as well as the warm weather in Anaheim, CA.  I always love attending this show to see new products, take the educational seminars, and for the exciting atmosphere of the show.

I’m excited about the seminar The New Dynamics of Art Licensing that I along with Brenda Pinnick and Karen Embry will be teaching while we are in Anaheim. We have been really focused in putting the seminar together with some great information.  (You can click on the NDAL button in the sidebar to see more on what is being offered.)

At CHA, I will be working for Gutermann, so you can find me in their booth most of the time.  I’ve always loved the beautiful Gutermann threads and am delighted to be working with them.  So if  you are attending CHA, please stop by and say “hi”.

The Designer Showcase  is having a change in the format this year, focusing more on what the designers can do for a company.  I’ve always exhibited in the Designer Showcase and had been giving a lot of thought to my showcase this year. Then it just all finally  came together in a mental snap so all I had to do was gather up things I wanted to use and do a little printing. This year, it will also be open to everyone, except for non-CHA members.

I will be involved in something else at CHA that is really fun, but I can’t talk about it yet. But I can mark it off my bucket list. So you will have to check back to find out what this is – it will be videoed and out there for the world to see.  I just have to make sure I don’t mess up, but it will be among friends.  Speaking of friends, that’s another reason I love to attend CHA – to catch up with friends, network, and gab a little.

Check back and stay tuned – I may come back with a little gossip, or not (probably not). But I will have lots of photos of new products, great displays, splashes of fun and splashes of color.

Phyllis

Welcome to my studio! I am joining with 11 other artists on a hop through our studios. We are showing you where we spend the majority of our time, creating new art, designs, and other creative endeavors. I invite you to check out each of the fabulous studios of the other artists by clicking on the links below or the forward button.

The artists participating in this hop are:

Aaron Christensen

Barbara Johansen-Newman

Beth Logan

Brenda Pinnick

J. Wecker-Frisch

Karen Embry

Paula Joerling

Phyllis Dobbs

Samantha Walker

Sharon Himes

Shelly Comiskey

Sue Zipkin

My studio is a work in progress and if I ever finish it, I will probably be starting over within a few weeks! I work best with everything completely organized (not that I stay organized) and have created distinct areas in my studio for the way I work. I keep striving for the perfect work flow to fit me and the various techniques that I use. After a recent big upheaval and reorganization of my studio, I think I have found the best arrangement for me, although I’m 100% sure I will continue to tweak it.

I am both and artist and designer.  My art is licensed for various products such as fabrics, garden flags, kitchen textiles and more. I also design quilt and sewing patterns and have a new quilt book debuting in April. In addition I work with textiles and mixed media.  So with working in all 3 of these mediums, I have have tons of “stuff” that I use.  So all of my supplies need to be where I can find them easily in addition to being close at hand.

My drawing/painting table and supplies are located next to a set triple windows so I can catch the natural light. Sometimes it’s hard to keep my focus inside.  I have 2 plastic storage units with drawers to hold paints and painting supplies. They tuck neatly under the left edge of my table when not in use and are easy to pull out when I need them. I’ve been repainting a lot of my studio furnishings and have painted the filing cabinet and the multi-drawer cabinet turquoise. Both are great for holding additional supplies. The cabinet with the small drawers has 30 drawers and is my favorite for storage.

My studio is on the 2nd floor of my home but the view from my windows is like looking from a 5th floor window or a treehouse. Our backyard drops at a steep slant to a bubbly creek at the bottom.  Although I like the winter view, my favorite is the spring and summer with all the green. The fall is also beautiful with the golds, oranges and reds as the leaves turn. Like I said, sometimes its hard to keep my focus inside, especially when there is a woodpecker knocking away.

My fabric cutting table is set up in front of bookshelves filled with all my craft, needlework and quilting books. I love books as well as magazines (stacks of which are at one end of the cutting table). I use an antique chair that was my grandmothers to hold a large roll of batting behind the table making the batting easy to pull out as I need it. My cutting rulers are stored under the table and another plastic drawer unit and a low book shelf unit tucked under the table hold all my cutting tools and supplies.

My sewing area is set up in one end of my studio with an antique pub table painted white and a low white table. I store fabrics in an antique triple armoire that I bought at an auction years ago. To keep all my threads, fibers, buttons and all things related to sewing handy, I use two plastic drawer units stacked together as well as a white bookcase loaded with smaller draw units. I save all sizes of jars to hold buttons, pins, and anything else that needs a home.

This table is my play space. I craft, draw, play with textiles, ribbons and beads, and create mixed media here. For a before and after makeover of the chair, visit my chair makeover post. You can’t see them all but I have lots of storage boxes filled with the supplies I use in this area. You can see a black ribbon storage rack on the wall and part of my 8 ft. cork idea board.  You may wonder what I do with all those red folders on the cabinet behind the table.

I travel a lot with my business and accumulate a lot of paper for each trip – hotel and airline reservations, badge and show information, and classes plus a multitude of other papers related to a trip. I used to have a horrible time keeping up with the papers for each trip, having to rush around at the last minute searching through stacks of  papers or files. So I came up with the “Red Folder Method of Keeping Travel Records Straight”. I taped red folders on the front of this cabinet and annotate each folder with a post it note for the trip. Then I put all my papers for that trip in the folder as I receive them. I keep the trips in order and move the information up after a trip. It works for me and has been a big help with my travel organization.

This area is the brain of my studio – the computers where I put it all together digitally. A shelf unit holds the printers and scanners close for easy access and so I don’t have to reach too far. All my papers for printing are stacked on a shelf unit under my desk. The desks with the computers plus the crafting work desk above form a large U shape area that works fabulously for me.

And, what studio is complete without a studio cat (or dog). I adopted Kitty Kat when he was about 6 months old and since he answered to Kitty, I kept that as his name. I should have named him Lucky because he lives a life of relaxation and luxury and thinks he’s boss of the house. He loved my old CRT monitors in the top picture, but didn’t like it much when I went to flat screens. He loves helping me put together things, such as this Ikea drawer unit – maybe its the supervising part he loves. But resting in a chair close by while I work is his favorite activity. I think he’s wishing for a hammock.

Thanks for visiting and please hop forward to visit the other artists studios!

Phyllis

I love crafting and always have. I started crafting as a kid. Before I became a professional designer, I took every craft class and tried every type of craft that came along. I still take classes whenever possible and love trying new (to me) types of crafts. I’m a huge fan of glass and when a fused glass class became available recently, I jumped at it, signing up immediately.  We made 2 projects during the evening classes. I really enjoyed playing with the glass in arranging colors and pieces to make my first project, a shallow dish. I wanted it to look abstract and while it won’t win an award, I love the way it turned out. It was very informative and interesting in seeing how different colors of glass and opaque and transparent glasses work together.

The class included a second project which was a pendent. Somehow I thought the pendent would be much easier – wrong!  I tried arranging several small pieces to create a design. But because everything was so small, I kept bumping the pieces after I arranged some, messing up my design. A large pair of tweezers would have helped. It was getting late so I took the easy way out after many attempts with the small pieces and used 2 large pieces.

I plan to go back and create some more fused glass pieces as well as take other classes on different mediums. Even though my days and business are based on creating, I still find it relaxing and inspiring to craft and love working with my hands to make something.

I hope you are having a crafty day! (And if you have children, introduce them to crafting if you haven’t already – it will start a life long love of creating something!)

Phyllis

The holidays are rapidly approaching but there’s still time to create some great craft projects to help with decorating and entertaining. I want to share one of my earlier Christmas craft projects that is so quick and easy to make and has so many uses – the versatile terra cotta flower pot painted in holiday colors.

This painted flower pot can be used to hold food like cookies and candy (line the pot with a napkin first so that the food doesn’t touch the paint). For decorating use, it can hold ornaments or a plant. The size of pot that you use can also determine the use. A small 3 or 4 inch pot can be filled with food or small gift and given as a gift, or placed by the plates at a dinner party as a favor. Simply line with cellophane, tissue paper or fabric, add a food item or other small gift, bunch at the top and tie with a ribbon. Let your imagination come up with many more uses.

I used red and white for Christmas (which can also double as my school colors), but you can use other colors for different holidays – red, white and blue for the 4th of July, shades of green for St. Patrick’s Day, bright fun colors for a birthday, pastels for Easter, and so on. I also painted a flower pot for Halloween.

Easy peasy! I used a very simple design that is very easy to draw.

Wash the flower pot and go over it with alcohol to disinfect it.  With a pencil draw the lines for the stripes around the rim and draw 1/2″ circles randomly below the rim (or create your own design). Paint as shown in the photo.  I recommend painting one color at a time, allowing it to dry before painting with the second color. The white dots on the stripe were added last, after all drying. When all the paint is dry, seal with a coat of clear satin acrylic.

Enjoy!

Phyllis

Making over my studio is progressing, but one piece at a time as I can work it in. After painting the file cabinets in my earlier post, I decided to use this poor lonely chair that had been hiding in a corner of my studio. I bought it stripped and unfinished years ago at an auction. I had intentions of doing something with it but had not. So it sat in a corner of my studio, lonely, unloved, unused, and neglected. After a re-do, this chair now shines brightly and sits prominently in front of a desk.

Hancock Fabrics had a sale on upholstery fabric so I got the amount I needed at 50% off the $17.99 price for around $6. I loved the print and colors, especially the turquoise. Actually, this fabric is an outdoor fabric, which is even better for studio use. I then went to Lowes with fabric in hand and found a great shade of turquoise spray paint. Its a few shades darker than my filing cabinets.

This project was pretty quick and easy. I just sprayed the chair with a few light coats of paint, then wrapped the seat with the fabric, tucked it under the bottom and stapled. And the total cost of the re-do was around $10. Not bad! I think it looks much better than the “before” version below.

I’m so glad I bought this chair all those years ago. And since I also have a boring wing back chair that I use in my studio, also bought at an auction, I went back and bought more fabric for another makeover.  I just have to jump in and try my hand at upholstery which will be much more work than the chair seat. I’m mentally working it out with the help of a couple of books.

Here’s to success with all our little (and big) projects.

Phyllis

I love comments you readers post to my blog or email me. Today, I want to feature one of my readers, Dee Fox of Cedar City, UT who had a prior business of helping people organize their homes. She posted a comment on my recent blog post on spray painting my filing cabinets for my studio redecorating.  I emailed her and she mentioned that she loved finding unique thrift items to refinish for her sewing room and  how she had it organized. I asked if she would mind sharing some of her finds and tips with you.

Dee lucked up when she found two filing cabinets in a thrift store for $7 each. What a find!! She immediately spray painted them and added another salvage of an old lid from a fish tank.  The result – a new desk. (Tip from Dee, light a vanilla candle to lesson the temporary smell of spray paint. I just love the smell of vanilla!)  I also love the rack with blue holders for markers and the button jars that she placed on the desk. Dee also keeps a dish of cat food handy for her cats, Fancy and Coco Bear.

Dee found this small cabinet in her father-in-law’s garage and spray painted it blue. His loss, her gain! Its the perfect size for storing her fat quarters.

She found this old cabinet for $40 at a yard sale.  Again, Dee painted it using a cheery red and uses it to store more sewing supplies.

Dee’s favorite organizing tip for craft or sewing areas is to group like things together. She keeps everything she needs at arm’s reach for her sewing area as well as her cutting table and other areas. Keeping scissors, rotary cutters, rulers and other needed items close by prevents needless interruptions for trips to locate them as well as prevents time lost while searching for them.  A great example of keeping like things together is Dee’s stablizer holder that she sewed to hang close by.

You can see from this photo that Dee is well organized and well stocked with her sewing supplies. I doubt she has to stop in the middle of a project and run to the store. You can also see that she makes great use of plastic containers and carts, which are ideal for storing craft and sewing supplies.

Dee also recommends that you make your space happy!  Doing so will make you want to spend more time in it.  I love this happy and decorative setting below where she uses little pots to hold fat quarters and a colorful lamp made with terra cotta pots.

When starting a project, Dee gathers everything for that project and keeps them togehter in a clear container.  She says the way she stays on track is to make lists for everything she needs to do.  She got away from making lists temporarily then realized she was not getting anything done. Being able to mark things off of a list also gives you a feeling of accomplishment.  Another tip is to always straighten your studio or work space at the end of the day so you don’t have to face a mess the next day.

Dee also shows that you don’t have to spend a fortune to have a great craft or sewing space or room. Repurposing old furniture or belongings, found or thrift store items is inexpensive as well as giving them a new life and giving you some unique items.

I love repainting things and am delighted at seeing Dee’s repainted treasures. Paint is inexpensive yet gives you such dynamic results and a quick makeover as well as create a mood. So keep your eyes peeled and imagine what something would look like with a make-over.

Thanks, Dee, for allowing me to feature your amazing and very well organized studio!  I love seeing studios and yours is a real treat!

Phyllis

When I get the urge to redecorate or rearrange things, nothing can stop me.  When I start focusing on a room, the ideas just hit me and I have to do something. My husband hates it when I’m siting quietly and my eyes and head are in a constant state of turning and looking (not quite like in The Exorcist because my head doesn’t turn all the way around). It usually means something is going to change

Since I spend most of my time in my studio, I tend to frequently move things around, repaint the walls and so on.  OK, I’m really tired of putty colored filing cabinets.  They are so blah!  So after hitting the stores looking for a good color, I decided on just the right shade of light aqua by Rustoleum, my favorite color.  I couldn’t wait to get home to start spraying this beautiful color on this 2-drawer filing cabinet  which is outside drying.  The color in the photo is more intense and darker than the aqua actually is because its in the late day shadows but take my word for it, it’s great! I have a couple more cabinets to finish and am excited at the way this one turned out. But I have to space myself and get some work done in between painting them.

Go ahead and make some changes in your space. Even the smallest changes can make a difference.

Phyllis

This has been a busy week, unwinding and getting back in the flow after attending the amazing Creative Connection Event held in St. Paul. Days 2 and 3 were devoted to classes, various panels, and other speakers and panels at breakfast and lunch.  (My prior blog post detailed the first day with exciting BlogHer panel discussions.) I chose to take 4 classes on these 2 days although there were several panel sessions I would have loved to attend.

Its always fun to have some arts and crafts play time and to work in different techniques than I’m used to.  There were many  classes to choose from but I chose to take all 4 of Traci Bautista’s classes with different focuses of art journaling.

There are so many surfaces you can journal on and, as shown by Traci, fabric is one of the surfaces that can be used.

Our table early during first class with our basic journal pages in process.

Karen Embry and Brenda Pinnick are very intent on their journal pages.

In another of Traci’s classes, she is explaining different page techniques and the binding of journals.

Our table in another class – lots more more product and lots of swapping between tables.

A journal page I was working on during one of the classes.

Art journaling can get messy so its best to cover up both surfaces and clothes.  Its amazing that I didn’t get any paint on the shirt I brought to protect my clothes. If I had been in my studio, I would have had paint in my hair, on my face and all the way to my feet.  But it was impossible to keep my hands clean!

On Friday evening, the event had a cocktail party with book signing by the authors in attendance.  I didn’t pass up a chance to have my picture taken with several of the authors.

Jo Packham, although the same height as me, is a giant.  She is not only the editor for Where Women Create and Where Women Cook, she is the co-founder of The Creative Connection Event. I know TCC event took a tremendous amount of planning, but Jo pulled it off to perfection.

Holly Becker is the author of the popular decorating blog Decor8 and her book Decorate is an international best seller. Holly is a tremendous speaker and was the dinner keynote speaker Thursday night along with Christina Ferrare.

Kelly Rae Roberts, author of Taking Flight, was also part of a very informative breakfast panel of speakers.

And I love this group photo at Crafty Chica’s (Kathy Cano-Murillo) signing, left to right – Eileen Hull, myself, Ann Butler, Kathy – Crafty Chica, Karen Embry, and Brenda Pinnick.

I remain inspired from this event and am already looking forward to next year’s. If you are thinking of attending, you won’t be disappointed!

Have a inspiring day!

Phyllis

Back from The Creative Connection event held in St. Paul last week, I returned home inspired and amazed (plus exhausted!). Not wanting to miss a minute of it, I attended everything from early morning until late at night and then met friends to talk even later (meeting in our PJ’s with a glass of wine in hand). Everyone I spoke with was just as thrilled with the events. Women attended from all 50 states plus 6 countries. I talked with a talented artist from Slovakia and a woman from Melbourne Australia. Both visited the US just to attend TCC.

After checking in, I was delighted to see the view from my window of  the Mississippi River across the street. I meant to walk over to it, but there wasn’t a spare minute to leave the hotel.

The 3 days of the event were filled with panels, speakers, classes, and social activities.  I have so much to write about, I am going to present my coverage in two parts – BlogHer with technology and then the creative part with classes and much more.

The first day of TCC was sponsored by BlogHer Handmade and was focused on technology for blogging and social media. I learned so much from the panels. I thought I had already learned a ton from past conferences/seminars that I have attended, but so much more was presented by BlogHer panels. Please check out the links to the blogs for these talented women.

The panelists from the first panel I attended are from left to right Marie LeBaron (Makes and Takes), Mena Trot (Sew Weekly),  Corinne Leigh (previously on ThreadBanger) and Megan Jordan (Velveteen Mind).

It was tricky taking pictures with all the various lighting types in the hotel so the photo for another panel did not turn out. The presenters were fabulous – Alicia DiRago (Dismount Creative), Anne Kuo Lukito (Crafty Diversions), Megan Auman (CraftMBA) and Tara Gentile.

Two of the 3 founders of BlogHer were the panel for the Keynote luncheon Friday. Elisa Camahort Page (right) and Jory Des Jardins (center) told of founding BlogHer.  Nancy Soriano (left) led the panel discussion. The third founder, Lisa Stone, was unable to attend.

It was interesting to hear each of these women tell of how they started their businesses as well as the technology they presented.

Here I am with friends at a table during one of the panel discussions Karen Embry, myself, Brenda Pinnick and Eileen Hull.

The Creative Connection event was co-founded by Jo Packham, editor of Where Women Create and Where Women Cook and Nancy Soriano.  I extend a huge thanks to them for their starting this event!

Check back for part 2 of The Creative Connection of classes, author signings and more. The classes were fun – I love to work in a new direction or medium than I am accustomed to.

Phyllis