Christine Adolph Designs

While I wait....

for the pdf files of the catalog so that I can post the new product later today.....I wanted to post some wonderful news about Creative Imaginations. They are going GREEN...and to find out exactly what that means, hop on over to their blog and check out the post from yesterday. I am really proud to be a part of their team and see first hand the day to day workings of the company, they demonstrate in so many ways that they are good stewards of their blessings.

REQUEST

Another thing that I have been meaning to post and hopefully I am not too late!.... Claudine Hellmuth has been helping Bernie Berlin's efforts to receive a very important grant to help rescue pets who have been abused and abandoned...please visit Claudine's blog and Bernie's blog  and donate $10 to keep them in the running to receive the grant. If you donate you will be entered in a raffle were you could win original art by Claudine and Tim Holtz! I am going to donate 2 prize packages filled with scrapbook product for the raffle. I am sorry that I didn't post this sooner.  Read about "A Place to Bark" below.

About A Place to Bark:
"A Place to Bark" is a private no kill rescue run solely by Bernie Berlin. All animals come from high kill shelters in the south and are on death row. Combining health care, rehabilitation, and working with animal welfare organizations A Place to Bark provides a true no kill vision. Registered 501c3 non-profit. Visit A Place to Bark's web site.

The joy...

of a clean and organized work space finally! One of my motivations for moving things around and organizing my studio was because a camera man and producer/art director from Creative Imaginations was coming to do an artist interview in my space. My hubby took a quick shot of me before it began (because he knew it wouldn't stay that way:).

Prior to the interview in my studio we went to a local scrapbook store called "Member Me" and I did a quick project using my new Winter Garden collection. This was my first time in front of a camera and it was nerve racking and exhausting...I feel like I said "um" like a million times.  With more experience and some coaching (and some great editing,lol) I think I will do it again. I am thinking about getting one of those Flip cameras to put some art demo's on the blog. I have seen so many people do that lately and it is a great way to share arts and crafts techniques. Anybody have one? let me know what you think.

I have to keep plugging away at my work but will post more photo's of the project later.

What a week...

it has been in Southern California..so much has happened and let me tell you it sure helps refocus priorities. I think almost everyone here has been faced with possible evacuations and thoughts of what is most important.

The cooler moist air is starting to come back and it feels a little more normal in our area at least.

My kids have been home from school because of the poor air quality and I took advantage of their helper status. They were a huge asset to me today as I put together the kits for my class tomorrow. They are cheap labor and only asked for their favorite lunch at the Bagel Shack..lucky me! Don't know how long that will last.

Wrapped up

a rather large proposal today and I am relieved to say the least. I hope to be able to talk about this project at some point, if it all goes through then I will have lots to share:). It has been my first collaborative type project, each of us worked together using our particular strengths and it turned out amazing (or at least I think it did). A sigh of relief knowing it is done at least for now but also a little bit of stress is creeping in as my other deadlines have been put on the back burner, it is time to put it in gear and get my Spring product finished up!

I want to show you what my friend Lindsay designed using my Elegance collection. Lindsay is always doing cool things with my product. She made this sweet wedding organizer binder for a young couple at our church. I love how she used the card stock sticker tabs.

If I owe you an email or some product in the mail (Barb) be patient, I will get caught up this week.

Chat at CMK tonight...

Create My Keepsakes will be hosting a chat and they have invited me to come talk about my scrapbook product I design for Creative Imaginations. It will be tonight at 6:00 pm (west coast time) for one hour...There is a "Behind the Brand" interview that is posted on CI's blog.  This my first chat ever and I am crossing my fingers that I don't mess up and that I can type fast enough...Hope to see you there!

CHA Chicago

Here I am doing a make and take project at the Creative Imaginations preview party the night before the CHA show opened. Shown below is the instructions to the make and take I did using my Tea Time collection. This project turned out really cute! Mona, the education coordinator at CI did an amazing job flawlessly coordinating all of the projects that we did with our retailers. She is unbelievable!!


Creative Imaginations had an incredibly successful show and I was so proud to be there with them to witness what a great team they have. These shows make me really grateful to be a part of a company that is so prominent in the industry. The owners of CI treated us to a fabulous dinner at Wild Fire on Friday night, I think there were 35 of us and a lot of laughter and hilarious impersonations being done. Good fun! Below is a photo of some of the artists, art directors and Jack, one of the owners of the company.

I wish I would have taken my camera out more to shoot photos of the booth. I did manage to get this photo of my section showing my new and favorite collection called Winter Garden.

**I am going to wait until Friday to draw a winner of the foil kit and because I am making you wait, I will draw two names instead of one. Keep posting here for a chance to win.***

Old news, but still very cool

Eye Candy has my Journey paper in their current kit. Maria Grace was the guest designer and she and the other members of the design team did a beautiful job. It is always so fun to see the product used.

I am busy working on a new stamp line and working on my new papers and die-cuts for next year. The stamps should be available this summer. I will keep you posted.

CHA post

This is a shot of my new Cuttlebug bundles in the Provocraft booth....

And below is one of my boards in the Creative Imaginations booth....

This was a good year  for me at CHA because it was local, yippee! I usually don't stay for the whole show because I don't like to be gone that many days from my family. I was up at the show for six days and came home everynight to sleep in my own bed and see my kids off to school everyday, loved that. I met so many terrific people and got to see a lot of my artist friends.  CHA is a gathering place for so many artists like myself  that are  doing their best to make a living being an aritst. It was great to see Claudine and talk about licensing and show her the skirts I bought thanks to her. Traci Bautista and I ran into eachother a few times here and there and I made sure to stop by the F+W booth and see Bernie  and The Sisters. I met so many nice ladies while I did my make and takes and was happy to hear that they check in and read the blog. Thank you:).
 

I loved to see the companies that I work for in action. They all run such class acts and I am honored to work with all of them.  I look forward to continued success with my licensing partners and am excited about creating some new licensing relationships with diverse manufacturers. This year I would like to get my artwork into the gift market too, can't wait for that. There is nothing like a trade show to get you excited about the possiblities. 

Although I love all the business connections and seeing my product up in various booths and in catalogues, my favorite moment at the show was running into one of my former students from Otis College of Art and Design.  I  taught  Surface Design classes there for four years and I was one of her main instructors during her junior/senior year. During the time I was her instructor we spent a lot of time talking about her future in design. I remember she had  already come up with a name for her business "Simply Michelle". After she graduated she moved to Kansas City to work for Hallmark and over that last few years we had lost contact until this show. I saw in the new exhibitor's list her business "Simply Michelle" and I knew it was her. I went and found her booth and we talked about those Otis days and reconnected. I am so excited for her and I know there are big things on the horizon for her.  Go Michelle! I am really proud of you! That is what it is all about, having passions and dreams and making them happen. I love that!

CHA schedule

I am posting my CHA make and take schedule below:

Friday: Crafter's Home 7:00-9:00 pm *Tea Time Trays*

Saturday: Creative Imaginations pre-show party 6:00-7:30 *Elegance Purse*

Sunday: Creative Imaginations booth #1472, #1473 12:00-1:30 *Tea Time Purse*

Monday: Creative Imaginations booth 1:00-3:00 *Skateboarding and Surfing Frames*

Tuesday: Creative Imaginations booth 10:30-12:00 *Elegance Heart Book*

Tuesday: Stampington and Company  booth#3984 1:00-3:00 *Batik Tags*

Wednesday:Creative Imaginations booth 10:30-12:00 *Skateboarding and Surfing Frames*

I have had a few emails from people about my new product for CHA and I wanted to let you know that I won't be giving any sneek peeks simply because I don't have any new scrapbook collections for this winter show. Not to worry though because I am busy working on my summer CHA collections. I  needed to take some time off from work in the Fall and it was right at the time of our CHA deadlines.  I assure you that just because you don't see anything new for this show,  I am still here and still designing  product. I will be busy at the booth promoting what I already have so I look forward to seeing some of you retailers there!

Faithbooks and Spiritual Journaling

Yesterday Sharon  dropped off a copy of her new book called Faithbooks and Spiritual Journaling: Expressions of Faith Through Art.  I had the pleasure of doing a project in it:).  These are some scans from a  project I created called "God's Heart", this is a heart book I made for my girls to share with them some of my favorite scriptures. Faithbooks and Spiritual Journaling is filled with all kinds of beautiful visual inspiration along with new ideas about how to use your art to get to a deeper place. You can learn more about the author, Sharon Soneff and this lovely and truly inspired book on the Sonnets Studio's blog.