{{BlogHer Day Continued}}

Alright, here is the continued post about our crazy-informative first day at The Creative Connection with sponsor BlogHer...

At dinner that night, we sat down to another beautiful tablescape & our SWAG BAGS from all the sponsors at TCC...

An adorable "Aspire" necklace from The Vintage Pearl

Christie & I checking out our bags...Amy was a little more restrained than us, so I didn't get a photo of her here.

{{Here's a little pic from when I got back to my room later & REALLY checked it all out! Thanks to all the generous TCC sponsors for such wonderful goodies!}}

THE Bag - the same one as last year that I just LOVE!!

Now, it's time for the keynote speakers, Cristina Farrare & Holly Becker...

Cristina Ferrare, Cristina Cooks

Later that first evening we heard from the beautiful Cristina Ferrare (read about her here) & Holly Becker (her bio here) & I snapped these photos during their talks. They both had inspiring stories to tell, but totally different in how they came about their success. Cristina had been in & out of the modeling, acting & television world for years before becoming a published author & now a host on Oprah's Web network!

Holly Becker, Decor8

Whereas, Holly Becker found her fame by writing a blog about her passion for decorating that soon went viral with 45,000 subscribers!! Now, she too is a published author & columnist. Even if your goal isn't to be published, you can learn so much from these women.

Afterwards, Christie & I were able to meet them & get our photos taken with them!

Cristina & Christie

Me & Becky Higgins

Becky Higgins & Christie

Me & Jo!!

Christie & Jo

And, the only man to be featured (so far) in Where Women Create, Tim Holtz. He hopped up on stage to share a few words of wisdom that night as well. (He was in town for the big ScrapFest at the Mall of America.)

my "drive by" pict earlier in the day!

Isn't he just adorable?!

Christie, Tim & me

I went to bed that night with my head just swimming with ideas & things to be done!

I was really glad that the next day would be more about creating while the ideas took shape subliminally in my head!

See you tomorrow...

Quirky Masculine Altered Playing Card

Happy Saturday Morning to y'all!

I am in a super good mood because my work-out buddy suggested a yoga class today & now I am in my "happy place" as she would say!

I just wanted to share this fun altered jumbo playing card I did this week for the shop...

I started by sanding the card & then adding some of my Tim HoltzArchival Ink stamps on the background of the card in black from Ranger (this ink stamps exceptionally well on slick surfaces - even better than Stazon!).

I then used a sepia toned Archival Ink pad for the photo-image stamp of the 3 men on a piece of photo paper (from what I've read online, "professional stampers" recommend a low gloss paper for stamping images like these. Since I didn't have any of that paper, I used some old 4x6 photo sheets I had on hand. It worked pretty well, but you do have to let the ink dry for about 20min - you can't heat set it or the paper will melt. AND, I tried it first with Stazon & even after 20 minutes the ink was smearing! USE the ARCHIVAL INK on these papers!!)

I decided to pop the 3 men to give the card some fun dimension as well as the gear & photo holder (I cut small pop dots in half & doubled them under these elements to raise them up so as not to bend the photo image).

The quote I found online & was originally said by Bruce Willis! I thought it was kinda fun & quirky!

I am hoping to do a couple more with this image, but maybe a little more simple so that they can be used as ephemera pieces or added to collage art. I do have another one in the works with the Joker cards!! Check back soon for more images!

Happy Super Bowl Weekend!

- Becky

Supplies:

Jumbo Playing Cards: Bicycle

Inks: Archival Ink by Ranger

Clock & ticket stamps: Tim Holtz

Men Stamp:Lost Coast Designs
 (another project with LCD stamp here)

Labels: Dymo