AFCI Creativation Show 2019

Each year, I start counting down the days to the AFCI Creativation Show immediately after returning home from that year's show. There is nothing else like it - seeing a convention center's worth of new craft products, taking educational classes related to the craft industry, connecting with other craft professionals and bloggers, trendspotting, and reconnecting with old friends. It's the best.

The 2019 show is January 17-21 at the Phoenix Convention Center. The schedule is up and, as always, there are so many fun activities and useful workshops that I'm going to have a hard time narrowing down which to attend. There's at least one class which I am certain to attend... because I'm the teacher! I taught a seminar at Creativation 2018 and had such a great experience that I'm back to teach again. My topic is completely different, though!

Introverts, unite! (In a non-threatening, non-energy-draining way, of course.) Seriously though, I have a lot to say about networking and building connections that I think my fellow introverts will find very useful. I'm basically designing the workshop I wish I had attended before my first trade show and I'm so excited about it. 

Conference registration for the Creativation Show opens on Wednesday, September 12. I strongly encourage any of you who are eligible to attend. Not sure if you're eligible? The Creativation Show is for industry professionals, including: suppliers, buyers, designers, professional makers, educators and demonstrators, digital content creators, manufacturer representatives, and those with a start-up. Read about the qualifications for each and then apply for AFCI membership. Members attend the Creativation Show for free (woo hoo!), but that's not the only benefit to membership. You can see Member Benefits here; there are too many to mention. If you have any questions, please ask! Joining the Association for Creative Industries (back when it was the Craft and Hobby Association) has led me to so many opportunities within the craft industry. Membership is worth every penny, and then some. 

Hope to see you at Creativation!

Exploring Oklahoma Through Little Passports

Our next virtual adventure through Little Passports took us to Oklahoma, the 46th state. Trevor started by building a model of a vintage motorcycle, similar to the ones ridden along Route 66 back in the day. 

As we completed the activities in the State Journal, we learned a lot of interesting facts about Oklahoma. Did you that the Capitol building in Oklahoma City sits on top of an active oil field? Or that the word "Oklahoma" translates to "red people" in the Choctaw language? Or, that the world's first parking meter was installed in Oklahoma City in 1935? Or that the shopping cart was invented in Oklahoma just two years after that? I certainly didn't!

Trevor and I enjoyed doing a word search and puzzle about Cherokee Stickball, the original version of modern lacrosse. A maze activity about Route 66 taught us about some of the more interesting roadside attractions in Oklahoma. We learned about the state bird, the scissor-tailed flycatcher, and the state wildflower, the Indian blanket, both of which are featured on the Oklahoma state quarter.

Oklahoma is one of only two states with an official state meal. (Louisiana is the other.) Oklahoma's meal includes chicken-fried steak, black-eyed peas, cornbread, corn on the cob, okra, strawberries, sausage and gravy, barbecued pork, squash, biscuits, grits, and pecan pie. The recipe in the Oklahoma State Journal was for black-eyed peas. As tempting as it was to make and eat the entire official state meal, that was just a little too ambitious for us. Instead, we made the black-eyed peas and cornbread. We'll do our best to eat the official state meal, or at least all the components of it, when we visit Oklahoma!

Trevor and I particularly enjoyed doing a Mad Libs activity about cowboys. That, and a dot-to-dot featuring a bull rider, inspired us to make Trevor the Cowboy. Read on how to make yourself as a cowboy!

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Me as a Cowboy

Materials: 

• photo of your face
• construction paper (white, light blue, navy blue, brown, gold, and skin-tone)
• micro-tip scissors
• craft glue
• black pen
• tan yarn

Steps:

Cut around the photo of your face and get rid of the background. We used the proof sheet that came with Trevor's school photos, which are the perfect size. 

Use the dark blue to cut a pair of jeans. 

Cut a shirt from the light blue paper. Add a strip of white paper at the neck, then add two blue rectangles to make the collar. Fold them over and glue the excess paper to the back of the shirt. Use the pen to draw buttons along the center of the shirt. 

Cut out boots from the brown paper. Glue them behind the jeans, then glue the jeans over the shirt. Cut a strip of brown paper for the belt and add a gold oval for the belt buckle. Glue them in place. Glue the photo behind the shirt.

Coil the yarn to make a lasso. Cut out hands and glue one on top of the lasso, then glue the hand to the sleeve and the lasso to the pants. Glue the other hand in place.

Here's our finished Trevor the Cowboy next to the illustration from the Oklahoma State Journal!

Trevor and I had a lot of fun working through the Oklahoma Little Passports together. We're both excited to start planning a trip to the Sooner State... sooner, rather than later!

Hershey Bar Halloween Costume

Remember last year's Hershey bar Halloween costume? It is one of my all-time favorites. I'm so glad to have it in the album.

Hershey Bar Halloween Costume (affiliate link)

Trevor hasn't decided what he wants to be this Halloween yet. With that kid, it could literally be anything. Good thing I'm always up for a creative challenge!

Font Selection Matters: Fonts and the Il1 Rule:

Scrapbookers, as a whole, care a lot about fonts. So do bloggers. When I'm making roundups or pins, I spend more time with font selection than anything else. Good font choices are easy to read and reinforce the mood, tone, or topic of the graphic.  

Let's try an experiment. I'll use identical photos, with the same text in the same place with the same colors, changing only the fonts... 

  

On the left photo, I used the same font for both text blocks. It's an easy-to-read simple serif. On the right, I used a Gothic-inspired font that's hard to read, then a bleeding vampire-inspired font that's particularly disturbing in red. The two clash with each other and with the photo. Toto looks worried. 

Anyway, the main reason I'm blogging about fonts is to share an infographic from Website Magazine created by Gut Feeling that I found fascinating. 

Scrolling through it, I see that many of my favorite fonts follow the "Il1" rule. Not all, but most. I'll definitely be keeping this in mind in the future. How do your most-used fonts do with the "Il1" rule?

Cardboard Tube Wizard of Oz: Dorothy and Toto

When I was cleaning out my scraps last week, I came across a blue gingham paper that totally reminded me of Dorothy's dress in the Wizard of Oz. So naturally, I used the paper to make Cardboard Tube Dorothy Gale. (Isn't that what anyone would do? No?)

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Cardboard Tube Dorothy Gale

Materials:

• cardboard tube
• skin tone paint
• brown yarn
• scissors
• white paper
• gingham paper
• coffee filter
• red paper
• red Stickles
• brown paper
• googly eyes
• black Sharpie
• craft glue

Steps:

Paint the cardboard tube with the skin tone paint. Set it aside to dry.

Cut about twenty 6" lengths of yarn. Gather them together, then use two more pieces of yarn to tie the bundle together, approximately 1" from each side. Cut off the excess from the yarn you used to tie knots. Cut two skinny strips of gingham paper and glue them around the yarn at the two locations where you tied it. 

Cut the coffee filter so that you have an arc. It will be the underskirt of Dorothy's dress.

Use the coffee filter to trace the shape of Dorothy's skirt. Extend the inner and outer arcs a bit so that there is enough paper to wrap around the back of the tube. Cut out the skirt. 

Cut a strip of white paper and glue it to the cardboard tube where the neck would be. Glue a strip of gingham paper 1/2" below that. Cut two skinny strips and glue them to the front of the dress to make the straps. 

Wrap the coffee filter around the bottom of the tube, gluing it at the top only. You want the bottom to billow out like a skirt. 

Wrap the skirt piece around the tube, leaving 1/4" of the coffee filter underskirt showing. 

Cut two cone-shaped pieces of red paper for Dorothy's slippers. Add a thin coat of Stickles to the pointed ends for sparkle. Set them aside to dry.

Put a line of glue around the top of the head, then place it upside down on a piece of brown paper. Let it dry, then trim the edges flush with the tube. (This is to give the hair a place to stick.)

Glue the googly eyes in place, then use the Sharpie to add a nose and a mouth. Add a generous amount of glue to the head and place the yarn on top. (In retrospect, it might look better if the hair was in two sections, giving her a part. Up to you.) I used a rubber band to hold the hair in place while the glue was drying. 

Fold the red papers so that they have a 90° bend. Position the slippers so that the sparkly toes are sticking out from her dress and the other ends are flush against the inside of the tube. Glue them in place.

That's all there is to it! "But what about Toto?" you may be asking. You can find that tutorial here. I didn't realize at the time that I was making Toto, but he's perfect to accompany Dorothy!

Should I make more Wizard of Oz characters? It might be a fun challenge...