Below is a list of my top 25 favorite products and manufacturers at this years Winter CHA 2012 show in Anaheim, CA. Today I will showcase no: 7-12 on my list, first showcase is no.7 Plaid!

CHA Day 1! Hemptique! 3
1.Ruby Rock-It www.rubyrock-it.com
2.Graphic 45 www.g45papers.com
3.Hemptique www.hemptique.net
4.Vintaj www.vintaj.com
5.Beacon Adhesives www.beaconadhesives.com
6.Scrap Perfect www.scraperfect.com
7.Plaid www.plaidonline.com
8.Ranger www.rangerink.com
9.Ellison/Sizzix www.ellison.com
10.Colorbox/Clearsnap/Donna Salazar www.clearsnapinc.com
11.Basic Grey www.basicgrey.com
12.Kaiser Craft www.kaisercraft.net
13.EK Success:Martha Stewart and French General www.eksuccessbrands.com
14.Glitter Dust www.thermoweb.comhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
15.October Afternoon www.octoberafternoon.com
16.Offray Ribbon-Sports Line
17.Best Creations www.bestcreation.us
18.Zutter www.zutterproducts.com
19.Walter Kunze Dresden's www.walterkunze.com
20.Globe Craft Memories www.globecraftmemories.com

no.7 on my list is: Plaid, one of my new favorite companies, as I used tons of Modge Podge in my projects from my book: Altered Art Circus...Every year I look forward to what Plaid is doing and I always get to see what fun project that Cathi and Steve have come up with, this year I nearly fell over. We made collage shapes from the new podgeable shape cuts outs ranging from fabulous birds to royal crowns. I choose the crown of course, then decaupaged it with vintage style papers they had. Cathi had turned one of hers into a necklace http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif, so I decided to hold onto my piece so I could go home, pierce 2 holes on the sides, http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifadd some rhinestones and a chain to wear as a royal necklace. The photo above shows Cathi wearing her necklace... ( I borrowed the above podgeables picture from Cathi and Steve's blog)These new podgeable blanks are my favorite and modge podge, well to me, its always re-inventing itself, so it has to be another fave product of mine at the show, they have from matte, to gloss, to glitter to glow in the dark varieties, always something to choose from for your collage projects! Another great product I was introduced to actually last year are the Hot Glue Gun Helpers which have been a valuable asset to my hot glue gun, I no longer have glue gun burns because of this fab product, check it out here:http://www.etsy.com/shop/hotgluegunhelpershttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
And now our famous Charlie's Angels Skit, lol!

Stay tuned for Cathi Filian and Steve Piacenza's new line of Podgeables for Mod Podge! Papers, Acrylic Shapes, Tracing Templates, Craft Mat and Hot Glue Gun Helper Finger Caps and MORE! They will be at Michaels Craft Stores starting in May 2012, so brace yourselves. You can visit Cathi and Steve's blog, website and Plaid at:
http://www.cathieandsteve.blogspot.com/
http://www.cathieandsteve.com/

I hope you just got re-inspired w/Modge Podge and are ready to try all their new products, like I am!

xoxo
Lisa!

Mixed Media Clay Painting: LuLu's Carnival!
I've always loved illustration and experimenting with different art supplies to create an illustration, in my children's book:"Star and the Milky Way Cafe" I choose to use prismacolor pencils and markers, since it was for children, I wanted children to relate to it, as if they were coloring the images in.

As I started switching back and forth from illustration, writing, publishing and collage, I found myself combining a variety of materials to finish pieces, finding I had a love affair with Altered Art and Mixed Media Illustration, yet I found myself doing other things, creating artful projects, with less attention to what I started out to do: Illustration.

I've been experimenting with various clay recipes that I have been making from a variety of materials, until I finally found one that can work as a bisque paper clay, mixed with paints, air drying and watered down to form a paste which can be adhered to canvas, 3-D sculpted and turned into what I call Clay Paint!This is the first 10 stages in my new mixed media clay painting called: LuLu's CarnivalIn these first 2 photo's you can see the beginning stages of the piece, where I layered old book print onto canvas with my fave Modge Podge, then drew a Charlotte/Carnival Doll image onto it with a Crayola Pencil ( I am a Crayola Supply Addict, love their products and use in many of my works, including items in my new book: Altered Art Circus). Filling in the background and image with acrylic paints, mixed with Claudine's Paints (Ranger Ink). Then certain parts are layered with my clay paint mixture and a charlotte doll head from my doll parts line.Here in this 3rd picture is an upclose detail of LuLu's Clay skirt.Now I draw in the extra illustrative details of LuLu's Face which you can see here in the 4th photo!In this 5th photo I have outlined LuLu with a deep pink glitter gel pen and began painting in the face and and her clay dress.In these 3 photo's above show the different painting details! Here is the fully painted LuLu, but she is missing a Carnival hat, balloon and carnival tent curtains, which I have drawn in and painted in which you can see in these next 2 photos!There are a few more details which have to be added to this painting in order to bring it really to life such as more gel pen outlining, dimension to the background through extra textures, I love Crayola Texture Paint, its great priced and can last a while. When mixed with paints or other mediums, you can get interesting results. I will also be adding petal porcelain to coat my piece, again this is another fave medium of mine, followed by glitter and beeswax, which I melt in my beloved Melting Pot (Suze Weinberg-Ranger), followed by a crayon and beeswax mix. These photos of the finished piece will be up tommorrow. I have a full journal of these images in them which I will get photographed as well.

Learn Mixed Media Clay Painting in my workshop of the same name where you leave with a medium to large sized canvas art piece and a new way of painting!
Here is an image of my hand molded/ hand made doll heads. I molded one for this piece for LuLu's hair barrett.