Sunday, February 5, 2012

Christmas World - Part One


The first day we were in Frankfurt we visited the ChristmasWorld show.  This show started a day earlier than CreativeWorld and PaperWorld so we had a chance to take a look around while waiting for the rest of the show to open.  There were several display areas showcasing trends for Christmas decorations and we were allowed to take photos in these areas.  I do have more photos from some of the booths where we asked permission to take photos but many vendors did not allow photography once we were inside the show.


The ChristmasWorld show was at the far end of the complex and it seemed like we walked for miles to get there!  This is the central area between the exhibit halls.  The trend show is in the small area toward the right at the bottom of the photo.


It was called "Trends and Colors" and the first section had very interesting displays with bold colors and florescent tube lighting.







The next section had a variety of ornaments and other decorations.




Deep purples and long necked glass ornaments.





Beautiful white on white displays with subtle touches of color.



A little blurry but I had to add this photo of the garlic, potatoes and onions!





I was quite taken with the blue and white lampshades.


These ornaments were hanging in a mesh sack in a central area.  I don't seem to have a photo of everything together - sometimes the point and shoot doesn't seem to shoot when it is pointed! (my good camera was not repaired in time to take it on the trip).


 I am not quite sure what the boots are doing here...


 Gingerbread house tea lights - now who would want to burn these?




I thought this was a clever way to display ornaments - the triangle frames would be simple to build and then wrap with ribbon so a lot of ornaments could hang in the frame.



There were some display cases in the hallways promoting certain stands - the last two photos were taken through the glass of the cases.


Some of the color combinations were just beautiful - I don't usually do such coordinated trees but I love to look at them!

I will add more photos from inside the show soon.  I hope you enjoyed seeing a bit of the inspiration from the trend displays.  Don't forget to play along on the blogoversary celebration - just leave a comment on any and all of the blogoversary posts to have a chance to win a box full of crafty treats!

Enjoy the Superbowl - we'll be watching and rooting for the home team!

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Saturday, February 4, 2012

Ribbon and Acrylic - Blogoversary part 2


Welcome to the second installment of my Fourth Blogoversary Celebration.  A couple of new items have been added to the boxes - I hope you like them!

Here is how the giveaway works:

Just like last year, I have three boxes that I will be filling with gifts that I'll send to three blog readers.  Each day I'll add more things to the boxes until they are full and ready to ship.  You can comment on every post until the boxes are full to maximize your chance to be chosen by random draw.  You don't have to be a follower or a subscriber to win, however, if you enjoy my blog, subscribing by email will help you make sure that you don't miss anything - just click HERE and fill in your address, then reply to the confirmation email to be added to the list.  If you prefer to "follow" you can do that by clicking "Join this site" at the top of the right side column.

If you are a subscriber or follower, you can leave another comment and have a second chance each day as a way for me to thank you for your support.  If you are a Facebook user you can also "like" the Capadia Designs page HERE and leave another comment telling me that you are a Facebook fan.

You can leave comments everyday so you will have multiple chances to be one of the three winners.  Please don't leave more than 3 on one day (1 comment, 2 follower or subscriber, 3 Facebook fan).  When you leave a comment be sure that you don't have the box checked to be notified of follow up comments so you don't get tons of emails clogging up your in box.  Please be sure to leave some way for me to contact you if you are one of the lucky three - you can leave your email address and use (at) and (dot) to help avoid spam.


Remember - you can't just leave a random comment - you have to answer the question in the post (so I know you are paying attention!).


Each box now has about four yards of this pretty ribbon that can be used for all sorts of projects.  It has glittered hearts and wired edges (but you can pull out the wires to use it for cards or scrapbook pages).


I've also added a heart shaped acrylic album from Anna Griffin to each box.  I have one of these for myself and I haven't made it yet so there will be some future blog posts about putting an album like this together...

Here is the question for today - be sure to answer it in a comment below.  

What type of project do you do most often - cards, scrapbook pages, mini albums, home decor or something else.  Is this your favorite thing to do or do you do it because you are hesitant to try something new.  What types of projects are you interested in doing that you haven't tried yet?

I had a few questions about commenting so here are some answers...

The comments on the blog posts are the ones that will be included in the drawing - if you leave a comment via email or another method, I won't be able to keep track of everything (particularly in my still jet-lagged condition!).

If you are having trouble leaving comments, maybe these screen shots will help...


First - look at the bottom of the post and find the place where it says "comments" - unless you are the very first to comment there will be a number before the word "comments" - click on the word to open the pop-up box for commenting.


If the box doesn't pop up, check to see if you have a pop-up blocker on and turn it off.  Then type your comment in the box.  I took this screen shot while I was signed in so the word verification box doesn't show here (I'll show you this in another image).  You can choose "anonymous" if you don't have one of the other types of accounts listed or just prefer to use the anonymous option.  Just make sure you identify yourself sufficiently in the comment so I can contact you if your comment number is chosen in the random draw.  Click on Preview to check you comment for typos or other mistakes.


Your comment will appear in a little window as it will appear when published.

If the comment is fine, click on "publish your comment."


You will need to do the word verification (I used to moderate comments but there was too much spam  and for a giveaway people think their post hasn't gone through and try to publish it over and over so this makes things go more smoothly).

One more thing - make sure that you don't check the box for "email follow up comments" - you will get emails for every other comment that is left and this will be annoying for you!

If you are still having trouble leaving a comment, please let me know  - I don't want you to be left out of the fun!

I posted some photos from my trip - just the beginning, lots more to come.  If you are on the email subscription, you will probably have both posts in one email...

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Friday, February 3, 2012

Creative/Paper/ChristmasWorld in Germany


I thought that it would be fun to share some of the photos from my trip that might give you an impression of the size of the trade show and also some of the interesting things I noticed around the buildings of the "Messe" or fair.


Only a scrapbooker would have the nerve to ask a total stranger to take her photo in front of the sign for her destination!  It was interesting to see that Madrid (where we went a couple of months ago) was right next to Frankfurt on the sign and that Frankfurt is even farther away - 265 more miles.  If I had gone to CHA in California I would have been "only" 2975 miles from home.

 

When we lived overseas (from 1992 to 2000), I learned that only about 10% of Americans had passports.  This has changed somewhat now that passports are required for travels to Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean and the latest figures I could find show that about a third of all US citizens now hold passports.  If you don't have a passport, think about getting one.  You never know when a chance to travel to another country might come up and it's always best to "be prepared" (as the Scouts say).


I left on Thursday afternoon on an overnight flight with Lufthansa.  The plane was not full and I was lucky to have an empty seat next to me.  We arrived in Frankfurt in the wee hours of the morning and I was quite proud that I managed to find my way to the hotel using public transportation (the S-bahn line went from the airport to a few blocks from our hotel).  It was dark and snowy when I arrived at the hotel and met Mandy.  She had arrived the day before me from the intense summer heat in Australia (over 40 Celcius which is about 104 degrees Fahrenheit!) and was excited to see a bit of snow.  This was the view from our hotel window - you can see some white on the rooftops.  We wanted to see the antique store (Antik Bodenheimer) but never made it over there (isn't that a great font they used on the wall!).


The UBahn (underground train) stop was just a few blocks from the hotel.  The environmentally conscious German fair organizers included free public transportation in the cost of our tickets so we were happy to make good use of the passes.  The funny thing was that we were never asked to show our tickets during our time there.  There are no gates to pass through and people just hop on and off the trains.  If an inspector did check and you were without a ticket the fine is 40 Euros (about $52). 


 Here are Mandy and Enfys outside our hotel on the second day (Enfys arrived Friday afternoon and didn't come to the first day of the show).


Messe Frankfurt organizes large trade fairs in a huge complex of buildings.  This is the plaza near the entrance to the main section with flags of many countries.


I was fascinated by this enormous sculpture of a man with an ax - it actually moved.


Here he has raised the ax, ready to chop.


The people and bikes in this photo give you a sense of the size of the sculpture.  I think that these bikes are another free service that you can use like a zip car to get around in the city.


The fairgrounds are huge and it took about ten minutes to get from the entrance to the hall where we spent most of our time.  Buildings are connected by enclosed walkways with moving sidewalks.

 

 These escalators brought us up to the level of the entry for the shows we were attending.


The figures reminded me of Legos!


After checking our coats in one of the many cloakrooms, we started the trek to the halls.  This moving sidewalk took us beside an older style building with interesting windows.


The halls for the Christmas fair were very far away.  Mandy and I went there the first day and it took about twenty minutes to get to the actual show after we got off the train.


Each of the three fairs had banners listing the halls to visit.  The CreativeWorld was the most relevant to us and occupied only one (very large) hall.


Each show had a special a special lanyard color but our tickets were good for all three - so I alternated lanyards using the one that looked best with my clothing each day!


The connecting hallways were extremely long and it was great to have the moving sidewalks to help get us around a little faster.


There were large open halls and places that served coffee and snacks at the intersections of the connecting hallways.


This is just one of the halls for the PaperWorld show - I think there were six or seven all together.  These sections were primarily office supply paper, pens, notebooks, backpacks - all of the things that you would find at an office supply store or stationer's.


On the first day (before we discovered the short-cut) we walked through the large PaperWorld hall to get to CreativeWorld.  I thought this pencil car, driven by a stuffed bear was very cute!


The teddy bear driving seemed so odd with the formal and serious atmosphere of this section.


Some of the displays of writing implements looked like fancy jewelry stores.


Finally, we made it to CreativeWorld.  This section included all sorts of hobby and craft materials.


You could tell that you were in CreativeWorld by the brightly colored carpet throughout the hall.

There were 87,000 buyers at the combined fairs and it never felt very crowded - there were so many spaces to see.  We did visit ChristmasWorld on the first day (before the other shows opened) and next time I will share some of those photos.  The rules for photography were much stricter than at CHA so I don't have an overwhelming amount to show (but I probably took more photos than the average person would take!).

The next items have been added to the Blogoversary gift boxes - be sure to check the post on Saturday morning and leave your comments for a chance to win.

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Thursday, February 2, 2012

Fourth Blogoversary - Filling the Boxes!

 

Happy Groundhog Day!  I had a long trip home from Germany but everything went well.  I needed a bit of time to "decompress" and catch up with things here at home.  Then our internet took a brief vacation but I managed to get it reset by unplugging everything and starting over.  So now....

It's time to start the blogoversary party!

Just like last year, I have three boxes that I will be filling with gifts that I'll send to three blog readers.  Each day I'll add more things to the boxes until they are full and ready to ship.  Starting with this post, you can comment on every post until the boxes are full to maximize your chance to be chosen by random draw.  You don't have to be a follower or a subscriber to win, however, if you enjoy my blog, subscribing by email will help you make sure that you don't miss anything - just click HERE and fill in your address, then reply to the confirmation email to be added to the list.  If you prefer to "follow" you can do that by clicking "Join this site" at the top of the right side column.

If you are a subscriber or follower, you can leave another comment and have a second chance each day as a way for me to thank you for your support.  If you are a Facebook user you can also "like" the Capadia Designs page HERE and leave another comment telling me that you are a Facebook fan.

You can leave comments everyday so you will have multiple chances to be one of the three winners.  Please don't leave more than 3 on one day (1 comment, 2 follower or subscriber, 3 Facebook fan).  When you leave a comment be sure that you don't have the box checked to be notified of follow up comments so you don't get tons of emails clogging up your in box.  Please be sure to leave some way for me to contact you if you are one of the lucky three - you can leave your email address and use (at) and (dot) to help avoid spam.


Sounds pretty easy, right?

There is one catch - you can't just leave a random comment - you have to answer the question in the post (so I know you are paying attention!).


This year I am starting off the boxes with a pad of 12 x 12 paper from K & Company - the Brenda Walton "Sweet Talk" specialty paper pad.  I'll be photographing things in the large square boxes but actually shipping everything in the medium box because the paper pad has the extra hanging tab area and won't fit neatly in the square box.

This is the paper that I used for many of the projects you have seen posted recently - the mobile, the treat and cookie bags, the candle lantern and several cards.  It is from a few years ago but is still one of my favorites with some glitter, flocking and foil.  I have always found that the K & Company paper cuts very well with my die cutting machines - it is just the right weight and texture.

The first question is... 

What is your favorite brand (or brands if you can't choose just one) of paper and/or cardstock?  Why do you prefer this brand (is it the designs, the weight and ease of cutting that paper in your machine, etc.).  Do you prefer single sided or double sided paper?  I am just curious to know about the paper and cardstock that you like to use - it would be fun to discover some new ones that I don't know about yet!


I know that a lot of you are eager to hear more about my trip to Germany and the trade shows that Mandy, Enfys and I attended there.  I'll be adding separate posts with updates on what I saw - and maybe even some projects to share.  It's going to be a busy week!

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Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Four Years...


I'll be returning from Germany today - it's also the fourth anniversary of the start of my blog.

I went back to see some of the first posts - this was the first design I ever posted on the blog - back when the Cricut Design Studio software was "new" and exciting.  It's amazing to think about all of the crafting developments that have taken place in a few short years.

I think it is funny that "butterfly" (schmetterling) is actually one of the first words I ever learned in German!

If I don't run into any travel problems, I should be able to begin the Blogoversary Celebration tomorrow - I have some surprises up my sleeve - you won't want to miss it!


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