To [Mis]Quote Gordon Gekko (the little green one): Free... is good!

[thefannishwaldo]

Okay, so I totally have a new convention to attend like a religious pilgrimage.  CHA.  Craft and Hobby Association.  Otherwise known as, "Here!  Come learn to make this for free! [And then let us sell you the stuff to make more]."

There was a metric shitload of scrapbooking stuff, which I don't do, but I do rubberstamp cards and such, so it wasn't a total loss in that area.  I also got beads and stamps and ink and stencils and REALLY cool paintbrushes for ceramics and... and... yeah...

But this is the haul I got for FREE:

THIS IS JUST THE FIRST PART!

1. Everything is sitting on a green canvas apron with an adjustable neck strap.  ADJUSTABLE!  It won't hang down to my belly button!  They do believe in short people!  This will be handy in ceramics.
2.  A skein of light pink and light gray "Vanna's Choice yarn.  I was walking past the knitting and crocheting table and they shoved them at me going, "Here!  Have yarn."  Okay, sure!
3. Above that is a crafty mousepad. 
4. Below the mouse pad is my scissors pouch of AWESOMENESS!  To be fair, this wasn't REALLY free - they asked for a donation to a charity.  Anyway, most people were randomly sticking on bits of bling and fabric on theirs.  I SO PWNED THE SHOW with my dragon.  I pwned them so hard one of the girls running the booth handed me another one so I could make her one.  I HAZ DRAGON SKIZZORS!  PHEER ME!  The scissors came free/as part of the donation too.
5. Next to the dragon of awesomeness is two skeins of Caron simply soft.  I like this system.  You go up and ask a knitting or crocheting question, they answer it for free and demonstrate the answer.  Then you get to keep the supplies from the demonstration.  I asked how to change colors without actually cutting the yarn, so since it needed two colors to demonstrate, I got two yarns.  And the H hook sticking up out of the light brown.
6. Next to that is a roll of yellow duct tape.  They were supposed to teach me how to make a wallet out of it, but the teacher bailed.  So instead we got the tape and the web address of the directions so we could do it ourselves.

Haul Part 2:

1. The green box won't be green forever.  They were demonstrating a ceramics glazing technique (INORITE?!?!) with underglazes and blowing bubbles.  Then it had to be overglazed.  That's the green stuff.  Clear overglazes are never clear before being fired.  Personally I'm used to the pukey pink sort, but this works on the same principle - it won't be green forever.  I'm going to see if my studio person will fire it for me so I don't have to drive it out to the address they gave me.
2. Crochet magazine.
3. Under that is a little white box with yellow/teal/green decorations.  That's ALL post-its!  And sticky bling. 
   
4. While I was making that, a very nice old guy from the booth started giving out free 3M/Scotch sticky stuff.  So we got adhesive dot rollers and a MONGO glue stick that goes two ways. ;)
5. The envelope they're on from Red Heart is patterns.
6. The necklace on the envelope is made of a metal frame and fimo and mica powder.  I need to cook that tomorrow.
7. Under that is a mini-notebook decorated with swirly embossy-type stickers and stuff.
8. To the left of that is a card I made for my nephew.  His bedroom is decorated with *exactly* those planes.
9. On the far left is another notebook decorated with a stack of three buttons and ribbons and pretty paper that is actually purple, but the lighting in my room SUCKS, even after white-balance correction in post.

Then there were the t-shirts.  I could have had three, but the one with the big glittery lips (and no option to make anything else) just wasn't doing it for me.

Be afraid you all... I learned to airbrush.  And I learned that it's not *ridiculously* expensive.

Funky tye-dye.  Not great, but not awful for a first attempt:



And the faux tie-dye that could totally be done with real tie-dye stuff.  I'm actually quite keen on how this one came out.



Did I buy shit?  Oh yeah.  But I'm thinking I got at least my $15 admissions fee back in *stuff*  (Hell, just the yarn was probably around $15.)

Chat (and anyone else interested), I think we should add this to our annual Dog and Pony show list.  It was a lot of fun.