spotted at CHA

As I walked about the CHA floor, I noticed some recurring themes. I'm not sure if these qualify as actual "trends" but in any case these items popped up repeatedly in my field of vision.

Can we talk buttons?

Okay, maybe it's because I am seriously in love with buttons that I kept noticing these. I'm especially delighted by the ones with lots of detail in the form of cuts or layers or texture or dimension. You know what I mean... the kind that were in grandma's big old button collection. You know those *real* vintage buttons can be pretty pricey (guess I'm not the only one who loves them). So what's the next best thing? Why reproductions, of course! And what's better than repros done up to match SB paper lines? Brilliant!

Here are some of the ones you can start stalking at your local scrapbook store
(and don't forget to click on the pictures for an enlarged view - you don't want to miss the detail on these babies!)

From AC's Dear Lizzy Line:

From Cosmo Cricket:

 

  

  

 

 

From GCD Studios:

 

 

From Jenni Bowlin:

 

 

From Little Yellow Bicycle:

(yes, I realize these aren't *real* buttons, but they're just too darn cute to not include)

From Nikki Sivils:

stay tuned for more....

CHA continued...

So by now, you're probably getting an idea of what I like and what I love and what intrigues me. But just to make my preferences abundantly clear, today I'm going to do a big, pictureful, random post about lines I love.

Once again, you can click on any of the images to see them larger.

Now, to start with even though they've been around forever and are not on the new, up-and-coming list, I will start by telling you I have always loved Making Memories and K & Company. They've just been a steady, you-can-always-count-on-them-for-goodness, reliable companies. That said, for some reason I didn't get as many pics in their booths as I usually do.

However, here are some pics of the new "Handmade" line by K & Co. Be sure to check out Craft Critique for a thorough review of this line.

 

  

  

  

  

  

 

Again, I'm a bit thin on pics of the paper lines & embellies at Making Memories. I snapped some pics of some new Slice stuff (I've decided I need a Slice too - love the portability).

 

 

Transparencies - I'm loving these

  

A new pink Slice!

  

And a cute baby line

 

And a cute travel line

 

But the newest offering at Making Memories (in case you haven't heard already) -they are now doing jewelry! Oh yum! The make-n-take at their booth was a cute little charm necklace. The product displays for the new line were thrift shop chic all the way. Take a look...

 

 

So, what about some of the other lines I'm loving? Well, I'm glad you asked!

Pink Paislee
I had the pleasure of working the Pink Paislee booth the first day of CHA. I am so in love with all their new lines. The new canvas albums are so fabulous - especially  the natural album. The brilliant designers at PP had the great idea to make the press-ons for the three new lines the exact same size as the cover of the natural canvas album so that users can customize their albums to match the line they are using. Stroke of genius!

 

 

May I take your order?

Here are the press ons (rub-ons) - 

above is 365 degrees line, below is Queen Bee line

 

And did I mention the pleated ribbon? There are four different duos that match the new lines perfectly (the Bayberry Cottage line has two different duos-- the neutral set of cream & black will match all the lines). And it is stitched twill. I *love* twill!

The new artisan tapes are very cool too. I've seen tapes in the scrapbooking market before, but these are a little sturdier, opaque and yet the rolls fit onto a standard tape dispenser. What I really love is all the awesome ideas the creative team had for working with tape. The dimension they created opened my eyes and my world.

  

 

Teresa Collins
Can I say I love, Love, LOVE Teresa Collins! She has the most amazingly gorgeous products - classic and understated at the same time that they are sumptious and rich. Her booth was amazing with this fabulous chandelier that she hand- jewelled. After the show, Teresa donated the chandelier  from her booth (kind of hard to see, but it is below her name in the pic below) to Scrapbook Royalty where it was auctioned off with the benefits going to Haiti. She is quite an amazing lady - and was gracious enough to join the Willow Traders for our CHA dinner. We love you, Teresa!

 

 

At the Willow Traders dinner, l to r: Chelle, Julie, Me & Teresa

Tattered Angels

It seems like I love Tattered Angels more with every passing year, every passing show. This year they debuted some very yummy products: Glimmer Glaze, Glimmer Glam and Chalkboard Glimmer Mist.

 

Heidi Swapp has formulated some of the new colors and let me just inject here that her samples and the new tags with the gold foil and "hidden" text/images are beautiful. I caught one of Heidi's demos. For those of you interested in her techniques with the Glimmer mist, check out this video.

  

  

  

  

KaiserCraft

As usual, Kaiser had plenty of purdiness. I have to admit I have one line that I'm really digging (and hoping to maybe do a class with.... hmmm, we'll see). The samples were fantastic and they have a new wood tree that is so adorable!

 

  

  

  

 

Websters Pages

The booth at Websters was way different than what we've seen the last couple of years. Scaled down with few samples and a very to-the-point all business feel. But guess, what? I'm still a huge fan and loving what they brought.

Then bulk trims are yummy and so are the embellies.

 

  

  

  

  

 

Tim Holtz

Mr. H has some new beautiful dies for Sizzix and his very own Sizzix machine which looks like a vintage suitcase - it is so CUTE! . He also designed some embossing folders that fade away at one end for a very distressed look. (Sorry I don't have a pic of any of these things, but trust me - they are must haves!)

 

  

 

Dear Lizzy by American Crafts
Lastly, I'm in love with the charming new "Dear Lizzy" line from American Crafts. This line smacks of fresh laundry and the those lovely days of spring transitioning into summer.

 

  

  

  

 

Stay tuned for more from my CHA adventure!

more from CHA - sample mania!

So for today's CHA recap, I'm just gonna post a whole bunch of beautiful samples. I'm absolutely blown away by the sheer inspiration to be found in the manufacturers' booths. When I see the incredible creations by the various designers, I am made very much aware of why these folks are on these teams (and why we see so many of the same familiar names cropping up time and time again).

Anyway, enjoy the eye candy and be inspired! (And don't forget to support your local scrapbook retail establishment!)

Click on any of these pics to see an enlarged version.

First, a cute little mini album in the AccuCut booth. Isn't this yummy?

 

Next, some cards in the Core'dinations booth. Love this cardstock!

  

A lovely wedding layout in the Graphic 45 booth

  

An altered calendar project using KaiserCraft's new Peachy Keen line

  

A whole wall full of My Little Shoebox samples - so cute!

  

A basket in the Melissa Frances booth - 

can't wait to play with her new crepe paper!

  

Maya Road is one of my weaknesses when it comes to CHA samples.

Don't you love this cute house?

  

From Pink Paislee using one of their new canvas albums 

(I'm in love with these too!)

  

From the 7Gypsies booth - 

I just loved how the journaling was done on a piece of driftwood.

  

A couple of cards seen in the Anna Griffin booth

A layout using the Homespun Chic line at GCD Studios

  

Possibly my favorite layout of all - so romantic!

by Layle Koncar in the Basic Grey booth

  

Some Cosmo Cricket to love

  

At Clear Snaps

 

A layout at the Crate Paper booth. 

Love the curvy movement in the border at the bottom

  

A mini book in Fancy Pants booth

  

A beautiful layout by Heidi Swapp at Tattered Angels

  

From Jenni Bowlin (get a load of that yummy button!)

  

A layout at KI Memories - love the pinwheels

  

A cute card from Inkadinkadoo at EK Success

  

At the Petaloos booth - I'm digging these new clear plastic flowers.

  

From Teresa Collins - this was the Tuesday make-n-take

  

A decorative item in the Spellbinders booth

A coat made entirely of Tim Holtz Grungeboard. Every patch & flower was unique - 

embossed and colored. Really amazing.

More of my CHA experience later this week, so check back!

CHA W'10 - it's a wrap!

For the fourth year in a row, I had the pleasure of attending the Craft & Hobby Association Winter Trade Show. It's something I (and many of my fellow crafters) look forward to with eager anticipation.  Scrapbook and other craft manufacturers roll out their new product releases from papers to accents to tools along with lots of inspiration in the form of beautifully appointed booths and extraordinary samples showcasing the new lines. This year was no exception.

There is no way to re-capture and feature all the yummy-ness that is CHA in my blog, but here are some of the high points of my trip this year. These are things that caught my eye, made me sigh or oogle, and generally made my fingers itch to create.

Today, I want to highlight some of the vintage (and vintage-inspired) goodness on display at this year's show. What I especially loved about this year's offerings was that there was a greater variety of color and style (because all vintage is not created equal, right?)

Here are just a few of my faves:

First the new line from Advantus by Margie Romney-Aslett, "The Girls Paperie". So feminine and soft and so much to love!

 

  

 

I was also enamored by the new GCD Studios lines designed by Melody Ross. The colors are vibrant and glorious and the detail in the embellishments is classic. These images are from the new Homespun Chic line.

 

One of my favorite lines for the last three years is Graphic 45. Not only are their papers sublime, their booth is always incredible. I could do a single, very long blog post with all my love for this company, but you'll have to settle for this sweet peek. Their take on vintage is always elegant and sophisticated. The have three new lines this year, "A Proper Gentleman", "Le' Romantique" and "On the Boardwalk". Now I just have to decide which line to feature in an upcoming class. (These pics are from the Le Romantique line.)

 

  

  

  

Jenni Bowlin is another perennial fave with more vintage goodness.  I like the wholesome, Americana feel of the line. I had the opportunity to take a banner class that used a lot of these new Jenni Bowlin products - fun!

  

  

  

 

 7Gypsies never fails to deliver when it comes to vintage. Again, this is a booth with so much retro eye-candy that I could fill pages with the pics I took, but here is a small taste of what was on display.

  

  

  

  

That's all for today, but I'm planning to post more pics during the coming week so stay tuned!

scrappiness

I've been working on a couple of layouts this weekend and once again it feels like maybe perhaps this is something that I've never done before. Well, that's not exactly right. Of course, I've scrapped before. But something about picking it back up after a period of not doing any layouts always feels a bit foreign. Not quite sure why that is. In any case, it sure comes easier if I do it more regularly. Wonder if there's anyone else out there who deals with this.

I finished two one-pagers and I'm really happy with both of them. Plus I've got another layout loosely arranged on my work table... we'll have to see whether or not that one comes together, but I'm liking what I've got so far. While I'm on the subject of scrappiness, another thing that has made me really happy about these latest layouts is to actually be working with some products that I've been itching to dig into. Because really... what's the point of storing product? It shouldn't be sitting there like some kind of dusty collection. It needs to be used and find its way onto my pages and into my albums.

I ended up submitting both the finished layouts for publication and I was excited to find out tonight that one of them was picked up for an online magazine, Ready, Set, Create. Cool.

With the recent changes to my SB work world, I decided it was time to work out a new schedule for 2010.  I'm hoping the new weekly plan will make me more efficient and productive. I've got Tuesdays & Thursdays set aside as my scrappy biz days - hoping to make the most of those days every week. There will be a lot to cram into those two days every week, but I think having specific days earmarked for working will help my focus. (What would really help would be an extra day per week and an extra week per month -lol!)

Later!

tonight's chow is chowder

Potato corn chowder, to be precise. A classic comfort sort of soup for the first weekday supper of 2010. I guess browsing soup recipes last week put me in a certain mind set, because I also made soup for dinner last night (one of our favorites - cabbage and kidney bean... I know it doesn't sound especially wonderful, but you'll have to take my word that it is!)

The last three weeks have been crazy busy, but all in a very good way. I did several private papercrafting classes in my home and had a great time visiting with friends I just don't see often enough (like my delightful cousin Leah - hey, girl hope you can come again next month!)

On the heels of the classes, I changed hats, shifted chairs and jumped into producing an e-newsletter for The Enright Company. I've been doing their newsletters for several years now, but for the last few issues I've collaborated with my son who is so much more knowledgeable at html than I am. It's been nice to have his expertise at my disposal.

Now, I'm back on home improvement duty - gotta pick out some paints and get busy re-creating the look of our living room. We've only painted one room in the house since  moving in (isn't that awful!). So, I'm thinking with some forethought, organization and self-discipline we should be able to repaint the entire interior over the course of 2010. I'm going to aim for a room a month with a few months off for the worst of summer. Sounds do-able, doesn't it?

We've also got a couple of lingering items to take care of on the house facade for our "curb appeal" project - still need to have a garage door installed, then have that and the new front door painted. And then, there are some landscaping decisions to be made as well.

Isn't it funny how every time you do something to upgrade and improve, it results in having something else to do?

when will i see you again?

Seems like more often than not my blog post titles are titles of old songs or movies (or lines from old movies).

So, this time my post title (an old 70s song, if I'm not mistaken) is directed to SGT customers: when will I see you again? Hopefully I'll see some of  at you soon at either the Tuesday night Quickutz party, or the Thursday night customer appreciation/farewell potluck at SGT. I'm going to pop in to both of them so I hope I will see lots of you there! If I happen to miss you, just remember that you can keep up with me here or at my other blog, or on Twitter, or Facebook or by email. Or maybe I'll just run into you at one of the places we scrapbookers like to haunt (like Expo, or CHA, or ???)

In any case, sending hugs out to all the lovely ladies I've met through my association with the store and wishing you all the best!

(edited to add a pic that was taken at the SGT Employee potluck dinner last week - a fine looking group, if I do say so!)

home improvement

After the new roof - kinda hard to tell how bad the paint was, tho

We've lived in our house for about 11 years now. The first major anything we did in the way of maintenance/improvement was last fall when we re-roofed and exterminated. I guess you could say we "celebrated" the big 10 year mark with a new hat (roof).

This year we're on "phase 2" of our long-neglected home improvement. Our very dry & thirsty house was begging for a new coat of paint which it finally received last month. Then, last week we had a new front door installed. It's beautiful and solid and it "whooshes" when it closes. I like that.

After new paint - a subtle change, but makes such a diff!

Next week we'll be having our trees trimmed. And can I say that I can't believe that the tree work is going to cost about the same as the paint job. But like I said, it's been 11 years. The work is going to make such a difference.

Oh, and I almost forgot ... a new garage door is also on the list of improvements to be made.

Curb appeal? Yeah... we'll have it.

day 6 - socal shophop '09

Well, here's the recap of our very last day of Shop Hopping (better late than never!) We did the greater San Diego area as our last stint and had an ambitious plan, but thankfully the stores in that area are fairly close together and thanks to longer hours for the Shop Hop we managed to reach every last store and finish the full Shop Hop.

So our first stop was Scrappin Divas in Temecula. Our timing was perfect --we arrived just as the doors were opening.

Really wanted to loll and stroll up and down the block where the store was located - such a cute little area.

Here's what I left with:

Next it was Pink Pineapple in Vista.

We had the best time at this store. Gloria helped us to find lots of good stuff and gave us great suggestions for using the products we bought. And of course, you just can't beat the ribbons at Pink Pineapple. I went a little ribbon crazy as you can see:

After that we headed to Ever After in Carlsbad. They'd moved since the last time I'd been there (Shop Hop '07). I really like the new store --it's just as cute as the old one.

We got a little lost on our way to Jazi Crafts in Oceanside. Somehow the printer had cut off one of the step-by-step instructions in our mapquest and it was a crucial instruction because the wrong turn sent us away from the store. Thank goodness for cell phones and store clerks who can give directions!

 Found some more good stuff:

From there we headed to Paper Tales in San Diego. This was the first time any of us had been there and what a treat we were in for. Such a cute little boutique of a store. Lots of adorable stamps and cute little thises and thats.

I was happy to pick up some of the Maya Road velvet flowers that I've been wanting since CHA Winter.

Next stop: Scrapbook Your Life in San Diego. Here I am crouched down by their Shop Hop Display showing off my passport.

My favorite find at this store was the Spell Binders bird die - so cute!

We headed out of San Diego to Cool Scrapbook Stuff in Poway. This store has so much variety. You can find pretty much anything you're looking for.

I'm not sure exactly *what* I was looking for, but here is what I "found":

There was a second store to visit in Poway - Stamping Details. They had a fun make-n-take learning a technique with alcohol ink, and a really grrrrrrrrrrrrrreeat photo opp with a cut-out tiger.

And SOoooooo many stamps! Here's what I found that day:

Our last "official" stop of the day was Now and Then Scrapbooks in Wildomar. Was it ever crowded. My sympathies went to the girl behind the counter.

Voila, we finished Shop Hop '09 with days to spare. Well, we were *almost* finished. We actually had to make another stop to The Scrapping Table in Placentia because during our first visit one of our passports didn't get stamped. But thankfully it was right on our way back home so it worked out fine.

We all turned in our passports and were hopeful for the contests, but even if we didn't win anything we were just glad to have had a summer safari tooling around SoCal and enjoying ourselves.

The Postscript to our adventure is that none of us won any of the big ShopHop prizes. However, someone in our group *did* win an after-the-fact contest sponsored by ShopHop. It was a "make-n-take" contest for anyone who had participed in the Hop this year. And guess who won? It was me! Yup, I'm now the proud owner of a $50 gift certificate to The Scrappin' Table. I can't wait to stop by and see what's new.

day 5 - socal shophop '09

So...  on to the memories of Day 5 of ShopHop. For our little group this was Saturday, August 15th. We didn't have as many stores to get to as we'd had on other days (only 7), but we did have a lot of ground to cover geographically.

Our first stop was Pages From the Heart in Monrovia. There was a class in progress at this store (I think it was a Pinecone Press class being taught by Lorene Yost, but not sure -- in any case it looked like a fun one).

 

Next, we went to Karen's Hallmark in Alta Dena. Great photo opp with Mr. Elephant here.

A few goodies for the road...

From there, we headed out to points west, stopping at Once Upon a Page in Burbank, the deceptively small-looking store, but wow when you get inside it goes on and on. Evidently, this is the store where I had the brilliant idea to start picking up some animal print papers to scrap the ShopHop photos with.


Here's me:

Here's my stuff:

Then on to Sandpaper Kisses in Tujunga. The girl at the register had made herself a really cute safari hat* just for ShopHop. (*Pith helmut, is that they're called evidently. Learned that from my mom ... thanks, Mom!)

From there it was Treasured Memories in Oak Park, where we ran into Lead Fiskateer Cheryl Waters again. She is such a sweetie!

What I got:

By now we were starting to fall off our time schedule, tho and so we clambered back into the van and raced out to Stamping From the Heart in Los Angeles. We made it before closing and the owner was kind enough to keep the door open a bit past closing so we could finish up our shopping.

Mom was so done with this store:

Here are my goodies:

 

The last stop for the day was Sonja's Scrap Spot in Los Angeles, and it was a great spot to end the day.

Here's my "take":

All in all another great day of Shop Hopping adventure never mind that my safari tour abandoned me at the elevator! Good-bye, peeps, but don't forget who has the car keys -lol!

The elevator door closes as I snap a pic...

But they didn't get far since no one pushed any buttons. I could hear them laughing inside the elevator car until the door re-opened.

Mom is cracking up here. A funny end to a great day.

PS. Only one more Shop Hopping day to share after this.

day 4 - socal shophop '09

*ETA: yes, this is *old* news. You can read this post for the whiney, excuse-making post, if you like.

Our 4th day on the Shop Hop started at Collective Journey in Redlands. They always have such cute displays!

What I got:


From there we headed a little south and a little west to Corona where we stopped at Scrapper's Cafe. Sadly, I recently heard that this is another sb store that is closing its doors.

Next, we went to Chino Hills destination "This N That Scrapbooking". Turns out that the "this-n-that" is because this is a multi-purpose store. Not only are there lots of SB supplies, there is also a dry cleaner on site along with a variety of other services.

Here are my findings:

Somewhere in the mess of Corona/Chino freeways we had a near accident when a young female driver in front of us decided to come to a full stop on the freeway (yes, you read that right). Evidently, she had missed her offramp, so she just came to a stop and waited for traffic to clear then swept two lanes to get to the offramp. Crazy!

Our last store for the day was Scraparazzi in Whittier. They were getting ready for move to a new (adjacent) location, so I'd like to go back sometime soon and check out their new digs.

What I left with:

After our ShopHopping, we had a nice relaxing lunch at Penn Park in Whittier. It's a gorgeous place.




End of Day 4, 22 stores down, 17 stores to go!

blog interrupted

Once again, there was a little bit of that stuff known as life getting in the way of my blogging. It wasn't so much that I was incredibly busy (tho I was *very* busy), but it was more of me being detached from the computer. Hey, what can I say? It happens.

So, where was I....? Oh, yes! I was posting my Shop Hop adventures. And in painstaking detail which is why I wasn't done. You'll have to indulge me because I have the need to finish what I started.

And speaking of Shop Hop, there was some late-breaking prize news in the Scrapbooking Roads newsletter last Friday. Was I ever surprised to find out that I'd won a prize in the Make-n-take contest. Woo hoo! I love prizes - especially scrappy ones.

day 3 - socal shophop '09

My third day out hopping was Sunday 8/16 - it was a very short little jaunt, just two local stores.

First we headed out to Stamp Your Heart Out in Claremont. The store was jam-packed with customers. Forgot to take any photos, and didn't do much shopping, but I did pick up their cute mk-n-tk and some flair for a "d-i-y" lanyard I was planning to make for my daughter (our official Shop Hop journaler).

Flair and a cute mk-n-tk found at Stampin' From the Heart

After ran to the market with my dad (a new Sunday ritual). And then on to Scrapbook Cafe in La Puente. This store is open afternoons & evenings during the week because the owner holds down a full time job earlier in the day. Not an extremely huge store, but lots of cute stuff (and cute samples, too!)

My goodies from Scrapbook Cafe

Short, but sweet!

this just in

I'm interrupting my Shop Hop playback to share a layout I did using some of the stuff I got while hopping (click for enlarged view). Used the "Abbey Road" line by My Mind's Eye for this page about my son & nephew back in 1994 when they first met. Oh those cute boys --so sweet and soft and adorable. That was then, but my oh my how times have changed - now they are both big, tall, hairy MEN! Ah well, there is no stopping the passing of time. (And they are both still adorable.)