Write. Click. Scrapbook.

Welcome to CHA Armchair Attendee Week!

Welcome

Welcome to CHA Armchair Attendee Week! I'm Vivian, and I will be your host this week. As most of you know, the Craft and Hobby Association’s winter trade show is taking place this week in Anaheim, CA. Companies that manufacture craft products  -- including our beloved papercrafting products -- show their new releases in booths visited by retailers, who place orders for the new products. Lots of other folks figure into the mix as well, as craft publishers are represented, design team members help to staff booths, and celebrities usually figure into the mix. (I still have my piece of Paris Hilton scrapbook paper, signed when I met none other than Paris herself at CHA a few years back. Rumor has it that our own Marnie Flores may cross paths with Tori Spelling this time around.) 

I’m not at CHA this year, but have been having a lot of fun following all of the hoopla online and am excited to share some of that fun with you this week. Here’s the plan for this week:

 Monday: Introduction and Trends, Part I: Patterns and Motifs

Tuesday: Trends, Part II: Themes

Wednesday: Trends, Part III: Products

Thursday: CHA give.away.day. (yes, that’s right, as in goodies straight from the show floor!)

Friday: Write.Click.Scrapbook. team members’ “must haves” from CHA

 

Introduction

Getting on with our introduction…some of you may be wondering what it means to be an “armchair attendee.” How can you “attend” the show if you’re not there? Well, here’s my process.

• In the weeks ahead of the show, I regularly frequent websites that compile manufacturers’ sneak peeks. Most manufacturers “sneak” their new releases prior to the show via their company’s blog/website, Facebook, Twitter, etc. and that can be exhausting to follow without the aid of websites that do the work of compiling sneaks for you. Three good websites for this are Scrapbook & Cards Today, Scrapbook Update and The Scrap Review. Each presents the sneaks a little bit differently: Scrapbook & Cards Today provides clickable links by manufacturer, Scrapbook Update provides a clickable list by date of sneaks, and The Scrap Review blogs sneaks as they appear.

• As I look at sneaks, I make sure to check out both official product images as well as any projects showcasing the new products. Often a line or a product that doesn’t grab me at first looks different when I see it on a layout or a card.

• Once the show starts, I watch online for photos and videos from the CHA show floor. Not all companies do sneak peeks or extensive sneak peeks and seeing new products together with projects made with them in the booth can inspire. You can try searching #CHAshow on Twitter, check magazines' and manufacturers' Twitter feeds/Facebook pages/blogs, or follow targeted CHA forums (like the CHA Winter 2012 forum at Two Peas in a Bucket or Studio Calico's CHA forum).

• Most important, I make my wishlist! That was made much easier this year by Pinterest. I started a CHA Winter 2012 board and every time I looked at sneaks I pinned ones that grabbed my attention. (Don't worry, I won't buy it all!)

 

Trends, Part I

Now let’s take a look at trends in patterns and motifs. I am not going to attempt to be comprehensive here, but have selected three trends that have caught my eye and will share those with you. Beware, lots of images forthcoming!

The first trend I want to share with you is chevron. Chevron patterns started appearing recently in scrapbook products, but they have really taken off with this show. While chevron up until now has been primarily a single color chevron stripe paired with a neutral, this time around it seems to be “chevron with a twist.” Let me show you some examples.

This paper from Lily Bee's Buttercup line features a text-print chevron pattern:

This paper from My Mind's Eye On the Bright Side line features a fun multi-colored chevron pattern:

How cool is this quilted chevron from Pink Paislee's Prairie Hill line? When I first saw this sneak I had to stare at it for a bit to figure out all that was going on here!
Let's move on to look at another trend: clouds. I don't know about you, but cloud patterns just make me happy. I'm seeing a lot of patterned clouds this year.

This fun paper from GCD Studios' Oh Happy Day line features chevron clouds.

This sticker sheet from Echo Park's Hello Summer line features three different patterned clouds - one with a text print and the other two with different grids:

This piece of paper from Bella Blvd's Sunshine & Happiness line combines polka dot and chevron clouds with solid clouds, some with tiny hearts:

This paper, from My Little Shoebox's Happy Go Lucky line, features polka dot clouds, clouds with a doodle swirl pattern, and, while it's hard to tell from the sneak image (one of the limits of being an armchair attendee!), I think some of the clouds have text:

One more pattern/motif trend that is popping up all over the place: honeycomb/hexagon.

I first noticed this trend with these two stunning papers from the My Mind's Eye Follow Your Heart collections (note that these papers also follow the quilted trend that we saw earlier in the Pink Paislee chevron pattern):

Another interesting take on this trend are the Jenni Bowlin Quilted Stickers, which come in four different designs:

Hambly also has an interesting take on the honeycomb/hexagon trend (and more chevron!) with one of their patterned cardstocks:

 

I could continue commenting on pattern/motif trends and pasting examples here for days, but hopefully this will give you a taste of what's out there and coming to stores soon.We'd love to hear from our readers - which of these three trends is your favorite? What other patterns and motifs are you seeing across sneaks?

Stay tuned for tomorrow's Trends, Part II, which will focus on product line themes seen across companies.

Hipstamatic Photos - a Mini-Book

Hello Friends! This is alexandra sirugue-macleod and I'm honored to be your host this week. I love my iPhone and it has nothing to do with the phone itself. No, what I'm crazy about is the Hipstamatic application, you know, the app. that allows you to make tiny square pictures with all kinds of cool effects. These pictures are so easy and fun to scrap, I thought we could explore a few different ways to do just that this week...

And how about starting the week with a mini-book I made with hipstamatic pictures taken during the course of January.

With this mini, I wanted to highlight things that our family enjoyed doing during that cold month. All pictures were taken with my iPhone and measure 2 x 2 inches. The cover of this mini is a kraft envelope folded in two and the collection of patterned papers is mostly Webster's Pages.

This inside page showcases things I enjoyed creating in January.

Can you see now why I love these photos? They are a perfect size. I hope you enjoy this album. Tomorrow we will build one together!

May Flowers

Well, this week sure flew by in a flash! It was fun being your host for these two days, but I know you'll also love what the rest of the week has in store...

Today I want to share with you a fun spring flower tutorial. The idea was linked up on WCS member Celeste Smith's blog, and I could not resist immediately posting it to my Pinterest board so I'd never lose the link. Then, as soon as I had a spare moment, I had to try it myself. It was so fun I made a half dozen in one sitting, and added two of them to layouts that very day.

So, your first step is to check out the step-by-step tutorial you'll find here, and then pull out some double-sided patterned paper and give it a go!

All you need to make these yourself is a piece of double-sided patterned paper, a circle punch, adhesive, and a button for the center. Couldn't be easier!

The other beautiful thing I discovered? If you use a 1.5-inch circle punch, you can punch all eight circles from a 12 x 3.5 inch strip of paper. And a 12 x 3.5 inch strip is exactly what you have left over when you cut down a 12 x 12 sheet into an 8.5 x 11 sheet. So, pick any paper you choose, cut it down to 8.5 x 11 to save for a future project, and punch your circles out of that leftover strip.

Even better, use that 8.5 x 11 paper as the background for a page featuring one of your flowers, which is exactly what I did. Twice. Talk about economical! You can get your page background and your primary embellishment out of just one piece of paper. Behold:

This paper (from October Afternoon) was floral on one side and had multi-colored stripes on the other.

 

And here's the page. Additional supplies: office tag, Basic Grey chipboard letters, Cosmo Cricket patterned paper, and Glossy Accents (used to add a bit of shine to the centers of all the printed flowers).

 

This Pink Paislee paper was a distressed pink on one side and featured a vintage-collage look on the other side.

 

And here's the page! Additional supplies: chipboard letters (K&Company), dark pink patterned paper (We R Memory Keepers).

It really doesn't get simpler than this. Give it a try!

Thanks for joining me. Plant a flower or two on your next layout—it's your last chance to celebrate the spring.

Ciao!

Display It: Day 1, Project Intro

Display It

Wow- how fun to be blogging here at WCS- fun to share with all of you, fun to include other WCS contributors, and fun to finish a few projects so I could share with you!

Last Christmas I gave my sister a shadow box that I made as an I spy display and game for her and her kids.

Along with the display I gave her a search notebook which listed different objects to find that represented events, milestones, activities, from her life. She loved this gift and I loved creating it.

That experience is what launched the idea for this week's blog theme, Display It. We make beautiful albums and lovely layouts, however, rarely do we place these around our home. I want to encourage you (and me), to create and share memory displays around the house.The schedule for this week is below.

Day 1 Project, concept and gather

Day 2 Photo displays

Day 3 Project, prepare and place

Give.away.day

Day 4 Memorabilia displays

Day 5 Project, layer and display

Feel free to work alongside me and share your tips with all of us. Enough explaining, time to get started!

CONCEPT and GATHER

Concept:

Before you start ask yourself these questions to narrow in on a theme for your display.

• who is it for?
• why are you making this?
• where will it go?
• what do you want to display?
• how large do you want it?

Gather:

Now that you know the why it is time to start gathering goodies to go inside. Print photos, find patterned paper, look for small trinkets, and select embellishments that might fit the theme. Gather more than you think you will need to keep your options open.

A few suggestions for dimensional items

game pieces

trinkets

flowers

fabric scraps

souvenirs

memorabilia

Now that you have your items gathered decide what display product you are going to use. The selection for display products has never been greater than it is now, so make your choice.

Display products on the market that I recommend:

1. Doodlebug Designs offers two different sized shadow boxes, 8" x 8" and 12" by 12"
2. Adorn It has a divided shadow box that I am going to be using for my projects
3. Configurations is a Tim Holtz product that is newly on the market
4. Etsy seller, Selina, offers these display boxes
5. 7Gypsies has a handful of awesome products
6. Maya Road has a trinket display box

What catches your eye? Maybe you have been lucky enough to find a cool vintage tray- if so use that!! Also check your craft stores and framing stores for shadow box and display offerings.

Day 1 Assignment:

• Determine project concept
• Gather photos, memorabilia, and display objects
• Select display box

Come back tomorrow to see some awesome photo display ideas.

the stuff of (teen) memories.

All I have to do is peek into the disaster that is my teen's room, and I'm reminded that there is a lot of stuff that occupies a life. As scrapbookers, we've become skilled at capturing snippets of our everyday lives...so why not do the same for your teen? 

Teen STUFF lends itself to layouts about rooms, fave clothes, musical tastes, well-loved books, and gadgets. Don't stress if your teen has adopted a "no 'rents allowed" policy - simply hand them a camera! Teens loooove to take photos (mine shout "Facebook!" whenever they snap a self-portrait), and probably won't mind if you borrow a few shots. 

When documenting what's cool in your teen's life right now, be sure to include...

Fashion - You can sneak your teen's fashion choices into just about any layout. One of the reasons that I wanted to use this photo of my daughter on a layout was so that I could document her super cool shades. If you can't convince your teen to put on a fashion show, just offer to do his/her laundry...then sneak a few pics! 

Their Space - I know it's a scary prospect to venture into a teen's room...but you can do it! Grab your camera, and take a tour of your teen's space. It's sure to be a great view of their life!  Top Picks - Ask your teen to write a top ten list of their favorite books, tv shows, or movies. Ask for a playlist from their ipod. Or how 'bout a list of top 5 facebook status updates or tweets? 

Tell your teen that scrapbooks are just like time capsules - 10 or 20 years from now, they'll marvel at what they loved when they were young. Everything comes back in fashion eventually anyway - so they'll be able to show that they were cool way back in the day! 

today's teen tip: let go of the messy room battles - simply close the door. Adopt a "no food or drink in bedroom" policy to prevent science projects from growing - but otherwise? Butt out! It's really easier on everyone.

Pop Week: The things we see everywhere

Welcome back to Pop Week! Thanks so much for all the comments about the photo collage-every single time I walk into my bedroom it makes me smile (although I did have a vivid dream that the whole thing fell down on my head...ahhhh pregnancy dreams.) Today I am going to share some inspiration from the things we see every day. First of all is some inspiration from banners. I have noticed a definite increase in banners-in sewing and in scrapbooking. Why did I not notice them when they were hanging from all the car dealerships? Now I literally want to put one on everything. I want them hanging in my home. I want vinyl versions for the playroom and I want them on all my scrapbook pages. So how's this for turn around-my daughter started school on Monday.

As a very simple scrapper who also LOVES color, I absolutely love the banner-simple and colorful and from one of my favorite digi designers, Crystal Wilkerson.

Next up is a layout from our Vivian Masket. I am definitely a fan of the robots-the theme of my son's bedroom. Robots have definitely turned up everywhere-especially in scrapbooking.

One of my absolute favorite things about this layout is that it is a vertical 2-pager with landscape 8.5x11 cardstock. How have I never thought to do that! Love.

Last up is a valentine I made for my daughter last year. We all definitely see ipods everywhere these days-I don't know what I would do without mine-especially where I live, in the land of no good radio stations. Using my Making Memories Slice, I cut out the ipod, then searched the internet for the battery, fast forward, rewind and play icons. In Photoshop I recreated the ipod's screens and there you have it. The best part is now that I have done the dirty work, if she wants to send out the same valentines or if my son ever wants to send these out, all I have to do is make a few minor changes and done.

So what trends can you not resist adding to your scrapbook layouts? Share in the comments below!

Zoom!

Experimenting with my camera over the past several years has been one of my favorite hobbies. It's been fun seeing the transition in portrait trends from stuffy, formal poses to relaxed and authentic.

Just wanted to share a little hint that I discovered recently that has improved the personality of my portraits.

I love to get the full effect of a picture. Details are so important. In fact, I went through a phase where I wanted to take close-ups of everything! Macro was it. But lately I've veered from that to getting a good variety of perspectives... both zoomed in and far away.

So my new favorite trick when photographing a few people together is to take a good full shot including the background and then to tell my subjects to "get close!" I love how it switches the mood of the portrait to more of a personality shot.

So next time you're photographing your kiddos together or a bunch of friends, after you take the typical pose, tell everyone to get closer and snap another shot. Bet you'll get a new favorite!

Here are a few examples.

Give it a try! & be sure to post your photos in the gallery!

Be back tomorrow! :)

Simply Spring: Day 2

Thank you for that warm welcome yesterday! I hope you will find today's post inspiring enough to make a page and then upload it to our Flickr gallery because today is chock full of inspiration.

Today's Simply Spring inspiration is...

Simply:Butterflies, Birds and Bees, Oh My!

When I think of Spring, one of the first things that pops into my head are butterflies. And with so many ways to showcase butterflies, in the form of punches, die-cuts or chipboard, inspiration can be found everywhere. First up is the butterfly stylings of Beth Proudfoot. Her work is always so visually stunning to look at. Don't these colors just scream "Spring!"?

Every Easter, the Easter Bunny brings my littlest a brand new butterfly net and it never fails to bring her hours of enjoyment trying to catch these beautiful creatures:

Next up, we have one of my favorite scrappers, Vivian Masket. I am in love with her style, so simple, but at the same time, so classy. Love the look of the die-cut butterflies sewn to the paper. Note to self: Learn to sew!

On to our own talented Aly Dosdall. Did you know that Aly has 5 children? Where does she find the time to scrap so beautifully?? Look at all the gorgeous detail on this page:

And look who is back with another page, Lisa Dickinson. Just look at the incredible rich colors of the butterflies and that sweet girlie of hers, perfection!

And the last one for butterflies is probably the most inspiring project yet. It is by our own Emily Pitts . If I saw this in a store, I would instantly buy it. So absolutely lovely!

Now another trend having to do with Spring would be birds! And first up is our Moon Ko. This layout is magical, even without Moon's usual fabulous photos. And just as always, Moon balances her adoration for her kids with her sharp wit.

Next up, yours truly, with one of my favorite pages. I love the photo so much but it's the pop-dotted bird in the lower right corner that makes me love it so. Love his little brad eye :)

How about an adorable birdhouse by Aly Dosdall? Again such inviting Spring colors!

And for the final Spring inspiration, I don't know where you live, but one sure sign of Spring around here are the ever-annoying bees. As soon as the warm weather hits, they show up like clockwork. But this page has the cutest bee that I have ever seen, my littlest, Erin.

So with that, I leave you...until tomorrow with many more fabulous pages from our very own collective and some very talented scrappy friends of my own! I'll be outside enjoying the gorgeous Spring weather....hope it's nice where you are too!

Valentine's Inspiration

We internet lovers know that there is a plethora of inspiration online! There are lots of the things that capture my eye and make me think, how can I incorporate that into a scrapbook page? Is it the typography, the colors, the shapes?

If you need a little jumpstart of Valentine inspiration, here's some fun stuff I found online:
How cute is this suit from Old Navy? That title is begging to be scrapbooked!

I could just see this translated on a scrapbook page as well!
I want to do this too! How many thousands of buttons do you own? :) Even if you don't make something scrappy with it, can't you just see a cute necklace for a girl? I love it!

 
This could easily be translated into an embellishment on a page! Even the bright blue color for hearts, probably not something I would have thought of but it works so well! Untraditional Valentine's, hooray! :)  I adore this look!  

This just looks fun! I want to make lots of smoothies and use straws like these! Ha! Or you can make similar little hearts for your pages/projects of course! Layer different sized hearts with floral and type phrased stickers, how sweet! 

 

I think that this would be a neat embellishment, the idea of shaping a bunch of flowers into a heart! Can be punched flowers, stickers, maybe even handdrawn?! Pretty!

If you have the patience to make something like this across your wall, go for it! If you just want to do a few, have it made for the length across your layout! :)  

Two words: PAPER PIECING! :)

And for any non-sewers out there, (like me!;) ) how about the look of stitch!? Just a few simple hand drawn lines mimic the sewn look! Now why didn't I think of that?!
How about a cute Valentine's color combination? This just screams spring, love and happiness to me!


Finally this, I want to make a double page layout, with this by itself on one side and a photo on the other. What a statement! Striking!

Ten Notable Trends at CHA

As I fought off the sleepies at LAX yesterday while waiting for my plane to board, I started a list of things that really stuck in my mind from CHA. I'm convinced that it's impossible to see everything on the floor even if one has a strict schedule and route, but half the fun is building in some wandering time anyway. I like lists of ten, so I worked on my list until I had ten items on it and then I took a little nap. I'm not too proud to sleep in public. : )

Without further delay, here is my list.

1. Hello, Pennant Banners. 

I love pennant banners, so it was especially serendipitous that I saw approximately 8 billion of them at the show. OK, OK, so maybe not that many, but it was exciting all the same.

 

October Afternoon, Making Memories, The Girls' Paperie, American Crafts, AdornIt, Jenni Bowlin, Studio Calico, Canvas Home Basics, Maya Road, Karen Foster, We R Memory Keepers

This is just a sampling. Is there a meeting where everyone gets together and decides this kind of thing?

2. Ohayo Gozaimasu, Nihon. (Read: Good morning, Japan.)

Japanese cute has reached the CHA floor. Are you familiar with the zakka movement? Part of its charm can be found in things that are two parts cute and one part kitsch. A good example of what I'm talking about can be found in the book Cute Stuff by Aranzi Aronzo. Or, in some of these photos.

K & Company, Doodlbug, October Afternoon, Little Yellow Bicycle, We R Memory Makers, EK Success

3. Tools, Reinvented.

The show had a back-to-basics feel to me in a lot of ways, but not in a boring, humdrum kind of way. More in a "what can we do to stretch the functionality of x product or make it more exciting again" kind of way. One such example we found of this? The many new punches offered by EK Success. Just when you thought you'd figured out all the ways to punch paper, they've figured out some more.

This doesn't really do a good job representing how many punches were on this wall, but it gives you an idea. All the miniature lanterns are made out of punched paper.

4. Tools, Improved. 

Another trend we noticed was to take existing tools and make them better. (Well, maybe this isn't really a trend as much as normal business practice. But you know what I meant.) The most noticeable example of this was the new and improved hands free Slice cutting system by Making Memories.

I don't personally own a cutting system, though I have to say I was awfully jealous when Marnie WON one. I might have to get one, too, one of these days. The Slice does some really cool things:

This giant mobile was made with a Slice. I have visions of someone at Making Memories being chained to a desk while they sliced all these butterflies. I have a very active imagination. : )

5. Fabric For All

A number of scrapbooking companies (Basic Grey and Cosmo Cricket are the first to come to mind) are turning their delightful patterned papers into licensed fabric lines these days. We saw evidence that this isn't the only crossover on the horizon between the worlds of People Who Use Paper and People Who Use Fabric. Fabric was everywhere we looked—and we liked it.

Little Yellow Bicycle, My Mind's Eye, K & Company, Canvas Home Basics, Claudine Hellmuth's adorable sticky-back canvas purse, American Crafts

6. The Influence of Etsy

There were a few instances where I had the glorious feeling that if I closed my eyes for a minute and opened them up again, I'd be standing inside an Etsy shop. Companies are paying attention to the handmade movement and bringing elements of it to the scrapbooking world. EK Success seems to have really tapped into this phenomena (doesn't hurt to have Martha on your team) but there were other places that are seamlessly bridging the two worlds.

EK Success, Pebbles, and more EK Success. 

7. Staying Home

If I hear one more person start a sentence with "In the current economy" my head might explode. But in this instance, there's only one way to say it: In the current economy, people are staying home more. I saw a handful of travel lines (Making Memories always does this well) but there were far more new products devoted to or inspired by the time we spend at home. Interesting to see how current events shows up in chipboard and stickers.

Cosmo Cricket, Little Yellow Bicycle, a laundry decor sign from AdornIt Carolee's Creations (Marnie is trying to look stern about the laundry rules, not mad that I was taking her picture), EK Success, and a little more AdornIt.

8. Made in the U.S.A.

This was completely an after-the-fact observation, but I had three very interesting conversations with people about how their companies manufacture their products in the U.S. I don't know if this is a trend or not, but it was fun to learn more.

I had a great time chatting with company co-owner Ewunike Jackson and design team member Simone Pursiful of Clear & Simple Stamps. Their stamps are manufactured in the U.S. out of clear photopolymer, and they offer a huge product line. They're a relatively new and small company, but definitely one to watch. Another made-in-the-U.S.A. outfit is AdornIt Carolee's Creations; that's me with my fellow Big Picture Scrapbooking teacher Georgana Hall, the president of the company. It's a family operation—even Georgana's dad is involved; he cut the beautiful metal scrollwork that graced their booth. Finally, I learned from Studio Calico co-owner Greg Foster that their new lines of paper are printed down the road from their office. 

9. Haiti's Presence

It was heartening to see people wearing Craft Hope for Haiti logos on their nametags and lapels, and even more so when we learned that Lark Books is currently editing a book about the organization Craft Hope and was able to rush a chapter about the efforts to help Haiti through their special Etsy store (which, by the way, has raised over $27,000 since the earthquake to donate to Doctors Without Borders). 

We had a wonderful conversation with Nicole from Lark Books, who told us more about the book and showed us a preview (it will be out in August). 

We also spotted a sign at the booth of My Little Shoebox that pledged a donation of every order placed at CHA. Every little bit helps!

10. Friendly Faces and Friendly Atmosphere

Tina, Marnie and I really noticed a friendly atmosphere present at the show this year. Scrapbooking—and hobbies in general—have been shaken up a bit in the past year or two, but we saw example after example of good, solid customer service and old-fashioned friendliness. The people who love scrapbooking and aren't in it just for the money (though of course the money is important, too) are landing on their feet with a thousand ideas of how to continue introducing innovation and injecting creativity into everything they offer. That's the best trend of all, don't you think?

Stay tuned tomorrow for Marnie's wrap-up! Thanks for reading this week.