Monday, January 13, 2020

It's Been a Minute (or two)

Hello blogosphere! How the heck are you?!

Let's face it. I wasn't a great (and by great I mean frequent and consistent) blogger to begin with. But throw a lot of complicated family obligations into my life and both blogging and social media sadly slip way to the bottom of the priority list. And along with those, almost any and every form of crafting and creativity.

By way of updates, my traveling boutique is no longer making the rounds. But I'm still here and planning to dust off those tools and supplies and treat myself to some craft therapy. Be sure to stay tuned for my de-stashing sales and auctions. Also, in time my plan is to also get back into kit creation.

Re-starting everything from the ground up can be a little discouraging, but as a wise philosopher once said, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." ~Lao-Tzu

And so I begin...

Cindy

PS I have a few craft punches available on ebay this week. Be sure to check them out!


Wednesday, January 21, 2015

A crafty parody

Have to admit this made me smile. I'm pretty tired of the real song, but since most of this is dead on, I can't resist sharing.


#ThereButForTheGraceofGodGoI

Monday, January 19, 2015

CHA15 is History (part 2)

The Anaheim Convention Center glows every night as you leave the CHA show
So, as this three-day weekend wraps up, I guess I'd better wrap up my post-CHA wrap-up. :-)

Here are 5 more good things from CHA (continued from my earlier post)...

6. TRANSPARENCIES
I spotted acetate overlays and other opaque types of "sheer" items in several booths. This makes me happy because it was a sad day indeed when Hambly stopped making them.

Die cut overlays at Bella Blvd.


Clear overlays at Bella Blvd.
Pinwheels from the overlays in the Bella booth
Vellum from Webster's Pages

7. CALLIGRAPHY
Calligraphy style writing is still going strong and often in gold or other color foils. This is another one of those products that crosses over so perfectly to home decor.


Spied in the Simple Stories booth
From Heidi Swapp
Cute tags by Maggie Holmes
8. THIN DIES
Thin wafer dies have been around for awhile now, but it seems there are more and more of them to choose from. In addition, many die sets have matching stamp sets allowing you to easily cut your stamped shape (rather than fussy cutting). Not only is this a big timesaver, but the cuts are uniform with every item!


From Dear Lizzie

Spellbinders - A Gilded Life

More from Spellbinders

Lawn Fawn's die & stamp sets are always adorable

9. ENAMEL Accents
This is another of those products that wasn't new to the show floor, but that seemed more abundant (at least to me) with lots of fresh options.

A variety of enamel in the Bella Blvd. booth
Enamel dots in Simple Stories
Enamel dots in the "Jill" side of Echo Park's Jack & Jill Collection
Queen & Co. "Headliners" titles

10. EPHEMERA
I'm happy to say that ephemera and ephemera type stickers are still going strong which is a big plus for me because I love them SOooooo much! Here are some of the ones that caught my eye:


Shimelle's new True Stories line
Craft Paper's Journey line
Ephemera from Pink Paislee's "Citrus Bliss" colleciton on display

Crate Paper's "Craft Market" die cut sheet of ephemera is fab

Well, that's it for this year. My photos don't really capture what my eyes did, but at least they give you a hint of what's to come.

By the way, there are LOTS of CHA reviews out there to get more perspective on what's trending and happening in the craft industry. Try googling "cha2015 recap" and see what comes up. And enjoy!

Thursday, January 15, 2015

CHA15 Is History (Part 1)

CHA Trade Show 2015, Anaheim, CA

I'm just back from the Craft & Hobby Association's annual trade show, often referred to as "CHA". It's a "to the trade" convention where manufacturers in all types of crafting introduce new products.

I first started attending with my local scrapbook store. All of us teachers/design team members would scope out cool new stuff and let our owner know what products we wanted to see in the store to teach with and help promote.
The first CHA show I attended in 2007 (with my sister Cathi)
These days, my role at the show has changed. Now, I work the show for one of the coolest companies in the industry --Pink Paislee (part of the American Crafts family of companies). Their new releases this year are absolutely adorable! Being in their booth I get to meet and chat with lots of interesting people in the industry from all around the world, while introducing them to the yummy products.

So what's new from Pink Paislee? Two new lines debuted, the first of which is a travel line appropriately named Atlas.

The new Atlas line by Pink Paislee

A few samples using Atlas

The second of the new lines is called "Citrus Bliss" and it's just adorable too. One thing I'm loving in both the new lines is that they both feature an acetate overlay sheet and a vellum sheet as part of the collections. For Atlas, the overlay is a gold world map on a faint grid and the vellum is silver airplanes. For the Citrus Bliss collection, the overlay is little pink flamingos and the vellum is gold pineapples. So stinkin' cute!

I love the lemon-lime pallette and the trendy accents!

On the last day of the show, I walked the rest of the booths and got to see what's up and coming. Here are some of the things that caught my eye.

1. SHINE (especially gold)
So, in case you haven't heard yet, foil is THEE thing! I feel like I saw it everywhere (along with other forms of shiny, glittering goodness). And of all the foil by far the most exciting release to me was the new MINC machine from Heidi Swapp. It allows you to easily add colorful foil to your projects in so many different ways. The machine reacts with laser toner so you can create custom items on your own laser printer, OR you can use any of the pre-printed papers and embellishments available. Heidi's media team even showed me how you can use the "negative" from one foil to add multiple layers of foil to another. It is so cool!




Here is more foil that I and/or gold and/or sparkly stuff I spotted around the show floor.


Gold hearts from Maggie Holmes
Gold handwritten words by Amy Tangerine


Gold state shapes by Crate Paper

Crate Paper


Gold diecut in the Spellbinders booth

More gold from Spellbinders
Gold in Teresa Collins booth
2. PARTY
I noticed some fun PARTY and CELEBRATION themes in a few of the booths.


A cheery new line by Alison Kreft for Websters Pages

Cele'brations by Richard Garay for Spellbinders

Dear Lizzy's Fine & Dandy for American Crafts
Confetti by Maggie Holmes for American Crafts

More from Maggie Holmes

A close-up of the vintage typewriter

More Maggie Holmes


3. HOME DECOR and DIY
It makes me happy to see papercrafts coming up off the page. Scrapbooking papers and embellishments are just so beautiful to limit them to only being inside of books. More and more of the booth samples seemed to be about home accents.

I just love this wall by Jen Hadfield. I want to live here:
Cottage Living is new from Jen Hadfield for Pebbles
More Jen Hadfield cuteness

Loving the clipboard display in the Pebbles booth

Some cool shadow box frames in the Spellbinders booth
Hazel & Ruby Masks

A close up of the Hazel & Ruby masks to give you an idea of the size

French General by Sizzix is really cute

More French General (Sizzix)

We R Memory Keepers "Template Studio" for DIY party decor

These look like so much fun!

4. NATIVE AMERICAN
I noticed feathers are still around and now I've also seen native looking patterns and shapes like tee-pees too. For lack of a better description I'll call this "Native American" influence. I noticed it in a few places. Of course we've seen it in clothing for some time.

Tee-pees on the new Crate Paper "Journey" line

More tee pees (Crate Paper)

Feathers at Simple Stories

5. POCKET PAGE Scrapbooking
Project Life is still going strong and there are more and more options out there for creating beautiful pages. One of the new tools on the market that I'm really excited about is the Fuse by We R MemoryKeepers. It lets you make your own custom pockets! (Click the link below the photo to watch a quick demo video.)



Well, that's all for now. But I've got more coming, so stay tuned!

To be continued...