My CHA Picks

I have to admit that I dream of living the creative life. One where I get to scrapbook weekly and take classes and go to conventions and conferences. How sweet it would be to go just once to the big one: the Craft and Hobby Association Show!

The summer CHA show was last month was in Chicago. So close, yet so far away. I spent most of the time glued to twitter to keep up to date on all of the new goodies being debuted at the show. Not being there and getting all my information second hand makes it slightly difficult to put a list of favorites together, but I'm going to try anyhow! In no particular order, here are all of the yummy goodies that I just can't wait to get my hands on:

1. Amy Tangerine for American Crafts

First up is the new Amy Tangerine line. The fabulous Amy Tan has paired with American Crafts to bring us a fun, bright line of double-sided patterned papers, fabric 12x12 cardstock sheets, new Thickers, a cool mini-album, some mixed tape, and a ton of coordinating embellishments. I want the whole line, but I especially love the 12 x 12 fabric paper, Falling for You. The precious hearts remind me of a top I used to wear in elementary school.

I also really, really want to get my hands on these amazing mixed tapes!

And finally, this super simple mini album...

2. Studio Calico

Next on my list is my current scrapbook crush, Studio Calico. This monthly kit club turned manufacturer has three new releases: Classic Calico, Autumn Press, and Memoir. I plan on trying to exercise restraint. Especially after I ended up with both of their previous lines, Countryside and State Fair. Anyhow, here's the full catalogue:

Open publication - Free publishing - More catalog

I'm mostly coveting the new Mister Huey colors. All of them.

The houndstooth and grid background stamps, as well as the I love books stamp set. These are actually the first retail stamps to be offered as part of the new collaboration with Hero Arts!

This pretty amazing ampersand mask!

 

And finally, these nifty asterisk wood veneers!

I'm going to be really, really selective about the paper so that I don't buy three of every sheet!

3. Lily bee Design

Lily bee Design has just recently shown up on my radar and boy do I love them! From what I can tell, they introduced four new lines: 

I'm really digging the bright colors in Head over Heels and all of the office/ledger type prints in Memorandum. Another great thing about Lily bee are the coordinated alphabet sheets. Eight matching mini alphas to go with each line! I own two of their older sets and I LOVE the size of these cardstock stickers.

That's the round up of what I'm most excited about coming out of the Summer CHA show. Since you made it to the end, you've earned a chance at a giveaway! In a hazy midnight ordering frenzy, I ended up with two More Patterned Paper add-ons from the August Studio Calico kit Boardwalk. Therefore, I'm giving one of the paper packs away. This includes the patterned papers from Crate Paper designed exclusively for Studio Calico! I haven't opened the paper and I'll send it to you in it's original brown bag sealed with a trademark SC sticker round. Here's what the papers look like:

Leave a comment here letting me know what you're most looking forward to getting your hands on from the Summer CHA show and I will randomly select a winner. You have until 10:00 p.m. EST on this Friday, the 12th.

Scrapbooking Disney

Life has been crazy busy. I guess that's what happens when you work full time and take 9 credits in the summer. I have been counting down to the end of the semester and the end of my undergraduate program. I'm happy to report that I will be done in a short 6.5 weeks!

In the spare moments I've been following all of the CHA Summer show news. I was so sad all of last week reading all of the tweets from the show and all of the blog posts from the amazing manufactures. I hope to be back soon with a recap of my favorite new products and lines from the show. And in case there was any question, I do rank my love for a piece of patterned paper on how well I could scrap one of my many Disney vacations with that piece of paper. 

While I'm working on that, I wanted to share some more layouts from our 2009 anniversary trip to WDW:

This layout was created using Studio Calico's April 2011 kit, Singing in the Rain. Neither the layout or the kit would be considered my "normal" scrapbook style. I usually scrapbook two-page layouts. I usually use more than one picture. But, I think that's what's great about subscribing to a monthly kit club. You are presented with product you may not normally pick out and you have the challenge of using it in quite possibly a new way.

Here's another single-page layout (crazy, right?) that I did. I was originally trying to go for a softer, more whimsical look for these requisite pictures in front of the castle (Partially because of the amazing layout my scrap genius friend did). The only problem? Each time I pulled out paper with softer color schemes and tones, I was disappointed. Finally, I reached for the Back 40 kit from Studio Calico. I had also purchased the add-on patterned paper for that month. This was back when I first started subscribing and hadn't worked out a system that made sense to me. So, really this layout has paper from the add-ons, but I didn't buy the add-on, just the patterned paper from the add-ons. Make sense? Doesn't matter. All that really matters is that it was chalked full of these bright colors from Echo Park and American Crafts. I held my pictures against the paper and knew this was the way to go.

Thanks for taking a look today. I hope to be back in a few days with a rundown of everything magical from CHA!