Trendspotting at CHA

I wrote this post from CHA as a member of the Guest Design Team at Flamingo Scraps and wanted to share it here.

Hi everybody! Amanda, Julie and I are here in LA for the Craft and Hobby Association tradeshow. They're CHA veterans, but I'm a wide-eyed newbie. So what's my first impression? In a word, awesome! There really aren't adequate words to describe the experience of seeing every craft material in the world under the same roof. All my favorite manufacturers are here, along with dozens I'm learning about for the first time. There are scrap celebrities at every turn. This is truly a crafter's paradise.

One of my favorite things about CHA has been seeing all the new releases and trying to figure out what trends we'll be seeing. I had some ideas of what I might see from the sneak peeks that came out before the show, but now that I'm here it's even more apparent what is hot in 2011.

1920's: Motifs from the 1920's are huge. Graphic 45, Cosmo Cricket, Pink Paislee are among the many with paper lines that feature images from the era.

Circus and carnival: Images from the circus are everywhere, as are big fair ribbons.

Dress forms: This trend has been here for awhile and it's stronger than ever. Many of the booths have dress forms on display, and I'm also seeing them in new stamp sets, paper lines, and embellishments. Everything about sewing is going strong- needles, spools, buttons, sewing machines, etc. are all showing up in multiple booths.

Banners: Huge before, even more huge now.

Bicycles: This is another trend that has been growing. I saw lots of bicycle images today, along with some tricycles too. Most of the bicycles are old-fashioned, tying in the trend of hearkening back to simpler times.

Berries/Fruit: Strawberries, cherries, watermelon, lemons... they're all over the place.

Lobsters: I noticed one really cute lobster, then another, and another. In my mind, that qualifies as a trend!

Clouds: In the past, rain clouds have been a fairly common, but the clouds I saw today were happy, cutesy clouds with no rain in sight. Think white and fluffy, not dark or dreary.

Dragonflies: Butterflies are still going strong, but dragonflies seem to be gaining on them! Some are cute and whimsical, others more realistic.

Nostalgia: This incorporates some of the other trends I've already mentioned, but it bears emphasizing. For several years we've been seeing images from Grandma's house, such as old typewriters, sewing machines, and clocks. Those are still going strong, along with some new additions. Crate Paper is introducing an adorable collection called "Toy Box" featuring all sorts of retro toys and games. October Afternoon's entire booth had a charming retro look.

So what's on it's way out? I was on the lookout, but did not see nearly as many chandeliers, chairs, keys or birdcages as we've seen in the past. I think those trends are on the decline.

Heather's Housewarming Gift

I wrote this post as a member of the Guest Design Team at Flamingo Scraps and wanted to share it here.

We are not military, but one of the sad realities of living in a military community is that friends move away, often with little notice. One of my close friends was recently transferred across the country to the Florida panhandle. They'd always rented in the past, but this time they bought their first home. I decided to make them a housewarming gift.

I knew I wanted to make some sort of wall hanging that could hang either indoors or outdoors. I found a ceramic heart from Provo Craft and painted it a creamy neutral. I cut their last name (Brown) from some BasicGrey cardstock (brown, of course!) and adhered the letters using Mod Podge. Then I gathered the following supplies:

  

I used the Key Lime Pie Glimmer Mist to dye the cord a nice leaf green color, then I glued the cord around the perimeter of the heart. I covered the whole thing with about 10 coats of Outdoor Mod Podge, waiting at least 15 minutes between coats. I'd never used the Outdoor variety before, but I'd heard that it dries tacky, even with the proper drying time. This was indeed the case, so I gave the heart a quick spray of Krylon to seal it. Perfect!

I really wanted to use a Prima flower on this project, but I wasn't sure how to weather-proof it in case Heather decided to hang this outdoors. Time to experiment! I got a test flower and brushed on a coat of the Mod Podge. Quite a bit of yellow came off on my brush. I tried dabbing (rather than brushing) and it worked much better. I was able to apply a thin coat that sealed the color in. I applied multiple coats to both front and back. The Mod Podge behaves differently on paper than on ceramic, as the flower wasn't tacky to the touch when I finished. It did have a very interesting texture- it almost felt like a rubbery plastic! I brushed the yellow ink pad over a pearl and added it to the center of the flower, then attached the whole thing to the heart. It looked pretty cute, but was definitely missing something. I found some leaves, but the color was wrong. The color was wrong... would the Glimmer Mist solve the problem? Yes! They ended up exactly as I'd hoped. It's so satisfying when that happens! I used the same technique of dabbing on a primer coat of Mod Podge front and back, then added a bunch more finishing coats. For good measure, I sprayed the whole thing with two more coats of Krylon.

Here's the finished wall hanging:

Miss you, Heather!

DIY Scavenger Hunt

I wrote this post as the Featured Artist at Ideas for Scrapbookers and wanted to share it here. 

Our family went camping recently. I thought it would be a lot of fun to have a scavenger hunt while we were there, so I dug through my scrapbook supplies to see what I could put together. It was so fun and easy that I'd like to share it with you.

I started with a kraft-colored bag and a die-cut tree from BasicGrey.

I wasn't happy with the pattern on the tree, so I gave it a quick coat of brown paint. When the paint was dry, I gave it a light spray of suede Glimmer Mist. I gathered the rest of my materials: a few scraps of Crate Paper and BasicGrey papers, the ColorBox chalk ink in chestnut roan that I can't live without, and an EK Success leaf punch.

I cut the orange paper into a rectangle slightly smaller than the bag, and then cut the sky paper slightly smaller than that. I cut a random undulating shape on one side of my green rectangle. I inked the edges of all the pieces and then cut out the center of the orange rectangle to save to punch out leaves and make a tag. I added the tree, then punched and inked around 50 leaves and added them to the tree and ground. I adhered all the pieces together and gave it a couple of coats of Mod Podge before adhering it to the bag.

I wasn't sure exactly what items we would find at these particular campgrounds, so I made a very generic list of items to find, added the orange paper and adhered it to the brown. I added a rivet at the top. After a few coats of mod podge had dried, I attached the tag with a random scrap of ribbon. Here's a closeup of the tag:

We had so much fun on our scavenger hunt! Here's Trevor showing off the items in his bag:

I hope this inspires you to create your own scavenger hunt!

Using Your Handwriting

I wrote this post as a member of the Guest Design Team at Flamingo Scraps and wanted to share it here.

My grandmother was a scrapper (long before such a word existed!). She died in 2004, just six weeks before my wedding. I miss her very much and am sad that my son Trevor never got to know her. However, through her scrapbooks, Trevor can learn about the lives of his great-grandparents. Her scrapbooks are a true treasure- not only for the amazing pictures, but because she journaled in her own handwriting.

Your handwriting, love it or hate it, is unique to you. There is no better way to include yourself on your scrapbook page than using your own handwriting. I'd like to share a few tips to make it easier to include your own handwriting on your layouts.

Use a light box

If you have difficulty writing in a straight line, you could obviously draw or stamp lines directly onto your page and follow those. But there's another very easy way to get lines on the page that won't show and don't need to be erased. Simply put a lined index card (or any other lined paper) under your project, turn on the light box, and the lines will easily show through.

This picture shows how well the lines show through when the light box is turned on.

And here is the completed layout.

Journal on paper strips

I've heard a lot of people say they don't like journaling by hand because they're afraid of messing up their layout. The great things about using paper strips is that since you're not journaling directly on your layout, you can't mess it up. If you happen to make a mistake on a paper strip, you only have to rewrite that one strip.

By the way, this 2-pager has 33 pictures on it.  That's a new personal record!


Journal individual words

If you like the idea of paper strips, but want something even easier that you absolutely cannot mess up, try journaling individual words.

I hope you're inspired to try a few of these ideas.  Happy scrapping!

Stretching Supplies

TI wrote this post as a member of the Guest Design Team at Flamingo Scraps and wanted to share it here.

Like just about everyone else, I'm scrapping on a budget. One of my favorite ways to stretch my supplies is to use one piece of double-sided paper to accent a layout and then create a set of four coordinated cards.

Here is the layout I made for Flamingo Scraps' “Read Between the Lines” challenge.

As you can see, I only used ½ inch of the striped paper (Violette Wings from Webster's Pages) as an accent on this layout. I made four cards using the remaining 11½  x 12 paper. The first thing I did was carefully cut out the two butterflies that are on the reverse side of the paper. Next, I cut three rectangles, approximately 5¼ x 3¾,  to use as the bases for three of the cards. I cut the remaining large scraps into a variety of sizes of small rectangles to use as tags and other decorations. I kept all the tiny scraps set aside.

Next, I got out my ribbon tubs to dig around for a scrap of ribbon that would coordinate nicely with the paper. I keep long ribbon pieces rolled. The short pieces are just jammed loose into the tub. Perhaps not the best system, but it works well for me! I found a 6 inch piece of maroon ribbon that coordinated perfectly. I also pulled out a few scraps of embroidery floss.

Finally, I got out a few brads, my favorite ColorBox chestnut roan ink, pop dots, a paper piercer, a corner rounder, and some cute Fiskars stamps. I inked all the edges of every piece of paper. With all materials prepped, I was ready to begin.

For my first card, I used a solid lavender background, and layered a 1½ x 3¾ striped rectangle over it, adhering only the bottom portion to the background. I used two brads to secure the sides, thus creating a pocket to hold a tag. A quick stamp, piece of ribbon, and a popped up butterfly and the card was done.

The second card started with a solid lavender background, over which I layered a small striped strip. I popped up the butterfly, then used the paper piercer to punch holes showing the path of the butterfly. I finished the card with my message written on one of the tiny scraps I'd saved.

For my third card, I used a striped background, a small solid rectangle, and another tag. That was the end of the maroon ribbon and large rectangles.

With no more large background rectangles available, I adhered three different sized rectangles directly onto the card blank. I used the last lavender strip across the bottom and topped each rectangle with an embroidery floss bow.

 I definitely feel like I got my money's worth out of this single sheet of paper!