The Roving Reporter - CHA Winter 2011 Los Angeles Part II

I am SO excited to share Connie's second post on her time at CHA Winter 2011.

Prima had a ton of new things – papers, embellishments, trims……  I really was intrigued by these canvas mistable products – whole sheets and die cut shapes.  Lots of potential fun with these and Smooch Spritz or Tattered Angels mists….

some interesting metal embellishments

many, many cool flowers…..

 I love the colours and themes that Bo Bunny came out with – a fun boy rocket set and a beautiful vintagey timepiece collection.  Gorgeous.

Their booth always seemed to be hopping!!

And last, but not least, there will be lots of new Spellbinders dies you will want to pick up.   I don’t have a picture, but Foliage and Carnation Creations are on my list of must-haves.  This photo is of the owners of the company with the new Grand Caliber diecutting machine for extra large nesties. 

So hopefully, some or all of these products will make it into a monthly kit and online store near you!  ;-)   Happy shopping.

The Roving Reporter - CHA Winter 2011 Los Angeles

CHA - just hearing those initials makes my heart beat just a wee bit faster! It's a dream of mine to attend CHA. Wouldn't it be divine to be surrounded by all those new releases from all your old favorite manufacturers and the new up and comers???? Yeah, I thought so!

We are SO SO SO lucky to have Connie Nichol give us an insider report as our Roving Reporter during her recent trip to the 2011 Winter CHA. Here is the first of a 2-part series from Connie.

Usually the winter Craft and Hobby Trade show is held in Anaheim, so being in downtown Los Angeles was a bit of a change.  The show seemed smaller than last year, with fewer exhibitors and smaller booth sizes, but rumour had it that the Los Angeles convention center was more costly for the vendors.  Or perhaps it was the fact that the economic climate in the US is still largely not very good.

Anyway, despite this, in two full days, I still did not manage to see all the booths.   There were some lovely new products and I took several hundred pictures.  None of these photos  are particularly good because the lighting is a bit iffy in many booths, but you’ll get the idea.  Banners were everywhere, both decorating booths and incorporated into new products.  Circus themed paper was big.  Plenty of bird cages, bird themed stuff and botanical paper and lots of pleated paper rosettes and vintage looking resin flowers.  And there were also plenty of new ‘boy’ lines.  Here are photos of some of my favourites from the new releases:

Webster’s Pages had some great new lines.  I particularly loved Spring Market and Yacht Club.  As a fanatical gardener and a recent tourist to Nova Scotia, I need both of these in my collection.

There’s always a big crowd around the Graphic 45 booth.  It’s simply gorgeous!!!

Some very cute stamps by MyStamp Box, a Canadian company (as shown by the amazing Jackie Ludlage from Canadian Scrapbooker magazine).

KaiserCraft always has gorgeous products – these were two of my favourite releases, although I realize now that I don’t know what these lines are called.

Glitz Designs had some lovely new releases.  This was my favourite.

Nice stuff from Echo Park!!

And of course Tim Holtz had some new Sizzix dies, embossing folders and embellishments.  I am looking forward to getting these black plastic snap- off letters.  They look similar to the Heidi Swapp ones that were sold in pink and blue years ago, but much cooler.

...to be continued in Part 2...

Thank you Connie! I can hardly wait for Part 2!!!!

The Roving Reporter- Scraproom Organization

January is traditionally the month of "Back to Basics" where organization and purging are the key themes of the month. I'm thrilled to have one of Scrap Shotz's newest members give us a tour of her scraproom and share her tips for organization. (And she has a beautiful scraproom that I adore!)

Hi! My name is Charlotte and I'm a fairly new member of ScrapShotz! I'm really excited to be your Roving Reporter today! Like many of you, I'm always interested in scrapbook organization. I keep looking at different scraprooms, trying to get some ideas on how to organize my growing amount of stuff! Some, ( like my darling husband) might say that I just need to get rid of some of it and I wouldn't have this problem! LOL! I'm not sure quite what he's getting at! Everyone knows I NEED all that stuff! Today, I thought I'd share with you how I'm presently organizing and storing all my precious materials!

Here is a broad look at my room. I am lucky enough to have the den as my entire space. On the right hand side is my desk that has my computer, printer and scanner on it. It's a fairly small room, but I've managed to get 2 tables in here.

These containers sit on top of one of my tables. I have the drawers filled in themes of Seasons and some of the major holidays that I have alot of material for, like Christmas. The one on the left holds all my scraps of cardstock organized by color. The one on the right has all my stamping material in it.

My favourite way of storing my scissors and punches is in this shoe holder that goes over the door. I can easily see what I'm looking for this way.

I found this really great holder in the kitchen department. I'm not sure what it's real purpose is, but it hold jars of flowers really great!

My collection of ribbon is sorted out in old, zippered drapery bags that I kept and then housed in baskets.

My husband made me these shelves that hold my cardstock. All the slots are 12X12 and are just perfect for organizing by color. I also have one of these sitting underneath my table, but had to clear out most of the shelves because my grandson kept pulling things off! One day, I'll restock them!

I purchased 2 of these containers from the hardware store. They are just great for holding all small items like buttons, brads and metal embellishments.

This wonderful item sits on my desk and holds all the things that I use daily like adhesives, pens, tools, etc. Well, that is, when they aren't sitting all over the top of my desk! It would also be great for people who go to crops often. You can just grab the whole thing and go!

These crates, I got from Staples along with some hanging file folders. There's another one sitting on the floor. I keep themes in one of them and in the other two I have my patterned paper all sorted out by manufacturer. They are sitting on some rolling carts with drawers that keep things like letter stickers, chipboard pieces and all kinds of other odds and ends. Up above, you can see a bulletin board. I cut all the boxes from my Slice machine cartidges and hung them up here so that at a glance, I can see which one I want to use.

Last, this is a photo of my closet. DH made shelves in here so that I can keep albums, books and other things.

Well, I hope you've enjoyed this little tour of my space and perhaps even gotten an idea or two! I'd love for you to share any great ideas you have for storing materials as well. I'm constantly organizing and then re-organizing when I find a better solution!

Thanks SO much for sharing!

The Roving Reporter - Wainwright Stampede

We are so lucky to have Lorraine Melin, former Scrap Shotz Guest Designer, be our Roving Reporter this week. Her assignment was to report a special event held in her neck of the woods; I wanted to get to know Wainwright.

Read Lorraine's report on the Wainwright Stampede below. I have to warn you...the pictures are absolutely stunning! Beautiful job Lorraine...and I sure look forward to seeing your layouts with these pictures!

The Wainwright Stampede has been an annual event in our town for over 55 years. I can proudly tell you that I haven't missed one for 45 of them. My parents were on the committee while I was growing up, and I've been serving on the executive since 1985. Here are a few photos of the event this year.

We had bucking horses and bucking bulls.

Editor's Note: The thrill and the excitement must be contagious! Great shot!

The Wild Pony Race, where kids try to ride a miniature pony that has other ideas.

This is the Wainwright Stampede Riders Drill team, waiting for the parade to start.

And here they are performing their drill.

The rodeo included steer wrestling.

We had Canadian Professional Chuckwagon races.

And these girls who have to be in the best physical condition of anyone. I think getting into this position would be a piece of cake – it’d be the getting back up on the horse that would be the tricky part!

Editor's Note: Yikes! They are amazing!

There were plenty of other exciting events, and I have so many pictures, but I wanted to share just one more with you. Here’s one of my favourite little cowboys.

Thanks for joining me on my Wainwright Stampede tour. We’ll be doing it all over next June. You should join us!

Thank you Lorraine! Please join me in thanking our Roving Reporter!

The Roving Reporter - The Saga of Mo and Jo

***The Roving Reporter returns with a fabulous article by Kelly Smith (KZ). Enjoy!***

Once upon a time, there was a woman who loved to scrapbook. She adored her two little friends Mo and Jo and how they made creating effortless! One day however she woke up to find that Mo and Jo had left. She was aghast and didn’t know what she could do!

Being the good scrapbooker she was, she went first to her online forum to see if Mo and Jo had been lost there. No, her comrades in cardstock assured her. They did however have some suggestions about where she could look.

So, the woman took them up on their suggestions and looked in one place after another.

First, she flipped through several scrap magazines and put sticky notes on pages that looked interesting.

Next, she perused online forums seeking Mo and Jo’s return. She put several beautiful layouts in her “favourites” folder for future reference.

Then, she went to her scrap stash and fondled some lovely patterned paper. Wait! Was that Mo or Jo she saw in the pattern?

Excitedly, she then found a photo that seemed to “speak” to her. Was it Mo and Jo calling her name?

Finally, she succumbed to the siren call of the adhesive and paper. While not “feeling” Mo or Jo near her she thought that she might as well start. She looked at her favourite online forum for the design team challenges for the month. With a less than enthusiastic outlook, she started to plan her first “MoJo-less” page.

Surprisingly, she found that the more she worked on her page, the stronger she felt her Mo aligning with Jo… They weren’t completely back after the one page (in fact it looked awful, she thought) but she also felt it was a start. After a good night sleep and a good meal, she felt that her MoJo wouldn’t be away much longer.

The moral of this tale: Mo and Jo are waiting for you. They love to sit on your shoulders and encourage and prompt you to create beautiful (or average) pieces of art BUT anyone can lose them at some time or other. When it happens to you (and if you have scrapbooked very long it already has) there are several ways to “find” your MoJo again. The solutions are different for everyone, and may vary from one time to the next. But, hold on. MoJo desires to be with you. Your mojo will always come looking for YOU!

***Many thanks to our Roving Reporter:  Kelly Smith (KZ)***

Sharing The Love!

Do you ever hear your loved ones saying, "Wow you sure have alot of scrapbook supplies!" or "What will you do with all that paper?" Well, this article is for you! I posed this question to Rebecca H. (needtime2scrap), an active member at Scrap Shotz. She was kind enough to not only show me how she "shares" her supplies with her family but also to be this week's Roving Reporter at Scrap Shotz. Thank you Rebecca!

Here is her reply to my question!

I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I have more scrapbooking supplies than I’ll ever use in my lifetime. Of course that doesn’t stop me from buying more! So I find new ways to use my supplies. One of those uses has been to create my own party decorations. I’ve made kid party decorations and adult party decorations, so really there aren’t any limitations.

The easiest decorations to make are making banners. We’ve all seen the pendant banners that are so trendy right now, they are super easy to make and add a fun festive flare. I decided to go a little bit further with that idea. I did use my Cricut for both projects but they can be done without an electronic or manual die cutter.

(Note from your friendly Blog Hostess - aren't these SO darn cute??????)

This banner was created using the Cricut but basically they are tags with Elmo eyes and noses attached to the top. I cut enough tags to use for each letter to spell Happy Birthday then hung them up.

For my husband’s 40th birthday I decided to cut out 40 cupcakes each with a photo of him on them. This took a bit of time but I did it over the course of 2 weeks. I scanned in old photos of him and reprinted them to use just in case of a photo mishap. You don’t want your originals out in the elements like that.

I also created a sign to welcome our guests at both parties. For my son’s (and nephew’s) we made a giant Elmo and for my husband’s I did a canvas with die cut letters. I used my Cricut and an EK Success large scallop border punch to create the scallop edging. The extra large canvases can be found at the dollar stores and reused for other projects.

A quick little extra was also creating my own party “loot” bags. I just purchased solid colored bags and added eyes and a nose to one side and a thank you printed from my computer on the other. You could also embellish them with paint and foam stamps, personalizing them for each child.

I decided to make use of all those cupcakes that I created. I hooked them up with a binder ring and I used them as pages for a mini tribute album for my husband. I just need to add journaling and a few embellishments and I’m done.
 
 

 

There are many other ways to use your scrapbooking supplies to add to your party decor, with invitations, center pieces using photos matted with cute scallop circles placed into a jar full of jelly beans or maybe create a journal that your guests could sign and give advice to the birthday girl or boy. The sky really is the limit! I can’t wait to see what you all come up with.

 

Don't you adore how Rebecca "shared her love of scrapbooking" with her family and friends??? Beautiful job Rebecca! Thank you for being our Roving Reporter this week!