CHA Summer 2011| Spellbinders and Donna Salazar

The crew of Scrapbook Update had a fabulous fabulously busy day at CHA Summer 2011! The day started off with a pre-show press event with Spellbinders where I got up close and personal with their new Edgeabilities dies.

The Edgeabilities debut includes six sets (MSRP is $19.99 per set) of three dies each, and the 8" dies can be combined to create more than 70 different edging options.

Here the staff at Spellbinders demonstrates the dies in their Grand Caliber machine which sports an 8" track that is able to accommodate the full width of the die.

Spellbinders is releasing a host of other new products at the show, including Grand Template box dies (yes, they really cut boxes!) and the 8" x 11" Grand Impressabilities- larger versions of their Impressabilities embossing template line.

Spellbinders also showed how their dies could be used to cut sugar sheets to create edible decorations for cakes, cookies, and other confections - putting them in competition with Cricut's Cake machine.

After the demo I was able to get a personal demonstration from a Spellbinders staffer of how their Impressabilities can be used for creating letterpress. (Note: look for more on letterpress from Scrapbook Update in the coming weeks and months as we prepare to dive into this hot topic!)

The Spellbinders booth was filled with gorgeous sample work, such as this layout featuring a stunning set of rosettes.

Can you believe that those rosettes were made using this edge die?

This lovely shaped card was made from a Grand Nestability cut that was folded in half.

Donna Salazar has several new designs debuting in this collection, as well, and there were tons of samples of her work sprinkled throughout the booth.

Luckily I was able to catch up with the lovely Donna, and she was kind enough to take me on a tour of her new products.

Several of the girls in the Spellbinders booth were sporting hair accessories cut with the new Grand Peony Creations (unfortunately I didn't get a photo of one of them).

Donna's new butterfly collection now comes with solid and detailed dies for a great layered look.

Her alphabet die set coordinates perfectly with her chipboard alphabet from GCD Studios, giving crafters the ability to easily cut patterned paper to cover their plain letters. It also works well with Donna's cardboard (produced by Zutter) to make her signature cardboard alphabets.

These detailed Shadow Flowers dies are so versatile and could be used in so many ways on scrapbook pages, cards, or any type of paper craft.

Perhaps the most exciting of the new releases is the addition to Donna's original Creative Book Pages set - Creative Book Pages Two. This set can be used to create more varied and detailed pages and also includes a border die, book template die, and foldover tab tie.

I also got a peek at Donna's new Mixed Media Ink from Clearsnap.

These pigment inks feature very rich colors and the long working times associated with this type of ink - perfect for mixed media and blending!

And that was just the start of Scrapbook Update's second day at CHA!! We've just barely scratched the surface of our coverage for both days, so stay tuned in the coming days/weeks for more reporting from the show floor and on the hot trends we spotted while we were out and about!