The Girls’ Paperie

My Hybrid Valentine

February 9, 2010 By May Flaum 4 Comments

With less than a week before Valentine’s Day it would be easy to admit defeat and not do anything special for loved ones, but before you do that I ask that you reconsider and instead try working some hybrid magic. Hybrid crafting, or incorporating digital products into your paper crafting, is becoming more popular, and I remain a big fan!

Before you worry about Photoshop and your lack of digital know-how, let me tell you my favorite trick: I open up Microsoft Word, insert the images I want to use, resize them as needed, and click print. In under five minutes, you can be on your way to paper bliss.

For the projects shown here, I used the lace border set, word art kit, and the backgrounds kit by Rhonna Farrer at House of 3. I really like all of her 2010 Valentine releases, but these products were the ones I knew I could use over and over for sure. After selecting these products to work with, I decided I wanted to pick one other main element to work with: doilies. They have long been a favorite of mine, and lately they seem to be coming back into fashion. So I dug into my stash and pulled out a package.

I printed a sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 patterned paper (parts of which can be seen peeking out from my folded doily) in addition to printing out the valentine sentiment on a sheet of vellum. I also inked my folded doily (with worn lipstick distress ink) to add some color and detail before I stitched on the vellum sentiment on the bottom and two sides. Doing this created a pocket and secured the vellum. Now I can tuck love notes inside and give it away!

I liked my folded doily pocket idea so much that I made a second one. This time, I used it as a gift card holder and I added some accents as well. A major selling point for digital products like this word art kit is that I can use it for cards or other items I need to make multiples of with ease.

If you find an idea that works well, why not stick with it? I decided to try and convert my basic idea to a traditional card format:

I used a piece of patterned paper (digital – printed onto white cardstock) as well as some rhinestone brads and pink tulle for this simple card, and I’m happy with the results. None of these projects would take more than 15 minutes to recreate, and they are really budget friendly as well.

Of course my true test of digital products like these that are so strongly themed is “can I use it for other stuff too?” and the answer here is a huge yes! To show you what I mean, I’ve created this layout (doily and all!) to illustrate my point:

I re-colored the patterned paper (pink one) and then layered on some brushes and one of the fabulous word art titles as well and printed onto cardstock. I trimmed off the excess paper (to a finished size of about 8×8) and placed it on a sheet of die cut patterned paper from The Girls’ Paperie. From there it was fun and easy – just adding some stitching, a few fun accents, my doily, bits of patterned paper left over from my digital printouts, and before I knew it I had a layout all finished.

For your boyfriend or mom, favorite aunt or dear friend, any project you put a few minutes of hand crafted love into is sure to be well received. If you make the most of your paper stash and combine a bit of digital goodness you can have unique cards, layouts, home decor, and so much more in less time than it would take to watch your favorite TV show.

Before I head off to make some more love inspired creations I have some more digital product suggestions to check out this Valentine’s Day:

Katie Pertiet at Designer Digitals has been prolific in her offerings this year. A favorite pick of mine is these lovely photo masks.

Melissa Esplin has a font called Classy Cupid that I’ve fallen in love with.

Betsy Tuma has a free kit available at Two Peas that’s perfect for so many love filled projects.

Ali Edwards for Designer Digitals has these love embellishments that would be fantastic for so many projects and layouts.

I hope you too embrace this opportunity to spread happiness and love to all those that mean the most to you. If you’re interested in learning more about working digital scrapbook products into your traditional scrapbook pages, I invite you to check out my on-line six week workshop that starts in just two weeks at Big Picture Scrapbooking.

Until next time – happy {hybrid} crafting!

Want to stay up-to-date on all the latest scrapbook news?

Subscribe to Scrapbook Update in a Reader
-Or-
Subscribe to Scrapbook Update on the Kindle

Filed Under: Inspiration Tagged With: Ali Edwards, Betsy Tuma, Designer Digitals, Digital, House of 3, hybrid, Katie Pertiet, Melissa Esplin, Microsoft Word, Rhonna Farrer, The Girls' Paperie, Two Peas In A Bucket, Valentine's Day

May’s CHA favorites: Paper & Stickers

January 30, 2010 By May Flaum 3 Comments

Paper, stickers, and rub-ons are staples in paper crafters lives whether their style is simple or shabby, and whether they make cards or scrapbook layouts. Here are a dozen of my favorites from the show:

An instant favorite: Melody Ross came out with a line called Homespun Chic (with GCD Studios) and I can’t wait to get my hands on it. I was loving it so much in the booth in fact, that I apparently forgot to take photos of the actual papers! (These flowers give you a good idea of the designs I hope!)

When asked about my show favorites, Glitz Design is a company I was both surprised and delighted by. I truly loved every new item in the booth and these rub-ons made me dizzy with happiness.

Every paper from Lily Bee is on my wish list, along with their new chipboard stickers. It’s a beautiful two line release. I couldn’t stop staring at this particular two-sided paper from the new Lovely line.

Cosmo Cricket’s Garden Variety and Material Girl lines both got smiles and thumbs up from me, and these letters made me squeak aloud with happiness.

I re-visited the Core’dinations booth more than once to see the Core Impressions papers that are new. They have designs from Jenni Bowlin, Jillibean, and Cosmo Cricket that are all specially embossed and so useful in both patterns and colors. I can not wait to get my hands on them and sand, ink, and tear them to my creative heart’s content.

(Above are some of the Jenni Bowlin samples. Below is the Cosmo Cricket woodgrain cardstock.)

Jillibean Soup had a lot of offerings such as new corrugated cardboard alphas, journaling stickers, and papers that are just too cute for words, like this birdhouse design. It is a part of their Old World Cabbage Soup collection.

Adornit had a really large release this show. My favorite are these star stickers. They’re just so happy.

Teresa Collins created a line called chic bebe girl (and in blue, chic bebe boy), and it’s the first baby line in a long time I’ve been excited about. What I love is that almost every design and item in the collection can be used for any subject, making it far more versatile than most themed lines.

My favorite thing about The Girls’ Paperie “On Holiday” line is that while it is vintage inspired, it’s got beautiful reds greens and blues and can be used easily on both travel and any other photos as well. Every paper in the line is worth mentioning, as well as the really incredible alphabet, word, and border sticker set that is available.

My Little Shoebox was filled with color, happy themes, and very usable products. I especially loved their tiny alphabets and the die cut papers like this one.

Hambly makes rub-ons and transparencies that few can match in style or quality. While I want most of their new releases, these swatch rub-ons were just so unique they stayed in my mind and must be mentioned here.

Studio Calico had a simple booth that let their stunning offerings speak for themselves. The “Anthology” line is wonderful, as are the versatile rub-ons that they released that could easily be used with any number of products or themes. These wood grain and button rub-ons are not to be missed.

Last but not least, BasicGrey released a large line called “Basics”. It’s brilliant. These are neutral enough to work with most any other products. They will truly be timeless and something I can purchase and feel confident about getting my money’s worth from.

If you’re counting you notice I went with a baker’s dozen so I could get one more pick in. I feel compelled to say that there was a lot of lip biting and hand wringing here as I narrowed down my picks. There are many brands that released product that I love, and I look forward to utilizing them in future projects along with these favorites. Stay tuned for more updates here, and for my personal CHA experience and photos that I took including people please feel free to visit my blog.

Want to stay up-to-date on all the latest scrapbook news?

Subscribe to Scrapbook Update in a Reader
-Or-
Subscribe to Scrapbook Update on the Kindle

Filed Under: CHA Tagged With: Basic Grey, BasicGrey, CHA Winter 2010, Core Impressions, Coredinations, Cosmo Cricket, Glitz, Hambly, Lily Bee, Melody Ross, My Little Shoebox, Studio Calico, Teresa Collins, The Girls' Paperie

Scrapbook Update CHA Winter 2010 Top 10 Hot Picks

January 30, 2010 By Nancy Nally 3 Comments

Well, it’s all over. The suitcases are unpacked, the photos are loaded in Lightroom, the jet lag is easing. After taking some time to analyze what I saw, and go over my notes and photos in detail, I’ve assembled this list of Scrapbook Update’s Top 10 Hot Picks from CHA Winter 2010:

1. BasicGrey

This pick may sound a bit redundant, because BasicGrey is such a force in the industry. But their last few show introductions have been somewhat underwhelming. One of my favorite companies was frankly, starting to edge toward getting stale. But with the introduction of Kioshi, Green At Heart, Capella, and Max & Whiskers, BasicGrey is starting to look more again like the company whose papers used to make a serious dent in my budget. I wasn’t the only one excited, either – I heard the same sentiment from many others on the show floor.

Another fabulous showing from the company at CHA Winter was their Basics line. Available in 3 colors (white, cream and kraft), it is a line consisting completely of text and ledger-style paper designs that make great backgrounds for building on. Ledger paper is incredibly popular – a whole collection of it is a dream for many scrapbookers.

2. EK Success Slimline Punches

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of the EK Success slimline punches. There will be plenty for everyone to love now, because despite the trend towards smaller product line introductions, EK Success is introducing 78 new designs of slimline punch.

A large number of the new punches are border punches, including some that create paper ribbon chains. For Halloween, EK was previewing a punch collection that included a new even larger size of border punch.Consumers are all about tools right now, and punches are used by scrapbookers and cardmakers. Expect the popular slimline punches to get even more popular with this huge introduction of options.

3. Melody Ross for GCD Studios

A few months after the news broke that the Ultra-Pro owned Chatterbox was defunct, founder Melody Ross is back in style with an amazing collection for GCD Studios. She’s obviously thriving in her new professional home, as this is the best creative work that we’ve seen from Ross in quite some time. Ross, who revolutionized the industry a decade ago with her work at Chatterbox, reclaims her position as one of the leading creative minds in the industry with her CHA Winter lines for GCD Studios.

4. Staz-On Metallic

Stamping is hot. Metallic is hot. So StazOn, the ink that stamps on almost any surface, being introduced in new metallic shades seems like a made-to-order hit for manufacturer Tsukineko.

The metallic StazOn ink pads come in four metallic shades: gold, silver, copper and platinum. The pads work in a similar fashion to the Tsukineko glue pad, coming with a pad and a re-inker bottle from which the pad must be loaded and then more frequently refreshed than a regular ink pad.

5. The Girls Paperie

Margie Romney-Aslett has definitely moved on to a successful new chapter after being let go by Making Memories nearly a year ago. Her new line with Advantus, called The Girls Paperie, was all the buzz at CHA in Anaheim.

The designs are in the beautiful vintage style that Romney-Aslett is known for, and include both papers and embellishments. There are two lines. One is travel-themed, and one is a classic feminine floral grouping.

6. Tim Holtz for Sizzix

Sizzix generated a lot of excitement with the announcement that Tim Holtz would design a line of dies for them called Alterations, and the products unveiled at CHA did not disappoint Holtz’s fans. Alterations is something of a departure style-wise for Sizzix, so it may attract a whole new group of customers for the machine.

One nice feature of many of Holtz’s die designs is that they are divided into many pieces. For instance, pieces from the butterfly die can also be used to create a dragonfly or half butterfly design. The Alterations line also includes a group of embossing folders for the Sizzix machine.

7. Cricut Cake

While technically not exactly a scrapbook product, the Cricut Cake machine from Provo Craft is designed to extend a papercrafting product line to a new audience: bakers. This new version of the Cricut Expression machine is food safe and designed to cut sheets of sugar to use in decorating cakes and cookies. It will ship in May and retail for $399. Regular Cricut cartridges do work in the machine.

The machine can cut from two different thicknesses of decorating material. From the examples on display at the Provo Craft evening event in Anaheim, the Cake is capable of cutting quite detailed images. The images on the cake below come from a Cricut cartridge called A Child’s Year. The Cricut Cake generated a lot of buzz at CHA, and is a great opportunity for Cricut to extend its market base beyond just papercrafters. According to a representative for Provo Craft who spoke to Scrapbook Update at CHA, the Cake is just the start of some major development in the Cricut line – the company has five new machines in the pipeline for the next few years.

8. Copic Markers

The rise of interest in stamping has brought along a rise in interest in mediums that are used with stamps. There’s been a lot of buzz recently about Copic alcohol-based markers for use with stamps. Copic markers were hot sellers at the CHA Supershow in Anaheim (in fact, the booth with a great deal on them was the only one I waited in line at all day). There were examples on display in many stamping booths at the show that had been made with Copics, and Couture Cardstock was advertising its new bleed-proof Pure Silk blending papers designed especially for use with Copics.

9. Lily Bee Design

Lily Bee Design, a new exhibitor, has been attracting a lot of buzz with its vintage feminine designs. They’ve achieved something that usually seems to be difficult for a new company, by creating embellishment designs that are beautiful and noteworthy. Their chipboard flowers and 12×12 rub-on sheets are worthy accompaniments to the company’s beautiful papers, giving Lily Bee’s lines a depth that many new companies can’t match. These lines’ reasonable size and their quality means that a retailer doesn’t need to cherry-pick them to carry them.

10. Eco Green Crafts

Also in the new exhibitor section, Eco Green Crafts is making a timely entrance to the market when interest is building in “green” products. Co-founder Julia Andrus is a cancer survivor, and all of the company’s products in some way are designed to be environmentally friendly – from low VOC paints and inks to unmounted rubber stamps that save wood. The company’s line of inks are vegetable-based. Eco Green Crafts offers an extensive selection of colors of inks and paints, recycled paper board books, and a catalog of unmounted rubber stamps that are “steampunk” styled, among other products.

Want to stay up-to-date on all the latest scrapbook news?

Subscribe to Scrapbook Update in a Reader
-Or-
Subscribe to Scrapbook Update on the Kindle

Filed Under: CHA Tagged With: BasicGrey, Chatterbox, Copic Markers, Couture Cardstock, Cricut, Cricut Cake, EK Success, GCD Studios, Margie Romney-Aslett, Melody Ross, Provo Craft, Sizzix, The Girls' Paperie, Tim Holtz, Tsukineko, Ultra-Pro

May’s CHA Favorites: Trinkets & Treasures

January 27, 2010 By May Flaum 6 Comments

The Scrapbook Update staff just got home from the Craft & Hobby Association Winter 2010 show in Anaheim! I will be writing several CHA posts here for Scrapbook Update, as well as sharing some personal stories from the show on my own blog over the next week or so.

While at CHA, the number one question asked of me had to be “what are your favorites? What do you love?” The answer is not simple. As I search through my six hundred photos from the show I’ve yet to delete an image or eliminate a brand as a contender for my picks. The vibe on the show floor was so positive, and the products being released were fantastic. What a wonderful thing it is for me to be struggling to narrow down my favorites! I’ve never before had that problem at a show!

Today, I’ve decided to share my favorite “trinkets & treasures” from the show. From buttons to flowers to jewels the show floor was overflowing with bits and pieces that made me want to get creating right away. Here are some of my top picks:

Jenni Bowlin’s embellishments were all vintage treasure. Her buttons and butterflies were so amazing!

Kaisercraft has a cute new line called Devonshire, and I love this embellishment pack:

K & Co. has a vintage inspired line called Handmade. I loved these flowers:

Nikki Sivils came out with four colors of fantastic burlap covered buttons-

Websters Pages booth was filled with beautiful treasures. These sparklers are flat on the back (meaning there is no button shank) so they’re ready to go on your pages!

The Girls Paperie has these adorable charms that have it all – glitter, cute words, rhinestones, and lovely metal detail.

One of the sweetest lines at the show, Dear Lizzy by American Crafts charmed me for sure. These crocheted flowers will be so much fun.

Tim Holtz added some amazing items to his idea-ology line. These buttons were my #1 favorite from the line. They are metal (and other materials) – not painted plastic – so they’re a quality button that could be used on so many things.

Making Memories introduced a whole line of simple to make jewelry that is vintage inspired. Looking at the flowers and charms I saw a lot of things I wanted to use for my scrapbooking as well.

Finally Queen & Co came out with these Ice Rox. They are adhesive backed dots (like jewels or pearls) except they’ve got a multi-faceted shine that is off the hook. Photos don’t do them justice.