It's the Small Things

CHA Winter 2012 Sneak Peeks

Happy 2012! It's a new year and it's time for CHA Winter sneak peeks to begin. The winter show is the biggest of the year and typically includes lines for Spring and Summer.

If you want to see all the latest sneaks (they usually start coming fast one week before the show) be sure to check out the following sites:

• Paper Crafter's Corner
• Scrapbook Update
• Two Peas in a Bucket - I'll update with a link once they open the forum (usually a week or so before the show)
• Willow Traders (this is where I post, but you need to be a member to see it, so sign up!)

So, what has been shown up to today? Here's my current list:

Prima - a small sneak.

Teresa Collins debuted her new partnership with Xyron on Good Things Utah

Ruby Rock-It - posted these sneaks on their blog.

Webster's Pages - has released Sunday Picnic and announced their new Clean and Simple addition.

 

Little Yellow Bicycle -  has sneaked a new collection on their blog:

Tim Holtz - just announced on his blog his new book debuting at CHA W.

Helmar - is debuting 3 new varnishes that are used to protect your artwork

Tattered Angels - they posted a sneak on their blog.

Tsukineko - they posted on their site that sneaks are coming soon.

GCD Studios - Sneaks will start on their blog soon.

One of the new designers is Heidi Sonboul. She announced it on her blog and here is a peak of her new line.

 

Pink Paislee - has shared a sneak peek of their new collection Spring Jubilee in their latest newsletter. They said they will be debuting 5 new collections at the winter show.

 

Copic Markers - They have introduced twelve new sketch colors here.

The show is at the end of the month. It should be a good one this year.

Happy New Year!

Lori

 

Projects for 2012

Hello blogger friends. I've been on a self-imposed creative break. I knew I needed to take a small break to restore my creative side. I just didn't realize I would need such a long one. After spending the summer doing nothing creative, I finally feel rejuvinated. I'm excited to get back into my tiny space and craft away. I decided that for 2012 I would pick some projects to focus on doing. I've picked out three projects to do for the year; One Little Word 2012 with Ali Edwards, Move More, Eat Well with Cathy Zielske and Project Life with Becky Higgins. I'll start with the first two and come back with a post for the last in a day or two.

1. My word for 2012 is "action". I have two very specific goals I want to accomplish this year. I can only do this by taking action, step by step, decision by decsion. This word really resonates with me and keeping it in the front of my mind each day will help me when things get tough because they will get tough. I'm excited to get started and really see where I can go with it.

I used some of the recent Crate Paper releases for the little title card. While I no longer design for this fabulous company, I am still obsessed with each and every release. They just do it right each and every time!

2. Move More, Eat Well. Yep. That's basically goal #1 this year. I need to get healthy. I need to change my self talk. I love that Cathy is doing a class on this. She very bravely posted her journey for moving more and eating less on her own blog last year. She posted the good, the bad and the ugly. I respect anyone who can be real and put it out there.

This class is a year-long class and it's about inspiration and motivation. I like that I'll be hanging out with a big group of gals all trying to reach their own personal goals with their own ways of getting there. I love that Cathy will be creating templates to help us document the journey.

I will be chaning my way of eating completely. I will be exercising regularly for the first time in 10 years. This is a huge, life changing goal and I plan to take it one decision at a time, day by day. This isn't the kind of project for me that needs to be creative or more than it is. I plan to just follow her design plan and put my effort on working hard on my goals. Basically, this isn't something I plan to get creative with, it's something I am doing to keep a record and to stay motivated.

I plan to follow Natalia Rose's Detox 4 Women plan in January, then move forward with her overall way of life after that. I need to detox and her way of doing it makes sense to me. It's not all fruit juice and other crazy ideas that just sound bad. It's simple and it's something I know I can do.

My husband and I will be starting P90X in January, too. This program is insane and I love it. It is hard, but it feels so good. It's amazing how fast I went from feeling weak and pain to feeling strong and sore when we starting it this past summer. We failed at keeping up with it, but we are determined and will do it in January. 

It's hard to believe it's so close to Christmas and the New Year. I'm excited to have goals, despite my usual avoidance of them.

Anyway, thanks for continuing to check out my blog despite my long absense. I hope you are enjoying your Holiday time with your families and that this time of year is a blessing for you.

Lori

 

Scrapidees Sketch Blog

I was asked to create a sketch for the Scrapidees Sketch blog. Their blog is full of inspiration. Their team is amazing!

I have a really hard time when I'm asked to guest design because I never think I'm good enough. I tend to put a lot of pressure on myself when I commit to doing them, which is why I never seek out guest design gigs. When someone seeks me out, I'm always a little amazed. I loved this blog when I took a look and I'm so glad I commited.

I'm realtively new to creating sketches. I'm a hacker in photoshop and it's my understanding I do sketches backward, in that I create my layout, then do the sketch. I don't think I would be a very good digi sketch designer because I can't look at that blank white canvas and visualize a sketch from scratch. So, I cheat, apparently, but it works for me. Here is the sketch:

 

And here is the layout I created:

I like to use themey products in non-themey ways. This is the Holiday Collection from Girls' Paperie (sniff, sniff) and I thought the colors in the background would really help the photos pop off the page. These two are always joking around when we take family photos and those photos are always my favorites.

Thanks to the Scrapidees team for having me this month!

Lori

 

 

CHA Summer 2011 Show Photos

The show is happening now. I have to say, I'm really loving a lot of the releases. I think I will blog my favorites soon.

In the meantime, I thought you might be interested in where you can find pictures of the show floor. Here you go:

1. Christine from Scrap Time loads TONS of photos on her flickr site. She usually loads the photos in the evenings each day after the show, so check each morning or each evening late.
2. Two Peas In a Bucket - they post from the show and share videos of new products
3. Craft Critique
4. The Scrap Review
5. Amy Coon - Amy owns The Paper Life and she usually takes great videos of many of the booths, so you get a great walk through. The first link is to her facebook page where she has most of the videos. This second link is to her youtube page, where she usually adds videos later on after the show.
6. Paper Crafts Blog - They show photos on their facebook page and usually update the blog with some later. 
7. Creating Keepsakes blog - I think they update the blog later, but they are sharing photos on their facebook page. 
8. Shimelle - If Shimelle is at the show she will post loads of photos after it's over. So, this is one to check on later to see if she went. 

If I find more, I'll keep adding to the list. This should keep you for now!

Enjoy!

 

CHA Summer 2011 Sneak Peeks

It's CHA time, the big craft and hobby trade show at the end of July. There have been several sneak peeks already. This year the manufacturers seem to be sneaking a bit earlier than normal, which is fun!

So far:

• American Crafts has announced a new line with Amy Tan
• Authentique Paper (Margie Romney-Aslett is now designing for them) has launched
• The Crafter's Workshop will be releasing a line designed by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer
• Nikki Sivils has sneaked a few
• Tattered Angels has sneaked 42 new colors and more
• Webster's Pages - they are running a website party the 20th-24th and will be sneaking an early release collection. This link is directly to that forum on their site and will be empty until the 20th.

Good places to see sneaks:

• Willow Traders (you need to be a member to see the board)
• PaperCrafter's Corner - great blog format for seeing sneaks for show and for new releases throughout the year.
• Scrapbook Update (not sure when she'll start the sneak board, but it's usually a list format and easy to navigate) - if you scroll down the page you will eventually see a button for summer sneaks on the right side
• Scrapbook.com featured blogs - most of the manufacturers post sneaks here before the show

Enjoy!

Lori

Crate Paper's Wedding Week

Crate Paper's Wedding Week has debuted. I'm loving the inspiration so much, it makes me want to plan another wedding. There are so many lovely ideas to think over. I can imagine using some of these ideas for other parties, too.

I have a project on today's post. It's the seating chart (using escort cards) for the reception. You can see a close and an explanation on the blog.

For those who feel inspired, there is a challenge with some great prizes. The deadline to enter the challenge is this Friday, June 11th.

The kiddos are almost out for the summer. It's crunch time for end of the year stuff, but it's all good. I'm looking forward to summer and relaxing with the boys!

Have a wonderful day!

Lori

 

Wedding Week at Crate Paper

Crate Paper has a really, really exciting week coming up; Wedding Week. The design team has been working really hard on wedding specific creations for every aspect of a wedding and we cannot wait to share them with you.

This event starts Monday, June 6th and ends Monday, June 13th.

Not only will there be daily wedding inspiration, but Crate Paper will be giving away four prize packs, as well. Be sure to mark it on your calendars, as I truly believe this will be a not to miss week long blog event. See you over there!

Lori

Got Summer on My Mind

I've been really busy getting ready to launch a business and doing volunteer work and my blog has suffered for it. I have to admit I haven't felt much inspiration to post lately. A lot of what I want to post, I can't because I'm just not ready, so I just haven't been posting.

This year has gone so fast. It's nearly summer and I'm excited to be able to spend time with my boys and relax without the pressures of last summer. Along those lines, I figured since I'm finally taking some time to plan out what we are doing, why not post about it for anyone else who might be interested in some summer fun ideas?

This year we are planning to be mellow and just go with our feelings on the day. There is one thing we will do because I think it's important and that is Summer Bridge. These are workbooks to help your kids maintain what they learned in school over the summer, so they start school on top of their game. We have done these for the last few years and I think they help. We don't usually make it all the way to the end of the workbook, so the fact that I think they help, says a lot about how good they really are.

That gets the schooling out of the way and the rest is all fun.

1. We will go to the library and do their summer program. We love to read!

2. I will be doing this fab idea starting tomorrow. You can read more about it here.

 

3. We will absolutely be doing a summer bucket list. Read about it here.

4. We will be using this 100 things list to come up with some of our bucket ideas and to just figure out some fun things to do. The list is here:

5. I will be utilizing this brilliant idea of a bored jar! Yep. "Bored, you say?" Pick from the jar and you have to do whatever is on the tag. It could be fun or it could be a chore! Ha! That should cure the boredom blues.

6. I purchased this book because I know we'll do crafty stuff this summer and since they're big into Star Wars, what could be more fun?

I do have to thank Pinterest, yet again, because ideas 2-5 came from there! I adore that place! I hope you enjoyed your holiday weekend. We're down to the last few days of school and then we're out for the summer. It's hard to believe, but here we are.

Have a great week!

Lori

 

 

Crate Paper Giveaway for NSD and Mother's Day

How sweet is this Floral Button Bouquet by Davinie Fiero? I think it's darling and Davinie shares a how-to tutorial on the Crate Paper blog. Not only can you find the tutorial, but if you leave a comment about the following question on Crate's blog, you can win two huge baskets filled with Crate Paper products (one for you and one for your Mom):

If you were to scrapbook a favorite moment from that of your childhood shared with "mom", what would it be?

Head on over to Crate's blog and answer the question to be entered into the drawing. The winner will be announced on Monday. It's a fun way to celebrate both National Scrapbooking Day AND Mother's Day!

Crate Paper has Spring Fever

 

Crate Paper is celebrating Spring on their blog. For the next three days they will be sharing some fabulous Spring themed inspiration and are running give aways! You don't want to miss out on the opportunity to be inspired and to possibly win some great product, so head on over and check it out.

In other news, I've been really busy helping my son's elemtary school with their auction. Public schools everywhere are hurting for money and ours is no different. We live in a wonderful community with amazing parents who care deeply about what is happening to our public school system.

When I volunteered to be the data base girl for our auction, I really had no idea that it would be a full time job the few weeks before the event. It was a ton of work, but the pay off was huge. Even though, it took over my life, it was nice to feel like I was working, again, and using my brian in a way I had not since leaving my career. Best of, was the opportunity to become close to so many wonderful people. It was very rewarding to work toward the goal of helping our children and to see it come together in such a successful way.

I hope you enjoy your weekend.

Lori