The Craft & Hobby Association (CHA) tradeshow has so many happy things to offer. Of course, there’s all of the delightful new products. Love! Yes, the projects are incredible. So inspiring! But it’s the booths that really knock the socks off. The companies in attendance go to SO much trouble putting these bad boys together, and we’re always in awe of their efforts. As one of our Creating Keepsakes CHA traditions, we want to share a few of those stunning show stops with you.

Welcome to the CHA Winter 2012 Cute Booth Tour!

Stop #1: GCD Studios
Your Guide: Cindy Tobey
Click this link to see the video.

Stop #2: Prima
Your Guide: Stacy Cohen
Click this link to see the video.

Stop #3: Cosmo Cricket
Your Guide: Mou Saha
Click this link to see the video.

Stop #4: Lawn Fawn
Your Guide: Me (Megan Hoeppner)
Click this link to see the video.

What do you think? Aren’t these displays, product lines, and crafting projects amazing? Did you see anything you’d like to add to your own home decor?

Thanks for joining us on this tour! We can’t wait to do it again next CHA. In the meantime,  you can view past Cute Booth Tour stops on our YouTube channel, CreatingKeepsakesMag.

Cheers!
Megan Hoeppner, creative editor

P.S. Don’t forget to download CK Leafy Capitals for Free Font Friday!

Trend #1: 6″x6″ Paper Pads
These may be the little sister to the traditional 12″x12″ scrapbook paper, but they’re making a big impression. Just about every paper manufacturer had them in their lines. Use them on layouts, cards, and other paper projects.

New 6" x 6" paper stack by Doodlebug Designs

New 6" x 6" paper stack by Cosmo Cricket

Trend #2: Flags
I like to think of this as two hot trends of seasons past coming together–decorative pins and banners! These bitty embellishments were waving proudly at many CHA booths. How will you use them in your crafting?

New flags from BasicGrey

New flags from Bella Blvd

New Heidi Swapp flags from Pink Paislee

New flags from Jillibean Soup

New flags from Making Memories

New flags from Maya Road

New flags from October Afternoon

New flags from Studio Calico

Trend #3: Envelopes
This accent signs, seals, and delivers cute! You won’t need a letter opener to discover their creative possibilities. Use them to contain journaling, memorabilia, small photos, and more. Or string them up for a happy Valentine’s Day decoration.

New Heidi Swapp envelopes from Pink Paislee

New envelopes from Jillibean Soup

New envelopes from Kaiser Craft

New envelopes from Studio Calico

New envelope die from Ellison

New envelopes from Maya Road

Trend #4: Tickets, please
Step right up and enjoy this carnival-inspired accent. Ticket motifs were see at every CHA turn–on paper, in fabric form, as journaling spots, and more! This definitely your ticket to creative fun.

New ticket from Nikki Sivils

New tickets from Little Yellow Bicycle

New tickets from Maya Road

New tickets from Prima

Trend #5: Burlap
Bring on the texture. This standout material feels great as a member of the scrapbooking and paper crafting scene. Both actual burlap and printed versions could be found, making this a Cool Happening in Art.

New burlap albums and flowers from Canvas Corp

New burlap postcards from Canvas Corp.

New burlap paper from Glitz Designs

Win Before You Can Buy!
These are just a few of the CHA trends we spotted at this amazing craft show. What do you think? Do you see yourself using them on your projects? If so, how? We’d love to know. Simply leave a comment and you’ll be entered to win an assortment of prizes from each of our five categories before you can even get them in stores! You have until Thursday, Feb. 9 to enter.

A Second Chance to Win
Like Studio 5 on Facebook today (Feb. 2) for info on a second chance to win.

We’re giving away a second CHA bundle over there. Woot!

Cheers!
Megan Hoeppner, creative editor

My cough drop was talking to me. Alright, so it didn’t actually speak, but there, printed on the wrapper, were the words “Be resilient.” I smiled, popped the cough drop in my mouth, and continued on with my day, feeling a little bit more inspired to make it a good one.

As scrapbookers, we are no strangers to the inspiring power of words. We know the perfect title or the perfect bit of journaling can bring emotions and sentiments to a layout that the pictures by themselves can’t quite convey. For layouts with a particularly powerful message, try using your favorite inspirational quotes as a title or journaling.

Wild & Free by Katie Tennis, as seen in the March/April 2012 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine, page 33.

To help get you started, we’ve asked our editing team to share some of their favorite inspirational quotes:

“Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you” –Ralph Waldo Emerson

“I don’t want to live –I want to love first, and live incidentally” –Zelda Fitzgerald

“Be the change you wish to see in the world” – Ghandi

“The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas”—Linus Pauling

“Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be” –Abraham Lincoln

“I am not afraid…I was born for this” –Joan of Arc

“Tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it” – Anne of Green Gables

“We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations”—Charles Swindoll

“Two roads diverged in a wood and I, I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference”—Robert Frost

For more inspirational quotes, check out our “Creativity Heals” article in the January/February 2012 issue of Creating Keepsakes, and download a free inspirational quote.

–Meghan Nestel, Creating Keepsakes intern

Thanks, Megan. I’m thrilled to be here talking about one of my favorite trends of the moment–confetti!

Image courtesy of A Beautiful Mess Blog

Confetti is a happy little concept that has been around forever and is typically used at parties or weddings.  Lately I’ve also been seeing it used as a design element on wedding invitations, gift wrap, cards, tags, etc. It is also popping up a lot as a photography prop and even on fingernails!

Image courtesy of Martha Stewart Weddings

Image courtesy of ImgFave.com

It’s fun to see something so simple and common trending because it is really easy to translate onto a scrapbook page or card. All you need is a couple of different size circle punches and some paper. You can customize the color scheme and you can also get creative with the size of the confetti pieces and even the shape. Think hearts, triangles, or squares. I think it adds an element of playfulness and a whimsical flair to any project. I’m not saying that I’m ready to give up the basics like butterflies, flowers and banners but this does add another go-to design element that is versatile enough to become one of my basics!

Image courtesy of CakeEventsBlog.com

Image courtesy of Green Wedding Shoes

Here is my take on the confetti trend.

I absolutely loved this inspiration piece where they made confetti from pictures!! This would be fun to do with the small thumbnail images I get from my printer when I print photos!

Image courtesy of Lil' Luna

If you are a digital scrapper, here is a tutorial for you on how to create confetti in photoshop!

Image courtesy of Pugly Pixel

Whether you prefer to create digitally or traditionally, I hope this trend has you inspired to create a little confetti of your own!

Thanks for the fabulous inspiration, Maggie. This is definitely a trend worth celebrating. I’m already reaching for my circle punches and scraps of paper. We’re glad you could stop by and share your view of what’s hot in scrapbooking and paper crafting.

Cheers!
Megan Hoeppner, creative editor, & Maggie Holmes, CK Dream Team designer

For the mini book idea I’m sharing with you today, I’ve left my embellishments to a minimum, just letting the papers, photos and words shine, but you could certainly add layers and trinkets and chipboard until your binder rings won’t hold another thing!

After printing off your free mini book page download, decide whether you wish to use 6×4 photos or to trim them to 4×4 as I did. Using the 4×4 photos allowed me to make my album pages have staggered sizes. Each page of the album gets progressively longer and more of the patterned paper shows.

We’re a family of five, hence the “we are 5” title, and each of us has our own page in this mini book describing what our loves were at the time these photos were taken last Easter.

It can be tricky trying to thread baker’s twine through the eye of a needle, so let me share this nifty trick using floral wire which will make your life so much easier.

And here’s a more detailed shot of a page from my mini book.

Be sure to leave a comment below to be entered to win a $20 shop credit to I Love It All, my Etsy shop, featuring subway art prints, modern typography posters, and mini books. I hope you enjoy your mini book page template and I invite you to join me on my blog where I share project inspiration and downloads.

Enjoy!

Monika Wright

To get started, look in your menu options to see if your camera will allow you to adjust the white balance settings. (Check out this article for links to the manuals for many popular cameras.) If so, you will see icons for several different options, such as automatic, daylight, cloudy or shade, florescent, and tungsten. Each option indicates a lighting condition you may encounter when taking outdoor or indoor photos. For best photo results, select the setting that best describes your lighting conditions. Using the tungsten or florescent settings indoors will especially help reduce the red cast (tungsten) or grayish cast (florescent) you often get when you shoot indoors.

Photo without a white balance adjustment

Photo with a white balance adjustment

Another quick tip is to use your flash whenever the subject you want to shoot is in front of or facing away from the light of a window or the sun—even if you’re taking pictures in the middle of the day! Because your camera takes in only enough light to expose the brightest part of your surroundings, your subject is often draped in shadows. By using your camera’s flash on subjects less than 15 feet away, the flash will add light to your subject and eliminate any dark shadows. Give it a try and see what you think!

–Kris Brunson, senior editor

Have you seen the January/February 2012 issue of Creating Keepsakes? Turn to page 55 to enjoy a trendy feature about various calendar products and how they can become parts of your scrapbooks. I used a stencil to make a real calendar on my 12×12 page.

I love the fact that this stencil comes in a 6×6 size as well, making it perfect for a mini book to record your entire year.

To create a similar mini book, start by cutting three pieces of 12×12 cardstock to four 6×6 pieces each. You will have twelve 6×6 pieces. Line up the stencil on top of each piece of cardstock and trace with a pen.

This is what the traced calendar looks like.

Color the page just enough so that you can read your journaling easily. Add a 4×6 photo or a few smaller photos to the facing page. Use stickers, stamps, punches, etc. to accentuate the theme of your month. For example, I used an acrobat stamp in keeping with the fact that we went to the circus this month. I stamped musical notes on scrap cardstock and punched out a tag to mark the date of my daughter’s chorus rehearsal.

Keep in mind that if you are making your next month’s calendar at the back of the photo page, like I did, it’s best not to use brads or eyelets as the prongs of the brads and backs of eyelets will show on the next month’s calendar. However, if you are inserting your pages in sheet protectors in a store-bought mini album, you needn’t worry about using brads, stitching, etc.

Have fun creating with calendars!

Mou Saha, contributing writer

BasicGrey’s Kissing Booth

Pucker up! This beautiful line is just what you need, whether you’re telling your own love story or simply want some beautiful new pinks and reds to add to your stash.

Bazzill Basics Paper’s Love Story

Who wrote the book of love, you ask? Well, this cute book was written by our friends at Bazzill Basics Paper. It’s a whimsical line, just write for making a note for that special someone you’ve been secretly admiring. Or, use it on a layout about your favorite sweet friend. The heart buttons are just the sugar on top you need!

Doodlebug Designs’ Sweet Cakes Collection

Mmmmm…the smell of Sweet Cakes is adrift. Breathe it in and imagine the kind of happy designs you could make with this adorable line. The touches of glitter will add just a dash of sparkle, and the cute motifs will make any scrapbook page smile.

Time to Win!
Inspired yet? It’s your lucky day. We’re giving away assorted items from each of these lines, as well as various items from our Jan/Feb “Latest & Greatest” magazine column. Want your name inthe drawing hat? Simply leave a comment on this post between now and next Friday, Jan. 20. We’ll randomly select two lucky winners and one of them might as well be you.

Cheers!
Megan Hoeppner, creative editor

P.S. Congratulations to Margie S (Nihao, Cupcake!), the winner of a one-year subscription to Creating Keepsakes magazine for commenting on contributing writer Deena Wuest’s how-to blog post on ReneePearson.com! Visit http://www.reneepearson.com/rpblog to claim your prize.

P.S. Don’t forget to download CK Little Women for Free Font Friday!

I try very hard to count my blessings every day. What I consider one of the biggest blessings in my life is being a scrapbooker. I mean that!  I love how the scrapbook community embraces each other and shares our lives together. It is amazing, and I think it’s brilliant that scrapbookers just understand each other in a special way. Our unique and supportive community at Club CK inspired me to begin a series of challenges. This new monthly challenge series is to recognize the blessings in your life, and to scrapbook a life of Thanks Living.

Each month we will regularly jot down our daily blessings–a few simple words you will use to create beautiful layouts to document the wonderfulness that is your life!  You can add your daily blessings to this week’s post on Club CK, or can keep a private list if you’d prefer.

The Thanks Living challenges are posted monthly at Club CK.  Additionally, if you crave more information on how to design great layouts, the Thanks Living challenges may be the sweet treat you are looking for. Along with a great challenge, there will be a mini lesson on design each month. For example, this month we are focusing on the way to use various kinds of “lines” in your scrapbooking. All challenge and blessings threads will always be located in the Scraptivities Forum.

As a special treat, we also have a free download of journaling spots, accents, and titles you can use on your scrapbook layouts.

It is never too late to start counting your blessings, so you can join in at any time!

–Erika Hayes, Club CK moderator

Here’s a quick peek at just a few of the fun ideas you’ll discover in this special issue to help you scrapbook your year.

Winter

Snow Happy by Julie Bonner for Jillibean Soup, as seen in Scrapbooking Ideas for Every Season, page 24.

Even if you don’t have snow in your neck of the woods this winter, you can draw inspiration from Julie Bonner’s cute layout. For example, bring structure to your winter layout with the clean look of grid patterned paper. You’ll discover seasonal patterns and motifs throughout this issue that will help you select just the right products for your page.

Spring

Learning to Work by Autumn Baldwin, as seen in Scrapbooking Ideas for Every Season, page 42.

We’ve packed this issue with photo ideas for every season! For example, add pizazz to your spring stories by capturing everyday seasonal activities with your camera, just as Autumn Baldwin did. Using a few photos of her kids working in the garden, she created a layout her family will treasure.

Summer

U 2 R Fair Weather Friends by Amy Heller for October Afternoon, as seen in Scrapbooking Ideas for Every Season, page 73.

Color is so important for setting the scene in a story. And in this issue, you’ll find over 30 color combinations to help you tell your stories. For instance, a bold, bright color combination is just the thing for capturing the excitement-filled days of summer, as Amy Heller shows us.

Autumn

Rolling with the Tide by Gretchen McElveen, as seen in Scrapbooking Ideas for Every Season, page 92.

Sports are a big part of our lives, no matter the season. That’s why you’ll find sports layouts throughout Scrapbooking Ideas for Every Season. Gretchen McElveen showed her love of the game with her clever football layout.

That’s just a taste of what you’ll find in Scrapbooking Ideas for Every Season. Check out our sneak peek to discover even more of what this issue has to offer, and get a copy today.

Thanks to our advertisers in this issue, without whose support we couldn’t bring you all these fantastic ideas: Back Porch Memories, The Robin’s Nest, Therm O Web, Quick Quotes, Scrap Scription, Purple Lion Paper, and The Treasure Box Club.

–

Win It!

Want to get your hands on a free copy of Scrapbooking Ideas for Every Season? Leave a comment telling us about your favorite season to scrapbook. We’ll randomly choose three winners and post their names on the Giveaways tab Tuesday, January 17.

Happy scrapbooking!

Kim Jackson, senior editor