Trend watching from CHA

CHA was an absolute blast! Hard to complain about sunshine, temps in the 70's and 80's and palm trees! It truly was wonderful to see friends and new products! (and eat out and not have to cook...) I thought I would share with you the trends I noticed at the show. And I will be back soon with all my favorites in another post. Well, these are all on that list too, but I have even more cool things to share!

1. Gold, gold, gold!

From washi tape, to vellum, to gold foil papers! It's all about the gold! Watch for other metallics sneaking in too.

Gold Doilies-Studio Calico

Washi tape-Little B

Foil papers-Fancy Pants

Gold bows-Maya Road

Vellum-WR Memory Keepers

2. Pinks
Bright and intense, pale and soft, and everything in between, pretty much everyone had a shade of pink.

Bright-American Crafts Amy Tangerine Plus One

Basic Grey-Highline

In the middle-Lawn Fawn Hello Sunshine and Polka Dots

Chickaniddy-Twirly Girly

Sorry, my photo was awful.

3. Black as the neutral. 

We have watched this move from kraft to grey and now black.  All the vivid colors being shown this time around are really popping against the black.

Pink Paislee-Hello Sunshine

Simple Stories-DIY Boutique

Basic Grey-Highline

4. Brush script or handwriting

Love this trend. Its stemming from the chalkboard trend. Which moved us into using handwriting and drawn fonts. I love this. Big time.

Basic Grey-Highline 

This is a background stamp, but there is the same design in the patterned paper from the collection.

WR Memory Keepers/Lifestyle Crafts-6x6 Embossing Folder

American Crafts Amy Tangerine Plus One

Technique Tuesday stamps

5. Chalkboard

Yay! So happy to have this one continue.

Penny Black

My Mind's Eye-Chalk Studio

Melissa Frances

American Crafts-DIY Shop

There is so much more goodness in this line!

Martha Stewart-these are new reusable silk screen stencils and washable chalk paint, simply wipe away with water and add your next design!

6. Shaped enamel dots and gems

Fun ways to expand your basic dot collection!

Basic Grey-Spice Market

Basic Grey-Capture

My Mind's Eye-Now and Then

7. Stencils

By far the biggest trend I saw. Everywhere. Used with inks, sprays, modeling pastes, and a million more creative ideas.

Hazel and Ruby-repositionable stencils! Peel, use, remove, use again and again!

Jillibean Soup. Again repositionable, but they also have coordinating stamps!!

Mod Podge/Plaid Crafts

Heidi Swapp/Pink Paislee-mini stencils! How cute!

Other observations:

• Washi tape-metallics, shaped, sheets for die cutting
• Arrows
• Dies for everything
• Lots of basics-stripes updated with diagonals and thick stripes, and polka dots updated with hearts
• Pocket page scrapbooking-tons, loving the die templates from Technique Tuesday to make your own cards
• Home decor-chalkboards, pallet wood for altering, canvas items
• Woodgrain-real wood sheets, decoratively cut 12x12 wood sheets, wood 3x4 cards, woodgrain papers, stencils, stamps

There you have it. My look at the trends from CHA. See anything that looks fun? Anything you cannot wait to get your hands on? Stay tuned for more paper crafty goodness!

thanks for stopping by!

~kimberly

Thanksgiving treats and table

Hello everyone! Happy almost Thanksgiving! Today is a fun post because I am also posting over on the Paper Crafts Connection blog! Haven't been there yet? I will wait until you come back.

I know Thanksgiving is tomorrow, but I wanted to share some of the fun projects that we have been creating for our table. And my son being able to help me is the best part about these projects.

I wanted to have acorns to decorate the table, but sadly, I could not find any that I wanted to use. But I did find these super cute treat acorns on Pinterest! And my family loves chocolate. Loves. Their love is legendary. Seriously.

Acorns:

• Nutter Butter Minis
• Hershey Kisses
• Mini chocolate chips
• Chocolate Frosting

Apply a small (tiny, minuscule) bit of frosting to the base of the kiss. Place it on the cookie. Let sit for a few minutes to set up. Add a tiny bit of frosting to the mini chocolate chip (I know, crazy, right?) and place it on the top of the cookie. 

I am not telling you how many of these my son and I ate during the trial and error period...

To continue the table decorating, I placed the acorns inside a glass jar. (They might lose their mini chocolate chips, but I am guessing no one will complain.) The patterned paper leaves were die cut and stamped with I Give Thanks from Technique Tuesday. The banner and sentiment are also Technique Tuesday. Use some twine to tie them to the jar. Quick and easy. And yummy!

One last project...loving all things chalkboard and gold, I created these mini frames. The wood is an ornament from Michael's that I spray painted gold. The chalkboard is Chalkstock adhered to the back of the wood frame. I wrote the words with a white gel pen. I like it, but I am considering cutting vinyl with a cool font instead. Guess that gives me something for next year!

Be sure and stop over to the Paper Crafts Connection blog because I have a give away, along with some more table decorating ideas. I will be sending a prize package off to some lucky reader, full of fun goodies from my stash. Leave your comments there to be entered.

And it is the last Wednesday of the month, which means its Go-To-Gal Designer Challenge day! I am out this month with our trip and a sick little man, but be sure and check out the rest of the amazing team!

• Teri Anderson
• Heather Campbell
• Kim Kesti
• Betsy Veldman
• Laura Williams

thanks for stopping by!

~kimberly

Month of Gratitude

Welcome to the first day of the Month of Gratitude. Each year, for the month of November, I write about something I am grateful for in my life. One gratitude for each day of the month. And when I stop and think about it, 30 gratitudes barely covers all the blessings in my life. What I love about the Month of Gratitude is, that I pointedly take the time to write down the good stuff. Its contagious. Once you start, its easy to keep going, to keep on being thankful each and every day. Even in the midst of the not so good stuff. Think of this as a start to a life-long attitude of gratitude, or as a refresher to revive your grateful heart.

Please consider joining me. Post on your blog. On your Facebook wall. On Twitter. Maybe you will take a photo each day and post to Instagram. Maybe you will even start an actual journal. However you choose to post, here is to the start of thanksgiving each and every day.

As I look back and read my gratitudes from years past, I am amazed at what life has brought to our lives. Good, bad, ugly, happy. But one thing I wish I would have done, was to write them down on paper. This year I am going to change that. I have been doing Project Life/pocket page scrapbooking this year for the first time. Its awesome. I am a big fan. So, I am going to add my Month of Gratitude entries into the book. Take a look.

As I was looking through my pocket pages, I noticed the F style. One 4x6 card, but then all 3x4. Perfect for holding a bunch of journaling cards. Then I grabbed the new collection from Basic Grey (Persimmon) because its a beautiful fall paper line, and some of my favorite stamps and dies from Technique Tuesday.

Here is what I came up with. My first 10 gratitude cards. I love this. Know why? Its like 11 mini cards that each get their own space. Not a "sometimes overwhelming" 12x12 page. I got to stamp, die cut, use papers, use stickers. Happy sigh. It was a lot of fun!

I will give you a closer look at each card. I love all the pre-made elements to the cards from the Persimmon collection. All I needed to add were stickers. And collections are awesome because they provide the mix and match! (and lines, lines are good. lines keep the stickers straight!:))

Left card: stickers and patterned paper. Simple and I can write directly on the patterned paper.

Right card: A pre-made lined journaling card. I added a strip of patterned paper. Then I stamped a leaf, die cut it, and adhered it. Finally, I added some stamped words. (and that navy blue piece behind the leaf? left overs from the strip. love that)

Left card: Patterned paper and a sticker.

Right card: The label shape is a sticker, it said happy halloween, but no problem, I added a circle die cut from a pre-made lined journaling card. And then added a few more stickers.

Left card: Pre-made lined journaling card. I stamped the leaf onto patterned paper and die cut it. Using the same stamp, I stamped on the journaling card. Then stamped the words. This stamp will get used on this project a lot!

Right card: Layering fun with tags and stickers in the collection.

 

Left card: Repeat of the one above, different leaf though. :)

Right card: Pre-made journaling card from the Persimmon collection. I added the sunburst shape from the collection.

Left card: Its a busy patterned paper. I may end up typing my journaling out on white cardstock and adhering it...

Right card: Layers of patterned paper and stickers and stamping. Just too much fun!

And here is my first card. Its simple, yet so true. This is quite the life I live. This very life. My days at home. My running around. Caring for my family. Doing the dishes. Cooking dinner. All of it. I am exactly where I am supposed to be. Right at this very moment. And on days when the laundry is piled up and we need to be in two places at once, and I forgot to make a treat for school, I need to remember that. Life is good. MY life is good. So good. 

thanks for stopping by!

~kimberly

Handmade Cards a special issue from Paper Crafts Magazine

Handmade Cards is a new and fantastic issue from Paper Crafts Magazine! Its chalk full of ideas about how to use all the wonderful goodies we have in our crafty stashes! Its really clever. The ideas are way outside the box and will inspire you greatly! Its one of those keeper issues, the one you refer to for years!

Stamps: JustRite Poppies Labels Twenty-Nine

It was hard to pick just one of my projects to share with you from the issue, but this card ended up the winner. The poppies were stamped onto a canvas ATC and colored using Distress Inks, that were misted with water. Its basically creating your own watercolor paints. Pretty beautiful effect, isn't it? Easy to do. And that's the best part about the issue, all easy and really clever ideas that you can re-create at home.

thanks for stopping by!

~kimberly

P.S. Busy, busy, busy. I have many fun things coming up soon, so the old blog is going to be less quiet.

• Oct. 31-the end of a week long blog hop with Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L and Clearsnap
• November 1-the start of the month of gratitude
• November 5th-a special guest design blog post
• November 6th-another special guest designer announcement
• November 8th-Caring Hearts Blog Hop

Whew! And that's just the start! Did I mention we are leaving on vacation on the 15th? I better get to work!

Happy Halloween

If you are looking for the Go-To-Gal Designer Challenge, scroll on down! :)

Be sure and stop on over to the Crafty Power Blog today to learn more about this card. And about the cute stamps from A Jillian Vance Designs. Did I mention there were prizes? What are you waiting for? :)

thanks for stopping by!

~kimberly

DIY Shop Photo Overlays

One of the products that I loved at CHA-W were these Photo Overlays from Crate Paper and the DIY Shop line. Very clever and a lot of fun. This is a look at all the designs that come in the package. The large fit 4x6 photos, the larger square 4x4, and the small ones 2x2.


I laid a 4x6 Photo Overlay on top of this photo (5x7) of my nephew. The effects are truly beautiful. And I don’t know about you, but I am totally in love with adding filters to my photos (Instagram, Pic FX, etc) and this allows me to go back and add the look to photos that didn’t get the filter treatment.


At this point, I can hear you saying, great Kimberly. Cool product. I am a card maker, I don’t need those! But, it turns out, you do! :) I used the Photo Overlays on this card!


I stamped the sentiment directly onto the patterned paper. The frame happened to catch the number 9 inside, which was cool. With all the numbers on the paper, you could easily highlight the pertinent number.


Seeing as these are transparent, I wanted to use an adhesive that would not show through. I grabbed my Vellum Adhesive  from Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L and was able to apply it only to the dark edges, along the outside of the Photo Overlay. Perfect!

And one more tip, these Photo Overlays have a thin piece of protective plastic on them. Just gently peel away from one corner. It stops them from getting scratched. And, just to give you a little giggle, just imagine how I figured that little tidbit out…

Hope you had a great weekend! The little man was still pretty miserable from his surgeries, so it was a quiet and stressful one at this house. He is improving but I am thankful he has today off, for just a bit more rest.

thanks for stopping by!

~kimberly

InLinkz.com