Hi, everyone! Christine, here, guest-blogging in the scrapbooking group to share a little bit of news from the summer Craft and Hobby Association trade show near Chicago. This show is smaller than the winter one but always has great things in store for lovers of paper and scrapbooking. As I mentioned in my post during the show, I always come away from this show super excited to start my Christmas cards, because all the new holiday designs are showcased. As usual, I loved the new stuff, in general, from Scenic Route, Making Memories, and so many more.
The Memory Makers/ F+W booth featured some cool things, too, including author signings with some of our scrapbooking authors. Here are some photos from the booth...
And Sherry Steveson building interest in her upcoming book When Life Gives You Lemons (note her outfit and she gave away Lemon Head candies with little pictures of her book cover stapled to them--clever!).
If you were at the show (or have seen any of the sneak peeks online), what new stuff has you excited? Share in the comments....
Well tomorrow my best friend is getting married so the
launch of Fabulous Friendships is most opportune. I am going to be
her witness at the Registry Office and I guess that will be as close as I get
to a bridesmaid these days.But I did
make her a wedding card from one of the books one offer on the www.mycraftivityshop.com. Have a great weekend – and grab a GIVEAWAY!
The winner will receive their very own copy of Fabulous
Friendships, To enter the giveaway, click here.
The winner will be posted on the S+P
blog on Monday morning, July 21st. Don’t forget to pop by on Monday to find
out if you’ve won!
I just got back from a quick trip home to visit family in Southern California--blissful days full of chatting with friends, reading on the beach and Mom’s famous chocolate chip cookies. I managed to actually snap a few photos, so I’m already thinking about my next travel mini album.
Speaking of travel albums, I never shared with you the album I made for my recent trip to Italy:
To create the album, I first covered a Cloud 9 board book with decoupage medium and maps I used on the trip. (I also added paint to the cover.) I fell in love Making Memories' Passport collection and used those stickers and rub-ons as accents, along with labels from Martha Stewart Crafts and various rub-ons and alphas.
Want to see how else you can use the Passport collection and Cloud 9 album? Check out this recent Memory Makers Magazine blog post. And don’t forget about Travel Scrapbooks, full of all sorts of great travel mini album inspiration.
Congratulations Ami – you’ve won a copy of Cut Loose! Ami commented, “Crystal, I am in awe. I have a tough time cutting loose and would love to be more free in my page styles. I over think almost everything and find that when I just "DO IT" the layout is one that folks like more. So let's all "Cut Loose".”
While we randomly draw the winners of our book giveaways, we also always read through the comments left by readers. This time around, we received a particularly creative comment from member Linda. And while we didn't draw her name as the winner, I just had to share her comment with everyone:
"So many rules!" I often said,
 Frustrated, from the start.
 Papers to match, shapes to fit,
 Can I use this? Which part?


So I've tried to fit into the mold,
 Eager to please and learn,
 Just the right colors, never too much,
 Wait, is this the way it turns?


Then along came a book, encouraging me,
 An artist, to do what I choose.
 I'm grateful to Crystal,who whispered to me,
 "Friend, let go and CUT LOOSE!"
How cool is that?! Thanks to everyone for sharing your thoughts on being a “cut loose” scrapper. It looks like a lot of us are looking to break a few rules in our crafting ;) (UK readers, click here for book details.)
I just read that Jennifer McGuire is organizing a card drive for her family in Africa. How sweet! Click here for details. What a great and noble excuse for making cards. I think I’ll get started this weekend…I have a stash a new supplies that are waiting to be used.
And speaking of supplies, have you noticed the new mycraftivity.com directory? Just click on "Online Craft Directory" at the bottom of the page to link to info about loads of craft stores. The directory is chock full of scrapbooking/papercrafting resources, browseable by state.
So, what are your papercrafting weekend plans? Have a good one, and stay tuned for some S+P excitement next week (there might be a giveaway involved...).
