The Friendship line has Teresa Collins’ classic designs but with a touch of blue!

And the new Sports Edition line will be a hit with any of your sports minded family members. Male and female alike will be captured perfectly in Teresa Collins infamous sports quotes.

Last, but not least is her new Crush line! I’ve been dying to see Teresa Collins do something pink! Notebook paper designs, crown, hearts, cupids….need I say more?
What’s your favorite new TC line?

See you soon!
Charity

to see the list our very own DT member Beth has put together for your viewing pleasure.

You will find just about every one of your favorite scrapbook companies listed in this sneak peek thread….
I can’t think of one she’s missed yet. But it’s very exciting to see all of the new goodies that could be coming our way in the very near future.

For example: Pebbles Inc.!

It’s being put on the shelves as we speak.
They’ve created a really fun boy line, “Little Buddy.”
It’s perfect for those baby photos or, as I used it, for your teens.
You won’t want to miss this line!

See you soon!
Charity

For example: Reminisce!

It’s being put on the shelves as we speak. Lots of new themes from their Signature Two Series……
Under the Sea

Baby Basics

Bath Timeproject by Beth Marohn

Not to mention Brothers, Sisters, Recipes, Paintball and so many more! These are just the ones that are on shelves now. We’re still expecting Autumn Forest and Halloween 2009 to name a few.
See you soon!
Charity

First of all, the Design Team members would like to especially thank Rhonda & Marlene for the invitation to attend this wonderful event. We truly appreciated the opportunity!

Next, let me say that the drive there was so much fun with Kelly, Jennifer & Rebecca, that it didn’t seem like it took very long at all & we were there. We had a blast just getting there & back home!

After arriving there & meeting with Rhonda & Marlene & the rest of the store staff, we got to hang a bit with the cutest little ol’ Cricut bug you’ve ever seen! He’s the hottest thing going right now & he knows it too!
Cricut is coming out with some truly cute stuff that’s gonna be on every Cricut owner’s “must have” list! They had some amazing make & takes, ideas & give aways. Each of us four ladies was lucky enough to get one of their exclusive bags that are so cool & trendy looking! There was a contest involving these bags, like Kelly mentioned in her article, & only 12 people were given these bags each hour. Rebecca was the lucky one of the bunch with her prizes – YAY Rebecca!

I definitely got my exercise that day because I signed up for a very cool make & take at the Kaiser Craft booth. It was so popular, that they had to pass out numbers to the participants & you had to keep going back to see if they had called your number yet. It was about 90 minutes before I actually got to work on it.

Kaiser Craft is a 3 yr. old company based out of Australia, but they are also located in Chicago to help keep the cost down to the consumer. They have lots of cool products for the scrapper & they are also highly involved with the general paper crafter, as well. They offer cool wooden projects & wooden embellishments for a truly artistic look to any project. They were a fun group of people & very generous with their projects & goodies they gave out.

Here was what all the fuss & excitement was over; it’s a wooden book that I altered. Notice they had a CHA rub on specially made for the event:

Chatterbox is not a new name to most of us scrappers, but they have been essentially renewed as a company. They offered a beautiful Make & Take wall hanging & their new stuff offers elegantly beautiful tastes in papers & embellishments. They’re also offering some stunning patterned chipboard frames & accents now. I was impressed with their new lines & their color schemes are the more muted colors that are all the rage right now.

I noticed the newest trend to really hit the scene from several companies, like Making Memories, Little Yellow Bicycle, Queen & Co. & We R Memory Keepers ~ just to name a few, was all the specialty die cutting that has been done to everything from papers, to felt, to flocked ribbon – you name it, they have created amazing patterns for every taste!

There were some new companies there that were real eye openers for us too. A company by the name of Zva (pronounced zee-vah) is going to be giving Prima’s “Say It In Crystals” & Flower lines a run for their money! Literally! This should be a company to watch for in the future. They’re pitch was that they are a cost effective company with great product at a more reasonable price to the consumer. We were impressed with their lines of flowers & jewels! The proof will be in the pocketbook & quality.

3L has come out with some black pop dots for those that want to keep them a little less noticeable in their darker colored projects. These are great for those.

Some of the companies realize that with the state of the economy, their going to have to do something innovative & cost effective to keep the paper crafting consumer able to buy their products. Queen & Co. & Zva are a couple that immediately come to mind.

There was so much to see & do there that you can’t possibly get it all done in one day. It’s like an amusement park for paper crafters. I loved quite a bit of the new products that this community has come out with this year; it proves to be an exciting & creative time ahead of us. I could go on & on about all the ideas & products we seen, but I’m sure you have some scrapping to do to clear out what you have & make room for all the cool new stuff you’re gonna have to have soon!

**If you have any other questions or comments on CHA, go to The Memory Zone’s Messageboard & post them there. We’d love to answer any questions you have that we didn’t get to touch on here in the blog!

~ Beth

This convention offers the excitement of connecting with other people who have the same passion and desire for the hobbies we all enjoy, scrap booking and paper crafting. The energy of introducing brand new product lines and new companies into the industry adds fuel to the fire. At every turn you never know who might be demonstrating, introducing products or walking the very same aisles. The opportunity presents a peak into this thriving industry not everyone gets a chance to do. So a quick THANK YOU to Rhonda & Marlene for letting the Design Team be a part of the action and now…my review.

The three booths that earned the most attention were definitely Provo Craft (maker of the Cricut), Making Memories and QuicKutz. The common factors of great products, awesome displays, and a motivated demonstrating/sales team with give-a-ways were the key elements in their winning some major attention of show goers.

The new releases for the Cricut are making it as popular as ever and their make-n-takes were over the top adorable. Fellow design team member Jen, made the time to do EVERY ONE of them. And Rebecca managed to convince all of us to get in line and wait for 53 minutes (yes, that’s seven minutes shy of 1 whole hour!) to win a really awesome Provo Craft bag which ultimately led her onto winning a T-shirt and limited edition Daisy Chain Letter cartridge. She was elated to say the least!

Making Memories new products alone were enough to get attention, but they also reeled in the crowds by handing out aprons and other freebies for show goers to wear and if they spotted you at the right time you would win a whole tote packed full of their products. Jen, a frequent message board poster, was at the show and landed herself one, lucky girl! Keep an eye on the message board and I’ll bet she tells us all about it…

QuicKutz new product rollouts were exciting too. Lots of great alphabet sets in a new size format of 4×8 dies, I think these will be a strong addition to their line. And a brand new storage system caught my attention too. It will be able to hold ALL their die sizes in one nicely designed book/box type holder.( I even got to sneak a peek at their prototype motorized cutter…oooooo, can’t wait until this one comes out.) Oh, one more thing about the QK Booth, they have the best looking and nicest dudes at the show!

There is so much to see and we did try to see it all. One of the new companies getting a lot of attention was called “My Little Shoebox.”  We all agreed, this company blew our doors off with cute, colorful and different! Exciting layouts were featured in their tiny booth. You know how when you see something and it just calls you in…this is it!

Another head turner at the show was Bo-Bunny. They have the COOLEST new shape mini book coming out. It’s has different arrows as the pages. The sample at the show was great, but I see so many possibilities with it: graduation, bridal shower, toddler, school, and life’s turning points in general…very excited about this one. Oh, and the new lines of paper are just as grand as ever.

Theresa Collins is really making a name for herself in the industry. Her line is really expanding, it’s so adaptable and flexible, something I think today’s scrappers are looking for.

Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist is smoking hot stuff right now and stopping at their booth was definitely another highlight of mine. I got to spend some time with one of their top designers sharing some tips and tricks I’ll be sure to pass on, on a later blog.

Fancy Pants, Basic Grey, Cosmo Cricket, Best Creations, Rusty Pickle, Doodlebug, October Afternoon, S.E.I., Tim Holtz, Creative Imaginations, EK Success, Piggy Tales, Sandy Lion, Pebbles, Inc., Reminisce, Heidi Swapp, We R Memory Keepers, Cloud 9, Prima Products, Heidi Grace, Pink Paislee, Jenni Bowlin, Stamping Station, Inque Boutique,  Queen & Company, all had some great new stuff, too much to mention actually.   

I almost forgot to tell you about the newest KI Memories offerings…wait until The Memory Zone gets this stuff in…it will go fast. You are probably already on owner or user of the laser cut paper from this company but wait it’s gotten one step better!  Believe it or not, they’ve got a snowflake laser cut design coming out with glitter on it! It is a unique product I didn’t see anywhere else in the show! Oh, and a couple of other cool winter-Christmas designs too! Their next new product is hard to describe…it is basically a transparency in several different designs, patterns and colors but wait it gets better too. They cut the edges in different shapes and some are slightly textured or slightly opaque.  It is amazing and again unique to the industry. Totally can’t wait for this stuff!

I really enjoy meeting the people who have made it big in the scrap booking industry. This year I was fortunate enough to meet quite a few, starting with Ali Edwards. She is simply charming, down to earth and so friendly. Stacy Julian, one of the founding mothers of the industry, was there I actually got to meet her too. Sweet and charismatic, she was kind enough to let me get a picture too! Heidi Swapp and I talked about her living in China and how the people over there make her & her family make them feel so welcome.  I got to meet Sesame Street’s very own Elmo. He gave me the biggest hug of the day! Beth Opel, Leah Fung, Tim Holtz, Renae Lindgren, Theresa Collins, Norma Kennedy, Greta Hammond, Vicki Boutin, Heidi Grace, Jenni Bowlin and many more I can’t even remember right now were all there. It’s just amazing to me!

Trends I brought home from the show would include, botanicals, birds, and butterflies, are still as hot as ever. I noticed the same emphasis on double sided papers. Office type, ledger, folders, journal papers were throughout many companies. Stamping is a vital portion of scrap booking and paper crafting with acrylic stamps getting a lot of attention. Cricut and its’ cartridges are captivating many people’s attention. The laser cut papers are in and transparencies are too. In the various booths they post designers layouts and after studying many of them I see a mammoth amount of layering elements such as chipboard, buttons, flowers, tags, ribbons….all types of layers. I find the trend appealing and the layouts were beautiful! I noticed bling is changing too, companies are starting make more colors and sizes. Pearl-like bling was prevalent. Another trend I was well-aware of is that companies are realizing they need to lower pricing. With our economy in its current state with gas and grocery prices climbing, more affordable supplies must be available and have good quality. Companies know this and are effectively introducing more economically priced items. Queen & Company and Zva were two that stood out in this area.

 My review did not start out to be this long and I surely hope I haven’t bored you with my ramblings.  CHA Summer 2008 was awe-inspiring and remarkable. I am so glad I got to experience it first hand and hopefully now you’re “in the know” a little more than before. So much to look forward too!

Happy Scrapping!

Be Sure to visit the EVENTS - CHA SUMMER 2008 for more fun pictures!

~Kelly Crowl

Latest goodies to enter the Rusty Pickle family: Candy Land, Costume Party, Brass Knuckles, White Christmas and Chocolate Covered Cherries!

Check back often we will be adding each night!!!