pretty paper. true stories. {and scrapbooking classes with cupcakes.}

Oh Pink Paislee, you do go and cause a stir over the funniest things. You know what had so many people talking?

This colour scheme.

I mean beaches and bicycles and aqua – how could they?

Yes, there was major stir about the decision to bring a very summery line to the market when the summer show is traditionally all about the autumn and winter releases. I mean, there was a giant (upside down) Christmas tree when you walked in the front door. And then there was Pink Paislee’s Nantucket collection.

Actually, I liked this idea. We know, in general, scrappers create less in the summer when they are busy with the stuff that life gives you in warmer weather — the stuff you have to go out and do, like ball games and dance recitals and picnics and so forth. But scrappers take pictures of that stuff all summer and they really don’t get inspired by a bunch of late autumn and Christmas releases arriving in stores before school is even back in session. So I say more of this. Let us have pretty, spring-time releases even when it’s starting to get cold. (Other bonus: the southern hemisphere’s scrapbookers just sighed a collective ‘finally’ in terms of products imported from the states.)

But Pink Paislee had other things too, of course:

The Mistables collection includes all sorts of different things that come plain, with the idea that you colour them up with your favourite mists and inks. That wooden shadowbox is part of the collection and retails for $14.99, by the way.

The line also includes chipboard, masks and stickers…

plus muslin flowers and border strips for something new! Pink Paislee also reworked the idea of the resist papers from their Parisian Anthology collection with new designs and significantly heavier paper stock so you can spray and spray with the embossed design and not worry that the paper will buckle. There were several people giving these a try in the afternoon and the designs were lovely and the mist colours came up true and rich.

With silhouettes and a colour scheme of cool tones, there’s Vintage Vogue.

Including lovely embellishments, like those circle pieces there that look like the ends of vintage thread spools…

…and the silver + sparkly rhinestone pieces in that bowl that look exactly like a pair of fabulously kitsch clip-on earrings I found at the market once.

Then as soon as you’re singing fifties hits, it will be Halloween and time for their next release, Phantom. This Halloween collection is a paper form of the House of 3 digital products. Though those ghosts are made from the mistable muslin trim, I do believe!

The Happy Haunting banner comes in a little set with all the cards, string and the rosettes, and the stamps are pretty lush too. Whenever I see nice Halloween stamps, I wish sending Halloween cards were a thing. I mean, it probably is in some places. But my neighbourhood is not one of them. I am yet to receive a single trick or treater at my door. But I’m off track now. Moving on…

Pretty Halloween paper. That’s more like it.

!http://www.shimelle.com/images/pinkpaislee14.jpg (scrapbooking supplies by pink paislee)!
And spookified projects from the Pink Paislee design team.

And a gorgeous frame project that had everyone wanting to rework a gorgeous old frame. Including me. This project was created by Jess Mutty.

The Mistables collection is shipping now and all the others ship next month, so you’ll see all of these in stores before September starts. Click here to shop for Pink Paislee products!

xlovesx

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Some interesting collections from Bo Bonny Press, a line often known for very brightly themed products. Their most popular new collection? Et Cetera, a light-brown collection of distressed papers, frames, cameos and cream-coloured accents.

This minibook concept is something new from them: the pages come already covered with the patterned papers of the collection. This is the Et Cetera mini…

…and there’s an apron-shaped mini to match their new kitchen-themed collection, in hot pink and aqua.

Their autumn collection includes sunflowers along with the traditional leaves and is based on a very painted look.

The Welcome Home collection features blues, greens and browns and includes this house-shaped project kit, but the papers are quite versatile and not all covered in house motifs or anything else that would make the set too specific. There’s a nice variety across the line.

Their Christmas project kit is a bit of a twist on a landscape album, with the label shape rather than a plain rectangle.

While we’re talking Christmas, they have two collections for that – the olde worlde style of Father Christmas in darker, distressed tones…

…and Blitzen with lighter, brighter blues and reds for a more modern look.

Lots of detail and metal in the embellishment sets.

And a detailed Christmas look from the Bo Bunny design team.

These collections will start arriving in stores next month and throughout the autumn. Click here to shop for BoBunny products!

xlovesx

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It looks like a very merry – or at least wintry – Christmas at Little Yellow Bicycle headquarters. They introduced two seasonal lines for winter and Christmas plus an autumn line and a back to school collection.

Earlier this year, they released Twig, a colourful collection with blues, greens and plenty of trees, coming out in the summer for camping and other outdoor activities.

So now there’s a winter version, missing the green and focusing on shades of blue plus white for an icy feeling. And the birch tree paper? Absolutely love it.

Head of the Class is the back to school collection, with the traditional crayon-box-inspired colours of red, yellow, blue and green. Each collection now includes that ’10 things I love…’ pocket and a confetti garland along with other packs of stickers, die cuts and other goodies.

Some projects to show off the autumnal Hello Fall collection, courtesy of the LYB design team.

And from their more traditional Christmas line, this had me intrigued! It’s only available as a page kit – not just the die-cut paper. It’s an advent-calendar on your scrapbook page. It could be displayed throughout Christmas then added to your album immediately for something unique. I like this idea!

Here’s a closer look at what’s included, and also a mini-album option for you Christmas mini fans.

More goodness from the traditional Christmas collection. Love that paper wreath, but if there is one thing from this booth that I felt I needed to make as soon as possible, it was this:

Possibly the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen made from a 6×6 paper pad. Just love it… and admittedly wonder what my neighbours would think!

Click here to shop for Little Yellow Bicycle products – including lots on sale!

xlovesx

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Next in our little walk around the CHA floor is the always happy and whimsical My Little Shoebox. They have several new collections and one especially nifty new product. This first collection, Playtime, features numbers, kites, bicycles and playgrounds.

These flowers are part of the nifty new thing. More on that in just a bit.

I like how that card on the left shows a more grown-up use for the papers from Playtime, making it a bit more versatile than you might first think.

More pretty flowers… this time on minibooks from the MLS design team.

Little Things is a little girl line, complete with laundry lines of cute little dresses. And you can see the nifty thing at the bottom of that pinboard. See what looks like a die-cut sheet? It is a die-cut sheet but something a little different than usual. It includes flower die-cuts that are made from flat paper but roll to create a dimension flower. There’s a sheet of these to coordinate with each of the new collections. Patti from the design team demonstrates:

A look at their Halloween line…

…and pink and blue silhouettes in my favourite collection from their new releases: Audrey.

I think this collection has some pieces that read as little girl and other papers that are quite grown up, so they will work for various kinds of scrapping as long as it’s a cute kind of ultra-feminine.

Destination is a travel themed collection with lots of street sign motifs.

My Little Shoebox have partnered with two companies to expand their coordinated product offerings. Cottage Cutz have created coordinating metal dies to cut matching shapes for each theme and Unity have created stamp sets for each collection.

And one last look at those nifty flowers. I know you can buy a die to make something similar, but I like that they are already coordinated, you don’t need a die-cutting machine and they are all double-sided patterns that coordinate, because the end product of a rolled flower makes finding the right paper to cut pretty difficult. Even if My Little Shoebox isn’t really your style, you might find the paper flowers are right up your street.

These new collections are shipping to stores right now, so you’ll be able to find these very soon. Click here to shop for My Little Shoebox products!

xlovesx

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This weekend Roomorama are giving away 100 pounds of Roomorama credit for a stay anywhere in the world!
If you’re visiting London, for example, stay in this adorable room in stylish Shoreditch or search Roomorama for a selection of properties to find one that’s just your style. You don’t have to be an existing member of Roomorama, and there is no expiration date for the vouchers.

Roomorama is about living local and savouring the little things that make a city special. Forget the cookie-cutter hotels, and instead live it up in a historic London townhouse, an artsy New York loft, a gorgeous Cape Town beach pad, or a luxurious Balinese villa. Pick from 20,000 properties in 320 destinations worldwide, and have a peace of mind with Roomorama’s secure payment system and impeccable customer service. Best of all, insider-digs and discounts, and access to cool events, are all part of the deal. Happy travels!

To enter, just leave a comment on this post telling us how you would decorate your home for an out-of-town visitor?

Entries close at midnight Sunday UK time and the winner will be posted Monday evening, so be sure to check back to see if it’s your lucky day!

Good luck!

xlovesx

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Next up: something new! It’s a product line called Candi, created by UK company Craftwork Cards. Candi is like a brad without a back – no pesky metal bits to bend, and a lot more affordable as a result. They can be attached with adhesives like foam squares (and they have a branded set to match perfectly).

You get a bunch of them in each bag so you don’t have to hold back and save them for something extra special. The bags currently retail for under £2, so that sounds good to me. They come in white, which you can alter using pretty much anything you like, or lots of different colours and colour combinations.

Cardmaker Julie Hickey was there at the Candi stand and she had a great introduction to the product to share with you. Apologies for the background noise in the hall – next time I better take a microphone!

Beautiful inspiration from the Craftwork Cards designers!

And monochromatic packs with lots of different patterns in the same colour – perfect for those of you who sort your embellishments via the rainbow!

I’m looking forward to giving these a try – and my nails are already happy about the idea of no metal prongs on the back of every brad (ouch).

xlovesx

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I have to admit I did something really stupid at the October Afternoon booth. I forgot to take a picture of the front of the booth, which was built to look like the front of an old wild-west saloon, complete with those swinging doors. This really isn’t an acceptable omission and I can only hope you will look past it and instead focus on the pretty paper. If you were shopping for saloon doors, I’ll never be forgiven.

Apparently I was distracted by map papers. Because I love them.

There’s also paper with the lyrics to the Kansas state song. I’m glad they stopped where they did, because the next verse talks about zephyrs and I’m not really sure how well that would appeal to scrapbooking consumers. And let’s not even mention how terrible the third verse is. But as it is, I think it’s pretty cool as a paper. This is from the Sasparilla collection, which is cowboy themed and also features quite a few playing card elements.

Okay, let’s look at collections. This is Boarding Pass, which was actually introduced at CHA Winter, but hasn’t really hit stores yet. It’s a travel line with rich reds, blues and greens.

That miscellany pack has elements that look like old travel tickets and suitcase stickers. There’s even a British Rail die-cut.

More map paper – yay! (And I am particularly happy to see world maps. There are a lot of map papers that just cover the states and I like being able to choose from the whole globe. But I’m an oddball, I know.)

The stickers from Boarding Pass – labels, words and letters on boxes or circles. I love the minimarket letters (the boxes) and I pretty much buy every colour they release.

Softer colours and silhouettes in the Farmhouse collection. Silhouettes were a huge trend at this show.

Gorgeous projects from the October Afternoon design team.

I love papers you can cut apart like this (still Farmhouse collection). The boxes are a good size for both cards and scrapbook pages, and I like that paper is usually cheaper than die-cuts.

New colours in doily and lace papers, plus a different look in those one-inch squares and a subtle cross-hatch on the far right. I’ve used their older doily papers a lot, and I love that there is a grey lace. I can’t get enough grey patterned paper.

Sidewalks is a line with a bit of a childhood theme but without being overly cartoony. There are both masculine and feminine elements in the set, and it’s just a little bit fifties without being over the top. Like this a lot and I’ll be using it on grown-up pages too, I think.

Aside from the lovely products, I just wanted to share this layout from the October Afternoon design team because the photos are so cool. I’m guessing they are the result of a mother asking her daughter to dance in the grass (although they could be professional shots – or mum could be a pro photographer. I honestly don’t know.) and the pictures look so lovely and spirited, and I think they will be very special to that dancing girl many years from now. Just cool, yeah?

Many companies have mists – at October Afternoon, they are called Sprinklers. This is the full colour line up now, so it’s pretty extensive. They are matte finish. I haven’t used these yet, but they have not one but two shades of grey, so you better believe they are on my wishlist.

Boarding Pass should be the next of these lines to hit stores, then others over the coming months. Click here to shop for October Afternoon products!.

xlovesx

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Next up, chillin’ with the gnomies from Jillibean Soup

These little label stickers are adorable, affordable and something I will definitely use by the bucketload. There’s a set to match each new collection, plus several general themes like days of the week, birthdays and general happiness. The individual stickers are a nice size and not the same as all the other labels out there, so they will complement your existing collection. (What? You don’t have a label collection? Sure you don’t.)

Christmas Eve Chowder has penguins and a mix of red and pink plus robin’s egg blue and spring green. (This ‘whimsical’ colour scheme was popular around the show floor this year.)

The valentine line (though it wouldn’t necessarily need to be for valentine pages) includes lots of kraft backgrounds. Gorgeous. But then there’s this one specific paper:

Woodgrain? On kraft? WITH TINY LITTLE HEARTS? Oh yes. Must-have.

Sweet & Sour Soup is my favourite as a whole collection. There are brightly coloured typewriters but also grey graph paper, this lovely matte finish to the cardstock stickers and just generally lots of patterns that are not for one specific theme but balance a unique look with being nice and easy to use. Looking forward to working with these papers.

A collection inspired by quilts. Love that layout from their design team.

Very pretty minibook. I may have been lured in by the woodgrain, but the whole book was a treat.

That particular woodgrain is from this collection, which is autumn and home themed. With garden gnomes in the best way possible: cute but not crazily all over the place.

Pretty flowers made from scraps, buttons and wire. Would make a lovely something for the table or a windowsill, right?

And a make and take clip that sticks to your fridge with a magnet. Here’s a look at that project so you can make it at home!

(At the beginning of the video, there is a moment of big-time blurry when someone walked into me, but you don’t miss anything in the visual there so I left it in so you can hear the audio. The rest is not going to win me any prizes for cinematography, but you should be able to see the project, and that’s what counts, right?)

Jillibean’s new collections will be hitting stores in a few weeks.
Click here to shop for Jillibean Soup scrapbooking products!

xlovesx

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