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

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Right about now is when I should start to panic in the 4×6 Photo Love class. Beyond the half-way point means it only gets tougher to add that extra photo to the layout each month, but actually I’m quite excited about all the extra tricks we can throw in now to create plenty of space for all those 4×6 shots. You can check out the newest edition now, with seven 4×6 photos on a single page layout.

This month’s page appears to just have two photos at first glance, but there are indeed seven, plus a 4×6 journaling card too. They are hidden behind the photo on the left, which opens up like this…

…with photos on both sides, creating plenty of room. I still use page protectors with pages like this, but just create a window in the protector so the folded section can be opened. You can watch the entire process, from layout to page protector, in this month’s video:

Neither layout this month is on kraft cardstock – shocking, I know! One is travel themed but the other uses a stack of photos from our wedding reception that I have been meaning to scrap for ages but I kept putting it off because it was a big stack of images that wouldn’t ordinarily go on one layout. But I love how they can all live on one page now!

This month, the lovely Julie Kirk is my special guest and she adapted the page design to feature landscape photographs. I love the colours and patterns she used on this page.

But this is so very clever! She explains her process for the rope ladder technique here, so you can try it too. Thank you for joining me, Julie!

Every month, there are two ways to win a prize for participating in 4×6 Photo Love! The first is at Two Peas: create your page and upload it to the gallery. Be sure to tick the box for this challenge in step four of the upload process. One participant will win a gift certificate to Two Peas to go shopping for whatever you like. But there’s a second chance to win right here: on this post, leave a comment with a link to your page (in the gallery at Two Peas or on your blog, whatever you prefer) and one of those links will win Two Peas shopping money too! The deadline for both is the 29th of August.

Congratulations to Connie for winning the draw for last month’s six photo class! (Connie, you will receive your gift certificate by email.) Will you be next? Just choose seven 4×6 photos to scrap and follow along with this month’s class prompt.

xlovesx

PS: Feel free to grab the button there on the left for your blog or to share this class with a friend – since it’s free, the more the merrier! And you’re welcome to use any supplies and any photos, so there’s no boundaries to your scrapping with this year-long project.

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Finally, the very last of my summer CHA posts! All the brand new things from Jenni Bowlin Studio. First up, the treat box! It comes with the dividers and the inside surfaces are covered with a non-themed pattern and then you can add whatever you like, to use it as a display or storage piece. Store owners can even use this near the till for last-minute sales of small items.

Jenni also has new products in her Jenni Bowlin for Ranger collection. I’ll let her introduce those to you herself:

(Thanks, Jenni!)

On to the paper collections! The first full holiday collections from JBS. A vintage Halloween line mixes with the existing products, like the mini bingo cards.

I love that the papers may be vintage in design but they work perfectly with modern photos and the colours are crisp and bold.

Speaking of vintage, how amazing are these vintage boxes in Jenni’s display? They are about a hundred years old and were for tobacco, but I love how they say ‘scrap’!

These mini spools came out at the winter show, but I had never thought of using them for a minibook spine.

For the Christmas collection, vintage themes with bold colours, just like the Halloween collection. This is definitely going to be in my Christmas journal, and I love that shade of green for the lettering.

Also new to the collection are foam stamps to go with the paint dabbers. Borders, backgrounds and butterflies? I’m in.

What is this? I have no idea! And of course I asked. It’s super secret… but I am intrigued!

Click here to shop for Jenni Bowlin products!

xlovesx

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I always love the Hambly booth – a big aqua-coloured box of happiness in the form of transparency, washi tapes and funky projects.

My sadness of the discontinued camera paper from Studio Calico that I loved so much was somewhat remedied by this new print from Hambly. These cameras will definitely be coming to my albums soon!

Just wanted to show this layout (by Amy Tan) to highlight the background paper – silhouette designs were all over the show floor and Hambly have had these in their collections for a while. But I love how this is such a great pick for photo booth strips – whether taken in an actual booth or created with your computer or phone.

Christmas loveliness in elegant reindeer and a detailed damask, the latter of which would work throughout the year too.

Hambly’s new collections ship about seven weeks from now (eight from the show). Click here to shop for Hambly Screen Prints products!

xlovesx

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Lily Bee, just what would I have done in the last six months without your letter stickers? I ran into some members of the Lily Bee design team the very first morning of the show and my first question was Are there more colours in those amazing letter stickers? That’s how much I love them. Fabulously, the answer was yes.

And a green themed Christmas line! It’s really lovely and such a nice change. It’s called Jingle.

The LB design team shows how lovely these papers can look in your album. So very pretty.

Head over Heels is a romantic, cool-toned collection. Will work for Valentine’s Day of course but that’s not a necessity as this collection isn’t really about heart motifs. Polka dots and doilies and florals make it far more versatile.

This was my very favourite layout of all the pages on display on the entire show floor at CHA. I just love this. It’s by Cindy Liebel.

Click here to shop for Lily Bee Design products!.

xlovesx

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Echo Park has never waited for CHA to release new lines. Since they opened their doors, they have brought out a new collection every six to eight weeks to keep plenty of new designs on the shelf. They work with several different designers, so the collections have varied looks too.

Their booth didn’t have the biggest displays, so my photos are a little disappointing compared to the actual collections. There are three Christmas collections, really: your choice of either a grown-up or kids line, plus a Christmas-coloured extension of their Dots and Stripes collection, that also includes metallic silver and gold.

Plus the Happy Days collection, inspired by 50s happiness, but the papers have lots of versatile patterns that aren’t overly themed.

Although I don’t have lots of pictures to share here, I do have to chime in and say I love how it’s so easy to work with Echo Park collections. The colour schemes are always well coordinated but not completely predictable and there is a good mix of bold and subtle patterns. I find these are papers you can keep using to the very last scrap. Good stuff for scrapbooking and cardmaking.

Click here to shop for Echo Park products!

xlovesx

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Artsy stampers would love this booth, from German stamp manufacturer La Blanche. I’ve never seen such detailed stamp work, so I must admit walking around here was more like visiting an exhibition in a gallery than shopping for stamps!

See what I mean? The stamp designs themselves have these tiny yet flawless details that stamp so clearly. But admittedly: I haven’t tried these stamps. Is it in the technique or the product? Because I can’t underestimate my own personal ability to smudge a stamp. But the designs I saw demonstrated stamped absolutely perfectly.

The various examples shown used techniques like watercolour, marker and ink-pad painting to bring the images to life. They also look lovely heat embossed with a very fine detail powder.

Their stamps come on these white blocks that are very light weight – so more suitable for mail order and carrying to a craft day.

If pretty and detailed is your thing, La Blanche will be right up your street! (Google for stockists in your area. They are based in Germany but stocked by shops in the US, UK and Canada plus others.)

xlovesx

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Next up: relative newcomer TaDa Creative Studios, with clean, cute designs.

Frozen Tozen is their new winter and Christmas line, with snowy tones of blue mixed with muted reds and greens. Check out the clever sticker sheet in the bottom right corner there: if you like stickers on cards, this is perfect as you wouldn’t need to buy five sheets of stickers to make five matching cards. Also useful for cropping with friends, making repeated embellishments or class kits.

A closer look at some of the Frozen Tozen papers and some samples to show the line in action. This colour scheme was really unique at the show, as most of the Christmas collections were either bold red and green or the alternative hot pink and turquoise. If you like a bit a country tone to your Christmas, there’s a lot of potential here.

I also wanted to show you this Christmas collection – Jolly Holly Days – even though it’s not actually new. This was their 2010 Christmas collection, but I hadn’t seen it so it was new to me. The reason I like it is it would coordinate well with many older Christmas collections – AC Merrymint and the Elsie Christmas Collection for starters. I love it when you can breathe new life into existing stash by adding just a little something. So if you have lots of the cute-styled Christmas stash in your collection, give this a thought.

Fringe Benefits is a cardstock collection with fringed edges. Comes in various sizes and colours for a different texture to your papercrafting. They showed plenty of page examples, but I think this product would come into its own on cards.

Goody Two Shoes – a girly line celebrating pink hearts, cute dresses and fashionable footwear.

BFF is a teen girl line with an Indian-inspired paisley pattern.

But my favourite explanation of a line was Just Chillin’: It’s a teen boy line. But you know, without skateboards. Perfect way to sell it. (Because really, have you noticed that the scrapbook design world seems to think if you’re male and 13 to 19, you must spend the majority of your time jumping about on a board with wheels? It’s uncanny.)

Lovely to meet you, TaDa! See more on the TaDa blog.

xlovesx

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A new company with lots of energy – but is Ruby Violet an accessory line or a scrapbooking line? Well… it’s either, I suppose.

Designed by Lilla Rogers, the line includes all sorts of small kits to create wearable art. Pieces are made from metal, plastic and fabrics so it’s definitely mixed-media. Think big statement necklaces, bracelets and brooches.

But then throw in a line of stamps and a paper collection for good measure. Because you could take that big statement necklace and add it to a layout for a big statement embellishment. Makes sense – although I wonder about the price seeming a bit high for what would then go on one layout? But that might just be because I often rationalise spendy supplies by thinking I will stretch them across many pages. It doesn’t change the cost of the item – just the impression in my mind, of course!

There’s also a connection here with Prima, and that connection is a little confusing really! At first I thought it was a licensed line – Lilla Rogers was the artist but Prima were creating the products. But the rep in the booth told me Prima are only involved in the distribution – as in they don’t make the products but they have them in their warehouse. But the whole explanation was a little fuzzy so I’m not completely sure of how these two companies have decided to work together. Not that it really matters – the fact that Prima are doing the distribution means stores that stock Prima would be the first places I would check for this new collection, although I think some of the accessory kits will be too far removed from papercraft for some dedicated scrapbook stores.

Still, it’s something new and brightly coloured, and that’s all good in my book.

xlovesx

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