A Scrapbooker's Take on Summer CHA

Thanks for visiting Craft Critique! If you've come here from a search engine or from a direct link, you might be missing out on more content! Please visit CraftCritique.com. And for more amazing content such as projects, artist interviews and more, sign up for our Monthly Newsletter.

Reported By Martha Bonneau

Oh my…where to begin! For a papercrafter (scrapbooking in particular) going to CHA was akin to going to product and enabling heaven. This was my first time attending CHA and am glad it was the summer show since we were repeatedly told that the Winter show in Anaheim was easily double this size…I can’t even begin to imagine as I feel like I have been playing a full contact sport all weekend simply from walking around in amazement looking at all of the goodness that awaits us. As someone who likes to explore the funkier side of scrapping, I was happy to see that there were several trends out there that were easily adaptable to this style, but still were traditional scrapper friendly.

I have to start with one of my favorites which is the Love Elsie line by Ki memories. She is introducing another fun bright collection named Zoe which is full of her signature bright colors and doodling and features a photography theme with paper featuring little cameras on it as well as a camera shaped chipboard album.



In addition she also was premiering holiday inspired collections named Jack & Abby which were in spicy autumn colors and Noel her Christmas line.



Ki memories also had one of my other favorite new products which was their die-cut 12 x 12 paper. I have to say I didn’t see anything else like this by any other vendor. In talking to them, they mentioned that this product would be shipped individually wrapped as to prevent damage on the store shelf…genius!



I am happy to report that felt is still going strong. By far my favorite new item was the package of die-cut felt sheets by Fancy Pants. They are 12 x 12 sheets of felt that come in packages of 4 in 4 colors. If you are familiar with their 12 x 12 sheets of die-cut chipboard, it is very similar to this product. They did an excellent job of providing samples of how you could use this product as not only a scrapping product, but also how to use it in home décor projects. I can see this flying off the shelves!





Queen & Co. premiered many new styles of their felt die-cut ribbon and I am happy to report that there is now adhesive backing on some of this product. Many scrappers were at a loss as how to adhere this product to their layouts and this has now been solved. After premiering their first line of this product, they have now been able to produce more intricate designs this time around which has allowed them to offer several more patterns including holiday ones.


I could go on and on about felt as it was everywhere, happily I can report that this trend appears to be around for a while longer.

Nature & woodland inspired themes on scrapping products are still going strong. We have been seeing owls & other birds for a while now and they are still around this season. Sassafras Lass premiered their Whale of a Tale line and in addition to pirate owls(!) they are also featuring sea-life in the form of whales and seahorses…very cool and very unique. I love the doodling-inspired waves on this line.



I have been in pursuit of items with mushrooms on them for a while and was delighted to find them in Li’l Davis Designs booth. This line is so fun and colorful and covers all of the trends out there with the funky mushrooms, the felt embellies and the chipboard album…well done! In addition, all of the papers in this line are double sided, the back of each paper features recipe cards…c’mon how cool is that?!




Other standouts were the Madera collection by sei with a stylized tree motif and warm fall colors. Some of the papers in this collection feature flocking


I *love* the tree on this paper by Scenic Route...


Fun trees & wood grain at Hambly Screen Prints...




Crafty touches have been finding their way onto layouts in various ways lately, and one of the most prevalent trends at the show was through crocheted accents. These were at Anna Griffin...


The Bohemia line by My Minds Eye featured several different colors to match their new lines...


This was a trend we saw repeatedly throughout the show and was being offered by several different companies.

Clear product and transparencies are hot! Of course the prevailing leader of this trend is Hambly and they had no shortage of fun new product to inspire us. Love these transparencies with the new brick pattern.


Fun circles


They were also premiering new rub-ons at this show as well.


It was interesting to see some of the more mainstream companies offering transparencies as a part of their lines at the show.

Clear albums were being offered by several vendors this time. Maya Road is offering these sheer albums that would be so much fun to work with.


Picture It Pageframe is offering several clear albums this season. They did the best job at providing examples on how to use this kind of album as I can see it as being a little intimidating to some scrappers. Kudos to their design team!





Surprisingly skulls were still everywhere and appear to be a continuing trend. Not only were we finding them on Halloween collections, but on pirate inspired collections as well. Standouts were the pirate Princess line by Rusty Pickle.


These Clearly Defined stamps by Printworks...


Martha Stewart loves skulls…who knew?!




Cute skulls at Sassafras Lass...


Skulls are even featured throughout Die Cuts With a View’s new Rockstar collection which we were told was selling very well…they were everywhere!

Just a few more random hightlights
Ribbon by Luxe Designs, so much fab new stuff in their lines…yummy!



Cream City Ribbon….100% natural ribbon made from cotton that is 100% biodegradable! Comes in 12” strips or on spools and is available with or without an adhesive back.




American Crafts thickers in vinyl…so cool, looks like leather.



Marah Johnson’s Halloween line for Creative Imaginations...




Paisley ghosts at Paper Salon...



Cool little chipboard album at Urban Lily...


My credit card and I eagerly await the arrival of each of these new products!