For some reason it was considered lucky to say “White Rabbit” before uttering any other words on March 1st. I have no idea why. It’s kinda like throwing a pinch of salt over your left shoulder if you spill some. I’m sure there’s a long forgotten, and probably quite sensible reason for some of these oddball things we do without even thinking about why we do them. I have to admit though, I never remember to say White Rabbit on the first of March. My first words are usually, “why did you set the alarm”, or “oh no, it’s morning already!” whatever day of the month it might be.
Sorry it’s taken me so long to blog again. I promised an update about CHA, but I was very underwhelmed this year. That’s not to say there weren’t some great products, there were – this is a creative industry after all, but even though I loved the show, I left it a little flat this time. I’ve been going to this trade show since 1991, so, as you can imagine, I have seen a lot of creativity over the years and some years are just more exciting than others.
There are always lots of demos at the show and one of the most exciting was Barb Bosler’s glass etching demo in the Quickutz booth. I did a presentation on the technique for a recent series of Scrapbook Memories. I used the Silhouette to create my own stencil, then used the etching cream to etch the design on a float glass frame. I’ve been a fan of this etching product for a long time and I love being able to create my own stencil. As a decorative painter I used the dip’n etch liquid to etch glass plates then I’d decorate them. You might have seen my book, Garden of Glassware published by Leisure Arts which featured a number of etched glass projects. I digress as usual – back to the show. Wendy at Tattered Angels is doing a terrific job with her product line. It’s fun, innovative and creative. She has added so many new and exciting things this year. Another favourite product is the Crafters’ Companion. It’s a British company from “up North” which is my neck of the woods, but honestly I’m not biased – they won a CHA award for their product, so I’m not the only one who thought it was just “brilliant”.
Overall I would say that the show has become much more “crafty” in the past few years. When scrapbooking started to gain national popularity in the mid 90’s, there was a definite division between scrapbookers and crafters. I’m not sure why. To me scrapbooking was just another craft like knitting, card making, or decorative painting. It was all about being creative in whatever medium one liked to use. Just my personal opinion of course. I am a crafter – I love all kinds of creativity. I can sew, draw, paint, knit, crochet, tat (with a shuttle), embroider both with threads and silk ribbon and of all the books I wrote, I have to say that “Seaside Treasures” was my favourite. All the projects were created with shells. I have collected shells from every beach I’ve walked along since I was old enough to know what they were and I just adore Sailor’s Valentines. These are mosaic type pictures created entirely with shells by sailors for the loved ones they left behind when they set sail. Okay, I’m digressing again – back to the show. Each year it’s becoming more crafty. There is SO much you can with paper, and yes I love paper crafting too. Scrapbooking is, however, a part of my love of photography. I received my first camera at age 11 and I have been taking photographs ever since. I won’t say for how long. Suffice to say it was a Brownie Reflex camera and used 620 film. I bet most of you don’t even know what that was……….. I now own a digital camera (and, yes, I still have my 35mm), but because of digital photography and from using publishing programs on my Mac to write books, I have learned how creative we can be with a computer. I have to say that with Adobe programs I have found my “element” – gotta get a pun in there somewhere. Forms of paper crafting have been around, probably since paper was invented. Découpage springs to mind and, do you remember Paper Tole from the 70’s. That was 3-D paper crafting and so much fun. We also used to create pop-up cards and origami animals, etc. I think I made about 100 swans one year for Christmas. Mine weren’t totally traditional though, I seem to remember adding feathers and glitter – no right way or wrong way when we’re crafting, right, it’s all about creativity. Yes, I know, I digressed again.
I also went PMA this year. This is a trade show for photographers. I spent time drooling over cameras at Canon, Fuji, Nikon and Olympus, but there was also a lot of other interesting products to see. The photography market seems as if it should be a natural sibling for the scrapbooking market since scrapbooks are all about photographs and the stories they illustrate. The only product that seemed to cross over, however, was albums. Canon exhibited at CHA too, but the focus was more on their creative website and printers. I wonder if they think that cameras are unimportant to scrapbookers….. just a thought.
Yours truly,
Julie 
