CHA Supershow Bound

Yeah! It's July 30, and the craft ladies and I are headed to Rosemont, IL, a mere 2 1/4 hours away. Why?

Yes, it's today!  The CHA Super Show.  For as close as we have lived to this each year, this is the first year we all decided we should go.  At the end of CHA, for which for must be a member to enter, they have a huge vendor fair of sorts.  We are attending day 1 of the Super Show.

Photos and stories to follow!  First stop: Sweet Tomatoes in Lombard!  Yummo.

MISA's last hop and S-A-S

Yesterday, I got to do one of my favorite things: go to my amiga, Karen's, house and participate in Stamp-A-Stack.  She provides the designs, the papers, the adhesive, the atmosphere, I provide $$ and my wonderful disposition, and I walk away with my crafty juices revived and with 10 cards (2 of 5 designs).

You have heard me say before that she's a busy gal, and updating her blog has not been high on her priority list (and with good reason), therefore, I present to you her five designs from our time together.  I don't have specs, but I do know that she used sets and papers from the new SU! catalog.

And now for something completely different...well, maybe only partially different, but then I would not be able to use one of my favorite Python lines...

The last two persons being awarded the title Most Influential Scrapbooker by Ella Publishing.  I have to say, I had not heard of Shimelle Laine, but now that I have, WHEW!  She is a stitch!  I spent a long time on her blog, as she hyperlinked her giveaway post with many worthwhile detours.  I'm definitely going to start following her!  FUN-NY!  She also does quite a bit of business with online workshops, so I may have to check one or two of them out.  If you're hemming and hawing, just watch her video about why she scrapbooks.  I swear, it will be worth a few minutes.

And last, but without a doubt NOT least, a person whose Simple Scrapbooks magazine led me into a whole different stratosphere of belief in what I could do as an archiver of events, the brilliant Stacy Julian.  A list without Stacy would be like a list without Becky Higgins.  {Oh wait!  Yep, that was totally planned.  I am a little miffed about BH's absence on this list.  I cannot lie.}  In all seriousness, Stacy went from Simple Scrapbooks to Big Picture Scrapbooking, which are both responsible for my stalker-level appreciation for Cathy Zielske and many a scrapbook page for my posterity.  Thank you, Stacy.

She has some pretty stinking cool stuff on her post, but the coolest of them all is this>>>

Seriously.  It says "admission is free."  See why she rocks?  Yup.

Keep on hopping....

Today's leg of the tour takes us to two women that have seemingly different styles.  I have seen Margie Romney-Aslett's stuff here and there.  She's more vintage, and, for lack of a better word, "girlie," than I, but she definitely has talent.  Her site, The Girl's Loft, was created with her two daughters, and offers kits, ideas, and lots of other goodness.

If you have done anything in the world of digital scrapbooking, even just read about it to see if you wanted to get your feet wet, you have heard the name Renee Pearson.  She was once the editor of Digital Scrapbooking magazine, but has moved on to offering many online classes and such.  Like Jessica Sprague, she offers quite a bit of learning for the Photoshop novices among us (like moiself).

So, go to their sites and leave some comments!  They each have 10 fantastic giveaway prizes!

Blog Hop Madness!

First, a blog-o-versary!  Congrats to Ann Cox, whose Creative Antics blog has kept us entertained for two years running.  Love her Clean and Simple cards!  She's having a giveaway, so take a stroll on over and leave her some good wishes while you're there browsing through her wide variety of cards.

Second, the MISA Blog Tour Continues!  Yesterday, the two highlighted scrapbookers were Noell Hyman and Jenni Bowlin.  I had not heard of Noell before, and I must say, she has a LOT out there in cyber-scrapland.  It's worth it to take a nice walk through her blog, and get to know her business, Paperclipping.  Is there really anyone in the world of crafting who doesn't know Jenni Bowlin?  Vintage with a capital "V."  In my scrapbooking yesterday, on Max's graduation page, that little BINGO card with the word GROW on it?  Yep, that's Jenni.  She was a little late updating her blog yesterday due to travel, so her giveaways are still going until Thursday.  Noell has chosen her winners and has posted them on her blog.

Third, today's superstar scrapbookers: Jessica Sprague and Maggie Holmes.  You might remember Jessica from this little ol' blog last summer.  I took a free class of hers...I didn't finish because life got in the way, but...it...never...expires.  Yes, you read that right.  It was free, and she's not going to boot me off because it takes me a year to finish everything I do lately.  Yes, she's listed as one of my favorite peeps to the right as well.  She does FABULOUS online tutorials, and she is reasonable in what she charges for her digital media.  Stop by her blog, and she even offers a coupon for $5!  And, for those attending the CHA Vendor Summer Supershow July 30 in Rosemont, IL, she has a code for $$ off registration for that!

I am sure I have seen products from Maggie Holmes, but I am a blank as to what they were.  She mentions having layouts in Creating Keepsakes, so you know I have seen them at one point or another.  Apparently from her blog, she is very knowledgeable in the area of photography, so I sure should get cozy with that blog!  And, lo and behold, she has autism links on her site.  So she loves someone with autism spectrum disorder, too!  I'll be diving a bit more into her areas of interest, but for now, hop on over to her blog and make a comment for a chance to win!

Project Life Smorgasbord

I did a LOT of scrapbooking today.  I started in the morning, when it was raining and bleh, and then I continued here and there throughout the day, because, come on, who is given time to just work straight through?  It did feel quite marathonish, however, in all good ways.  So, here you are (drum roll...).  Click on the pics for a closer view:

Giving credit where credit is due

I have done my share of commentary of my feelings toward Steve Jobs.  That behind me, I have to praise this little piece of sunshine... my iPhone4.

I know.  It's just a phone.  Yes.  But, allow me to give you a piece of my thought process over at least the last year.  I have kicked around getting a point-and-shoot that I could carry with me, as having the Nikon strapped around my neck is not always convenient.  When I want pictures that POP, absolutely.  But when something comes up in my every day, not so much.  I have an older Cool Pix, but was never 100% happy with my use of it (I think the camera is fine... it was my use of it as a photog that lacked... or at least that's my story).  I was also looking at purchasing a Flip video camera for those ever so cute things that happen in life that require everyone on Facebook to see.  My first gen iPhone had no video, so I was looking in to other options.  Note on cost: a point-and-shoot was looking to run me between $150 and $200 if I got a decent one on sale.  A Flip video... depended on the ads for the week... usually ran between $100-150 depending on the quality of video I wanted.

Sometimes, friends, it's good to wait.

My iPhone 4 is about as big as a standard iPod.  It takes amazing pictures.  It has the same limitations as a typical point-and-shoot as far as optical zoom.  You want a good zoom that's not super pixelated when printed at 300 dpi?  Use the Nikon not the point-and-shoot.  However, I just printed some day-to-day shots and, I have to say, WOW.  Just WOW.

The video is pretty great, too, although I must say we have been pretty spastic with it.  You have to be cautious as to how you hold it... you can actually video upside down (ask me how I know).  And, it saves the video in HD in .mov format.  What does that mean?  Large file sizes that have to be converted if you plan to edit, unless you use iMovie itself.  However, it works for our purposes.

So, there you have it.  One of the reasons, as a scrapbooker, that I love this phone.  $199 rather than $300 for two different pieces of equipment, and the same bang for the buck.  This merely scratches the surface of what this little baby can do!

Ella Publishing

Back in January, I mentioned a new love of mine: Ella Publishing.  I dig Ella and the name it is making for itself in the industry.  Plus, I can see the smiling faces of the gals whom I used to see on the pages of Simple Scrapbooking (sigh).

Ella has named its first nominees for the "Most Influential Scrapbooker Awards."  Now the fun begins!  On Ella's blog and the blogs of these wonderfully talented scrapbookers, for the next few days, they will have a blog tour.  They introduce the scrapbooker with a brief bio and send you to the scrapbooker's site.  That's where you can take a peek at the site/blog, as well as have a chance to win some SERIOUSLY fabulous prizes.  Ella's blog itself also offers some fun.  To comment on Ella's blog, you need to log in.  An account is free and painless, and very much worth the time.

So, the first person to be honored today?  Yes, rock goddess, Cathy Zielske.  If you have followed my blog, you know I am a HUGE fan of Cathy's.  Yeah, let's see how many tags I have for her...oh, yeah 41 (this will be 42).  All of the designs for the layouts you see using this tag are her layouts.  Cathy's blog is humorously delightful to follow.  It's about her life, not just scrapbooking.  She frequently offers some freebies just for commenting, but it's like icing on the cake of following her blog.

So head on over to Ella and Cathy's blog and see about winning some great stuff!  The giveaways take place for a limited time for each scrapbooker.  I'll try to share the spotlighted scrapbookers on this site as well.  Might even inspire some scrapping out of me!