CHA Recap and Dream Come True (almost)

I had a fabulous time at CHA in Anaheim! I got to stay with my parents, hang out with some wonderful scrappy friends, and see some exciting new products. Being a paper, hybrid, and digital scrapper I’ll give you a run-down from both sides of the scrappy fence. Here are some of my favorite new paper products:

-Cosmo Cricket
-We Are Memory Keepers
-American Crafts
-Jilibean Soup (new this year)
-Black River Designs (new this year)
-Bella Blvd (also new)

And some exciting things are happening in digi-land:
Scrapblog has acquired some awesome paper-products-turned-digital like Cosmo Cricket, Anna Griffin, Crate Paper, Bam Pop, Pink Paislee, and Pebbles Inc. Not to mention some of my fav digi designers are there, too: Designer Digitals, Little Dreamer Designs, Peppermint Creative, and Rhonna Farrer.

Digital Scrapbook Artist is a brand new software+content program very much like photoshop, but much more user friendly. This program will appeal to the beginner and the advanced digi scrapper, plus it’s half the cost of Photoshop Elements. You can even use other digital elements and papers with it too.(Stay tuned for a tutorial and give away soon!)
Memory Mixer has also acquired some wonderful new paper products and turned them digital: SEI and Melissa Frances to name a few. They just released version 3 for Mac and PC.
Now…allow me to explain what exactly I was doing at CHA. You see I received an email from Jennafer Martin just before Christmas inviting me to be a Simple Gal for 2009. Of course I was elated and ran around the house squealing about my scrappy dream come true. In early January they were prepping to announce the 2009 team when there was a delay and then we all got the sad news that the magazine was ceasing publication and rolling into Creating Keepsakes. Well…I already had a pass with CK Media and a plane ticket so I decided to go anyway. I’m so glad I did because I met some wonderful and super talented people. Lisa Dickinson and Emilie Ahern were also almost 2009 Simple Gals and I was so happy to hang out with them! I also had the pleasure of meeting some other Simple ladies and the fabulous Sande Krieger, digital and paper designer extraordinaire and all-around cool lady.
I spent some time walking and networking with Kayla Lamoreaux. I wish I could sit and soak up her amazing digital talent, knowledge, and business savvy. Digital scrappers are lucky to have people like her building bridges and closing the gap between the digital and paper worlds. (See her pointing to an amazing project by our friend, Becky Olsen, at the Ranger booth?) I also spent some time walking the floor with some of my scrappy friends from CO (and other places) and we went to lunch at PF Changs…that was yummy! I attended the 2 peas cupcake social where my friend and cupcake fanatic, Rachel Carlson, almost won the cupcake eating contest. You go girl! After that I went to dinner with some fellow peas at a yummy restaurant where I was intrigued to find some cute little orangey-yellow flower petals in my Caprese Salad.
And then there was Vanna.
And Jane Seymore.

And Paris. But I’m gonna pretend that one never happened. 😉