Amanda Rose Zampelli | the blog

my time @ CHA 2015

I've wrote about getting to go. I posted one of the videos I was in. I wrote about outfits I wore. I wrote about when I met Amy Tangerine. This post is all the rest about my time at CHA 2015 that I wanted to get down before a new month begins and it becomes "something I did a few weeks/months ago".

I spent most of my time at the me & my BIG ideas booth (which you can see more of here). I took tons of photos, revealed new products via instagram, and talked with visitors and potential buyers. On the opposite end of the room housing the Tradeshow was the We R Memory Keepers booth. I often walked my way over to creep and stalk my Love Notes collection that was on display. I touched the paper and posed like a ham.

We had blisty.com, scrapbook.com, and Noell Hyman from paperclipping.com visit the booth and shoot video starring yours truly. It was nervous wreck, but I felt ready. Speaking about product and talking craft & hobby is something I hope is a part of my career for years and years to come. To have the show be my first real exposure to that was awesome.  With each video, I got more relaxed in front of the camera, and I wished I could have done more!

Two things about my time at CHA were my favorite. The first thing was being with and meeting so many creative ladies who share my passion for this industry. We talked memory keeping, the lengths we scrapbookers go to get good photos, products we liked from each company, how to get into mixed media, and many other things only people that love to MAKE understand.

The second thing about CHA that was my favorite was the profound sense of being where I belonged. I was amongst other creatives who enjoy paper and images as much as me, and have an intense desire to express themselves through craft, and who understand how a 'making' hobby can make a happy life. 

In short - CHA was OMG, and I am so grateful for the amazing start it gave me to this new year. ♥

The story of how I met Amy Tangerine.

If you follow my instagram account @amandarosezamp, and followed my weekend at CHA 2015, then you've probably read this short story. It went something like this:

"Walked to her booth. Got shy. Managed to say hello. Posed for pic. Told her she's my inspiration. Thanked her for her sweet email she wrote me a while back right when I needed it. She told me she bought my paper line: "the one with the pineapples." My heart did a cartwheel. Then Jack Archibald gave me a pound 👊 and a kiss 😘. That's the story of how I met Amy Tangerine."

I hope to one day be on her level. I hope to design line after line and products and more products for a company/companies in this industry until my fingers can't craft anymore! I want to do what this lady does, and because of the inspiration she has been to me, I've gotten farther this past year than I ever thought I would pursing design as a career.

Amy, you motivate me to keep going. You motivate me to trust in my creativity and believe in what I have to offer.  Thank you for paving the way. Thank you for sharing your journey, as it helps me along my journey. Thank you to the moon for your kind words and spirit. You're a class act, Miss Amy Tangerine, and I only hope to pay it forward. ♥

Awkward Family Photo

Oh, that silly photo! Olya (@paintpaperstudio), myself, Stephanie, and Ali were walking around CHA 2015 when we stopped and all purposefully looked at the same point in the sky. We were poking fun a couple of hours before this photo about how that sometimes happens, and so here we are, making sure it did. ;)

I've been in the me & my BIG ideas office the past few days getting work done and drooling over new product ( did you see this video?) and talking about updating the mambi blog, and I squeezed some time to create this layout.

It will work perfectly for the new Instagram Challenge that mambi launched with the hashtag #mambiREDandPINK. You can head to their blog to read about it, but basically if you create art with any red and/or pink mambi product and post it to instgram with that hashtag, your work could be featured on the blog the day before Valentine's Day. Sounds simple and fun enough, especially if you do that anyway.

Here's to crafting! ...and instagram! ...and color challenges! ...and Fridays! Always Fridays. ♥ ♥ ♥

the outfits I wore to CHA & thoughts

Here are three outfits I wore this past wekeend at CHA. I wish the I had worn the first outfit on the second day because my Nana's lucky red pants (see middle photo) ended up in all the videos I filmed for mambi. That's no big deal, but I'll know for next time to wear my 'best CHA-OUTfit' on day two. I also wish I had gone with a completely different look on the third day, and put my hair back in a sleek bun, but what's done is done.

Not wearing heels was a great idea - as we were on our feet all day. My low brown boots looked Cali-winter cute with my day one and three dresses. My fanny pack was both a lifesaver and a nuisance. It held a lot of things (namely my two cell phones to keep on top of all the social media work I needed to do) which was good - because it was with me at all times and provided good access, but was annoying because by day's end my lower back was killing me from it.

I suppose Batman felt the same way wearing his utility belt, and it's all in a superhero's day's work. ;)  

my new planner & the video from CHA 2015 by scrapbook.com

At the end of this post I left you in suspense about a planner that was hitting the market and would be my new planner now that my Erin Condren Life Planner has come to its end. Working for me & my BIG ideas, I knew they were developing a planner system that would be hitting store shelves this spring, but hadn't seen the planner until this past weekend at the show, and man! am I excited to start crafting in it (as I know all of you are as well).

The video above (featuring me - so funny!) gives an overview of the planner, add-ons, and embellishments mambi has created for their system. Thanks for watching! ♥ Amanda

CHA, HERE I COME!

I'm not quite sure if I can write this post without choking up, but here it goes...

I landed in Anaheim, California yesterday and for the next three days I shall be attending my first ever CHA MEGA Show (also known as The Craft & Hobby Association Conference & Tradeshow). I will be stationed in the me & my BIG ideas booth since (DUH!) I work for mambi, but also hope to stop by the We R Memory Keepers booth and get an eyeful of my two paper collections I created with them in the spring of last year.

I get choked up about it because I think back to three years ago. Three years ago around this time, I was 4.5 months into my job (career!) as a classroom teacher that I worked and prayed so hard for years to get, only to realize the work weakened me and I wanted out. Then, in my throws of "what do I do? what do I do?", I stumbled upon the images of January 2012's CHA Show on instagram.

Mind. Blown.

I researched about the tradeshow, I looked up what booths were there, watched the whole weekend via social media, and knew (like that song) this is where I wanna be. I couldn't believe that people got together in a venue as big as a convention center (!!!) to love and appreciate everything about an industry I so adored. These people were just like me! ...and furthermore, the tradeshow meant that people were making a living from craft & hobby! It could be a job! It could be my job!! It was where I belonged, I decided, and I've been persuing it ever since.

That was three years ago, and today it's pretty amazing I get to attend. ♥ I might've even bought a few new pieces of apparel for the occassion. Hee hee! ;) If you'd like to follow along on my CHA adventure, you can do so via my instagram @amandarosezamp. I'll see you there and happy weekend!