Becky Higgins' Project Life booth at CHA Winter 2013 was an island of organized little white boxes in the midst of the colorful sea of all of the paper and embellishments on display in the other manufacturer's booths. Everything about the Project Life booth- from the video screens playing a short introductory movie to the product displays themselves screamed that there was something different about this approach to scrapbooking, and it was interesting to step back and just watch retailers' reactions as Becky and her booth staff introduced them to the concept.
I had hoped that sample core kits would be on display in the booth and open to allow all of the journaling cards for each new collection to be seen, but instead the core kits were sealed and sample albums available for a few of the editions, instead, so I took pictures of what I could, and the rest can be seen in the Project Life catalog on Becky's site.
We'll kick things off with the Jade Edition, a lovely mix of greens and blues with pops of contrasting reds and yellows as accents.
The Midnight Edition was designed by Liz Tamanaha (Paislee Press) and is my favorite of the bunch! Hopefully American Crafts will come out with smaller packs of just the journaling cards in the future for those of us who only use the kits in small amounts in our Project Life albums, but in the meantime there's always the option of splitting kits with other scrapbooking friends!
The Honey Edition was designed by none other than Lori Whitlock and reflects her signature bright and graphic style.
The Kraft Edition has a deeper base color for the cards and more muted colors.
The Rain Edition has a more masculine feel to it...
...and the Blush Edition is definitely all girl!
If you need a boy-ish style for your album but the blues and purples in Rain aren't your thing, then the Cinnamon Edition might be right up your alley!
There are several mini-kits available, as well, covering themes like holidays, school, and babies.
There are lots of albums to choose from, as well, in a variety of colors and styles.
There are premium faux-leather albums available, which will probably be a more durable route than the paper-bound ones that were designed for each edition. I was rather disappointed to see these paper albums, actually, since the one that came with my original Cherry Edition kit a few years ago had a few scratches and a small puncture on it within just a few weeks of use. The albums in the booth were also already starting to show a little wear, so I'd definitely recommend going the premium route for these!
And of course there's a whole collection of page protectors in different sizes and configurations to help fill your album!
There are very few accessories to the Project Life line (the emphasis is on very simple scrapbooking, after all!), but you will find solid cardstock packs for each edition in both 4x6 and 3x4 sizes, along with a matching set of divider tabs.
The new Project Life editions are due to ship in May, and it will be interesting to see which retailers pick up this collection to carry as regular stock. In the meantime, older Project Life designs can be purchased on Amazon.