Countdown To Valentine's Day

This time of year can cause anyone to have a drop in inspiration and creativity. To combat this drop, we want to encourage you to make some tags for the next 12 days. Today is the first one. Your tag does not have to be exactly like this one, but we hope you will use this one as a starting point at least. At the end, we will ask for you to send us your tags and we will give a great prize to someone who sends in the pics. This tag is for Monday, which will be day one. The second one will be posted Tuesday.



In the meantime, let us know if you are doing these along with us! (thanks Susie for making these great inspirational tags for the countdown)

CHA Inspiration

I hope you enjoy seeing these and that they give you some ideas too. (warning: there is music included, so mute your volume if you don't want it)

People Stalking, er I mean Watching at CHA

Just a few pics from around the halls of the show.

Cheryl Darrow getting ready for the show (Megan is there too--hidden behind her mom)



Wendy Vecchi of Studio 490. On Ranger and Maya Road design teams.


Paula Cheney with 7 Gypsies.


Debbie Crouse from 7 Gypsies.



Tim Holtz during a make and take at Ranger.


Melissa Frances of The Melissa Frances Company.

Carolyn with Lisa Pace, Maya Road design team and author as well as Caroline Lau from Maya Road.



Jenni Bowlin of Jenni Bowlin Studios.


Carolyn with Katie Watson a member of Maya Road design team.



Many people have been blogging about CHA. I think some of the best pictures I have seen are on Suze Weinberg's blog. I had a picture of her too, but her eyes were closed AND it was blurry. There are great ones on her blog though.

Later.

Whew!

Chip, the not-so-ace reporter here to let you know about the news from two days ago (wink).

So sorry about not being able to post pics and keep in touch while in California. Sadly, the internet connections we had were not very good. We will do our best to make it up to you through the rest of the week though! We did get a lot of comments, emails, FB posts, etc letting us know your thoughts on things. We tried to touch and look at as much as possible.


Here are some pics from CHA for you. (Day 2) I tried to pick out some pictures that gave the feel of the convention. All the booths decked out. Like being dressed up for a party. Trying to entice and inspire. So many cute things, so much time put into them.


New line called GIRLS PAPERIE ---- very adorable.

Some great layouts in the Advantus booth.


BRAND New book by Lisa Pace. We ordered a LOT of them for you guys. (Not sure yet on the shipping date)


Ten Seconds Studio. HOT.


7 Gypsies Goodness!

Cute print in Jillibean's booth.


Fun wall decor in Unity Stamp booth.


Graphic 45 Perfect Gentleman.


Another 7 Gypsies idea.

I have lots of pics and PROMISE to get them out here over the next few days. Thanks for staying tuned.

Non-Scrapbook Inspiration

Another piece of inspiration. An effective ad for this craft. Not sure about you, but it makes ME want to learn to knit and/or crochet.





This is a display for Lion Yarns... It takes up a size of about 15 x 15 feet. I only wish I could have gotten a better picture for you.

CHA: Day 1

The doors opened at 10:00 am and we made our way into the booths. By 6 pm when the lights went out we had ordered this:

^Ten Seconds Studio Molds & Bulk Metal which should be in the store by next weekend. Bulk will allow you to buy the metal one sheet at a time.

^Maya Road which will start shipping later this week.

^Ranger - distress inks, reinkers, distress embossing powders, embossing powders, enamel accents, perfect pearl powders, (restock & new colors)

^Advantus - Tim's Book Compendium of Curiosity, New ideology items from Tim, Really cute line of papers from Margie called A Girl's Paperie. Shipments starting early Feb.

^Stamper's Anonymous - New stamps from Tim, Wendy and some new items from Darcy. These stamps will be shipping by next weekend.

^October Afternoon - Fly a Kite and Thrift shop and Farm Fresh lines ordered.

^Simply Swank - ordered restock and some new glass shapes for you.

^Fancy Pants - four new lines, shipping in March

^Jillibean Paper - new lines and corrugated alphabet stickers

^Design Originals - great new idea books

^Flower Soft - new colors, more colors and the new ultra fine powder

^7 Gypsies - nearly everything in the catalog

On tomorrow's list are Prima, Bo Bunny, Creative Impressions, Melissa Frances, Anna Griffin, Carolee's Adorn It, Die Cuts with A View, Karen Foster, Impression Expression, KI Memories, Little Yellow Bicycle, Sandylion, Scrapbook Custom (formerly Stamping Station), SEI, Sport Solutions, Sugartree, Tapestry, Three Bugs in a Rug, Crate paper, Canvas Corp, Colorbok, Gary Burlin, and whatever else we can squeeze in.

Pictures are not uploading tonight, but I'll post when I can.

Keeping an Eye Out for Inspiration

I appreciate so many decorative endeavors. You can imagine that there are a lot of creative people here at CHA. I am always amazed when someone takes a skill and does something unexpected with it.

I hope to share more of these with you, but had to post this one for you today. Check out these balloon flowers. So bright and cheerful. I thought they were quite cute. They are being used as a divider between an aisle and a crafting area. Practical and yet provide a diversion for the eye.

Real Wood

This evening, we attended the Creative Imaginations show party. The company provided supper, meeting with the sales representatives for ordering, and several make and takes with their design team.



The theme was Real Wood. A product they are introducing this show is wood to be used in crafting. It was a feature of many of the make and takes. It is very thinly cut wood in different styles and sizes. We think you will enjoy working with it in your projects. As you can see, they did several projects with it. It is so hard to really appreciate it in the pictures sadly.



Other products that we ordered from Creative Imaginations include LuminArte Twinkling H20 and Mudd Puddles.

Luminarte Twinkling H20 is not a new product for us, but it is an updated product. It not only comes in the little pots now, but is now sold as a spray and a dauber. The spray and dauber are a thin liquid, water based with lots of sparkle. Yes, we played with these in make and takes too. The pots work like they always have and if you have used them, you know they can add a lot to stamping and other art work.



Mudd Puddles is a product that applies like a textured thick glue, but is sand. The company describes it as a frosting texture. This picture shows it as little sea horses, it is hard to tell exactly how it looks in our picture, but their website shows it better.



What are your thoughts?

California!

We made it! It was raining here, but cleared up this evening. We found our way to the convention center. The actual show we will be doing our ordering at does not start until Sunday morning, however, there is a retail craft show going on today and tomorrow. We paid to attend the retail show and walked around to see what it was like.

Here is Crafty Chica aka Megan Darrow. This was set up at a booth in the show for pictures. Cheryl Darrow was demonstrating at one of the booths, so we got to see and touch the Kabuka molds. As with nearly everything, they are even better in real life than on-line.



The Crafty Secrets group was set up at this show. They have some really cute stuff out new too. Check more out here. We will visit them in the trade show and get our hands on it for y'all.



We also ran into Cheryl Mezzetti. AND what was she wearing? The domino necklace that Carolyn made for her when she was at our store last year! How about that?



We have received emails from some of you letting us know your thoughts on the sneak peeks all the manufacturers have been showing on their web sites. Feel free to leave comments here too. We will get to touch and feel it starting Sunday morning and will let you know what we see.

Rain & Mud & Fun...

...well, according to the news, there is so much rain in Southern California that mudslides are starting and flights are being delayed. We will be on our way there anyway this morning with umbrellas and other items to keep us dry. (The picture above is from the Los Angeles Times On Line Newspaper.)

The Craft & Hobby Association Show (CHA) is going on. Although it seems that everyone is putting out sneak peeks, I think there will still be a LOT of stuff not shown yet. Plus, we need to touch it and see it in person, not just see it in magazines and catalogs.



A couple of other peeks that you may want to take a look at are Pink Paislee, Sassafrass Lass, Wendy Vecchi stamps with Stamper's Anonymous and of course Tim's papers were revealed Thursday and more that is not coming to mind this early in the morning.





We can still take pre-orders for Tim's dies and embossing folders today, but then we have to turn in the order. We will have some in the store, but can't guarantee who can get them, so the pre-order is the best way to do it IF you want to be sure you have them in April.



And now just a peek of some non-product cuteness :)

Maya Road Catalog

I will not even try to put a picture of the catalog on our blog. It is so easy to see them all over at Maya Road's blog here

I hope you will also take some time to be inspired by the blogs and items made by their design team members. Oh, the fun we'll have when we get our hands on the new stuff here!

(Yes, this is from their last release, but we like them a lot!)

NOW, you may or may not know, that in the past, when Carolyn headed off to CHA to search for treasure, Sherri did some playing in the store. Usually, she would move displays around and adjust things in the store in preparation for the new items coming from the CHA adventure. Well, this year, Sherri is going with Carolyn to CHA.


So, what will happen in the store? (thank you for asking) The Ten Seconds Studio wall has been prepped for addition of new metals and molds already. Spaces have been cleared in the other sections for new papers and goodies. Racks and cabinets have been set up with the hopes of new items. (Don't freak out when you see the blank spots) However, the Maya Road corner and the cardstock area has NOT been prepped yet. This will have to wait until after CHA.

(a picture of how the coffee bar looked 5 years ago)

All of this story is to reassure you. To let you know that extra space will be made for all the goodies you see on this catalog. and to let you know... We'll let you know as soon as they get to the store, even if their space is not ready!

PS: You have to see the new molds that Ten Seconds Studio just posted on their blog. (see below)

and Still More....

I don't know what sites you have been roaming to see all the 'sneak peeks' of new products. There are a lot of them aren't there.



These are new molds by Ten Seconds Studio . We are expecting a shipment. We had a couple of them to look at, but sold them before we could post them.



They also came out with some new metal colors which we will share with you at the store. We also have some new techniques to show you in using the metals. You could watch their videos for some new techniques if you want as well.



no end in sight to the new stuff...so see ya... Later!

Edited late this evening to add:

Cheryl just posted the new Kabuka molds and you will LOVE them! Go over and take a look.

More...

Well, as you can imagine, the Valentine's area needed more paper and we have accommodated that today.



We received Best Creations "Love Story" line. Very sparkly-of course.

We also received all 30 new colors of 12 x 12 inch Glitter paper AND the 15 new colors of their 8 1/2 by 12 inch Glitter Stickers. Both of those can be cut in the Cricut. The glitter sticker is like their paper with the additional feature of being one big sticker. So those little shapes you want to cut out will already have a sticky back. Cool huh?



In addition, we also received their newest lines "Mr & Mrs", "Once Upon A Dream" and "Transportation". These are their new CHA releases. Check them out here.

Is that all, you say? Well no, so stay tuned for more...