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...

More...

Little Yellow Bicycle's Valentine line "Sweet Love" came into the store today. The papers in this line are all glittery and double sided.

Also, the full line of Basic Grey's "Sugar Rush" line came in.



In addition to these lines, we have Making Memories "Love Struck", Bo Bunny "Persuasion", Bo Bunny "Love Bandit", My Mind's Eye "Be-Loved", My Mind's Eye "Love Me Do", Nikki Sivils "U R My Favorite", American Crafts "I Heart You" and other lines. Of course, there are books and other projects perfect for these papers like Heart of Texas Cherub books, Maya Road hearts and others. To top these off, there are ribbons, Maya Road trinket pins and all sorts of glitter in the store.

We have placed the lines near the front of the store to make it easy for you to locate.

Later.

Tim's New Alterations

Alterations is the new line of dies created by Tim Holtz. There are several of these dies. The Vintage Marketplace dies pictured above are made to cut thin materials like paper. Other sets like these Movers and Shapers will cut grungeboard.
More of the dies can be seen on his blog here.



Of course, any of these may also be pre-ordered through us. More to come... Later

Tim's New Inks

NEW FOR 2010!! PRE-ORDER your Tim Holtz's new colors of ink pads and re-inkers now! Be among the first to own these amazing new colors!

The new colors are:

RUSTY HINGE rust
WILD HONEY orange
BARN DOOR red
VICTORIA VELVET red
SPUN SUGAR pink
FOREST MOSS green
BUNDLED SAGE green
CRUSHED OLIVE green
CHIPPED SAPPHIRE blue
STORMY SKY blue
TUMBLED GLASS blue
PRUMICE STONE gray


These new ink pads and re-inkers will be ready or ship to you as fast as we possibly can get them into our store. We are anticipating an EARLY February 2010 Ship date! Pre-order all 12 colors and receive 10% off. For online customers you can order HERE or call the store to order.

Oh So Yummy

This is a paper from the newest Graphic 45 release. The Le Romantique line is full of romantic images, soft roses and wonderful patterns. The full line is in the store. All of it can be viewed here.

Also newly arrived in the store from it's release just last week is the Proper Gentleman line. Very stately, wonderful for many projects including father's day and heritage pages.



The full line can be seen here and of course in the store!

And the third line is one called On the Boardwalk. In perfect time to get your summer projects started early. (full line is here)



Great vintage pics of bathing beauties and wonderful background papers. Do you agree? Are all three "oh so yummy"?

We get way more in each week than we can post here, so ask when you get to the store, if you want to know what is new. We will try to show it all to you.

Whew!

Inventory is done for another year. Counting each sheet of paper, each embellishment, each pen, each flower, each...well, you get the idea. Good thing we had the big sales at the end of the year. Our fingers would have worn out for sure.

I know you are anxiously waiting to see how many man hours it took to complete this task. We had about 10 people each day helping us. Some worked a couple hours, some worked over 20 hours. As it turned out, the total amount of hours were 145. Amazing huh?

Looks like Shawna W was the closest to this number. Your packet of goodies is waiting at the store for you. Remind us when you come in to give it to you!

Thanks to all of you who came out of lurkdom and guessed.

PS: Making Memories, Nikki Sivils and Pink Paislee Valentine lines are in the store. Hoping for more deliveries tomorrow!

Design Challenges

As we start this new year, I'm curious. What sort of things challenge you? Color matching, titles, perfect embellishments....etc.

Maybe challenge is too strong of a word, but I think you know what I mean. What part of the page or project do you focus on, and fixate on until it is "right"?

Anxiously awaiting your responses. Later!

Soldering Class

It is with extreme sadness that we give you this news. Our friend and teacher, Tina Wright passed away early this morning. As you know, she was diagnosed with colon cancer in the fall. She had made great progress and the prognosis was very positive. She felt like she was going to be able to do classes again and we had scheduled a soldering class with her for January. Then, this week she had some complications which could not be reversed.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to her family as they deal with this loss. Our lives have been changed by her and we will not be the same without her. I know that many of you have also been encouraged through the classes with her.

If you were signed up for her latest class, we will call you this week to let you know more information once we can get it figured out. Thank you for your patience in this tough time.