After Day 1 of CHA....

Silhouette
We had an appointment with them this morning first thing with our new rep. He seemed pretty good. He showed us the new product and we took a few pictures.

We've never carried their etching products before, but they have come out with a starter kit and we'll be bringing in their items. You can't really see it, but the wine glass has a mustache etched at the top. You can see it better on the picture below:

They recreated adhesive backed cardstock including packages of Kraft and other colors of cardstock in open stock... We'll definitely get the Kraft and let us know how you feel about the open stock cardstock...

  

 

 

Next we went to

Kaisercraft

 

They had, yet another AMAZING release!!! We ordered a BUNCH but it's shipping over several months. I have dozens of pictures from their booth... But here are some pictures of a few of the lines I ordered. These are the 3 Christmas lines that we have coming in:

 

 

 

These are just a FEW of the items I ordered!!! We have several other releases, plus stamps, wood flourishes, their "Beyond The Page" wood creation items (lots of pictures of samples taken... photos to follow soon).

 

In the new store, we have all of their FREE Kaisercraft Workshop Magazines for you!!! Come in to get one... or two... or three... or ALL of them!! We have at least the last 6 months in stock. Please come to the register for us to check them out to keep track of it, but there is no charge! "FREE" is my favorite "4-letter-word". :)

 

We followed that up by visiting Madison at
Echo Park and Carta Bella

I didn't really take pictures (well, I took one of a sample using their fall line and a 7Gypsie's tray)... I bought a lot. I just remembered why I couldn't find my catalog (I made notes in it and gave it to someone else), so I'll get it back tomorrow. I think I got 3 lines from Echo and 2 from Carta, but wow, I can't remember. One is a Halloween Carta Bella line and an amazing Carta Bella Christmas line! I think another one is a Christmas line from Echo Park. But I'll have to check!!

Next up was

Glitz

They have a new line called Dapper Dan that the staff was SUPER HOT on, and when I saw it, I knew why!!

Order.

Check!

 

 

Next, we ran into

Tim

He and Mario were at the Stamper's Anonymous booth. They were very kind to take a quick photo!

Don't worry, I ordered a TON of Tim!! Holy Schmoly!! He did some most amazing work for this show!

More to follow about Tim's products...

 

 

Next was

SANTA!!!!

I mean, he was a REALLY genuine Santa!! And very fun!!

I didn't end up ordering Heidi's entire Christmas line "Believe"... I liked it, but it was pretty similar to Carta Bella's. I got the 6x6 only. I really liked it, but what do you think??

I did get the entire Pink Paislee holiday line "Snow Village".

And, I ordered Heidi Swapp's 6 new mist colors!! 

 

 

More

Tim

was next!!

You may, or may not, know that Tim Holtz products are available through several different manufacturers, depending on the item.

We were at the Advantus booth. Advantus sells his "Idea-ology" line.... It can be hard to distinguish which products go through one versus another, so as a basic rule, I would say that his more "clunky" and "metal" items are through Advantus. As soon as I get back, we'll have the whole catalog at the store with everything that I can remember that I ordered marked in the catalog for you to see. I didn't get all of his new products, but I got a fair percentage of them....

But we're just wiped out from today so I'll have to continue late with more detail...

I'm not sure I'll be able to post tomorrow night - it might wait until we get home on Friday...

And I know that some are LOVING frequent posts and some are hating it. I'm keeping you current for now. Once the trade show is over and we are settled back in, we will be blogging on a regular basis, but only a few times per week. If the blog is too frequent, you can find us on Facebook or sign up for the emails. Emails go out about every 2 weeks. Facebook posts are the most frequent, but you can hide them, or ignore them, or not see them... they are more passive.

If you want to know everything, then sign up for our blog posts to be emailed to you, and get on our email list, and Like us on Facebook!! You can keep current with us in MANY different ways and different levels of volume!

 

More soon!



Pre-CHA...

So, they are now calling Summer CHA the "Create-n-Connect" Show....

Whatever you call it, we are in Las Vegas and looking at brand new product the day before the show starts...

We know that Mixed Media is becoming more and more popular, so we paid a lot of attention to the Splash of Color pre-show items. I'm excited to get their products in. We will meet with our rep in a couple of days to formally place our order.

Luminarte Twinkling H2O's... These are essentially a watercolor "paint" with a sparkle... I ♥ them!!! There are so many colors! These are just a few! We have a few of the previous release but want do you think? Should we bring in the new ones?

These are rub-on paints... you just use a cloth to basically wipe them onto your medium. So cool!

and they had a lot of other great items we want to bring in!!

 

And Crafter's Workshop - they have some new great stencils. We'll be bringing in several orders of their newest stencils and some of their classics.

And OOOOooooooo!!! The new Melissa Frances!! LOVE!!!

I didn't place my order yet, but who wouldn't want these???

Our first order that we put in was with Quick Quotes. It was for their inks... Danni SWEARS by them and they came out with new colors! So, we will get all of them.

We also ordered some paper collections, but I *HAD* to get the ink set... Danni can tell you why you NEED it!!!

And I just thought this was adorable. I know that some could just care less, but this really could have been a historical moment if the baby was a girl, so I was interested to see what happened (and I just think that the couple is cute and I'm happy to see Diana's son seeming to do so well). This was a rotating image on a giant digital billboard here...

Congratulations to Kate & William!

I have a lot more to show you but it's nearing midnight and I need to get to sleep so, this is just the beginning!!

More to follow!!

:)

 

So much to tell you!!!!

Well, it's been a few days since we posted... And we've been open again since Monday now...

It's been SO MUCH FUN!!!!

Oh my gosh!!! Seeing everyone again... and everyone just *LOVING* the new space!!!! Oh my gosh... just fun!!! And still, the number of people who truly believe that the new space is LARGER than the old space, but it's more than 1,000 square feet smaller! It just solidifies the idea that we made the right decision in moving!!

And we've started receiving new products!!!

 

Lots of school papers!!!

(alphabetically)

· Canyon Crest · Cathedral Catholic · Del Norte · Escondido · Francis Parker (new)

· Granite Hills (new) · La Jolla High · Madison (new) · Maranatha · Mission Bay · Mt. Carmel

· Orange Glen · Our Lady of Peace · Poway · Ramona · Rancho Bernardo · San Pasqual

· Santa Fe Christian · Scripps Ranch  · Serra · St. Augustine's · Torrey Pines · University City

· Westview

(I think that is everyone. We are out of Mira Mesa currently)

 

 

We got in new styles for almost every school (plus some reorder).

These are the ones for Poway. Not every school has the same styles.

Here are some closeups:

 

 

And, with the So Cal Shop Hop coming up, we ordered several different paper styles for the event.

And some lovely Ranger items arrived!!!

Look at all of these pretty colors of Tim Holtz' Distress Ink!!

And Perfect Pearls - including new colors!

And I forgot to take a picture of the Tim Holtz Idea-Ology items that we have received...

 

 

We got in some Teresa Collins and Glitz papers, plus Cosmo Cricket (no picture)

 

 

Plus washi

And we have more coming!!! We have a HUGE backorder of "Love My Tapes" brand washi, plus we just ordered Queen & Co's "Trendy Tape - should arrive this week.

Until then, we have some Prima, some Echo, some Bella, a few Love My Tapes, and a popular mustache one:

 

 

So, speaking of mustaches, we have LOTS of mustache items in stock! 

 and I missed this one in that picture:

and I missed a picture of the Kaisercraft Wood Mustaches.

 

We also (finally) received our Envelope Punch Boards by We-R

 

 

We also received some brand new Best Creations that you guys have been LOVING!!

 

Their Christmas line (including a 6x6 pad)

 A beautiful Paris line (including a 6x6 pad)

 

And I didn't get pictures of the music line.

 

So, Tom and I are currently in Las Vegas for the summer trade show #CHASUMMER.

We drove over today.

We'll be seeking out new products, new lines, new vendors, and seeing all of the latest and greatest.

 

I love The Strip! The classics!!! Bellagio, Caesar's, The Monte Carlo, The TI, The Mirage, Wynn, The Stratosphere.

  

But we opted for the original downtown area and a piece of nostalgia... The El Cortez.

Built in 1941 and once owned by Bugsy Siegel.

We are staying in one of the original rooms. We didn't know what to expect, but we were a little worried about the noise because we are on the 2nd floor DIRECTLY above the casino, but it's as quiet as could be!

I assumed that because the room was older that it would be larger, and oh my gosh, I was right!

We have a living area, a writing/work area, TWO walk in closets, the bedroom area, and the bathroom. The room comes with a mini fridge and coffee maker (most Las Vegas hotel rooms do not because they want you to leave the room to buy stuff, and hopefully gamble).

 

And the furniture is made of ACTUAL wood instead of a laminate or whatever. Look at this room!!

This is the hallway to the bathroom and one of the walk in closets, our writing area/desk, and the front walk in closet: 

And these period window locks!! The windows are screwed shut, but otherwise, the pane is a louver and would "drop towards you" when opened.

And these are not original, but a nice period effect:

But don't worry!!! We didn't blow our "shopping" budget with this room.... for 4 nights, including tax, it was $72!! :)

Tomorrow, we are going to go to the Mob Museum. It's just a few blocks away!

Tomorrow afternoon, we are going to an "invite only" event by several vendors to get a preview of their products, instructional information, and do a meet-n-greet with the company representatives. Tuesday, the show officially starts.... I'll post lots of pics of what I see!!!

We'll be back Thursday in time to start the Shop Hop on Friday ---- aggghhh!!! I can't believe it's coming up so quickly!

Lots more to follow!