After day one at CHA I have a new motto~ “Be Calm and Carry On”! This wonderful new paper collection from Reminisce features these words. It’s always been one of my favorite collections for travel, and this year is no exception with their new collection of vintage travel papers and stickers.  A wonderful package of these samples just arrived on Friday before I left for the show so, we hope to have these in stock by early February.

Next on the list~ “bottle caps”.  Now what is that all about?  I think Bev and I bought these for the shop over 10 years ago when there wasn’t much to choose from.  This time around there seem to be more choices. Let me know what you think?  So many possibilities, so much fun!!!!Moving right along~NEW from Mr. Tim Holtz…. Distress Markers in all the 36 distress colors!!! So amazing!  I was thinking ” just another pen”?  Well not quite.  He also has new rubber stamps WOW!The Bella Blvd. Baby collections are truly adorable.  They come with mini flags, ribbons and other do-dads (for lack of a better description).  Who doesn’t love happy, little zoo animals?Basic Grey has an interesting collection called “What’s Up”.  Their papers feature hot air balloons, row houses and vibrant coral colors.  How Fun!Up next  are “brag books” from Fancy Pants.  For those of you that got hooked on “Smash Books” this past year, these are just as fun!  They remind me of my first trip to Disneyland, when I kept everything to put in an album as a souvenir once I got home.  Who would have thought they would eventually make something to put match books and sugar packets into?  The themes they have created are wonderful and you can’t help but smile when you think back to why you actually kept the things you did.

For those of you who like to stamp and color with Copic markers or others, I found an adorable girly stamp collection from a little company in Washington State called “Sparkle”.  They also have a few “guy” stamps that are adorable too! I am sure you will love these images that are so much fun to color!

Barb says she will send a pic of her “extra bed”, good thing no one else is there, where would they sleep? I think it’s probably full of brochures and catalogues?

Make sure to check us out tomorrow as we will have more updates from Barb at the 2012 CHA Show!

Check out the pretty Valentine’s Day/ Love inspired paper Collections at Classic. They are perfect for making cards or layouts for and of the ones you love!

We R Memory Keepers collection has cute critters in aqua, yellow, coral, pink, and green. There are stickers, ribbon,  stamps, card kits, page kits and paper packs.

From B0-Bunny there is a collection called Crush which is in pink, red and brown with birds and flowers.

There are fun and funky papers in clear, confident colors from Reminisce’s The Love Collection.

Pretty and vintage we have Basic Grey’s Curio collection of papers in peach, green, cream, and brown.

And from Kaisercraft we have the lovely English Rose collection in pinks and greens.

Come and get your supplies to make your Valentine’s Day special for those you love:)

Hello from CHA!

Well here goes my summary from day 2 and 3.  I thought maybe I would write  straight to Facebook but… let’s face it (sorry no pun intended), that may be pushing my skill set just a bit!

So after 2 full days of walking the show my head is spinning, as always, which turns out to be a good thing.  That means there is still (after how many years?) tons of fabulous things out in the papercrafting market for the consumer! Some of the papers are a bit the same, some lines disappointing, but some of the techniques are very exciting (even for an amateur like me).

WOW the rubber stamps! There really is something for absolutely everyone! Probably the talk of the whole show is the collection stamps from Germany called “La Blanche”.  They’re simply stunning and work perfectly with all the Ranger Distress Inks and embossing powders.  Scattered Straw and Broken China my 2 faves. Is that Tim Holtz? (See below).

Penny Black stamps never seems to disappoint.  They cover all areas from cutesy to elegant and there are new stamps of those wonderful Mademoiselles that were on their Christmas board.  They have also included their own collection of papers to match.  Of Course!!!!!

The Hero Arts stamp company has more new stamps since their January releases and a partnership with Basic Grey. Later this Spring they are releasing a great set of stamps that will compliment the new paper collections.  I am not quite sure about all 4 collections but I did love 2 of them.  I will let you, the customer, be the judge.

Bella Blvd. has an adorable pet collection and the layout they did reminds me of my “Macy”.  Why is it we miss our pets the most when we are away????

“Life Documented” is an interesting collection of papers and stickers from a relatively new company called Memory Works.  If any of you have talked to me about “Project 365″  you will need to check this out.  I totally loved it and it will work perfect for all your memory needs.  My only issue is we are looking at March delivery.  I am not that patient so that will be the challenge.

The wonderful magazine Creating Keepsakes has just celebrated 15 years, hence the silly picture.  Should I use that for my pic for January 29th or… the silly picture with Joe from Thermo web adhesives (RE: Project 365 )?  I had just won a pair of diamond earrings! (Note he is showing them off).  Speaking of adhesive, to those of you that purchased last year’s fab adhesive “sticky thumb”  (in a bright green) it is still available and now refillable and I bought some!  Just what we need…new adhesive:) Honestly, I heard quite a few comments over the past weeks that many people loved it.   They also have a pop dot so we will see how we like that too!

I know once I unpack the bag from the show I will discover more exciting things I purchased.  But you will just have to stay tuned! Also check our Faceboook page for more pictures!

Have a great day, from Barb