Hi there and hello to you!

Well, I'm back, it's been a while, hasn't it?

Feels good to be back although there's a little pressure to start off with a bang of huge inspiration or a profound story. I don't have that right now, but I will talk about CHA and link you over to a few things if you're interested. Gotta warm up to blogging again :o)

October Afternoon has put some sneaks up on their blog. 5 & Dime is their first release - get a load of it. Gorgeous.

Oh my word, this is my kinda stuff! I've been having a guessing game with myself about what lines they were going to release.

One guess was a soda shoppe/candy shoppe/cupcakey type line, so I kinda hit it a bit with this one.

I LOVE this line.

Another guess I had was a girl/boy line - I thought they may do a split line to hit both the boy/girl thing. Well, here's the boy line, so I guess that means a girl line will be announced later in the year.

Hope so, that'd be fun to see since I'm a girl and all.

I was totally off base with this one. My other guess was a birthday line or something else, I can't remember what I guessed now.

What do you think of the new stuff? I use it all for scrapbooking, so the theme things really work for me. I have nephews, so Rocket Age would work for their photos and we do get around sometimes, so Boarding Pass would work too. The thing with Oct Arvo stuff is that there are themed papers in the collections, but generic patterns too. I have no reason to buy school papers, but I got a few and used one last night with some photos from around the house. Versatile.

Check out October Afternoon's blog here. They have other photos from CHA and also some other photos of 5 & Dime and Rocket Age.

What I noticed too - if you click on the photos on their blog, they'll open in a new window, but not really enlarge very much. If you run your cursor over the photo, it'll turn into a magnifying glass and you can click again and the photo will enlarge. It'll be a bit blurry, but you can get a look at the new things.

I loved the 5 & Dime Chip N Sticks and the Shape Stickers and have a look at the new Miscellany packages. Very interesting. I've noticed they're not doing the Wild Cards anymore, I liked those. They haven't done journalling cards for a little while now either - liked those too, I use them in my scrapping all the time. I can spy some Wild Cards in the Miscellany packets, so that's cool.

I know sometimes you might like stuff, but decide not to buy it because you think to yourself, "but I won't use it" (you know we've all got stacks of stuff we buy and don't use), but the thing with OA for me, and the way I scrap now, I know I'll use it, so I do guilt free purchasing when it comes time to purchase. Yay for that. Their new stuff coordinates with their old stuff, so that's a plus too. Most of it does, the Road Map line was browner than the other cream lines. Anyway, it all works together beautifully and I mix and match all the scraps. It's fun.

I've been spending a lot of time with my photos over the summer...I'll share how I do things now - it's been quite a revelation for me actually and I'm loving it.

Before I go, here's a couple of other places to check out CHA happenings.

Noell Hyman from Paperclipping - she has videos with more to come, I'm sure.

Christine from Scrap Time - videos too with more to come. 

Frantic Stamper is a great place to check for newest products - I've linked you over to her newest products page. Things filter through there all the time.

Martha has some new punches out. Valentine ones. Check 'em out on Fran's Newest Products page above. There's three sections - Valentine ones (scroll down a bit), New Punch Around the Page ones (closer to top) and new Deep Edgers. The Swirling Lace one looks interesting. And I have that Cherish one (it was a gift) - it's gorgeous.

Tim has new Sizzix dies coming out too. I tried numerous times to link there, but the website was not cooperating. Tim Holtz dot com is the place to start and then go to his blog. He's very good about announcing new stuff - I'm always interested to see the dies. Big punches to me.

Okay, bye now. Welcome back to the old blog-o. Thanks for dropping by!

Debra :o)