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)

For today's entertainment, have a look at this...

Have you seen the new Grand Calibur from Spellbinders?

It's their new machine that cuts 8 1/2" x 11". They also have huge new dies. Wowee. Gotta love the big scallops and Labels 1 (and Labels 4). A bit big for cards, but they can be the card!

Anyway, have a look!

Grand Calibur demo on You Tube.

Tickets

What do you think?

Do you like tickets?

They've been around for a little while now, but as it usually goes, they start small and then wham, they get huge. Tickets are big right now and I'm liking it.

May Flaum wrote an article for Scrapbook Update recently that talked about all the ticket products available at the moment. You can check out the article here if you like.

(My links used to be orange, but for now they're pink. Blogger has taken my orange out of the colour choices. I miss it!)

May suggests checking out etsy for ticket products. I did a few months ago and got the ones above. They're like real tickets and I tuck them behind things and whatnot. And they were cheap. Can't tell you how much (can't remember), but they were cheap. You can pick up some cool, cheap finds on etsy. Beware though, cute stuff awaits! I'm just warning ya...

May also said that she could see herself using the new postage stamp punch from Fiskars to make tickets. Nice idea.

The problem I've had with tickets in the past is you have the ticket, but nothing to put inside it, or the stamp with no ticket to put it on.

The people-that-make-it-happen at Papertrey Ink are rockstars when it comes to fixing these types of problems - they've come up with dies and stamps to match (and not just tickets).

One of their latest offerings is a ticket die, a ticket stamp set and a ticket Impressions plate background.

Hello! It all makes sense. Buy the die, cut some tickets out and stamp the things you want inside. Perfect. Their impression plates are different to anything else on the market because they don't work like the embossing folders that emboss, but rather like letterpress and deboss. They're very elegant and lovely actually.

If you look at the link you'll see pics of two designs for each plate - they come as the one plate with a design on each side. And hello - more making sense again - the woodgrain plate has a horizontal and vertical option. Love that. I've noticed a lot of the other embossing folders on the market are mainly vertical options because of the specific design. I make a lot of horizontal cards and like horizontal options.

Anyway, Papertrey Ink rocks. Really. I love products that all make sense.

If you'd like to check out what some of their products look like (like the plates etc) go to Dawn McVey's blog or Betsy Veldman's blog - great designers those girls. There are other Papertrey designers too. Here's a Papertrey Ink gallery you might like to look at too.

Last ticket item that I can think of - Tim Holtz's ticket strip. It's a Sizzlets die and the pic shows the die cut embellished. If you purchase it and cut it out youself you'll just get a strip in the cardstock or whatever you've cut. Tim has so much stuff out now - I betcha the Sizzix people are giving themselves the nod for partnering up with him!

So, what do you think? Do you like tickets?

Have a great Monday!

:o)

CHA wrap up

I like this kinda stuff. You know, seeing what's out there, talking about it, checking it out, buying it, not buying it, comparing what's changing and what's not.


Here are Nancy Nally's Top 10 picks from the show - Summer 2010.


1.  Pink Paislee Parisian Anthology by House of Three - papers with resist ink.

2.  Jillibean Soup Alphabets and their Pasta Fagioli collection.

3.  Basic Grey's Curio Collection.

4.  Tim Holtz Vagabond by Sizzix. His new die cut machine that looks like a suitcase. And it's electric. And it has a bigger motor than their other electric machine. Typical man :o)

5.  Teresa Collins Stampmaker. I saw a video demo of this from the Jan 2010 show. They're an English company and their stand was really little. Not much interest. Teresa put her name on it this time and wham. Celeb power.

6.  Core-dinations - Stacy Julian's Happy Colours collection.

7.  WeRMemory Keepers Sew Easy tool. You buy a handle and then get detatchable heads. Good idea.

7a.  You don't get detatchable heads, your tool does :o)

8.  Crate Paper Restoration collection. Vintage. My kinda vintage.

9.  My Mind's Eye Lost and Found collection. It's huge!

10.  Echo Park Paper. A new company. Big splash.

You can read Nancy's complete article on the above picks here. She has pictures too.


And just out of interest, here are Nancy's Top 10 picks from CHA Winter - Jan 2010. You know, six months ago. I like comparing how things have changed. Or not.

1.  Basic Grey - Kioshi, Green at Heart, Max & Whiskers, Capella and the Basics line.

2.  EK Success Slimline Punches. 78 new ones. We've seen a lot of them come through PC.

3.  Melody Ross for GCD Studios. Her vintage line. Nice.

4.  StazOn Metallic ink.

5.  The Girls Paperie. Margie used to work for Making Memories, but now has her own lines. Gorgeous.

6.  Tim Holtz for Sizzix. His new Alterations dies. Have you got any?

7.  Cricut Cake machine.

8.  Copic markers. And hey, they're still buzzing like crazy. I do not own one Copic. Do you? I'm not really into colouring stamped images although I reckon I'd like the whole non-annoyingness of the paper not pilling and being able to blend the colours if I did colour.

9.  Lily Bee Design.

10.  Eco Green Crafts.

You can read Nancy's article here - and see pics.

I like Nancy and her news and her Disney fanaticism. Is fanaticism a word? Anyway, she loves all things Disney. She and her husband got married there. They live in Florida and go to Disney a lot.

I haven't listened yet, but Nancy, Christine Urias, Noelle and Izzy taped a CHA Roundtable podcast last week. Here's the link (30 July).

Okay, that's it for today.

Tomorrow I will post a photo of something...anything!

Well, hello...

...the Cuttlebug's been re-designed!

Click here to see a video on it.

Whaddya reckon? Interesting. I like the newer green/cream combo. Not sure about the crank handle. I like the design.

In the video above, Maggie shows a lot of the new Cuttlebug folders, but they're hard to see properly. Click below for a better look in the catalogue.

Click here to see the Provo CHA catalogue - all the Cuttlebug stuff starts on page 29 - 35. Click the left hand corner (top or bottom) to turn the pages.

(If the above link doesn't work, go to www.provocraft.com and click on the CHA catalogue button on the front page)

Look at all the new folders they're coming out with! Gosh, I get where they're going with them, but I like choosing individual ones. What do you think?

My favourites (for one reason or another) are (which means I wouldn't necessarily purchase, but I like):

~ Robotz - cute set for little boy stuff. I'd cover some of the squares in the grid with punch art, or the child's name.

~ That giraffe is cute in Create A Critter. He's my kinda guy.

~ The pears in Preserves. Fruit is good.

~ The cupcake background in Once Upon a Princess. Would like to see in person if it's too much.

Note the different sizes of the folders. Two in the set are 5 x 7 and two are regular.

~ All the kitchen items (top left) in Retro Kitchen. What are the things on the yellow one to the right? The other 5 x 7. Flowers? Donuts? Mixing bowls? I'm guessing, I've no idea!

~ Nifty Fifties is fun. I love stuff from the fifties and those icons are right on. I like the hello one. Could crank out a lot of cute, easy cards with that.

That being said...how many cards can one crank out in one's lifetime anyway?! I could do this, I could do that. But will I, that's the burning question!

Listing one's favourites doesn't cost anything, so I'll continue on.

~ Bunting with the bird in Birthday Bash. Love this. Hate the bird. Don't hate, wish he wasn't there. Man, that would've been a winner. Could make it work, and would, if I could buy it individually. A bunting embossing folder = no brainer.

Are all these companion cartridges? Heard of those? They're sets of four that go with Cricut cartridges of the same name. I know Preserves, Once Upon a Princess etc are Cricut carts, but I don't know if all these are.

~ Love the tent in Paisley. My dancing clown from Book 2 page 36 would look mega cute under that big top.

I like the folders that enhance the punch art. Ones that go with.

Bunting with a chick (my chick) on it.

Tent with clown under it.

Stuff like that.

~ Gotta love the trucks/digger background in Boys Will Be Boys. Cute.

~ And the arrows background is a good idea too.

Just read the info at the bottom (it helps!) and they're all companion cartridges. If I bought the folders they'd be companions to me because I don't own a Cricut.

Would I buy all those folders above?

No.

Why?

One word.

Money.

Two words.

They don't come individually.

Can't make that many cards in my lifetime.

Okay, that was 12.

One word.

Will still keep looking around the joint to see what's out there though, because I love it.

Okay, that was 17.

Can't count today. Must be cuppa tea time!

Bye now, have a great day!

PS. I just got onto Photo Continental's site to check on my classes and guess what? They have some of the new folders in stock. Click here to check 'em out.

PPS. Urggh! I still can't tell what those icons are on the yellow folder in the Retro Kitchen collection!

Trends and stuff

Hey there,

Do you like being in the know?

If you do, have a look at Nancy Nally's site called Scrapbook Update and she'll keep you up-to-date with all things scrap related!

I linked you over to her earlier this week to check out the sneaks from CHA July. See anything you like there?

One set of articles that she does around CHA time is about trends and what's going on in the industry. She usually does a preview of what's happening and then a wrap up of observations from the show. She talks about trends, favourite products etc. They're cool.

Recently, on July 16, she did a CHA Summer 2010 Trends Preview. You can read the entire article here.

Here's a quick overview of what she's expecting to see at the show in these categories...

~ Colour - a move from pastel to bright.

~ Theme - home arts ie. cooking and vintage sewing.

~ Products - electronic die-cutting, manual die-cutting, stamps, buttons, flowers, journalling products. Rub ons are on the down low apparently.

~ Design/Style - Vintage, faces, wood, birds, cute, peacocks, banners, glamour/Paris.

~ Project - cardmaking, kits, ATC's (artist trading cards).

Being someone who likes bright colours, cooking/vintage/sewing themes, manual die-cutting, banners and cardmaking, well, I think I'm covered!

What about you?

Cup of tea

Hey there blogging friends,

Wow, I'm late tonight, aren't I? Usually post way before this.

I've just done a toad run (gotta check there's none outside - they're poisonous to dogs) and before that I watched My Kitchen Rules. I couldn't imagine eating dessert at midnight either. And I love Queenslanders! The people, and the houses, that is. Did you see that verandah? Oh, fab.

And it's Monday night. Monday night is supposed to be craft night. I'm obviously not crafting, am I?

Not going so well with the crafting on Monday nights so far. Oh, well. At least I'm talking about it - it's a start. :o)

Do you have a crafting routine? I'd be interested to know. As with most things these days, I imagine most people would have to be quite intentional about it.

Thought I'd show these stamped cards using this set of stamps from Basic Grey. It's from their Nook and Pantry collection.

I'm not a stamper, but I've been stamping a bit lately. I tend to add it to what I already do (add a greeting or a background), but these cards are completely stamped and stamped only. Wow, another milestone.

I'm not completely sure what the blue ink is? It's more of a greeny blue, rather than a blue blue. I know the reds, pinks and purples are from this set from Colorbox called Tulip Field. Scroll down and you'll see it.

You'll see all the others too, what a great site.

Buying your inks in sets like the Colorbox ones is good I've found because the colours work nicely together and store easily too.

And to finish each card I did two things.

One: I put glue in the cups and sprinkled some glitter on. You could use Stickles as an alternative.

Two: I used my favourite purple Corner Chomper from We R Memory Keepers to chomp the corners. They're still rounded, but they're just that little bit different. Really like that corner. And of course the chomper lets you do it on all four sides.

Three: (I'm adding this third one) I smiled and left them on my desk for a while so I could look at them. Who knew that pinks, purples, reds and a blue would look good together? Not me.

And a couple of links you might enjoy - new stuff, of course!

New Cuttlebug stuff - this will take you to a video.

The Cuttlebug range now includes 13" plates, some new Cut and emboss folders, Emboss plus (not sure if I'm getting all the names right) and some quilling borders. Make sure you stick around to see those, I'm not into quilling, but you could so put those flowers on a card, or on a box. Nice.

Did I also mention the new Cuttlebug folders? Can't remember. There's a dominoes one, clock one and a letter one. And more too.

New Sizzix stuff - video too.

It's all about die-cutting. Tim Holtz is coming out with a new die cutting machine (button operated) and some new steel rule dies to match.

If you could make up your own dies, what designs would you come up with?
Edited to add: I just found this. Tim Holtz has designed some embossing folders too. Once again, if you could come up with your own embossing folder designs, what would you do?

And here's another book binding tool from We R Memory Keepers. It's called the Cinch and makes making books a cinch. I love that you can pull the buttons in and out to punch/not punch the holes. Good idea.

And you've got to look at this - so cute. The Scor-Pal people are bringing out a Scor-Buddy. Great for card makers!

Lastly for today, Provo has brought out a Cricut Cake. It's a die cutting machine made purely for the kitchen, so you can cut fondant - you know, the stuff that you put on your cakes? What will they think of next?

It's now 11:14pm (I've had a few distractions since I started writing this). It's still Monday night and I'm going to do some crafting!

Bye now!

More new stuff...

Hey there and happy Thursday to you!

Remember these cards I posted months ago using Cosmo Cricket's Early Bird and Girl Friday lines?

Well, they've done it again and bought out some great new stuff for us to play with, so I thought I'd share some links with you.


(Still love that toaster card - so fun)

Firstly, here's a video of their booth at CHA.

Or if you want a quick look at all of the papers - check here (Jan 14).

Material Girl is based around sewing, notions, cottons, tape measures and patterns. A fun home-spun line and as Wendy Smedley said, "Right on trend."

Garden Variety is very springy and bright. Love the blue cow and the chickens with long legs. They look like mine! My punch art chickens, not my legs :o)

Joy Ride is more muted - it's about the vacation or the stay-cation as Lindsay says (guy in video). Loving the coloured ledger papers they do!

And click here to see a photo of their new buttons (Jan 19) - very pretty and practical because who doesn't need a button or two to go with the paper?

And while we're talking paper - check out Basic Grey's new Basics line (this link is a video - she starts talking about it at 1:06). So great. Why hasn't anyone done this before? Cosmo Cricket should with their ledgers. And include a music background too!

Click here to see all of Basic Grey's new stuff (link to website). The one I'm talking about above is called Basics and is a mix of ledgers, dots, grids etc that can be used for anything. Really, it's just fab and has created so much buzz.

Now hopefully someone will do a coloured line of cool background basics too. If so, you'll have to pick me up off the floor with a spatula.

:o)

And two more things you might be interested in today. Glimmer Mist has got some new fun misty things - Glimmer Glam, Glimmer Glaze and a Chalkboard spray (I think!).

Check here Heidi Swapp's in this video.

And here. It's a video too with another lady.

Enjoy!