Category: CHA

CHA 2015: Pebbles and Doodlebug

Or as I’m calling them: gnomes and leprechauns! You’ll see why in a minute – as these are the stars of my favorite things from these booths.

First: Pebbles

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“Home Grown” is full of florals sure, but primary colors, gnomes, and mushrooms too! I just loved this one. So cute.

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As always, Pebbles had a great booth and samples too.

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Oh and a “DIY” type crafty but self contained photo garland kit too. I’m really loving the idea of a single product/kit being gifted to a “I’m not crafty” person who can test out our love of all things paper.

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Another line – “Happy Day” reminded me a bit of the garden and other lines from last year. Cute… but I’ll probably pass. Note the instagram type camera and coffee cups – both very hot images to use this show.

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Then I headed over to Doodlebug not expecting what I found, what made the skies open and angels sing…

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mini. doilies. Look at the scale and look at my hand there. These are SMALL. I’m in love. I want all the colors. Well ok, I do not want brown or black but I want all the others. Speaking of yum – check out the rainbow of glittery enamel goodness…

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What could be at the end of that rainbow? Why the cutest St. Patrick’s Day line of all time! I adore this – and I love seeing this holiday in a paper line.

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Just a few shamrocks and some cute stickers and I’m off…

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So both leprechauns and gnomes represented on the show floor – who’d have thought?

CHA 2015: Julie Fei-Fan Balzer stamps for Impression Obsession

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If you’re a fan of rubber stamps + Julie Fei-Fan Balzer then you’ll need to be watching for these!

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These designs would let me have the feel of Julie’s hand carved rubber stamps – without carving them myself!

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It is a small release right now – but I’m hoping we’ll see more of Julie’s stamps and designs become sets that those of us who are not master carvers or artists can enjoy.

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These are produced by Impression Obsession, and should be available soon at stores and I’m guessing their own website as well.

CHA 2015: Simple Stories

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Simple Stories has a new line that is pretty unique. “I Am”. Some elements of this line are really exciting to me. Mostly I’m liking that they took some risk and made a “self” type line. We do NOT see that often!

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I like the little pockets with tabs and chipboard (below), as well as the brads and several of the papers.

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I’m really into the idea of this line, one that is empowering and focused on self. The only pieces I really am not interested in are the stickers (too much “I am” and I’m not a repetitive words girl). It really is a lovely color palette and great concept for a paper line.

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Loving the colors and patterns (above). Also exciting – 4×6 Snap albums!

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This makes me think of vacation and other smaller scale project albums. I really love the Snap book that I use for our camping adventures – so if I’m in the market for a small book I’ll likely check one of these out. Maybe a Christmas 2015 daily type album? Who knows!

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Speaking of fun… look at these.

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Now I realize these are designed so you can crop (without a trimmer), but I argue that this would be GREAT for making mixed media layouts! Use the plastic as a mask so you’re not getting gungy stuff on your photo area! Use it to stencil or mist around. Create designs! I’m totally getting this and I will see if it works out as I think it will.

CHA 2015: Minc, Marquee Love, and more from Heidi Swapp

At American Crafts the big exciting thing was definitely the Minc machine from Heidi Swapp.

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I had the opportunity to try this out myself and I’ve gotta tell you – it’s slick. Basically you take anything. Pattern, word, whatever. It just has to be printed on laser printer or printed from copy store. You place the pattern/image/word in the plastic folder/sheet+ foil paper (you see above in many rolls/colors) over it, run it through… bam. Foiled beautiful amazing fantastic pretty things happen.

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I really like that there are pre-made shapes and designs as well as the ability to make your own. If you make a lot of party invites or really like the metallic look… well this might be your thing. I see so many applications for this. While I’m not sure if for my brand of crafting it’d be a good investment – I bet this will be a hit with MANY DIYers! The Minc is available now for pre-order (149.99) from Simon Says Stamp here.

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Continue reading “CHA 2015: Minc, Marquee Love, and more from Heidi Swapp”

CHA 2015: Brett Weldele and Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous

The other Stamper’s Anonymous artist that really wowed me was Dina Wakley – you can see her stuff already posted in the post that I did a few days ago just about her.

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First up, Brett Weldele is back with six new stamps and some stencils too. I’ll be passing on the stamps this round just because I don’t see myself really using any of them. But don’t get me wrong – they’re awesome. I especially love that he gave us some zombies that could be really fun to color and make gory. I also weirdly love the cat with monocle.

What will I be buying? The stencils.

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The scales blows my mind – need, want, love. The tentacles too.

Speaking of good ideas, on the other side of the booth was all the Tim Holtz stamping and stenciling goodness.

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First up: the mini blueprints will now come in 4-packs so you can just get the set you want instead of having to get three sets/12 stamps. YAY!

Continue reading “CHA 2015: Brett Weldele and Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous”