We're back from CHA

Well, we're back from the CHA summer show in Chicago. We spent 3 days browsing aisle after aisle of great new scrapbooking and crafting products. Needless to say, our feet are sore and our wallets are empty, but our minds are filled with great ideas, and our hearts with anticipation for the new products to arrive.

The sad thing is on the last day, at the last booth, I misplaced my digital camera. I had it on a clip on my belt and I think it fell out (maybe when there were so many people in a booth). I had taken dozens and dozens of pictures of new products and ideas to show you. All gone...

We're still going through all our notes, and my mind is quite fuzzy on exactly all that we saw and purchased.

For today, I'm going to list a few highlights of some exciting products we purchased. Tomorrow, I will blog again with more details and scans I have from catalogs we gathered.

One of the most exciting thing was of course the new line of dies from Spellbinders for the Wizard die cutting machine. Remember that these dies also work in other personal die cutting machines!! Those of you on my mailing list already know about the Nestabilities dies with graduated circles, scalloped circles, ovals, scalloped ovals etc. Very exciting. I was able to borrow a set of these dies to make a few samples. For the moment, you can see what the dies will do by going to www.franticstamper.com/wiz-preview.htm. I will post MORE new dies to that page this weekend, including the new Christmas dies, new Edgeabilities dies and the neat new flower creations dies that make pop up flowers. Stampers, cardmakers and scrapbookers can all benefit from these new dies!!! We expect the new dies to be available in late August.

Many companies had really nice papers, but by far the most beautiful paper collections I saw came from Dove of the East. We purchased all 4 of the paper collections, which you can see at http://www.doveoftheeast.com/. We also purchased the ribbons, the rub ons, and a few of the trinkets. In addition, we purchased a limited quantity of the 2 treasure boxes (China and India). We'll be taking pre-orders on these soon. Here is a picture of the India treasure box.

We should be receiving all Dove of the East products in approx. 3 weeks. (mid-August)

Another wonderful product we found were Zoom mini albums that you print yourself. These are the cutest 3"x3" little albums that you create with the software (included in the starter kit). You simply upload 12 pictures, add text if desired, and the software does the rest. Then print on the provided sticky back, pre-scored and pre-cut photo paper, fold according to the directions and adhere the provided covers. Here is what you get:
Think of the possibilities: Gift for Grandma's purse, Ornament on the tree, A review of your child's school pictures, Baby's 1st year by month, etc etc etc.... we will post examples of this on the site as soon as we have them. We expect this product in NEXT WEEK!!!

For those of you yearning for high-class organizational products, Options (a division of Plano, the makers of tackle boxes) are coming out with really top of the line designer products, from totes to storage boxes in fashion colors. My favorite was a purse size organizer made of ultra-suede in lime color. This small tote had many compartments to organize all your basic tools, but would also make a CUTE CUTE purse. Priced at around $35, it was a great value. I've seen similar purses in department stores for triple that price, and they didn't have all the neat features of these. They also had wheeled totes with class!!! Move over boring black cropping bag!!! We expect our shipment in October and I can't wait! I think these totes will be on many scrapbooker's Christmas lists.

Still one of the best tools is the Bind-It-All. We started carrying these after their introduction at CHA in January. Many people have requested some sort of tote for their Bind-it-All and they are coming!!! A cool blue tote with a large compartment for your Bind-it-All (the blue matches the blue of the machine) will be here in September. Meanwhile, new smaller wires are here in stock and ready to ship already.

Tim Holtz devotees will love the new Distress Crackle Paints!! I got a chance to watch Tim demo and had my picture taken with him. Too bad my camera is missing... I'm really sad not to have that picture. The Crackle Paints should be available late September and we will take pre-orders starting next week.

Well, I must go to bed now.... I will post more tomorrow, with more pictures.

If you are interested in putting in some pre-orders, please wait until I post details on my site this weekend. Many of my catalogs with prices are still in the suitcases at this time, so I don't have prices on hand.

Thank you!

-Fran

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