Let there be light....

1 small step towards moving.
Yesterday, we had the electricity turned on.

The plans to build the 2nd floor have been approved by the county, so now we are just waiting for them to actually print the permits. Construction should start next week.

If all goes well, we should be moving the whole month of December (mostly shelving and overstock products + getting bins and things organized), with the actual BIG move after Christmas. At least that is the timeline in my head.

Frantically yours,
-Fran

Tweet

Little update on the new building

We went by the new digs this morning to drop off a desk. Wish I had remembered to take a picture... but they have our classroom area almost finished. The wall still needs painting where the patch was done.

Our "classroom" area will be used for holding local sales (for insurance reasons, we can't have people actually shop in the warehouse), and hopefully some day actually have card classes or small crops. Looks like we would be able to fit 10-12 people in there.... I'll know better once we can put some tables/chairs in the room.

More later....

Tweet

We're Movin' On Up!

We have some very exciting news to share! Our warehouse will be moving to a 6,000 s.f. brand new building very soon.

We just put a down payment on a warehouse space just 8 minutes from our current location. The space is currently empty, and part of a larger warehouse building. We are purchasing 3,000 s.f. and adding a 2nd floor to give us 6,000 s.f. of space. This will almost double our current space.

We will be occupying units 644 and 642

This is the inside of 1 of the units. You can see where the 2nd floor will go up, as well as the wall separating the 2 units. There will be a BIG archway between the 2 units both upstairs and downstairs, creating 1 large space for us.

At this time, we have to wait for the permits to start building the 2nd floor. Permits are the longest part of the process.... so I probably won't have any updates for 4-6 weeks. Here is the floor plan:

It's kind of hard to see... but the left one is the upstairs which will be 1 big expanse, and the right one is the downstairs showing 2 offices and a larger room at the front of the building, plus the big warehouse at the back. You can see the staircases on either side towards the back too.

Now I need to map out how all the shelves will be arranged, as well as the freight receiving area and the shipping area.

If all goes well, we should be moving in around the middle of January. It's going to be a LOT of work!!!! But we are looking forward to our new digs.

Hugs,

-Fran

Tweet

CHA Summer is coming!

We’re gearing up for the CHA Summer ’09 new releases. Since we like to be on the ball bringing you the newest products, we’ve already placed about ½ our CHA orders AHEAD of the show!! That’s right, we hound vendors and work hard this time of year.

So what’s in store? Read on!

MARTHA STEWART CRAFTS (MSC) PUNCHES
Once again, we are first to bring you all the new MSC punches. We’ve already received about ¾ of the new designs and the rest will arrive in about 10 days. We’re hard at work filling all the pre-orders and hope to be done with all the complete pre-orders by Tuesday or Wednesday. Check out the fabulous Christmas and Halloween designs at www.franticstamper.com/marthastewart.htm

~*~*~*~~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~
BO BUNNY PRESS (BBP)
Our BBP order is in and expected to arrive towards the end of the month! Wonderful lines to watch for include: Delilah, Kitchen Spice, Gypsy, Flutter Butter, Boo Crew, Tis the Season and St. Nick.
Watch the new products page for these soon!

~*~*~*~~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~

AMERICAN CRAFTS (AMC)
I ordered their new lines of papers and embellishments a couple weeks ago, and already I can’t recall all the particulars…. I know there are 3 or 4 lines of papers and a WHOLE NEW program of brads, glitter brads, pearl brads, etc that was really great!! I love embellishments, don’t you? Of course, new thickers are coming too, and also some clear stamps!!

~*~*~*~~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~

PRIMA MARKETING (PRI)
We have a $3,000 shipment of new Prima flowers on the way! Unfortunately, it’s not all the new stuff yet…. Seems they are not shipping everything at once. But what is coming are Gypsy Petals, Heirloom Paper Leaves, Sprites 3, Homespun Bittles, Camelot Roses as well as a restocking assortment of flowers we already sold out since last month (Fleur Danseur, Gallery Roses, etc)
Watch for these to be uploaded to the website late next week.

~*~*~*~~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~

FISKARS (FIK)
We just got in the 4 seasonal squeeze punches for all. You can see them at http://www.franticstamper.com/fiskars.htm Four fun designs including an acorn, a pumpkin and more. Other new punches will be coming out later this summer.

~*~*~*~~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~

BEST CREATIONS (BC)
I believe our order is already on the way. Yes, new CHA products BEFORE CHA!!! Lines include: Tropical Paradise, Sweetie Pie, Water Fun, Make a Wish, and of course a Halloween and a Christmas line

~*~*~*~~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~

BASIC GREY (BG)
Mumm is the word…. As in I can’t say what is coming….. all I can say is we ordered everything twice over and some things even more! It’s all gorgeous. Four fantastic lines. I definitely have my favorite, but if I told you…. well, let’s just say I can’t tell you until CHA. But OMG you are going to love love love these!! Stay tuned.

~*~*~*~~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~

PROVO CRAFT (PRO)
I already told you about the new embossing folders….. they’re up on the site and can be pre-ordered already. Details at www.franticstamper.com/provo-cuttlebug.htm

~*~*~*~~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~

SIZZIX (SIZ)
Speaking of embossing folders, we took the plunge and have ordered Sizzix’s version of the embossing folders (Textured something… I can’t remember the term). Anyways, we ordered all the existing ones (which will be here shortly) and all the new ones (coming out later this summer). I will upload these in the next couple of weeks. Remember, lots going on, so my time is filled up with filling orders…… I need to hire a full time web person to keep up!!!

~*~*~*~~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~

INKADINKADO (INK)
You are going to FLIP at all the fantastic new designs, especially the ultra cute Halloween and Christmas ones. They are coming out with a TON of $1.99 price point stamp, many are favorites from larger sets, so you won’t have to spend $9.99 to get the one image you like off a set. We expect them to arrive late August.

~*~*~*~~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~

MARVY/UCHIDA (MAR)
Great new line of punches…. Some fantastic punch/emboss combos. I think we will have these in early August.

~*~*~*~~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~

McGILL (MCG)
Another great line of punches, much like their Winter CHA release --- multi shape punches. My favorite is a Fleur de lis one, and I also really like the Ice Cream Cone and the snowman.
I’ll try to get these on the site this weekend so you can start pre-ordering.

~*~*~*~~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~

JUST RITE STAMPERS (JUS)
We used to carry their stamps…… and then we stopped…. And now we are starting again. Why? Well, I wasn’t paying attention. Their new stamps are the coolest thing!!! You get a wood mount with grooves, and rubber with grooved back. You can interchange words and images to make these fantastic medallions. Oh, just wait til you see them!!! Since we have no space in the warehouse, I know my employees are going to think I’m crazy cuz I just don’t know where we will find the space to stock them…. but they were so darn cute, I had to get them! You will love them too!

You can go here to see card samples: http://www.justritestampers.com/custom.aspx?ID=27
The best part is you can use the scallped circle punches from Marvy or EK Success or even your Spellbinder nestabilities to create these fun medallions! I love this look!

~*~*~*~~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~

STAMPENDOUS (STM)
Tons of great clear stamps with mix and match designs. They’ve really outdone themselves with this line. We should have them within the next couple of weeks (boy I’m going to be busy adding things to the site)

~*~*~*~~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~

TATTERED ANGELS (TAT)
New colors of Glimmer Mist for Fall and Winter of course…. New Glimmer Screens and clear stamps as well. Already ordered, already on the way. Watch for them soon.

~*~*~*~~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~

CLEARSNAP (CLE)
8 New Smooch colors are already here, and already flying off the shelves!!! Get them at www.franticstamper.com/smooch.htm

~*~*~*~~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~*~~*~*~

BUT WAIT… THERE’S MORE!
That’s all the orderes I have already placed…. But this weekend, I will be working on October Afternoon and Cosmo Cricket for a start.

CHA is just around the corner and we will be closed July 19th through 23rd. Right now, we have a lot of orders on the books, so I hope to get them all done before we leave. It’s good to be busy!

Tweet

Fun with Mizuhiki Cord

I've just been gently reminded (again) that I've not blogged since August 2008!! Shame on me! Shame shame shame.

Many of you know I work long long hours filling orders, adding products to the website, not to mention all the back office stuff (ordering, bookkeeping) and the list goes on. Let's not forget having a personal life and perhaps some house cleaning once in a while (hmmm... scratch that, I never have time for that.... my dear dear husband takes care of everything).

But I must make an effort. So today, I dug around in my files and found several lovely pictures sent in by a wonderful customer in France. Take a look.

Vincent lives in Paris and he specializes in Japanese art. Several times a year, he purchases our Mizuhiki cords, and with them creates beautiful jewelry and objets d'art. Vincent also attends Oriental art fairs all over France. Today I'd like to share the following creations:

A pretty barrette:

Two elaborate knot necklaces:

And a whimsical crane:

Mizuhiki is a Japanese paper cord which comes in brilliant colors and can be fashioned into many shapes. Creations like these take some practice for sure, but there are also many simple things you can do.

I found this wonderful video on YouTube. (This is the first time I've tried embedding a YouTube video into my blog, so I hope it works)

We carry many colors of Mizuhiki cords as well as inexpensive instruction booklets. Please see: http://www.franticstamper.com/mizuhiki_cord.htm

Enjoy!

Tweet

Summer's almost over

I can't believe how fast time goes by. Seems like just yesterday it was 4th of July... and here we are already at the middle of August.

We've got lots of new products coming in from all over. If you haven't checked the website "new products" page lately (www.franticstamper.com/new_products.htm), you're in for a treat. We've been adding new products almost daily.

Some of the more exciting things are:
-Copic markers are now available in sets
-Marvy introduced a NEW larger size of their extremely popular scalloped shapes!!!
-The Making Memories Slice (which is scheduled to be here in October) has new cartridges and accessories.

This week, we're expecting:
-new clear stamps from Stampendous
-the entire line of scrapbooking products from Kaiser crafts
-tons of new Prima products (flowers, papers, etc)
-Making Memories Christmas line entitled "Falala"

Happy crafting!!
-Fran

Tweet

Flower punch art

I promised you something very cool tonight.... here it is. Two very talented customers have shared their beautiful flower punch art with us.

The first is Angie from Australia. I've posted some of Angie's work here back in January, but it's worth repeating! Here are some new pieces she has created.

Angie creates a matching box for all her cards. As you can see in the above, the box helps showcase and protect all the meticulous work. Here are a few more cards... all gorgeous of course. These 3 cards were made with the Bookatrix embossig board.

Lisa from Kentucky also shares this talent. Here are her recent entries in the county fair, and as you can see blue ribbons all around!!! Receiving blue ribbons means that she can now enter these items in the State fair! Good luck Lisa! You deserve to win for sure!!!

I hope seeing these beautiful projects will inspire you to try your hand at paper flowers. I'd like to recommend a great book. It's called Paper Bouquet and you can find it on my website at http://www.franticstamper.com/punchartbooks.htm.

Hugs,

-Fran

Tweet

Finally -- I'm back!!!

I feel like it's been ages since I posted something! Well, that's because it has.

It's not entirely my fault though.... you see, blogger decided I was a spammer (how they got that idea, I don't know). But anyways, they BLOCKED my account and for 3 months, I've been trying and trying to get it unblocked!

Lo and behold, today it **IS** unblocked!!! YOOHOO!!!! I can post again!!

It's time for me to go home, but I will definitely post something cool tomorrow evening. :-)

Cheers!
-Fran

Tweet

In Memory of a Dear Friend

This morning, I learned of the passing of one of my dearest friends, Barbara Holl.

I have had the pleasure of knowing Barbara for over 10 years. I first met her online through a rubberstamping group. She became a customer, and about 10 years ago, I was fortunate enough to actually meet her in person.

I will always remember the day I met her. My friend Kathy and I were preparing for the Puyallup rubber stamp convention. It was our first time in Washington and we had reserved a certain hotel because it was inexpensive. When we got there, the place was a flea-ridden dive. We decided to check out right away, go to the convention center and set up our booth and worry about a hotel later. Barbara was there helping someone else set up their booth and offered to help us with ours. When we told her about our hotel situation, she offered her home to us. She insisted we stay with her as she had 2 spare bedrooms. Mind you, she didn't know us from Adam!

Barbara was always the most giving and caring person. We stayed with her and her husband Frank in their lovely Tacoma home, just minutes from the convention center. They fed us, looked after us and we were grateful. From then on, twice a year, Kathy and I traveled to Washington for conventions and stayed with Frank and Barbara. They always has warm beds and warm meals waiting for us.

Barbara enjoyed so many hand crafts. She love cross-stitching, card making, making plastic canvas boxes and teaching all the wonderful techniques she learned. In the years of knowing Barbara, we learned she was a grade school teacher before retiring, a military wife who lived in Germany and Hawaii, and a wonderful mother. She loved wolves, teddy bears, cats, the Seattle Seahawks and Mariners, nature, art, and all things of beauty. She also loved sharing everything she had and everything she knew.

When I stopped doing conventions, she always asked me to come up for a visit to rest up and relax. Kathy and I took her up on the offer 3 years ago. We spent an entire weekend in our pajamas making cards and admiring her albums full of creations. She was so talented. Since then, she asked me numerous times to come up for another weekend, but I was always "too busy". Now I regret not taking the time to go visit. I will never again have the pleasure to spend time with her.

For all of you who knew Barbara, you know exatly what I mean. Barbara was a vibrant lady, always full of laughs, smiles and energy. We will all miss her greatly.

Knowing Barbara, I know she would have never wanted anyone to cry for her, fuss for her, or feel sorry for her. Her family has asked that no flowers be sent, but donations be made to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in her memory. (http://www.lls.org/hm_lls).

Barbara is survived by her husband Frank, her son Rick and her daughter Joyce. If you would like to send cards to Frank (he is a dear dear man, the dearest man ever!), please send them to me at: 186 Ayres St, Eagle Point, OR 97524, and I will forward them on to him.

Tweet

CHA Winter 2008 report (Part 2)

my post was too long.... had to split it into 2.....

LITTLE DAVIS: -Again, same as above…. Cloud 9, Heidi Grace and Little Davis are all owed by Fiskars now. They had mosly clear stamps in the Little Davis brand and I purchased ALLLLLLL of them!!! Watch out wallets!!

INQUE BOUTIQUE: -More stamps…. Some rubber, some clear. Lots and lots of stamps! Lots and lots of great priced stamps!!!

AUTUMN LEAVES: -I just concentrated on their new clear stamps. Ran out of money and didn’t buy their new papers. Truthfully, they didn’t do much for me… LOL!! But their stamps are wonderful so that’s what I went with.

DESIGN ORIGINALS: -A couple of new books for scrapbookers, paper crafters, and digital scrapbooking too.

CRAFTER’S WORKSHOP: -More templates!!! Crafter’s Workshop has really carved out a niche for themselves with their fabulous templates. I believe there are 12 new templates coming each in 2 sizes.

DOODLEBUG: -It’s all about the flocking!! Flocking kits, flocked paper, flocked brads. In the past, I have not carried Doodlebug’s papers, but we are adding their new lines!!! Watch for these in late March.

FANCY PANTS: -with 6 new collections, there’s something for everyone. Fancy Pants’ style is one of a kind. You won’t want to miss these!

SCENIC ROUTE: -Another great new selection of papers!

AROUND THE BLOCK: -New tool: The Paper Gator!!!! This is an exciting new tool. It’s a corner rounder, but it can punch through multiple sheets of cardstock, chipboard, cork, etc. here will be 4 different blades. Of course there’s more, including papers, funky embellishments, new frame tapes (paper lace) and so much more!!

SPELLBINDERS: -We were able to preview the Xcalibur, a motorized die cut machine. This will be exciting when it comes out in the late summer. Sadly, it’s not quite ready for release so we were unable to put in an order. We really don’t have a firm price either. But, there are new dies coming for the Wizard!!! RANGER: -Adirondack Pigment inks!! You’ve seen these on my site already. They’ll be here in April.

BAZZILL: -New BLING colors, new chipboard, and I also picked up the “Destinations” colors introduced last year.

OCTOBER AFTERNOON: -This is another company for which I had a lot of requests. Of course, I picked up the entire line.

ZUTTER: -A new tool from Zutter is the corner rounder. Much like Around The Block’s Paper Gator but a little more portable. We of course re-stocked on Bind-it-Alls. Don’t forget that you can punch through acrylic with the Bind-it-All….. perfect for making your own clear albums! Also, by popular demand, we will soon have the “stop guide” accossory as well as 3 NEW colors of wires: baby blue, baby pink, and antique brass!

WORLDWIN: -Just a few unusal texture cardstocks…. Pearlized with a finish. I didn’t buy much from them, but had requests for these specialized cardstock, so went ahead with a small order.

IMAGINESCE: -Have you seen the cute penguins!!! Well they caught my eye too. Can’t wait to get these

WE R MEMORY KEEPERS: -The Crop-A-Dile II “big bite” was a huge hit at the show.

BUTTONS GALORE: -We’ll be switching the bags of buttons we currently get from Dara over to Button Galore’s because the range of colors is MUCH better. Big bags of buttons for $6.99 in beautiful colors! These should be here next week.

STICKER KING: -If you like Best Creations glittered papers, you will like these! And let’s not forget the great dimentional stickers at ONLY $1.99!!!! (comparable to other manufacturer’s $3.99 embellishments!!)

LITTLE YELLOW BICYCLE: -3 fun lines from this offshoot of C-Thru (the ruler people). If you haven’t seen the ads in the magazines yet, get ready!

CLEAR SCRAPS: -Acrylic albums --- we already carry most of their line of clear albums: dog bone, house, tabbed albums, etc…. and now, we’re adding all the new ones: words, farmhouse, car, and more!

GLUE ARTS: -Always on the cutting edge with new adhesive answers, Glue Arts introduced this very handy tape runner, the "GlueMax". The cartridges come PRE-filled, so you just snap them in an out. No more threading the tape through.

ECSTASY CRAFTS: -Lots of Dutch templates, decoupage papers, new books, new peel off stickers….

TOGA: -This company from France was not actually exhibiting at the show, but as you know my “French Connections” are numerous, LOL, and I was able to meet with the owner of the company who showed me some fabulous versatile templates. These templates are like nothing else I have seen here and I’m very excited to bring them in for you.

There’s more, I’m sure…. So stay tuned to the website and blog for announcements of new products. Best place to keep bookmarked is the new products page on the website as that gets updated the most:

www.franticstamper.com/new_products.htm

Hugs, Fran -

Tweet