DeNami Chocolate Boxes

When we saw DeNami last week they were decorating these clear boxes and filling them with chocolates.

This photo (sorry its a bit blurry) is of wrapped chocolate bars in a clear box. It is a tradition I have only seen in America - decorating wrappers for pre-wrapped chocolate bars.

When one of my children was born Judi from JudiKins created wrappers and sent them over to me along with the chocolate bars to give out to family and friends as a birth announcement.
In this box the chocolates are mounted onto a piece of card that has been stamped.
This box has been stamped with stazon as well as a stamped tag.

New My Little Shoebox

Here are some of the samples from the new ranges of My Little Shoebox.
I'll let you know as soon as they arrive in store.

Home again

We left L.A. on Wednesday at 6pm and arrived into Heathrow today at 12noon. I got home and crawled straight into bed for a few hours - nothing beats sleeping in your own bed.This is a photo of the new Tim Holtz electronic Sizzix machine, it is only a prototype, I believe it should be available in the summer. We couldn't see the machine in action as Tim broke it the first day it arrived.

More new stuff tomorrow.

Day 2 & 3

I just couldn't blog last night as I was completely exhausted after a long day walking the show and then 3 hours for dinner!Above is some of the Tim Holtz artwork made using his new Sizzix dies. I just love the birdcage.
This one was made using the flower sizzix die and I'm guessing probably grungepaper.
This is Tim's new book which we should have in the store in a couple of weeks.
And finally for today these are the new Metallic Stazon - yes you read right - Metallic Stazon. They are going to cost more than the opaque Stazon (we think about £12). Tsukineko have also released a range of spritzer bottles that contain shimmer inks but I'll let you know more as they become available.

Tonight is our last night in Anaheim for possibly 2 years, as next year the show is going to be in downtown Los Angeles - not really a great venue but we will wait and see.

We had dinner in the Cheesecake factory (12 of us), most times when I visit the Cheesecake Factory the dinner is so huge I never make it to desert but today I chose a light main course and we shared cheesecake - luckily my husband doesn't read my blog as he will be gutted that I went there while he is at home with the kids.

When visiting California there is 3 restaurants I would recommend visiting: Buca di Beppo (family style Italian), PF Changs (Chinese with the most amazing lettuce wraps) and Cheesecake factory (cheesecake to die for).

Now I am off to bed.

Day 1 of CHA

Before I tell you about our first day at CHA I have to tell you about Polly's Pies. On Saturday night after breaking down the Supershow we were taking Chris & Aikie home but it was late and we were hungry so we stopped at Polly's Pies. Apparently it is a small chain of cafe/restaurants famous for their homemade cream pies. I've never had cream pie so decided after dinner it would be rude not to try one. This is Banberry pie - the inside is a mixture of cream and bananas covered with strawberries and surrounded in a ring of cream. It was delicious and nothing like some of the cream I have tasted over here - which has tasted pretty bad!These are our new friends - Hope from Paper Relics and Patti from Queen's Ink.
This is Tim Holtz artwork from the Stampers Anonymous booth.
I saw Tim demonstrating in the Ranger booth using the new Distress Inkpads, Ink Blending Tool and the mask sheets. Tim also has a prototype of his new machine (not available until later in the year) which he promptly broke. It is an electronic Sizzix machine that looks like a suitcase.
Talking of die cutting machines the new Spellbinder machine is now available and it is an automatic punch and embossing machine. I haven't seen it in action yet but I believe you put your card and the die inside the machine, press the button and presses down to cut out the image. Hopefully today I will see it in action.

Last night we had dinner in Red Robin with JudiKins and were joined by MaryJo McGraw - how cool! (how American am I!)

I hope you're having a good Monday, mine is just about to begin.

DeNami Design

This is the DeNami Design booth. Filled to the brim with fabulous artwork. Far right is Nami, creator of DeNami Design.It is a big tradition over here to create candy (chocolate) bar wrappers. These were stamped with DeNami stamps. Valentine's Day is a huge deal over here, you send candy and cards to everybody that you love, not just the love of your life!
This is the lovely Paulina, daughter of Gary & Nami. This is the first time we have met Paulina but we have been emailing for the last couple of years.
This is just one of the many cards in their booth, I wanted to share this one with you as I think it is such a great idea - but how many of you would be willing to put your mugshot on a card or invitation?

The Finished Article

This is the (finally) finished JudiKins booth. Chris (Judi's Dad) is far right hiding behind the tower and in the middle is Rosie.
Rosie is centre stage (again), we love Rosie - she makes the most amazing cakes, muffins, marshmallow things and all kind of goodies.

Far right in this photo you can just see the ladies from Queens Ink - Patty & Jean (hopefully I got that right, we've met so many people I'm starting to forget names). Patty is doing great things with JK twinkle embossing powders and Mosaic tape and her own wonderfully unique range of rubber stamps. As the name suggest the range includes lots of regal images but also quite a few Alice in Wonderland stamps. Also, travelling with Queens Ink is Hope who owns Paper Relics, on Hope's website you can buy digital ephemera - how great is that!

We get to meet the most amazingly creative people at this show.
This is Aikie, Judi's Mum. Aikie is always clucking around like Mother Hen making sure we are taken care of and especially making sure we are getting enough food - spending a lot of time here could seriously expand my waistline. Getting Aikie to sit down and take a rest is nigh on impossible if there are things to be done - I really hope I have as much energy when I get to Aikie's age (80+ but don't tell anyone as she'll kill me for telling you).

You may wonder why there is no mention or photos of Rob & Judi, well not only do they have this booth but also the wholesale booth in the CHA show, we really only get to chat to them when we crash out in the hotel.

JudiKins Booth

We spent all of yesterday helping to build the JudiKins booth for the retail show that starts today. We had been working for what felt like a whole day, I thought to myself it must be about 6-7pm and I looked at my watch and is was only 2pm! Jet lag is horrible. It is now 6am but I have been up and online since 4am. As the show today is 12noon until 8pm I'm hoping I met get a normal nights sleep tonight.

But I'm not complaining, I'm very glad to be hear and spending time with our JudiKins family. And for those of you attending one of our retreats in June we have already seen some good stuff that we know you are going to love playing with.

We had a break in the rain yesterday late afternoon, we even saw a little sunshine. But this morning it is pouring with rain again - we feel right at home!

We're in California

We finally made it here last night. The journey had been going so well, no queues at check-in, no queues at security and the flight was less than 11 hours.

But then we landed and things didn't go as well at this end. It took ages to get to the gate, ages to get off the plane but then amazingly passport control was remarkably quick (normally we would be queuing for at least an hour). So we got through all this and the luggage started to come out but half an hour later we were still waiting for our suitcases and then they made the announcement that the luggage belt had jammed and they were trying to fix it.

Finally we left the airport at 9pm and drove down to Chris & Aikies, we managed to stay up chatting for a while before we headed off to bed and got about 5 hours sleep.

It is now nearly 6am and I believe we have to be at the Convention Center at 8am to set up the booth for the Craft SuperShow and CHA so I should probably go get dressed now.

Most of you will probably be pleased to know there is currently no sunshine here but plenty of rain.

I will try and take photos today and upload them tonight.

New Stamp Artwork

Lesley has been playing with the new stamps from DeNami and Stamps by Judith:

We are going off to CHA tomorrow and I will do my best to update you with the new products that we see so check back after the weekend to see what we have found..

Workshops

Spring Stamping Workshop - Saturday 13th February 10.30am-1.30pm £20.
Use the latest stamps from Stamps by Judith to make some beautiful spring cards with Lesley. Curious by Design Workshop - Friday 19th February 10.30am-1.30pm £ 20.
Use the gorgeous unmounted Curious by Design stamps to create these wonderful cards with Lesley.

New Products Now In Store

In store we now have the new Stamps by Judith stamps, the new Printworks snowmen stamps. We also now have a range of Cosmic shimmer products, Martha Stewart Deep Edge Punches. And all the new DeNami Design stamps.

I will endeavour to put what I can on the website soon but we are about (fingers crossed) to switch from the old website to the new so any changes I make now will be lost.

Hope you can come and visit us soon.

Wheelie Stamp Addicts

This is Printworks Dad's Truck stamp from our new show.
If you stamp it onto floral paper you can make it a girly car.

Put JudiKins Jean Pants behind it and make a more masculine card. In the back of the truck are guitars on shrink plastic.

A few paper flowers make this into a wedding car.

And this has to be my favourite (I'm always dreaming of that sun drenched holiday!).

New TV Show

Due to the fact we've had no more snow for 2 days we were able to get a delivery to Create & Craft today so our new 'Wheelie Stamp Addicts' show can be show tomorrow at 1pm.
All of the cards are featuring the Printworks Wheelbarrow.
This cards features the following Stamps by Judith stamps: Med Frazzled Cat, Santa Hat, Presents, Light bulb.

This wheelbarrow is carrying the Printworks Gingerbread men.

And finally this wheelbarrow is carrying a selection of Stamps by Judith flowers.

All artwork by Lesley.

Dancing On Ice

The reason we were closed on Monday is because we were at a special filming for Dancing on Ice (in the audience).

We got to see a special performance (which I can't tell you about) and we were being filmed for the trailers of Dancing on Ice, we were also doing lots of singing and dancing but hopefully this won't be seen on TV as our singing isn't great and you probably wouldn't want to see our dancing.

Due to all the snow we had last night and this morning we've cancelled our project club today but we have re-scheduled for Wednesday 13th January.

We've also had to delay the new TV show that was going out this Saturday, Wheelie Stamp Addicts will now be shown on Sat 16th Jan and Mica Gloss on Sat 23rd Jan both at 1pm.

Online Sale

As we are not able to get into the office on Monday (I'll tell you on Tuesday why), we are extending the online sale until the end of Monday 4th January.

Enjoy the sunshine while you can as they are forecasting snow for the rest of the week.