Frantic Stamper Happenings

Summer's almost over

2008-08-18T11:12:00.001-07:00

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

Flower punch art

2008-07-30T18:01:00.000-07:00

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

Finally -- I'm back!!!

2008-07-29T20:49:00.000-07:00

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

In Memory of a Dear Friend

2008-02-23T10:25:00.000-08:00

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.

CHA Winter 2008 report (Part 2)

2008-02-17T17:28:00.001-08:00

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 -

CHA Winter 2008 report (part 1)

2008-02-16T11:10:00.000-08:00

Whew!!! I got back from CHA on Wednesday evening (more like NIGHT, LOL!!) Of course, there were lots of emails and orders waiting for me when I got home. I’m just now sitting down collecting my thoughts.

I had a great time, of course! Here is what I saw/bought:

MAKING MEMORIES:
-Definitely the most exciting product I saw/played with/bought – The Slice!!! This is the same little die cut machine we saw at CHA last year, but this time it REALLY is coming. Making Memories is producing it (Tinnus licensed the Slice to Making Memories).
This cute little hand-held die cut machine is going to be one of our best sellers for sure. If you go to http://www.makingmemories.com/ there is a picture of it on the home page. No further info there yet… but stay tuned.
Quickly, I will tell you a little about it. Email me for more detailed info (franticstamper@charter.net). This die cut machine takes little cartridges (which are very inexpensive). Each shape/letter on the cartridge can be sized from ½” to 4”. The Slice weighs about 4 lbs, works with the power cord or on the rechargeable battery, so it’s VERY portable (great for crops or traveling). See a video demo here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=snj8Kp20OtQ (note: the yellow slice you see in the video is a prototype… the real one will be the blue one you see on the Making Memories site). The starter kit is $149.99 and include the machine, a design card, a 6x6 cutting mat, 5 blades, the blade replacement tool, the tacky adhisive and the power cord. Additional design cartridges will be $39.99. The Slice will be available in July.

BASIC GREY:
-They introduced 5 new lines at the show. You can go to their site at http://www.basicgrey.com/ to see them. I’ll be adding them to my site shortly as we should see all of these in the beginning of March. I love the Sultry line and I think that one is going to go fast. Ditto for the Archaic.

BO BUNNY PRESS:
-I always love their stuff!! I’m especially fond of their word chipboard albums. Not to disappoint, they came out with new words as well as some great paper lines, including an expantion of their popular double dot line.

S.E.I.:
-I was fortunate enough to get invited to a little party they put on for their good customers. It was nice to relax in a big room full of other store owners and watch their presentation. 5 beautiful new lines (my favorite is the Valentine one…. It came out earlier this year, but I waited to buy it at the show). They also introduced chipboard word albums much like Bo Bunny’s but in other words: Father, Mother, Happy, etc.

PRIMA:
-As usual, more great flowers! But also, they had “Clear paintables” which was their version of acetate overlays. The trick is they showed a neat technique where you can color them with Sharpie or Copic markers. I suppose you can do that on any overlay, not just theirs…. But it was cool to see! I also ordered a lot of products they introduced at the Memory Trends trade show, and those items are already here. I will be updating the website this weekend. All their new releases will come later in March and April.

HEIDI SWAPP:
-Heidi never fails to come out with cute new stuff. Overlays, stickers, papers, yum yum yum.

TIM HOLTZ:
-New chipboard!!! Yes!! Also a new stamp storage binder made of faux leather that you can PAINT with the adirondack dabbers to customize it for YOU. Lots of great collage “trinkets” also coming, as well as new rubber stamps that are all Tim style!

EK SUCCESS:
-EK revamped all their lines of Jolee’s stickers… but I bought so much at the show, that I didn’t have any money left for new stickers. However, they are coming out with great punches, including BIGGER sizes of popular shapes (bigger than the Whale of a Punch). Look for those in the coming months.

K&Co.
-K&Co. has merged with EK Success’ parent company. This makes it easy for me to order. J I’ll soon be discontinuing all my current K&Co. inventory as it’s very old (I haven’t bought any new stuff from them in a couple of years) – but look for NEW products including papers, stickers and embellishments. They have some gorgeous lines!

INKADINKADOO:
-Another company that merged under the EK umbrella…. So this is a new one for me. Great clear stamps! They also have wood mounted stamps, but due to a lack of space, we stuck with buying just their clear stamp line. I’ve got some of everything coming. A small portion will be here in the next week or so, and the rest will be coming in about a month.

CREATIVE IMAGINATIONS:
-Oh my! This was one of my biggest purchases for sure. Lots of great overlays, papers, epoxy stickers, chipboard books, rhinestones and brads etc… --- themes such as beach, travel, froggies, Asian fusion, floral and more. I also picked up most of the Narratives line of beautiful die cut papers.

MAYA ROAD:
-You know Maya Road is one of my favorite companies, so I had to get all their new stuff, of course!!! If you are a fan of their chipboards, wait til you see the new Cat and Dog keychain chipboards, the house chipboards are the best, and of course there’s more. We were one of the first orders, so our shipment will come first. They are releasing things in 3 installments: March, April and May. Can’t wait for all these items!!

ROYAL AND LANGNICKEL:
-Rub ons, Rub ons and more rub ons. J

BEST CREATIONS:
-Best Creations is known for their beautiful glitter papers. We have all their new ones coming! I must say, the sunset palm one is one of my favorite papers I saw at the show. New stickers here as well.

RUSTY PICKLE:
-I’ve had a lot of requests for Rusty Pickle, so I bit the bullet and opened an account with them. I purchased most of their new collections, as well as a few of their older ones.

STEWART SUPERIOR:
-We will soon have the popular Memories Mists in Gold, Silver and Copper. These are very very shimmery and gorgous paired with the existing colors. I also picked up the Memories Chalk inks which I was not carrying before (but had many requests for)

LUMINARTE:
-12 new colors of Radiant Rain daubers are coming!! I don’t have the list of colors yet, but they should be here in 2 weeks. As soon as they are available, I will let you all know.

ROBIN’S NEST:
-2 words “Dark Vanilla”. I’ve never heard of this company before, but their papers really really caught my eye…. Especially the “Dark Vanilla” line. But even more exciting than the beautiful papers was the Dew Drops! I’ve been looking for these ever since one of our customers asked if we could get them. Dew Drops are little cabushon beads of epoxy that you can use to embellish your pages, cards, stamped images, etc.

FISKARS:
-OH MY! New punches, new tools, new new new! My favorite is the new border/corner punches that make a frame or tiles. They were demoing these and I forgot to take a picture!!! Trust me, everyone will want these!!!

HEIDI GRACE:
-This is a company owned by Fiskars… Much like Cloud 9 (see below), they are more geared to the traditional scrapbook look/feel than Fiskars which is all about the tools. Heidi Grace has papers, stickers, brads, etc. We bought EVERYTHING new.

CLOUD 9:
-Same as above…. EVERYTHING!!! It’s all coming!!!

more to follow.......

A Quick Hello

2008-01-15T19:48:00.000-08:00

Just a quick hello. It's been 2 weeks since my last post... just too busy! It's a good thing, LOL!!

I just wanted to quickly share this beautiful box top that a customer in Australia made using the Dahlia Petals punch (www.franticstamper.com/punch_bunch.htm)

Thank you for the wonderful sample, Angie!

(I will share more of Angie's work later, she has been kind enough to send me some more samples of her work)

Keep on crafting!

-Fran

Happy New Year!!!

2008-01-02T17:41:00.000-08:00

Happy 2008!

Once again, I've slacked off on updating the blog..... just not enough time! LOL!!

So I'll make it up to you with a beautiful card. I did not create this... again, not time. This was made by Marlou Hol of the Netherlands using punches she purchased from my site. Thank you Marlou!!! Your work is beautiful!!!

Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous new year!

-Fran

Vacation ramblings

2007-10-28T14:42:00.001-07:00

Again, I'm lacking greatly on my blog posts...... We've been back from vacation for over a month now. Back to a busy life.

Let me finish telling you about our vacation.
After our trip to Marseille, we finished out the week in Fréjus, then headed to my parents' house in the Loire valley. I had limited internet access there, so really no opportune time to blog. My parents live in a tiny tiny (did I say tiny?) village. Their internet connection is by phone! No DSL or cable!!! Super duper slow when you are spoiled like we are here.

But, the good part is it's sooooo relaxing at their place. You're in the middle of the French countryside, surrounded by corn & wheat fields, lots of cow pastures, and the occasional quaint village. We spent most of our time relaxing.

During our stay there, we did make a couple of side trips. The first was a 2 day trip to Normandie. The drive was only about 2.5 hours away, using mostly "national roads". In France, the highway system revolves around the big cities, so if you are going to Paris, Lyon, Marseille, etc, you can hop on a highway (I won't call them freeways, because they are NOT free!!! You'd better have some money for the tolls!). But if you are not going to a big city, then "National" roads are the way to get around. Let me tell you, for those of you used to nice big US roads, keep dreaming. We're talking small 2-lane roads that slice through little towns and big towns alike. No skirting cities... It's a whole different ball game.

We did have my mother's trusted road map book! It came in very handy. Things are well marked, but if you don't know exactly where you are, it can be a little confusing. With the map book, it was really easy. Whew!! (Matt does NOT like getting lost).

We started our Normandie visit with the quintessential Mont St-Michel. Oh wait, before we get there, we had lunch in a really really cute restaurant. It was called the Montgomery. For 10,50 Euros, we had charcuterie (cold cuts), a main course (choice of veal kidneys or turkey --- I chose the veal kidneys, haven't had them in years!! Matt went for the safer turkey), pasta, cheese plate, chocolate mouse, all the bread you can eat, wine and hard cider, and coffee (espresso). After a week on the French Riviera, we got used to paying 10 euros JUST for desert!!! Anyways, this was one of the best meals we had. Nice place, nice folks, great food!

On to the Mont St-Michel (look it up, it's beautiful --- if I had my camera with me right now, I'd upload some pictures, but I left it at home.... will have to remember to bring it and post pics for you guys to see). Anyways, we had a great time there. My mom told me I had been there before when I was 4 or 5, but I don't remember of course.

Then, we headed to St. Mère Eglise. Our main reason for wanting to go to Normandie was that Matt is a big military buff and he really wanted to see where all the D-Day stuff happened. History lesson: St. Mère Eglise is the town where the FIRST paratroopers landed at 2AM on June 6th. Watch the movie "The Longest Day" or "Band of Brothers" and you will see what I mean. In the movie "The Longest Day" there is a scene where a paratrooper chute gets hung up on the church tower as he is landing. Well, that really happened. They guy's name is John Steele and a dummy with a parachute STILL hangs on the church tower to this day. He is truly the town hero.

In St. Mère Eglise, we visited the museum, of course the church (which now has beautiful memorial stained glass depicting the landing..... again, I will have to upload pictures later). We stayed at the Aubèrge John Steele (everything is named after him there!) and the next day headed out to see the beaches where the water landings occured (Omaha Beach, etc). We also went to the US cemetary. This was a very emotial trip. The people in that part of France will never forget what the US troops did for them. I'd like to go back some day and see the many other museums and sites we didn't have time to visit.

Another side trip we made was to the Chateau de Chenonceau. Very beautiful! Not as big as you would think, LOL!! I really liked it.

During our trip, I had the pleasure of meeting many of my French customers. Béa from Toulon, Marjo from Marseille, Sofy from Fréjus, and Sylvie (Fée) de Parpeçay. (Super de faire vos connaissance!!!)

And there you have it. Now it's back to work.....

Cheers!
-Fran

Another day in paradise

2007-09-13T12:29:00.000-07:00

It's Thursday evening here in France. I've not blogged since we arrived.... we've actually been quite busy, and when we aren't busy, we find ourselves on the beach or taking walks by the harbor.

Yesterday, we went to Marseille. The primary purpose was to visit a customer who lives there. We were also hoping to visit the city. As it turns out, I was incapable of driving in Marseille. Talk about a cluster!!!!!! "No rules driving" is pretty much how I describe it.

In fact, I was soooo scared, that after an hour of driving down the teensiest one-way streets with delivery trucks facing the other way, intersections where if you don't go for it and cut off someone, you will never go across, and let's not mention all the pedestrians who just step out in front of you with no warning.... oh.... and the mopeds that go whizzing by and around you forcing you to brake instantly.... well, we parked somewhere in a bad neighborhood and called to come get rescued.

Luckily, my customer and her husband were not far. They came to the rescue and Christian drove our rental car with Matt in the passenger seat, and I rode with Marjorie in her car. There is no way I was getting back behind the wheel in that madness!!!

We ended up going to the Port of Marseille and having a wonderful bowl of Bouillabaisse (a fish soup) which is the specialty there. Then we went to the beach for an ice cream, and finally, Christian led us back to the freeway entrance. We had to stop on the side of the road in the middle of a round-about to switch drivers. I felt comfortable taking the wheel back as I could see the freeway and knew the direction home.

Today, we drove along the sea coast road almost to St Tropez, but we had to return the car by 2PM, so we didn't go too far. Besides, Matt wasn't too keen (and neither was I) on repeating yesterday's experience. LOL!!!!

Tomorrow, we have slated a relaxing day on the beach for our last day here in Frejus. But the weather report is calling for thunderstorms.

Saturday, we have a travel day: first cab ride to the train station, then train ride to the Nice aiport, plane to Paris, subway to the train station, train to Vendome where my dad will pick us up. We won't get to their house until late in the evening.....

I'll write more when we get there.

-Fran

On vacation - Day 1?

2007-09-08T11:17:00.000-07:00

It's Saturday night..... so technically, it's not day 1 of the vacation, but it feels like it. It's the first day our body clocks are adjusted to the time change.

We left home Thursday morning for a brutally long trip. Medford to San Francisco, S.F to LAX. LAX to Paris, and Paris to Nice. Got to Nice at 6PM Friday night. Thank goodness I had reserved a room CLOSE to the airport in a 2-star hotel (the French equivalent of a Motel 6). It was so close to the Nice airport that taxis won't even take you there... you have to take the bus. But we crashed and hard!

Next day (this morning), we took the train to Frejus where we are staying for a week. We rented a studio apartment overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. The weather here is beautiful, still warm, but all the tourists have gone. This is the off-season. Everthing is less expensive and calmer.

this picture was taken from our balcony. As you can see, the beach is a mere walk away, and not crowded at all. The little jut of land you see on the far right is St. Tropez (where all the RICH Americans go... notice we are NOT there, LOL!!)

Since we are staying close to the harbor, there is a little pier there where people fish. We saw about 8 cats all waiting for a handout. What a life!!!

Ta ta for now, I'm off to eat my dinner. (more tomorrow)

-Fran

Bind-it-All Spotlight

2007-08-19T18:14:00.000-07:00

Today, a quick product spotlight for your enjoyment.

I just love my Bind-it-All. Sadly, I don't have much time to play..... I haven't even made a REAL project yet (I've just "play" punched so far). I have all sorts of ideas running through my head, but no time to execute.

So, I live vicariously through the wonderful project my loyal customers create. Below is a brown bag album made by one of my French customer. ----sidebar ---- I was born in France and speak French fluently. This has enabled me to serve a growing customer base in France. There are so many talented ladies who have discovered the joys of scrapbooking and cardmaking in the past few years.

But I digress. Below is a brown bag album made by Cathy (yes, a very anglo name, but it's short for Catherine!). Cathy recently took a trip to Tibet. She made this wonderful album illustrating a salty lake high in the Tibetan mountains.

Cathy used the Bind-it-All to finish off her album.

If you like what you see, and want to see the rest of the album, please go to:

http://cathychartreuse.canalblog.com/archives/2007/08/19/5931708.html

The blog is in French and so are all the comments, but I'm sure Cathy would enjoy getting your comments in English too. :-)

I hope you enjoy this feast for the eyes.

I'm off to add a few more things to the franticstamper.com website.....

Hugs,

-Fran

CHA Deliveries are rolling in

2007-08-02T09:10:00.000-07:00

Decidely, some vendors are much faster than others at recovering after CHA. We've already received shipments from several companies.

Yesterday, we received 21 boxes from Zutter (the makers of the Bind-it-all). Sadly, there were supposed to be 22 boxes in the shipment, and of course the missing box is the one with all the new stuff!!! LOL!!! But I'm sure it will be here today.

Come take a look at www.franticstamper.com/binditall.htm for the NEW carrying tote for your Bind-it-All as well as an idea book and a book binding tool kit. We're also now re-stocked in machines and wires!

Another huge shipment came in from Karen Foster. I haven't had a chance to upload all the new products on the site yet, but will we working on it within the next few days. There are some nice lines, including some very "male" themes like hunting, wildlife, skater, sports, and four-wheeling, as well as some traditional themes.

Zsiage is a new company for us. Their shipment arrived yesterday and I put the products up on the site already. www.franticstamper.com/zsiage.htm
One product that is very exciting to me (but hard to visualize) is the Scrapbook Film. It's a plastic-feeling material, translucent in color, pre-cut into alphabets. Now, the exciting thing is that you can use all sort of products to embellish them. You can use alcohol inks, stamp and emboss (yes, it will take heat embossing), paint and sand, etc. I can't wait to try the alcohol ink technique on them (when I get a free moment that is).

Zsiage also has beautiful papers and lots of chipboard alphabets in many sizes.

I can't wait to see what UPS brings us today!!

Hugs,
-Fran

CHA excitement begins

2007-07-26T20:25:00.000-07:00

We've only been back from CHA for 4 days, and already we have received 2 products ordered at the show!!! And I know 2 more packages are on the way.

It's good to know some companies are fast, even after such a big show.

So what did we get?

We received the newest DVD from Page Sage. It's entitled Rubber Paper Scissors with Judi Watanabe (of Judi-Kins)

This DVD features lots of simple but elegant techniques that Judi is well known for. A must have for the beginner or seasoned rubber stamper! Great also for those non-stampers who want to branch out into card making.

Next our order from Zoom Albums came in. Oooooh, these are soooo cute!!! Miniature albums you print at home. I have so many ideas for these little gems!

Think of the cute gifts you could make for Grandmas! A little album they can carry in their purse. How about party favors, or Bride & Groom albums for a wedding. They take 12 pictures and turn them into a mini album. What comes in 12's? How about 12 years of school pictures, or the first 12 months of your baby's life, the 12 days of Christmas, or a "dozen reasons why I love you" book. You can make a toddler's first reader (take pictures of 12 animals and add the name of each animal for the child to read). Or a mini recipe book for a student in college with pictures of his/her favorite 12 dishes. How cute would a little travel log book be?

I can't wait to see what the UPS lady brings tomorrow!

Hugs,

-Fran

Part 2 of the CHA Summer 2007 report

2007-07-24T16:58:00.000-07:00

Time to write a little more about exciting CHA things......

Yesterday someone called to ask me about any new punches, and I totally forgot about the 6 new McGill punches that will be available in October. These are SOOOOOOOO cool. Here are a couple of them:

and a card made with the keyhole punch:

There are 6 punches all together: Hang Tag, Brackets, Symbols, Keyhole, Punctuation and Heirloom Hearts.

Each punch will be $18.99 and I will offer a pre-order special on my site with a deal if you buy all 6 at the same time.

I can't remember if I talked about clear stamps yesterday, but we picked up quite a few new ones. Autumn Leaves of course came out with another big batch. We picked up a new company (new for us, but they've been around a while) called Impression Obsession. They have some really nice designs for card makers, so we pretty much bought almost all they make in the way of clears.

Stampendous also had a few new clears, which of course we purchased. DMD Industries put out a line of very inexpensive clear stamps (some small ones for less than $2, and some regular size sheets as well). We also saw Daisy Bucket's booth had clear stamps, so of course we bought those. Fiskars also came out with some, and you guessed it, we bought them!!

Clear stamps were definitely a huge hit at CHA. We would have liked to pick up a few other lines (such as Technique Tuesdays) but we ran out of money. I know a lot of stampers prefer rubber over clear, but clear is what most every place is going to these days. They tend to be less pricey than rubber and they do have the advantage of ease of use with clear blocks.

Oh... one more clear stamp..... Francy Pants came out with 2 new 12"x12" clear stamp sets (and yes, we bought those too)

Moving on to new papers.... OMG, this is a long list. I'm just going to hit some highlights here:

-Basic Grey -- 4 new gorgeous lines + new chipboards and rub ons!

-Zsiage --- we already have their fabulous Scrap-o-dex, but this time we picked up many of their papers, chipboards and sheer elements that can be embossed!!

-Around the block --- call me crazy, we bought everything new they had

-Dove of the East --- I spoke about them on yesterday's blog edition.

-Cloud 9 --- they had too much to choose from, but I found a few papers and stickers

-Heidi Grace -- same as above

-Prism --- specialty metallic papers and vellums. Wait til you see what I found there!

-Daisy D's -- 4 new lines of papers, stickers, tags, etc

-Fancy Pants -- 3 new lines of papers/stickers, and some fab new overlays!!

-Daisy Bucket --- I bought everything new they had!

-SEI --- again, everything new. They had the cutest Kitty papers!!!! Can't wait to have those!!

-Karen Foster --- I focused mainly on BOY themes here, but got other things too.

-Bo-Bunny --- again, I purchased ALLLLLL their new stuff.

Another booth that always attracts me is Prima. They did not fail us this time. We re-ordered their Sprites (which we ran out of quickly after CHA Winter), plus they came out with MORE new Sprites, so ordered those too. I'm not too sure when we expect them as Prima is usually quite slow at shipping.... so stay tuned.

Maya Road had done it again with dozens more new chipboard album configurations, cute chipboard shapes, etc. Oh yes, they got a chunk of our money too.

For those of you who are interested in trying out Digital Scrapbooking, we have a great product for you. It's put out by McGill, and it is called Pixel Magic. It's super easy to use, comes with dozens of accessory disks and you can print the results at home or at your favorite store.

This will be a fun new tool for me as well.

One more thing for today: Have you seen the Clip-it-up yet? It's fantastic!! Here is a picture (as I can't describe it as well as I can show you)

The unit comes as the Main Base (bottom picture) and the Upper Tier can fit on top. You can clip up all your stickers, ribbons, trinkets and have them right on hand to scrapbook or make cards. Everything is at your fingertips. It revolves and also has tabs so you can organize your stuff by categories.

My husband just came home from work.... so it's time for me to go too. I will post again tomorrow with more pictures.

Hugs,
-Fran

We're back from CHA

2007-07-23T20:11:00.000-07:00

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

The Warehouse

2007-06-17T13:30:00.000-07:00

People often ask me:

"Can we stop by your store?"

"Where do you keep all your inventory?"

"You must have a large warehouse"

Well, the answer is yes, it is a big warehouse. It's approximately 2,000 square feet.

Imagine a 3 bay garage, but double deep (so you could park 6 cars in here), then add an upstairs, and another 2 car garage on the back. Now fill it all with shelves, add a shipping area, an office area with 2 computers, and voila... my world.

So the answer to the above questions is:

-No, we don't have a traditional store. We are sticktly a mail order business. The zoning here does not allow us to have a store for walk-in customers.

-The inventory is kept in this huge space and we are running out of room.

Here are a few pictures:

This first picture is the "wall of paper". We've outgrown this "wall" and have actually moved on to several other shelves throughout the warehouse.

Here is a shelf with some Prima flowers. The brown boxes on top are also Primas (the ones in large tins).

The pens and inks are upstairs.

Punches are in the "punch warehouse" as I like to refer to it. It's basically the back garage. Here you can see the Marvy punch rack and in the background, all the Punch Bunch punches. We also have 2 racks with McGill punches, 2 racks and 3 shelves with EK Success punches and a shelf with Carl Craft punches. (I'm forgetting some, I know)

As I said earlier, we are running out of space. What to do?

The answer..... drumroll..... build another warehouse. Yep, that's right, we're taking the plunge.

We've already secured a line of credit, and a quote for an additional 1,100 sf building. Now for the bad news. The county building department has told us we can't build where we want because they want a 100 ft fire barrier between our fenceline and the new building. Rats. So we are applying for a variance on that. I talked to County Planners and they seem to think it should be no problem, but the plans have to go into review (all at a cost of $250 of course.... you don't expect them to let us do what we want on our land without some money, do you?).

Once the fire varience is approved, we then have to pay them a little bit more for the building permit. fun. After that, our builder can order the pre-made building (it's much cheaper to go pre-fab than standard stick-built). That will take 8 weeks. The actual building part should only take about 3 weeks. Pre-fab buildings go up in no time.

So hopefully, around September, we should have a new warehouse. Just in time for Summer CHA products to start rolling in.

That's the big news here at Frantic Stamper. New warehouse, new shopping cart, we're moving on up!!!

To all my loyal customers: Thank you for your continued support. And to my new customers, Welcome!

I look forward to serving you all for years and years to come!

Hugs,

-Fran

A quick note + a card

2007-06-16T18:26:00.000-07:00

Busy, busy, busy as usual..... and I forget to add stuff to the blog.

The good news is the busier we are, the more we make people happy. :-)

This summer, we are working on a shopping cart. It's a long overdue project. One that I have started many times, and dropped many times due to lack of time to finish it properly.

So I've actually hired someone. 2 someones to be exact.

I've hired Adelina from New Zealand as a consultant and technical advisor. Adelina will be making all the techincal updates to the site, making things look pretty and work properly.

I've also hired Betsy. Betsy is working in our warehouse and she is in charge of adding all the products to the site. She's been working on the cart for about 2 weeks now and already has over 3,000 products added.

We hope to go live with the cart sometime this summer. There is still a lot of work to be done on it, plus testing, and finally migrating it from its current "temporary secret locale" to http://www.franticstamper.com/. What an exciting day that will be. :-)

To change subjects a little, here is a card I made a couple years ago. It's simple, but striking (I think).

Happy stamping & scrapping!

-Fran

Have you seen what's new from Maya Road

2007-05-03T09:47:00.000-07:00

OMGosh, I can't believe all the wonderful new stuff we just got from Maya Road.

They've really outdone themselves this year with dozens of new chipboards, chipboard albums, tins, and of course their wonderful ribbons.

My favorites are the Chipboard KEYS and CLOCKS. Take a look:

But that's not all... check out their CUTE purse albums

Be sure to visit my website for more from Maya Road. Start at our new products page: www.franticstamper.com/new_products.htm and click on the link.

I've got more goodies coming soon!

Happy scrapping!

-Fran

It's been a while....

2007-04-24T18:53:00.000-07:00

It's been far too long since I've updated the blog. So sorry about that, but I've been working way too hard.

Just a quick note to let you know we are receiving lots and lots of new products. Be sure to check out the website and click on the "new products" section. Here's a direct link: http://www.franticstamper.com/new_products.htm

Just in are the new Luminarte Radiant Rain mists. Also, tonight I will be adding the new punches from McGill and the new products from Queen and company.

If you're wondering about the MUPPETS stickers, they are in, I just need to get them on the website. Will have that done by this weekend, promise!!!

OK, enough chit chat... I need to go add more great products to the site.

Stay tuned, I have some card ideas to share.

Hugs,
-Fran

Rouge de Garance papers

2007-02-16T07:41:00.000-08:00

FINALLY!!!!

The exquisite papers from France, brought to us by Rouge de Garance, are here!!
go to www.franticstamper.com/rougedegarance.htm to see all the gorgeous papers!

We've also just received the 4 new lines from Basic Grey.... I will try to get those on the site tonight or this weekend. Be sure to stay tuned to www.franticstamper.com/new_products.htm

Have a great day!
-Fran

I broke down and did it.....

2007-02-09T10:33:00.000-08:00

Sigh.... I wasn't going to order the Scenic Route papers, but they are sooo beautiful, I went ahead and did it this morning. My poor credit cards!!!!

Here's a preview:

Yes, I ordered ALL their papers, even the ones I missed at Memory Trends. :-)

And last night, the UPS man delivered the NEW S.E.I papers.... so watch for those on the website this weekend.

I'm sure more new stuff will come today.... this weekend, I will be putting tons of new stuff on the site.

-Fran

CHA orders are starting to come in

2007-02-08T07:19:00.000-08:00

Hi folks!!!

We just got some exciting news that 4 of our CHA orders are already on the way:

1) Karen Foster Designs --- We ordered everything new they had at CHA + some stuff we missed from Memory Trends. We just got notice that they shipped our order yesterday and it should be here Tuesday. So next week, we should have lots of new papers, stickers, metal charms, brads, etc.
We did order the new Scraparatus, but that won't be here for a couple of months.

2) Creative Impressions brads and other embellishments. Their new ribbons are held up for another month or so... but the new brads are on their way.

3) Hot off the Press' new Brad Buddies are coming too!! Great new designs in this series such as music, graduation, dance, tropical, zoo, and many more.

4) Lots of new ribbons from May Arts are also on the way. Beautiful new ribbons with woven checks, puffy flowers, etc. (sorry I have no pictues yet)

I think also the German decoupage papers might also be on the way.... as well as possibly some other items. Not all vendors let us know when they are shipping.

The Bind-It-All machines should be here next week. More on that later.

And lastly, I believe the 8 new colors of Colorbox pigment inks are also on the way.

Hugs,
-Fran
www.franticstamper.com

CHA report - Day 3

2007-01-31T20:10:00.000-08:00

Sorry I was not able to post yesterday. My wireless connection in the hotel room was sketchy at best and last night it wouldn't work at all.
Then this morning, I thought I would blog from the airport, but I found out I had to pay $7.95 per day for a connection at LAX, so I said "forget it".

So I'm home now.... and let's see what I can remember, LOL!!

Let's start with Queen & Company. Tons of new brads, sequins, jewels, felt ribbon, etc in fun color schemes. Here's a sample of the "Bold Sequins":
These will start shipping in March. We'll keep you up to date.

Next, I must tell you about this faboulous line of breathtaking papers from France. The company is called Rouge de Garance and their papers have been a huge hit in France, but until now, not available in the USA. I purchased their entire paper line (except for the background papers). Here's a teaser images. We should have these in about 2 weeks!! I will put all the images on the website this weekend.

For the Brits out there, I met Alan & Barry, famous on UK television for their craft shows. They had some fabulous clear stamps and peel off stickers in matching "step by step" geometric designs. I purchased 8 different ones (they had many more) to test the market. The stamps can be used on their own (like "outlines" stamps) but can also be coupled with the matching peel off stickers to add a metallic touch.

Speaking of metallic, I stopped at the We-R-Memory Keepers booth (mainly to purchase the Crop-A-Dile... which I did) and bought their entire new line of "metallic" papers, embellishements, etc. I can't remember the exact name of the line, and I don't have it in front of me, but it's very nice. Probably won't be here till March as well.

Maya Road was a booth were I spent a lot of time (and money) buying up most of their new chipboard books, chipboard shapes, ribbons and ribbon slides. Great designs!! Can't wait to get those on my shelves!!!

7 Gypsies also had their usual fantastic selection of collage type items. Tons of great stuff coming, including some new "expressions" stamps in oval shapes, new papers, stickers, and much more.

Going back on something I mentioned Monday: the Bind-it-All binding machine... I must say, I went back to their booth and ordered 2 more items: the chipboard book covers, and their book paper cutter. I didn't quite understand the cutter at first,but after seeing it in action, I had to have it. It will accurately cut pages for your little books in a jiffy. I'll explain more over the weekend in a special feature on this product. I'll also be offering a fantastic drawing for great prizes with special order packages. More on this later.

Towards the end of the day, I stopped at Dreamweaver's booth where they had lots of new stencils and 12 new colors of Memories Mists. They will be available in mid-March.

One last thing before I go to bed... and I'll post more this weekend. While in the new exhibitors area, I spotted a digital die cut machine under production. It won't be ready til July or so... but it is what we have all been waiting for. This little machine will cut shapes from 1" to 5" (adjustable in 1/2" increments). The cartridges will hold an alphabet and several shapes all on a standard SD type memory card. The machine will be about $150 and the cartridges about $50... but THE most exciting thing is it will have a cable interface and software to make your OWN cartridges (from true type fonts and any design you want) from your PC or Mac. Yes! Mac!!! Mac users won't be left out of this!!!

Oh.... one more thing.... those of you who have been asking me about a UK product called the "bookatrix", I finally found it. Right now, they have 8 templates, but are looking for a US distributor. They won't sell to US companies until they find a US distributor. They said within 2 month, they should be all set up. These template boards are great.... It's hard to tell from the picture below what they do, so I'll give you more details if you don't already know about them.... More this weekend.

Oh.... yet one more thing. I found some great 3-D cutting papers from Germany. These are different from the Dutch ones as they are embossed and have gold printed accents. This means they are easier to use as you just cut and stack them... no need to do the shaping part. I also found the perfect little spring action scissors for cutting the intricate designs. I purchased about 40 patterns in this line. Each sheet will be about $2 and give you 2 or more projects per sheet. I was very impressed with the quality of these.

Well, that's enough for tonight.... I'm pooped and need to get to sleep.

I'll post more this weekend after I go through my notes.

-Fran

CHA report - Day 2

2007-01-29T20:00:00.000-08:00

The first thing I did today was go back to the LuminArte booth to get the names of the colors of the new Radiant Rain mists and daubers.
-Mists will come in 12 scrumptious colors: Coral Berry, Irish Mist, Fern, Sky Blue, Cranberry, Guartamalan Green, Periwinkle, Lemondrop, Key Lime, Jasper Red, Pink Grapefruit and Golden Bamboo. Price for the Mists will be $4.99 ea.
-Daubers will come in 12 delightful shades: Mallard Green, Sunburst, Snapdragon, Olive Vine, Hot Cinammon, Pink Azalea, Teal Ziricon, Magestic Blue, Wine & Roses, Spiced Pumpkin, Nutmeg and Yellow Rose. Price for the Daubers will be $5.99 ea.
(and of course, I will offer a special for orders of all of them!! )

Now.... I must tell you about the most exciting product I saw today. A wonderful new BINDING SYSTEM!!! Better than anything I've seen before.
This binder makes very professional books at a reasonable price.
First, I'll tell you about the machine. It punches through 10 sheets of paper at a time with ease, or through chipboard! You can cut any size paper (by moving the paper and aligning with previous holes).
The binding is wire combs. The same machine is used to put the combs on. And the price is only $59.99!!
The combs come in 5 thicknesses and 5 colors. Such fun!!
The picture below illustrates how it works and what the binding looks like.

Next, I stopped at Tsukineko's booth. They have 2 new colors of Brilliance inks which will be out in April.... as well as 2 older colors no available in Dew Drops (lime and gamma green).

Tsukineko also said their GLUE PAD is finally finally coming. Yes, I know we have all been waiting well over a year for this, but it will finally be available in April/May. The pad will come WITH a reinker, and extra reinkers will be available. It will be different from the current glue pad by Stewart Superior in that you won't need to heat the ink to activate it. We ordered 150 of them and will start taking pre-orders soon. I will do that through the newsgroup... so stay tuned there.

That's not all folks....

Basic Grey is gracing us with 4 new beautiful lines at the end of February. Of course, I ordered them all! I will be putting them on my website mid-February.

Other fabulous paper lines I picked up today were from Autumn Leaves, Paper Adventures, Fancy Pants, Karen Foster, etc...

Speaking of Autumn Leaves, they have 20 new clear stamps!! I ordered them all of course! Look for a new book featuring clear stamps as well. This whole line is suppposed to come out in March.

Switching back to stamping.... Tim Holtz and Ranger are coming out with 12 new colors of the Distress embossing powders to match the 12 distress inks that came out last year. Look for those in late March.

Ranger also re-designed the whole Adirondack/Seabrights/Seashell line. The Seabrights and Seashells inks will be "sort of" discontinued..... but not really. They will be re-packaged into a whole series to match the Adirondack daubers line. So everything will be like the Adirondack daubers: 12 earth tones, 12 brights, 12 pastels. The current 10 seabrights and 10 seashells will be re-named and 2 colors each added, so all the names will match the Adirondack daubers. The CURRENT Adirondack inks have 24 colors.... so those will all remain, which means there will be more earthones than the other ranges... It's going to be a bit confusing at first, but nice and more contiguous when it's all in place. Also, the embossing powders in this line will be expanded. The pads themselves will be redesigned so they are NOT a hinged box as now, but a top & bottom and stackable.

Tim Holtz is coming out with great carrying cases for inks, powders, color washes, etc. Nice tins with compartments for storing all your Tim Holtz stuff neat and organized.

PUNCHES --- are you punch crazy? OK, Punch Bunch is coming out with several new punch shapes. I'll keep you posted on those soon..... Fiskars has new "oval" border punches, much like their border and circle ones.... but they make ovals. And I will be stopping at McGill's booth tomorrow to order their new punches.

Dutch paper craft lovers, I have lots for you too:

-Dozens of new Peel Off stickers from Starform, Mark Richards, and more

-Pergamano supplies. I will now be carrying basic Pergamano supplies including books, tools, vellum and starter kits. I will also be able to special order ANY Pergamano products you wish (paints, books, patterns, shading tools, tints, etc)

-New stencils & books, of course. I can't recall all the lines I ordered, but there are a lot of new ones.

-New 3-D cutting papers..... at least 40 new ones: flowers, animals, holiday, and more. And 2 new books FILLED with cutting papers at a GREAT value: $15 for over 20 sheets of papers, every sheet different, so you get a ton of variety at huge savings.

There was more, but I can't remember it all.... I'll have to wait til I get home and unpack/sort it all to fill you in.

I wish I had more pictures for you, but my digital camera ran out of juice today and I didn't pack that charger. DUH!!

More tomorrow!!

-Fran