Off to Athens...

You would think with CHA just around the corner that I would have better things to do - but who would pass up the chance to kick off the launch of COUSIN jewellery in Athens?! Not the most logic location - but I am in jewellery heaven (and it is raining!!)

Lots going on in the scrapbook world - with SIMPLE SCRAPBOOKS (by CK Media) being closed down "There simply isn't enough advertising to keep two magazines afloat. The economic situation has been difficult to say the leastand we've all been feeling it, no matter what area of the country we live in, or what industry we work in. I'm sure you can relate. Tough times. Tough measures."... and Fiskars announcing the cease of production of papers, stickers etc for Heidi Grace, Lil Davis etc. The plot thickens as we will see a real interesting CHA show. Ups and downs all around. On a positive Tinkering Ink became part of CreativityInc. (the same company who brings us Autumn Leaves, Blue Moon Beads, Westrim etc.) So some you win, some you lose. Big losses here with Craft Central going into administration... but again on the flip side we will see the locations find new ownership; so all is not as gloomy as it seems!

Off to eat my balaklava (as one of our sales team put it ;)
Becks xxx

Spotted: CHA Summer Tinkering Ink & My Yellow Bicycle

Spotted: My Yellow Bicycle is a new brand name that lept onto the scene less than 6 months ago. They are part of the Deja Views family... but definitely shake off the dated Deja Views dust. Easy on the eye, and no design degree required to own and operate their wonderful patterned papers - I love the soft LOVE LETTERS line.

Spotted: I know this company is still relatively 'underground' in the UK - but they certainly know how to PLAY WITH COLOUR! Not to everyone's tastes - but I am loving the Jardin paper... although how the heck I would use it is beyond me. It would be cut up for sure!!

Spotted: (more) CHA Summer sneaks

Spotted: Glitz Design have a full range out there on the web - showing you just how organised they are to be ready to show off their wares in public ;) See... that purple?!!! Everyone who is anyone will be sporting it...

Also - they have these *Glitzers* - and basically "Glitzers are transparent stickers with bold colors and BLING! That's right...BLING!...the bling is inside the sticker...so there is NO WAY you'll lose it! " Ooooo - bling and stickers. First thickers, and now glitzers... if I recall Lil Davis launched a whole range of bling before it's time (and before the sell out to Fiskars) which would have rivalled all the *new* fan dangled inventions. Have to hand it to Trish, she had an eye for spotting a trend and paying homage before it hit the big time...

Spotted: Tinkering Ink's follow up to their original YULETIDE range... surprisingly named Yuletide 2 (and is designed to coordinate beautifully!!) I like that idea... that product you have in your stash drawer is refreshed with new product... seems a lot like common sense to me!

Spotted: Piggy Tales show off their new Drawbridge Book... aiming to be in stores at the end of July. Another take on a flap type book... if you are a mini-book addict, this is one for you.

CHA - Sneak from Tinkering Ink (Albums)

Spotted: TINKERING INK'S NEW PEEK-A-BOO ALBUMS (and Wild Woodland) ...They have combined the best of both worlds of album making. Chipboard and Acrylic. Each album has 7 pages. But there's a twist! 4 of those pages are chipboard with small windows of acrylic. The other 3 pages that come with your album are all acrylic. You get to pick and choose the order in which you want to display your pages. And you can use the peek-a-boo windows any way you want. Display a focal point of a picture. Use rub-ons in the window to display a special message. There is no limit to your possibilities!

New albums come in two sizes.6&1/2" square and a 6&1/2 x 4" rectangle. So you can mix and match, flip them, flop them and play with different widths of your album pages. New rub-ons match perfectly to accent your little acrylic windows....

CHA - Tinkering Ink

Spotted: I have omitted Thistle Hill... is that wrong of me?! It just didn't feel very rock and roll (for me anyway)... BUT I do like this navy and white line - very Preppy Chic(k) and very much what is predicted as the highstreet colour combo 2008. I imagine a fair few photos will be taken to coordinate perfectly... {but hey, who really 'stages' their photo moments to replicate paper... *cough*?}

CHA - Tinkering (P)Ink... well Blue!

Spotted: New BLUES from Tinkering Ink

CHA - Sneak from Tinkering Ink

Spotted: Here is a sneak of 4 of the papers from "Wild Woodland". BRIGHT is definitely the *new* black...