Meltdown !!!

Not sure whether that means me or the website...........or both !!!

First of all an apology, I did say in the newsletter that although I was heading off for a short break next week, orders placed up until Friday midnight would be depatched before I left.......well, I sort of "over extended" myself - the sheer volume of orders over the last 48 hours have been phenomenal !! There was no possible way that we could have got them all despatched before leaving, so rather than disappoint anyone by having to wait, an executive decision was made and the cut off point was changed to Wednesday midnight. All orders placed up to that point will be despatched before leaving. So basically anyone who placed their order before the notices went up on the site can rest assured they will not have to wait until afterwards.



Tim's brand new book came and went in the blink of an eye - wow I have never seen anything like it, and we ordered loads !!!!! You'll be pleased to know that we have re-ordered it and it will be back in stock soon.



Another favourite amongst the new arrivals is The Crafty Chronicle by Donna Salazar.....





















The paper it is printed on was chosen for the way it reacts with paint and can be formed into flowers. You can create your own unique embellishments with dictionary, wanted ads, horoscopes and even the articles on the front page. More product info on the website !





So where am I going next week ? ........ I am so excited as I am heading up to Harrogate to the wonderful Art from the Heart Studios YAY !!!
2 days of workshops in Art Journaling with the very talented Dina Wakley and Dyan's own Art Journaling Weekend to follow - how cool is that - I am hoping that some of that amazing talent from both Dyan and Dina will rub off on me, my mojo seems to be sadly lacking at the moment LOL !!!

A rather yummy delivery (yes another one !) is taking a little while stuck in customs at the moment, but will hopefully arrive in a few days................here is a little hint.........and don't look too closely at the colouring in - it's my first time with this kind of thing, I don't normally "do" cute !!

The stamp is of course by The Greetings Farm and I have coloured her with Promarkers and used Shabby Green Door "Farmers Market" papers...........so more new goodies to look forward to when I get back ! We were also able to take advantage and buy the special edition "Cheeky" stamps which were only available to retailers who attended CHA.

Back soon

Lyn x

Just a quickie !!!

Lots and lots of new goodies have just arrived and are on-line, including the new Distress Inks and Tim's new Book.

Back later with a proper update on all the new products, as I am currently buried under boxes LOL !!

More new goodies and how NOT to cook leeks !!!

I have just unpacked some wonderful laser-cut chipboard all the way from Oz !!
Yes Scrap FX is joining our list of products !!! This superb quality laser-cut chipboard comes in a brilliant range of shapes, from cute little birds to the most fantastic Chipboard Filigree Gates which would make an amazing gate-fold album, or just brilliant book covers.



















Can you imagine how wonderful this Chandelier would look all blinged and glittered up......




















We have a busy few days coming up at the shop, our Cosmo Cricket delivery missed the boat this morning would you believe !!!
Hopefully it will be here tomorrow, but it's not going on the website until it's actually here - you can imagine what just one damaged box can do !!

Just heard today that Tim's books are on their way YAY !!!..... along with all the new colours of Distress Inks YAY !!!!..... just a couple more days to wait so keep checking the new products section of the site.

Well, I am not known for my cooking skills, but I surpassed myself totally today and burnt the leeks !! yes I did say that, I cannot even save face by saying there were in the oven, oh no.....they were just steaming away on the hob..........without any water in the pan EEEKKK !!! One black pan later, it was time to get out the Power Spray LOL !! Ha ha, with any luck that will be me barred from the kitchen again, last time I was in there I got Chilli all over my Saxaphone ..........I won't even go there !!

Think I'll stick to playing with ink and paper.

Lyn x

oooh pretty stuff !!

Woo hoo !! Just unpacked the three fab collections from Graphic 45........all in stock and on-line now :)

The gorgeous Le' Romantique.....

the very dashing A Proper Gentleman..........

and the fab On The Boardwalk.........

I just love these collections, they are so versatile, not only for Scrapbooking and Cardmaking, but there are so many fab images to cut out for all sorts of altered projects :)

Check them all out here in the new products section of the website !

Lyn

Stamping Heaven !!

Great excitement at the Craft Emporium this afternoon when a huge delivery from Stampers Anonymous arrived........yes, you guessed the brand new Tim Holtz Stamps are in the building !!!! Not only do we have them in their Cling Mounted Sets, we also have them in Wood Mounted too - YAY !! So you get the choice of the whole set on one sheet, or if you only want a couple from selected sheets you can get them on their own !!



We are also thrilled to be stocking the latest Studio 490 Stamps designed by the very talented Wendy Vecchi.
I was lucky enough to meet Wendy at CHA and to watch her amazing demo's....she totally blew me away....... such a lovely lady too :)


Restocks and a few more of the Classic Anonymous stamps too !


OK it's now 1am and I need to stop working and sleep - it's too late to start faffing around with uploading piccies.......you can see all the new goodies here LOL !

Lyn x

Want to win........

.........a brand new release 6 x 6 Paper Pad ?

If you haven't already done so, get yourself over to Tuesday Taggers














Craft Emporium are sponsoring the prize this week and the theme for the challenge is LOVE !!

Blog Candy Winners !!!

And finally we have our Blog Candy winners - sorry for the delay folks, it's been a bit manic here with the sale and catching up with everything after our trip !

Pink Paislee 6 x 6 Paper Pad goes to..... No. 22 - Bex

October Afternoon Paper Set...... No. 18 - Leo and No. 27 - Faerielore.

Prima Papers go to...... No. 18 - Karin

Cosmo 12 x 12 Papercrafting Kit..... No. 11 - Claire Williams

Graphic 45 8 x 8 Paper Pad.... No. 11 - Glittery Katie

So if you could all get in touch with your addresses to lyn@craft-emporium.co.uk I will get posting ! - thanks for everyone who took the time to post a comment and well done to the lucky winners.

I will leave you all with a sneaky peak of some delicious gorgeousness ...........................

We're back !!

........and raring to go !!! Well, maybe not "raring" - still a little jet-lagged and waking up at 3am for a walkabout lol !!
We left San Francisco around 9pm US time around an hour late and just had time to connect at Heathrow for the Manchester flight at around 4pm UK time, had a shock at Manchester checking in for the Island when they tried to charge us £112 excess baggage !!!! for just 8 kg !!!! thankfully the check-in agent was helpful and suggested we take as much out as possible to carry on as handbaggage, so the great unpacking started at the desk, holding up the queue lol. I am amazed that we got through security each carrying a laptop bag, a tote full of catalogues and books each and the camera bag !!!!! I though it was supposed to be one piece each, luckily the sun was shining on us and we arrived back to the freezing Isle of Man unscathed lol !!
So, the excitement of the trip is over for another year, and now the excitement of waiting for all the lovely goodies to arrive begins !


We still have lots of sneak peak of the goodies we have ordered to show you and I haven't forgotten about the Blog Candies...... will get the Random Generator out in a few days time for them all at once - we have another one tonight and you know the drill by now lol.
We are thrilled to bring Graphic 45 to the Craft Emporium, I have drooled over these collections for quite a while now, so it was time to add it to our stock-list. We are starting out with the three new collections "On The Boardwalk" "Le' Romantique" and "A Proper Gentleman" .... loads of gorgeous 12 x 12 papers and Paper Pads. I hope you like them as much as I do. They had a fab stand at CHA but the piccies have come out a little dark, think I had the camera on the wrong setting lol !
The kind folks on the stand have given us an 8 x 8 Paper Pad for our Blog Candy today - cool !







































































There has been a massive response to our Winter Sale, orders will start processing tomorrow in the order that they came in, so please bear with us whilst we catch up with the backlog.

Look out for more sneak peaks soon !
Bye for now
Lyn x

Winter Sale Now On !!

Just a quick short and sweet post - our Winter Sale starts now !!
Lots of bargains across the store - we need the room after all the new goodies we have been buying. Orders will start being despatched from Wednesday 3rd Feb.
Enjoy !
Lyn

Greetings from sunny San Francisco !!!

Well, CHA Winter 2010 is over, we left Anaheim after 3 very busy and fantastic days and took the train back to LA for just one night in time to catch the Coastal Starlight Express for an amazing 11 hour Californian Pacific Coastal Railroad journey to San Francisco for a few days "R & R" !!! The train journey was wonderful, business class type reclining seats with loads of room, a full service restaurant, cafe bar and glass topped observation lounge - the views were amazing. We arrived in San Francisco very late last night and have spent today riding Cable Cars, Trams and Streetcars !!


But the CHA news and blog candy is not over yet !! We still have loads of pictures of the show and all the goodies we have ordered, but we are keeping a few of our new suppliers "under our hat" for the time being, well, you need something new to look forward to as well as all the regular favourites lol ! Talking of favourites.... Cosmo Cricket have three new bright and fun collections which will be shipping to us shortly "Material Girl", "Joy Ride" and "Garden Variety"








I love the new Chipboard Letters and Tiny Alphas !! The good folks at Cosmo have been very generous and we have one of the new 12 x 12 Paper Crafting Kits up for grabs for Blog Candy today, I'm not sure which one it is, as all the paper and goodies have been safely packed and are at the bottom of a very large suitcase LOL !! Just leave a comment as usual !



To answer a few questions from the previous posts, not sure when OA will be ready to ship, but not too long to wait I don't think. Yes, we have ordered the Donna Downey Canvas Albums and Camera Bags etc. and no, sorry but the cupcakes and stands are for display only LOL !! OOh and yes we have ordered ALL the new Tim Holtz Stamps and the Inks....and the new Dies and the Book, and the new Enamel Accents, (they are not due for a while yet though) and everything else new with his name on as well LOL

That's all for now as we are heading off to a fab Blues Bar and Restaurant on Fishermans Wharf for dinner (how cool does that sound !)
Lyn x

CHA Day 3

.......and we are still shopping !!!!



Prima have a massive release..........MASSIVE !! 7 new paper lines, loads of bling, flowers, new stamps, Gorgeous canvas from Donna Downey and more E-Line flowers (everybody loves the E-Line range - it's so affordable)



Check out some of the fab new products and the beautiful displays - the cake stands are amazing !!!
Some of the gorgeous new papers...............

The new E-Line Flowers.......


Take a look at these gorgeous cake stands all decorated with flowers and bling....

Some fab Canvas from Donna Downey, the little bags are made from canvas refil pages !!

The kind folks at Prima have given us a lovely selection of new papers for our Blog Candy today, you know the drill, just leave a comment and if your number comes up some of them may be winging their way to you !!!

Ok back to the shopping !!

Apologies for the piccies being all over the place, for some reason they will not stay in the right place lol and I have given up trying to fix it !!!!

Lyn x

CHA Day 2

Day 2 at CHA and we discovered areas of the show that we totally missed yesterday !! I still don't think we have managed to see every booth - it's a good job we are going back tomorrow as well lol !!



Pink Paislee had a beautiful stand, showing off their new collections to perfection as you can see here.......

We stopped by to see the folks at 7 Gypsies and they had a fab display with tons of lovely new products to drool over and order - can you believe this chandelier !
They had some fab little notebooks.....

And check out the new papers .....

We lingered quite a while at the Ranger booth and watched Tim demo some of his new products .....

I can't wait for these beauties to arrive in store......

BLOG CANDY ALERT !!!!!

OK, so who wants to win a set of October Afternoon papers ??????........and have them before they hit the shops !!!!!!

We have two Blog Candy giveaways today, thanks to the folks at October Afternoon we have one set of "Fly A Kite" papers and one set of "Thrift Shop" papers up for grabs. So you know what you need to do, just leave a comment and the random generator will select the numbers in a few days time.

We still have lots more Blog Candy to come this week so stay tuned......and there is still time to be in with a chance to win yesterdays offering - one of the brand new Pink Paislee 6 x 6 paper pads, just leave a comment on yesterdays post as well.

That's all for now

Lyn x

CHA Day 1

Well, here we are at the end of day 1 of CHA and the first word that springs to mind is - shattered !!!!

We have had an amazing day, meeting up with all our regular suppliers and making lots of new contacts with some brand new and exciting new products !!


So what have we ordered so far ??.......................All of the latest releases from Tim Holtz of course, including the Stamps, Alterations, new colours of Distress Inks............in fact we have ordered everything new that Tim has produced !!!!


It goes without saying that the latest October Afternoon products will be hitting the Craft Emporium as soon as possible, we managed to get some sneak peaks of the latest two collections, "Fly A Kite" and "Thrift Shop" which are simply gorgeous as usual !


Check out "Fly A Kite"

and "Thrift Shop"

Pink Paislee had a beautiful display with three fab new collections, pictures to follow next time, as there is no photo editing on this laptop and it's taking ages to upload anything !!! But hey, we did promise Blog Candy, so leave a comment and you may be the lucky winner of one of their brand new 6 x 6 paper pads !!!

The random generator will select the winner in a few days time :)

We finished up the day with a fab meal at the famous Cheesecake Factory and now, I cannot move ...... seriously, I cannot !!........ so with an early start in the morning it's time to get some sleep ready for the serious shopping tomorrow...........talk soon :)

Lyn

Zzzzzzzz

Greetings from sunny LA ............or NOT, scratch that and start again lol..... Greetings from rainy LA and wow has it rained, it's just like home lol !! We landed in what felt like the middle of the night UK time but in reality was 2pm here in LA, now the big problem was trying to stay awake until a reasonable hour so we wouldn't be wide awake at 3am !!! 1 hour and 40 minutes later we finally cleared US immigration, the queues were amazing but at least our baggage was already on the carousel by that time, so every cloud as they say.

Today was spent doing all the touristy bits, Hollywood, Venice Beach, Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills and more, we had a great day - just a shame about the rain !!

One more day in LA and then down to Anaheim for the start of CHA, I'm starting to get really excited now with the thought of all those yummy new releases and being able to catch up with all our suppliers with whom we speak regularly on the phone, it will be lovely to finally put faces to names and build on the great working relationships we already have.

Well it's now 9pm and feels like 1am - I need to try and stay awake for a couple more hours to crack this jet lag, so time to find somewhere great to eat dinner !!

Next time I hope to have all the news from CHA and I seem to remember that "someone" mentioned Blog Candy - stayed tuned !

Bye for now......ooh and it's finally stopped raining YAY !!

Lyn x

Leaving on a jet plane !!!

Yes we are off ! Our bags are packed and we will shortly be leaving for California to attend the CHA Trade Show. All outstanding orders are now packed and despatched and the website has been closed until our return. We will re-open the first week in February with a MASSIVE Winter Sale !! Well, let's face it we are going to need the space for when all the gorgeous new products start to arrive.

I will hopefully manage to keep the blog updated with all the goings on at CHA and some peaks of what we have ordered, so keep checking for the latest news and piccies (note to self - must not forget the camera cable lead !)

Don't forget to leave a comment if there is anything in particular you would like to see stocked in the store over the next few months - we already have few *new ranges* up our sleeves which you are going to love, but we are always open to suggestions. Oooh there may even be BLOG CANDY !!! Watch this space !!

Must dash, I have a plane to catch lol !!!

Lyn x