CHA: Clear Scraps

Banners are everywhere you look these days. Clear Scraps offers a line of acrylic banners in various shapes and themes. At the CHA Summer Show, the company introduced a new Gingerbread banner with four ginger people, two snowflakes and a house.

Welcome a new baby with this banner, and then hang it in the nursery. It includes four hearts, two rattles and a bear.

Also new was chipboard versions of the acrylic brag bags. How fun would these be to make for all the women you know?

Clear Scraps also added Believe and Holiday Treats to their line of acrylic and chipboard pieces. Sold in sets, these would be cute as ornaments, attached together for a mini book, or I bet you could even make these into a little banner.

What do you think of these new designs?  Please share how you like to use clear albums and elements...

CHA Summer Show-Tattered Angels

If you're a fan of Tattered Angel's Glimmer Mist, there's going to be even more for you to love from the company's CHA Summer release. The color family has expanded to include Glimmer Glam, Glimmer Chalkboard and Glimmer Glaze. Each offers a different level of opacity from nearly transparent to opaque.

Here's Tattered Angel's Liz Hicks showing off the new product.

And here she is demonstrating the differences between the four members of the family. The Mist is the most transparent, followed by the Glam, then Glaze and the most opaque is Chalkboard. You brush on the Glam and the Glaze, and the Chalkboard is in a spray bottle.

The Glam and Glaze are permanent, available in 24 colors and they resist (how cool is that?).

Here's the Glam, which has a glimmery sparkle and contains custom glitter. Hicks said it's very similar to the Mist, and the glitter won't come off.

Next up is the Glaze, which comes with a nail polish-like brush applicator. This water-soluble paint is more concentrated and more opaque with lots of glittery shine. If you apply a light coat, it dries immediately. No kidding. It also has a high gloss finish.

And here's the Chalkboard paint, which also dries very quickly. It gives you the look of chalk without having to mess around with the chalk itself, or worry about it rubbing off. It's also water-based, and has a paint additive to make it more opaque.

Tattered Angels also released several new goodies to use these colorants on. They have lots new glimmer screens, prints, stamps and these very cool crepe papers. Hicks said the clear stamps are on a heavier plastic backing which can be used for stamping. No clear blocks needed!

In the middle of this photo are white flocked mist-a-ble stickers by Heidi Swap. Other Heidi Swap exclusives are available including screens, prints and resist titles.

Here's some flocked paper, which can also be misted or painted, and 7x9 flocked album that has been decorated with the Glimmer family of color.

What do you think about these new products from Tattered Angels?

CHA Copic Products

Copic continues to give us hundreds of markers to drool over!


Naturally, where there are markers, there is paper and lots of it. Copic delivers new "blending cards" for us to layer colors to our heart's content.

With no "touch-a-vision", it's hard to convey how this acid-free, sturdy (92 lb. cover weight), smooth, matte finish bright white paper is making people happy in ways you wouldn't think. No feathering when you blend your markers and it's compatible with laser and inkjet printers, too.

The uber-talented Marriane Walker demonstrated her skills for us...

Along with the blending card, look for the double sided high tack tape. Originally used in the picture framing industry, crafters in Australia started using this for their projects. The tape is the easiest double sided tape to tear (saw it with my own eyes), heat resistant, perfect for instant hemming or attaching embellishments. It holds holds well on different surfaces.


Mask It is flexible masking film with medium tack. Easy to cut, protect the areas you want to mask, and go nuts with your coloring. It also works well on different surfaces.

Do you love Copic as much as we do?  Aren't you excited to try these new papers?

CHA Sponsor: Taylored Expressions

We got the opportunity to check out the sweet new products at the Taylored Expressions booth during the CHA Craft Supershow. But just barely; the booth was PACKED with fans and shoppers!

Fabulous new stamps, and coordinating dies! YAY!  And Taylor was on hand giving everyone a mini lesson.

Here's a great video of Taylor showing everyone how to use her new Taylored Dies:



and shots of her adorable samples:

We caught up with Taylor earlier in the week (before the craziness of CHA) and asked her what inspired her to start her business... here's what she said:

"In the world of papercrafting it's easy to get lost in the abundance of ideas, techniques, and materials. When I started stamping I remember being overwhelmed by all the choices and not knowing what patterned paper matched my cardstock or what embellishment would look good as a finishing touch on the card I was creating. As my journey evolved, I learned to coordinate products creatively often combining manufacturers and I still enjoy doing that today! Taylored Expressions is an extension of my creativity and I’m excited to give others access to custom coordination and super cute stamps!"

SPECIAL OFFER
Taylor has graciously offered Craft Critique readers a Sweet Treat for Craft Critique readers: FREE SHIPPING on orders over $50 now through August 1st! Use promo code CC2010.

Thanks Taylor!

CHA- Jewelry: Nunn Designs: Epoxied Jewelry in 20 Minutes!

As a crafter who was a jewelry artist in a former life, I take great interest in products that make the process of creating high end jewelry, and make it easier, faster, safer, cleaner and/or more affordable.  Nunn Design commits to all of these issues with their amazing line of Jewelry findings and glaze/epoxy products.

 (Click photos to enlarge)

Epoxied jewelry can be a several step process... taking days to cure, with lots of smelly mixing of chemicals.  All too often, the result is a yellowed bubbled uneven mess.  But no more!

With the Nunn Design system, you just simply punch out a lovely design from their transfer film, apply a special glue to the back, then seal the front of the image.  This prevents the Glaze from seeping under the image and not curing properly.

Then you pour the "Gel du Soleil" over that image, into your beveled pendant, and stick that fella under a tiny UV light.  20 minutes later, you are wearing your pretty pendant, bracelet or ring!

I love the simplicity of the designs, and the fact that I could customize everything with my own images or stamps if I wanted to.  But you could get pretty fancy with these findings if that's your thing.  Their design elements are fashion forward, and would be easy to match up with contemporary or vintage beads and images.

Check out the Nunn Design website for more information, and some wonderful tutorial videos about the process.

Have you used this product yourself?  Tell us what you think!

With 5 unique rubber stamp collections, there’s something for everyone at Taylored Expressions!

CHA-Paper Lines & More: My Mind's Eye

My Mind's Eye introduced two Halloween lines, two Christmas lines and a kids line for both boys and girls. But the most popular with booth visitors was the Lost & Found line featuring a variety of themes and colors.

It's easy to see why. This line includes everything that is hot right now -- glitter, banners, fun trims, rosettes and a vintage look. It's broken down into four families, Madison Avenue, Union Square, Portobello Road and Market Street. Each family includes double sided paper, trims, glittered stickers, titles and die cuts, brads and buttons. It could easily be used for feminine or masculine pages, special events or everyday pages.

Here's some Union Square:

Portobello Road:

Market Street:

Madison Avenue:

Here are some layouts from the booth showing how versatile the line can be:

The two Halloween lines cover the cutesy (Blackbird) and the spooky (Haunted). The Haunted line features kraft paper with black flocked images of witches, spiders, spooky words, haunted houses and chandeliers. The Blackbird line has brighter colors with ghouls and goblins, crows, spiders, pumpkins and trick or treaters.

Blackbird paper:

Haunted paper:

This sheet has fun elements -- countdown to Halloween, costume record, record of candy collected -- that could easily be cut apart to use in a mini book or on an album.

The line also includes brads, stamps, and flocked vinyl accessories:

Next up is Christmas with a vintage line (Holly Jolly) and a cutesier line (I Believe). Both feature double sided paper, brads, stamps, ribbon and chipboard.

Holly Jolly:

The Alphabet Soup features papers and accessories for both boys and girls. The lines include double sided paper, brads, chipboard and playing card packs with the alphabet.

Here's a close up of the playing card packs:

OUT with the old, IN with the new! Check out “What’s the Deal” to find great bargains on last year’s products as we make room for the new must-haves from CHA.


Exclusive Coupon code for Craft Critique Readers

A Sweet Treat for Craft Critique readers: FREE SHIPPING on orders over $50 now through August 1st! Use promo code CC2010.