Bella Carta at Art 'n Soul

Special note: I wrote this last night and thought I had clicked on 'publish'. Instead I had finished it but fell asleep. My bad! So, here's last night's post and I'll be back tonight with lots more pics and news.

You had better hurry in . . . the Memory Box order arrived on Friday afternoon and the dies have been flying out the door! And, yes, I've just learned that Memory Box is on open catalog status right now. If you missed anything, you can fill out a pink sheet! I know I will be . . . not only are there new Memory Box dies, there are also new Poppy Stamp dies out now as well.

While those dies have been flying out the door at the store, I've been at CHA taking classes. The trade floor opened at 11 a.m. this morning for the first time amidst lots of excitement resulting from the very hard work of the vendors. I browsed my way through since I had a class in the afternoon. Tomorrow, it will be 'serious' work . . . I've outlined who I want to see on the floor map.

Spellbinders has come out with the neatest tool, and I think you're going to love it. Among other things, it will help remove those little pieces of paper that remain in the cutting dies we use so we don't have to individually poke 'em out! They ship in early March. This product is so new that at Friday morning's class, the President of Spellbinders only had the prototype to show us but they were expecting a delivery of the real deal so they could show them in their booth.

Spellbinders also has some marvelous designs in their dies and 3-D embossing folders, as well as the dies that both cut and emboss. I sense a new enthusiasm in the company and its direction. A. J. Otto was on their design team and is now on their education team. Luckily for us, she lives up our way and we're going to explore how she can teach a class at Art 'n Soul. They've gone way outside the box in their booth design this year and I'll take photos tomorrow for you.

I made 3 great discoveries for the store during my browse.

Little B Paper Craft has (foil) metallic washi tapes that are very nice, as well as little decorative paper note pads, adhesive backed labels and paper tabs that might serve multiple uses in your card making and crafting.

They have an overlay for your die cutting mat with a grid to assist you with precise placements. I was happy to see that they use the Genius Plate system from LifeStyle Crafts that we promoted last year. The overlay is tacky on the backside so it will stay in place on the base board. The top of the overlay has a lighter tacky surface to keep the dies in place and your cutting material.

Chipboard paper pads (6x12) are available in kraft, white and kraft/white, as well as black, white and black/white. And there is an adhesive-backed corrugated chipboard tape that would be terrific for mixed media projects. These products can be die cut with their dies. The company has been working with their manufacturer to hone in on lightweight dies that cut through a variety of materials, i.e., paper, felt, chipboard, corrugated tape, decorative tapes, cork, letterpress, magnet, fabric, plastic, foam and metal.

Their nesting dies offer varying ways to get more than just a shape out of a cut by allowing you to combine the shapes. Each set is in a fabulous storage folder with a magnetic sheet, and that folder is also available as a blank so you can set up a system for the dies you already own. The folders have a thin spine that you can label so the folders can stand upright on a shelf.

Maja Designs is a paper company from Uddevalla, Sweden. This is their first time at CHA and I am so happy to discover them. I love their papers and their design team has made the most gorgeous samples. The husband-and-wife team are delightful people and have been in business since 2007.