PaperArtsy Shows {change is afoot}

PaperArtsy REDUCED Show Schedule: 2018

~ change is afoot~

Hi everyone, we hope you are well, and enjoyed your Easter break - hope you enjoyed that chocolate too!

We have had a pretty crazy year so far, which has been super-wonderful; we are really pleased that our efforts to grow our wholesale business, particularly internationally over the past few years are on track as planned. Subsequently, demand is steadily growing all over the world for our products, and more than anything, we want to ensure meeting that demand is our primary focus. 

Consequently, we have taken the decision to cease to exhibit at consumer shows. 
Don't rub your eyes, I promise this isn't an April fools joke! It is for real!

So the final shows we will attend are:

• Crafting at Ally Pally, next weekend, April 7th and 8th, and 2 weeks later
• Version Scrap on April 20/21/22. 

Beyond that, at this point we have no plans to attend any more consumer shows.

We know that we have stockists keen to represent our brand at the shows we have regularly attended for the past 5 years (or longer), so of course, you will still see PaperArtsy products at all those shows we have exhibited at in the past.

For us it is a massive relief to know we will gain about 10-12 weeks of production time back here at HQ, which we desperately need, and wooohooo, no more show stress!! Yes we know that the very most lovely part of shows is ACTUALLY doing them: talking to you lot, sharing our tips and tricks, answering your wonderful product questions, catching up with friends, making new ones.....but, flip side...., the awful side of getting ready for shows is a lot more stressful: the travel, the weather dramas, the build up/ break down, the ordering, the planning of rack displays, the make and take prep and the staffing juggle, the unpacking back at HQ! Those jobs I will not miss one bit!

So, let me tell you about our plans for the final 2 shows....

I'm guessing you may want to come and see us for the last time, and grab yourself some stamps and other goodies! We certainly have so much to share with you! And of course a few bargains are to be had too!

At Ally Pally, we have Kay Carley demoing and teaching a make and take on Saturday. She will be sharing ideas with her new stamp release, and I for one cannot wait to see how she builds her layers so meticulously!

We also have Raquel (aka ScrapCosy) who will be teaching Make and Takes and sharing amazing ideas with Oxide Inks on the demo desk too - she is so clever with those and her stamps and infusions!!

Leandra will also be demoing, and doing make and takes too. She has some cool new ink pads to share with you, and some Seth painterly layers that are super fun to create.

Courtney also will be teaching make and takes; she has a fun Oxide reinker idea that you are going to love!

And of course we also will be sharing plenty of ideas with all our other gorgeous new stamps, from Zinski to Sara Naumann, Tracy Scott, and of course JoFY stamps too...and we have some lovely new designs from Darcy, Emma Godfrey... well I am sure you will have a very hard time choosing your favourites.

In addition, we have a lot of journals, gel plates, washi tapes, a selection from Jane Davenport, plus stuff from the designers at Ranger, as well as embellishments, stencils and the widest selection of ink pads we have ever brought to a show before. Oh and of course gels, texture pastes and other sticky, crackly loveliness that allows you to have so much mixed media fun!

Don't forget to bring your Fresco list with you, we now have 120 Frescos available in 2018, that is 5 racks, so 20% more than the picture at the top of this post! Tracy and Seth both have new colours this year, so that is an extra 12 colours to see!

Version Scrap will be all of the above, PLUS we have 2 more make and takes on offer as the show is a day longer than AllyPally. 

We will be sharing with you a wonderful make with Tracy Scott's new stamps and paints

And we also have a JoFY original make and take too using her new stamps, stencils and other tips and tricks!

On the stand in Paris we also have Dounia and Florence to teach make and takes (in French), and we hope to get Dounia demoing too! In addition we have Raquel coming to the show for the first time, she will be demoing for the 3 days with Leandra, plus Courtney will be there for the first time to help keep the stock looking topped up. Mark and Audrey will be doing their usual cashier duties. 

Lauren is off the hook for both shows, her husband is whisking her away for their (special) wedding anniversary, so she will be easting and drinking her way across Europe!

So, as ever, there will be a lot to see at both shows, and we really do look forward to catching up with you all!

See you there!

Leandra and the PA crew xx

PaperArtsy On Tour {Ally Pally}

Just a super quick reminder it is the Crafting at Ally Pally show this weekend.

We are there with limited supplies of our new releases, so be quick! 

We do have make and takes on the stand every 45 mins both days £2 ea, where you can try out many new products with Raquel and Courtney

The programme will be repeated Saturday and Sunday

Saturday Raquel is doing the Distress Oxide Tags with Infusions, a project that went down so well at Stevenage recently we decided to repeat it for this show.

She also has a great stencil bump technique with GrungePaste for the Afternoon with her new stamps and stencils

In the morning, Courtney will be teaching mini colouring in books or postcards (your choice) with those pesky adorable Zinskis and some Distress Oxide colouring.

In the afternoon, she has an awesome Harlequin stencil idea that will make fabulous gift tags, again a sneaky distress oxide idea with Raquel's stencils

Lauren and Leandra will be demoing both days, and the fantabulous Jo Firth-Young will be in on Sunday to share a few hours of Xmas loveliness!

See you there!

Leandra and the PA team!!

PaperArtsy On Tour : Happy Stampers {at port Sunlight}

It's show time! And that means time to share lots of ideas with you guys oop North!

This weekend we are heading to the Happy Stampers show which is held at the stunning Hulme Hall, Port Sunlight, The Wirral. 

The show is on Saturday May 6th, 10:30 - 4:00, and this is a ticketed show, so if you haven't pre-booked online, then you are probably out of luck for an off-the-cuff visit.

I can't get away from using my white pens in the final layers of journalling,. Its a bit of a long demo, painted backgrounds followed by stamps, more colour, then finally I get to put white all over it! I'm addicted. As you can see!

This one is with Kay Carley stamps and (shhhhhhhh) glitter.....

This one a bit softer with watercolours over new Kim Dellow stamps, a tad more delicate and simple, but the same idea nonetheless....

With the new Zinski Art holey flowers - I adore those flowers, they just are super-fun to use! I also got some Seth Apter texture background stamps from Impression Obsession in there, and a new Kay Carley Stencil!!

And with Tracy Scott stamps on a tag.....

.... and another Kim Dellow sample with a Tracy Scott Border. 

Demoing with me this weekend I have Lauren who will share how she adores all things Zinski....

She is also a dab hand with the infusions over pewter paint...a twist on what Raquel gets upto, so she'll probably share how she made this with you if you inquire!

Lauren has also fallen head over heels for the new Amsterdam Acrylic Inks too!! Not only do they make sense over textured, stencilled painted layers....

But they are also rather nice for adding colour to images too! And drippage!

And don't forget mixing them into texture paste! That's when you put your mad scientist hat on! Lots and lots of fun!

Keren Baker will be dropping by for a quick lunchtime demo too! Keren always has amazing ideas!

We have lots of new things on the stand. New stamps from: 

• Emma Godfrey
• Everything Art
• Jo Firth-Young
• Kay Carley
• Kim Dellow
• Lin Brown
• Lynne Perrella
• Seth Apter
• Scrapcosy
• Tracy Scott
• Zinski Art

We also have some awesome new substrates and product to play with!

• 7 Gypsies journals and these amazing new sticker things from them
• Plenty of stecnils from Stencil Girl Donna DOwney and Crafters Workshop
• New Amsterdam Acrylic Paints
• New Amsterdam Acrylic inks
• The new Oxide inks from Tim Holtz (a dye/pigment hybrid ink)
• Prima, ranger Gels and mediums and textures
• a wide range of Archival Inks by Ranger
• Lots of Dylusions journals, and other journals too

Do drop by the stand, and make sure to say hello and tell us your twitter handles, and introduce yourself if you follow us online! We love to put faces to names!

If you can't come to the show, we'll be at the Doncaster Dome for Stamp Magic in a few weeks time on Sunday June 4th, our final show until Autumn.

Happy Stamping

Leandra

PaperArtsy on tour....{Happy Stampers, Port Sunlight} this weekend

It's show time! And that means time to share lots of ideas with you guys oop North!

Journal page demo by Leandra from Ally Pally Sept 2016 with Seth Apter products, PA mini.

This weekend we are heading to the Happy Stampers show which is held at the stunning Hulme Hall, Port Sunlight, The Wirral. 

Hulme Hall, Port Sunlight

The show is on Saturday October 1st, 10:30 - 4:00, and this is a ticketed show, so if you haven't pre-booked online, then you are out of luck for an off-the-cuff visit.

Journal page demo by Leandra from Ally Pally Sept 2016

If you did buy advance tickets, then don't forget to watch out for my pre-show Periscope showing you a sneak peek of what we have on the stand, and sometimes we get to scope a demo too! You can find me on Periscope as @PaperArtsy, get the app, download it and you can join in the live stream fun.

Once you have viewed this picture, pretend you didn't see it....shhh it's a sneaky peeky!

We have an exciting new stamp designer joining the PaperArtsy family this weekend! That means we have a new release of stamps coming up too. We are not shipping all the stamps until next week, and we will have just 2 of the new sets on the stand, so watch out for those, and the big announcement showing ALL of them will be Saturday evening!

As Emma is on holiday, demoing with me this weekend I have some new kids on the block....well they are not exactly new kids! Both are long-term bloggers for us!

In the morning Keren Baker will be showing her her magic ways with infusions, Prima Confections watercolours and the new stamps! I can't wait to see what she does, Keren has an amazing clean and simple style which I wish I could emulate. She always has amazing ideas!

In the afternoon, Alison Hall, (who is probably one of the first die-hard PA followers we adopted many many many years ago!) will be demoing with gellie plates, Fresco Chalk paints, stencils and infusions. 

She came to the Seth event a couple of weeks back too, so she is also extremely competent in sharing his wonderful techniques and processes. Love her, and love what she creates with such ease!

Demo by Leandra from Ally Pally Sept 2016, Tracy Scott stamps, stamps, inks, stencils watercolours.

Finally you also have me demoing all day long. I'll show you some of the journal pages I have been creating with layers, layers and more layers.

Demo by Leandra from Ally Pally Sept 2016, Tracy Scott stamps, stamps, inks, watercolour confections.

We have lots of new things on the stand: 

• all things Seth Apter (stamps, stencils, dies)
• Prima gels, mediums, brushes, tools, embellishments, papers etc
• Watercolour supplies, papers, brushes, paints, and more
• Golden Art supplies (gels, mediums)
• Ranger gels, mediums, papers, tools, archival inks.
• Tim Holtz embellishments, brushes etc
• Donna Downey stencils (loads)
• Crafter's Workshop stencils (loads

On the stand we will have the following stamp collections

• JoFY flowers and Christmas stamps
• Ink and the Dog Minis
• Lin Brown stamps and her new collage element stamps
• Darcy
• Sara Naumann
• Kim Dellow & her new stencils x 3
• Kay Carley
• Emma Godfrey
• Seth Apter
• Everything Art
• Tracy Scott
• PLUS 2 of our brand new designer's stamps....

I've been pricing up like a loon the new stock that arrived from the USA today , and we can't wait to share it all with you on Saturday!

Do drop by the stand, and make sure to say hello and tell us your twitter handles, and introduce yourself if you follow us online! We love to put faces to names!

If you can't come to the show, we'll be at the Doncaster Dome for Stamp Magic in a few weeks time on Sunday October 16th.

Happy Stamping

Leandra

PaperArtsy on Tour.....this weekend we'll be out and about

There is a busy weekend ahead!

JOFY and Lin Teaching Together!

This coming weekend on Sunday you can find BOTH Jo Firth-Young AND Lin Brown doing demos and 45 minute make and takes at the Craft Den, Wisbech. They have brand new stamps releasing next week, and those of who who attend will see them up close and personal! (the designers and their stamps!)

CHA-UK: THe One big Show

Meanwhile, on Sunday/ Monday Mark and Leandra will be at the Retailer Training event at the Coventry Holiday Inn and Conference Centre. It's called The One Big Show, Organised by CHA UK, and you can see all the different manufacturers and the workshops they are offering here.

Leandra's Classes

I am teaching a JOFY class 11:30-1pm with her new stamps, and a Lin Brown class 3:30-5pm with Lin's new stamps. I believe there is still time to book your place. More info here. £50 for the Sunday gets you 4 classes (non-member), Members are Free for the first 2 staff, then £25 thereafter. So great value!

I would show you pictures, but of course it is all top secret...The big new product reveals do begin on the PaperArtsy blog from Sunday July 5th, in the meantime our retailers are buying the new stamps now ready to sell them to you from Sunday the 5th, 7pm.

Enjoy your weekend!

Leandra

PaperArtsy on Tour ...Stamp Magic {Stamp Show, Doncaster}

Hi Everyone, 

Leandra here to remind you that we are at the last of the spring shows this coming Sunday (tomorrow), yes we are at Stamp Magic in Doncaster. The show is at the Doncaster Dome on Sunday, 10am -4pm.

I will be back at the dome to demo this time, having missed the last 2 shows. I will have a side kick demoing with me too. 

Well actually I have 3 sidekick candidates! But I'm not going to know who is actually in the starting blocks until tomorrow morning!

Darcy has been really unwell the last 2 weeks, and she really has not been all that successful in shaking it off, so if she is not improved sufficiently, she will have to stay tucked up in bed and miss Doncaster!

So my first waiting-in-the-wings demonstrator is Sue Carrington. Sue planned to attend the show anyway for a look around with friends, so if Darcy does make it and runs out of puff and needs backup then Sue will be on hand for a couple of hours. Or if Darcy can't make it, then Sue will kick off the day with me from 10am.

Third-on-backup is our eldest daughter Courtney. She has demoed for us before, and is quite handy with paints, brayers and stencils, so she enjoys joining in on the demo desk as it breaks the routine of re-stocking paint, or working with Mark on the till!

Maybe you'll get a taste of all 4 of us!! But I'm pretty sure you will get 3 at the least!

We have lots of new things on the stand. Of course all the new stamps released earlier in the year. There are plenty of new stencils, both our own, and Crafter's Workshop.

We now have a huge range of gels and mediums from several companies: Golden, Prima's Finnabair Extravagance line, Ranger, Dreamweaver, and more!

There are plenty of Lindys Stamp Gang dye sprays. These are beautiful colours, permanent once dry, and the mica does not rub off either! Guaranteed not to clog.

We also have new Prima paper pads and coordinating embellishments from 3 of the recent 2015 collections.

That's just a small taste of what you will find on the PaperArtsy stand tomorrow. We hope you can make it and very much look forward to seeing you there!

Take care, Leandra

Leandra {downunder} #2

Leandra here with the next instalment of life downunder...

Sunday, May 25 had 2 objectives, to catch up with my best friend from school and university, Melissa, and to walk around the inner city area of Christchurch, as yet unseen and unexplored.

Melissa and I were pretty much inseparable at uni, we had been great friends at school in Christchurch, forms 2-5 (12-15 yrs), then I left to do my 6th form years in Mt Maunganui, Bay of Plenty. In 1986 I returned to Christchurch to start my degree at Canterbury university, and Melissa and I became best of friends once more, and from then did literally everything together. She in general was far more sensible than I, and I'm sure she got me out of many a sticky situation. What happened at varsity stays at varsity!

Today it was great to see her, her husband and gorgeous daughter, and catch up on who was doing what these days. She hasn't changed a single bit!

After a long and lovely lunch, we went for a long walk around the city.

We started out from the Arts centre, always a hub of weekend activity, in the past it housed plenty of arts and craft businesses and a weekend market with handmade goods and foos for sale. This being a collection of old stone buildings, it has been permanently closed, and so there was no activity today, just another propped up building awaiting a decision on its future. Every old stone church is propped up like this, unused, and waiting for restoration or demolition.

Next, heading towards the river Avon, we crossed to see this old visitor centre, again, propped up.

Alongside the river there used to be many restaurants buzzing with Sunday brunching people, again, destroyed buildings fenced off and closed, and more cleared sections awaiting new development. This one below used to house a wagamama, but now awaits demolition.

The most consistent survivors seem to be wooden building that coped well with the quake, there are some gorgeous wooden houses that are now commercial, residential, retail or B&B's, as below.

This site used to house the Clarendon hotel. An elegant hotel in its day. I worked there as a Saturday cleaner when I was 15, (not a nice job when dealing with the public bar men's toilets!) It was also where the Queen and Prince Phillip stayed when they visited in the 50's prior to her inauguration, and immediately next door was a cinema and beyond that the main town square. All those buildings have gone. In the distance on the square the remains of the cathedral can be seen.

This is Ridges hotel, now emptying 4 years, and uninhabitable

Temporary Banks In containers in Cashel street shopping area.

And shops in containers, this is Cashel street, the pedestrianised area always brimming with people, today, just a few shoppers by late afternoon, despite all being open

Containers turned into a coffeehouse cafe, who knew containers could be so versatile!

They have the containers arranged as small arcades.

It's resourceful, but sad.

The beautiful Anglican cathedral, where our school went for many special services that is to be demolished despite looking in pretty good shape, the roofline is perfect, it's just the front that looks bad, the rest seems salvageable. But apparently not. The catholic cathedral is in a far worse state, but they are repairing that. Logic does not seem to follow as to which buildings are being saved and which are not.

And here is it's temporary cathedral replacement, made from cardboard.

Opposite the temporary cathedral is the site of the CTV building that collapsed, layer upon layer. It was here that most lives were lost in February 4 years ago, and here are the chairs as a reminder of each of the lives lost.

If you walk a block either side of Cashel street, this is what you see, empty lot after empty lot...

Old building facades propped up by containers waiting for a new building to be constructed behind.

Closed off streets and buildings waiting for demolition

And then you come across weird things like this designed to cheer people up, perhaps a reminder of how small we are and how giant the task ahead. I found a munchkin!

As I said, Cashel Street is the only retail area open in the entire CBD, the blocks around it that used to bustle with alternative arcades, malls, shops, restaurants and pubs are all empty, devoid of any activity, just rubble.

There is another street, New Regent Street, that has been given a quaint makeover. However, sadly already many of the shops down here have quickly closed as there is little foot traffic to keep them open.

The last sad sight I saw was another old building on High Street, called Smiths, this was always an old fashioned store, and I remember working in here for a few weeks as a holiday job. It was a redecorating store with paint, wallpaper etc, and flipping freezing as I remember. To the street on the left were more older brick buildings, and there was no access, the entire block is destroyed, and still waiting demolition.

As I said, the main quake happened a few years back, but there have been thousands and thousands of aftershocks since, and this entire area we walked, shown in these pictures (apart from Cashel street) has only been re-opened for public access 3 months ago. Hotels, cinemas, shops, banks, post office, town hall, courts, pubs, restaurants and hundreds and hundreds of retail businesses are all gone, closed. The heart of the city is not beating. Imagine your high street with 95% of the shops shut, and then multiply that by an area of 20 centre city blocks, and you might get of sense of the area affected here in the Christchurch CBD. There are only a few tall building left in the skyline, where shadows once fell from many.

There is a significant redevelopment plan underway, and in 10-15 years Christchurch will have a new city, but for now, there is nothing except a small handful of shops struggling to survive.

Business has moved to the suburbs. The buds of renewal can be seen in the city centre and on the CBD edges. We went to a few pubs that have recently opened, where 12 months ago there was only one temporary bar made from2 buses and a temporary roof. Wounds take time to heal. I hope Christchurch can regenerate, and I hope the thousands of people whose lives and livelihoods were deeply affected can also see the light at the end of the tunnel. The kiwi spirit is to overcome and be strong. It will happen.

It's so hard to observe, but so much harder for those who have lived through it all and have still many hurdles to overcome. Strength to them all.

 

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