Hi there...
It is hard to believe it is 2023. It seems like last New Years Day was about 5 months ago. This is crazy. I actualy think things may be looking up, though. Since we are in a vacation area, we are seeing more tourists. It is fun to meet people who share our passion for crafting, especially those from other countries. I recently had people from Ukraine who are here on a family Visa. Tallking with them about the terrible circumstances they left in their home country was very moving and terribly sad. Sometimes we just need to take time to reflect.  

Regarding the trade show in April. We have decided that we will not attend, I just went over the floorplan for the show and even though there are some additional vendors, they are not in our scope of interest. It does not make sense timewise, or financially to go. I think they are getting some feedback about the timing as well. Earlier in the year....like when we would be seeing Easter and spring/summer releases makes a lot more sense. Fingers crosses they get it all figured out as it is something we really miss. We are, however, participating in two virtual shows. One is hosted by a Rep Group (in January) and the other by Spellbinders (in February). Each will run over several days with each vendor showing new releases, and most also have online classes. They are totally different formats with the January show running five days featuring twenty-one vendors and the February show has seven vendors over two days. Between the two we will see a lot of the vendors we would not see in Ohio...and all from home or the store! 

One thing we really miss about the changes at Stampendous is the monthly sample board. We used this as our Stamp of the Month Class on the first Saturday. It was always a quick and easy one card class. Students got to pick the card they liked best off the five or six featured that month. So...I am looking for an alternative. This month on January 7th, I will have a "Quick Card Class" where students will make two cards. They are both along the CAS (Clean And Simple) lines that many people like. This will be great for beginners and also to just make us realize that not everything needs to be elaborate or complicated. There will be no coloring and you only need to bring adhesives. As a trial run on this idea, the January class will be $5.00. I am scheduling it 10am-11:00am. Really, it probably will not take that long. If you want to attend, you need to let us know you are coming so I can prepare kits for you. Photos of this class and the other three for the month are all on the Classes page of the website (www.catsmeowstamps.com/classes)

There is one really good thing to celebrate for the beginning of 2023.....we got paper trimmers, and even replacement blades! I guess the supply-chain issue was solved or manufacturers finally got caught up or whatever the problem really was. Whatever it was, it was a pain....the new pain is in the price! The new shipments came in at increased prices. The moral of this story is to be kind to your paper trimmer because if you kill it the replacement will cost a lot more!!

When you visit the store, you may notice we moved things around. Melissa worked all day on a day we were both here to relocate Graphic 45, Taylored Expressions, and Lawn Fawn. It is always fun to do and gives us the opportunity to see where we have weaknesses and strength in product. This time it also made room for a Basic Die area. Since most vendors make basics like circles, ovals, rectangles, frames, etc, we usually have them placed by vendor. Now if you are looking for them they are all in one place so they are easy to find and compare. Let us know how you like the new layout. So far I think peope really like the Graphic 45 display set-up.

We will fill you in on the January virtual show in our next newsletter....until then, stay well and keep crafting! 


                                                                   What's New?

This is the time of year when we are between fall/major holidays and Valentine's Day.......there have been no big releases so we have ordered a lot of fill-ins. The best news was the paper trimmers which I mentioned. We are happy to have the Tonic Wide Base Trimmer. We were also able to get ink colors that have been out of stock for some time. 

We have had really good response to some of the Echo Park papers so we are ordering from their latest releases. They are not like other companies who release one  new collection at a time, they have quite a few options. Their winter/snowflate papers were one of the best sellers. 

Simple Stories is a company that we have started ordering more from. In the past their focus was scrapbooking so the papers were not very useful for cardmakers. They have really branched out and have product lines that are much more useful for us. We just received their new pet line. It is well thought out, as although it is pet themed, one side of the paper is generic. Good planning. 

Be sure to check out or 50% off section when you stop by...when we moved things around we did some "purging" as well......

Big news....Starting Monday the 9th through the 14th, we will be offering 20% off of all Taylored Expressions stamps and dies. The 16th through the 21st, we will have 20% off on all Lawn Fawn stamps and dies! The 23rd through the 28th we will have 20% off of all Spellbinders stamps, dies, and hot foil plates. This is a good time to use your Christmas gift cards and help us have less to count when we take inventory. 

Be sure to let us know if there is anything you want us to focus on for new product....vendors you like? themes you are interested in? We are happy to have your input!

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