Welcome, New Orleans Sassy Stampers!

I would like to welcome the New Orleans Sassy Stampers to Scrappersaurus! Their group met at the store Saturday and I understand from Felix and Emery it was quite a party! Unfortunately, I had a stomach bug and was home feeling really crummy and missed all the fun. :(

Felix and Emery are exhausted from this past weekend--I hear they had lines of people waiting to check out the entire day, and they were run ragged. GOOD! I'm glad they got to see what it's like being on your feet all day, for a change! But Felix tells me we are wiped out of a lot of merchandise now, and I am almost dreading going in tomorrow to see the shape of the store. I will be doing a lot of creative rearranging until CHA's stuff comes in. I am glad because we have several new orders coming in this week and that gives me the space to properly display it all. As usual, things are always changing at Scrappersaurus, and what you see one day could be totally different from what you see the next day. We like that. It keeps things interesting, and keeps people coming in to see what treasures we've put out.

The Speaking Up Voice Recorders are going like hotcakes! We have sold dozens of them since the www.crafttvweekly.com webisode they had on November 9th. Lots of internet orders for them from people all over the country, and even in other countries. How cool is that?!

Another really hot item is the Tag Alongs by Chatterbox. We've sold dozens of these, as well. People come in to buy one for themselves then end up coming back to get one for their best friend, their husband, and another one for themselves to use at a different desk or table. We're really pleased with the way they have been received. We hope to find lots more items like the Speaking Up Voice Recorder and Tag Along at CHA for you. We want to bring you the best, most exciting products out there for papercrafters and stampers. If you have suggestions on products for us to look at while we are at CHA, please e-mail us and let us know so we can check them out.

TIP OF THE DAY
Do you have a waterbrush? Do you even know what that is? It is sort of like a paintbrush but with a hollow barrel that you fill with water. They are excellent for several different things. One of them that I really like is paper tearing. You put the shape you wish to tear on your paper, run the wet waterbrush along the edge of the shape, and it will tear very easily. You don't have to soak the paper, just wet it enough to go through the entire sheet. Remember some papers are a lot thicker or thinner than others, so you might want to experiment a little before you start using this technique with your beautiful patterned papers. If you use handmade or mulberry paper, try pulling the papers apart instead of tearing them. This will pull out the long fibers of the paper and leave you with that beautiful fringe-like effect.

Another use for the waterbrush is to use with watercolors. Instead of using a regular brush that you have to dip into a water bowl often to keep your watercolor wet, you just use the waterbrush and it is always wet.

Filling your waterbrush is easy. Unscrew the top brush part, and you will see a black plug-looking piece at the top of the barrel. It will have a hole in it. Don't try to pour water into this little hole. Using regular tapwater, just take a small glass or bowl of water, squeeze the air out of the waterbrush barrel and put it into the water and let go. The water will fill the barrel and you're ready to go.

To clean your waterbrush, simply wipe the brush on a clean piece of paper towel several times, squeezing lightly on the barrel to flush the water through the brush. You don't have to squeeze hard! When the waterbrush brushes clear, it's ready to use for the next color.

We sell waterbrushes in several different sizes, for different applications. If you want to see one in action, I'll let you try mine before you buy one. All you have to do is ask!

Until next time, happy scrapping!

Dee