Welcome to our booth!

Come on in, there’s lots to see. Check out our new Brad Maker!
For the first time ever, crafters will have the technology to make their own one-of-a-kind brads! The Brad Maker – the most innovative new tool available – will soon become your favorite crafting tool. The Brad Maker opens up a whole new world for brad lovers.

The Brad Maker allows users to create brad variations never before dreamed of. Try creating a photo brad with a colored frame on top, or a fabric covered brad or a brad with chipboard on it! The machine is so easy to use, simply design your art or place your trimmed photo (1/2” diameter) into the brad assembly, place it in the die holder, slide into the machine and with a few turns, you’re finished!

Here’s Sarah (and Steve in the background) by some of our other new product like Frame Tapes and Paper Kits. Notice we have a gazebo as part of our booth structure! It’s a great place for our retailers to come in and sit down for a sec to relieve their tired tradeshow walking feet while we write up their order. We’ve also filmed demos, had meetings and done countless make-and-takes here during shows.

And in the photo below on the boards below the lights are our new Tagger Tail Mega Packs including Ball Point Tagger Tails, Shaped Tagger Tails and a huge Tag assortment pack with Puffy Tags, Sequin Tags & Alphabets and gorgeous Chipboard Tags. You’re going to love the art in these kits - it’s FAB!

Can you see the new Electric Eraser in the above photo?
Hint: It’s just to the left of that cute pink dress.
Note: That cute pink dress was decorated with sequin flowers using the Paper Tagger!

It is ATB’s answer to erasing, blending, distressing and polishing. The tool comes with removable tips that are easy to switch out. It’s powered by 2 AAA batteries. There is a refill kit available for this product too, you’ll want additional eraser tips, blending pads and distressing disks as they will wear over time. This tool works great in unison with the Paper Chalker Tool, the eraser easily removes stray chalk lines completely, and the blending tip blends the colors together like magic! It will quickly become one of your favorite ATB products!

Here’s a close up…

A wall with some of your favorite past products…

And this is our Paper Gator demo area. In case you haven’t heard of it, (which we can hardly imagine) the Paper Gator is our fab tool that rounds the corners of multiple sheets at once. It will even round a stack of chipboard or acrylic!

One thing they didn’t mention is how easy it is to cut - the blade is REALLY sharp and there’s lot’s of leverage in the handle, so really… YOU ONLY NEED TWO FINGERS! Check it out! You’ll be amazed!

It just took a few seconds to attach this Fabric Tag, two heart shaped Painted Metal Charms and flowers from our friends at Imaginesce using the Paper Tagger.

Annette from South Africa made these fun creations.

She says, “The ATB soft strips and labels have so many uses. Apart from the obvious use on pages and cards, they are also great to use on tins, boxes, glass bottles and perspex containers that you can fill with gifts. I usually keep all sorts of containers and most of them usually come to good use.

For the “Bride and Groom” card, I used some cardstock, ATB Soft Strip that was cut to size and a ATB Soft Tag. If you want to add something extra to the card you can also add some ribbon.

The perspex containers came with some flowers some time ago. I decorated it with a Soft Strip, a Soft Tag, ribbon and then filled it with marshmallows. It has a totally new look and can make a great gift.

The final project is a mini hat box that I has a flower and ATB Soft Tag added to it. It can be filled with sweets or any special gift.”

Thanks so much Annette! We hope this inspires everyone to try something new with Soft Strips & Soft Tags. No go be creative!

Materials Used:
Pink Floret, Sunshine and Spring Is In The Air Patterned Papers
Font Dots
Tapewriter with Green Refill Tape
Little Critter Chick Soft Charm
Flocking & Glitter Kit
Brown and green cardstock

You can see how Johanna used the Font Dots Flocked Alpha stickers with jewels to create her headline. She also used the flowers in the sticker set to add accents.

Using the glue bottle and green glitter in the Flocking & Glitter Kit, Johanna added sparkle to her tree.

We love how she printed “wilbur is our chicken baby” using the Tapewriter on the green Refill Tape, then cut it up to make it look like grass at the bottom of the tree.

What a fab idea Johanna!

Using just a few ATB products, you can make super cute, quick cards for any occasion.

In these cards I used ATB’s Living Life Patterned Papers, Edgy Tape Writer Strips, the Brown Antiquing Tool and Hearts & Arrows Big Metal Brads.

1. Decide which background paper you’d like to use and cut it to 4.25″ x 8.5″. Fold in half.
2. Trim out a few different sized strips of coordinating patterned paper and choose a quote from the quote sheet. Ink all edges with the Antiquing Tool.
3. Attach paper strips and self-adhesive Edgy Tape Writer Strip to card back, layering pieces as you go - the quote will be the top layer.
4. Attach Heart or Arrow Big Metal Brad. Card will fit in standard A2/Baronial sized envelope.

On the last day of our trip we were able to go to the street market late in the afternoon. This market is so much fun, good shopping and lots to see. The market is just up the street and around the corner. This is where the taxi left us.

Looking into the market. There are hundreds of booths.

This booth specialized in jeans. We chatted with this gal for a while. Her name is Lang Lang.

This market is sensory overload. There is so much to see and the vendors all try to catch your attention. So much fun!

There is food everywhere too - and it’s not boring!

Anyone for a pig snout?

This looks a little better.

But I’m not so sure about this. What in the world?
And yes, that yellow stuff was really that bright. I’m not sure what it was, but I think those roundish brown things are eggs?

Then it started to get dark out.
And the food took a turn for the worst.
See for yourself.

Yes, those huge shrimps were alive - and moving around.

(Breathe deep) Just be glad you weren’t there in person to see them in full live action.

Look away.
Look back at the vendors in the non-food booths.
Take a rest from those pictures above.

You can pick your own and they’ll cook it for you right there.

See all that steam on the glass? Hong Kong is very steamy and hot.
And full of smells and sounds unlike anywhere I’ve seen!

There are places for you to sit down and enjoy your delicious food.

And one final parting view of the city at night…until we meet again Hong Kong!

And then there was this guy.

Sun, our factory owner friend who was sitting beside me on the bus, suggested I take a picture of him. I said “Why not?” I forgot to get his email address to send him a copy (the sleeping guy’s, not Sun).

Once across the border and through customs, we waited here for our driver…and took some photos.

We were going to Sun & Kay’s factory in Guangzhou where they make our Soft Tags and Soft Charm products.

These two are a lot of fun to work with! We enjoy their company very much.

It was a little over a two hour car ride to the factory. We took a tour and met with Sun and Kay for a bit, then headed back.

Sun & Kay used to work at another factory, then branched off on their own. We plan to work with them on many new ATB products.

When back in Hong Kong, Sun and Kay treated us to a delicious Chinese dinner. (Thanks you guys!!) What a fun day!

Once past all this, we rode on buses, taxis and the subway. Here are scenes from around the city.

Hey, did you notice? They have construction everywhere there too!

Because they’re always building giant buildings like this.

And when you’re inside giant buildings like this you can see scenes like this.

Sort of framed in the middle of that window is the Star Ferry on Victoria Harbour. We didn’t ride on the Ferry this trip, but we have before. It transports folks from one side of HK to another.

Here is one of the many container shipping yards. Maybe some of our ATB products are sitting in a container out there now waiting to be shipped.

Would it surprise you to know that Guinevere and I know how to move around in HK better than New York City? Here are some images from the subway. It’s called the MTR in Hong Kong. Mind the gap!

There is Guinevere, notice she is pulling a gorgeous ATB Square Rolling Bag!

Don’t forget to keep checking back. I have many more photos of the trip to share in days to come!

The products I used in this design are:
Puppy Love Patterned Paper
Always in our Hearts Patterned Paper
Pet Ponderings Patterned Paper
Red Cardstock
White Cardstock
The Tape Writer + Black Tape
The Paper Tagger + Brown Tagger Tails
Ransom Alphabet Brads
Boy Microdots
Little Critters Soft Charms
Dingbats & Numbers Embroidered Elements
Wrought Iron Frame Tape
Love Punch + Emboss
Black Antiquing Tool
Love Painted Metal Charms
Ultimate Tag Kit #2
Hearts & Arrows Big Metal Brad
Brown Felt Tip Marker
Sewing Machine + Black & White Thread
Red & White Ribbon scrap
Therm O Web XL Adhesive Runner