Well I started my morning at 3 am. I wanted to look pretty. LOL! Curled my hair, put on makeup and dressed comfy cute...you know the cute jeans with brown boots and an adorable light shimmer light brown shirt. Got in the car and prayed I would not get in another car crash (that was my last year going to CHA). I was so luckily to drive and meet Melissa from A Creative Journey with Melissa. That was an hour of pure HECK driving. Ugh...welcome to California traffic. Once Melissa and I met up she treated me to some awesome coffee (I am caffeine free for 2 months and soda free for 1 month) and these awesome blueberry soda cakes! So after an hour of me driving...Melissa took over in her car and drove for 2 hours!
We got to the show 1 hour before our classes started. I ended up taking three classes before the floor opened at 11 am and then took a floor class at 3:45 pm. To read about my morning classes please click here.
Once I walked onto the floor I immediately walked to the Teresa Collins booth and the Teresa Collins ScrapBox booth right next door. I am inspired that Teresa is bringing back acetate and vellum but making it new and fresh. This is not your 2002 acetate trust me! Expect her signature gold in her lines. You will not be disappointed. Now for my dream!!!! The ScrapBox designed by Teresa! It is stunning! It has a decorative topper, beautiful clean white, interchangeable front glass to put your own material or paper or photos in, and her gold touches! Just LOOK LOOK LOOK:
I then saw the most beautiful wings created by tabs from Scrapbook Adhesive. They are truly stunning!
Next I was drawn to CN Crafts AKA Chickaniddy. I am obsessed with their Yippee line. Some of my favorite papers is Picnic Party and Walking on Sunshine. Their enamel shapes with this line is so adorable! They are very price friendly!
While at CHA it is inevitable that you run into someone that you know. Usually that someone is due to the industry. Well I was apart of an amazing scrapbook group for over 2 years about 10 years ago. We met once a week and cropped, drank wine, and did swaps to create kits. We shared kids birthdays and created life long friendships. Since I moved 1 1/2 hours away out of Los Angeles I don't get to see them very much. I was so surprised to see Lea Oliver! She is as beautiful as ever and retirement looks good on her!
I soon stumbled upon a stunning display. If you watched Maleficent you knew you needed to look at this display and booth. The display was by Cousin and I was drawn into the only jewelry booth at the whole show.
So the group I spoke of above gave me a bit of a nick name. They called me the "Ribbon Wh*re"! Seriously they did! So when I say the May Arts Ribbon I almost fainted!!!! They had this one line that I was drawn to. It looked like a patterned dyed stretched burlap. Then I touched it. It was soft and moldable. Came in about 8 colors but someone else was obsessing about them too so I don't have all the colors in this picture.
So the booth with the Dear Lizzy line just made me happy! It was packed inside...DUH so I was going to go back later and did not get a chance. So sad :-(
The next booth I ran into was the one that contained the Imaginise Milk Paint. Doesn't it look beautiful? My creative juices were so flowing seeing these paint powders!
Next came one of my favorite booths...I am officially obsessed with Crate Paper and their Craft Market line. The designer Maggie Holmes is beautiful inside and out. The sales staff was so personable and truly inspired me with all of the coordinating products. Craft Market had some stunning papers. My favorite is some of their specialty paper such as the Gold Glitter Pattern. Their muslin bags would be so cute to decorate with their products for gift tags etc. Hope to touch this line soon on my scrapbook table!
So next booth is one of the most colorful booths at CHA and always is. Love Love Love the Doodle Bug Booth. They had three sets of paper lines that I was inspired to use. Especially since they are Spring and Summer style and it has been in the teens at night in my home!
Another beautiful and color filled booth is Echo Park. I normally ask before I take a picture. I think this is their designs and artwork and hate when someone thinks it is ok to "steal" that. So I forgot and took a picture. Their rep said excuse me mam no pictures. I started apologizing and she started laughing. She was messing with me and I loved it! She read me so well! LOL! Their Happy Easter by Laura Passage & Nicole Seitler as well as Soak Up The Sun by Alisha Gordon made me want to scrapbook that exact moment!
So while waiting in line for food...BTW I had a great healthy sandwich LOL...we realized that Joy MacDonall was behind us! She was the host of the PBS show Crafting at the Spotted Canary! She is so beautiful and flipping funny! The person you saw on TV is the person you get while waiting in line for food!
One of the last booths I spent time in was the G45 Booth. One thing about the G45 booth is you always get an experience. They even have their reps dress up!
A few other booths that I did not take pictures of but adored and had great conversations at:
I loved the Modge Podge booth. Those two are hysterical and so creative! I made a cute jar that I am going to finish and give to my daughter Julia. It will look beautiful in her old world inspired Paris room.
The next one was Pink Paislee. I loved their paper and cute embossing folders with Citrus Bliss. Only thing I wish is that they did an embossing folder of the flamingo!
The Deco Art booth was inspiring and I was able to play with the Metallic Lustre. It was great! You can use stiff brushes with it or even you GASP fingers! You can put it on thick to cover an ugly paper or light to enhance a beautiful paper! I just love it!
Paper Wizard was so great. I just love their theme kits. I especially love that they have Cheer stuff! What is great is that it is a family run company. You do not see that often anymore.
The Sizzix booth is awesome of course! They had a great MC with lots of Scrapbook stars!
Scrapbook Customs was awesome too. I have actually received product from them recently with my daughter's high school for papers!
Last but not least is the Martha Stewart booth. It was lots of fun. I made a cute mini book decorated cover with her stencils and paint. I have never seen a better stencil than hers.
My last class was one on the floor at the end of our day. It was with Chameleon Pens. Oh wow I love love love these pens. Each pen does about 10 hues. So each pen is about $6 and the big set with 20 pens is $99. With other pens each pen is a hue so that would be $8 a pen (minimum) x 10 hues than x 20 pens! That would be a minimum of $800 for the same effect with a lot of training. These are so easy! I did a leaf with finding my light in 1 minute! BTW she did that hair in 1 minute! Here are a few pictures.
So I hope I was able to get you excited for the new products coming out in your local family owned scrapbook stores.
Always,
Brans
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