WINTER CHA

This was my first opportunity to go to CHA and I have to say, it was everything I hoped it would be...and MORE! I want to thank three very very special ladies for making my CHA experience such a memorable one.
 I attended CHA with Timi, Nancy and Nancy from For Keeps Sake in St. Louis, Missouri. They took me "under their wings" so as to speak and I learned so much from traveling around the show watching them do their "magic". Boy, do these ladies have an eye for everything WONDERFUL to take back to their customers!  They were so excited about so many things they were seeing this year. If you're in the St. Louis area, you guys have NO IDEA what's coming!  LUCKY YOU!!!  I am going to start guest teaching at For Keeps Sake in April and I am truly excited about it! These ladies are fun and really customer minded. So, thank you to them for letting me tag along and especially to Nancy Wethington....she has got to be one of the most geniune, sweetest people I have ever met. She is sooo talented and knowledgeable about her craft. It was a pure pleasure to walk the show with her.  She teaches a variety of classes and techniques at For Keeps Sake.   

I met some amazing people and saw some just astoundingly beautiful art and products at CHA!  The way some of the booths displayed their pieces...just phenominal.  For example:

GRAPHIC 45 - ONCE UPON A SPRINGTIME COLLECTION

Just beautiful pieces and a feast for the eyes everywhere you looked!

I have to admit, I was not a huge fan of their Le Cirque collection. I liked it but just wasn't in LOVE with it.  Then I saw their booth...

LOVE THIS STUFF!! This is just a small little portion of their Le Cirque display.  The colors and designs of this paper just popped.

Loved the Pink Paislee new lines this season as well.  The Pink Paislee people are so accomodating, so proud of their product (rightfully so) and just so nice! I particularly loved their Daily Junke and Butterfly Gardens lines.  The papers and accessories are just amazing! I can't wait to get my hands on them!

I saw a couple of paper lines that were new to me:  Glitz Design was one of them. I walked into their booth and immediately fell in LOVE with Afternoon Muse.  It is a soft, whimsical paper with really cute chipboard albums, "Paper Layers" and "Whatnots" that coordinate with the papers.  A really sweet "vintage-ish" look that I am drawn to.
Another really awesome soft colors and whimsically fun vintage line was displayed at the GCD booth.  It was titled "FUNHOUSE" and boy, was it ever FUN to look at! The paper and the embellishments and coordinating pieces are just amazing! Tina Higgins, the designer for Funhouse hit it out of the park with this one! The whole booth was so tastefully done and truly fit the theme of this paper line.  All of their lines were beautiful as well...but the booth had a bit of a circus atmosphere with it's kissing booth, and character photo boards.  They even passed out little "sweets" bags filled with penny candies. Love their booth and their papers...particularly FUNHOUSE.  Be on the look out for THAT one!  It's a winner! Hopefully I will locate those pictures I took soon so I can post one.

7 Gypsies had just a phenominal booth chaulk full of their wonderful products and samples. Love their new Lille line and all of their trays, drawers, etc.

Stampabilities had some really beautiful projects using their wonderful dies! Their new Grand Calibur machine for cutting and embossing their big dies or several of their smaller dies at the same time is really amazing.  So easy to use and the new larger dies they introduced at the show have so much detail and beautifully intricate designs! LOVED it!

Then, of course, I love everything Tim and there was all of Tim Holtz' new products displayed at the Ranger, Advantus, and Stampers Anonymous booths.  He just "brings it" every season. I truly love his new stamps, his dies and all of his new Ideaology pieces. And I can't wait to get my hands on the new Distress Stains! The samples in these booths were amazing.

This gorgeous metal squares piece was created by Linda Cain.


Here are a few "Designer's Challenge" pieces that were on display at the Ranger Booth. These entries are from Tim, Wendy Vecchi, Linda Cain and Tammy Tutterow. I just loved them! They were all so different and all beautifully done.

This is just a SMALL...I repeat SMALL sampling of CHA. It was amazing! Those new products should be hitting the stores in a few weeks. Check them out because you won't believe how wonderful they are! I heard a lot of people saying that THIS was a really good show...finally some things to get REALLY EXCITED about!