Tuesday, February 1, 2011

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! 


12 comments:

  1. Wow! Amazing stuff! Can't wait to actually SEE it! lol!

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  2. Oh Lori...it was amazing! I'd never been to CHA before but I kept hearing people talking about how excited they were to FINALLY be seeing some new, really good stuff! Lots of beautiful papers and coordinating things. Lots of neat metal embellishments and beautiful wooden die cut stuff...like Kaiser carries. Beautiful new dies from Spellbinder. Knock your socks off displays and samples.

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  3. You lucky gal! Looks like your eyes are glazed over by all of the wonerful eye candy you got to see!

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  4. Kathy, it was wonderful! I know I've never been to one before...but it was truly amazing to SEE everything! The products, the displays and the CREATIVITY of those people who made all of the samples is just nuts!

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  5. Fantastic pics! That's the 1st I've seen of my metal piece and ART tag in Ranger's booth. The framed piece was so much fun to make with all the different metal squares.

    Going to do a class using that piece later this year.

    Congrats on the classes at For Keeps Sakes, the students there are a blast to work with! Love them!

    Linda Cain

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  6. Hey Linda...I didn't know that was your metal piece! I LOVE THAT!! Just LOVE it! I need to make a correction on my blog to include that little "tidbit". :) Sorry I cut off part of the ART tag! It was beautiful as well! You just do amazing work! I may have to check out your class using the metal squares. That is just stunning!

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  7. Hey, I think you got a great shot! Mine was awful. Since I wasn't there, I really appreciated seeing these shots! THANKS, girl!!!

    Graphic 45 is always so incredible!

    Linda

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  8. Linda, you are so welcome! I LOVE that piece! I probably have other pics of your work...I seem to be DRAWN to it! :) You are incredibly talented.

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  9. Candy - your pics are wonderful- when you can't be there it great to live vicariously through others.... Share more....

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  10. Hey Kat! This was my first time and I was overwhelmed! I am working on kitting up a class right now...as soon as I finish that, I will try to post some more pictures later this evening. I'm so glad that you're enjoying them!

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  11. I'm so glad you had such a great trip and that you took so many pictures for us to enjoy. I am amazed at all the talent there is out there, can't wait to see what all you come up with us to play with.

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  12. Hey Lois...it really humbled me to see all of the amazing things that people had created at CHA. Just a creative overload for sure! haha

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