CHA Report

Finally, back to some kind of routine! From Portland to DC to Chicago to DC was a lot of traveling in a short time frame, so I'm kind of tired and glad to be back home. I'm glad I was able to do it all. CHA was a paper artist's dream. If you have not been, you need to go, just to experience it and have fun. They had hundreds and hundreds of vendors for retailers to select their new products. They featured so many ideas and samples. Most of the vendors were scrapbooking related, although there were a couple of jewelry vendors, such as the bangle booth! The convention center was enormous and it was completely full of vendors. You definitely need to spend at least two days to get the full experience. I only visited 1 day because I had other commitments while I was in the area. But, next year, I am planning on committing to a CHA trip, solely focused on it! So, if you want to join me, let me know.

There were many paper art 'celebrity' sitings, such as Ali Edwards. You could stand in a line to take a picture and get an autograph. I skipped that part because I'm not much of a fanatic. Once I see the person, I've gotten the fulfillment! When I first got there, I spotted Dawn McVey and Nichole Heady and I'm sure the rest of the Papertrey design team. I just stared in awe! I also saw Tim Holtz (as you saw in my previous posting) and got a chance to take a few pictures.

Many vendors had stations for you to do a make-n-take. Out of all places, I stopped by the Dremel booth and did a make-n-take. Dremel makes tools, so it was kind of odd, but they had a cute picture frame to make. Their tools are actually really nice and easy to use. I especially liked the tiny, yet powerful screwdriver that fit into that small binder clip on the frame. Here area few photos of it. I was only able to use what they had, so I did not add some personal touches, such as centers for my flowers yet.




I included a picture in it and a post-it note, so you could see how it would look 'finished.' This was a basic wood frame from Michaels (I think they are only $1). I painted it with two colors (bronze, then green). Then, it was distressed with a paper clip and sanded. Next, I stamped the wording with Black Staz-On. Last, I embellished with buttons, coins, flowers, a binder clip and and old key. This is very rustic, but has a lot of character. Picture frames are great paper art project too!


Here is a picture of all of the goodies I was able to snag. It was so exciting to just pick these up. I planned on doing a blog candy give-a-way once I had 5,000 hits on my blog, so I will post that in a week or so, which will feature the MM slice apron and ribbons (among other stuff that I have too much of in my studio). The aprons were a really nice give-a-way. Someone was also giving a scoop of free buttons. I picked up lots of catalogs and am considering selling a select line of scrapbook supplies on my web site in the future! Some of my favorite booths were Heidi Swapp, SEI, JustRite, Imaginisce, Scenic Route, Petaloo, Quick Quotes, and Clear Scraps. But then again, they all were good!