CHA Baby!!

Please be aware that my site is looking a little odd right now. I'm having some technical difficulties, so please keep bearing with me here. Some of my pictures have disappeared & Blogger won't let me reload them. Grrr...!

OK, how lucky was I that I got to go to Chicago for the Craft & Hobby Assoc. Trade Show (CHA) on the 19th! I have to admit that I was excited just to get to be able to go, thanks to the WONDERFUL store owners of The Memory Zone Scrapbook store that I design for!

Once I arrived with my 3 other fellow Design Team members, Kelly, Jenny & Rebecca, I was in total awe of the whole scheme of things. It's like an amusement park for scrapbookers! We all had an amazing time. This was Rebecca's & my first year to attend the event as Kelly & Jenny attended last year.

There was so much to see & do that you couldn't help but get caught up in it all. The make & takes were nicer than I expected & the freebies that they handed out were pretty cool. I had no idea this kinda stuff went on there! I'm really glad that I got to go this year, because I understand that it's in Florida next summer! I could possibly still go, since they're talking about allowing the public to attend & I do have an uncle that lives near Orlando....I just don't understand why it's in such warm climate in the hottest part of the year?

We brought home some pretty cool bags from Provo Craft, Little Yellow Bicycle, MAMBI & a few others. The Bo Bunny bags were to DIE for, but I didn't get one in time - BUMMER!!

I got a little distracted away from my group & couldn't find them. Who knew that hot pink T-shirts would be so hard to find? OMG! Half the women there had hot pink t-shirts! LOL

So, I wandered away looking for the others & ended up finding Eutopia...Kaiser Craft, based out of Australia, but also located out of Chicago, as well. This booth was big, this booth was beautiful, this booth offered a great make & take that was so hot that you had to take a number to get in! I sure got my exercise by running back & forth checking to see if my number was about to be called. Finally, after about 2 hours, I got to do the make & take wooden book. I love how it turned out & I did it in my favorite color combo right now - blue & green. While others watched the M&T, they could let out a WHOOP! & the lady running the M&T would toss out pkgs. of bling to everyone. So cool!! Then, when I was finished with my book, she handed me a whole stack of bling jewels & pearls & brads! It felt like Christmas in July! Here is the wood book I made at their make & take.

We also learned about a new company that has MY interest peaked! It goes by the name of Zva (pronounced zee-vah) & they make jeweled swirls like Prima in a rainbow of colors & interesting shapes & they make fabric flowers in interesting colors & textures! They looked like they were good quality & they claimed that they were a cost conscious company. If they offer Quality & lower costs - now we're talking my lanquage. I find that I spend a lot of hard earned money on poor quality scrap products from the big names & I don't like it. This stuff is supposed to last a lifetime & it can't even make it to my scrapbook page before falling apart! What's wrong with that picture? (pun intended!)

I was impressed with several booths & their products. I like Prima, a lot! But they can be pretty pricey for my budget, but I love their designs & innovativeness! I'd buy it more if I could find it. WRMK is a real favorite of mine & their booth was fantastic! I love their new die cut flocked ribbons & their Christmas line is gonna knock your socks off! Little Yellow Bicycle is another real favorite of mine, but again, a little on the pricey side. It's gotta be a totally stunning line of product for me to spend $1 for one brad & that's what it amounts to when you buy a pkg of 6 brads for $5.99. They're cool though, so you save them for special projects & pages for special people. I liked Rusty Pickle's booth. It was fun with their chocolate fountain & marshmallows & pretzel to dip into the chocolate with. Mmmm...! I really like their rustic Americana line of products! I've liked this look for a few years now & it's still a favorite of mine & it's still a hot seller! Now let's talk Basic Grey...I think these people are finally starting to "get it" with the paper crafters - finally! I loved their last releases & these next batch of releases prove to be winners in my book! I think they fit the artsy crafter as well as the color-in-the-lines crafter. you shouldn't hear the usual comment about their stuff being kind of difficult to work with anymore. I didn't see a new line there that I didn't like! My favorites would be Ambrosia & Eva/Ava, not sure which it was called, but those were my most favs, but I could like all the others too! Petaloo has some very pretty flowers coming out for those fall themed pages! These are just dripping with rich color!

Prima Bling! Mulitple colors together & new shapes !

Petaloo Flowers - they don't get much prettier than this!

Here's a bit of a close-up view of the flowers & cute projects they did.

Well, this is my update for today, stay tuned for more reviews & pictures of CHA 2008!

~Beth