I'm Back! CHA Review Part 1

I returned late, late Tuesday night from six days at the CHA Show in Anaheim and have had a heavy teaching schedule the rest of the week. I'm off this weekend, so I'm hoping to get caught up on lots of things, including this neglected blog! There's so much to share, I don't know where to start!  I'll do several posts, as there's lots of photos!

We went out a few days early (show started on Sunday) to attend the Crafter's Home pre-show event. Crafter's Home is a group of over 110 independent scrapbooking and paper arts retailers. The combined buying power of these stores allows Crafter's Home to negotiate discounts with vendors and offers promotional and educational opportunities.

On Thursday we enjoyed an all-day workshop with Tim Holtz! We made a set of fifteen tags, learning a multitude of techniques.  The technique junkie I am,  I was in heaven!

Just getting started. 

I was near the front - yay. Note how much product was at our seats to use in class.

Stamp set and bag of goodies for us to use and then take home!

My completed tag set

Got to use (and keep) these new Distress Markers.  Lots of fun techniques for these markers.

All day Friday we had presentations from the various vendors. Each vendor had 10-20 minutes to present their new products. They handed out the various catalogs and many also gave out freebies for the stores. There were even some drawings and The Little Blue House won a full set of Stickles for our studio! It was a fun but exhausting day - we ended at 5:30 and then a "Craft Mania" make-n-take and mini-show started at 6. It was great to be able to get "up close and personal" with the vendors, something that's hard to do on the regular show floor. 

Here are some of the things we scouted out:

New chalk ink colors from Quick Quotes (we actually pre-ordered these before the show)

Gorgeous samples from Graphic 45

Graphic 45 metal embellishments ("Staples") - love the clothespins

New glue holder - Tracy Weinzapfel

Karen Burniston of Sizzix demoing pop-up dies

"Ticket holder" from Jenni Bowlin - this would be cute as an inspiration board

Cute repro cigar boxes from Jenni Bowlin - love the mini!

I'll be back later with more!