My Thoughts on CHA

If you missed some of the pictures I took at CHA (I have about 100 more!), look HERE.
Several have asked why Paris Hilton would be at a craft and hobby show (good question!). From what I understand, a company bought the rights to use her name on a line of scrapbook items for young girls. It wasn't my style, but will definitely appeal to the tweens!

I loved being at CHA and would go again in a minute! But I would take a rolling cart! You could tell who had been there before, or who had talked to someone that had been there before, because they were smart and had big rolling suitcases or carts to carry everything in! Between the freebies, catalogs, and make and takes, I needed a massage by the end of the day (and there were massage booths there even, although I didn't take advantage of that!)!

It was so much fun to see all of the new stuff. Coming from a small town, the only scrapbook and card companies' products I see are those that Hobby Lobby sells (which isn't much), or those online. There were so many products I had never even heard of! Craft heaven!

It was also delightful to meet so many online friends, and "celebs"! I had a short painting make and take with Donna Dewberry. My mom is a painter and has watched her show for years and has most of her books. So my little heart daisy make and take went to my mom yesterday and she loved it! I forgot to take a picture of that. Tim Holtz is as good looking as everyone says, and Dee Greunig still looks amazing! I fell in love with Glimmer Mist and the new Basic Grey papers, and found a whole lot of stuff I would love to have. It's a good thing I wasn't a buyer!

I took two classes, a watercolor class with Jerri Kay Jimenez, and a "Vintage Girlfriends" class, sponsored by Crafty Secrets. LOVED them both. Both were stretches for me, but a lot of fun. I hope to post some pictures later today of those make and takes. I still have to finish one thing from each class! Jerri Kay will be posting what we made in the class on her blog either today or tomorrow, so you can head over there and see what it was supposed to look like - then head back here tomorrow to see what mine ended up looking like! :)

It was really a delight to meet so many of the Our Daily Bread designs Design Team and to hang out with those gals. We had a lot of fun and a lot of laughs. I forced three of them to go to Disneyland on Monday, and we had a great time there screaming on the rides and fussing that Haunted Mansion was closed.

Here are two of the projects we made at the Crafty Secrets class.

I don't normally lean toward vintage style, so this was fun! The card on the left opens with the scallop piece and has a little design inside that says "Party Time". We got sooooo much fun stuff at this class. Paper, stickers, ribbons, glimmer mist....LOTS of stuff to bring home and use on dozens of other projects!

This summer I am directing "My Fair Lady" so I will skip Orlando's CHA, but I am looking forward to next year in Anaheim already!