Thursday, February 3, 2011

The CHA High

Attending CHA is indescribable, truthfully. Walking the 8 miles of new and inspired product alone would be enough to put most people into overload, but add into that seeing those individuals who inspire the items we as a group come to love, getting to participate in make and takes or classes with the new goodies, and all the projects that hundreds of people put together for show in the booths. Throw in a healthy dose of travel, sleeping in a hotel room, trying to look cute while schlepping a 40 pound recycled Little Yellow Bicycle bag full of hand outs, catalogs, and bits and pieces, and ice it with dinners with friends who are just as overwhelmed as you and the outcome is one needs a few days to process. (Unless you are like my friend, Daniela, and you come home ready to rock 'n' roll with a million new ideas.)

I can't believe it has only, (already!?!), been three days since I got home from LA and I am just now coming to the surface of all of the input. I have been trying to put a little on the Memory Makers forum each day for my pals over there, so some of this will be a repeat. I am going to try and take two days to get down what I saw so I don't overwhelm, (bore), any one brave enough to actually read this.

Let's start with favorites of the show. Hahaha, favorite is relative, kind of like picking your favorite child. Not something that can be done.

In no particular order, I most loved:

October Afternoon- their new Rocket Age and 5 & Dime collections totally knocked my socks off! I *almost* wish I had a son so I didn't have to try so hard to use the Rocket Age line with it's adorable little boy, his bear and bot friends, and all that retro yumminess. It is blues and oranges and looks like it is right out of the era of Leave It To Beaver. 5 & Dime is a knock out as well, with it's retro colors in pinks, reds, and aquas and I am seriously excited about getting my paws on it when it arrives at Scrapbook Territory.

(Me in front of the cool wall of the October Afternoon booth. Loved the vintage-esque posters!)

Cosmo Cricket- Julie Comstock is a genius and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the new Glubers! They are essentially a 2" diameter glue dot, but there is so much more to them. They will make it so everyone can make their own flowers, fabric, paper, or otherwise. I have a dear friend who suffers from tremors and it has greatly affected her ability to create her own embellishments, something she dearly loves to do. Glubers will give her that creativity back, I am sure. While doing the make and take at the CC booth, I met the incredible Natasja Verbeek, who is very talented and kind enough to share her super rocking mini album with me. Natasja saw my unadulterated excitement over the Glubers and she showed me that they not only make these gorgeous flowers,


but the Glubers also will revolutionize how I, at least, use loose glitter. Look at this!


Yes, that is the Gluber, turned into a fabulous glittery polka dot that not only did Natasja sew through with her sewing machine, but it traveled all the way from The Netherlands and not a spec of stray glitter ANYWHERE! I kid you not, I ran my finger over it and came away clean. I am thrilled.

Crate Paper- I love these papers so much. I have a thing about thick paper, it makes my fingers happy to touch it and it makes me happy to use it. Crate Paper totally delivers on the quality of paper AND their lines are full of great colors and wonderful embellishments. This time, they knocked it out of the park form me. The Portrait Collection with it's yellows, greens, grays (!!!), and creams is just amazing. So amazing in fact that I stared there and drooled over it for two days before I realized it is a wedding based collection! It actually made me wish my wedding colors had been that glorious!


The Emma Shoppe collection is full of yummy pinks, turquoise, yellows, and greens, the colors bordering on that perfect edge of muted but not pastels. So girly, yet rich, it is another collection that I am going to love creating with. I am in the phase where I am demanding new color combos from manufacturers and while I wouldn't say Emma Shoppe is a new combo, Crate Paper has managed to make it feel fresh and exciting.


Crate Paper also released two other lines, Story Time and Home, both great lines that I loved, but Portrait and Emma Shoppe were just a bit more me.

GCD Studios- Sigh. How I would love to walk the hallowed halls of the real GCD Studios. This is another rock star company whose papers are thick and linen like and totally make my tactile senses scream in joy. There was a lot of Circus going on in the new releases among manufacturers and GCD Studios Funhouse Collection was by far my favorite incarnation of elephants, monkeys, and the dreaded clowns. Again, the soft muted colors that are not pastel, but yet have that vintage feel to them were PERFECT with the circus theme and while I haven't been to the circus since before my Grandma passed away, I will be creating some pages with this line reminiscing the times I spent with her under the Big Top.

(Daniela and I showing some of our true colors at the GCD booth.)

GCD also had two other lines that I did a fair amount of drooling over, starting with Soul Food by Melody Ross. I loved her two lines for GCD last year and Soul Food is another winner with classic 1960's/70's images of ladies and the bold color combination of orange, yellow, pink, and brown. This line is definitely FUN. I was also drawn to the innocence and the monotone beauty of Sweet Surrender. I did a layout a while back that was all whites and it is still one of my all time favorites. Sweet Surrender reminds me of the softness of that layout and how much I enjoyed creating with the white on white theme.

Last for tonight is the always stellar production by Tim Holtz. As he works with a number of different manufacturers to bring us all his creative goodies, I am just going to call it all his. If you need to know a list of who he works with, please let me know and I will post it for you. Tim is a man with the vintage soul. This time around he created Frozen Charlotte dolls, pocket watches, number plaques, and, and, and....!!! Seriously, those are just to name a few of his newest and greatest that had me drooling in the booths time and time again during my 48 hours in LA. 






This bottom picture, though blurry as all get out, has one of my other favorites of the Tim Holtz collection-- grunge blocks! I love the look of the vintage printer's blocks for letters, but I know first hand how spendy the real versions are. (And, YES, I WOULD glue down real ones to a layout if they weren't like $5 a piece!!!) I want to send Mr. Holtz a thank you for bringing me these vintage goodies without the vintage price tag. 

So, if you powered through this to the end and actually read any of that, tell your S.O. that you are owed a neck rub. ;) Be back tomorrow with a few more things from CHA!

4 comments:

  1. Lora, you're doing a great job of taking us to the CHA! Thanks so much for being our tour guide - if you love it, I know I will too.

    Those Glubers are to die for!

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  2. Love the pictures! (I did read the whole thing, too, hehe) I'm totally jealous. I think you should take me next time! :)

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  3. I love seeing all your favorites from CHA!!! It must have been mindblowing to be there. I can't wait to see more!

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  4. WOW! I love all the picks, thanks for sharing your visit with us, you lucky duck and showing us so many of the new goodies out there!

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