CHA Summer Trade Show

CHA holds a trade show twice a year; one in winter and one in summer. This is where manufacturers display their lines of products for retailers to buy for their stores - for you..... This show is not open to the public. You have to qualify for admission by being a store owner, member of the press, manufacturer, service supplier or designer and the qualifications are quite strict. I am a designer member of CHA, but qualified initially as a Professional Crafter - a term we don't hear very much any more. I would go to the shows to buy product to make items to sell in craft malls and at craft shows. I went to my first show in 1991 and haven't missed a winter or summer show since. It was always exciting to see the new products, but I really enjoyed seeing all the samples that had been created for display that featured those products. It was amazingly inspirational. The shows have changed a lot over the past 20 years, because the industry has changed, but the common denominator remains - creativity. We love to create!

So, that being said, here are photos from the trade show. Mostly pages and projects for your enjoyment and inspiration, plus news about some of the new tools and products that will be coming your way over the next couple of months or so.

What's New!

1. Provo Craft has updated the Cricut, so now you can both print and cut. You will also have this capability with the Eclips from Sizzix.

2. Spellbinders. The Presto Punch,which is designed for small dies was introduced at the winter show and this summer the Grand Calibur made its début with an assortment of large dies.

3. We R Memory Keepers. The company that brought you the Crop-A-Dile and the Big Bite, now has a third tool in this series - the Main Squeeze, a tool that die-cuts small shapes, embosses, sets corners, flattens squeeze tabs and more.

Also new is the Sew Easy line of products for those of you who love to stitch on your pages, but don't want to pull out the sewing machine. The basic tool is hand held with interchangeable rotary blades which pierce the paper. Another nifty little tool is the Heart Attack, a small sanding/distressing tool in the shape of a heart.

4. Imaginisce. Create dazzling projects by affixing pearls, rhinestones, jewels or mirrors to paper, fabric and even wood with the i-rock, a cordless heat setting applicator. Just place the embellishment where you want it, then press the i-rock tool on top. It's so easy you'll rock too!

5. Vagabond. Tim Holtz is currently designing a signature line of dies for Sizzix which debuted at the winter show. Now there is a coordinating die cutting machine. Here's a sneak peek, but you'll probably find more info on Tim's blog, or on the Sizzix website.

It's a nifty little machine. With the front part folded up, it looks like a small suitcase. Below is a photo of Tim's booth.

6. Epiphany Crafts is a new company which has introduced the EC Shape Studio and EC Button Studio. This is a type of punch. There are 4 shape studio punches (2 sizes of circles and 2 sizes of hearts) and 4 button studio shapes with button holes (two sizes of circles, a heart and a flower). Each shape has a corresponding acrylic dome, or flat acrylic button. Use these punches to punch a paper shape (it could be a small photo printed on paper) then place the corresponding self-adhesive acrylic shape on top.

7. Flip Pal. This is a mobile scanner and it won the CHA Innovations award. It is a small, hand held scanner which runs on AA batteries. Just place it on the top of whatever you want to scan and it works just like the flatbed scanners. The information is stored on a flash card like the ones used for a digital camera. It's great for things that are difficult to place on a regular scanner and even though it's small (about 5" x 7") it has a stitching feature so you can scan larger pieces then "stitch" them seamlessly together.

8. SCAL from Create & Craft. This is software for a Mac (yeh!) or a PC that allows you to create and cut your own designs and fonts already installed on your computer using a Cricut

All the manufacturers in the paper crafts section had new paper designs and coordinating embellishments, so you'll have to check your local and online stores to see what they ordered, there were way too many to feature here.

Halloween is the second largest holiday and craft buying season, so it stands to reason that it would be a popular theme for papers, embellishments, etc., but this year I saw so much more of it than in the past. Maybe because we're not just creating album pages any more. We're making cards and lots of projects for the home using these same supplies.

Cupcakes themes are still hot, both in craft and gift market and flowers are everywhere in paper, fabric, ribbon, felt, metal, button designs and rubber stamps. Not just for scrapbook pages and cards, flowers and images of flowers, were being used to decorate just about everything. Check out the gallery of projects below.

So many flowers, so little time........ Here are some button, felt and metal flower embellishments from Sassafras.

The show is always a good place to see friends. Here I am with Helen Chu from My Little Shoebox and photos of her brightly colored booth.

Here's Marianne Walker from Copic markers. If you haven't tried them yet, these markers are wonderful, especially for coloring rubber stamped images. Both Copic Marker classes at the Super Show sold out within days of being offered.

Here's Suze Weinberg, Kathy Cano Murillo, the Crafty Chica and Katie Hacker. Katie is the new host of Beads, Baubles & Jewels, which airs on PBS stations across the United States.

Just a few more for inspiration........... Enjoy!

Yours truly,
Julie :)