Sunday, January 27, 2013

Dallas Market 2013

Seriously, can life get any busier - rhetorical question, of course......    Last Monday I made my bi-annual trip to the Dallas Gift market.  It's good to see what will be coming to the gift stores in a few months and to check to see if there's anything new.  Soft vintage, naturals, retro and collegiate were pretty much everywhere and traditional Christmas colors of red, green, white and silver & gold still prevail.  I may be wrong, but it seems like there's a yearning for the "good old days" when life wasn't quite so complicated and definitely less stressful.

Here are photos of displays in some of the larger, popular showrooms, so grab a cuppa tea, put your feet up, sit back and enjoy!


























Not sure what's going on with blogger, but the rest of my photos are vertical and they keep loading sideways...  I'll try loading again, so y'all come back now!

Yours truly,
Julie :)

KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON CRAFTING!

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

CHA Winter 2013

I'm back from CHA with a flash card full of photos from the show!  Hopefully they'll give you a taste of what it was like to be there.  First of all here are the big CHA winners!

Katy Sue designs won the CHA New Product Innovation award for 2013


and Spellbinders Paper Arts won the Attendees Choice award for best new product.


There is so much creativity and innovation at the show, voting for the best is not an easy task.  We're not allowed to photograph all the new products displayed in the Innovations showcase, but the "Hot 20" are shown in my previous post.

Now let's get to the show floor.  This is what you see when you first walk in: 





First stop was where the crowd gathering to see Cathy & Steve's new product, Mod Melts at the Plaid booth.


After that I headed to the far end of the hall and started to walk, taking photos of displays and friends I met along the way.  There's a bunch to see, so grab a cup of tea, coffee, or whatever, sit back, put your feet up and enjoy your visit to CHA!



















Holly Simone at Spellbinders demonstrating their new mixed media line using Ice Resin.  Check out Holly's ring shown below.






Here's Beth Watson demonstrating at one of the exhibitor booths.

 



Jan Mollett Evans shows how to use a new hot tool and encaustic paint, one of the new "Hot 20" products.


Cindi Bisson demoing Ice Resin.



Believe it or not, this heart was made from a glue stick!  One of those "oldie but goodie" techniques seen in more than one booth on the show floor. 












Here's Johanthan Fong browsing one of the booths and here's Ana Araujo (Where Creativity Knocks) signing copies of her new book for fans.





Theresa Cifali was demoing for Impress Arts and here she's seen with Johanthan Fong and Gail Green.





This is the new Artisan Xplorer, a small, high pressure die cutting machine for Spellbinders' mixed media program.






Love these trinkets by Darcie Hunter, a shrink art program.



Tim Holtz, always busy, always creative.... in the Ranger booth.  Below is one of his shadow box projects and below that, a fun new surface to play with when you have "time"....






Here's Julie Fei Fan Balzer demoing her stencils for Crafters' Workshop.







Here's Sue at the Flower Soft booth proudly displaying her new Innovations award.  (Katy Sue designs also founded Flower Soft.)







Ken Oliver in action above and that's me with Michelle Frae Cummins.


The glamorous Cindy Farneth Alexander - Stacey Caron's sister and me posing for a photo op with Ken.




Spellbinders was definitely the gathering place for lots of friends.  Here's Candice Windham.


and me and Stacey.


Here's Heidi Borchers, Starr, Julianna Hudgins and Tiffany Windsor checking out Julianna's beading loom at the Beadalon booth.


By the time Tuesday came around I was definitely "dragon".  The flight home was cancelled due, believe it or not,  to ice and snow in Dallas so my friend, Jean Kievlan and I took a quick side visit to Downtown Disney before heading to the airport to catch a later flight back home.



Got home last night a little after midnight and it was good to sleep in my own bed.  Today I'm being totally lazy....   I enjoyed a good cuppa tea this morning, but haven't even started to unpack.  Tomorrow will be soon enough.

Hope you enjoyed your quick visit to CHA.  Y'all come back now.........

Yours truly,
Julie :)

KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON CRAFTING!