The One with CHA Highlights

CHA happens but twice a year - in January and July - and when the convention center where it's held is just 20 minutes away, I have to, without a doubt, no questions asked, go.

CHA is the Craft & Hobby Association and basically all scrapbooking companies work around these special dates in January and July to design and release their next big product lines. So this morning I drove to the Anaheim Convention Center, which is HUGE (815,000 square feet of exhibit space to be exact) and it was packed full of hobbyists and scrapbookers just like me :)

Last year at CHA, "The Girls" (Nichole, Lindsey, Alisha, and I, the in-house scrapbookers of American Crafts at the time), took a roadtrip to Vegas then CHA. We were excited to see all of the new products, but really what took the cake was being literally inches from Paris Hilton. (This is not zoomed in.)

Read all about it and see more pictures here. I wonder how her scrapbooking company is doing?...

This year, I was fortunate enough to get hooked up with a badge from American Crafts. Can I just say how much I love all of their new stuff? I'm in heaven. Where do I begin?

Here are all of the new releases:

I'm most excited about the Dear Lizzy stuff. American Crafts has teamed up with the one and only Elizabeth Kartchner to create a whole line of amazingness. Check out her special section of the booth:

Sooooo stinkin' cute.

Things I'm most excited about? These crocheted flowers:

This beautiful ribbon:

And these fabric covered brads:

There's also fabric-sticky-backed paper and stamps and rub ons and dimensional stickers and so much more. I can't wait to get my hands on it all. (Hurry up Lyndsey! :) And I got this super cute bag to tote around all my loot:

I was excited to see the Letterbox line in its entirety. This is the last line I helped design while working at American Crafts. It sure is lovely, if I do say so myself :)

It was a fun surprise to see pictures of my sister used on sample layouts and transferred to signs:

And whoever made these flowers (Alisha or Lindsey?), they're awesome and I want to make some:

After perusing the American Crafts booth for quite some time, I wandered off on my own. The following pictures are of things I found inspiring while trudging around.
I don't make jewelry. However, Making Memories is releasing an entire line of jewelry fixin's and I think I might give this hobby a whirl.



Love the cute pink and blue scooters Making Memories was giving away (or auctioning off? Or using as props? I'm not sure).

Pretty.

Neat.

Cute.

I really like handmade paper flowers.

Some gorgeous pillows at Hambly Screen Prints.

Beautiful paper mache rose balls at the Melissa Frances booth.


An awesome chandelier at 7 Gypsies.

A pretty arrangement of flowers.

Loooove these new stickers by K & Company.
Cool paper birds.

I like the design of this sign above G.C.D. Studios.

In-between halls there was this ginormous canvas made completely out of perler beads. A sign said it was the world's largest perler bead canvas. I believe it. Here is a closeup of the flag that appears on Obama's jacket:

And here is the canvas in its entirety:

Moving on...I heard tons of screams and shouts coming from the Provo Craft booth so I moseyed on over there.

They're releasing a new Cricut called the Cricut Cake.

If I baked cakes, I would have to buy one of these. Or perhaps, I should get one of these now and then learn to bake cakes and decorate them! Basically, you can use any existing Cricut cartridge (or some of the new cartridges are made specifically for cakes and have really intricate designs) and you can use the Cricut Cake to die cut shapes from fondant. I saw it with mine own two eyes and I was flabergasted. It's amazing what people can come up with. Technology is my friend.

Um, excuse, Mr. Shrek, Sir, I think you're confused, Disneyland is next door....

Shortly before I called it a day, I ran into Nancy Doren, sporting her hott pink hair and bedazzled shoes. She knows how much I love tulle right now so she tore this page of of Marie Claire and saved it just for me! I'm so glad I ran into you Nancy!

And that's all she wrote. What a fun and inspiring day. I can't wait 'til next year!