CHA Recap 4 - Wrap Up

Hello and happy Friday! It's my final CHA recap. Today is full of miscellaneous eye candy. About 40 photos, so get comfy. It's everything from Prima, Plaid, and Spellbinders to Heartfelt Creations, Faber Castell, and Charity Wings.

Away we go…

The first morning of CHA as the crowd pours in. Everyone seems to have a plan in place when they enter. CHA provides a wonderful brochure with a pull-out floor plan of all the vendors. 

Heartfelt Creations had a gorgeous booth filled with amazing artwork. This dress form caught my eye immediately. They are known for their beautiful flower stamps which coordinate with Spellbinders dies. They have YouTube videos, an online gallery, and inspiration like crazy on their site, so be sure to visit them.

Just check out all the lovely samples...

Then it was on to the Prima booth where the uber-talented Anna Dabrowska demoed the use of the new Color Bloom Sprays onto a canvas bag.

Some of my favorites from the Prima booth…

The Something Blue line - stunning!

Next was Spellbinders "The Gilded Life" section of their booth. This was such an elegant, beautifully vintage display. I loved it. While we all know about the wonderful Spellbinders dies, The Gilded Life is something new. Be sure to click on the link and read more about it, but in a nutshell it's a line of vintage-inspired mixed media products with which you can create custom jewelry, home decor, embellishments,.. you name it. 

Just check out the amazing samples from their booth...

This was the beautiful make-n-take project. The medallion measures about 2 1/4 inches square. Generous size with lots of possibilities. I'm not usually a big jewelry person. Don't wear much of it myself, but I absolutely adore it and love learning how to make pieces for gifts. This stuff just blew me away.

And speaking of jewelry, I came upon the Ice Resin booth where they demoed the gorgeous Rue Romantique line. I just love the look of all these pieces. They seem so complicated to make, but after watching the demo you can bet I was hooked. I came home and got some Ice Resin from Hobby Lobby and some jewelry findings in hopes of having some play time soon to try them out.

They had so many combinations and possibilities. I sure hope this line shows up in my local craft stores soon.

Next up was the Plaid booth. Products under the Plaid name, as you might already know, are ModPodge, Martha Stewart and Folk Art to name a few. What you're seeing here was the make-n-take project using some new ModPodge products. I was thrilled to make adorn this little heart shaped box with the "frosting" and paint those little candies and sweets. What a wonderful project with kids and teens. 

It starts with the molds. Some of these are already in craft stores, by the way.

You use their High Temp Mini Mod Melts to fill the molds. Although they sell their own heat tool, I'm assured these work in any mini hot glue gun.  Once the mold is set (about 10 minutes) then you pop 'em out and paint them, if desired, or leave them as is. For our make-n-take, we painted white molded pieces with regular acrylic paints.

Now the really fun part. You use this Collage Clay just like a frosting bag to pipe onto your project. Then you stick your painted mold pieces into the frosting. You can then swirl some of their Collage Drizzle Paint over the top and sprinkle some glitter. Well, as you can see, you can go crazy!

This was a sample on display. A cellphone case. Before you laugh and wonder who the heck would want this as a cellphone case, it's a growing trend already established in Japan amongst teens. My 16-year-old daughter had just shown me one on Etsy before I went to CHA. So when I saw this make-n-take, I was delighted! I gave it to my daughter when she came home and she totally freaked!

More Plaid products in action on this lovely altered window. Inspiring!

Folk Art display. Dishwasher safe, indoor/outdoor paints. Cool!

Starbucks get-together on Sunday morning before the show opened. From left: Cheryl Grigsby, myself, Kourtney Vallee, Candy Colwell, and Linda Ledbetter. We're all fellow Ranger U grads. I met Cheryl and Candy for the first time, and got to know Linda a little more. An awesome group of girls who I felt as if I had known forever.

Kourtney and I hung together a few hours Sunday morning doing make-n-takes and I got the buyer's perspective watching Kourtney place orders in several booths for her store Scrapbook-N-Memories in Harrisonville, Missouri.

We got our hands into some great products during the make-n-take in the Faber Castell booth. 

While strolling past the Brother booth, there was Anthony Ryan from Project Runway fame. My daughter and I are big fans of the show.

Here's my travel buddy and good friend Sherry Fralic who volunteered all weekend in the Charity Wings booth. Be sure to check out this fantastic non-profit group by clicking on the link. 

Although it's blurry as hell, I had to post this photo of Sherry and I. We're in the Orlando airport getting ready to board our plane to CHA. We went through the entire weekend together without thinking to take more photos of the two of us together. That's how crazy busy and exciting it was. 

This is my "Good-bye California" photo. A last look at the mountains in the distance, as we headed back to Florida. We had a fabulous time and I plan to go every year I possibly can. So if you make your way there next year, make sure you look me up!

Thanks for stopping in and taking the time. I always appreciate that. I hope you've enjoyed the recaps all week. Have a great weekend. See you Monday!