Where to begin? I could write a novel about all the happenings of the past few days but I’ve decided to condense it down to highlights from the show – my own cliff notes if you will. This was my first winter show – I’ve been to a few summer CHA shows but the winter show is bigger in terms of vendors, new products and excitement. This show was no exception! The show generates so much energy and enthusiasm everyone I know couldn’t wait to go home and start crafting! Plus it didn’t hurt that I left chilly, snowy New England for sunny California 🙂

For trends the thing that stays with me the most was that there were flowers everywhere. That doesn’t seem like a new trend but there were lots and lots of flowers, and they were especially prevalent in the make and take tables. I noticed a lot of vintage themed products and a lot of what I’m going to call cutesy themed lines (lots of animals, people, cartoon-type drawings). Another trend that was everywhere was the mixed-media approach that was everywhere – there’s fabrics, inks and paints and even jewelry all over the scrapbooking section of the show.

On to the product! Hands down my favorite product from the show was the Core’dinations Core Impressions embossed cardstock. Core’dinations has teamed up with Jenni Bowlin, Cosmo Cricket and Jillibean Soup to create textured cardstock with patterns from those manufacturers. Like the Jillibean numbers paper? Now you can have it in cardstock. Love Cosmo’s woodgrain? We’ve got it in cardstock! That one is my absolute fave. Jenni Bowlin has TWO new packs of embossed cardstock to go along with the release she and Core’dinations had at last summer’s CHA. My photographs unfortunately are not doing justice to the product here – it really is amazing in person.

For paper lines I think October Afternoon would have to be my favorite – they released two lines Fly a Kite and The Thrift Shop. As the name suggests, Thrift Shop is a bit more vintage inspired but still the same clean line that we know and love from OA.Studio Calico’s Anthology line was also one of my favorites, especially the fabrips, alphas and labels. I adore the frames that were in the booth – that’s something I’m definitely going to try
at home!
In fact one thing I noticed at the show that I was more drawn to all the embellishments rather than the paper lines. The Dear Lizzy line from American Crafts was adorable, as is Elizabeth herself who was at the booth all day, every day looking incredibly glamorous and being very friendly! Jenni Bowlin had fabulous new embellishments also – the butterflies are on my must-have list, along with the vintage buttons and all the new stickers!There were a bunch of other things that I liked: Tim Holtz had little memo pins (which would be great for holding those Jenni Bowlin tickets), he also had new tape that I’d love to try out. I really liked the embellishments in the K & Co Handmade line – I can’t seem to find a good photo of the alphabet cards but trust me, they were fabulous! Pink Paislee had pleated ribbon that is a must-have – it’s in all their new lines. Finally 7 Gypsies had tape that’s like masking tape but in different colors and patterns – lots of possibilities there! They also had stickers that were calling my name.
I think that about covers it for product that caught my eye. Of course the show is much more than just product but I’ll leave the people for another post. I need to get back to reality now!