This post should be subtitled, "Oh My Aching Feet."
My day started at 8am at the Innovations Showcase. Twenty companies were picked to share a cool new product. Each had one slide...
...and one minute to tell you about their product. It was like speed dating and totally fascinating from a marketing point-of-view. In addition to the one minute, each company had a small table top on which to display their wares:
At the Innovations Showcase I bumped into Nancy Nally, but again, no photo. Dang. I have to get better about that. Anyway, when the showcase ended I headed off to the Convention Center, where I ate the single worst bagel I have ever tasted in my entire life. And was greeted by this impressive line of people:
But one of the perks of having a manufacturer badge (thanks, Prima!) is that I was able to skip the line and sneak into the convention hall a little bit early! There were lots of last minute touches happening everywhere! I headed straight for the Prima booth so that I could get some good photos before all the retailers came pouring in! Check it out:
After Prima, I headed over to the Crafter's Workshop, the other company I made samples for.
Amazing stencils. Amazing people. Amazing sense of humor. I started working with them because I just love their product!
After that I made a bee line for Sassafras Lass. I had seen their "Mix and Mend" line on their blog and desperately wanted to see it in person! Take a peek:
It's completely flat, but it's amazing how dimensional it looks, even in person. So so so so cool! It's like cheater fabric for scrapbookers! And the rest of their booth was fun and bright and totally fab too!
I want about a million plus seven of these metal vintage-y flowers. Sign me up for the bulk pack!
One of the things that's so fun about CHA is getting to see products from companies you've never heard of. I had to stop when I saw these colorful dominoes from a company called Phenominoes.
The woman who owns the company licenses artwork and through some sort of chemical process transfers the images onto these dominoes.
As I was leaving the Phenominoes booth, my friend Els hollered from her booth, Elizabeth Craft Designs. This is a company that's all about products that can take a lot of techniques. Right up my alley! I mean, Els can put Tim Holtz to shame. She makes the humblest items, like these vinyl stickers, look like the coolest tools in the world.
And this is Velvet Glitter (ETA: The Burnished Velvet technique is a trademarked technique by Deanna Pannell, the glitter, sold through Elizabeth Craft Designs is Glitter Ritz Micro-Fine Glitter.):
When I touched that butterfly, it was completely soft and smooth. No bumpy or nubby texture the way regular glitter has. And my friend Judy was in the booth promoting her new product, Shimmer Sheetz:
Shimmer Sheetz is iridescent and metallic Mylar that can be used in so many cool ways! There's a great blog post here from a woman named Heidi Blankenship.
Els demonstrated that it can be embossed and then sanded:
And the many samples around the booth:
Another reason I love CHA! I'm not sure I would have given it a second look at the store, but now that I've seen how much you can do with it, I'm itching to give it a try!
I flitted by the Making Memories booth oh-so-briefly. But this tree stopped me in my tracks!
And I really liked the Halloween trim!
Next I ran into Erin Yamabe at My Little Shoebox. Turns out we're both going to be teaching at the Paper&Co. Show in France in November! And check out the MLS booth:
Can you believe that this doesn't even take us to 11am? But it's after midnight now and I have to teach bright and early at 9am, so I'm going to say, to be continued....
