Balzer Designs

CHA Summer 2010: Wrapping Up

I've gotten a few questions about how CHA works, so I thought I'd answer them in brief as best as I can.  Let me know if you have other questions.

The CHA Trade Show is an industry-only show.  You have to have a retailer, manufacturer, designer, educator, press, or service provider badge to get into the show.  There is a CHA Super Show that is open to the public.  But it isn't a reveal of new products the way that this one is.  It's a lot of shopping with big box stores like Michael's selling their wares.  As for shopping at the Trade Show....

At the CHA Trade show the only people who can buy things are the retailers.  And there is no product to buy right then and there.  You simply place your order.  For a detailed look at buying, please visit this post.

The focus at the Trade Show is definitely on showing off the new products and making sales.  Most booths have make-and-takes or demos.

I always want to sit and do them all and learn about all the new stuff out there, but I'm also very conscious of not wanting to take up a seat if a retailer (who might buy) is there.  After all the show is about selling, right?  Selling and networking.  There are side deals and meetings and parties and all sort of business that goes down at CHA. I can definitely say that attending CHA has changed my career in the industry.  Not necessarily in the ways that I always wanted it to, but nonetheless, something interesting always comes out of my time there.

And now a few last thoughts...

Trends

Vintage: Now some of these companies always offer vintage.  At some of these companies the styling was vintage.  At some of these companies the projects had a vintage flair.  But I chose a few photos that showed off the major vintage trend!

Accordion Fold Flowers: Some companies offered them as products.  Many had booth samples that incorporated them.  And a lot of booths simply decorated with them!

Mists: Mists were all over the place!  Although, interestingly, not necessarily all over the project samples.

The mix and mend line from Sassafras is even pre-misted for you:

Ornate Frames: I love ornate frames.  And apparently so does everyone else!  There were plenty for sale (part of the vintage trend, I think) and even more used as set dressing on the walls!

There are also still a lot of dress forms.  Off-the-page accessories like frames, chipboard shapes to decorate, etc. are still going strong.  Shabby chic seems to be creeping in everywhere.  Punches and die-cutting remain very strong.  I noticed a lot more supplies that are specifically intended for colorants to be added to.  I also noticed a lot of companies pairing up:  Stamps from one company that match die cuts from another, so you can cut out your stamped image perfectly.  Paint and ink from one company that coordinates perfectly with patterned paper from another company.  I think in this economy cross-promoting and pairing up makes a lot of sense!

Top 5 Favorite Products

This was a ridiculously hard list to compile.  There are a lot of things that I love and want and will buy.  But here are my "want them right now" five:

Sassafrass Lass metal flowers:

Studio Calico opaque white mist:

Kaiser Craft Wooden Frames (upper right corner):

Prima/Donna Downey tall canvas album:

(I didn't get a photo of the blank version, so this is the sample I made.)

Basic Grey Curio Collection:

I hope you have enjoyed my perspective of CHA!  Thanks for stopping by!

CHA Summer 2010: Days Two & Three

I started the morning teaching a great page class at the Prima booth:

After class I wandered a bit and found myself at Bella Blvd.

It was crowded and I wasn't going to stop, but then this...

...was so amazing, I had to go in!

I think that this pizza card is the most amazing card ever!  Who thinks of these things?!

The Fancy Pants booth was next for me:

The Pink Paislee booth blew me away!

I was especially charmed by the House of Three Collection they've just released:

And the rest of the booth was lovely too:

I ran into Lisa (aka gluestick girl) doing make&takes at The Studio Calico booth:

I took a million photos at the October Afternoon booth:

The banner paper (above) is my favorite!

 












Trend alert: pinwheels!

Those green letters will be mine!  I have the red and white ones from earlier releases and I love them!

TPC Studios is a company that I know nothing about.

I was in a bit of a rush, but I was drawn in by these:

Mini chalboards with real chalk.  Love that!  And then my friend Judy was enchanted with these:

They're chipboard frames.  But the innovation is that they sell clear templates that match the frames exactly, so you can always get perfect patterned paper coverage!  And while we were there, we decided to look a little further:

Their "So Delish" line contains a ton of box templates for making boxes like these:

And also have clear templates if you want to cover them with patterned paper:

I became a bit obsessed with those fabric buttons.  They have them in every collection and I want them all!

But of course, there's more:

Googly eyes on springs?!  Shut up!

More evidence of that vintage feel!

Overall I thought their embellishments were absolutely lovely!

I tried to go by the Graphic 45 booth several times...

...but it always had a line like this one:

There were a few non-paper related vendors.  One that I liked was Nunn Designs.

I was intrigued by her sunlight (or UV light) hardening expoxy.

This is how I store my rings too!  I have an antique glove mold and they're all piled on the fingers.

I have always liked the way that Harmonie sells their ribbon:

It's nice to feel like you're getting something extra!  And the chipboard and acrylic pieces are so intricate and lovely, you know?

The very first CHA I went to, someone was selling mini mosaic tiles and I was trying to figure out how to use them.   I thought Harmonie had some nice ideas:

(Sorry about the blurry photo, but the project was cool and it's the only photo I have of it!)

I stopped by the Product Performers booth where the folks from ScorIt were demoing their new stamping handle.

Essentially it's a handle with extremely strong velcro that can be temporarily attached to an acrylic block, wood mounted stamp, or even an ink pad!

Things were slow enough at the Girls' Paperie booth that I even got to do a make-and-take!  We made these cute little paper treat bags:

I made myself sick eating Jolly Ranchers afterwards!

I buzzed through the Idea-ology booth next:

I'm looking forward to getting my hands on a few of these chipboard boxes:

Maya Road always has fun stuff and fabulous design team projects!

Canvas Corp is a company I discovered and really liked last CHA, so I wandered in to see what was new:

I subscribe to the Melissa Frances blog.  Even though I don't do it, I adore the shabby chic look!

Basic Grey is back, baby! 

Is it okay if I admit that I fell out of love with Basic Grey for a little while?  But I'm back in love.   Especially with the new Curio line!

Swoon!  I love it all!

Speaking of vintage yumminess, the 7gypsies booth always makes my heart flutter!

The Webster's Pages booth was my very last stop:

And on Day Three I didn't even take a single photo!  Well, that's not true.  I took this one through the plane window with my iphone (Hipstamatic app):

I'm going to try and sit down and write some overarching CHA thoughts.  Hopefully I'll post it in a few hours!

Thanks for stopping by!

CHA Summer 2010: day one (part three)

So many photos, so little time!  I'm sitting in the airport editing photos and blogging.  We'll see if I get this done before my flight gets called!

I breezed through the enormous American Crafts booth:

And then this cute display pulled me into the Pebbles booth:

Vintage looking furnishings were a huge trend in terms of displays! 

Check out some of the other stuff from their booth:

The Ranger booth always pulls me in.  But it's also always so crowded!  I dodged the millions of people and took some photos:

I think this is so clever.  We all know that those manila tags that so many techniques are demonstrated on behave differently than regular old cardstock.  So now you can have a 12x12 sheet of manila!  (And I'm digging the more brightly colored Distress Stickles too!)



Years ago when I designed stamps for My Kits&Pieces, I designed a set that had an outline and a plain colored shape that went together.  It's a concept that I love.  I've seen it a few other places, but this is the best version so far!  I love Claudine's wonky illustrations! (The raindrops are my fave!)  Basically, you stamp with the foam stamp and then stamp the acrylic line drawing stamp on top.  So cute!

And here's Claudine herself.  She is one of the nicest people ever!

Trend alert: Ornate frame.


This next booth is my "find" of CHA.  It's the Paper Dreams Factory Inc. booth:

Vintage is so hot right now and look at all of these awesome vintage reproduction images.  When I was chatting with the booth rep I mentioned that this looked like the kind of stuff you'd see at Tinsel Trading.  He told me that they are one of his customers!  For those of you who don't know, Tinsel Trading is an amazing store in NYC that Martha Stewart has referred to as her "favorite store in Manhattan."  And it is *expensive.*  So I was surprised at how reasonable his prices were!  If only I could buy wholesale...sigh.

I have no idea how I'd use them, but those large wings were just gorgeous!

Speaking of gorgeous, the Hambly booth was next:

Owner, Allison Kreft Abad...

...was running a fun pinwheel make and take:

I'm always interested in finding fun new ways to use all the Hambly transparencies I'm stockpiling!

Check out the rest of the booth:

Paint splat rub ons?!  Shut up!  Now we can all scrap like Dina!

Of course, the layout above was actually done by Dina, but she used the paint splat rub-ons!



We're staying transparent for the next booth.  Clear Scraps is a company that I don't know a lot about.  I had never seen their stuff until I saw their booth. 

But I'm a fan now, because they know acrylic!  The most genius thing from their booth was this rack that held acrylic samples and showed how all sorts of things could be done to it:

Embossing?!  Shut up!!  But it's true.  I saw it with my own eyes.  You can *emboss* their acrylic pages in a Cuttlebug!  How cool is that?

Tattered Angels was my last stop of the day.  They turned off the lights on the show floor about 2 minutes after I got there, so my photos are few and far between and kind of blurry.  Nonetheless...

Ornate frame, anyone?

It was a long day, but a good one!  Be back soon with day two!

Thanks for stopping by!

CHA Summer 2010: day one (part two)

Where did we leave off? 

Ah, yes, I was headed into my Live With Prima class (you can watch these classes online right now, by the way)!  We made "Pretty Packages."  Check it out:

I wandered into the Doodlebug booth...

...where I loved their buttons!

I hit up the Studio Calico booth next!

Um, hello!  OPAQUE white mist!  That's like the holy grail.  Can't wait to get my hands on that!
 
The very adorable Emily Pitts was doing a make and take!

I fell in love with the beautiful trims at the Expo International booth:

 I whizzed by the impressive crowd at the Provo Craft booth:

I next visited the EK Success booth, which was packed with product!  EK is the overarching company behind brands like Inkssentials, K&Co., and Martha Stewart.

I peeked into the Kaiser Craft booth next.  They always have fabulous chipboard/mdf products! 

And here's a peek at some of their other stuff:

I *love* these wooden flourishes.  Especially the leaves and frames.  Yum!

And now how about some Cosmo Cricket?

Love, love, love these tiny alphas!  And what a great color!
 
I did a drive-by (okay, okay, a walk-by) of the DCWV booth:

And here's a peek at the May Arts booth:

(Man, you'd think that with all that carpet my feet wouldn't hurt as much as they do!)

And then I settled into the Jillibean booth where I ran into the very talented Paula Gilarde:

And here's the Jillibean booth:

I would not have known that these were alphas if they hadn't removed that "a" from the top left corner!

Second baker's twine of the day!  I'm seeing a trend!

Canvas embellishments were another HUGE trend!

Oh my!  These herringbone letters (above) had me at hello!

Yes, please!  A million of these kraft tags, please!

The Lilybee booth was right across the way, so I stopped in!

I thought that their booth demonstrated several of the trends I was seeing all over the show floor.  Banner and ornate oval frames are everywhere:

  Butterflies are still hot:

Vintage (esp. vaguely sewing related) is definitely a trend:

(in real life, that floral paper looks like vintage fabric)

Speaking of vintage, Jenni Bowlin was next on my list!

I'm not sure if they're new or old, but those round journaling spots are awesome!  I plan to hunt them down!

Above, you can see Jenni's much discussed new line of paint dabbers and ink pads for Ranger.  I'm excited to try out the colors, especially the yellow and red!

Next up was My Little Yellow Bicycle:

Trend alert!  More banners!

Trend alert!  Ornate frames!

You can see some ladies doing a make and take here in the booth.

Trend alert!  Pinwheels!

Can you believe that we're not even done with day one, yet?  Whew!

It's 2am here and I've got another day ahead of me, so I'm going to hit the hay.  I'll be back with more as soon as I can!

To be continued...

CHA Summer 2010: Day One (Part One)

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:

(This is my single favorite item from Prima's release.  So simple, but I could use a million of these simply wavy lines.  LOVE them!)

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....