CHA Summer 2011 - Day 1

It's been a long, fun day and life is really good! That may because I've made it safely to CHA and have already had a lot of fun! I flew into O'Hare at 9:30am Central and went straight to the Hotel shuttle area.  No matter how much a hotel wants to, 10:30 am is very early to check people in when you're busy! I had to wait a couple of hours around the lobby, which in all fairness, was  more than 3 hours earlier than their regular check in time! While I waited for the room to be ready,  I had brunch and had the chance to speak briefly with two ladies who own/work at a scrapbook store in Switzerland. Apparently, Switzerland is one of those places where scrapbooking is growing and doing well. Though they did bemoan the lack of European produced paper coordinating lines. They have to import most of their supplies form the US!

After checking into my room, I had just enough time to get over to the convention center, register and get over to my first workshop! It was fun, but what was amazing was that outside that first classroom, I met two people. One is named Linda, the sister of someone opening a new scrapbook/stamping store in Cincinnati called Stamping Buddies, which is funny first because for those who don't know, I live 15 minutes from downtown Cincinnati and second, because I run a scrapbook meetup group called the Scrapbook Buddies! Linda's sister has big plans and I'm really excited to see what she will do! I hope she continues to dreams big! The other person I met is Jannet, someone I first met in a scrapbook store when I went to visit my friend Jessie last year.  Jannet recognized me!  What a memory! Jannet is part of a number of people here at the show from the Scrapbook Cottage in Glascow, KY, two hours south of Louisville and a very successful store that also organizes some pretty big events!

The Globecraft workshop was interesting and their products were much, much better than anyone I spoke to expected. We all felt sorry for them because some of their products had been delivered somewhere else in the convention center and they were still trying to hunt them down. So we did the pumpkin kit instead of the one they had planned and we are to pick up the remaining two kits from their booth tomorrow! The pumpkin is so cute and is actually a few layers of chipboard, each layer having it's own canvas (picture image). Mine is not quite finished as I want to be able to remove the picture and send it via mail. So I didn't adhere the flowers, straw, twirled wire etc that were provided to embelish the kits. The globe on top of the picture is fairly deep, so it would certainly be fun to do something with more embelishments under the dome as well. I'll share more of these projects over the enxt few weeks.

After a break in my room which is only a 5 minute walk away, I returned to go visit the Innovation Sneak Peak Media and Buyer Event of the show!  Lots of cool things, Faber Castels Gelatos, more on them tomorrow as I'm taking their mixed media class then. Also interesting, the  new metal embelishments by Epiphany and the decoratables which are embossing folders that also cut out some of the designs. Very cute and the samples are awesome!

 One of this years big innovations is those new scanable QR codes. Talking codes is one of the two companies that were present! You know they are little squares that have squiggly lines that remind one a little of UPC codes? I knew that they were becoming widely used as links to websites. They are all over CHA this year as website links. What I learned is that you can record voice info on them!  WOW! AND, it is really, really easy to use!  Just take a moment and click on the link above and enjoy!  They do a great job of showing you how they work! Once you've done that, think cards and scrapbook pages!  Awesome!  I an definitely going to use those even as training aids on my layout pages I make for classes!

The last event for me today was the Taste of Rosemont where we all get to sample what the local restaurants had to offer. I'm afraid we all pretty muched stuffed our faces!  They ran out of food about one hour into a two hour event!  I feel sorry for the late comers!  I met a nice lady named Kimberly who owns the Sassy Scrapper in Grants Pass, Oregon. We'll be spending a little more time tomorrow after our respective workshops!  That is fun too as we get to see each other's projects!

Well time for bed!  Stay tuned as I navigate the floor of the show tomorrow!