Sun, Sand and Crafting

Hello there! Today I wanted to share my trip last week to the CHA show in Los Angeles.  I had an awesome time and it was the perfect new adventure to start the year off.  The Craft and Hobby Association show is like the super bowl of crafting.  All of the industries leading product manufacturers, designers and craft talents come together for a 4 day show that’s all about the creative and crafting industry.  Major companies like Plaid, Fiskars, Cricut and Scotch are there with new product introductions and demonstrations on all the crafting items they sell.  In addition to the these heavy hitters, there are paper companies, scrapbook companies, rubber stamp companies, jewelry supply manufacturers and anything else related to the craft industry.

I had the great pleasure of being asked by Craffiti, a leading rubber stamp and embossing plate manufacturer here in Georgia to attend the show as their creative artist.   I’ve created projects for Craffiti for a few months and was thrilled when they extended the invitation.

Once we landed in Los Angeles, Sheila, Christy, Amanda and I headed to our hotel.  We stayed at the Anabella, a cute boutique hotel which is located right next door to the convention center and across the street from Disneyland. It was the perfect location and the surrounding area was so pretty.

The street in front of the hotel was lined with beautiful palm trees and at night you could see the Ferris Wheel at Disneyland all lit up.

The booth set-up was next on our agenda.

The display included this giant board featuring examples of the stamp and embossing products Craffiti makes and some cards and gifts tags I created using their embossing plates.

The pink tutu table skirt was a big hit at the show!

Once the booth was set up we had a few hours on our hands and decided to head to the beach for some lunch and a walk in the sand. One of the things I was hoping to do this trip was to walk in the sand and put my feet in the ocean. After living on the west coast for so many years, I miss the beauty of the Pacific Ocean.  Huntington Beach, the 80 degree weather and the SUN was heavenly!

{oh, I forgot how cold the water was on the west coast}

The CHA show started on Saturday and boy was it a crafting fest.

Scotch had all of their Expressions washi tapes, masking tapes and packing tapes on display.  So many cute designs to choose from.

My favorite ribbon company May Arts was there and I got to check out their entire ribbon line.  Such goodness!

There were so many creative craft projects on display.  This wreath, using Jillibean Soup Wood Sprinkles was one of my favorites.

Just one of the many beautiful paper collage art pieces I saw.  So inspiring!

One of my favorite crafting companies, Me and My Big Ideas had a new line of Mambistick stickers that are awesome.  I can’t wait to use them in a project.  I’m envisioning a fun gallery wall something like this.

How cute is this wreath using decorative paper cards?

There were hundreds of booths at the CHA show and some of them really stood out to me.   I loved this space set up like a crafting room.

Spellbinders had one of the most amazing booths at the show.  It was decorated like a vintage parlour with stunning displays featuring Gilded Life jewelry products.

This banner has me thinking about a burlap and bling Christmas theme for 2014 🙂

A Gilded Life necklace.  We were able to make a similar one for free during the show.

In addition to seeing so many great craft projects and ideas, I also loved checking out new crafting machines and tools.  This Ad Tech glue gun is on my shopping list.  It’s a dual function glue gun that operates both with batteries and electric and it has a built-in stand that allows the gun to stand upright.

And then there was the Fiskars  AdvantEdge Punch System.  After seeing this machine in person I’m in love.  It uses decorative cartridges to create a continuous border punch.  I’m using this machine for my next gift wrap inspiration post that will be coming up later this week on the blog.

And if crystals are your thing, CHA had them on display in full force.  A company called Crystal Ninja turns everyday items in to works of art using their crystals.  You have to check out their website to see more of the amazing things they create.

So can you see what I mean by crafting super bowl?   The CHA show was such an awesome experience, representing Craffiti, being creativity energized and connecting with new people.  I look forward to attending the show next year but until then I’ll be using many of the new items I saw at the show in my crafting post throughout the year.  I’m ready to get crafty, how about you?