I once again had the awesome opportunity to attend the
Craft and Hobby Association (CHA) Winter trade show - CHA-Winter 2012 - last weekend. I attended as a press member for team
Craft Test Dummies, just like last year. What was different this year is that our entire team - all 5 of us - got to be there! We had so much fun, and I just wanted to share some of the highlights with you!
One of my favorite parts of CHA is having the chance to meet, in living color, great people who I've come to "know" online. I've blogged about
Julie Fei-Fan Balzer in the past, and I've shared about her
30 Days in Your Journal art journaling online workshop, which I loved. It was great to meet her at the
Crafter's Workshop booth, where she was doing a make-and-take with their newest stencils. I got to use one of her new layering stencils - the Layered Hearts - and I absolutely LOVE how easy it is to use! So fun!! I've posted several times about these awesome stencils - you can see them
here.
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| LOVE Julie's apron - "Dirty Girl - I don't clean my stencils" |
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| Julie's new stencils with The Crafter's Workshop |
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Make-and-take tag done using new release
stencils by The Crafter's Workshop |
I also got to finally meet
Christy Tomlinson, another incredible artist whose work I have admired and have posted about several times. I have taken two of her
online workshops, the She Art workshop and her She Had 3 Hearts workshop, and I can't say enough wonderful things about them or about Christy. And it is so awesome when you meet a person in real life, and they are just as sweet and down-to-earth in person as they are on camera/on their blog...and such is the case with Christy (and with Julie too). I got to see her demonstrating her new line of
She Art products that she has released with Pink Paislee. (She also has a great line of stamps just released with
Unity Stamps!)
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| I look SO tall next to Christy!! |
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Beautiful canvas art created in just minutes,
using new She Art products |
I absolutely LOVE the look of the modeling paste over the doily mask on that canvas!! I've looked at every thrift store locally for a plastic vintage doily like the mask she created, and cannot find one! So excited she created this, so I can get it!! And these products will make it SUPER easy to teach an in-store or even in-home class for people who THINK they are not artists or THINK they could never make something like this...because these products make it SUPER easy to do this. I am really excited about this line!!
Some other CHA-W 2012 new product releases I'm really excited about...
The addition of
Dyan Reaveley as the
newest Signature Designer at Ranger Ink is a great collaboration! Her lively and bright personality, which matches the bright, fun colors in her artwork, will bring a superb new range of products and ideas to the company. This CHA, she released more stamps, 12 colors of Dylusions Ink Sprays, and 12 stencils with The Crafter's Workshop (6 designs in 2 sizes each). I was in awe looking through her journals (many of which are large accounting ledgers). Dyan said she has FORTY journals she is currently working in!! LOVE HER!
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| Love Dyan Reaveley's bright, colorful art! |
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| Love the sketch-like style of the words in this stamp set |
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Dylusions Ink Sprays, Dyan Reaveley's stencils's by
The Crafter's Workshop, and DISTRESS MARKERS!! |
I am also SUPER excited about the release of
Distress Markers by Ranger and Tim Holtz!! I saw Tim demonstrate these at CHA, and I cannot WAIT to get my hands on these! There's a marker for each of the 36 colors of Distress, plus a Picket Fence marker - yep, a white Distress marker, which writes on dark papers!!
Also exciting are the new
Patina metal inks from Ranger and Vintaj. They are a permanent, opaque ink, designed especially for metal, which come 3 to a package, with 5 packages available. There is also a protective Glaze available, which serves as a final coat, and can also be used on jewelry to protect people who are sensitive to certain metals. One of the fun parts of CHA is samples...and I was fortunate to receive a couple bottles of this, and I can't wait to play!!
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| Patina metal inks from Ranger & Vintaj |
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| Patina metal inks and Glaze |
Ranger also released 15 new colors of their popular
Liquid Pearls. These little gems are just what they sound like - with a nice fine tip, you control the size of the "pearl' you create, and you are able to create beautiful dimension on whatever your project. Would you believe these are my first bottles of them? I can't wait to use them!
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| 5 of the new colors of Liquid Pearls |
This next goody was actually released last year, but I'm not sure many stores picked it up, and now it's being re-released with more attention. This is the Ink Palette by Ranger and Tim Holtz (and Tim has also released 2 water brushes, one with a fine tip and one with a nice wide flat brush). I cannot tell you how stoked I am to have received this...I have
used old pieces of packaging for forever to drop my alcohol inks into, and then let them dry...and then pick up the color with a water brush filled with blending solution or a blender pen to color with them. Now, I can FINALLY have an actual palette!!! LOL!
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Ink Palette for filling with alcohol inks - put a few drops in
each well, let dry, then pick up color with blender pen! |
I had the pleasure also of meeting Wendy Vecchi, of
Studio 490, also a Senior Educator with Ranger. I have long admired her art work, and am excited about her new release of products with Blossom Bucket this year. I had a funny experience of how I met her...I was standing in the Blossom Bucket booth, and started going on and on to the owner of Blossom Bucket about how I love Wendy. I was vaguely aware that there was another woman standing next to the owner, but hadn't fully looked at her. Yep - it was Wendy! I'm REALLY bad at being able to recognize people in real life, from their online photos. Sigh. What can I say? At least I was saying really GOOD things about her!! Anyway, a little while later, she was doing a book signing at the Art Gone Wild/Stampers Anonymous booth...and I happened to be there, and I said, "Oh, I don't have the book for you to sign, but I just wanted to say how glad I was to meet you," and she said, "Oh, we're giving the book away free!" So I got her newest "Make Art, Studio 490 Style" book - volume 6 - FREE, and it's autographed by her! Such happy serendipity!
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| Wendy's newest Make Art book, signed by her |
And of course, the press room freebies and other samples given to us as members of the press are part of the fun of CHA.
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| ATC's from Speedball |
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| New multi-directional cartridge from Glue Arts for the Glue-Glider Pro |
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| Envelopes, tags and stickers from American Tag Company |
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| Stamp from Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps |
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| Wood Tickets from Prima (love!) |
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| Assortment of magazines from Northridge Media (love these!!) |
Of course, another part of the fun at CHA is the gorgeous booths - and to see some booth "eye candy," check out my post over on
Craft Test Dummies, full of pictures of fabulous products and projects by incredible designers!
Finally, to see more about CHA Winter 2012, check out the
Fave Crafts CHA Blog Round Up (starts Wed. 2/8).
