CHA

Here’s my report on CHA! For those who don’t know, CHA is the big Craft and Hobby Association trade show that happens twice a year — winter and summer. This one took place in Chicago. CHA showcases everything craft related — ribbon, scrapbooking supplies, yarn, beads — and STAMPS of course! I wish I could have seen it all, but WOW we were so busy. Most days started at 8:00 — seemed like we’d be getting the booth ready one minute and then the next thing I knew it was 5:00 and time to get everything cleaned up for the next day!

Sorry for the dark pictures — the lighting wasn’t exactly the best, but hope you enjoy!

This first picture is of the Hero Arts booth — you can see how busy we were — and this is a slooooow time — if it was “normal” I’d be doing something besides taking pictures, ha! That’s one of the great Hero Artists, Shari Carroll, doing the make and takes. You’ve got to check out her blog — she’s so artistic and talented. I’m so glad I finally got to meet her. She has a new book out called Layers that I was lucky enough to see — gotta order my copy and get it autographed!
The gal in the green sweater at the computer is Karen Morikawa — she organized everything, including the workshop — she just does it all! Behind Karen is Todd Mullins — he’s the VP of Sales, a funny guy who does some great impressions. And to his right is Aaron Leventhal — the CEO and son of Jackie Leventhal, founder of Hero Arts!

This next picture shows some of the Letters for Stamping™ samples — the one that says SCOTT is for my friend Scott — Happy Birthday, Scott, here’s your card, ha ha!

Next up is a picture of some samples featuring stamps from the Holiday Catalog — kinda a sneak peek — shhhh!

You can check out ALL of the new Holiday stamps on the Hero Arts website starting August 15th!

And last but not least, here’s a picture of another Hero Artist, Sally Traidman! She’s another artist that I have always admired. She has a book that just came out called Simply Cards that I already have AND she autographed it for me. Sally is full of life and so much fun to be around. Love her book, you can check it out here!

Sally and I are holding a poster of the Letters for Stamping™ samples that we did for this technique article.

While I was working at the booth I met so many great people, including Julie Ebersole — if you’ve read her blog — well — she’s just like that in person! Hi Julie!
While at the show I also got to meet Mary Jo McGraw, author of a bunch of great books and DVDs and Karen Thomas from Yasutomo — I’d seen them both on Carol Duvall so many times…!

Parting thoughts — CHA is HUGE! I mean mind meltingly HUGE! And I’ve been told that the winter one is even bigger! Yowza.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s trip to downtown Chicago…