2014 CHA MEGA SHOW Highlights

Hello and Happy 2014!  It’s Jennifer’s friend Rhonda (aka Daria for those of you on Facebook), one of the many designers in her Crafty Card Gallery App and her co-conspirator on the Creations by Crafty Card Gallery magazine.  Many, Many Thanks to Jennifer for making possible another fun and amazing trip to the CHA 2014 MEGA Show! Along with being a great friend and person, she is definitely a positive influence on improving my crafting skills and introducing me to new interests.If you haven’t already tried it, Zentangle® is a surprisingly easy and very cool method of using repetitive patterns to create art.  Please visitwww.zentangle.com to learn more.  Founders Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas are very inspiring!  Here’s the tile I made during their workshop:    

3D printers, conductive paints and fibers, and laser cutters are a few of theexciting technologies finding their way into the everyday crafter’s world.  Maker Spaces are helping to make this happen and the possibilities really are endless.  Tony and Matt from Maker House are awesome.  Check out their website and YouTube channel: http://makerhouse.org;http://www.youtube.com/user/artfirevideos/videos.  I still have to find a shepherd’s hook that I like to hang it on, but I already put together my own DIY solar light hummingbird feeder after watching one of their videos.              It was wonderful to see so many newer companies.  Here are some of my favorites:As you can tell, my Copic coloring skills on their make-and-take tag are not the best, but Some Odd Girl Stamps (http://www.someoddgirl.com;http://www.youtube.com/user/SomeOddGirls) designs and people are very cool.  

 Freckled Fawn (http://freckledfawn.com) also has delightful people andsome super cute embellishments, including these Wood Chips:

 This is a lovely sample that Taylored Expressions (http://tayloredexpressions.com;http://www.youtube.com/tayloredexpressions) gave us.  I am excited that one of their design team members said she teaches at a stamp storerelatively nearby.  Please check out her blog: www.ablogcalledwanda.com.

 Since I could not find a direct website, I am hoping that our stamp store will carry Little B products.  They have a Perfect Positioner and Designer Dies that are ingenious; Noell Hyman of Paperclipping.com has a great overview video on YouTube: http://youtu.be/TuT1v8Dy_6M.   Little Bembellishments also have amazing detail; hopefully you can see the leather like quality of the baseball:

​You can never go wrong with Lawn Fawn (http://www.lawnfawn.com)!  I love their stamps with coordinating dies.  And I really like their new paperdesigns and lawn trimmings colors.  If you ever need inspiration, their YouTube videos are really well done:  http://www.youtube.com/lawnfawn. Here are a couple of the cards that their awesome team showed us how to make:    

 And then there are the companies that continue to surprise.  We all know the paper stacks from Die Cuts With A View(http://www.diecutswithaview.com), but did you know they also have Blue Moon Beads and are introducing chalk pens?  So much fun:

 My favorite class was the one with Karen Burniston featuring her new dies, which can be seen on her YouTube channel: http://youtu.be/-EovQwpI_BI .  She has teamed up with Elizabeth Craft Designs (http://www.ecraftdesigns.com;http://www.youtube.com/user/ecraftdesigns).  They are known for their wonderful Peel-Off stickers, but are now also bringing us these innovative dies.

 Finally, can you believe this was put together in literally 6 minutes at theFiskars booth?  

Granted, most of the pieces were ready to assemble.  All we had to do was punch the Daisy Mae Intricate flowers, decorate the hexagon foil embellishment (cut and embossed with the Fuse Creativity System) with alcohol ink, spray the paper pieces with an iridescent spray mist, and assemble.  Some other CHA exclusive projects can be found on Fiskars website: http://www2.fiskars.com/Inspiration-Projects/CHA-Exclusive-Projects.Thanks again to Jennifer for this amazing opportunity and Thank You for reading this post!  I hope you enjoyed seeing the 2014 MEGA show with me.  Yes, I do believe art (and crafts!) really is (are) for everybody.