Chicago CHA 2011 trip recap and TAC stamp set candy winner! (VERY long post)

Oh My Gawd, Becky.  It was so awesome :)  I was so lucky to have been one of the instructors from The Scrapbook Page that was able to attend CHA this summer!  Thanks Cameron & Carolyn!!!  I had never been to CHA before, though I always read about it on the net.... the only bad part was that we couldn't take the new stuff home with us :(  The bosses asked us to make a list of what we thought would be good sellers... our lists were LLLLLOOOOONNNNNGGGG!

It was complete crafty-sensory overload for me, so I didn't snap many pictures.  I have a few from my phone, but they are out of focus (my first time using the camera on it)... I'll post them here anyway :)

Tim Holtz's booth

Tim Holtz's booth

Tim Holtz's booth

I was SO glad to see so many creepily-elegant Halloween themed lines this year!  I'm not one for cutesy, though they still had plenty of those, but there were a ton of grown-up Halloween lines.
At the top of my list:

Blackbird & Nightfall by Memory Box (LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!)
Midnight Dreary by Moxxie (LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!)
Apothecary Emporium by Echo Park
Haunted Hallows by Teresa Collins
Phantom by Pink Paislee
Kraft Halloween by Canvas Corp
Trick or Treat stamp set by Darcie's (LOVE)
Tim Holtz's new Halloween dies by Sizzix

Graphic 45's booth

Canvas Corp's booth

A few non-Halloween schtuffs that were awesome:
Burlesque line by FabScraps
HUGE background stamps by Impression Obsession
sassy sentiment stamps by Art Impressions
stamp & cut sets by Sizzix
Chalkstock, velvet, burlap and canvas by Canvas Corp
Let's Face It (doll parts) & Botanical (metal findings) by ArtC
chipboard, acrylic & papers by Harmonie
AWESOME new distressing tool by Prima (LOVE LOVE LOVE)
faceted, not-so-shiny bling by Prima
re-vamped Melt-Art by Ranger
Gelatos pigment sticks by Faber-Castell
Tim Holtz's kraft resist papers

Prima's booth (freakin' awesome!!!)

Prima's booth

Prima's booth (LOVE this!!!)

I was also over-the-top lucky to attend the two Ranger classes taught by Tim Holtz!  He was a fantastic instructor, had each step timed perfectly, was very well organized and really fun, too :)  Not only were the class projects awesome, but the amount of product we walked away with was un-freakin'-believable!  Check it out:

(not all of this is from the Ranger classes... but a BIG part of it is... hellooooo, a Melting Pot!  And those big plastic bags are STUFFED full of paint, ink, tools, UTEE, art supplies and more!)

(all Ranger projects... I'm still missing a couple of knobs & a pediment, but it will get finished eventually!)

(my absolute FAVORITE from Ranger Melt Art class)

I also took the 7 Gypsies altered tray class... it is probably my favorite project of the entire week (sorry no pic).  Easy to do and not very time-consuming.  The fabric binding tape isn't sticking as well as I'd hope, but it's probably due to the humidity around here (hello summer... when are you leaving?!!).

Had one downer of a class, but the products we received were awesome!  The class wasn't structured, the focal product wasn't shipped by the manufacturer, and the mixed-media project was just too complex for the setting.

I didn't do my Faber-Castell Gelatos / Maya Road canvas album because I wanted more time to play at home.  LOVE the products, and the project is very cool.  Not a papercrafting project... more mixed media.

UTEE-dipped paper flower brooch.... delightful!

I took a couple of seminar-type classes... one on copyrights and the other was how to present/teach on tv.  I thought the presentation one would give me a few hints to better present/instruct at my classes, but no... it was more like "how to present on HSN", "don't wear red or white" type stuff.  The copyright seminar was very informative.

Shrink plastic on a whole new level :)

Whew, right?  One more quick announcement... the random drawing winner of the TAC stamp set candy that I had blogged about early in July is:  TRINA!  Email me with your snail-mail address so I can send that out to you!

I also received a HUGE mound of rubbah stamps from TAC this week... I couldn't wait to redeem my gift certificates from Seminar, plus some of the sets with which I designed samples for the catalogue were in there :)

It's gonna take awhile to cut them all out, but what BLISS!!

What do you think?