Phew…what a whirlwind of a week we had in Anaheim at the CHA Craft Super Show and the Winter Convention and Trade Show! It took a few days, but I have finally made a respectable dent in the post-travel mayhem of dirty laundry, craft supplies, and snapshots to sort out. I was hoping to post here a few times from the show, but we were on the go, non-stop, 24/7 – no time for sitting at the computer!

For me, the highlight of every CHA show is always the people. Nothing beats connecting in person with friends, colleagues, and customers to relish and rave about all that is new in our wonderful world of craft. Of course, C&T has some new and totally rave-worthy products – the Liquitex® Surface Design Center, Lutradur® Mixed Media Sheets, and our upcoming new book imprint, Stash—Fabric Arts for a Handmade Lifestyle.

So after the first day of the Super Show, we braced ourselves for the weekend masses expected on day 2. We built it and they came! The C&T demo table at the Lisa Liza Lou booth was full all day – Creative Troupers Tina Kay and Joy Lily kept people happy and busy with creative ATC and fabric painting projects.

Joy shows how to paint white tone-on-tone printed fabric with gradient colors of Liquitex paints

Tina shows how to create ATCs with upcycled papers and Lutradur, using Liquitex paints and mediums.

We gave away yummy prize packages to a few lucky winners in the theater and at the CHA door prize booth. There was plenty of excitement going on all over the show, not the least of which was the bouncy house in the Kids Zone! Everyone was sporting sassy swag from Making Memories, Provo Craft, JoAnn, Michael’s, and Fiskars…just to name a few.

Check out more of the Super Show on the C&T YouTube channel and in the C&T Flickr Gallery.  You can spot yours truly in this fun CHA montage video by mixed-media artist Suzi Blu, who spreads the word about Carol Duvall’s new online venture. You might also want to visit Craft Critique for detailed and unbiased CHA coverage – from products  to trends, the CC reporters got it covered! Our friends at the Diva Craft Lounge and at Inspired at Home have great CHA reports too.

No sooner did the Super Show end, then the Trade Show began! C&T’s booth was simple and lovely…oh and right across from the food court…location, location, location!! Our knowledgeable staff arrived ready to sell and our talented demonstrators arrived excited to share!

On the evening following the first day of the trade show, we held our 3rd annual Stay-n-Play Café – where resellers, designers and teachers come together to relax, have fun, and try out new products from a variety of different manufacturers. The concept is simple and we hope all retailers and teachers take it to heart – when you create a comfortable, casual environment where artists and crafters can take time to learn new techniques and experiment with new products (hence the term “stay and play”)…you open up their minds to new creative possibilities, you develop lasting relationships, and what do you know, you’ll even sell more product!  ;-)

Café attendees used Permapaque paint markers from Sakura to enhance stamped images on Ready-to-Go!® Blank Canvas Books

Be sure to visit the C&T Flickr Gallery for more pics from the trade show…and if you attended, let us know what you saw, what was exciting? If you didn’t attend – share a link to your favorite CHA coverage on another blog!

Experiment with surface design - paint a Ready-to-Go!® Blank Board Book!