The Roving Reporter - CHA Winter 2011 Los Angeles

CHA - just hearing those initials makes my heart beat just a wee bit faster! It's a dream of mine to attend CHA. Wouldn't it be divine to be surrounded by all those new releases from all your old favorite manufacturers and the new up and comers???? Yeah, I thought so!

We are SO SO SO lucky to have Connie Nichol give us an insider report as our Roving Reporter during her recent trip to the 2011 Winter CHA. Here is the first of a 2-part series from Connie.

Usually the winter Craft and Hobby Trade show is held in Anaheim, so being in downtown Los Angeles was a bit of a change.  The show seemed smaller than last year, with fewer exhibitors and smaller booth sizes, but rumour had it that the Los Angeles convention center was more costly for the vendors.  Or perhaps it was the fact that the economic climate in the US is still largely not very good.

Anyway, despite this, in two full days, I still did not manage to see all the booths.   There were some lovely new products and I took several hundred pictures.  None of these photos  are particularly good because the lighting is a bit iffy in many booths, but you’ll get the idea.  Banners were everywhere, both decorating booths and incorporated into new products.  Circus themed paper was big.  Plenty of bird cages, bird themed stuff and botanical paper and lots of pleated paper rosettes and vintage looking resin flowers.  And there were also plenty of new ‘boy’ lines.  Here are photos of some of my favourites from the new releases:

Webster’s Pages had some great new lines.  I particularly loved Spring Market and Yacht Club.  As a fanatical gardener and a recent tourist to Nova Scotia, I need both of these in my collection.

There’s always a big crowd around the Graphic 45 booth.  It’s simply gorgeous!!!

Some very cute stamps by MyStamp Box, a Canadian company (as shown by the amazing Jackie Ludlage from Canadian Scrapbooker magazine).

KaiserCraft always has gorgeous products – these were two of my favourite releases, although I realize now that I don’t know what these lines are called.

Glitz Designs had some lovely new releases.  This was my favourite.

Nice stuff from Echo Park!!

And of course Tim Holtz had some new Sizzix dies, embossing folders and embellishments.  I am looking forward to getting these black plastic snap- off letters.  They look similar to the Heidi Swapp ones that were sold in pink and blue years ago, but much cooler.

...to be continued in Part 2...

Thank you Connie! I can hardly wait for Part 2!!!!