back from CHA2015…

hey everyone! we’re back from a great CHA2015 show and trying to get unpacked and caught up from being gone this past week. it was an awesome show and always refreshing to see the excitement of the industry, connect with friends, and get inspired by all of the creativity. as you can imagine there is so much work that goes on the months prior to get ready for the show including booths to design, sample boards to make, projects to create, and workshops & demos to prep (not to mention a year’s worth of product development for all of the new products being released). even though it’s an absolute insane time, there is something to be said about the feeling of excitement seeing it all come together – it’s pure magic…

i want to start off by expressing my sincere gratitude to my team for their tireless work, dedicated commitment, and most importantly genuine friendship. i certainly couldn’t do this without these guys so my thanks once again to mario, paula, richele, and debbie – amazing job everyone, i’m so grateful for all you do to make these shows become all that they are…

thanks also to this crazy group of friends (joy, chelle, monica, and heather) who i absolutely adore who helped from beginning to end. so happy to share this journey with you guys…

and of course there was this guy who literally put on some miles by making trips back and forth to the hotel, the classroom, and every booth in between to make sure we had everything we needed anytime we needed it. once again thanks mario, for all you do to make it all happen with a smile on your face…

we arrived at the convention center days before the show starts to get all of the booths set up. there are crates to unpack, signs to hang, booths to prop, projects to sort and the list goes on and on. i’ll admit that when we’re in the middle of everything i sometimes think it will never all get finished in time, but every year we pull off another miracle. all of the sample boards made it to the show perfectly and the awesome team at ranger made quick work of getting the booth all set up – great job everyone…

each year we start unloading all of the props, and i’m amazed how much stuff there is. i really think this eclectic assortment of treasures adds to the overall look and feel of each booth and inspires the imagination. a huge thanks to rana, tracey, and the rest of the advantus crew for working so hard to help us get the idea-ology booth set up and packed up year after year. they take great care of all of these vintage goods and never complain about how much junk i’ve collected…

over in the sizzix booth, their in-house creative mastermind marty designs all of the booth displays for the show. this year he created the perfect vignettes to showcase the new releases and a cool new alterations backdrop for the demo area – i loved how it all came together in the end…

then just like that, two full days of set-up is finished and we’re ready for the CHA2015 show to begin. during the show it’s really important for me to share as much education as possible. so each year, i try to schedule videos with some amazing people who take time out of their days to film and post these videos to share with all of you right from the show floor. my thanks go out to noell & izzy from paperclipping.com, merek and the crew from scrapbook.com, christine and mark from scraptime.ca, and sara carns from crafttestdummies.com. be sure to check out all of the videos below to watch the demos, booth tours, and more. i’ll be back on monday to kick off a week of project inspirations from the different booths – enjoy the weekend…t!m