Touring CHA 2009

Have you been wondering what coolness will come out of CHA this year?? Well pack your bags and let's go check it out! Before we set off, I want to confirm that without exception I did ask permission to photograph the booths.

Vintage Suitcases at the idea-ology Booth

First stop, idea-ology! Many fun toys here, at the top of my must-have list is super-flexible but very strong grunge paper - check out Wendy Vecchi's grunge board and grunge paper flowers (below), I also "need" mini masks, metal 'Foliage' flowers/leaves, and 'Ornate Plates' (bookplates).

Above and Below - Displays at Idea-ology Booth

Moving along to Prima - of-course they have a stunning new collection of flowers, some of them very elaborate and just gorgeous; but they also had perhaps my fave new item of the show - a blank canvas album by Donna Downey that has 5 stitched canvas pages inside. It's just so COOL!! You can paint, stamp, stitch, staple, glue, embellish any old way you choose. Refill pages will be coming soon, and there are some great stitched items you can purchase to dress up your pages like the house and the fleur-de-lis pictured, and embroidered canvas tags. Part of what I love about this album is the great jump start it gives you to having a fabric/canvas album - you could stitch the pages together yourself, but will you really get around to it? I'd rather buy the blank book and start from there, very fun. Prima also has a line of cool stitched papers - they really outdid themselves with this release, and as usual their designers made FABULOUS displays for the booth.

Pretty Prima Flowers

More CHA peeks to come later in the week - thanks for checking in!