More CHA

So my long delayed CHA posts are now going up... I am WAAAAYYY behind on my postings.  Thanks Annette for pointing out I posted with the wrong date on the previous post...
 So here is my friend Cindy on day 2...  Loved the mini tiaras thay had in this booth for the dolls we sculpt.

This jewelry was really pretty.  Saw some great jewelry companies, and bead companies too, but honestly, I didn't see anything there I can't get at Gilding the Lily or in Downtown LA.

Scrapbooking industry has really changed since I was in it...  Fewer companies, many subsidiaries of large mega companies, everything has the shabby grungy textural look I love and have been doing in my books for years.  Honest opinion, I would rather make my own stuff and be unique.  But maybe that is just me, or is that how a lot of us scrapbookers have evolved into mixed media artists? 

As always, very cool things in the Ranger booth.  Here is Tim Holtz doing a demo, I had to squeeze into the side to get this photo.  Lots of cool altered art projects in their booth, and the displays were awesome.  Old luggage and carts, wood walls and doors.  Very funky and fun!

So my overall opinion is that you can really see how the craft industry, and especially the scrapbooking and stamping industries have been impacted by the economy.  What was once a hopping, fully packed show has been pared down to bare bones.  The small start up companies are gone, and the industry as a whole has changed.  It makes me sad to see a once thriving, amazingly creative pool of businesses shrink down to a handful of large conglomerates that churn out a lot of sameo sameo stuff.  So I say long live the altered artist!  We are the grease that keeps the wheels turning!

CHA Day 1

So we hit the CHA trade show today and powered through about half of it..  Will be going back Tuesday to see the other half.  The last CHA I attended was in 2002.  Things have definitely changed in the crafting industry since then.  Most of the small companies are either gone or have been swallowed up by large corporations.  The show is MUCH smaller than I remember it being.  There was plenty of room to walk, seats were easily obtained in the food court, and there was nowhere near the crowd I am used to seeing at this event.

Knitting and crochet seems to be really big.  Here are some examples I snapped at a couple of booths.  I took some at the Vanna White fashion show booth.  They told me no photos allowed (very rudely I might add).. which I thought was ridiculous, because isn't the point of all of this to have your product marketed?  What better way than for bloggers to share their love of it on social networking sites... We met Mikey and Diva Dan at lunch.  Should have taken a photo, as they were quite dapper.  Mikey teaches crochet on You Tube, check him out here.  Here are some random pix of things I really liked there.