OCL & CHA!

Hi Peeps ~ as you know the semi-annual CHA trade show took place last week in Chicago.  I attended the show and helped OCL exhibit their new products.    So today, I thought I would share the few pictures I took while at the show.

Here's our booth all set up ~ 

(shhh....new product peek on the top row.)

Our Sales Manager Kimberly once we were all set up. 
Isn't the booth just so pink and pretty?

Wonderful samples from our talented Design Team.

My sweet friend and DT Member Lori Tecler. 
I have to say that Lori, Deb Felts and Lori McAree,
were all lifesavers last week working the Make & Take table for me!  

Thank you ladies ~ love you sooooooooo much!

Our sweet friend Lynn Mercurio stopped by the booth for a visit.

Didn't the booth turn out fun?  WHEW ~ another show in the books.  Now to get through the release ~ YIPEEEE. 

Come on back tomorrow for our monthly i{heart}papers DT challenge!

Time with Friends ~ what could be better?

One of the most wonderful parts of CHA is spending time with good friends, making new friends, and meeting online friends for the first time. Today's pictures are all about some of the girls I spent time with last week. I sure wish I had pictures of everyone I spent time with, but that just didn't happen.

with Joy Kennedy (GM of OCL)

Denise Marzec (OCL DT)

Denise & a new friend Lori McAree

with Sankari Wegman & a sneaky peek with Cindy Lawrence (my BFF Roomie)

Cindy, Joy and Denise all pose for picture #235 (literally) ~

Sorry Denise, I still had to take the red eye out!

Donna does math in her head as Cindy Lyles keeps track.

Cindy Lyles (Starlit Studios) and Val Stangle ~ at RED (the bar at the Hyatt)

Daisy Sparks (eP owner)

Heather McNally & Debbi Acampa (NavyWyf) enjoy some time together.

Scroll down to yesterday's post for more OCL pictures.

OCL at CHA!

I'm back from the Chicago CHA show and thought I would show you some pictures of what I was up to all week long.

Here is the focus of the beautiful pink and orange booth ~ let me tell you, this booth just POPS right out to everyone as they walk by!

Our fun pink fridge and the Sparkly Fluff display get lots of looks. BTW ~ we have SIX new colors of Sparkly Fluff coming out soon along with 24 new stamp sets!!!!

The gorgeous samples from our wonderful Design Team are always the hit of the booth!

So many gorgeous things to look at that you can hardly take it all in with one visit!

Joy Kennedy (OCL General Manager), Mama (Joy's mom), and Michelle Yager all say hello on day #2 of the show.

Kimberly McCausland (the OCL Sales Manager) does a Make and Take with Deb Felts.

The show is over and my BFF Roomie, Cindy Lawrence, takes a break while we wait for the wood crates to arrive.

Joy, Cindy, Deb, and Kimberly & I all took a break while we waited to load everything up. Joy even got her iPad out so we could watch a few episodes of Glee!

The week was a blast ~ but very exhausting! I'll have some product pictures and more photos of friends over the next few days.

More from CHA - Post #2

Ahhhh...where do I start with CHA info??? It's snowing like crazy here while I type this ~ so I need these warm and fuzzy thoughts!

So on with the CHA Show ~ To me, the show seemed bigger than last year & the booths all looked amazing. I think a lot of companies have trimmed down the number of new lines, but the quality is great. Michelle & I spent a few hours walking the floor both mornings with our good friends Daisy {from eP}, Bethie & Debbie.

Some of my favorite product lines and booths were:

Hero Arts - always fun for some new stamps & their catalog is fabulous for project ideas.

Imaginisce - love the Lucy Bird and Scooter's Vacation lines.


Doodlebug - Bright and fun (loved Feeling Groovy)!




American Crafts - Dear Lizzy Line with the fabric paper ~ YUMMY!


Karen Foster has a new drawer unit that will retail for $29.99


Little Yellow Bicycle - one that is super bright with lots of flowers and peace signs (fun, fun, fun)


Nikki Swivils - fun burlap covered buttons

October Afternoon - I don't recall any new (to CHA) lines. But the samples & booth were fabulous! I took like 40 pictures of them.

Bazzill - MY FAVORITE PAPER! It's their 10th year in business and they have a wonderful catalog with plenty of project ideas and color swatches to make matching pattern paper really easy. I didn't get a good picture of their booth, but I did get a catalog & some project ideas.

The OCL Booth!
After we toured the floor for a while, it was time to put on our aprons and work in the Our Craft Lounge (OCL) Booth with Joy, Cami & Kimberly. We had a fantastic location and you could see the pink from across the exhibit hall! The girls had a wonderful theme to the booth & the design team did an amazing job on all the samples ~ everything turned out gorgeous.

Below ~ Cami was at the Make & Take table while Joy, Debbie and Kimberly helped the retailers.

Our good friends Beate & Jenn stopped by to say hello and do a Make & Take.

eP Reception

On Sunday evening, Joy and Daisy held their annual party at Tortilla Joes in Downtown Disney. What a BLAST! I was so excited to see tons of old friends again and make some great new friends. Here are a few girls that I am so glad to have met and spent time talking with ~ Colleen (left) and Sankari (right). Boy did we all hit it off and it's so fun to have even more BFF's.

And here is my awesome gang! I love you girls so much ~ I just wish everyone from the group could have been there. What a night! We talked until the wee hours.

(back row: Daisy & Jenn)
(front row: left to right ~ HB, Beate, Cami, Bethie, MY, Joy, Piris {Pam}, Val, me)


Krispy Kreme Fieldtrip

Monday evening was our last night in California. Even though we were exhausted from the long hours on the show floor and the late night gigles, we were ready to head home on Tuesday morning. However, we did head out for dinner one more time and then hit Krispy Kremes (or Krusty Kreme as Cami calls it). When we arrived the donuts were being made and they were HOT ~ woohooo! The manager was great fun and invited us to try a new occupation.

left to right: MY, Cami, Kisa, me, Joy, Piris

Well that wraps up my Winter CHA 2010 post for this time. It was a wonderfully exhausting trip & I wouldn't have changed a thing. Stop back tomorrow to see a new project.

Back from CHA - Post #1

WOW ~ what a trip! I arrived home on Tuesday evening after a full day of coast-to-coast travel. I feel like it's been ages since I've talked to you even though I had posts scheduled each day. I really appreciate all the lovely comments you left me while I was gone. I read them all while I was in California & they put a smile on my tired face each day ~ thank you!

I already had a blog post scheduled for yesterday, so today I thought I'd share some photos and CHA stuff rather than a project. I didn't spend a ton of time walking the show floor because of the work schedule, but I did see some fun things and spent time with lots of friends (which was the best part). So here goes the details for the CHA Supershow... (I'll be back with details from the CHA Retail Show tomorrow).

My BFF, Michelle (MY) and I left on Thursday for a very long day of travel. We were due to arrive in Orange County at 5:30pm but didn't make it until 11:30pm. Thankfully, we met up with our other roommate (and fellow OCL DT member) at the airport, Cindy Lawrence. Cindy is a total sweetheart & our little trio was a perfect match ~ thanks BFF Roomie (I swipped this picture off Cindy's Facebook album!).


CHA SUPERSHOW ~ DAY #1:
Friday was the first day of the CHA Supershow & we started (and ended) our day at the Splitcoast Stampers booth with Eclectic Paperie & then Lizzie Anne Designs ~ Here's a look at what we were up to that morning and the make and take we helped with. The booth was adorable and we had a blast seeing old friends and making new ones.



Later that morning, we worked in the Scrapbook Heaven booth where we helped with another OCL make & take. In the afternoon, Michelle & I worked with the Lizzie Anne Designs team in their booth at the Supershow. We had fun helping with the Make & Take there and then again at the Splitcoast booth at the end of the day. Here's Tricia from LAD sharing a new product on YouTube. Photos of the Lizzie Anne booth & team are over on the Lizzie Anne Blog.

We finished day #1 at Red Robin for a late dinner with a huge group of friends! SO ~ THAT WAS JUST DAY ONE!!! I was tired already & still had several non-stop days to go.

CHA SUPERSHOW ~ DAY #2:
Day #2 of the CHA Supershow was another crazy one! We started out the day assembling furniture for the OCL booth & kits for a retail class later that evening. We had pieces of projects EVERYWHERE, but we managed to get everything together. With Cami's permission, I'm gonna give you a quick sneak peek at a project after all. This is one of the new OCL sets coming out next week. Just wait until you see the rest of the images ~ I predict it will be the best seller of this release.


We worked the rest of the day in Supershow booths & then I had a nice dinner at PF Changs with the i{heart}papers design team. I'll have to share that picture of the girls later too because it's on Kate's camera and she is still in California. So that wraped up the final day of the CHA Consumer Supershow ~ TONS OF FUN!

Tomorrow I'll share the fun we had at the CHA retail portion of the show, the gorgeous OCL Booth & some of my favorite new products coming out.

More from OCL...

Our Craft Lounge previewed 28 new sets at CHA this past week and I can't wait to show you all the fun samples! These sets will be available in mid-February.

These are my wonderful friends Joy & Cami with their business partner Kimberly. I'm so proud of them & the fabulous job they have done with their new company.

Ohhhhh...just look at all the FUN sets they have!!!! Are you drooling yet?

Fun stuff from CHA!

I spent Saturday through Wednesday in California at the Craft and Hobby Trade Association Show (CHA) and saw tons of fun new products that will be coming out in the next few months. Here's a little peek at what to expect ~

New from Maya Road ~ chipboard books and pieces.

My favorite is the gears for all my fun robots!

Fun felt, velvet and leather flowers & stick pins.

A new bingo stamp set.

Maya Road also has a ton of new chipboard books coming out.

One of my very favorite paper lines is My Mind's Eye.

I love the new line called Penny Lane

And another line called Bloom & Grow.

A VERY Yummy line called Juicy Summer from KI Memories. They will have several new lines of paper and coordinating products ~ this one is my favorite.

A peek at the fun papers that come with Juicy Summer from KI Memories.

The new EK Success punches were some of the smartest new products out there this year. They lock closed and stack! There will be 26 new borders (i think) and several single image punches. I LOVE THEM!

Here is a cool page using one of the border punches.

Doodlebug Designs is another favorite of mine - they will have 6 (or maybe 8) new lines coming out this spring. They always have such a pretty booth.

I just love this Tutti Fruitti collection!

A new looke for Crate Paper ~ totally adorable!

Hope you enjoyed all the product peeks!