As things would have it, I was a few hours too late to register online for my usual list of seminars and roundtable discussions at the Craft and Hobby Association conference in Anaheim last month. When I tried to register for them on the first morning of the conference, many had sold out. I have to say that those I did get to attend were excellent, as always. I'm not so much into taking workshops, there just never seems to be enough time for me to sit and do one thing for a number of hours.
I go to the CHA wearing many hats. Sometimes I'm a retailer (that's what my show badge says!), sometimes I'm a manufacturer and sometimes I'm a designer. I'm always overwhelmed.
There is a myth out there that when you attend CHA you are given tons of free samples. In my experience that is a myth. I always come home loaded with catalogs and inspiration, but not cool "stuff". This year I had to eat those words. At least for one event.
As there were so many things I couldn't get into, I thought I'd try the
Blogger Networking event. It was sponsored by
Prime Publishing. You had to send in your information and a link to your blog. *Sigh* I was too late for that, too. Then a few hours later I received an updated email saying a space had come available. Oh, fun! I had no idea what to expect. I assumed a collection of manufacturers showing us what they did. That sounded interesting and a bit more personal than the huge convention floor.
We stood in the lobby of the Hilton for a while as the line grew and grew. Then the doors opened and we went into a reception room where there were drinks! Perrier was my drink of choice. I talked to a number of delightful people there. Then we were let into the "big" room where we were introduced to our hosts at Prime Publishing. Some of you may already be familiar with them through
favecrafts. (I'm still learning about everything they do.)
And yes, there were tables and people and appetizers and noise and excitement. We spread out and worked our way around the room filling in our "dance" cards at the manufacturer's tables and learning what they did. I learned a lot. I met a lot of fascinating people. I was so overwhelmed, I only took a few photos at the event.
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| Simone Collins of Prime Publishing |
Can you tell I was smitten with the Sculpey Polymer Clay creations which Polyform had on display at their table?
It was the end of the event and they had us gather round to tell us about the Best Blogger Craft Contest and that on our way out we should pick up our swag bags. Swag bags? Really? That's cool, didn't expect that. Well, I went back to the hotel with 4 over-stuffed bags of the coolest stuff! I was shell-shocked.
So we're all going home and making things with our swag and sharing those creations with our followers. I have submitted a simple project to the
Best Blogger Craft Contest. (Please note, you had to be part of the event to be eligible.) I'm so pleased they extended the deadline as it's always chaotic returning home from CHA. Not only are you playing catch-up, but you're processing everything you saw and heard.
Here is a list of the manufacturers that were at the event and below you will see photos of the swag they shared with us all. I look forward to creating over the next few months with these wonderful products! Watch for them.
Sizzix
My apologies for the quality of the photos! They were taken that night in our hotel room - in hotel room light - before I had to put it all away. My husband noted that we would be buying a new suitcase.... He was right!
