CHA

I am back from Chicago... the only thing I can say... WOW ... again WOW. It was incredible experience! I am so glad I had a chance to go! I spent most of my time there in Fiskars booth demoing the new tools but still I could feel the energy and excitement in the air. It was so much fun!

My trip to CHA started few weeks ago when I made those tags. They were for Heidi Grace and Amy from Cloud 9 to sign during the show. The paper used on my tags is from the newest Cloud 9 Valentine collection. So cute!


I was leaving for CHA Friday afternoon but in the morning I was able to host a challenge on Fiskateers message board. The challenge was part of the Virtual CHA Online crop. My challenge was to cross something off your crafting "to-do" list. I played along also and finally used a little rollerskates embellishment that I bought about 2 years ago to scrapbook Lila's 8th birthday party. I used the Fiskars July sketch, again :) It feels good to have it done. Now I am just one year behind on her birthday parties LOL

20 minutes after I posted the winner of my challenge I was on my way to Chicago. I gave myself plenty of time to get their and it was a great idea because of the Friday traffic and the road construction. I pulled into the restaurant parking lot just in time for the Fiskateers dinner. It was awesome to see familiar faces and meet some new friends.
That's what waited for us at the tables:

Here we are - CHA summer 2008 fiskateers:

After the dinner I went to the hotel and met Jenna. I am so glad she was my roommate - she is such a nice and fun person! For some strange reason I wasn't tired yet, so I finished crocheting my little flowers that I made for the fiskateers leads. Aren't they cute? I can't stop making them now LOL
The next morning I started my first day at CHA. I had some free time to browse around but wasn't really prepared for that so I just walked between the booths without any defined purpose LOL Everybody said it will be overwhelming and it was :) At 1pm I came back to the Fiskars booth and started my 4 hours of demo. I was showing the new Push and Print Stamp Factory , new fingertip tools, trimmers, punches and everything else people wanted to see. By the end of the day I was so tired standing on my feet the whole day and talking that going out for dinner wasn't an option. I went back to my hotel, had dinner at the hotel restaurant and finished the day with tiramisu in bed.
Not a bad day if you ask me :)


The next day was even better. Again, I had 2 hours in the morning to browse around and then 5 hours of demo. I asked for a chair and it was much much better. I took some pictures that I will put in the slideshow. But here are my favorites.

Kelly Jo and me in Heidi Grace booth. We are due just one week apart :)

Jenna and me
After few hours of demoing I left my partner Kim to be in charge and run to find an ice cream

And my show hightlight - Heidi Swapp stopped by and I showed her the new Fiskars tools. I think Ted (the tall guy behind me) was very amused seeing how excited I was. I hope I didn't embarrass myself too much LOL She loved the new PPT and the Stamp Factory. She even tried it with her own stamps. I also showed her the USX and she just loved it. She even took one with her to Beijing.
Enjoy the rest of the pictures! My personal show favorites were the new Fiskars tools - stamp factory, the new personal trimmer and scallop punches, Heidi Grace paper lines, Chatterbox, new paints, brushes and sticky canvas by Claudine Helmuth, Anna Grifin (they didn't allow pictures in the booth), new grungeboard shapes.

Not less than seeing the new products I enjoyed meeting my old and new friends - the leads, Fiskars people, fiskateers that I trained, my friends from the message board, I can't even count them all. Did I say already that it was incredible experience?