Hi bloggers, this post comes a few weeks after the CHA trade show in California, but it's taken some time to get through the hours of video footage on YouTube (thank you Noell Hyman!) to suss out what our top picks are from CHA this year and I honestly can't wait for some of these products to be released. This year there hasn't been as much vintage (except for the marvellous Tim Holtz) so some of the products may not have that vintage feel but are certainly getting us excited.
So in no particular order let's begin.....
1. Heidi Swapp Minc Foil Applicator Machine
This machine is an absolute genius, I have to admit at first I thought it would be quite limiting in what you could apply foil to but after watching further demonstrations I learned that you can apply foil to your own designs if printed on a laser printer. Which may be a bit of an effort/expense if you either buy a printer or have to keep popping down to your local photocopying shop but its still a really good idea. I won't go too much into the ins and outs of the machine, I'll let Heidi do that below.... for more details check out the video.....
2. Heidi Swapp Planner/ Marion Smith Planner
Planners were everywhere this year, with lots of different brands releasing their own versions. Our favourites have to be either the new Heidi Swapp Planner 2015 or Marion Smith's Gypsy Planner. If you love beautiful vintage type papers then Marion Smith is definitely the way to go, she makes it so easy to create a beautiful planner by just simply adding your own writing with a few pictures of your week and your good to go. Heidi Swapp also comes out strong with design but she also has many other accessories to compliment the planner, from stamps and stickers to pockets and paper pads so everything would match and you can keep everything in its place. I've certainly been tempted by the planner phenomenon and can't wait to get started.....
3. Tim Holtz Idea-ology
Once again Tim has released some real good products and I always love his Idea-ology release the most. And of course I have a couple of favourites which are his new structures products, called Clip Carousel and Flip Frame. You might recognise the flip frame if you have happened to have bought one of these frames from Ikea before and I definitely want to do a project with these frames this year, possibly as a Countdown to Christmas....we'll see....
Of course the samples in his booth are nothing less than amazing so I've included a video below of his booth tour with Noell Hyman and you can also see some of his other new releases....
4. Frank Garcia for Prima Marketing
I absolutely love this new collection from Frank Garcia called 'The Archivist', it has lots of vintage/parisian images which are my fav, plus Frank has released some great hardware pieces and albums that you can decorate, the gatefold album is definitely a must do project this year so stay tuned for that one....
5. Wendy Vecchi New Embossing Powders
I think this is a product that you will definitely need to watch the video for to really appreciate what this product can do. Wendy's new powders are designed to work with her Archival ink colours and yes you use it with those inks - no special embossing ink pad needed. In the video below Wendy demonstrates how you can use these powders on all kinds of materials, including glass for a solid embossed effect that looks as though its been painted on, you got to check it out....
Well I think that has wrapped up our top picks from CHA this year. Make sure you watch the videos and start writing your 'Must Have' list now, I certainly have!
