Cut 'n Paste

Home from CHA

On Thursday I arrived back home after a busy 9 days in Los Angeles for the Craft & Hobby Association trade show. This year I was in charge of the booth set up. It was both exciting and a little nerve wracking to have this responsibility added to my plate, but I was pleased with how it looked, and more importantly, my boss was pleased with it too. I wish I had taken some photos of the booth to show you, but somehow I forgot. (Update, Jan. 22: My friend Karin has some photos on her blog of our booth. You can check them out here.) I always love the trade shows for the opportunity it gives us to talk to our current customers and meet new ones. How gratifying to have retailers who visit us year after year to bring the Melissa Frances product line into their stores.

After the show, I staying in LA for an extra day to enjoy a creative day with some friends. It was nice to be able to talk shop with others who 'get it' - and to have the opportunity to 'play' and fill my creative well. Dear Pam and I go way back to our days teaching at the Silver Bella event together and it was great to connect with her again. (For my scrapbooking readers, Pam will be participating in Project Life this year. I can't wait to follow her progress on it as she comes from a mixed media background and so will bring an interesting spin to it I'm sure.)

This weekend I didn't do much more than veg out on my couch, and recover from a tireing, but fun, trip.

CHA recap

Melissa and I ready and waiting a few minutes before the show opens on the first day.

Last week I was in Chicago for the Summer Craft and Hobby Association (CHA) trade show. CHA has two trade shows each year, one typically in January and one in July. The company I work with, Melissa Frances, exhibits at both of them. I wanted to share a little bit about our CHA process here as I often get asked what the shows are like.

Typically, Melissa, Brian and I fly in 2-3 days before the show starts in order to put our booth together. When we get to the show, our space is nothing but an empty shell with a concrete floor and fabric curtains partitioning one booth from the next. First, we unpack our containers and find our foam floor pieces and Melissa and I lay them down while Brian gets the walls unpacked, then he and I erect our slat walls. We have a method, and we can usually get it done in 2 hours or less.

Once the walls are up we attach our lights to them and connect everything to make sure that the electric works. Next, it's time for our signs, products and samples to go up on the walls. It's always a difficult balance as you don't want the product too low, or too high as it can affect sales, yet you also only have a limited amount of wall and a large product line to fit! While I work on the walls, Melissa typically works on staging a vignette or two for the front of the booth. This part of set-up typically takes us hours - longer of course in the winter show when we display nearly our entire product line.

Finally, we check to make sure that all product is priced and has a barcode as we use hand scanners when we take the orders.If items are missing their price stickers, we print them out so that we can slap them onto the products.

Once the show itself starts it is time to talk, talk, talk! We walk purchasers through the product lines, write up orders and take appointments with sales reps, distributors, editors, and event hosts. If we're lucky, we also try to take a brief walk about to meet friends who work in the industry and see what's new. This will typically only happen on the last day of the show, once most of the buyers have headed home.

As the clock winds down on the show, all that's left is tear-down. It takes us about 2-4 hours to carefully dismantle everything that took us 1-2 days to put together a few days before. Then, it's one last dinner to debrief before heading home the following morning.

So that's CHA for you. Short, intense and hard work. But I love it.

Here's a quick peek at our booth for the show I just attended last week:

Home from CHA

(Melissa and Carolyn. Photo courtesy of Sherrie Siemens)

I arrived home on Saturday afternoon from California where I attended the Craft and Hobby Association Trade Show. While I am feeling a bit run down from all the hard work, I am also energized from the customers, friends and collegues who came by our booth to place orders and visit.  As a company we had a great show and feel so blessed. Thank you so much! If you haven't already done so, I invite you to check out the following posts on the Melissa Frances blog to see more of our new product offerings: a few photos of our booth and samples, New home decor and giftware, Alphabits stickers, Attic Treasures Vol. 3, C'est la Vie Stickers, C'est la Vie.

Home from CHA Summer

 (Left to Right: Me, Brian, Melissa and Kim)

Last week saw me in Chicago with the Melissa Frances team for the Craft & Hobby Association Summer Trade show. Although attendance at these shows continues to drop, we were really pleased with the response to our new collection "Deck the Halls". As soon as the catalog featuring our new goodies goes live on the Melissa Frances website, I will post the link here so that you can check it out. I made a few projects for the show, most of which I no longer have as they were packed away with the booth. But I do have one here, so I will try to get it photographed to show you soon.

In the meantime, I do have more photos from our time in Israel to show you, so will try to get those posted as well ☺ I hope you've been enjoying your summer.

As I close, I want to send a big cyber hug to my sweet friends in Norway. I know that as a country you are going through such a difficult time right now. My thoughts and prayers go out to you.

So Thankful

(Photo courtesy of Jenny Doh)
 (Photo courtesy of Jenny Doh)

I arrived home on Thursday from LA, where I attended the Craft & Hobby Association trade show working the booth for my employer, Melissa Frances. You know, even after 8 years of shows, I still love attending them. I love seeing store owners (many of whom I also consider friends), friends who work with other companies, and the designers and editors who walk the show floor. For those of you who stopped by to say 'hi', or place an order, thank you SO much. I love what I do, and feel so blessed to be able to continue doing it ☺

The day after the show, my friends Paula,  Sande and I met with Amy and Jenny for a crash course in wire wrapping. Amy was a wonderful teacher, and since coming home I have been purchasing a few more supplies to make the necklaces I see in my head. I really need another hobby like a hole in my head (LOL), but I always find it so creatively refreshing to explore new creative ventures every once in awhile, so I'm going to enjoy tinkering around with jewelry for a bit and see what happens ☺

(By the way, the necklace I'm wearing in the top photo is one of Amy's amazing creations...so happy to share that it came home with me!)

Have a great day friends!

Time to Share...

 
Hi Friends, I am back home now and enjoying spending a few days with my family before leaving for the CHA Winter trade show on Thursday.  This week, I am so excited to finally share with you the result of months of design work for the Melissa Frances Creative Team.  We are so proud of our newest collections and hope you love them as much as we do.

Today, I wanted to show you a layout I made for the Melissa Frances catalog. Featuring the photos of my talented friend Holly Brimhall (who, by the way has just re-opened her photography business focusing on newborns - congrats girl!). This layout highlights the new additions to the popular Attic Treasures line from Melissa Frances. This show we have added new papers. embellishments and mini albums to the collection. Some of my favorite products are in this line, so it is definitely one to watch.  I've also used a small strip of patterned paper from the Vintage Posey line. (As always, you can click on the layout to see a larger version of it.) Check back for another sneak peek tomorrow!
 
 
(New Melissa Frances products on this layout: Ephemera Stickers, Die Cut, Patterned papers
Current Melissa Frances products on this layout: Resin corner embellishment, Pearls and Rhinestones, Crochet Lace)

PS - Check out the Melissa Frances blog here as our talented January guest artist, Jennifer Stewart, created a FABULOUS soldered pendent which she has generously offered as a giveaway on the Melissa Frances blog. Giveaway is open until Wednesday, so be sure to enter!!

Post CHA recap

  
If you came by the Melissa Frances booth at CHA, you may remember this layout from the booth. This layout is of my nephew Jason and features our 'Attic Treasures' line.

Supply list: Cardstock: brown, yellow and green: WorldWin Papers, blue (Baja Breeze) and red (riding hood red): Stampin' Up!, Patterned Papers - Thomas (PA090), Matilda (PA196), Clara (PA193), Alma (PA197): Melissa Frances, Stamps: Brocade: Baroque Stamp by Melissa Frances, Fancy Flourishes set (LL016): Hero Arts. Scalloped border punch: Stampin'Up!, Seasons Sticker: Date Prompt Cardstock sticker (PP07): Melissa Frances, 'Engine' Boy Flashcards (GN259): Melissa Frances  Other: Vintage buttons, kitchen string, versamark stamp pad (Tsukineko) , Baja Breeze stamp pad (stampin' Up!), clear embossing powder.    

I must admit that the Attic Treasures line is my favorite of the Melissa Frances CHA releases. I just love the concept behind it (aged neutrals) and the graphics - the chipboard embellishments and cardstock stickers are a combination of retro and Victorian images. Here's a little peek of a portion of the line:

 

However, my favorite new 'Attic Treasure' introductions are some of the more crafty embellishments. I am madly in love with our reproduction crepe paper. Seriously my friends, if you enjoy making vintage crafts/banners and you often use party streamers to create crepe paper florettes, you will be SO excited to see this product. This is a total reproduction of the vintage papers which can be difficult and/or expensive to find. It comes in a package of 4 colors; off white, pink, green and blue, and each piece is approximately 10x50 inches. It has the substantial feel that vintage crepe paper is known for. I can't wait to get this product at home here to play with. Patience Carolyn -haha!

I also love, love, love our new mica. It will be available in both a traditional off white and in soft pink and blue. I don't know about you, but I've never, ever seen colored mica. I even asked around at the show and to the best of my knowledge Melissa Frances is the first to offer it. Way to go Melissa! The collection rounds out with reproduction bottle brush trees in vintage white and pink (perfect for spring projects!), and aged tinsel. I don't have any samples of those products to show you :( I forgot to take photos of them while I was in the booth. I'm sure that somewhere images of these items have found their way online. If you have seen them, please leave a comment and let me know the link so that I can make it available here. And if you love these products as much as I do, please be sure to ask your local scrapbook/craft store to bring them in!!

Just because I work for Melissa Frances, doesn't mean that I don't use and/or find other companies products inspiring <smile>. We were blessed to have steady traffic at the show, so I only left the booth once, on the last day, in order to visit a few manufacturers whom we have working relationships with. However, I made a non-business related exception to stop at the booth of my friend Jenni Bowlin. Jenni's product line always speaks to me and it's a bonus that it complements the products we design at Melissa Frances so beautifully. Jenni once again had a fabulous release this show. I wanted to share one of her new products that really excited me. She introduced reproduction buttons with rhinestone centers. They were awesome, and with the exception of our product releases, which I happen to think are FABULOUS <smile>, Jenni's new buttons, were my (non-MF) pick of the show. So way to go sweet friend!
Here they are!
 

Hope you each have had a nice Monday. I'm looking forward to watching (my guilty pleasure) the Bachelor tonight!

ps- just saw the following post from Jenny Doh, the amazing editor over at Stampington publications.  Yes, it made my heart happy to get to use my French training as we had several French customers stop by during the show! Thanks for sharing Jenny :)  

Off to Chicago!

I've been scurrying around today trying to wrap up last minute things as I leave tomorrow for Chicago and the CHA trade show. We at Melissa Frances have some awesome product introductions. Our Christmas line this year, is my favorite yet...I can't wait to show it to you. After CHA, I will be taking a few days holiday with some treasured girl friends. Can't wait to share, dream, bounce ideas off, and be inspired by them. What a wonderful treat to look forward to. I can hardly wait.

For the CHA Melissa Frances product sneaks and peeks, please head over to the Melissa Frances blog where they'll soon be posting the latest for you. I won't be getting product images/samples up here until after the trade show.

The funny thing is that I've created a number of projects that will be posted here while I'm gone. You're going to hear more from me while I'm out of town than you have for the past two weeks while I've been at home! HA!

Enjoy this little sprig of lavender from my sweet momma's garden!

Home again!

Back home after a super quick trip to the LA area. Our fabulous company rep had a mini trade shows for her stores and so I was sent to host make and takes and write orders. I always love meeting stores, I was only sad that the time I was able to spend with each group of store owners was so short.  However, all in all it was a wonderful day and highly worthwhile. I was even able to meet some other Canadian gals who work for two other Canadian companies. Who knew it would take going to California to meet! (Hi Kelly!)

For those of you curious as to whether my chandelier was still at the antique store waiting for me....I'm sad to report that it wasn't. However, I found something else that I've been salivating after for many years. But I've never found one at a reasonable price. I'd take a photo to show it to you, but it's so large that I had to ship it home. I thought it might be fun to play a little game....put your guess of what large, antique item I might have bought, and I will send a prize pack with about $50 worth of scrapbooking goodies to whoever posts the correct answer first. If no one guesses it, I'll post a hint tomorrow.

CHA Summer 07

As you know, I was at the Craft & Hobby Association Summer trade show last weekend. It's been great to share the Melissa Frances new product sneak peeks on the blog and on-line galleries, but seeing clients and customers see and react to the products at a show is always exciting. A huge thank you goes out to those who came by the booth to see the new goods, purchase the MF line for their stores, or just visit. We love the chance to see friends, colleagues and make new friends. Although the hours are always long, the work (especially setting up!) physical, and the pressure is always high, I really enjoy the shows and having contact with stores and end users of our product line.

I know that I promised at CHA Winter that I would post photos of our new Melissa Frances booth, but I never got around to taking photos. So, I made sure that I not only brought my camera, but actually used it this time! Here's a little collage of our ultra-fine Melissa designed booth. My favorite things about the booth are:

• the slipcovered chairs (we have these at our make and take area too - and they have the Melissa Frances logo on embroidered on the back of them!).
• the antique white frames that we use to highlight products (Melissa had collected these from auctions over the years, and you wouldn't believe the deals she got on some of them!).
• our chandeliers - there are five of them in the booth and they always get compliments!

We are putting the final touches on our Melissa Frances August newsletter which will be highlighting our new products (some of which haven't been seen on any of these sneak peeks!). If you haven't signed up for our newsletter yet, you can do it here. It's free, informative and is filled with gorgeous featured projects!