Trends, techniques and trade show talk at CHA

 Looking forward to today when the show opens. The sneak peaks have been out and you can check Nancy Nally's blog at http://www.scrapbookupdate.com: but, seeing things in person adds such a nice element to the reveals. It will be fun to see what designers are doing with the product, too.
Yesterday was a day of learning about trends and how those apply to the craft industry vs fashion, home decor, etc. and how crafting is influenced by trends in other industry.
Using social media in business was the topic at lunch and my day was rounded out with a panel discussion of DIY and a great class on decorative lettering which featured Tombow markers http://www.tombowusa.com and Peerless watercolor dry sheets http://www.peerlesscolor.com Both of these supplies have beautiful transparent qualities and are such portable convenience. I will need to play more and see if I can post designs I come up with. I think these will work well in my cards, mixed media and scrapbooking. Joanne Sharpe is a great teacher and I can easily recommend her to anyone looking for an instructor for classes on lettering, journaling or watercolor graphics.  Everyone in the class made their own creation, and I learned in the DIY class that classes where people learn techniques and get guidance to make their own design are more satisfying and successful than ones where you make a cookie cutter duplicate of  a class sample. I will vouch that is very true from that real life experience of the day.
Today, I will be looking to see not only what is available in the market (and we can hope that some of the best gets purchased by our local scrapbook stores); but, also how trends are influencing how some of the products are used. After all, some companies are producing staples in the industry, like Tombow and Peerless do, and we want to know new ideas for using these products in our designs.
So, my main objective today will be to not get overwhelmed by all the eye candy and attemp to get some nitty gritty observations. It may be too much to hope for, as this is a trade show where companies need to go all out to attract savvy business folk to buy their product to in turn sell to folk like you and me. A non-business person like myself is easily swept up in it all. Still, designers need to be analtical. I'll do my best.