More from CHA

Wow, I think my MM card did me in so I'll have to post a few more CHA pix that have been sent by some friends. Maria and I had a ball running around the trade show. She is also a Custom Crops Designer and she and Natalie have just completed a fabulous Cricut video. There will be more on that later and it will be available for preorder on the Custom Crops website SOON! In the meantime you can view the trailer Here. WooHoo! Here we are with Tim Holtz and our autographed Texture fades. Stay tuned. These may just be coming up at blog candy one of these days since I already own them ALL!

I'm sure you all have seen tons of pix by now of the ProvoCraft Gala. What an amazing time and how excited was I to be receiving one of the new Cricut Imagine machines! Here I am with the whole Custom Crops Crew (Susan, Amy, Patty, Maria, Me, Kelly and Libby). (How embarrassing to be in front like that but honestly, they made me move because we didn't all fit. Yikes! Now I remember why I'm sooo glad we don't have humidity. Sure does a number on the hair!)

Here's a group of us at the Cricut Cricle Breakfast. Maria, Susan, Melanie, myself and Diane. Thanks Joy for taking the pic! I was also especially excited to meet my dear blogging friend Audrey in person! Wish my camera had been in commission so I could have had a pic. HeeHee, she's a midget like me!

Friday and Saturday was the Super Show. Here's the retail portion of the Custom Crops Booth. Didn't it turn ou fabulous? We also had a demo area, a DVD preview area, Robyn (My Pink Stamper) and her BFF Carly , and the Make and Take area which was my home for the 2 days.

I really think I had the best job because I was able to meet so many wonderful crafters and even some friends from the Cricut mb and the sweetest gal who had made my purse card from the Custom Crops website. So sorry I don't exactly remember your name hon, I'm having a senior moment. LOL I know it begins with a "T" and it was so sweet of you to come back on Sunday to take a pic with me since I'd missed you on Saturday. Had to laugh because Aprile (Chirpin'Is Fun) sat there for a long time without realizing I was there. Lots of big hugs when she recognized me! And Rheba (DazyCutr) drove all the way from Tennessee to attend. I was so happy I was able to take a break with her and spend some time. This is Susan Edwards (also a Custom Crops Designer as well as BBTB2 sister) and I helping with the Make and Takes. (We're way back in the corner.)

Wow were Susan and I thrilled to meet fellow BBTB2 Designers Krista Norman and Penny Shuberg in person. They are the sweetest Mom and Daughter EVER! BTW, Susan also has a fabulous DVD called It's a Kid's life with 18 fabulous layouts begining with Back to School. You can have a sneak peek HERE and order it right on her blog just in time to start your child's school year off right. So that's about it for today unless you want to pop over to Haunted Design House for Fiendishly Fun Friday to see the faux tattoo I got at the Cricut gala and the seriously KILLER shoes my DH bought me. Let's just say we're keeping the THRILL alive! HeeHee!

Finally the BBTB2 Blog Hop Winner and some CHA Pix

Sorry for the delay, folks. I didn't get home until 5:00pm (Ca time) on Sunday night and CHA took more out of me than I thought. Although I was hot to craft yesterday I was a bit overwhelmed with my goodies and poor DH ( and the kitties) needed some attention. I managed to get some pix off my camera and also some sent by friends. The Trade Show opens each year with a parade of Bagpipers winding their way through the aisles. I happen to love bagpipes so this really adds to the excitement for me.

ProvoCraft always dominates both the Trade and Consumer Shows with a huge space and demos and make and takes for their products. Plenty of giveaways throughout the day as well. There was lots of excitement! Of course you all know by now that the new machine that both cuts and prints is called the Imagine.

Besides working with the regular Cricut cartridges there will be separate Imagine cartridges with images but also with colors and prints that can be applied to your cut selections with very professional looking results. It is my understanding that ProvoCraft has gone into partnership with Cosmo Cricket for both the cut and print designs for some of these first carts and they are ADORABLE! I think they will be working with other paper manufacturers as well.

For those of you worrying about the designs being too flat, (including me!), you also have the option of cutting and printing each layer of an image individually. Above are some of the examples scattered around the booth. This will be quite an investment with the new machine MSRP at $599 and the ink cartridges running at $34.99 for black and $39.99 for the color array. They did assure us that they would last from 50 to 100 full sheets of printed paper (which I really don't think anyone will do) so hopefully they will last a goood long time when printing just the images you select. There will also be new mats with better stick which will work in both the regular Expression and the Imagine and retail the same as the current mats. The difference besides the improved adhesive will be black lines that the Imagine will use for orientation for the printing/cutting feature.

I have more pix and will post throughout the week, but I wanted to do my long awaited drawing for the BBTB2 Blog Hop. (Finally, huh?)

AND THE WINNER of the $30.00 Custom Crops gift voucher IS

# 4 Jessica Wekenman. WOOHOO JESSICA!

Please email me at dlmundinger (at) yahoo (dot)com to arrange for your prize. Thanks so much to everyone for participating and for hanging in there. I hope to get some crafting done today, perhaps using some of the goodies I picked up at CHA.