CHA Recap

Hi everyone!  

Back to work today after a long trip to CHA in Anaheim and a family wedding this weekend. 

We had a really wonderful time at CHA, from setting up to tearing down.  I will start with a few pictures from our trip to Disney for Tim's birthday and then on to an in-depth look at the steps involved in setting the Idea-ology booth.

I will admit it right here.  I have not been to Disneyland in probably 15 years so this was a fun experience for me.  Thanks Mario and Tim for the invite!

I love the Tea Cup ride...needless to say, when you ride in the same cup with Tim he may just be taking your picture.  

Glad he did.

 The group!

We ended the night with one last celebration at Naples Restaurant in Downtown Disney.  Is that a pizza or what?  What a great way to spend a birthday with friends!

 And now on to the show!

Day 1: January 8th
We arrived on the showroom floor about 2:00.  The booth floor and walls were set that morning and girls from Advantus (our distributor) had already unpacked the props from the crates. It's a lot of boxes!

 

You might notice the white walls at the back of the booth.  Tim had them painted over when the booth was still in Florida so he could paint and glaze them here at the show.

You can see the girls still unpacking props from ONE of the large crates and someone working on the booth lighting up on top.  Mario is working on social media and Tim is getting ready to start painting.

Tim mixed the paint and glaze together in a small bucket.  Richele painted the wall and Tim spread it out with a rag to get the effect he wanted.  I just had to stand back to point out any bad spots and quickly wipe up any drips on the flooring.  The whole process to paint the two small walls took about 30 minutes.  People might not notice the subtle difference but it does look much better than the flat painted walls we had before.

 Someone should have worn gloves....

We had to let the walls dry of course, so we moved back to organizing the props.  Cameras together, pins together, books, cages, bottles, etc.  We also separated out small props for the windows which will be the main feature in Idea-ology, as well as props for the Stella and Sizzix booths.  Lots of things to consider when looking at the stacks of items.  I will be honest, we never know where props will end up at when we start.  Even if we look at pictures from past shows, it never turns out the same.  I think that's part of the fun.

 To set the booth, we start by splitting up the props between the sides of the booth.  Tim always helps us prop the top shelf which is really a 3 person job.   One person on the decking and a couple people to hand props up to that person.  It really is a team effort.

In this shot, you can see the newly painted wall and the "foundation" of the Idea-ology signage.  Some props have been placed on the the lower shelf, but that is just a start to the layering process.

 On the right side of the booth, Rana and Tracey have already hung all the Idea-ology product.  Again, we have the "foundation" pieces of the upper shelf in place, ready for day two of the layering process.

You might have noticed that we did work on the cart of suitcases and cages.  Since our new paper is called Wallflower, which includes birds on a couple papers, we decided to include the cages amongst the suitcases to support the paper images.  And with that, we are done with day 1 of set up.  I admit we were so excited at how far we had come in just a few hours time!

Day 2: January 9th
Today is all about the second layer of props and a third layer of greenery and twigs.  The greenery is always stored in a metal shopping cart (used for giveaways during the show)...it's easy to roll it out of the crate and even easier to transport foliage around the booth.

Today, Richele, Debbie and I worked on the upper shelf as Tim had to work in the Ranger booth.  One person has to be on the decking and one person on the ground to decide on placement of the prop.  We think about shape and size and color of each object before it is placed and in the end, it is up to the person on the ground to make the final decision if the prop works or not since being 5 feet away is better than being inches away.  These girls are always so willing to "make it work".

 

 The famous windows arrived and were unpacked by Mario and Chelle. 

They really were a labor of love by Mario who worked on the finish and the chicken wire and Art who made the shelves.  My husband Jay cut 12 panels for the empty spots, painted half with chalkboard paint and wrapped the other half with burlap to make pin boards.  Once again, team effort.

Time to hang the chandeliers over the cart of suitcases.  You might also notice the wall panels of bugs in the background.  Each show we pick one of the new papers to be blown up and printed, to cover the white walls at the back of the booth. 

The following pictures were taken on day three - we're done!
 Up close on the left side -

 Up close on the right side -

Well, this has turned into quite a long post.  I think I'll save the rest of the finished booth for tomorrow and maybe a little give away too!  You knew I couldn't come home empty handed!

By the way, Tim wrote a wonderful re-cap of all the booths on his blog here.  Please be sure to stop by and check it out, along will all the video clips that go over the new products. 
carry on,
paula