Craft & Hobby Association Mega Show 2015 part 1

Now that I am mostly over the yearly cold the seems to lurk the halls of CHA, it is that time of year: my CHA Trade Show recap! CHA, otherwise know as the Craft and Hobby Association, has a Mega Trade Show every January, full of all kinds of wonderful arts and crafts manufacturers, demos, classes, meet and greets, designer showcases and new trends!

Since I am proudly part of their design team, this year Amazing Casting Products/Alumilite Corp. asked me to create some food samples using their new product Amazing Remelt and to do demos at their booth! My friend Jami Poe Bostjancic, a talented cake designer, taught me some of the ins and outs of fondant. As she noted, working with fondant has some similarities to polymer clay. I decided to make a sun and moon for a mini cake, mushrooms on a cinnamon and brown sugar cupcake, chocolate bunny and mini presents all out of fondant for the requested samples.

Fondant can easily be pushed into Amazing Remelt molds and then quickly popped out onto a cold cutting board to dry. Here I have prepped and readied my molds to be packed to go to CHA.

As per the website: “Amazing Remelt is a Non Toxic, 1-part reusable mold making material for room temperature or low exotherm materials. Amazing Remelt softens at 120°F and becomes liquid at 135°-140°F. It can be remelted and reused to make new molds time and time again. Ideal for making molds for smaller items such as jewelry, embellishments, and chocolate molds.”

I assisted Susan M. Brown, Amazing Casting Products Design Team Leader and awesome artist in her own right, in assembling the Amazing Casting Products Hot Product display. I was able to take some photos of the display before the end of booth set up on the Friday before the show.

Susan brought some awesome little signs and clips from Deflecto, which helped hold up and highlight signs and info about the Amazing Remelt. I seriously need to buy some of the Deflecto Craft Organizers and Sustainable Office products now that I know they work so well.

On Sunday the Craft and Hobby Association had a awesome gala event where they donated funds to charities and announced the winners of the Hot Product Categories! Amazing Casting Products/Alumilite Corp won Hot Product in Cake and Food Decorating at CHA for Amazing Remelt!

The Amazing Casting Products booth had all kinds of samples of what one can do with their products. Depending on the day they had different samples and demos, from bracelets, pizza cutters, pens, plates and more! Now that Amazing Clear Cast Resin has received FDA certification, meaning it’s food safe, you can even make plates and bowls from their resin!

President of Alumilite Mike Faupel, wanted to make sure all the samples were easy to see, pick up and handle to showcase the versatility of the products.

I did afternoon demos at the booth of my push molds such as those seen in my CHA Sneak Peak Post.

This year I wanted to make a booth display that was a little different. I started with vintage cabochon molds and used layers of Amazing Clear Cast Resin and Alumilite Metallic Powders, glitter and rhinestones. Each little cabochon was a mini galaxy piece that I wanted to attach to a gown.

I first started creating a caftan but I wasn’t happy with the look, so I saved the fabric for another project and rummaged through my collection of thrift store finds. I found a red glittery gown that had seen better days. I made some alterations, changing the straps, fitting and how the gown would drape. I slowly glued on each cabochon with 36000 and rhinestones with Gem-Tac, as suggested by my stunningly talented cousin Kathleen Rojas, owner of Oso Rojo Costumes.

With the addition of a cape, and making necklace my “Cosmic Radiation” gown went on on display at the Amazing Crafting Products/Alumilite Corp booth.

I was so happy with how the resin and inclusions sparkled under the bright trade show lights!

Come back later for Craft & Hobby Association Mega Show 2015 post, part 2!

Until Next Time, Safe Travels!