The top Trends at CHA Mega Show

Imagine a massive building that is nothing but crafting. Anyone who’s anyone is in this room.  Any new hot crafting toy that’s coming out in the next year is available to play with.  The Craft and Hobby Association Mega show is the perfect place for crafters, marketers, and companies to meet and do business.  It’s also a mammoth convention.  I would on occasion get a little turned around on the floor – because it is so freaking huge!  After walking the floor a few times and looking at all the booths I began to see patterns and similarities among them.  So here are the trends that I spotted at CHA!

1. Gold is good.

It’s also everywhere. Silver is practically nonexistent. Gold is strong and is being used as a neutral in a lot of designs.

2 All that glitters isn’t gold.

There is a lot of sparkle. Think glitter, think crystals, think foil. Lots of sparkliness going on.

3. The color palette remains bright and airy.

Lots of white space mixed with bright colors tended to be the look in the big company’s booths. scotch washi tape.

4. Bring on the layers.

Lots of mixed media was popular and lot of flat graphics put into physical layers to add depth. 

5. This is the year that you can see your name in lights.

Marque light have hit the mainstream. Heidi Swapp has these kits that I gaurantee will be popular with DIY and design blogs, given how easy they are to put together. I saw several other booths that incorporated a Marquee into the design of their booth. 

6. Vintage has gone classic.

The vintage shabby chic look isn’t going anywhere. The mixture of sparkle, lace and vintage items is very strong.

7. The chalkboard look is on it’s way out.

The chalkboard look is rapidly disappearing from the crafting scene. From what I could see the big brands don’t have anything new coming out using the chalkboard look. It will further decrease this year – it might even be completely gone come 2016.

8. Look for these shapes.

Popular shapes for this year are flower shapes, as well as circular fans, structured bows and pinwheels and boxes.

I really enjoyed walking around the trade show floor and seeing everyone’s creativity come into play. There are some incredible designers in the industry that come up with some beautiful projects. I was truly awed by the amazing designs I saw.  What so you think will be a trend this year?  I’d love to know what you think!