The Creativation 2018 trade show was held in Phoenix last weekend. I’ll give you a glimpse of what I saw there, and what you might expect to see in stores in the upcoming months.
This post contains affiliate links, which may provide me a bit of income but don’t cost you anything.
The show started with a bang, literally, as a group of energetic drummers opened the show floor.
What is Creativation?
This cute sweater was in the Red Heart booth.
Creativation is the trade show for the craft industry. This is where craft buyers, from both small and large stores, come to see what’s new and to purchase product for the upcoming seasons. Put on by the Association for Creative Industries (AFCI), it combines business and craft education with exhibitor booths for a very full weekend of activity.
Unlike the show put on by The National Needlearts Association (TNNA), which is going on this weekend in Las Vegas and focuses on the Needlearts industry, Creativation includes all aspects of craft. In addition to the yarn booths, there is paper crafting and scrapbooking, art journaling, woodworking, sewing, rubber stamping, mixed media and probably lots of other crafts that I can’t remember!
As tempting as it was to do Make & Takes at every booth (Stamping! Gluing! Cricutting!), I tried to focus on the yarn.
The Yarn
I started at the Red Heart booth. Red Heart has lots of exciting new products, some of which aren’t even in stores yet. You can find some of the yarns now, and I’m pretty excited about them:
Chic Sheep by Marly Bird, a 100% superwash merino that comes in lots of yummy saturated colors. You’ll be sure to see some designs from me in this yarn in the upcoming months.
Hygge is another new yarn with lots of possibilities. As always, Red Heart had lots of pattern support (meaning patterns in the yarn), so you won’t be at a loss of what to knit and crochet with it.
Pompoms were in evidence everywhere. Bernat/Yarnspirations had a pompon wreath. At the Craft Yarn Council booth, all weekend there was a mob of people making pompoms.
Lion Brand had a huge bright booth of beautiful yarn. One of their new ones is Feels Like Butta!, a super-soft baby yarn. I also met yarn artist London Kaye, who has some interesting new crochet products coming soon. (In other words, be on the lookout for them, but I think they are still somewhat secret!)
Premier Yarn had an awesome yarn-bombed yogi and a nice new color-changing acrylic called Luna DK. I’m swatching with it right now; if you are taking my Reimagining Ripples class at Stitches West, you’ll see the finished project.
The Surprise Prize
The highlight of the show for me was winning a prize!. I put my business card into a drawing at the Arkon Mounts booth and was absolutely thrilled when I was notified that I had won a prize package that included an overhead camera mount, and other useful items which will make it much easier for me to produce videos.
I’d gush more about it now, but I’m on vacation and want to be able to give it my proper attention in its own blog post. For now, check out the Arkon Mounts website and, if you see something you love, order it and use the code “edieeckman” to get 10% off your order.
The People
Linda Dean and Jessie Rayot yuck it up with Marly Bird.
My favorite part of any trade show is talking to a diverse group of people, with a common interest: our industry. This show was no different. I attended panels presented by Tamara Kelly (of Moogly), Jessie Rayot (Jessie at Home), Kathy Lashley (ELK Crochet) and Marie Segares (Underground Crafter). I went to a networking event and learned about new products and new affiliate opportunities with various brands.
The Take Away
In the end, I wasn’t able to resist crafting. I sat down at a Make and Take table, picked up the Dremel tool, and made myself a nice reminder of my visit to Phoenix.
Wow, that’s an awesome prize! Thanks for the shout out and it was nice to see you in the audience!
Wow! That looks amazing!!