CHA Revisited

Hello my wonderful friends!  Welcome to the official kick-off of the Designer Crafts Blog Connection.  As I have mentioned previously, this fantastic group has been born from the Sizzix Blog Hop that was held this past fall.  Many of the designers from that group...along with a few new faces...expressed a desire to remain linked together.  So here we are!

Today is particularly exciting for two reasons.  First,  it is the first coordinated effort of the group to provide you all with some really great content!  Second, for this blog hop we have a giveaway!  That giveaway is a Cricut Expression!!!  To enter to win is simple.  Nine (9) blogs contain the Cricut Logo somewhere on their blog.  All you need to do is post the names of all 9 blogs into the comment section of Julie McGuffe's  blog and you will be entered to win.  The name of the lucky winner will be announced on March 13th...which happens to be our next coordinated Hop date.  

     

So, back to our Blog Hop topic!  When you hop along the circle today, you will see all sorts of information about CHA.  There will be lots of pictures.  Everyone will be posting about all the cool stuff they did and saw and heard at CHA Winter show.  I have already done quite a bit of blogging about the show, so I am approaching it from a little bit of a unique angle.

What I especially noticed at CHA Winter wasn't so much all the great product.  It was something that I was especially in tune with this show...

...and that was Designer presence!  Practically everywhere I turned, you were reminded of the strong Designer section presence at the show.  It was amazing to see!  Of course, Designers have always been active participants at CHA, but in my 4 short years here, I have seen that grow by leaps and bounds.  It makes me very proud to be a member of such an important and influential group.

Here are some ways I enjoyed seeing the Designer Section make their mark on CHA Winter:

During the Welcome Event of the first day of show, a group of CHA Designers (me included) had their art canvases displayed.  These canvases went into a silent auction for the Kids in Need Foundation.

Me and Marisa Pawelko....Marisa generously coordinated the designers and projects  donated to the auction.

This is the Designer's Craft Studio.  Here, designers created and displayed projects using certain craft projects in new and innovative ways.  Then, each designer had a demonstration time.

Designer Craft Studio had 24 participants.  This diplay had their pictures and demo times on 3 sides!

Display case at Craft Studio.

Another group of designers donated projects for auction to another very worthy cause.  These projects were displayed in the main hall...

Of course, everywhere I went, Designers were working!  They were working in booths, demoing, interviewing, doing make and takes, doing book signings, taping shows!  It was quite a site!  Way to go Designer Section!

Even I was busy doing demos!

Sue Kelsey was at Makin's Clay.

Rebekah Meiers was at Simplicity.

Laura Bray was doing Make and Takes for When Creativity Knocks at Craftwell.

Ken Oliver was working at Unibind.

Laura Bray and Cindi Bisson were doing Make and Takes for When Creativity Knocks at Elmer's.  

Of course, our celebrity designers were working just as hard...

Suede was at Simplicity to promote his new, awesome line of dress patterns.  He was signing them for the masses.  He also made an appearance at Craftwell.

Mark Montano was signing copies of his new book, Pulp Fiction, at several booths at the show.  I caught up with him at Design Originals.

 The Designer Section Members are more than just creative...we are also business savvy!  We are a very organized and coordinated bunch.  Here we are conducting our Designer Section Meeting.

Ann Butler, Lorine Mason, Svetlana Kunina....and I got part of Tiffany Windsor, too!

 A big part of the show is the Designer Showcase, which is open to editors, publishers and manufacturers.  Forty-nine designers participated in this event!  CHA promoted us through the show catalog and signage like this one...

 

Here I am with my display.  I set up in the weeeeee hours of the morning because I was so busy working.

Carla Schauer and Jen Goode not only participated in the Designer Showcase, but they had a booth in the License and Design Section as well.

When all the work was done and we cleaned up our art supplies....it was really just great to see my colleagues, many of whom I am proud to call friends!

Cindi Bisson

Suzann Sladcik Wilson

Roxi Phillips, Beth Watson, Suzann Sladcik Wilson, Vicki O'Dell and Laura Bray.

 Hope you enjoyed seeing how the Designers spend time at the show and this little revisit of CHA Winter.

Now hop forward....and don't forget to look for those Cricut logos!  There are 9.

Artfully yours,
Theresa