Each year, I attend the Craft and Hobby Association Trade Show and Conference. If you’ve been reading my blog (and my old one prior to this one) you’ll know I’ve been doing this for the past six years and it’s a big part of my life every year. I always attend the winter show, as it’s the largest and the easiest for me to get to because it’s in California.
This is the first year I will be attending the summer CHA show in Chicago. I really hadn’t of planned on it, but when the head honchos made the theme mixed-media, there was no way I could stay away. This is the first time since I’ve been attending CHA that the art genre so near and dear to my heart has been spotlighted. They are calling it “Craft Fusion” (sigh); The Selling Power of Mixed Media (yay, for the second part!). Obviously the editorial comments in parenthesis are mine opinion.
I feel this is going to be a great 5 days. I’ve been asked and also lined up a number of promotional opportunities. Here’s a schedule of events:
Monday July 18th (educational program day) is will be participating in the Designer Roundtable Discussions where I’m moderating one of the tables. My topic, from 9-10 a.m. is “Catching an Editor’s Attention”. I will be talking about things that designers can do to get recognized by editors, as well as telling some of the things that people inadvertently do that turn them off quickly.
Also on Monday I will be meeting up with my friend and artist extraordinaire Claudine Hellmuth where we will be putting together our mixed media dress for the CHA Crafty Couture display. Neither of us sew so we have something really interesting planned. Pics and video to come next week. The display is being co-sponsored by the fabulous Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine so the best six (as chosen by attendees) will be featured in an upcoming magazine issue.
Tuesday at 5 p.m. and again Thursday at noon, I will be hosting the “Minute to Craft It” crafting contest. Remember the old tv show Craft Corner Death Match? Well, this is CHA’s version of the show. Three audience participants will come on stage and have 10 minutes to create a mixed media project using the inspiration project (created by moi) as a starting point. The winner gets a Teresa Collins Stampmaker by Photocentric. Other participants leave with cool prizes too that are generously donated by various craft manufacturers. My job: to be silly and funny and informative. Can I do it? (wink).
Tuesday I will be shooting my very own QR tag to add to my written promotional material and for a secret project coming up. I am jazzed about doing with WCK On The Spot. I wrote my most recent column on this for CreateMixedMedia.com and will link to it as soon as it publishes.
Wednesday from 1-1:30 p.m.
, I’m meeting up with Elena Lei Etcheverry and Charity Wings to do an interview and give away lots of fun ICE Resin goodies, including some necklaces I’m making specifically for their live-streaming event. I met Elena Lei at this year’s Winter show and immediately fell in love with her sweet personality and her passion for helping raise funds for hardworking non-profits. There is still time to sign up for the event, I believe, so check it out.
Now that I have my new iPhone, I plan to do plenty of Facebooking and Twittering at the Show. I’ll be doing it from my Facebook Fan Page at Jen Cushman Artist. My Twitter account is just JenCushman, so please sign up to follow me. I plan to take lots of pictures to upload to both social media sites too.
