Craft Month Marches on with CHA & the Designer Blog Hop

If you can’t see the flash gallery, please click here to view it on Flickr

The exciting buzz on the floor and the smell of glue and freshly printed-​paper in the air is really a defining moment at the beginning of each show. With a parade of bagpipes and the red carpet rolled out, CHA (Craft and Hobby Association) welcomes craft business members from all over the world to cele­brate and carry forth the serious business of crafting.

As a CHA designer member, I have been priv­i­leged to attend and show my art licensing and design work at five of the recent shows in Illinois and California. Each show has brought me unique insights on trends and intro­duces me to new products and techniques.

The connec­tions I have made with fellow creative crafters, editors and manu­fac­turers has always been the most enduring part of each trip. It is always good to connect with new and old friends in their booths, whether they are promoting craft kits, ribbons and embell­ish­ments, art books, yarns, glues or an art licensing port­folio! I have formed rela­tion­ships through this orga­ni­zation that will probably continue as long as I pursue my artistic career. Many of these dear friends are also on this blog hop. I truly hope you will take the oppor­tunity to check them out!

I thought it would be fun to share with you snap­shots from my various CHA events. As you can probably tell, each show is a wealth of encour­aging inspi­ration and friendship that follows me home to my studio and moti­vates me to gear up for the next one.

Q.&A. Time | What are your thoughts?

• Have you been to a CHA show? What is your favorite memory?
• Have you always wanted to go? What are you looking forward to?

I look forward to hearing from you.

–Cherish