I just returned from the Craft and Hobby (CHA) Winter Trade Show in Anaheim, CA, in the Convention Center next door to Disneyland. It was great seeing lots of new and fun products as well as lots of friends. I attended several of the educational seminars that were packed with information. I took so many pictures (almost 300), so I have bunches of photos to go through so I can post them (much less than the 300) and  show you the things that caught my attention.

But I want to go ahead and post a link to one of the fun events of the trip. I, along with my friend Karen Embry, participated in a flash mob dance “She’s Crafty” before the opening of the show. It was organized by CharityWings.org to earn money for charity and the flash mob consisted of almost 100 artists, designers, business owners and more. It was my first flash mob but I was enjoying the moment and kept forgetting to count the dance steps.

Please check back soon to see my photos from CHA of new products, great displays, and more.

Phyllis

I’m really looking forward to attending CHA, the trade show for the Craft and Hobby Association for a few days and as well as the warm weather in Anaheim, CA.  I always love attending this show to see new products, take the educational seminars, and for the exciting atmosphere of the show.

I’m excited about the seminar The New Dynamics of Art Licensing that I along with Brenda Pinnick and Karen Embry will be teaching while we are in Anaheim. We have been really focused in putting the seminar together with some great information.  (You can click on the NDAL button in the sidebar to see more on what is being offered.)

At CHA, I will be working for Gutermann, so you can find me in their booth most of the time.  I’ve always loved the beautiful Gutermann threads and am delighted to be working with them.  So if  you are attending CHA, please stop by and say “hi”.

The Designer Showcase  is having a change in the format this year, focusing more on what the designers can do for a company.  I’ve always exhibited in the Designer Showcase and had been giving a lot of thought to my showcase this year. Then it just all finally  came together in a mental snap so all I had to do was gather up things I wanted to use and do a little printing. This year, it will also be open to everyone, except for non-CHA members.

I will be involved in something else at CHA that is really fun, but I can’t talk about it yet. But I can mark it off my bucket list. So you will have to check back to find out what this is – it will be videoed and out there for the world to see.  I just have to make sure I don’t mess up, but it will be among friends.  Speaking of friends, that’s another reason I love to attend CHA – to catch up with friends, network, and gab a little.

Check back and stay tuned – I may come back with a little gossip, or not (probably not). But I will have lots of photos of new products, great displays, splashes of fun and splashes of color.

Phyllis

If you are planing to take the next important step to expand your creative endeavors into licensing of your art, design or products, then this seminar is not to be missed! “The New Dynamics of Art Licensing” seminar will deliver  straight forward, honest advise, insight and tips for succeeding in licensing. The playing field for licensing has changed drastically over the past few years and this seminar will give you the information you need to overcome these challenges that will save you time and money.

“The New Dynamics of Art Licensing“, presented by Brenda Pinnick, Karen Embry and myself, encompassess the extensive knowledge from over 50 cumulative years of experience in art licensing, product design and licensing and exhibiting in major trade shows. The wealth of information that we will share will prove invaluable for your career.

In addition, we will be offering an optional “add-on” for a consult, a review of your portfolio and a look at our own portfolios that we show our clients, tailored to YOUR needs.

WHEN – Saturday, January 28, 6:30 – 8:30, portfolio review/consult scheduled individually.

WHERE – Anaheim, CA,  Annabella Hotel, Azalea Room (next to the Hilton)

Seats are limited, so book early!  We want to see you there.  For more information and details of all that we will be covering in this information packed seminar, follow the link – The New Dynamics of Art Licensing.

Invest in your business! And if you have any questions, please contact me.

Phyllis

The International Quilt Market is the most beautiful trade show I attend. It is so visually stimulating with all the wonderful colors of fabrics, quilts and all the related products. I just returned from the fall trade show in Houston and want to share my thoughts, experiences and photos with you. I must warn you, I used my new iPhone  camera and loved it so much, I kept snapping away so I have tons of photos to share with you and will divide them into multi posts.

After arriving on Friday, the first event I attended was a mixer that night, Fabric 2.0, organized by Caroline Devoy of J. Caroline Creative (and sponsored by CHA, Stashbooks, Michael Miller Fabrics, Modkid, JCaroline Creative, and Andover Fabrics). As you can see, it was well attended (and fun).

I just love colorful furniture and fell in love with this sewing machine cabinet in bright green by Arrow Sewing Cabinets. This will really brighten a sewing room or studio and make sewing and quilting even more fun. The chair cushion raises up for a storage area underneath it. And we all know that there’s no such thing as too much storage. This one also comes in white and the chair comes in bright pink and oak.

Wooly Lady has the most gorgeous artisan wool fabrics, dyed one yard at a time with painterly colors.  They also carry fabulous kits for wool applique and rug hooking with contemporary to classic and elegant to whimsical designs.

Please check out Wooly Lady’s website for their line of kits, they are just beautiful to look through.

Quilting Treasures‘ booth was filled with new wonderful fabrics.  J Wecker Frisch, a very talented artist, has both a Halloween and a Christmas collection.  I love her snowmen chefs below in her Baker’s Dozen collection. They are so warm and inviting with Christmas cheer!

Her Halloween fabric collection, Creepers Peepers is beautiful and has a wonderful vintage appeal.

Debra Jordan Bryan has a new Christmas fabric for Quilting Treasures as well, Let It Snow, created in her wonderful whimsy style. The blue color really pops with this fabric. All of these holiday fabrics will be out next year in plenty of time for sewing and quilting.

Clover Needlecraft, Inc. had a demo in their booth of their needle felting tools using wool roving. This is one technique I haven’t tried yet, due only to my time constraints.  I love wool felting and have it high on my to do list.  Look at the felted items behind the demo on the booth wall – bags, butterfly and hats! They were gorgeous! Clover also had some new Wonder Clips to clip and hold or clip and sew that you can see on their website.

I  have been a Kaffe Fassett fan for years and have a collection of his books. I started with his beauitful needlepoint books and have continued with his quilt books. His booth is an explosion of the beautiful, wonderful colors of his fabrics for Westminster Fabrics.  Check out the chair!

Below, Kaffe is sewing on a quilt with his new book on the table in front of him.

I love buttons and know a lot of you do too. I don’t know what it is about buttons, but you can’t have too many!  I have big jars, small jars, tins, and drawers of buttons, some vintage and some new, and keep buying more. And I bought more at Market. So you can see why I visited Dusty’s Vintage booth. There were sooooooo many buttons, and these pictures just show a small part of the buttons they have.

The Ogier Trading Company booth was beautiful with all the hand-dyed yarns for needle arts, embellishments and doll hair.  The yarn assortments consists of wool, alpaca, cotton, mohair and silk fibers.

Pearl Louise, of Pearl Louise Designs, is a delightful person as well as talented designer of patterns and fabrics (Troy fabrics). I always enjoy visiting with her at Market and seeing her latest designs. Below, Pearl is standing in front of her newest Block of the Month Quilt featuring her fabrics. Pearl is known for her delightful block of the month quilt patterns.

Leilani Arts, has exotic yarns, fibers, textiles and beads. You can see how luscious their silks are.  I love the vest of woven silk strips and can visualize the strips used for quilts as well.

Luscious, luscious………

Suzanne McNeill of Design Originals (Fox Chapel Publishing) was showing how easy it is to sew Zentangle type designs for quilts with the new book “Zen-Sational, Stitches for Quilting”. Although it looks like it would be hard to sew Zentangles, Suzanne showed how easy it really is. Really easy! I love drawing with the Zentangle technique and can’t wait to try it for sewing.

Meg Hannan’s Fabric Jewels creates the most amazing and beautiful fabric jewelry in her Rag Sky Art Studio.  Yes, the jewelry is really made from fabric with beads and other embellishments.  She uses a special technique to make this unique jewelry.  You can see more of her jewelry as well as galleries that carry her art jewelry on her website – its a beautiful site so check it out. And congratulations on Meg for celebrating 25 years of Fabric Jewels!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my view of Quilt Market so far.  I still have lots more to show you from market as well as photos from the quilt exhibits. Walking the quilt exhibits is like walking an art museum as they are really works of art. Please check back.

Phyllis

The exhibitors at the Summer CHA Trade show showcased some really cool products and displays in spite of the heat outside!  I attended the Craft and Hobby tradeshow which was held in Chicago during July and had a delightful time checking everything out.  The focus of the summer show is scrapbooking and all the papers and products that go with creating anything with paper.

Amazing paper dresses have been created for Paper Runways in past shows and this show hosted a Crafty Couture Runway featuring dresses made with mixed media.  Two displays featured 18 dresses with the 6 winning entries to be featured in Coth Paper Scissors magazine.

Julie Fei-Fan Balzer‘s dress won “fan favorite” with her fabulous dress of art journaling and made with paper.

This dreamy white dress was created by Lorine Mason and Eileen Hull.  It may look like fabric, but the dress was created with white craft foam.

As a purse and shoe addict, I loved the displays in the booth for Zutter Innovate Products. Check out this paper purse and the paper shoes. Aren’t they “to die for”, although I wouldn’t dare to walk the show with heels this high. Let your imagination run wild and you can create anything with paper.

The Ribbon Ring booth made your mouth water and your stomach growl with their displays of luscious pastries made with ribbon. A chocolate cake, a wedding cake, cupcakes, bonbon’s and candy were all gorgeous!

And although it was July, Christmas trees covered with paper ornaments were displayed in the DCWV (Die Cuts With a View) booth. All of the trees were beautiful but I especially loved the whimsy of the upside down Christmas tree.  I took some close-ups of a couple of the other trees to show the beautiful paper flowers.

The eCraft electronic cutter by Craftwell caught my eye. I love that this cutter does not use cutting mats and can cut to any length. And as a bonus, the color choices for the cutters are yummy. With this sleek and streamlined design, it looks like the sports car of cutting machines.

I just adore the seals and sealing wax in the Manuscript Calligraphy booth. I love the way the sealing wax with the seals can be used to decorate gifts and notes as you can see in the close up of the gift wrapped boxes on display in their booth. If I were to receive a gift wrapped so elegantly, I would have a hard time tearing it open…but I would, just carefully on the back side.

The day before the show opened was filled with educational seminars, workshops and classes. I presented a seminar on Adobe Illustrator covering the basics of using Illustrator and the tools. CHA has a well rounded education program geared to all memebers – designers, retailers and manufacturers.

Here’s a peek at the show floor.  Although busy, I caught an aisle during a brief lull.

Happy crafting to all of you! I’m already looking forward to the winter show in Annaheim, CA.

Phyllis

After attending the CHA Winter Conference and Trade Show in Los Angeles last week, I returned home feeling rejuvenated and ready to jump back into work. It was a great trip with both meetings and catching up with friends. Several interesting booths and demonstrations caught my attention and I want to share them with you.

Maria Thomas and Rick Roberts, the founders of Zentangle were demonstrating Zentangle techniques in the Sakura of America booth. I love Zentangles so I stopped and created one. The Zentangles created my the attendees during this demo are shown together. Also pictured are Maria and Rick demonstrating on another day and a picture taken of me with them. Creating Zentangles is not only easy, its therapeutic and relaxing.

The Lion Brand Yarn booth had a fabulous exhibit using yarn. The colorful male figure along with the tall shapes and hula hoops, all covered with yarn, made for a really colorful and exciting display.

The theme of the DCWV booth was a “Paper Runway” featuring fashions created with paper. Yes, all these gowns are created with paper and made for dynamic diaplays. My photos don’t really do the life sized dresses justice. In addition, paper chandeliers were hanging in the booth.

During my last day at the show, I took a break around lunch and walked to Olvera Street which was close to my hotel.  Olvera Street is a block long street filled with restaurants and small shops and stalls filled with colorful Mexican merchandise. A couple of pictures below show a section filled with fun masks and star lanterns hanging from a shop balcony.  

Now, back home, I’m delving into my next project, a quilt book. I can’t wait to show you the fabrics I will be working with.

Stay warm and lets hope for an early spring!

Phyllis

These jungle animals are huge and colorful …. and knitted.  One of the most fun exhibits I’ve seen, this was the booth for Lion Brand Yarns at the winter Craft and Hobby Association (CHA) trade show.  (I know, the show was in January, but I just found them in my camera).  What else can I say – the pictures tell the story.

Everything – flowers, blades of grass and the rugs were all made of yarn. The animals were all so cute! It was definitely an exhibit with the “awe” factor.

Have a “roaring” fun day.

Phyllis

I was in Chicago last week to attend the Craft and Hobby Show, the trade show for anything related to crafts (a consumer show followed the trade show). It was exciting to see the show floor filled with people who also seemed excited as well.

While there, my friend Brenda Pinnick and I took some time off to catch the El and go into Chicago to visit the museum at the Art Institute of Chicago. Its a fabulous museum and had expanded with a new modern wing that has been open a year.

The weather was fabulous, much cooler and less humid than here at home so Brenda and I spend some time walking through the city as well.  Chicago is so clean and beautiful and there were flowers everywhere along the streets. Large planters divided the street on Michigan Avenue as we walked toward the museum.  And there were plenty of sidewalk cafes with vibrant flowers.

Huge planters also lined the street.  I just happen to be in front of this one.

I am a huge fan of Art Nouveau and in Chicago, you don’t need to go to a museum to see a lot of this style as its prevalent throughout the City on buildings and other items of interest.

These 2 pictures shows some of the art nouveau designs on buildings.

And here is the famous Chicago Theater landmark on State Street, probably the most photographed  building in Chicago. 

One final shot – the Chicago River.  Didn’t I tell you Chicago was beautiful!

We enjoyed our day and it rejuvenating to have a break.  The next day, it was back to the CHA show  for meetings and to walk the show as well as visit with friends.

Here’s to a beautiful day for everyone!

Phyllis

Its always fun to meet someone who you really admire.  At the Atlanta Gift Market last month, I had the good fortune to meet Mary Engelbreit in the showroom of Katherine’s Collections.  Mary was there for a personal appearance.  I have always been a fan of Mary’s as well as appreciate her as a trail-blazer for art licensing.

The past couple of months have been the most hectic of all.  Preparing for two major trade show events in January required hours and hours of work.  Attending the shows, Atlanta Gift Market and CHA (Craft and Hobby Association) were almost like vacations because while they were technically work, I could lay down my paint brush and ignore my computer for a few days.  Plus, its always such fun to meet up with friends.

The day before the CHA show in Anaheim, Brenda Pinnick and I went to Laguna Beach for some much deserved R&R.  We shopped and had a great lunch while watching the Laguna Beach surf (which was very high due to the recent rains).

Although the shows are over, work continues with work from the shows as well as the work that was still in progress before the shows.

And, I am happy to say that I just finished a new fabric collection and am really excited about it.

I hope you are all staying warm in all this cold and snowy weather.

Phyllis

I can’t believe it is already February.  January was an extremely busy month with me in overdrive preparing for and exhibiting in two License and Design shows.  The first was in Atlanta at the Gift Market where I had a combined booth with 5 other artists under the name of Atlanta Art Licensing. The second exhibit was in Anaheim at the CHA (Craft and Hobby Association) trade show where I shared a booth with my good friend, the talented Brenda Pinnick. At CHA, I also exhibited in the Designer Showcase which had a fantastic viewing by manufacturers, editors and publishers looking for new designs.   Now both shows are behind me but I have tons of following up to do and am excited with the contacts I made.

The good news from both shows, while the attendance was down, the mood was pretty upbeat.  While being cautious in buying, the buyers that were there were buying.  The vendors that I heard about were pleased with their sales. 

There was an abundance of new products at the shows so store shelves will have new items to entice you.  Colors remain bright to reflect optimism, with yellow (Mimosa) being the hot new color.  Think warmth and sunshine and to bright days ahead.

At CHA, Leatrice Eiseman, Director of the Pantone Color Institute gave a seminar on color trends that was outstanding.  For you color junkies, she has a blog http://www.eisemancolorblog.com/ that I recommend you put in your favorites.

Scrapblog sponsored a fun event that I attended.  There, I had the pleasure of meeting and talking with Drew Emborsky, The Crochet Dude and Steve Piacenza of the DIY Network’s Creative Juice.

Deborah Norvillewas the Keynote Speaker at CHA and gave one of the best and most inspirational talks that I’ve heard.  She has been a crafter her entire life and focused on knitting and sewing.  It was a delight to hear that she sewed all her bridemaids’ dresses as well as her on-air clothes when she started in television. 

Since I was exhibiting, I did not get a chance to get out of my booth much to walk the show and to check out  new products. And I missed several seminars I had planned to attend.  But I did get to catch up with a lot of friends, as well as meet face-to-face new twitter and facebook friends.

Now back to my desk and drawing table – which are piled high and a scary sight!

Phyllis