New CHA Bead Section is a Gem

After planning and laying the groundwork for more than a year, the new bead section of the Craft Hobby Association (CHA) is officially launching! Recently named the CHA North America Bead Association, this gem of a section brings bead store owners, designers, and suppliers together to offer one another support and strengthen their corner of the crafting industry.

The leadership team of this new section is made up of strong co-directors, including

• Linda Franzblau of Kalmbach Publishing Co. and Fran Marsh of Frani’s Beads over Marketing and Communications
• Suzann Sladcik Wilson of Beadphoria and Allen White of Cindale Beads over Membership
• Susan Lenart Kazmer of Ice Resin and Andrea Garr of Bead & Fiber over Education
• Glynna White of Beadoholique Bead Shops over Vendor Relations

I’m serving as the director and Julianna Hudgins is the secretary.

Together, our main goal is to help strengthen the bead industry, which is suffering from a 25% closure of brick-and-mortar stores over the past few years. On the surface that trend may seem to affect only bead store owners, but it affects everyone down to the consumer. Being involved in this section of CHA will allow us to see outside the four walls of our own businesses. Whether we gather at CHA conferences and trade shows, the Tucson Gem & Mineral show or the Bead & Button show, each meeting brings about an excitement of new ideas and the opportunity to talk with people who do what we do every day, helping to improve the beading industry.

Additional benefits in the works for members of this section are private forums, networking events, business seminars, webinars, vendor connections, and more. But the key to meeting the section’s main goal is going to be a word I like to call “coopetition”, which means the members coming together cooperatively to enable us to be competitive for our individual businesses. We will strive to be cooperative as a section in sharing success tips and strategies so we can individually strive to the best in the way we operate, in our product selection and customer service, and in the shopping experience we provide our customers.

Being a section of CHA allows us to learn from the amazing ideas of the entire crafting industry (which has lots of crossover) while being able to focus on the needs of our industry specifically. The sections are in control of the mission and agendas set by their members. And, like every part of CHA, it brings people together to strengthen their businesses while simultaneously strengthening the industry.

– Scott Remmers, Brea Bead Works

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Don’t Just Offer an Event – Make it a CRE8TIME Event!

Michele Freitag, our local Horizons Teacher, invited me, Laurel Pollard, to join Village Elementary School as they celebrated Enrichment Day last week.

As both the owner of New England Paper Crafts, a widely respected regional promoter of paper crafts, and Team Leader of “Inspire! New England Paper Crafts” CRE8TIME team, I happily took advantage of the opportunity to share a number of delightful paper crafting products with some of our littlest friends.

As you know, no event is ever “small.”  No matter what the volume of attendees are going to be served, any event is going to require distinct investment, many of which I’m sure you’re all too familiar with.  Here are only a few to consider:

• Project design
• Sourcing and buying supplies
• Kitting the project
• Coordinating volunteers/staff
• Marketing and promotion
• Producing the event

Following the offer of this level of contribution, the question immediately becomes: “What CRE8TIME marketing tools are available that make it possible to capitalize on this investment?  What will broaden New England Paper Crafts’ reach beyond the event itself?”

In order to maximize our investment in time, money and energy I expect to put into organizing this event, I quickly found advantage by cross-branding our event with CRE8TIME.  The non-profit organization offered multiple promotional tools I could easily take advantage of for FREE:

The CRE8TIME brand immediately lends credibility to our team’s initiatives:

• More appearances become available to us, resulting in added visibility and promotional options from this expanded network.
• Industry suppliers are more likely to support, and, it turn, promote our efforts.
• Media outlets take a closer look at our press releases and are more likely to cover our story.

1. The CRE8TIME facebook fan page wall is “open,” giving us the opportunity to direct our message to upwards of 5,500 CRE8TIME enthusiasts.
2. The pre-made CRE8TIME marketing materials, including fliers and bag stuffers, can quickly be customized for each event. This allows our marketing to reach well beyond the frame of any event – both visually through event photos posted after the event, as well as hard copies handed to each event attendee. They are immediately downloadable under the “file” tab on the CRE8TIME Facebook Group for Businesses.
3. The online CRE8TIONS Gallery is available for posting photos of our projects, allowing for a list of supplies and step-by-step instructions.  Embedded with this process is the ability to add hyperlinks to source pages at will.  Once we have opted-in our CRE8TION as “viewable,” it then becomes picture-perfect content to take advantage of the social network sharing options available in the CRE8TIME Gallery, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest.

So, armed with card kits and two enthusiastic volunteers, Kate Pfirman and Joan Toomey, we hosted eleven bright-eyed kindergarteners for CRE8TIME at Village Elementary School’s Enrichment Day.  These active children came ready to dig in to the project and they loved the opportunity to cut out their own Sizzix Flip-Its cards!

At the end of the session there was no stopping our new friends from jumping in for “free cut,” where they were able to pick from a stack of designer paper and use any of the steel-ruled dies available in order to make their choice of die-cuts to carry home with them to personalize other projects.  “Hello Kitty” remains a huge hit with the little ladies!!

We not only reached the eleven kindergarteners at the CRE8TIME make-n-take, we reached their families with the bag stuffers we created.  We connected with our local community through links posted in the Parent Group Facebook page (to which the school is affiliated) as well as a release with event details and photos to the local press.

In addition, New England Paper Crafts tweeted, facebooked, pinned and CRE8TIME galleried all this terrific content – not only on our sites, but cross promoting via social media with industry suppliers (thanks AGAIN, Little Yellow Bicycle!) and CRE8TIME.

With the promotional opportunities already structured within the CRE8TIME organization (**and fully supported by the responsive staff at CRE8TIME!), we were able to promptly turn an intimate event like ours at a local kindergarten class into an opportunity to broaden our reach to thousands of people!

Without a doubt, the “Inspire! New England Paper Crafts” CRE8TIME event for the eleven kindergarteners at Village Elementary School was a monumental success.  With a little extra effort and no additional fee, by partnering with CRE8TIME and combining our marketing power, New England Paper Crafts was able to increase our visibility exponentially. 

If your organization is preparing an event, why don’t you take advantage of these tools and make your next event a successful CRE8TIME event, too?

Happy Day,
~ Laurel Lee Pollard
New England Paper Crafts
“The 411 on paper crafts in New England”
Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Blog

Kept Creations Mails-In Support of CRE8TIME

Kept Creations, owned by Kim Parkinson in Whitman, MA, recently joined CHA, having only been in business for a few months. Kim heard about the CRE8TIME Movement and the call for support from CHA Members. The message resonated with them on a personal level and they decided they HAD to support in some way!

On May 4th, they held a FREE Mail-Art CRE8TIME Social Event.  The event was hosted by Mandy Fariello, in order to build awareness of Mail-Art and celebrate creativity with CRE8TIME. Mail art (also known as postal art), is visual art pieces sent by mail. Mail-Art can be anything that you send to friends, relatives or even to others that just want to receive art.

During the Mail-Art Social, Mandy had CRE8TIME signage posted around the store and large pieces of paper that participants contributed art to.  The Collaborative Art is what you see acclaimed artist, Catherine Matthews-Scanlon, working on.  As a finishing touch, after the social the participants received a piece of the project in the mail.  What a great reminder to CRE8TIME every day!

Be sure to CRE8TIME on Saturday, June 1st from 10:00 am – 4:00 pm, for an encore of Kept Creations FREE DeNami Designs Make-N-Take CRE8TIME Event at the Kept Creations store.

The address is:
15 South Avenue
(Route 27)
Whitman, MA 02382

For more information about this, and much more, Kept Creations art news, check out their website at: www.KeptCreations.com.

CHA’s President & CEO Shares His Crafting Journey

by Andrej Suskavcevic, president and CEO, Craft & Hobby Association

Crafting is cool. Period. End of sentence. When I came into this industry the extent of my crafting was helping my kids with school projects or being part of their experience on weekends. Having been part of this wonderful industry over the last year I have gotten to know many people and watch how the passion of crafting spreads. It’s infectious and well, I got the bug. Let’s be clear, I’m not doing this because it’s part of my job. I am doing this for the following reasons:

• It’s fun!
• It’s meditative
• It builds bonds with family and friends

I am a very curious person by nature so I want to try it all. What better way to start than to make something with and for my family. I made a couple necklaces with my daughter using ice-resin, beads, ribbon, what have you. Fun stuff, and she proudly wears it. She even took it to school for share day.

Yes, I’m a proud Dad.

Then I jumped into the deep end of the pool and decided to make my wife a necklace for our 16th wedding anniversary. She loved it. You can see it in the CRE8TIME.org CRE8TIONS Gallery: http://cre8time.org/cre8tions/anniversary-gift-necklace

I made this for my wife for Valentine’s Day

I will be doing more jewelry making of course but now I am fascinated by knitting and am starting to learn that. Funny reaction I get from guy friends when I tell them I am learning to knit. Love the fact that at 6’4” I am breaking down stereotypes about what a man does. Real men knit! I’m going to break out my knitting needles on my next business trip on the plane. Can’t wait for that conversation with my fellow passengers. Maybe one of them can help me cast on properly…

I will say that I prefer to do it with someone who can teach me versus watching online instruction video’s. There’s something to the bonds forged which I prefer to the loner approach. If in New Jersey and you want to come knit with me. Let me know.

Till next time. Happy Crafting.

- Andrej

Enter to win $500 in the National Craft Month CRE8TIME Photo Contest!

March is National Craft Month! What better time to discover the joy of crafting and all its many benefits? To celebrate, you could learn a new craft or use your skills to teach others a new craft. There are so many creative ways to take part and have some fun during National Craft Month.  The CHA Foundation is hosting a CRE8TIME contest where you could win up to $500! It’s easy to enter CRE8TIME’s National Craft Month Photo Contest. All you have to do is take a picture of how you’re celebrating National Craft Month. This can be a picture of yourself crafting or of your finished craft project. Submit it via the photo contest app on the  CRE8TIME Facebook fan page: (https://www.facebook.com/Cre8time).

• The contest will run from March 1- 31^st. 2013.
• The winners will be chosen based on the amount of “likes” that their picture receives.
• Only pictures submitted via the app will be judged. Do not post pictures directly on the fan page, follow the link to the app and upload your photo there.
• We’ll announce the winners on April 5, 2013.
• Win awesome cash prizes! 1^st place: $500, 2^nd place $300 and 3^rd place $100

Need inspiration? Visit the Cre8tions gallery on CRE8TIME.org.

Questions? Contact CRE8TIME@craftandhobby.org

Click here for complete contest rules.

Have fun and celebrate your creativity!

What Will You CRE8TIME For…? (Show Us Your Hands!)

At the CHA Winter Show iLoveToCreate asked, “What will you CRE8TIME for this year?“

We LOVED that question, and decided to have CHA Staff participate:

You can view all of the photos on the CRE8TIME Pinterest page.

Now we’re asking for YOU to get your employees, co-workers and friends to JOIN US!

Here’s what to do:

• Make the CRE8TIME declaration on your hands and have someone snap a pic!
• Post your picture on the CRE8TIME Facebook page and on your own Facebook page.
• Instagram or blog it as well.
• Be sure to share the CRE8TIME.org web page with your friends and colleagues when you show off your pic!
• Don’t forget to create a project and upload it to the CRE8TIONS Gallery.

Our goal is to collect 2,000 photos by the end of February.

Thank you for helping to spread the movement. It’s amazing what we can learn about each other through creativity!

CHA Celebrates Innovation at the 2013 Winter Show

The CHA 2013 Winter Conference & Trade Show drew 3336 buyers and 928 networkers, totaling  4264 attendees; of which 790 were international, joining us from 56 countries including Canada, Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom, Mexico and Germany.

While the temperature was down, the energy was up. Despite the unusual California weather being as low as some 30 degrees, exhibitors and attendees were all in good spirits yielding positive results. For some, this Show was the most successful it’s been in years.

“We’ve been exhibiting at the Winter Show for the entire life of our company – seven years that is – and 2013 was our best Show ever! Our booth was busy literally the whole time. We’ve always seen the Show as – primarily – a way to build brand awareness and network with distribution partners. But this year we worked with a lot of independent retailers and wrote a lot of orders. We did more international business than ever before, picking up new distributors and retailers in Australia, South America, Europe, and Far East.” Sara Davies – Sales Director, Crafters Companion

“This year’s CHA Show was the best in years for us. Not only was it a great forum to see many of our current customers in one place, but it also presented an opportunity to meet new buyers from the international community.”  Ryan Newell – President, Spinrite LP.

 

“The CHA Conference & Trade Show is the only event on the planet where we can greet hundreds of customers in three days. We cannot imagine choosing not to be there. The 2013 CHA Winter show was our best show ever; the quantity of customers, the quantity of leads and the sales dollars written were all record numbers. The CHA Winter Show was a great start for a new year!” Bobbie Medema – Marketing Director, Notions Marketing

Another key contributing factor to the positive momentum was the launch of the CRE8TIME industry consumer awareness campaign and the new CRE8TIME.org website.  CRE8TIME is a movement funded by the CHA Foundation, designed to encourage creativity by getting participants to pledge 8 hours per month to doing something creative. CRE8TIME.org serves as the hub of the CRE8TIME social movement. It is a community where “CRE8ERS” share their crafts, pledge their hours, get inspired, stay informed and learn how to reclaim 8 hours a month.

“The positive energy from both exhibitors and attendees is very encouraging and speaks volumes to the vibrancy and momentum building for the industry. We look forward to carrying that excitement forward with all the new programs we are launching in 2013.” Andrej Suskavcevic – CAE, President and CEO, Craft & Hobby Association.

Every year CHA gives out awards to select exhibitors for outstanding work in product innovation.  Those receiving awards for their products include: Innovative Product Award – Katy Sue Designs/Flower Soft – Silicone Molds (www.katysuedesigns.com); Attendee Choice Award – Spellbinders Paper Arts – Imperial Gold (www.spellbinderscreativearts.com); and two Honorable Mention Innovative Product Awards – June Tailor – T-shirt Transformation Ruler Center (www.junetailor.com) and We R Memory Keepers – Envelope Punch Board (http://www.weronthenet.com).

CHA accepts nominations annually from members throughout the industry with the purpose of identifying individuals and companies making significant contributions to humanity, the industry, and the Association. This year Creative Leisure News’ Mike Hartnett was the recipient of the Meritorious Award of Honor. This is the highest award recognition the Craft & Hobby Association can bestow upon an individual past or present member, and is given for significant contributions made to the Association. The Special Recognition Award went to Mari Eriksson and the staff of Fusion Beads, a retail store in Seattle Washington. This award is presented to a person, group and/or company for their extraordinary contribution in an activity showcasing the craft and hobby industry in a positive way.

In 2014 the CHA Winter Conference & Trade Show will return to Anaheim, California January 10-14 to celebrate the 73^rd edition of the Show.

CHA Designers Team Up to Produce Free Digital Craft Industry Magazine

By Carol Heppner,

We rarely discuss one of the great advantages of being a CHA member and the wonderful relationships that form when attending the trade shows.   If you volunteer and support our organization, relationships deepen and initiate opportunities.

Such is the case with Ann Butler and me.  Ann and I were on Google + catching up on some CHA Designer-Section business when our discussion turned to our individual companies.   As craft-design business owners, we are constantly working with manufacturers and seeking to have the manufacturers’ products published.

During this conversation, Ann uttered those fateful words, “I wish we could develop our own publication.”   I looked at Ann and said, “We can.”   After a minute of thinking about it, Ann responded with, “But it has to be free to the reader.”   It was during these first few minutes that Bella Crafts Quarterly™ was born and our business model started to develop.

We knew that we wanted to bring quality projects and topical craft-industry columns to readers who craft for business and for pleasure.   We wanted to inspire readers to craft, which would help the entire craft industry.   To that end, and in keeping with our belief, the first project in all our quarterly issues is always a Cre8time.org project showing readers that they can reconnect with crafting by making the project within minutes.

Creating a quarterly publication, while still running our individual companies, would be no easy feat and we would need help.  An undertaking this size needed individuals who are hard working, talented and craft-industry savvy.   Having worked with Lisa Rojas and Theresa Cifali on previous projects, they immediately came to mind as fitting the bill.

Although the four of us have our individual companies, we joined forces to work on this project.  Each designer brings unique skills that allow us to produce a quality publication to inspire crafters of all levels.  What is uniquely special is how well we work together.   In a competitive business world, where companies are looking to be one-step in front of their competition, it is rare that companies can come together and create a joint product.  Our ability to work well together may come from the many volunteer projects on which we worked for the CHA Designer Section.  Volunteering to help make CHA a better organization helps develop business relationships that are rewarding.

So, what is Bella Crafts Quarterly™?  It is the #1, free downloadable craft magazine published by four of the craft-industry’s top professional craft designers.  We create quality projects and are the bridge between manufacturers and the crafting public.  Our preview Halloween issue of Bella Crafts Quarterly™ ranked #8 on Magcloud’s Top 15 Popular Magazine

What will you find in Bella Crafts Quarterly™?

• Artist to Artist – Interviews with our industry’s creative professionals
• Blog Star – Creative bloggers share their experiences
• Craft Projects – Craft projects designed to inspire
• CRE8TIME.org – A quick craft project to help crafters reconnect with crafting
• Photo Talk™ – Taking your photographs to the next level
• Lessons with Lisa™ – Crafting advice to make a difference in the crafter’s life
• Live Links – Our digital versions contain live links to send readers to products used in projects
• Socially Sensible™ – Social Media advice to help your business
• Sponsored Craft Projects – Craft projects brought to you by the industry’s manufacturers
• Trending Thoughts – Trend and topical advice from CHA professional craft designers

Bella Crafts Quarterly™ is can be downloaded free on our website, http://bellacraftsquarterly.com and you can read it free online at Magcloud.com.  The print version is also available through Magcloud for a fee.

We are able to provide the free digital version of Bella Crafts Quarterly™ to readers by project sponsorship from manufacturers.  If you are Manufacturer and like more information, contact us at info@bellacraftsquarterly.com.

Wishing you very successful CHA 2013 Winter Show.

~ Carol

Become an official CHA Blog Guest Blogger!

The CHA Blog is currently seeking guest bloggers and blog posts. Any CHA member can submit a post! Basically, a blog post consists of either a video or photo of an event or experience and a short blurb. We want you to tell your story: what current trends do we need to know about? What is the one thing you look forward to the most at CHA shows? What crafty community service project are you involved with? If you’re interested, please submit your post idea, blog post, name and contact information to jbaum@craftandhobby.org.

All guest blog posts are the sole responsibility of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Craft & Hobby Association (CHA), its staff members, sponsors or exhibitors. The inclusion of a link or reference does not imply the endorsement of the linked site by the Craft & Hobby Association (CHA).

Stop Pinning + Start Making

By Alicia DiRago, Guest Blogger

Hi! I’m Alicia DiRago, founder of Whimseybox, and we help people Stop Pinning + Start Making*! When I learned about the cre8time movement at the Summer CHA Show a few weeks ago I instantly realized that we were talking about the exact same thing. Here’s why I’m passionate about helping people discover the DIY and craft:

I grew up in a really crafty household- the kind with a designated craft table, a sewing room and parents who made everything themselves from the deck to the decor. Throughout childhood I remember constantly making things myself too, at least up until I left for college. Then I majored in chemical engineering and almost instantly saw my time and energy left for creative pursuits disappear. After graduation I worked as a chemical engineer for about 8 years, and had some great experiences. The best part of the job was traveling around the country and seeing first-hand how things are made. It was great because I learned how everything from light bulbs to pharmaceuticals to dog food to tires are created. It was like living inside the show How It’s Made, except louder and while wearing tons of safety equipment!

When you watch the process first-hand, it takes the mystery away. I know that if I want to make a light bulb I can do it. I’d need some equipment and a little time, but I’m confident that I can figure out how to make pretty much anything. It’s just one step at a time. That is incredibly empowering, but unfortunately not many people feel the same way. Does it matter- are they really missing out? I think so. I often say that exercising myself creatively is just as important as exercising myself physically, and when I don’t do it I suffer. (Visiting factories was the worst part of that job as well, because all the travel and the 24/7 nature of manufacturing left me with little time to do any making of my own. I suffered.)

Fortunately fate stepped in and relocated my husband’s work (and therefore us!) to another state. I left my engineering job with every intention of getting a similar position in our new city, but I just couldn’t bring myself to write the cover letter asking for a job I didn’t want. Instead I started to teach DIY craft classes in local bars and restaurants, and then I started to blog as well. (Mostly to support the resume leap from engineer to craft instructor!) I named the blog and business Dismount Creative, which is a really clunky name with good intentions. The idea was to create a place for people to step outside of their normal, busy lives (aka dismount, a word I liked because I was once a gymnast) and enjoy the experience of making something. In the last two years I’ve taught everything from small classes to large events with hundreds of people and watched time and again how the making things delights the human spirit. (Even, in fact especially, the self-declared ‘not creative’ ones.)

Spotlight on Whimseybox

►

It’s the desire to reach even more people and share my love of DIY and craft that led me to start Whimseybox late last year. We ship a monthly box of craft products directly to your doorstep to make it as fun and easy as possible to embrace your creativity. We also create and share inspirational and educational content online and will soon be rolling out some exciting new features. The last few months have been a wild ride as we grow rapidly to try and meet the demand, add team members and even move to Chicago for the summer to learn from the great business mentors at Excelerate Labs. It’s a non-stop learning experience and we’ve only just begun, but what motivates us is knowing that every time we figure out a new way to do our job better we help more people experience the joy of making. That’s cre8time.

*PS- We don’t have anything against Pinterest. We love it, actually! It’s just that sometimes we love it too much.

- Alicia

Become an official CHA Blog Guest Blogger!

The CHA Blog is currently seeking guest bloggers and blog posts. Any CHA member can submit a post! Basically, a blog post consists of either a video or photo of an event or experience and a short blurb. We want you to tell your story: what current trends do we need to know about? What is the one thing you look forward to the most at CHA shows? What crafty community service project are you involved with? If you’re interested, please submit your post idea, blog post, name and contact information to jbaum@craftandhobby.org.

All guest blog posts are the sole responsibility of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Craft & Hobby Association (CHA), its staff members, sponsors or exhibitors. The inclusion of a link or reference does not imply the endorsement of the linked site by the Craft & Hobby Association (CHA).

Andrea Currie, Winner of TLC’s Craft Wars, Tells All

By Andrea Currie, Guest Blogger

I have to start by saying thank you to my friends at CHA for naming me the “Official CHA Craft Wars Ambassador.” In return of the generous title I have compiled a list of the most popular Craft Wars questions that I received while I fluttered around the Chicago trade show.

Wait who are you and when did you start crafting?
Although I’ve been hooked on glitter and hot glue my entire life, I didn’t seriously start pursuing my creative dreams until about 4 years ago when I joined the Craft  & Hobby Association as a designer member. My goal at the time was simply to find like minded glitter obsessed crafters – and boy did I!

Eventually my dedication to the craft industry and hard work got me noticed by industry professionals but most importantly helped me groom invaluable relationships with talented designers and established companies. The most rewarding relationship created was with my Craft Wars assistant Lisa Fulmer!

Moving forward I hope to help companies enter into the craft market, license my library or designs and represent companies already established within the craft and hobby industry. Ohh and I want to write my very first craft book too!

How did you get onto Craft Wars?
I wish it was some fantasy story where a producer begged me to be on the show, but I had but one choice – audition tape! Once I found out I was on Craft Wars I was elated because I knew that win or lose the exposure would be a phenomenal thing for my blossoming creative career.

From that moment forward I vowed to keep my nerves in check by concentrating on having fun and following my creative instincts. A tactic that paid off in the end!

What did you make on Craft Wars?
In the pop craft challenge we were tasked with creating keepsake boxes using keys and locks. These odd materials inspired me to create a whimsical gnome home keepsake box which I constructed out of from foam core and covered in lot’s of felt!

The bling of the keys and locks were just the right touch to get me through to the master craft challenge where the remaining contestant and I were challenged to create something for a wedding in 5 hours using invitations, baby blankets, jeans and candle sticks! In the end I created a life sized modern whimsical wedding wishing tree which acted as a fun alternative to a cookie cutter guest book.

Did I mention we had to do this in 5 hours!?! Looking back (given the time) I would have done a few things differently but that didn’t stop the judges from naming me the Craft Wars winner!

What were the judges and Tori Spelling Like?
Even though we didn’t get any off camera time with the judges or Tori Spelling, I can assure you that they are just as fun as the crafters competing on the show. At first I was incredibly intimidated by all of their industry expertise but to my surprise they were very easy to talk to – which in turn softened the blow of their criticism. Judge Stephen Brown gives you a good idea of his approachable style in his CHA blog post here.

One of the most memorable moments was at the end of our episode when a teary-eyed Tori gave Lisa and I big hugs. I think she was touched by how emotional we were about our win.

What do you think Craft Wars means for the Craft Industry?
I’ve been taking an informal survey throughout the season and found that in my circle Craft Wars is being embraced by the younger generation of creative people who seem to be inspired and entertained by the faster paced unconventional approach to crafting. Hopefully, this concept, along with initiatives like Cre8time, will help strengthen the industry and ensure we have enough diversity to keep the future generations excited about crafting.

Other than winning what was the best part about participating on the show?
Crafting with my crafty sister Lisa is at the top of my list – followed quickly by the opportunity to  show off my skills on a national TV show.

Also it was quite nice to be able to craft my brains out and not have to clean up afterwards!

What are you going to do with the prize money?
I’m giving half of the money to Lisa and using my half to kick-start my next line of fun designs. Shoot me an email to be put on the first access list! Or just drop me a line to say hi!

Don’t forget to watch Craft Wars every Tuesday night at 8pm (7pm Central).

-Andrea

Email: Andrea@handmakemyday.com
Blog: http://handmakemyday.com
Twitter: #handMAKEMyDay
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/handmakemyday/
Lisa’s blog: http://lisalizalou.blogspot.com/

Become an official CHA Blog Guest Blogger!

The CHA Blog is currently seeking guest bloggers and blog posts. Any CHA member can submit a post! Basically, a blog post consists of either a video or photo of an event or experience and a short blurb. We want you to tell your story: what current trends do we need to know about? What is the one thing you look forward to the most at CHA shows? What crafty community service project are you involved with? If you’re interested, please submit your post idea, blog post, name and contact information to jbaum@craftandhobby.org.

All guest blog posts are the sole responsibility of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Craft & Hobby Association (CHA), its staff members, sponsors or exhibitors. The inclusion of a link or reference does not imply the endorsement of the linked site by the Craft & Hobby Association (CHA).