Atlantic Craft Trade Show 2012

 I've been back from the trade show for a few days now. Unfortunately it was a disappointing show for me, most everyone found it much quieter than previous years. And then to top it off I managed to catch a stomach bug on the second day which lasted through the rest of the show the 5 hour drive home and then 3 more days. Finally back on my feet now so I thought I'd post some photos at least. 

I had this idea to blow up and print these frames , mount them to foam core and then hang a purse in each one. It was a much easier display to transport, quick to put up and pretty effective I thought. They brought a lot of great comments and a teacher asked the favour to take photos for her class in booth design , so that was very nice. :)

Getting ready for Acts 2012

It's just two weeks to the Atlantic Craft Trade Show and I have to turn this pile of stuff in a new spring line of purses.......panic much??

Base fabric is all hand painted (that is all the messy bunches in the front). Lining fabric all neatly folded off to the side ( neatly folded ha! should be all cut out by now 0_0 ) Purses are designed and prototypes are all standing in the background ( currently thinking they don't look so bad in plain muslin......)  Need to finish the second layer of printing on the fabric (I'll leave that for a surprise...to you and me both! )  and then just put it all together.   Totally doable!  :D



Don't forget the January Giveaway! .  I'm pimping out a journal to one of my followers in thanks for dropping by my blog and checking out what I'm up to. Join up as a follower , post a comment and you'll be in the running for the draw at the end of the month for this journal. :)

                                          Good luck to you all, thanks for dropping by again. :)

Acts show 2011

Back from Halifax and the Atlantic Craft Trade Show. I meant to post pictures and comments during the show but I headed to Halifax without any of my electrical cords. Couldn't upload my photos or even recharge my phone. I tried to insert the memory card right into the camera but it was too small and got stuck (welcome to my world :) )But thankfully I didn't forget anything else and it all went well. In fact in went really well!
 I took more orders than I thought I would for my first time and my purses are on their way to the Florida Keys ( my first U.S. order, YAY!) and off to an Art Gallery in Ontario ( YAY again! ). My landscapes did very well too and this summer I'll have my work in all the coastal communities that are so popular with tourists like Mahone Bay, Chester and Lunenbourg. That's very exciting because these were the areas that I had in mind when I was creating the line.

After many trys to remove the memory card ( I'm a pro at this now if anyone needs a tip ) I succeeded, so here are some pics of my booth at the Acts show.

My booth had a split personality, one side evening bags and the other quilted lanscapes. I wanted to bring both and not lose the opportunity but was worried how the booth would look. I think it turned out well dividing it down the middle, the separation seemed to do the trick. There were comments about if both parts of the booth were mine because they were so different buy they were all complimentory just surprized.

I had the pedestals made by a local handiman. They are out of 3/4 inch plywood and painted with melamine paint. They all come apart and pile flat in the car for travel but wow do they weigh a lot! I think they were a good investment as they will last a long time and are very versitile. The heights range from 2 1/2 feet to 4 feet, I had him make two of each and that gives me a lot of variations.

The process of making the bags is not so long but the explanation takes a while, so I thought that a slide show of the process would be a big help and probably do a better job than I could. So I photographed myself making a piece of the fabric and used a digital frame in the booth to show them. Again one of the pedestals came in very handy.

Here's the slideshow.