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A couple weekends ago I participated in my first trade show. It was a smaller trade show of approximately 30 vendors and was targeted at ‘mompreneurs’. I have always thought about the idea of showcasing my art in a trade show but have been put off in the past by the expensive price tag on the tables alone! The show I participated in was put on by two amazing organizers that did it all non-profit. This allowed for a very reasonable table cost and therefore allowed me to test the waters of trade showing!

I was one of the last vendors to sign up only a couple weeks before the show, so I had to scramble to get my presentation together. I decided to hold a contest for 2 framed prints and also sell a selection of my ready-to-frame art prints at the table. I also brought along some wholesale documents for any retail stores interested in carrying my prints.

Some things I did that were useful:
1. By holding a competition, I was able to attract people to my table and give them the option to sign up to email updates. This allowed me to make new contacts and add people to my email list.
2. I added a ‘Buy 2, Get 1 Free’ coupon in each customer’s goody bag in order to attract them to my site for a potential purchase.
3. I brought LOTS of business cards and offered them to anyone who visited my table.

What I would do next time:
1. I should have printed more quantity of my most popular prints. I sold my three bestsellers right at the beginning of the show and therefore no one else was able to see them.
2. I should have brought a printed list of my full catalog of prints available so customers can see all available designs.
3. I also should have printed a large banner for my table! I thought very carefully of how I would set up the surface of the table, but forgot about the front side.
4. Nex time, I should bring a lunch! The restaurant didn’t serve lunch until 1:30pm and I was HUNGRY!

SUMMARY
Overall the show went well but I’m not sure I’d do another one at this point in my life. If I had unlimited time, I might not mind but being away from my work for a whole day on the weekend is quite costly in terms of production. With a toddler at home, the evenings and weekends are my prime time to work so unless the show is amazingly successful and I sell a ton of prints and make a ton of contacts, it may not be worth it at this point. I also highly recommend choosing trade shows that would attract the kind of audience interested in your products. I got a lot of great feedback from attendees but a lot of people had no one to buy the prints for! If I were to do another trade show, it’d make sense to do one targeted at moms with babies or small children. I am happy with my overall experience, and was actually awarded one of the top three booths at the show, but will hold off on any other shows for the time being. I enjoy working on my freelance illustration and selling a few prints online here and there from my Etsy store.

If you have any specific questions about trade shows, please feel free to ask in the comments and I’d be happy to try to help!

Ok so I know it’s super early to be posting, talking, or even thinking about Christmas but when I first heard this week’s Illustration Friday theme, ‘Atmosphere’, the first thing I thought of was the ‘atmosphere’ of Christmastime. It is my absolute favorite time of year and I LOVE the atmosphere that surrounds the holidays.

I’ve posted a set of Christmas cards that I’ll be selling this year. You can buy them now (if you want to be super early and prepared) but don’t worry, they’ll still be available later in the year! The set includes 5 copies of each design for a total of 10 cards. Check out my Etsy store for more details! Hopefully I didn’t scare too many of you off with my early excitement for Christmas… lol

Technology can be very frustrating at times! Thank goodness for my tech savvy hubby who helps me through. I just found out yesterday that my sidebar feature, ‘Subscribe to Email Updates’ has not been working. This means that if you entered your email to sign up for updates within the last few months, you are probably NOT on my list. I’m not 100% sure how long this has been going on for so if you’re unsure you’re on my list, then sign up again and if you’re on the list, the pop-up window will inform you that you are already subscribed. ALSO, you may actually be on my list and still not receiving email updates because of the technical issues! Thankfully all the bugs have been resolved and new subscribers will successfully be added to the list and all subscribers will receive email updates (crossing my fingers!) :)

About My Email Subscription
If you sign up to receive updates, you will receive an email every time I post something on my blog. It’s that simple!

HOW YOU CAN WIN!
In order to celebrate the newly fixed feature, I am giving away my frog growth chart to one lucky subscriber!  If you’re not already subscribed (current subscribers are automatically entered), enter your email in the blank on the right sidebar under ‘Subscribe to Email Updates’. To get an extra entry, you can comment on this post! I will make the draw on July 14th, 2010. Good luck!

I really want to try to start participating in Illustration Friday again! It’s a great site where illustrators from all over the world submit drawings based on a new theme that is chosen each Friday. It’s a great way to get inspiration from other artists and also have some new people visit your blog :) This isn’t a new illustration but it’s perfect for this week’s theme, Satellite :) This print will be going up in Isaac’s new space themed toddler bedroom (which I’ll be posting photos of very soon)!

This custom art print is of a soon-to-be adopted baby of my friends, Dan & Ang. Ang asked me to create this print for her in order to hang it in her new baby’s room. It was a lot of fun to work on such a specific request and I truly hope their little one loves it!

I frequently design custom illustrations for businesses but until recently, haven’t really had the opportunity to work on custom art for everyday customers. In the past few months I’ve received several requests for custom art prints, so I thought I would try to come up with a system to make it easy and affordable. You can refer to the graphic below to see the two options available and their costs (basic & detailed packages). These prices are reduced from what I would charge a business in order to make custom work accessible for moms and dads that want special artwork for their kids.

Want a drawing of your daughter swinging through a flower field with her favorite stuffed giraffe? Or your son playing in his sandbox with his favorite red toy truck?  This is a chance to have YOUR son or daughter in a custom piece of art. You are free to send me photos of your child so I can illustrate a character that resembles them. Or maybe you are decorating a nursery and want some custom yellow bunny prints to match the room’s decor… I am happy to entertain any request.

Hopefully I’m not sounding too business-y… I really don’t mean to be! My ultimate goal is to come up with a system to offer custom work in an easy and afforable way. Let me know what you think of this idea! Or if you’re interested in going ahead with a custom print, send me an email.