Saturday, December 12, 2009

It's a Wrap!


Join us this weekend at th Cherrywood Art Fair to learn awesome upcycled gift wrap techniques. Make a unique statement with beautiful and upcycled gift wrapping.


With these simple supplies you can create memorable and affordable packaging that is green too!


Wrap gifts with old paper shopping bags and use punches or confetti to create a pattern, and decorate with feathers and yarn.


Yarn and paper can make a simple and sophisticated look.


This one uses two different ribbon scraps and some berries off an old wreath.


Newspaper is instantly spruced up with an old shiny ornament.


Get creative, this one has a paper bag handle attached with brads.


Check back for a quick tutorial on how to make these bows, one from a toilet paper tube and the other from magazine.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Austin Post's City-Wide White Elephant Party!


This month for our Third Thursday Mix & Make Crafty Hour, we'll be out at this fantastic shindig thrown by Austin Post! We're doing an awesome make & take {what you ask? it's a surprise!} and you're invited!

The deets: Bring a wrapped gag gift and exchange it for another wrapped gift, which could be a fabulous prize from a sponsor, or it could be Aunt Nelda's hand-crocheted coasters. Trading is A-OK, and you're required to write your gag gift on your nametag, so outlandishness is encouraged.

* Free drinks from Dulce Vida Tequila & St. Germain (a fabulous holiday Hibiscus Jalapeno Martini - sounds delish!)
* Dulce Vida and St. Germain tequila sunrise cupcakes from the Cupcake Fairy, MisoHungry herself
* Free pizza by Promise Pizza, one of the newest and greatest pizza spots in Round Rock
* Free sushi by Kenichi, one of Austin's sushi institutions
* Music by Twist and Shout
* Holiday Mischief Photobooth by Trevor Ray Thompson
* Holiday Hair & Makeup Touch-Ups by Johanna Esper of Bo Salon
* Sponsored by awesome local bloggers, including Austin Eavesdropper, MisoHungry, and Tit for Tat
* Gifts from Po Campo bags, *AnneMarie*, Merritt Gade, Sweet Wolf, Vintage Rehab, Bella Flora Creative, Lipsting Media & Lucy Blue Studio

***Secure your spot on the guest list - space is limited!
RSVP at www.electricpromotions.com/rsvp***

Gifts to Beat the Winter Blahs!

Here are a few inspiring gift ideas I've seen on the web recently. Any of these would be gifts I'd love to receive (hint, hint!) because they are all about making the cold days of winter more comfy-cozy. I've also put links to a few of the coolest gift guides I've found at the end of this post. Enjoy!

The Woodland Draft Buster from Betz White is so cute! You can find the pattern in her book, Sewing Green. The book itself would make a lovely gift for someone crafty, but if you have the time, why not buy the book as a gift to yourself & whip some draft dodgers up for your loved ones? Helping them stay warm & cozy this winter would be a wonderful gift.

















This next project is totally tempting me, because my skin gets horribly dry during the winter. I'm sure you have someone on your list who also suffers this winter affliction, so how about making them an indulgent brown sugar scrub?

Find the incredibly simple instructions on Craftzine and get to it! This is one that children will love making, too. Mix it up, put it in a jar & use fabric scraps & ribbon to pretty it up - so easy!



Lastly, a fashionable & functional classic: a pretty scarf. This scarf has a twist though: it's made from an old sweater (yay, upcycling!) & gathered using a long ribbon (clever!), so that it has a very ruffly look. How pretty is this? and it looks like it would keep your neck nice and warm (very important for short-haired girls like me)! This project is another one from the amazing folks at Craftzine. Check out the Sew a Ruffled Scarf post for a detailed how-to. Don't be scared; it actually seems very simple to make as long as you have basic sewing skills.

Wouldn't any of these make a fantastic, thoughtful gift? Sure wish I had started on them earlier... maybe I'll be able to make some gifts for Christmas 2010, if I start now! Oh well, if you're in a time crunch like me, you can still find tons of fabulous gifts online by checking out the gift guides below. Or better yet, shop at your local craft shows & support handmade! If you're in Austin, come out & see us at Cherrywood Art Fair this weekend!

Great Holiday Gift Guide Roundup 09:
- under $50 gift guide from design*sponge {they have many gift guides to browse; see their full list}
- Slow Holiday gift guide from Treehugger
- and of course, there's a plethora of gift guides on Etsy!

Happy shopping &/or making! Please leave links to your fave gift guides or DIY gift ideas in the comments!

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Don't miss Cherrywood Art Fair this weekend!


The handmade holiday fun continues this weekend at the Cherrywood Art Fair! We'll be out there with a smorgasbord of fabulous handmade items & crafting kits. Over at The WonderCraft booth (just look for Stella, our shiny Airstream trailer!), we'll also be demonstrating lots of cool upcycled gift-wrapping techniques throughout the weekend.

Cherrywood is an amazing shopping paradise for those who love unique, handmade items & one-of-a-kind art - over 80 vendors! Here's a peek at a few. Plus lots of great live music, kids' activities, artist demos & a huge silent auction. Come on by! All the deets you need can be found at cherrywoodartfair.org.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

EtsyAustin's Craft Riot! this weekend!
















This weekend we'll be out at EtsyAustin's Craft Riot! at the headquarters of Wines.com. You don't want to miss this fabulous holiday bazaar! In addition to all of the lovely, handmade items you'll find there from the EtsyAustin team that will make unique gifts for everyone on your list, you'll also enjoy fantastic wine & yummy local treats & photos with Santa! Head over to EtsyAustin's blog to "Meet Your Makers" (including yours truly) and be sure to enter the Craft Riot ticket giveaway while you're at it! Avoid the mall & shop local & handmade! All 4 of us WonderCrafters will be there with Stella, with each of our own handmade items (we're all members of EtsyAustin, too) & nifty WonderCraft DIY kits for sale inside, as well as free hot cocoa! Come out & join us!

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Lights of Love 5k benefiting Austin's Ronald McDonald House


Wanna support Austin's Ronald McDonald House & make an adorable snowman ornament while you're at it? Then join us at the Lights of Love 5K! It will take place at the Mueller Hangar this Friday, Dec. 4, at 6 pm. Here's what's happening:

* Run, jog or walk through SNOW provided by Event FX and Wolf Stuntworks at the Lights of Love 5K & Kids K Finish Line
* Take your picture with Santa Claus and Ronald McDonald
* Let your kids enjoy our holiday crafts area, with great activities from The Wondercraft
* Bring the entire family for kids entertainer, Mr. Leebot
* Listen to great music on the course and at the Hangar
* Kids K finishers enjoy a finisher's prize and the first girl and first boy receive a framed 16x20 portrait from Kiddie Kandids
* Enjoy the festive lights and hot chocolate stop on the 5K course
* Don't miss the annual lighting of the Mueller Tower.

More details on the Lights of Love Event Information page. You can also read 5 Ways to Join the Fun to find out how you can join the run, sponsor a runner, or make a donation to the Ronald McDonald House. See you at the Hangar!

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Being Crafty & Conscious


Are you crafty and conscious?  Love to make and design your own personal and home accessories?  Here are a few tips to help you craft a little greener.


  1. Always be on the look out at your favorite thrift stores for fabric bins, as well as old garments. Just because the garment may be out of date doesn’t mean you cant restyle it into something new and flattering.
  2. Tape your old newspaper pieces together to make patterns and save cereal boxes to  make templates for your projects.
  3. Going through your old clothes to donate to a secondhand store?  Any damaged items that cant be donated can be salvaged for findings.  Save those bits of lace, buttons, and zippers!  Seamstress have been doing it forever, and because of this lace from the 1800’s is surfacing at estate sales and on Ebay today!
  4. You can also find some great vintage findings on Etsy from other crafty supply hoarding gals like yourself.
  5. Take a second look at the things you're throwing away each week and challenge yourself to reinvent these items.  For example old metal tins can be cut up into shapes for jewelry using some metal shears.  

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Have you tasted the goodness of Blue Note Bakery?

We here at The WonderCraft love supporting our fellow local businesses, especially when they are this tasty! Blue Note's desserts are simply marvelous! Blue Note Bakery got its start in a small, shared catering kitchen back in 2004, and has grown steadily ever since. They now have their own shop located on South Congress. They can create a unique dessert or custom cake for any occasion. Check out the photos of their one-of-a-kind works of "edible art!"


If you come out to our Mix & Make Crafty Hour tonight you can taste Blue Note Bakery's delicious treats for yourself! You can also kick back with a glass of wine, make some fabulous wine glass charms to take home, mingle and shop our boutique of handmade items from local artists. In honor of the East Austin Studio Tour, our Crafty Hour is free tonight! Come on out & get crafty with us! Stella is parked outside of Creative Side Jewelry Academy for the duration of E.A.S.T. at 628 Allen Street, stop #45.



Wednesday, November 18, 2009

DIY Door Side Memo Board

brought to you by Amanda Fay :) of Fayded Creation
Materials:
  • wine corks
  • picture frame
  • glue gun 
  • knife
  • cutting board
Directions:
  1. Wash and Dry your picture frame.  
  2. Begin to lay out your corks and decide how you would like them arranged. I chose the zig zag pattern pictured above.
  3. Using the knife and the cutting board, cut corks in half to fill in the edge spots where a full cork wont fit.
  4. Once you have all your corks laid out and fitted to the frame, you can begin to hot glue them into place.
  5. Now you can stand it up on your desk at the office or hand it next to your door.  You can even add hooks to the bottom where you can hang your keys!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Get crafty with us during E.A.S.T.!


We will be out on the East Austin Studio Tour with our Airstream trailer, Stella, parked at 628 Allen St. as guests of Creative Side Jewelry Academy (stop #45 on the E.A.S.T. map). Of course we'll be doing many crafty projects you can take part in throughout the week!

We'll have a huge rocketship sculpture outside, with a variety of materials so you can make something unique to add to it. We look forward to watching it develop into something awesome over the course of the tour! We'll also be doing some of our most popular make & take projects, like upcycled cardboard wallets & mustaches-on-a-stick (as modeled above by 2 party-goers at the Beard Folks event at Austin Handmade). Fun, fun stuff! Aside from joining in our crafty fun, it will be a great chance for you to see the talented artists of Creative Side at work, too!

Additionally, we'll have a lovely little boutique set up inside the trailer featuring the work of all 4 WonderCraft founders, as well as that of several of our EtsyAustin team members, chock full of fabulous handmade items such as:

* jewelry from Merritt Gade, Lucy Blue Studio & Broken Ear Productions
* unique purses & wallets from Fayded Creation
* fun greeting cards & screenprinted apparel from Paired Hearts
* awesome art for your walls from Leah Duncan, Nessa Dee & The Flashbulb
* appliqued clothing & gifts for kids from The Snuggle Herd
* felted goodies & felting kits from Gypsy Harte
* DIY screen-printing kits and stamp sets from Craft Chi
and more!

And don't miss our Third Thursday Mix & Make crafty hour at the trailer on 11/19 from 5-9pm. There will be free wine & nibbles & lots of crafting fun, so we hope you'll stop by!

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

What Can I Do With Paper?

Jen here. Lately, I've been looking at my collections of random materials and trying to come up with ways to finally use it. I'm an infamous pack rat but since I'm rapidly running out of space to store new goodies, I need new projects to use up the old ones. I love paper and since we started up The WonderCraft we have made some great things with scrap materials. We have decorated cardboard wallets and mustaches as well as made paper mosaics out of recycled magazines and other papers.

Here are some more ideas and inspirations to help get your creative juices flowing with regards to recycling old magazines and paper products.

Collage:

Clemens Habicht


Jonathan Oxlade

PaperCrafts:

from Cubecraft

Origami:


Don't forget decoupage! You can cover all sorts of things from the backs of cabinets, table tops, dresser drawers, mirror frames, etc with any paper scraps you have collected. It is a great way to alter old pieces to give them new life.

Ohdeedoh

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Visit our Airstream during the East Austin Studio Tour


Enjoy free, fun craft projects, local food & drinks and shopping our boutique full of wonderful local artists! We'll be parked in front of Creative Side. Lots more info on our Get Crafty blog. Hope to see you there!

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

A new Kit in town!


Beth A here, I've been working on a new kit of ours that Beth H had started off with a class (it was our first class) And we figured that it would make a great little kit so we worked on the instructions, making them easier to understand and include lots of diagrams. I also wanted to try making a smaller version of the star to include.


So last night I tried it out and even had my husband Aaron try following the instructions, he had some good comments, like which side is the "front"? With the new instructions, some packaging design and now photos I've gotten these kits up on our Etsy site.

When I first tried the little star, with just scaled down dimensions of the bigger one, I didn't really like how small the center was (see it on the left), so I augmented the template and made another one that I like a lot better (the one on the right). I'm sure you all know about crafty trial and error!

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Craftin' Masks for the Mixx & Make!

We'll be doing make & take masks at the Mixx & Make Pre-Halloween Craftacular this Saturday! It's gonna be so fun! Last night we WonderCrafters got together with Candace from Electric Promotions and made some example masks. We've got quite a stash of creative supplies and Candace made some rad mask templates that you've gotta see! We had a blast & made these funky masks. Come out to the partay this Saturday & make a fabulous or freaky mask with us!




All of us here at The WonderCraft are excitedly working on our Halloween costumes for it, too. Omg, we've only got 2 more days! What are we going as???? It's a surprise! You'll have to come out to the Mixx & Make to find out, although you may find some hints on my blog, Crafty Mishmash, and Jen's blog, Crafty Redhead. Join in the fun & show off your own awesome costume Saturday night! I have a hunch there may be prizes involved...

There will also be Treaty Oak red rum, coffin cakes from Blue Note Bakery, a fun photo booth with Trevor Ray Thompson, an amazing guitar giveaway, local music plus lots more! RSVP online to get in for $6. $8 at the door.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009


Looking for a way you can turn your trash into treasure?  Want to impress your friends with your brilliant crafting skills?  Looking for an inexpensive gift idea?  Dont worry, because here I am with the latest DIY project to brighten up your home space!

What you will need for this project:
*one jar/glass container/ or tallish tin
* two colors of spray paint
*piece of lace ribbon
*spray adhesive
*ribbon or fabric strip (optional
* Newspaper/ cardboard box/ or tarp for spray paint surface
What you will need to finish your gift
*potting soil 
*flower or plant of your choice
STEP 1: Clean and dry your glass container
STEP 2: Lay out your newspaper/ cardboard box/ or tarp to protect your work space
STEP 3Working in your newly defined, and protected work area, spray the outside of the container with the paint color you have chosen to be your base.  Let dry.
STEP 4: Lay your lace flat and spray one side with spray adhesive.  (always using your protected work area)
STEP 5: Wrap your lace, sticky side down, around the glass container.  Press to secure all edges.
STEP 6: Use your second paint color to spray overtop the lace.  This will allow the lace to act as a stencil.
STEP 7: THE BIG REVEAL! Remove your lace...OHHHH!!! AHHHH!!! Let Dry.



FINISHING TOUCHES
STEP 8: Tie your ribbon or fabric strip around the container in a bow 
STEP 9: Add the flower or plant of your choice and fill with potting soil.
Now your ready to enjoy it for your self, or give it as a gift!  They are great for housewarming or business warming gifts!  

Halloween Inspiration

Jen here. I know a few of you folks out there are still trying to pull together some costume ideas. Most of the girls here at The WonderCraft are scrambling around trying to get ours together for both Halloween weekend and our Pre-Halloween Mixx Make bash this Saturday. I thought I would post a few helpful links to get your creative juices flowing. The costumes I picked use the humble cardboard box as inspiration. Believe me, it is amazing what you can make from cardboard.


As most of you know, I love robots. My new favorite blog (Mostly Forbidden Zone) has several postings of old Popular Mechanics articles illustrating how to build a robot costume. Great stuff. Cardboard robots are a classic and economical costume solution.

The Operation game costume has been a favorite idea of mine for years. Anything interactive is always a good idea. Makes breaking the ice at Halloween parties much easier.

For another interactive but economical costume, try being a camera. I love that the maker included a working flash. Makes night, party shots much easier. Plus, you would be expected to take photos. A great motivator for the shy photographers among us.

If you still need a few ideas, try the Instructables website. You can also join us Saturday and make a mask!

Monday, October 19, 2009

Thought about the holidays yet?


Every year Austin is host to a number of awesome holiday shopping venues and events. The WonderCraft will be at a few, so I thought I share a little list of what we're signed for and what else is out there.

First on the calendar is early November, The Hill Country Arts and Crafts Fair. Saturday November 7 from 9am-4pm and Sunday November 8 from 11am-4pm and located at Sun City Texas Social Center Ballroom at 2 Texas Drive, its a free event too. Get on out shopping early and see Beth H out there with her Snuggle Herd!


The following week we'll be out with Stella at EAST. The East Austin Studio Tour has become an annual event where galleries and studios all over the east side of Austin open their doors and host events of all sorts. We are going to be across from The Creative Side Jewelry Academy of Austin at 628 Allen Street with our big Airstream Stella, she'll be a boutique, a gallery, and a crafty space. Come by and create something with us!

Then starts the famous Blue Genie Art Bazaar going from December 2-24th! At the Monarch Evens Center.

Next up December 5th and 6th there are two great shows going on, one is hosted by the Wheatesville Co-Op and goes from 10am-5pm. The other is Presented By EtsyAustin and is called Craft Riot! - A handmade revolution in shopping. This year we have the luck to be hosted by the owner of Wines.com at his headquarters near the intersection of Springdale Rd and 290, at 5005 Commercial Park Dr. We're also bringing Stella out to this one to house the photo booth with Santa as well as some of our wares. Its happening Saturday Dec 5th from 10am-8pm and Sunday Dec 6th 11am-7pm, $3 entry includes a glass of wine! (or bottled water) Also on hand will be yummy eats and a ton of our EtsyAustin friends.

After that starts the ever famous Armadillo Christmas Bazaar going from December 11-24th at the Austin Convention Center.

Then comes a fantastic show the Cherrywood Art Fair, Saturday Dec. 12, 10am-6pm and Sunday Dec. 13, 12-6pm at Maplewood Elementary. This is another one that Stella is coming out for, we'll be hosting a DIY gift wrap station and of course she'll have the boutique interior set up for selling.

Finally finishing the season with the Keep Austin Bizarre, at Fiesta Gardens December 18-21st, we're not vending but we'll be out shopping by then!

Hope your holidays are as handmade as ours!