Handmade Chirstmas Shopping: Blue Genie & Armadillo

On Thursday night Beth H and I went Christmas shopping & loaded up on gifts & artsy inspiration. We started off at the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar, now held at the Palmer Events Center. We didn't know what to expect since neither of us had ever been before! (a travesty, I know!)

We had heard that it can be a little more of the old fashioned type of craft show, but we what we were surprised by was the amazing fine art & more expensive gifts available. While it was definitely different from the "indie" craft shows we participate in, we both found some great gifts and stuff we loved for ourselves.

Of course the first thing I bought wasn't a gift really... its for the baby! This awesome boston terrier onesie was made by Animated Closet, from a booth shared with our friend Chantell Champlain of Kalei Doscope Aromacare.

These felt flowers were made from old sweaters that had been felted & formed, they really caught our eye & Beth bought some for a gift.

Right next door there was a candle vendor called Lights Out and I loved all the scents! I bought some for gifts & some to keep. My favorite was Chocolate Martini, mmmm.
We both LOVED the letterpress block vendor, The Olde Press Prints of London, who had these amazing letter collages & stamps. You could buy a drawer and fill it with letters & pictures, so awesome. Beth bought a vintage looking elephant stamp.
At one end of the asile was Flim Flam, a guy making these amazing little metal animal sculptures that when you roll them they move all their limbs. This crab's legs moved and pinchers opened & closed, it was really cool.
After The Armadillo, we were on to Blue Genie. Their entrance sign was spectacular! We were impressed with how they really transformed the whole Marchesa into a store, the entry had several displays & central check out.
We loved our pal Brandy Davis' anatomy collages for her shop Pigsey Art.
One lucky person on my list is getting one of these awesome laser cut lanterns, by Curious Customs.

I was absolutely in love with this amazing wall sculpture from Articulture & I bought a smaller item from them for another lucky person on my list.
I absolutely loved this trunk display from Darla Teagarden Photography, not to mention her amazing work!
It was a very successful shopping night, I think I got everyone on my list covered. I'll have to post more later because I didn't want those on my list who read this to see their gifts before I give them!

Event Recap: Mustache Mania

Mustache Mania, our Movember fund-raising party, was a hit! Big thanks to all of you who came out to get crafty & show your support for men's health awareness! We took some fun photos that I wanted to share.

Look closely to see the freshly etched 'stache on the frosty mug above.

Beth A showed guests how to etch their own glassware. It's fun & easy! Guests paid $5 per glass, which turned out to be a great way for us to raise money for the Movember campaign.

In fact, the etching was such a success that we did a similar craft a few weeks later at The Austin Bleet-Up. We etched glass ornaments at that event & people were loving it!











We also did our ever-popular mustaches-on-a-stick craft. We provide the templates, fabric, glitter & other supplies, and the crafters go wild!

"Double mustache! Oh my gosh! What does it mean???? It's almost a triple..."

Lookin' good, ladies!


Our new friends, Austin Personal Bartenders, were there serving up tasty bevvies. Having' a party? Give them a call - they're awesome!




























Beth A with our Miss Movember, who arrived at the event with a penciled-on 'stache she had been wearing out & about all evening. Such dedication!

What a fun evening. See more pics in our Mustache Mania Flickr set.

Hope you'll join us this weekend at Cherrywood Art Fair for more crafty good times!

P.s. That "Marvellous" tee Beth is wearing is from Paired Hearts, her own handmade line, available in our boutique!  : )

Make & Takes for the Season

First up this Friday (tomorrow!) we're setting up at the Austin Bleet-Up on the rooftop terrace of Whole Foods downtown, 7pm-midnight. We'll have a pop-up shop along with this awesome make & take craft:
Glass etched ornaments! You'll be able to design your ornament and etch it, add glitter glue, ribbon and snowflakes. The etching was almost impossible for me to photograph, but if you really look, you can see some snowflakes etched into this one:


Then next weekend at Cherrywood Art Fair we're bringing Stella out to showcase new stuff from Paired Hearts, Beth Hempton Art & Toys, Broken Ear Productions & Lucy Blue Studio!

We'll also be making these easy paper poinsettias for ornaments & gift toppers.
Cherrywood is our best event of the season! You shouldn't miss it, Saturday December 11, 11am-6pm and Sunday December 12, noon-6pm at Maplewood Elementary at 38 1/2 Street and Maplewood Avenue. See you there!

Inspiring Places: Churchmouse Yarns & Teas

On a recent trip to Seattle, I discovered this beautiful shop called Churchmouse Yarns & Teas. As the name would imply, it's a yarn shop, but with the added lovely bonus of being a tea shop as well! How cute is that?!

Churchmouse is located on Bainbridge Island, just a scenic, half-hour ferry ride from Seattle. As is typical, it was an overcast, cold & drizzly day as my husband & I walked the charming main street, so this cheerful, glowing shop was a welcome sight. Near the front door is a cozy work space where you can take a class or simply grab a seat to try out your new yarn. Just beyond that is a magical land of knittiness with yarns of every type & color imaginable, plus all of the knitting books, needles and nifty little extras a knitter or crocheter could want!

One of my favorite things about the shop was the number of finished projects on display. There were so many amazing & beautiful handmade garments - many made from techniques I'd never even seen before!

I also loved all the little bowls of fancy buttons. I'm a sucker for organization, especially when it involves pretty little things like these buttons. Check out those teeny tiger faces! eek!

But perhaps the coolest part of this amazing knitty wonderland is the little tea shop in the back! Tons of teas, by the bag, tin, even loose tea by the pound, await to delight your senses. Of course they had dozens of cute teacups, teapots and all of the other accessories as well. Too bad we had only taken a day trip over to the island; I wanted to curl up with a cup of tea & stay forever!

E.A.S.T is here!

This weekend kicks off the amazing 9th annual East Austin Studio Tour! We're super excited to be listed as an exhibition space and on the map under E8. We'll be open this weekend and next with our button maker out for all you button fanatics!

We also are hosting two awesome events during the week that are listed under "furthermore" in the catalog.
The first is on Tuesday from 5:30-10pm called Eastside Knit Night & is going to be a gathering of all types of craft lovers! You'll be able to learn knitting or crochet, get FREE drinks (beer & liquor!) and see "Handmade Nation" documentary. Hosted with Yarn Harvest and goodie bags from Gauge Knits! Here is the blog post about it with more details.

The second is on Thursday from 5:30-9 called Mustache Mania. We'll be making mustaches on a stick, stenciling mustaches onto glassware & generally celebrating everyone's mustaches!! Most importantly its a "Movember" event where we're raising money for men's health issues, specifically benefiting LIVESTRONG and the Prostate Cancer Foundation.

Both are FREE events too! Hope to see you out during EAST!

The EAST website is really amazing this year, you gotta check it out!

Photo Essay: Scenes from a Make Day

Today all of us WonderCraft gals got together at Kim's for a crafty Make Day! We each worked on our own projects while catching up on what's going on in each other's lives... oh yeah, and watched some old episodes of "21 Jump Street." Good times, for sure!


Kim had a pretty plate full of Mexican pastries for us. So delicious.


I stuffed toys until my hands were tired.


Jen worked on some vinyl jewelry made from old records.


Beth A screen-printed tees to prep for a crafty bachelorette party we're throwing tomorrow night.


And Kim created some new looks with her stash of colorful beads & gold chain.

It's so much fun to get together to craft, and we all had a super-productive day! We're all working on some great new stuff for our upcoming events, so be sure to check the calendar on our website or follow us on facebook to find out what we're up to. Hope to see you soon!

Inspired at Disneyland

On my recent trip to California I visited "The happiest place on earth", Disneyland! I've always loved it. In high school I even had a season pass. The artists and "imagineers" that make Disneyland's magic have always been an inspiration for me. On this trip I visited with my friend Jesyka Mares and her baby Laelia, it was fun & we spent a lot of the day eating!

While waiting for a table at the new Cafe Orleans we discovered some awesome stuff the New Orleans Square.

First we spotted the caricature artists who can also do really nice regular portraits, too. We even spotted them practicing on each other.
They were also selling these nice watercolors of the haunted mansion, there were many different artist interpretations of the same drawing. I wanted to buy just the blank one and paint it myself!



One of my other favorite shops was a vintage jewelry store, right there in Disneyland! To my dismay it was gone! In its place was a new jewelry/handbag shop with branded merchandise. I snapped this pic because I thought the jewelry really reminded me of our good friend Camille Jackson's work, check out her etsy, Diamonds & Guns.
Next door to that was a glass etching shop where this guy was etching some awesome stuff! You could get your name with your favorite character etched onto all kinds of glassware.


Amazingly we spotted a very cool window display that some hipsters were sitting in. I had to take pics because it was so similar to the theme I devised for our recent Stella makeover. You'll have to stop in and see how she looks & stay tuned for the new pics!


And lastly isn't this bat light amazing?! So Austin!!