Get Crafty, Austin!

We've moved!

2011-08-30T14:07:00.002-05:00

Come find us on Wordpress. All future blog posts will be over there, so please follow us to the new page! www.thewondercraft.com/blog

Handmade round-up: Baby boy

2011-06-24T12:04:00.006-05:00

Lately I've been seeing so many cute baby girl things, that I was on the hunt for some baby boy cuteness for my little man. I discovered these awesome handmade goodies which we'll have to see about carrying in the shop:

1- Little Sidekick on Etsy (found via Austin Craft Riot)
2- Little Goodall on Etsy (another Texan!)
3- By Laura Design on Etsy
4- Crochet Baby Boutique on Etsy
5- BabyBolt on Etsy (Available in our shop!)

You can view more of my handmade baby selections on my Pinterest board.

Here's a pic of the little dude sporting his mama's Mustache Onesie, always available in our shop.

Announcement: Brick & Mortar!

2011-06-09T21:18:00.005-05:00

For those of you who guessed it was a Loft on the East side, you were right! Our new space is in the "Waterstreet Lofts" building at 1601 East Cesar Chavez at Comal. The space is perfect for us with concrete floors, open floor plan and big front windows. We're having a blast planning the displays and choosing paint colors.
The thing we're most excited about is to debut the space not only as a retail store but also as a new creative space for crafters & makers. We aim to provide a social atmosphere where all types can come in and make something, use our tools & supplies and workspace. We'll have planned projects, guest instructors & specialty tools to entice anyone with an itch for DIY.
Some of you may be wondering 'What about Stella the airstream?' We've got plans for her too! We'll be keeping her just down the road at her current location at Starving Art (2324 E. Cesar Chavez) and having her available as another workspace for classes, parties, and private rental. Her new (preliminary) set-up will debut TOMORROW NIGHT at Etsy's Craft Party put on by Austin Craft Riot. The party is free to attend and we'll be screen printing in Stella while tons of other crafty activities go on upstairs in the gallery. Friday June 10th, 7-10pm at Starving Art.

Stay tuned for our planned opening in late July and of course a huge party to celebrate down the road!

Renegade Craft: We need YOU!

2011-05-13T12:30:00.002-05:00

Next weekend is the hugely awesome Renegade Craft Fair! Its at Palmer Events Center, Saturday and Sunday 11-7. We're bringing Stella right into the mix again this year and have a whole new craft for you. Upcycled Cardboard Matchbook Wallets! Which is why we need your lightweight cardboard, like cereal boxes. If you have any of this stuff lying around please let us know & either bring it to the show or arrange to drop it by beforehand.

See how the wallet looks like a matchbook? You'll be able to cover it with a collage of papers and packing tape or use duct tape for the classic look.
We'll have a boat load of magazines, book paper and other materials to use for collage, but feel free to bring your own stash!

Crafting From the Collection: Recap

2011-05-06T15:27:00.005-05:00

Yesterday we missed First Thursday because we took a road trip! We were invited by the Amon Carter Museum in Ft. Worth to present several crafts for their quarterly event, Crafting From the Collection. The above pic is our fabric flower piece inspired by a still life of flowers at the museum. (Some of you may remember us posting about it back in January, that scheduled date got postponed due to the "snowpocaylpse")

In preparation for the demo, we made several example pieces along with a tutorial, which will be available in our Etsy shop and our boutique.We had a great group of very crafty ladies. Everyone quickly picked up the technique and got creative.

We loved the variations on our tutorial, the creative leaves and just the awesome vibe everyone brought to the event. We hope the Amon Carter will be interested in having The WonderCraft come up again to get crafty with another great group.

Before the event started, Jen and I visited the other museums right next to the Amon Carter, The Kimball & the Modern. We loved the architecture, the collections, and enjoyed the beautiful spring weather. This steel tree sculpture ('Conjoined' by artist Roxy Paine) was particularly cool.
How are you inspired by fine art?

Jesyka's Pinwheel Tutorial

2011-04-29T17:21:00.006-05:00

Making the Pinwheel

Don't forget your materials!

1) Take your square of paper, and create guides from each edge toward the center, about 2/3s of the way down. Mark the center. You can do this with either a ruler, or by folding the paper in half from corner to corner, and cutting along the folds.

2) Cut your paper from the edge to the guide. If you are using a paper cutter, it's easy to align the edges across a diagonal to ensure that your cuts all point toward the exact center.

3) Punch a hole at the bottom right corner (or bottom left -- just make sure its the same corner!) of each triangular flap.

4) If your hole punch doesn't have enough give to punch the center hole, use the edge of the skewer to punch the hole. :) If you manage to punch a hole with your hole punch, place the center hold on the edge of a skewer. This helps to keep the holes lined up while we fold in the edges.

5) Put a dab of hot glue near the center. Try not to cover the skewer too much (a little is okay), or you'll have a difficult time getting the skewer back out.

6) Place the holes on the edge over the skewer. It's best to go in a rotational order. Glue in between each layer if needed. Now we have a basic pinwheel! I prefer to have a more finished piece, so I like to make a centerpiece to go over the little flaps in the center.
Making the Centerpiece

7) Get out your small square of paper and corner punch.

8) Punch those corners!

9) Using your hole puncher, punch a hole in the middle.

10) Add a bit more glue to the center.

11) Place the small paper over the skewer. I like to place it so a corner of the the small paper is in the center of each flap.

12) Place an eyelet in the center. Use the eyelet setter to really help it stick together, and keep it sturdy. The pinwheel is done and we are ready for the next stage!
Making the Pinwheel Stick

13) Place a small dab of hot glue at the blunt end of the bamboo skewer.

14) Cut your ribbon at a 45° angle and place the edge flush against the top of the blunt end of the skewer to get the ribbon to twist nicely and evenly around your skewer. To ensure you have enough ribbon, do not cut the ribbon from the spool until we are done wrapping.

15) Continue wrapping the ribbon around the skewer.

16) Place a small bit of glue at the tip of the skewer.

17) Cut the ribbon after you wrap it around the glue. Now get out your wooden beads!

18) Place the bead on the end of the skewer. Add some glue to make it stay! (not shown).

Assembling the Pinwheel

19) Slide a couple of beads on to the pinhead.

20) Next, slide the pinwheel on, front facing the pinhead.

21) Pull the pin through the back.

22) Add a few more beads to the pin.

23) Stick your pin through the ribbon-wrapped skewer about an inch and a half down from the blunt edge. If you're having trouble, use an ice pic or a nail and hammer to start the hole. :) At this point you'll want to make sure it spins, so blow on your pinwheel. If it gets stuck, you'll want to add more beads between the pinwheel an the skewer (you can see how I added a fourth bead to ensure that it spins nicely).

24) Using your wire cutters, trim the excess pin.

25) There will be a little knub left, which could cut someone, so;

26) Put a dab of hot glue over the knub to protect fingers. You could cover with another bead or another piece of ribbon if you want to distract from it.

27) Glue a bead on the top, if you have not already done so.

28) And we are done! Admire your completed work. :)

Jesyka's Pinwheel Tutorial: Materials List

2011-04-28T14:56:00.004-05:00

I made these sweet pinwheels for favors and decor for my daughter's birthday party, and although I know there are plenty of pinwheel tutorials out there in blogland, I thought I would make my contribution seeing as these are a bit more elaborate than I have seen elsewhere. Since the materials list is long, (and I need a bit more time to prepare the step-by-step guide--Laelia is napping less and needing mommy more!), I'm releasing the materials list first, and hopefully I'll have the tutorial ready to go tomorrow! Stay tuned!

1) Paper! A lightweight cardstock works best, too thin and it doesn't have enough substance, and too thick it's too hard to fold, although any paper will definitely work. We even used some spray mount and glued some wrapping papers together to make some pretty double sided sheets (wrapping paper is great for many things, it's so cheap compared to the expensive sheets used for scrapbooking!). We did 6" x 6" for the large wheels, and 4.5" x 4.5" for the smaller wheels.

2) Scissors - For cutting slits in the paper. Alternately, you can use a paper cutter. I used both, depending on what was closest, they both have their advantages and disadvantages. A paper cutter will assure you a straight measured line, but there is something satisfying about picking up and just eyeballing a 45° angle...

3) Wire Cutters - The sort you'd use for jewelry making will work just fine. These are to cut the backs off the pins once we have them through the skewers.

4) Ribbon - To wrap around the skewers. Make. Pretty.

5) Eyelet Setter - To help set the eyelet in the center of the pinwheel. I have this set from JoAnns.

6) Beads - I used some glass beads I have had for about 15 years! Any beads larger than a seed bead has potential to work here.

7) Eyelets - These came as a set with the eyelet setter I bought. Use these at the center of the pinwheel.

8) Pins - A pin with a decorative head will work best, or you can glue a button or a cabochon will work as well. Just make sure that the pin head is large enough to hold on a bead. I bought these pins to hold the ribbon on the bouquets for my wedding. :)

9) Large Wooden Painted Beads - These go on the ends of the skewer to finish it off nicely. I bought a big pack of wood beads like these from JoAnns.

10) Hole Punch - You'll use this to punch holes, of course! Use a small hole punch.

11) More Paper! - These are 1.5" x 1.5" pieces of paper that get prettied up and are used in the center of the pinwheel.

12) Fancy Edge Cutter - To pretty up that piece of paper I was just typing about. :)

13) Bamboo Skewers - Use as the base of the pinwheel.

14) Glue Gun - We can always use a glue gun!

Shop +Craft = Shop Crafty!

2011-04-15T12:17:00.003-05:00

Our first big spring show is finally HERE! Shop Crafty is this Saturday, April 16th 10am-5pm and I've been geting really amped up about all the cool stuff that will be going on at the show.

First off, you'd better be early because the first 30 will receive awesome goodie bags full of great stuff from us and the other sponsors! We've donated one of crafty tutorials for the ever popular Upcycled Strand Necklace. Read here for more about the other sponsors.And Since we're crafty studio sponsors, we'll have a huge booth with craft lounge! The craft we're doing is to collage & decoupage onto match boxes.

Great if you need matches on display anywhere (um...probably a good idea in the bathroom...) and fun if you just need a little box for buttons or other treasures (ie. if you are a kid who shouldn't have matches or a kid at heart who loves treasure boxes).
It will be a FREE craft, so come play with us! And if you want, bring your own items to decoupage, we'll have lots of great papers & supplies available.

Get Inspired: Pinterest

2011-04-01T14:24:00.002-05:00

I'd like to make the forecast that Pinterest is going to be the next big thing. I might be wrong, but I'm certainly enjoying 'wasting' a lot of time getting sucked down its rabbit hole. Honestly, I'm starting to look at it more than Facebook! The above image is from my "front page", all the ever changing goodies I see when I log in.

What is Pinterest? They describe it like this in the about section of Pinterest "Think of Pinterest as a virtual pinboard — a place where you can create collections of things you love and "follow" collections created by people with great taste." But for me its a cross between a visual twitter and a really pretty google image search meets google reader. The layout is great and the functionality is so easy. What I like best is that I don't have to open any new programs, or do anything special exactly, other than installing the little browser add-on which makes pinning something super simple. Without investing any time in learning to use it, I can just create inspiration boards, group products together, and keep track of the things I like and inspire me!
This image from Kim's "Ideas" board, one of my favorite boards.

Why am I telling all of you about it? Well, one of my favorite things to follow on Pinterest is the ever growing DIY segment. So many people have boards titled DIY and there are some really great ideas, how-tos, and of course more inspiration!
This from Jesyka's "I heart handmade quilts" board, also great.

And, the more people on Pinterest the wider the variety & quality of the stuff pinned thus making searching on Pinterest better and better. I just can't get enough of it! (While looking for images to use in this post, I again got sucked down the rabbit hole!)

Like Clockwork

2011-03-22T00:04:00.006-05:00

Jen here. Recycling and upcycling are two of my favorite ways to get material for my projects. At the last bead show I attended I bought a bag of watch parts and proceeded to play with them the second I got back to a work space. I had a few used gift cards around and figured I'd throw those into the mix, too.

Here is the random mix of parts before I started playing.

I started cutting shapes out of the gift cards and drilled holes in them. Hmmm, wonder where I got them... hee hee.

Here are some earrings I made with just findings and watch parts.

And the ones I paired with the gift card shapes and watch parts.

Watch parts and beads...

The most fun for me is spreading out all the random materials I collect and just start mixing and matching. Put stuff next to each other to see how materials interact visually. Basically, just play and see what happens. Playing without expectations is the surest way to break any creative block.

Hearts Afire

2011-03-21T19:52:00.007-05:00

Jen here. Thought I'd share my latest project. I was sitting at my table during the Staple! show listening to my neighbor talk about how his friend modified one of those blank Munny's by cutting out it's chest and dangling a heart from the inside. Somehow that translated into this necklace idea.

I started with a sketch. The idea for the ring around the heart was modeled after a hose clamp, like the ones you find under the hood of your car. I wanted to add texture so I thought it would be nice to make the heart out of felt.

I had intended to use brass for the ring but couldn't find it due to my recent move so I finally cut into the silver sheets I've had laying around for years. It felt good being brave enough to use it.

So I cut into the silver, drilled holes at each end, shaped it around one of my mandrels and bent the ends. I took some wire, looped it and hung some chain from the center.

I cut out the felt heart...

... sewed the edges and stuffed it with cotton.

Add some chain and there is my necklace idea pretty much how I was imagining it. Which is a rare thing, but a pleasant surprise.

Creative Music Videos

2011-03-17T15:05:00.000-05:00

In honor of SXSW, we thought we would share with you some artistic music videos that may inspire your next project!

PacoVolume Cookie Machine
What you'll find in this video: Stop Motion Animation (hereto refered to as "SMA") paper, typography, rotoscoping, perler beads, embroidery thread, nails, clay... I'm definitely leaving something out.

Wax Tailor featuring Charlie Winston I own you
What you'll find in this video: SMA paper cut outs that create an entire city, a fold out house, lots of typography.

Architecture in Helsinki Like it or Not
What you'll find in this video: ZOMG the whole thing is embroidered!

They Might Be Giants Why does the sun shine?
What you'll find in this video: SMA felt cats explain why the sun is so darn hot. Mmmm, crafts AND science!

Lisa Hannigan I don't know
What you'll find in this video: An empty room becomes filled with paper cut outs.

White Stripes Fell in Love with a Girl
What you'll find in this video: SMA Lego goodness. Michael Gondry goodness. And perhaps a weird memory of high school...

Ok Go This too Shall Pass
What you'll find in this video: An elaborate Rube Goldberg Machine. Legos make a cameo.

Smashing Pumpkins Tonight Tonight
What you'll find in this video: A creepy paper mache moon. More weird high school memories.

We can't have a post about music videos on Get Crafty with out Leslie and the Lys!
Leslie and the Lys Craft Talk
What you'll find in this video: A giant gem sweater. :D

*Warning!* Shameless Plug Ahead! If you have a love for Rock n Roll, my brother's band Night Horse is in from Los Angeles to play SXSW this year. Check them out if you dare!

It's Curtains...For My Bed

2011-03-10T11:27:00.021-06:00

I've moved into a loft which is basically one open space, so I thought it would be nice to divide the space up a little. I wanted to create a separate space for my sleeping area as the rest of the space is a working/crafting area. I decided to make and install curtain and it gave me the chance to get a little creative...

Since there were no walls on which to install a run of the mill curtain rod, I had to find an alternative that would allow me to hang the rod by attaching it to one wall and suspending the other end some how. So here's what I came up with. The rod is actually a 10 foot galvanized plumbing pipe!

On the suspension side, I used a chain with a ring at the end of it suspended from the rafters. That little blue bit is painter's tape. Here's the part where I admit that I didn't do this perfectly. Since I didn't have a high enough ladder. I taped a hook to the end of my broom handle then hooked it to the rafter. I then tugged hard (maybe too hard) to pull the tape off...and not all of it came off. So I'm gonna need to borrow a ladder and do it right...lol.

The pipe also happens to be threaded on both ends so I used a plumbing floor flange, but installed it on the wall and simply screwed in the end.

I made the curtains from liner because it was cheap and I didn't need any real thickness because these were just to divide space and I didn't want to lose much light anyway. I made very simple curtains by folding the top edge over twice and then I sewed about half an inch in from the top and a half an inch from the bottom of the folded edge...

and here's the part where the real sewers might want to close their eyes/shut their ears, I cut a slit every five and seven inches alternating and fed the pipe through (as you can see below). This is what gave the curtains a gathered look without having to do a proper gather. So if you look closely you can see the unfinished/frayed edges, but sigh, I am admittedly a quick and dirty crafter. Would be curious to hear ideas of how people might get around the fray. I thought about iron on ribbon...Any ideas?

I use ribbons to tie the curtains when I don't want them blocking the space. I will eventually install a hook on the side of the wall so I can sweep them to one side, if necessary.

I liked the look so well, that I decided to install it at the head of the bed as well. Ok, ok, it's also because I have commitment issues with putting artwork on walls and this was an easy way out. ;)

Get Crafty during SXSW!

2011-03-03T12:14:00.007-06:00

Every year our town goes on overload during South by Southwest (SXSW) and there is something new and different to do every night of the week. I'm going to let ya'll know about some artsy & crafty events that are totally open to the public and should not be missed!

Kicking things off on Friday, March 11th, Up Collective is having their first ever gallery opening from 7-10pm at Starving Art Studios. The new collective consists of the artists we share quarters with at Starving Art, and they're planning some great programming all year, so stay tuned!

Artist in residence, Emily Mitchell is heading up the group and does amazing drawings of faces, as evidenced in her self portrait, above.On Saturday, March 12th, you'll have a couple options. First off, the folks from Etsy.com, headquartered in Brooklyn, are heading down and hosting two days of parties on Saturday and Sunday, 12pm-2am at 222 on 6th Street (Aces Lounge). The programming will include on site make and take crafts, DIY installations, an awesome showcase of local crafters put up by EtsyAustin (full disclosure, I'm the president of EtsyAustin), a fashion show from Burda Style, panel discussions from big names in the crafting industry, and of course face time with the peeps who make Etsy amazing! Visit the event page on Facebook for more details and to RSVP.

Also on Saturday the 12th, Friday the 18th and Sat. the 19th, Equinox Mish Mash goes down at Starving Art's backlot (Blue Starlite), featuring art, film and music. See their Facebook event pages for more details. Stella's will be open for business during these parties, so come on by and say hello!

Don't forget to visit South Congress both weekends to shop tons of local artists!

For those of you into music, I have to plug my hubs. His podcast, Active Listener, is set to release a series of SXSW favorites. He's listened to about half of the 2000 bands set to come, and will let you know his favorites and what not to miss in the music arena. Last year he had 13 mixes of different genres!

Hope your SXSW experience this year is awesome! Let us know what you're up to!

My Handmade Nursery

2011-02-23T18:35:00.007-06:00

Today I was at last able to get some decent pictures of the nursery. Baby Orion was born way back on January 8th and almost everything in the nursery was ready for him. I know I've mentioned a few projects in previous posts so here they are, finally!

A few weeks ago in the post about the Martha Stewart Fabric Crafts book I mentioned that I used her tutorial to make a bumper for my crib. I didn't follow it exactly, and thus my bumper is more floppy than I'd like, and I definitely ran into a few crafty disasters, but I'm really happy with it. Kim and my mom helped me finish it in time, only a week before Orion's due date.
We did a patchwork of a bunch of lovely Echino fabrics I bought both here at the Stitch Lab and back in LA at Michael Levine. Getting the order of the patchwork just right was pretty complicated, especially since I've never done quilting!
I'm proud of the finished product and Orion loves to stare at it, especially the black buses. You can also see the signed crib sheet from my shower that I love to read for Orion.

Also from my Texas baby shower, the monster mobile! Now making that mobile was a lot more time consuming than I'd figured, below is the way I did the layout. I actually made two mobiles since I had so many monsters,the second one is for over the changing table, and he loves it!Some of you know the story of my crib, so I'll just tell a condensed version here. Long story short I couldn't find the crib that I'd fallen in love with available anywhere, so I ended up buying it on Craigslist from someone in Orange County, CA! Had it shipped out here and then I painted the ends gray to match the nursery better (they were originally a blue shade that I detested). I had specifically fallen in love with the slats with their little circles, and still, I'm in love with it!We also did a DIY changing table inside our old armoire. Aaron built a little slide out shelf for the pad to go on and it works like a charm. We ended up taking the doors off it though, cause it was annoying to always have to open them up when O needed a changing. Also above on the back of our glider, you can see this quilt a friend of mine's mom made, its pretty amazing!
Here is the opposite view of the room with our little fold out futon for guests, I have been meaning to get it reupholstered so for the pic I just tucked the fabric's on, you get the idea. The little owl guy there is a crocheted gift from a friend in LA who owns Peanut Butter Dynamite, she also made the crochet throw hanging on the side of the crib. And note my Vampire Weekend print I got last year at the SXSW flat stock show.

Next, I'll talk about the lighting. We got this sweet anemone light (I'd seen on the Project Nursery blog) from my awesome Mother-in-law, but when it arrived it was soooo heavy. Probably weighed like 50lbs and the screws were all but impossible to get in, so we had to rig up this system to perch it up against the ceiling and screw it in (mind you I was like super prego during this project and basically no help). You might be able to see in the pic, but we used a bunch of craft books to get the right height, haha!The other lights are an LED strand of lights from Ikea that I added the little balls on. I got the colored balls from Thailand when we were on our trip and hadn't figured out a use til now. I had to hot glue them onto the strand and they ended up working perfectly.

Down in the corner there you can see the octopus chair I designed for Babystyle when I worked there in 2006, a family friend had it as a hand-me-down and was so generous to give it to us!

And lastly, I sewed up these little owls from a kit I bought at the Tate Modern in London when I was there last year, they're puppets!

Visual Indulgence; Arranging Items by Color

2011-02-17T01:39:00.014-06:00

Hello Crafters! I'd like to introduce myself! My name is Jesyka D'Itri Marés and I run my blog Visual Vocabulary and my small (but growing!) Etsy shop, in Flore. I'm also a freelance graphic designer and full time mom to one little (a girl version). Beth A and I are besties from High School, and she asked me to be a regular guest blogger here at Get Crafty! Beth mentioned me back in October when she made a post about her trip to So Cal. I'm so excited to be a small part of the awesomeness that is the wondercraft and all that I get to hear about it from way out in Los Angeles! I hope to be sharing part of the scene here in LA with you, hitting up some of our famous flea markets and some great shops that specialize in handmade, as well as sharing some of my own artistic endeavors or aesthetic musings. Today I'll be taking from a topic I have covered previously on my blog, arranging books by color.

When I was a child, I would spend hours arranging my things on a shelf. I would play until my ceramic figurines were just right, place my books in order from tallest to shortest, and in numerical order if in a series. This grew into a general love of the book as decorating device--I still think books are hands down the best things to decorate with.

I started organizing my closet by color when I was a teenager (and by what hanger they were on--luckily, I have only the black huggable hangers now, and I don't have to worry about the color of my hangers anymore. That was just too much!). After staring at a bookshelf that was thrown together pell-mell from a recent room re-arranging, I decided I couldn't take it anymore and thought to rearrange them by color. I also did this to my DVDs. Hell, I even arrange our cereal boxes by color, since they sit on an exposed shelf in the kitchen. Most people think I'm a bit crazy when they notice... usually I get "Who did that?!", and then "Well, that's silly... you have to remember the color of a book, instead of the title...". But I figure I'm looking at these books more than I'm looking for them, so having them beautifully arranged makes much more sense. Apparently, that's what the staff at Dwell think as well. Senior Editor Aaron Brit says "We organize our books by color here (not terribly efficient, I fear, though lovely to behold)". And isn't that the truth!

: Bookshelf at Dwell Magazine's office

: Bookshelf at Dwell Magazine's office

In the Dwell article about this little phenomenon, he goes on to describe how, while he can't find the book he's looking for (although he remembers it is yellow), he finds an essay in a back catalog of Design Observer by Rob Giampietro pondering arranging books by color. He confirms my idea; if you have to look at it, it should be pretty.

"Our bookshelves often take up a good deal of space in the places we live and work, and organizing them by color transforms them from a banal backdrop into a poppy, rainbow-colored focal point. Books organized by color are cool to look at."

The inspiration for this post came from my recent finding of the photoblog bookshelf porn. Imagine my delight to discover I am not alone (37k and counting) in my love of the visual splendor books and bookshelves. Even though arranging books by color doesn't make sense to most people who see it at my house, I am not alone!

... And while arranging books by color might be more about aesthetic than ease of finding, arranging other things by color can serve a very practical purpose. Often you don't see how materials could work together until you see them near other materials of a similar shade. Arranging by hue is something (that should be) important to all who make! Let's see how people organize a variety of stashes:

Anna Maria's fabric cupboard

rose hip's yarn stash

So, in-depth intellectual analysis and musings beside, how do you all organize your bookshelves? Beyond that, how do you organize your yarn stashes, your embroidery threads, your beads, and your fabric? Does it help you find new ways of using materials you already had? Share some pics with us if you have them!

Baby It's Cold Outside

2011-02-11T17:27:00.011-06:00

During the recent snow, I took a little walk and enjoyed watching the people (both grown-ups and kids) playing in the soft fluffy whiteness.

The snow makes everything look so fresh.

It made me think of the Keats poem, Bright Star. "...gazing on the new soft-fallen mask."

One of my favorite sights were these cup shaped leaves with snow in them. They looked like little teaspoons full of sugar crystals!

So of course, I immediately began designing in my head

...and this afternoon I finally brought it to fruition.

Yay! I got to use my dapping block!

Ok...so it's a bit literal...

But it's a bit hard to beat Mother Nature's eye for aesthetics. ;)

Viva Venice Handmade - A Photo Essay of Sorts

2011-02-03T12:57:00.022-06:00

Ok...so this post is long overdue, but better late than never, right?

Last year my travels took me to Venice where I found a kindred spirit...in the handmade kind of way. Meet Mauro Vianello of Glass Handmade. Mauro makes incredible handmade glass figurines.

Immediately upon entering the shop we were impressed and excited by the level of detail and artistry of Mauro's amazing creations.

Rated one of the top attractions by Trip Advisor, Mauro's quaint little shop sits outside the regular touristy part of the city and is well worth the short trip to find.

Mauro made us feel as though we were old friends. He told us about his craft, his passion for handmade, and even gave us a little demonstration asking us what we wanted him to make for us. We told him to surprise us, which turned out to be a great move (apparently people always ask for cats and dogs :)). See if you can figure out what he made for us.

Figured it out yet? :)

Yep! It's a swan...who very soon after was dubbed "Swanie". Welcome to the world, Swanie!

Swanie needed a little time to cool down...which of course gave us a little time to shop.

There was no way we were going to go home with only one new friend from this amazing collection, especially since my friend and I were already having custody disputes over Swanie.

So here's the part where I admit, it wasn't me that found this little gem, but my friend and travel partner. It was thanks to his insistence (yes it's hard to believe, but I resisted at first) that I got to have this wonderful experience. I gave up custody of Swanie and it was a difficult choice, but we ended up taking home just three new friends and making a fourth in Mauro. If you are ever in Venice, don't miss out on visiting Mauro! Of course no matter where you are you can visit his website.

I heart Martha: Book Reviews

2011-01-28T11:00:00.003-06:00

Last year for Christmas I received Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts from my mom. I've always loved Martha and looked up to her as an incredibly successful creative woman, but most of all I just love the "look" she creates. The WonderCraft gals and I have been inspired by several of her projects in the Encyclopedia of Crafts from glass etching to rubber stamp carving. Its by no means an exhaustive text of all crafts under the sun and I was disappointed to not find certain crafts, such as needle felting. As the hallmark of Martha, it is a beautiful book with relatively easy to follow instructions and inspiring projects with gorgeous pictures.

This year I put Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts on my wish list and luckily my Mother-in-law got it for me. Its as beautiful and inspiring as her earlier book and a bit more in-depth in terms of sewing instruction and hand sewing techniques. Its also filled with great projects and I've already done one. I used her instructions and pattern to make a semi-quilted crib bumper (pics of that to come!). As in her previous book, the instructions are meant for people with some crafting experience and the projects may require some trial and error, but again Martha provides some awesome inspiration.
This hefty tome is another Martha item from my wishlist. Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook is filled with detailed instructions and handy tips for "caring for everything in your home". Now to be honest I've only read the laundry section, but its amazing, she even includes a spreadsheet on how best to remove specific stains on specific fabrics and recommends printing out a copy of it to post in the laundry room. I'm excited to consult it further on the myriad of things to care for around the house. Unfortunately its 752 pages are inspiring only in their explanations & detail, all the pictures are in black and white.

Do you love Martha? Have you completed any projects from her books, magazines, or shows? Please share!

A Shrine to Jewelry. Why Not?

2011-01-20T08:46:00.001-06:00

You may have read in a previous post that the girls and I are doing a project in conjunction with the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, TX. We were to select three pieces from the collection and create a craft inspired by those pieces. I selected Joseph Cornell's Soap Bubble Set.

Joseph Cornell (1903-1972)

Soap Bubble Set (Lunar Space Object), ca. 1959 Mixed media

The division of space and use of three dimensional objects in the piece inspired me to create a Shadow Box Jewelry Shrine. From a "crafty" perspective (is there such a thing?) I always disliked the idea that jewelry gets hidden away in a box or drawer when not worn and loved the idea that it could be displayed as a part of a work of art and functionally stored at the same time. So I thought I'd share the "how to" with all you crafty folks out there.

I started with a dollar store frame and disassembled it (destruction is fun!)

I then cut a piece of self healing cork to the full size of the back. Cutting to the full size of the frame rather than the size of the glass was important because I wanted the background to sit away from the front of the frame to create a shadow box effect. I had to reinforce the cork with a stiff cardboard, so I cut up a box I had lying around. (Yes, that's a rip in the cork...no I am not Martha Stewart...I hid my boo boo by gluing it to the background. lol)

I glued the cork to the backing.

I then selected an image from a vintage Life magazine. This one happened to be an ad for hair dye...something about washing the grey away.

I then laid the frame upside down over the image, marked the proper placement for the ribbon, and attached the ribbon with both glue and staples.

Finally, I attached the backing to the frame. Broaches can be stuck directly in, the ribbon can be used as an earring hanger, and T-pins can be used to display any other jewelry in any desired configuration. Et Voila!

Fabric Flowers Inspired by Roesen Painting

2011-01-06T13:53:00.000-06:00

Severin Roesen (1815 or 1816—after 1872)
Still Life of Flowers and Fruit with a River Landscape in the Distance, 1867
oil on canvas; Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

Earlier this week Beth A & our fab new assistant, Marley, came over for a make day in preparation of our upcoming demo at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. We were invited to present a few handmade projects inspired by works in the museum's collection as part of their Crafting from the Collection series. We'll be road-tripping up to Ft. Worth for this funtastic event on February 3!

At the Carter Museum, we'll be demonstrating how to make pretty flowers from upcycled t-shirts, as inspired by the abundance of flowers in this gorgeous painting from the collection. We'll have 3 different types to show the museum guests who want to get crafty with us.

One type is made from stacking layers of clover-shaped fabric, resulting in a sweet flower with big, floppy petals. Marley models one she made, showing how cute it would be as an embellishment on her beret.

Another, slightly more involved, type is a really full flower made from circles of fabric that are first folded into wedges & strung together, then fluffed & sewn in place & fluffed some more until you get it just right.

The last type of flower we made was a super-simple rolled one. It works great with the hem of a shirt, especially if it has some fancy trim or stitching.

Here's all of our finished little pretties ready to be placed in an arrangement. I'll be attaching them to stems of some sort & arranging in a vase for their big debut in Ft. Worth.

We have two more art-inspired project examples we'll be taking with us to Ft. Worth as well. Stay tuned to see those in future posts!

Handmade Chirstmas Shopping: Blue Genie & Armadillo

2010-12-18T09:34:00.004-06:00

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

2010-12-09T11:27:00.000-06:00

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

2010-12-02T10:52:00.003-06:00

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

2010-11-17T23:02:00.000-06:00

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!

2010-11-12T14:04:00.004-06:00

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

2010-11-03T23:08:00.000-05:00

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

2010-10-28T09:42:00.007-05:00

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!!

Mustache Mania: November 18th

2010-10-20T16:57:00.009-05:00

Join us November 18th for Mustache Mania!

Mustache Mania is a celebration of the mustache! Make mustaches on a stick while enjoying cold beverages from glassware you've stenciled with your favorite mustache style.

The fun starts at 5:30 and we'll be screening Art School Confidential at 7pm.

This event is also a "Movember" party, we'll be fund raising for cancer research highlighting mens health issues. Livestrong and The Prostate Cancer Foundation will be benefiting.

Its also an official E.A.S.T. Happening and will be listed in the programs!

Check it out on Facebook & invite your friends!

Photo Essay: Our Thrifting Trip

2010-10-20T12:21:00.002-05:00

On Monday, all 4 of us WonderCraft gals got together for a fun field trip. Beth A was on the hunt for more goodies for Stella's makeover, plus we were all on the lookout for must-haves for our Halloween costumes. We started out at First Rate Fixtures, where we really, really wanted to buy this flying mannequin & somehow attach it to Stella!

But we refrained, and just bought these cool hands instead.

We also shopped at Out of the Past, which is packed to the brim with amazing finds like this little hoot owl.

This witch must have jinxed us...

Because after our last stop at Savers, we came out to find that Beth A's car battery was dead. A friend of Jen's came over & tried to give us a jump, but it was just not happening, so he had to just drive us home instead. Luckily, we were all still on a thrifting high, and tons of friendly folks stopped to offer help, so it wasn't too bad. We love ya, Austin!

You can see more pics from our thriftapalooza in my Scenic Austin Flickr set.

Be sure to come out for the big reveal of Stella's new look at Glam, Glitter & Gore this Saturday!

My very crafty Baby Shower!

2010-10-14T12:10:00.007-05:00

A couple weeks ago I had a baby shower out in California at my parents house in Thousand Oaks. It was hosted by my mom & her best friend Patric Dodson & my best friend and crafty pal Jesyka D'Itri Mares. Who also made me the cutest invites ever! Check out her blog and etsy.

We'd planned a few crafty projects which were loads of fun, so I thought I'd share some pics of everyone getting into it. We decorated onesies with flocking, markers, iron-on applique & embroidery. They all turned out totally cute and unique! My little guy will have tons of stuff to wear.

We also had guests write messages to baby on a fitted crib sheet, which turned out so sweet and sentimental, something I'll keep forever!

My sister-in-law took all these amazing pics and crocheted the baby this awesome blanket! Check out her etsy shop: Crazystars

Eastside Knit Night: November 16th

2010-10-14T10:45:00.015-05:00

Join us November 16th for Eastside Knit Night!

We've partnered up with Yarn Harvest, Austin’s only sweater recycling yarn company, to bring fiber arts to the forefront during this year’s East Austin Studio Tour. The tour is an annual showcase of artists’ studios, as well as an opportunity to see what is new in the art world of East Austin. Crafters attending the Eastside Knit Night will meet and mingle with experienced knitters and crocheters to learn the basics of knitting and see some advanced skills. During the event, Yarn Harvest will roll out their new line of luxurious recycled cashmere yarn, just in time for the cooler weather.

Our knitting/crochet teachers will include Tara Tschillard of Fifty Acorns, Maggie Murphy of Assorted Musings, Julia Chambers of Pixie Worx, Andrea Harris-Giron of Bitch Stitch & Kelly Minton of kellymagelli.

A special screening of the indie documentary “Handmade Nation,” will showcase the do-it-
yourself culture that is sweeping the nation. The film features several of Austin’s well-known
visionary crafters including; Jenny Hart of Sublime Stitching and Magda Sayeg, of Knitta, Please guerilla knitted art fame.

Sponsor, Gauge Knits, offers up give-aways, including goodie bags to the first 30 peeps who arrive!

AND free beer sponsored by St. Arnold's! With snacks served by Reel Popcorn, too!

And DRINK sponsors Treaty Oak Rum & Graham's Texas Tea have joined in too!

Knitting, crocheting, food and drinks begins at 5:30pm
Screening of “Handmade Nation” around 8:30pm
Starving Art Studios, 2326 E Cesar Chavez

It's an official EAST happening & will be listed in the program!

Craftastic Event: Glam, Glitter & Gore, Oct. 23

2010-10-05T11:33:00.001-05:00

We're teaming up with local artist Jennifer Cunningham to present a super-fun, seasonal art, fashion & shopping extravaganza! It will be on Saturday, Oct. 23, with a variety of activities going on throughout the day and night. However, you can see the Glam, Glitter & Gore art installation by Jennifer & a slew of other awesome resident artists at Starving Art Studios/EAT during the whole month of October.

Starting at noon, the indoor artist market, food trailers and outdoor art & craft vendors will all be open to the public. There will be family-friendly craft projects, face painting, and various other fall festival activities going on.

From 6-10pm we'll have evening programming for the adults, including a closing reception for the in-house artist exhibition, drinks, live music by Auroravore, Tai Collins & others TBD, a costume contest, photo booths & more! The main attraction will be a fabulous fashion show featuring collaborative collections by Jennifer Cunningham, Anslee Connell & Megan Summerville.

Wearable and visual art will be available for sale in all sorts of shapes, sizes, and price ranges, so come on out & support a fantastic array of local artists all in one spot! We'll also be celebrating the birthdays of Beth H. (that's me!), Beth A. and Sue Zola (Austin's acclaimed glitter art diva) with fun and fabulous surprises!

For more info, check out Jennifer's Austin Wearable Art Examiner article and the Facebook event page. Hope to see you all there!

Stella gets a Makeover!

2010-09-30T17:45:00.006-05:00

We're happy to announce a big bold new idea for Stella! We will be revamping her every 4 months or so & rotating displays, stock and most importantly the customer experience. I got to be the first guinea pig in this art installation/store theme makeover and I wanted to share with you all my ideas as well as put a call out for help.

Here is my inspiration board for how I'm going to create a new look and feel to Stella:
Emphasizing the fairytale aspect, I'd love to include fairytale books and illustrations to help cover some of the walls & benches. I'll be including trees & antlers in the displays along with books. I'm imagining a sophisticated fairytale feel merging with steampunk influences & even a holiday corner that will start out with Halloween and merge to Thanksgiving & Christmas/winter.

I want to make a call for new vendors that would have unique items that fit somewhat with the theme and invite our current vendors to contribute new items inspired by this changeover.

Stuff I'll need help finding:
-Books & paper from books
-Fairytale books & illustrations
-suitable tree branches
-antlers
-apothecary jars

Stay tuned for news regarding the reveal to happen in a few weeks!

Airstream Art

2010-09-23T09:48:00.001-05:00

We're moving Stella to a different spot at Starving Art/E.A.T. this morning, so I've got trailers on the brain, I guess. Out of curiosity, I did a search for "Airstream" on Etsy & these are some of the cool things I found.

I love all of the paintings of Airstreams. One of these trailers is even named Stella, just like ours! The license plate art is really clever - the metal surface is perfect for a depiction of an aluminum trailer. I knew there would be a lot of art featuring the iconic silver trailers, but I didn't know there would also be such a variety of things like housewares, stationery, even doggie tags!

If you're looking for locally handmade Airstream art, don't forget that we carry some at Stella's! We have exclusive Stella soaps from Nepenthe's Bathtime, mirrored acrylic Stella necklaces by Diamonds & Guns, and baby bibs with trailer appliques by BabyBolt!

We were on the News!

2010-09-16T10:15:00.004-05:00

Thanks to the awesome Austin Woman article about us, we got this great interview with Keri Bellacosa on Good Day Austin!

Crafting at Whole Foods?!

2010-09-16T09:32:00.008-05:00

Join us this weekend to celebrate Whole Foods' 30th Birthday! We've been invited out to get crafty with folks from 12-3pm on Saturday, Sept. 18th.

When you stop by our booth you'll be able to make a cute foodie magnet using some rubber stamps we'll be carving up on-site.

The rubber stamp demo will show all ages how fun and easy it is to make your own stamps. Teens over 15 and adults will be able to try it out too! All ages can get creative making magnet collages using stamps, cool papers & your own drawings.

Check out this very informative rubber stamp video where I first learned the simple techniques of stamp carving.

Stamp Carving from Geninne D. Zlatkis on Vimeo.

Hope to see you there!

Craftrepreneurs: Yarn Harvest

2010-09-08T16:14:00.000-05:00

Have you heard of Yarn Harvest? It's Austin's own recycled yarn company, making beautiful yarn from second-hand sweaters! What a creative & eco-friendly manufacturing model. Here's what Yarn Harvest has to say about its nontraditional method:

"By finding a new use for a second-hand, locally-abundant resource, we are able to keep our costs low and our manufacturing local. By not having to make new wool, we are able to reduce the carbon footprint and negative impacts on the environment that making new wool causes. And by getting involved in the wonderful world of knitting, crocheting, and crafting in general, we know that what we make is both quality and a good value."

We love what Yarn Harvest is up to, and we're partnering with them to bring you Eastside Knit Night this November during the East Austin Studio Tour! On Tuesday, 11/16 from 5:30-9pm, you'll be able to hang out with creative knitters & crocheters, learn something new & share your skills at this fantabulous knitty party we're hosting at Starving Art Studios. There will be knit-tastic giveaways, the debut of Yarn Harvest's latest & greatest products & more! Mark your calendars & stay tuned for more details about this fun event.

Knitters & crocheters: Would you like to teach others your technique? We're looking for a few talented folks who want to share their mad skillz at this event. You'd be able to sell your handmade yarn-y creations as well. If interested, please drop us a line at getcrafty[at]thewondercraft[dot]com!

Greg, the friendly guy behind Yarn Harvest, shows off his goods.

Picture Perfect: Win free tickets!

2010-09-02T11:16:00.006-05:00

Next week on Friday, September 10th join us for a Picture Perfect Evening at the Harry Ransom Center at UT. We've been invited out to do a fun make & take using images from the exhibition. We'll be making magnets and buttons combining the interesting variety of images on display. You could even include a picture of yourself from the photo booth!

This event is free for members or $20 for non-members (price includes valet parking) but we're giving away 2 free tickets! Just post a comment here with your favorite photographer and we'll draw a winner from the comments.
Beth H and I got together and made some fun examples of what you can put together with just a few of the images we had on hand. (Of course we included an image of Stella, just for fun!)
Beth H made this great collage using 4 different images, I love the grass paired with the pyramids.
Now you can make your very own Stella Magnet! Our favorite of course.

Check this out: Comercial for The WonderCraft at Starving Art

2010-08-31T20:04:00.004-05:00

Inspiring Places: The Blanton Museum of Art

2010-08-23T10:38:00.000-05:00

Re-posted from Crafty Mishmash, 8/22/10.

I recently visited the Matisse as Printmaker exhibit at The Blanton and fell in love. I hadn't set foot in this lovely little gem of a museum on The University of Texas campus since I was an art student at UT, and I'm really glad I've rediscovered it.

This collection of etchings, lino-cuts, lithographs & other prints by Henri Matisse was phenomenal! I've been a big admirer of his work since I first saw his Woman in a Purple Coat at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston on a high school field trip. Getting a long look at that wondrous painting up close & personal had a powerful effect on me and influenced my decision to pursue an art degree.

What has always astounded me about Matisse's work is his extremely adept handling of line. He had an uncanny ability to capture the essence of his subject matter with a few perfectly placed, wonderfully expressive lines. Matisse's magical way with line holds true for all of his artwork, be it a seemingly simple painting of lemons in a bowl or one of his colorful paper collages, but I find it especially lovely in the portraits he drew.

His Young Woman Contemplating a Goldfish Bowl (below), one of a series of etchings of women gazing at goldfish in a bowl, really knocked me out. I love the little details: the curls of hair, the overlapped hands and the way the ladies' chins rest on them, and of course the shapes of the goldfish themselves, all suggested by a few carefully observed lines. These lines by Matisse never seem over-worked. He placed them confidently & gracefully, without regard to perfection, which imparts so much energy and expressive character to his work.

Unfortunately, the Matisse as Printmaker exhibit at The Blanton is now closed & will soon be heading up to Canada for a showing at the Art Gallery of Alberta. But The Blanton has tons more to offer! They have very impressive & renowned permanent collections as well as an ongoing variety of temporary exhibitions.

And get this, admission is free every Thursday! How great is that? Get on over to The Blanton & treat your eyes to some fabulous art! Find all the details on their Visit page.

Young Woman Contemplating a Goldfish Bowl

Upcycled inspirations: My stash of trash

2010-08-18T13:07:00.006-05:00

This is my small box of recyclables that I'm intent on keeping because I've just got too many crafty ideas for whats inside, I hope someday I will follow through and turn this "trash", as my husband calls it, into treasures.

For the past few weeks I've been in a major reorganization mode. I'm reading Totally Organized by Bonnie McCullough and trying to get control of my house! (especially the craft room) I've purchased big shelving and drawers from Ikea and I'm almost there. I'll be posting before and after pics at a later date. Through the process I've downsized and assembled my collection of recycleable materials suitable for crafting. Here are some pics of what is in the box:
Of course I have various paper scraps, so hard to throw away! And these candle holders, what should I do with them?

Keyboard innards from our Robot Challenge. Glass bottles that had cool shapes.

The remains of ribbon spools and of course toilet paper tubes!

What am I planning to do with all this junk? I can't get rid of it because I have so many ideas to upcycle it!

My favorite is this:I saw this a while back and started keeping all my Dublin Dr. Pepper bottles, but then there were way to many so I am now limited to the bottles I have until I actually do something with them. Find the instructions here.Bottles also look great with a few coats of brightly colored spray paint, find more ideas at Someday Crafts.
I've been wanting to make tiny flag buntings with my little paper scraps, maybe color them with water color or paint, write a message on them, cute! This one I found on Etsy.This is the coolest thing to do with the keyboard insides, instructions here. Or I was thinking of making a journal cover.... I made these coasters a long time ago with the ribbon spools and foam sheets that already have adhesive on the back, simple and fun! So, of course, now I have to keep all my ribbon spools.
Some of you may remember my post from last October, showing what to do with toilet paper tubes, now I can make a huge one!

But what should I do with those candle holders?

Do you have a bin of "trash" that you can't part with for crafty hoarding reasons? My advice is keep it limited to one box, and only add to it after you've taken something out, that way it won't overtake your whole closet. And someday make something with all that stuff! Let us know if you have.

Don't Miss These Austin Fashion Week Parties!

2010-08-11T23:36:00.000-05:00

Lots of great events going on during Austin Fashion Week, so I thought I'd share a few of our EtsyAustin teammates' events. There will be goody bags, special sales, raffles, delicious local drinks & eats and fashion galore! All of these parties sound like a lot of fun & a cool way to meet some of our talented local designers. Don't miss the fun!

Camille Jackson, the designer behind Diamonds & Guns by Action Jackson, will be throwing a retro-glam Pin-Ups & Pastries party at JR Salon on Sunday, 8/15. Cupcakes, cocktails, fabulous pin-up inspired fashion, plus an amazing gift basket to be raffled off! And I can't tell you how excited I am that my new lingerie boutique, Kuhmillion.com, is sponsoring Camille's event - it's gonna be marvelous!

Also on 8/15, join Merritt Gade for Shear Decadence at Salon Intuitions. There will be tons of delicious treats there, too, plus another awesome raffle and of course, Merritt Gade Fine Handmades. Come see Merritt's beautiful jewelry and bridal accessories in the mini runway show - it's sure to be stunning! Snag some Merritt Gade earrings at 20% off, a gift bag from local businesses, and don't forget to capture the fun of the evening in the Booth 66 photo booth!

As if all of this fun on Sunday weren't enough, you can keep the party going on Monday, too! On Monday evening, 8/16, Jetset to Style with fabulous handbag designer Anne Marie Beard. This one takes place at a shoe salon - be still my beating heart! Stella Says Go is the destination for an evening of fun with cocktails & nibbles from great local sponsors, gift bags for the first 25 & a fashion show. Plus, part of the proceeds will be donated to 1 House at a Time.

Know any more great Fashion Week parties we should all check out? Leave the deets or a link in the comments!

DIY day: Makin' Fascinators

2010-08-04T20:44:00.005-05:00

Today Beth H and I got ready for an upcoming crafty party we're hosting for some girls. They chose a fun craft of making flower and feather fascinators. We spent a few hours getting girly and crafty with feathers, flowers, ribbons and our trusty glue guns.

We promised hair clips, head bands, necklaces & bracelets. Beth and I started off by making a few hair clips with fake flowers and feathers, trying a couple different clip types and attachment techniques. Not to mention some important trial and error.
Above is my first attempt at a bracelet, it was too big so I turned it into a headband, which worked much better. This purple bracelet is H's successful go, a very cute corsage!
Our necklace design was simple and it inspired me to make a cute "flower child" style headband, see below.
Do y'all think we should make these into kits? Let us know how you are keeping crafty this summer!

Our New Home: Starving Art and E. A. T.

2010-07-30T12:15:00.002-05:00

This week we bring you an inside look into our new home Starving Art & E. A. T. (East Austin Trailer park Eatery). The whole concept for this new space is completely unique, welcoming and totally Austin, with its awesome location is literally right next door to the famous Juan in a Million on East Cesar Chavez.
We first heard about the new venture during the promotion of their Grand Opening on June 5th, seeing a write up on Thrillist as well as Do512 among other places. What really piqued our interest was the trailer park merging with an artist community. E. A. T. boasts a outdoor movie screening area along with its trailers: Old School Bar B Q, El Sol e la Luna with tacos and other tasty fare, Phoebe's Mud serving up coffee & smoothies, and Iggi's Texatarian a vegetarian take on Texas faves like Frito Pie. Iggi's celebrates their Grand Opening this weekend July 31st with a huge party featuring food, beer, a movie and a giant slip & slide. We'll be open and partaking in the fun, you should too!All of E. A. T. is in the big parking lot next to and behind the big Pink building hosting Starving Art. Inside there are 25 artist studios, a large gallery space and an artist market selling fine art as well as other gift items and jewelry. The gallery hosts monthly openings happening the first Friday of every month. These openings are fun nights including movie screenings and artist demos, showcasing all the open studios and artists. Next is Friday August 6th!
The idea of combining the artists with the food trailers is this "The trailers will work together with the galleries and the arts market to provide a bigger draw for people to come to this area, therefore giving artists more exposure. Likewise the art openings will create a draw that will also give the trailers exposure." We think this is a great idea and we're really excited to be a part of the community.

Lastly its been brought to life by a team of two guys described on the Starving Art website like this "Starving Art Studios and E.A.T. is a venture brought to you by Josh Frank, the guy who brought you TREAT, the trailer you all grew to love. Art management support and direction provided by J.Haley, manager of Pump Project Satelilte, facilities developmental Lead Foreman for the creation of The United States Art Authority, and all around nice guy. " We'd definitely agree.

Book Review: Flowers Chic & Cheap

2010-07-21T16:25:00.004-05:00

Flowers Chic & Cheap by Carlos Mota is a fabulous new how-to book on decorating with flowers. As a gardener & lover of cut flowers & giving homegrown bouquets, I was really intrigued by the title. The cover, featuring a cute vintage, polka dot teapot with 2 peonies in it, hints at the many pretty, yet fun & carefree, decorating ideas that await you inside this book.

The author, Carlos Mota, editor at large for Elle Decor, is a man who displays impeccable taste, yet a very down-to-earth approach to decorating. For instance, in the introduction, he reminds readers not to overlook the humble soup can or beer bottle when choosing a vase for flowers. My thrifty side really appreciated his acknowledgment that expensive vases are not necessary, as we all have pretty & useful vessels already hanging around our homes!

Each arrangement idea is presented in a very clear & easy-to-follow fashion, kind of like a recipe. The basics on care & feeding for your cut flowers are covered, as well as discussion of decorating with other botanicals like branches and fruit (and even silk flowers), different flower combinations that work well together and tips for arranging them in various types of containers & situations, including lots of lovely table settings. The styling ideas covered in the book are fantastic, ranging from super simple, such as a grouping of herb branches in green beer bottles left after a party, to more dramatic (yet still quite easy to pull off) arrangements such as a gorgeous sunflower collection inspired by Van Gogh and a formal arrangement that looks like something out of a painting by the French master, Fragonard. That's the thing that I most love about this book: the reminder to look for beauty & inspiration all around us. Mota encourages us to find ideas for arrangements & color schemes in art that we love, favorite locales, and even the cherished items we've collected in our homes.

Several of Mota's arrangements are a new (to me, at least) take on bouquets, using water tubes & moss instead of the traditional vase full of water. One such unusual, yet surprisingly beautiful, container he uses is a hollowed-out egg. Don't know if I'll ever get around to trying that, but it is a really cool idea! I love Mota's "no rules, anything goes" attitude. Another unconventional container he favors: baby shoes. How cute would that be for a baby shower?! Those arrangements would truly be gifts that kept on giving.

Flowers Chic & Cheap has wonderful decorating ideas for every room of the house, every season & every occasion. It's a beautifully-photographed book that will make you want to liven up your home with flowers a lot more often. I know I plan to!

full disclosure: Crown Publishing sent me a review copy of this book. But that didn't influence my opinion; I honestly love it & highly recommend it! - Beth H

Pixel Pop!

2010-07-15T19:42:00.004-05:00

This Friday we're participating in an awesome event merging fashion, crafting, and music!

We've planned a super fun craft that anyone can do. Our free craft will be Super Hero cuffs that you can make from old tee shirt sleeves! To embellish those cuffs you'll be able to design, cut out, and iron on bright felt flocking (the soft stuff you find on a lot of tee designs).

Jen made this awesome lightening bolt cuff and it was featured along with Beth A's hoodie on Keye TV! Here is the video.
You'll also be able to craft a sweet hoodie like these, simply design and cut out any shapes you want and we press it on. Start brainstorming now so you can make some cool stuff with us tomorrow!
Beth H made her paintbrush go all the way over the shoulder, very original!

Jen's bobcat on her shoulder is my favorite though, she's so talented!

So come on out, we'll be crafting, selling stuff out of our pop-up shop, and generally having a fun-tabulous time! Doors are at 9:30pm Friday July 16th at the Mohawk, see you there!

Craftastic Movies!

2010-07-08T23:04:00.002-05:00

We here at The WonderCraft loooove watching movies, especially the artsy ones! So, inspired by Photojojo's Ultimate Photo Movie Roundup, I thought I'd make my own list of fave movies that feature awesome handmade sets & props. This is just a short list, and I know I've probably left out lots of craftacular flicks, so please leave a note in the comments about others we should all check out.

1. Adventures of Prince Achmed, directed by Lotte Reiniger (1926)

I recently had a very enjoyable evening with friends watching Prince Achmed at the Alamo Drafthouse with a live musical score. This movie is simply stunning! It's the oldest surviving animated film, yet it looks as if it could have been created today. The film is a beautiful feast for the eyes in silhouette style; all of the characters were made of cardboard cut-outs. You can see snippets of Prince Achmed on YouTube, but if a theater in your area screens this film, don't miss it!

2. Coraline, written & directed by Henry Selick (2009)

Coraline, another animated film, is a must-see for makers, filled with crafty goodness in every scene. The entire set, plus all of the characters & props are all totally handmade! The number of tiny details in this film is astounding, too. Itty-bitty sweaters were knit for the characters by Althea Crome - you've got to see this to believe it! Craft did a great write-up about the craftiness of Coraline when the movie came out, which includes a video of Crome knitting those crazy-small sweaters.

3. The Science of Sleep, written & directed by Michel Gondry (2006, French)

This is a movie that I really, really loved, for so many reasons (one of which is that I have a bigtime crush on the star, Gael García Bernal). But aside from the hunk factor, it's just such a cool little love story & a visually arresting film. Bernal's character, Stéphane, is a total dreamer, super-creative & so in touch with his imaginative side that he often confuses it with reality. There are a lot of surreal touches in the film, such as a scene where Stéphane drives a cardboard car. There are also many interesting & unique handmade objects created by Stéphane & his love interest, Stéphanie. These include a little white boat that contains a forest inside, an animatronic horse & a "one-second time machine." Check this wonderful little movie out - I think you'll like the story & all of the unusual handmade props.

4. Fantastic Mr. Fox, directed by Wes Anderson (2009)

Fantastic Mr. Fox is based on the novel of the same name by Roald Dahl, which tells the story of a band of clever animals who raid the nearby large-scale farms. This film is an adorable and funny film that employs stop-motion animation of fabulous handmade puppets. Similarly to Coraline, the filmmakers behind Fantastic Mr. Fox created an amazingly detailed miniature world that is a real treat for the eyes. Take a look behind-the-scenes to see how this fun movie was made in the "Cutting-Edge Fox" video on MakingOf.com.

So what are your favorite craftacular movies? Know of some others that showcase handmade artistry? Please share in the comments!

Homegrown Bouquets for Giving

2010-06-17T11:08:00.000-05:00

{Re-posted from Beth H's blog, Crafty Mishmash}

Taking fresh flowers when visiting friends & family is one of my favorite things to do. Everyone appreciates the gesture, & flowers are perfect for every occasion. Plus, when you've grown them yourself, they are extra special & impressive! : )

Since March, when our garden began bursting into bloom, I've been gifting flowers left & right. It all started when I took my mom & dad a bouquet of pink heirloom roses & rosemary for their wedding anniversary, arranged in one of the canning jars I was returning to Mom. The simple beauty of that arrangement & the joy I got from giving it to them really inspired me. Since then, I've tried to take a homegrown floral gift whenever I'm invited to someone's home.

The bouquet pictured here is one that I took to my mother-in-law as a housewarming gift when Patrick & I first visited their new home in late April. It contains Verbena, Spanish Lavender, Gaura, Rosemary & California Poppies. Granted, none of these flowers are very hardy, so not usually recommended for cut flowers. They are delicate & droop & wither after a day or so, but I don't mind. Their beauty is fleeting, which to me, just makes them more amazing & worthy of our adoration.

my ribbon stash; saved from gifts & packaging & project scraps

Tips for creating your own homegrown bouquets:
- Save empty food jars & bottles of interesting shapes to use as vases; you'll want to have them on hand when the need for a host/hostess gift arises! Plus, it's a great way to reduce/reuse/recycle. I used an olive oil bottle for the arrangement pictured here.
- Tie a ribbon around the mouth of your vase to give it that finishing touch - tres shabby chic!
- Put a few inches of water in the vase before adding the flowers.
- Check for bugs on each stalk; you don't want to gift those tiny stow-aways!
- When arranging the flowers, start with the tallest ones in the middle, then add shorter ones around them.
- Keep turning the vase around as you add the flowers, to ensure that it looks pretty from all angles.
- I aim for an interesting mix of flowers that are tall & short, large & small, bold & delicate (in form & color), and upright & billowy. However, a gorgeous arrangement can also be made from only 1 or 2 kinds of flowers. Just trust your own eye - flowers are so pretty that it's hard to go wrong!

Artist Spotlight: Brandy Davis of Pigsey Art

2010-06-12T00:16:00.004-05:00

We have the great pleasure of knowing and representing in our boutique one very talented and very funny crafter by the name of Brandy Davis, owner of Pigsey Art. I first met Brandy almost two years ago, at one of the first EtsyAustin meetings and her sarcasm and wit won me over immediately, and that was even before I saw her amazingly creative products!Brandy's journals are only the main feature of her unique business which includes magnets (which we carry in Stella's Boutique), bookmarks, and even pendants, all showcasing her love for vintage books and illustrations.

I was able to get Brandy to answer a few questions for me in order to give you a little insight into her business and what she's got goin' on. Check it out:
How and when did you decide to start your crafty business? I had been doing traditional bookbinding as a hobby for many years before I discovered Etsy which is really what pushed me into creating a business. At first, I did some simple paper products to continue my hobby for fun in my first Etsy store in early 2007. By the end of 2007 I had decided to make Pigsey Art a serious business and focus on my love of journals and unique products. In 2008 I went down to a part-time job to make Pigsey Art more of a success as my focus turned to doing local art and craft fairs. Now, I work at Pigsey Art full time out of my spacious workroom in my house and have never been happier.What is your favorite product to make? I love the old school readers in particular, I get really excited when I find a box of them. The classic stylization and dynamic illustrations easily make them my favourite books to turn into journals. People seem to love them too because of the childhood nostalgia they provoke.Anything new coming up? I am actually just starting to get the framework together to start screen printing on blank book covers and I plan to have a line of them rolled out by the fall. It's really exciting to start a new product and offer even more diversity to your loyal customers.

What is your favorite local business? I am an absolutely huge fan of Craft Chi owned and operated by Amy Ybarra-Murphy. I love her screen printed images which are classically simple and reminiscent of nature. She uses a fabulous combination of colours and organic fabrics in a wide range of products, many of which I own. I'm even having her make some custom items right now, I love her! (We also love Craft Chi and carry several of her products in our boutique.)

Wedding Bonanza

2010-06-10T21:57:00.005-05:00

Beth A here, writing from California. I'm out here for the first two of 6 weddings I'm attending this summer. Two of my friends were married last weekend and two more this weekend, and so inspired by all these weddings I thought I'd post about some of my favorite DIY wedding crafts and tips.

First, an easy and great way to add color and flowers without the cost of real flowers, tissue paper flowers add a great pop to any celebration. We even used these to decorate our booth at the Renegade Craft Fair. The how-to is available from the Martha Stewart Weddings DIY blog here.I'm also really inspired by this wedding blog called Once Wed and their DIY projects, especially this cute centerpiece idea:

What WonderCraft DIY day would be complete without a t-shirt craft? Here are some beautiful flowers made from old t-shirts, tutorial and kit available from Alabama Chanin. This is the next craft I'm going to try out for sure! We've still got so many scraps to get through...

Craftrepreneurs: Rosalie Gale, Tara Gentile & Megan Auman

2010-06-03T11:43:00.005-05:00

I've come across some very cool, helpful resources for indie craft biz owners recently & wanted to share. I am simply in awe of the brilliant ladies behind these organizations. Hope you find them as interesting & inspiring as I have! ~Beth H

First up is Rosalie Gale, founder of Unanimous Craft, a tagable, sortable index of resources for crafters, artists and indie business owners. Rosalie says,

"I was inspired to build Unanimous Craft after seeing a huge list of links to different resources that The House of Mouse posted in the Etsy forums. I wanted to make a tool that our community could use to get organized and share information.

It's sort of like Yelp for the crafty community. People can submit resources (great articles on Twitter, awesome magazines, online tools, accounting spreadsheets, inspirational blogs - whatever) and the community votes on the usefulness of each listing. Then, people can curate lists of resources that fall into a common theme like: 10 things you should do when you start your indie business, 500 ways to deal with Twitter, etc."

Pretty awesome, no? Rosalie recently added The WonderCraft to the index - check it out! We are honored! And we'd totally love it if you visited our listing & rated us, so that we might place high in the Popularity Contest. : )

Next up is Tara Gentile of Scoutie Girl fame. Tara has long been an involved & highly respected member of the crafting community through her work as the editor & head writer behind Scoutie Girl, "the blog with a penchant for the passionately handmade."

Now she's taking it up a notch with the launch of her awesome new Big Thinking for Small Businesses blog & a "big thinking" consulting biz. The gist of it:

"We specialize in web strategy, branding, product development, community building, and marketing to help build your small biz empire. Specifically, I work with creative entrepreneurs: those interested in building their businesses by breaking down convention and finding customers who think outside-the-box too.

To help you reach your goals, I have a wide range of products & services. Here you will find self-paced products, a la carte services, and full-fledged invasion packages to suit your needs no matter what stage your empire is in. I only ask that if you decide to work with me or buy my product, you are committed to your own success – regardless of fear, opposition, and self-doubt – as I am."

Sounds amazing; Tara really knows how to cut right to the heart of the matter for small biz owners. I've been very inspired by her writing on her blogs & just bought her "52 Weeks of Blogging Your Passion" e-book! I'm looking forward to getting re-energized about my creative work & revamping my own blog with Tara's wonderful advice.

And last, but certainly not least, Megan Auman, the genius behind Crafting an MBA. Her blog is filled with tons of great information & business advice for designers & makers. It runs the gamut from practical posts on making & manufacturing to extremely thought-provoking discussions on product development & growing your business. The blog covers everything in between & above & beyond these topics, too - it is a wealth of great information!

You can even take part in the Crafting an MBA book club! Megan says,

"One of my goals when starting this website was to create a community where designers and makers could come together and discuss business related books and concepts. Its partly selfish – I always find myself wanting to discuss what I’m reading with others. But I also want to help others read business books and figure out [how] to apply those principals to their own craft-based businesses."

I hope you'll check out these ladies' websites - they're all very engaging reads that inspire deep thinking about our field & offer many amazing resources for growing a small business.

Beth H's Appliqued Towels - Christmas in May!

2010-05-27T15:21:00.001-05:00

On Monday we had a WonderCraft meeting & I finally gave my biz partners
their Christmas gifts! Geez. It's May.

I made a seahorse towel for Beth A, lover of island vacations & scuba-diving explorer of the sea.

For Kim, a true Parisienne at heart,
an Eiffel Tower in the clouds.

And I designed this Robot Chef character especially for Jen, lover of robots & all things sci-fi.

I had every intention of giving these handmade goodies out during the actual holidays, but... I didn't get them finished until February or so, then I wanted to wait until we were all together & our schedules were crazy (although there were several times we were all 4 together when I just forgot them). But anyhoo, I finally gifted them & they were a hit. Better late than never! : )

Renegade Re-Cap: It rocked and I bought some awesome stuff!

2010-05-20T11:54:00.006-05:00

Last weekend's utterly amazing Renegade Craft Fair (in Austin for the first time ever!) was jam packed with awesome vendors and had a huge turn out to boot! None of us knew what to expect and we were blown away with the rush on Saturday morning. The organizers told us that 1500 people came through the doors in the first hour alone!

By Sunday evening, the crowd had dwindled, we'd run out of "timber" for our "Trick Out Some Timber" craft (luckily people still loved trying the image transfer onto cardboard). Around 6pm I took the opportunity to run around the fair to do my shopping and here is what I bought:

Two heart shaped bracelets from Verameat (I love hearts... I mean Paired Hearts represent!)
And two cutie onesies from harrilu. The toaster is in homage to my pup Toast and I thought the kitten was just adorable. I also ordered a custom clutch from Jenny N. Design, can't wait to receive it! -Like this but with a different leather:

My husband came and bought:

A cool tee from KDS Clothing, and a rad Tortoise poster from Empire Press.

Our booth was rocking it too, here are a bunch of pics to prove it:

Pre-opening, I'm up on the roof to do some cleaning & decorating.

From the time the doors opened on Day 1 until they closed on Day 2, our interactive area was hoppin'!

We showed guests how to "Trick Out Some Timber" with a simple image transfer technique, & then use decoupage &/or picks from our stash of cool ribbon, trims, buttons & baubles to give it some unique flair.

Here comes the Minor Mishap Marching Band!

A steady stream of shoppers enjoyed browsing the handmade goods inside Stella's Boutique (at times it was shoulder-to-shoulder in there!), & we had our famous design-your-own pinback buttons station just outside the door.

A big "thank you" to everyone who came out! We had such a fabulous time spreading the crafty love & made lots of new friends. Can't wait for Renegade Austin 2011! {Oh yes, I think it's gonna happen!} : )

Renegade or Bust! Only 3 more days!!!

2010-05-12T15:38:00.000-05:00

Tissue paper, pipe cleaners & faux jewels, oh my! What are we doing with all of these craftastic materials, you ask? Getting ready for the Renegade Craft Fair, of course!

Beth A & our awesome intern, Caitlin, made dozens of pretty tissue flowers to decorate our booth. I made a sign for our crafty make & take: Trick Out Some Timber! And we made some other super-cool decorations, but you'll have to come out to the show to see those! We have to save some surprises to wow you, right?

By now you've probably heard all about it, but if not, hop over to the Renegade page to get all the deets! It's happening THIS WEEKEND, and believe me, you don't want to miss it. We'll be there with Stella's Boutique (that's right: we're bringing our Airstream right into the events center!) & crafty DIY fun for you guys. There will be over 200 indie-crafters, interactive awesomeness from our friends at The Stitch Lab, Austin Craft Mafia & sooo much more! Too much handmade goodness to list here, so come on out & see for yourself!

Wood You Like To Try This?

2010-05-06T08:32:00.000-05:00

Jen here. The girls at The WonderCraft have been hard at work getting our crafty fun project ready for The Renegade Craft Fair that is coming up just around the corner (May 15th & 16th). I think you guys will have a blast with our project.

I will share a few of the things I did for the sample I made here. One of the things we will be showing everyone at Renegade is a simple image transfer technique. It's super-easy, fun and versatile.

Now, I don't want to spoil the fun on that project so I went with a different technique for this blog post, but the results are similar. I decided to use graphite paper and transfer an image. Not as easy as it sounds. But after drawing in the missing pieces with a marker, I was pretty happy. I embellished it with some pieces I cut out of a doily, then decided to Mod Podge the whole image. Well, it smeared a bit so after fussing with it, I just went with the results and played them up. The result is a much softer look than I had originally planned, but I like it.

If you want to make your own cute wall hanging or pendant then come on down and visit us at Renegade! We'll have a ton of supplies and some great techniques to share.

Project: Pretty Upcycled Jewelry

2010-04-28T15:16:00.007-05:00

We recently hosted a super fun jewelry party and I thought I'd share the project we did together. We were asked to do a jewelry party, but we wanted to do something really different than just beading or basic jewelry techniques. Inspired by these new fabric flower necklaces we've been seeing everywhere lately (Kim and I had spotted a cute one at J Crew in the Domain but this one is from Anthropologie) we spent an afternoon playing with fabric and jewelry parts and designed some fun pieces.

I created this asymmetrical necklace using different fabric qualities straight out of my scrap bin and inserting a large jump ring into the middle of the chain. It was really easy too!
Beth H made the cute green earrings that Jen is sporting in this pic. Jen made several pins that can be converted into hair clips, the possibilities seem endless!

We'll be teaching similar techniques at the upcoming Renegade Craft Fair, so come on by and learn it! Or have your own crafty party or custom class and learn anything you want!

Green Crafts to Honor Earth Day's 40th Anniversary

2010-04-21T10:05:00.000-05:00

Happy Earth Day, everyone! What are you doing to celebrate? I've rounded up some awesome green crafting ideas from the blogosphere to share with you. I hope you find them inspiring!

First up, my absolute favorite idea: Jessica Wilson's Garden to Go tutorial, which she shared on the Craft blog. She made pretty little gift jars full of seeds from her garden, complete with costume jewelry-topped lids, to give to friends.

What a wonderful way to share plants & spread the gardening love! As an avid gardener myself, I'd love to receive a gift like this. I'm now thinking of which of my plants I can collect seeds from to make my own jars to give...

Another awesome garden-sharing idea is making your own seed tape. Amber of Giver's Log has put together a fab DIY seed tape tutorial (thanks to Rachel for sharing it on Craft!). Amber's how-to explains how to make the seed tape as well as how to turn it into a super-cute gift.

Seed tape helps a lot when planting those extremely tiny little seeds. It allows you to create nice rows with the seeds evenly spaced. And what a great way to share the bounty of your garden & inspire others to grow their own!

Along with tending the earth in the form of gardening, being a good steward of our planet includes the three R's of course! This next idea helps you reduce the amount of plastic you send to the landfill: reusable food storage bags. Bells and Unicorns, a great Etsy shop with an even better name, stocks their shop with a plethora of reusable bags in lots of sizes & pretty fabrics. They have Velcro closures & a water-resistant nylon lining for easy cleanup. How cute is this "Give a Hoot" bag?!

There are also lots of opportunities to reduce & reuse in the ways we clean our homes. One of my favorite tools is my Swiffer, but I don't like the throw-away nature of the cloths. So I was super-excited to find The Quilting Mama, an Etsy shop that offers reusable cloth Swiffer covers (among lots of other great earth-friendly products).

I bought a set of these covers & I looooove them - I highly recommend them! You just throw 'em in your washer & they're good to go for tons more uses. Here's a tip, though: give them a quick rinse under the tap to remove major dust bunnies before throwing in the laundry; they'll come out of your washing machine a lot cleaner.

Etsy has tons of awesome, earth-friendly products, of course; way too many to list here. A search for "eco friendly" comes up with over 51,000 results!

And now for the grand finale, a masterpiece of recycling (or upcycling may be the more accurate term for these): reclaimed plastic horse sculptures by Sayaka Ganz (via Craft again).

Wowee-wow-wow! I can't get over these. So beautiful, and made from discarded spatulas & the like!

I hope these craftacular ideas inspire you to come up with your own ways of honoring Mother Nature today. Please leave any awesome green crafting ideas or links of your own in the comments - thanks for reading!

Happy Accidents

2010-04-14T00:09:00.003-05:00

Jen here. Thought I would share a picture of my newest creation. This was a result of trying to find something to keep me occupied while waiting for my laundry to be done at the apartment's laundromat.

I ended up with a bunch of old, scratched records from a garage sale. Don't worry, there isn't anything valuable or worth listening to in the pile, unless you really like organ and chime Christmas music :) I couldn't decide what to do with them. Melting records still seems fun but so many people use that technique. I know a lot of people also cut old records into shapes and make them into pendants but I figured it would be worth trying.

My first attempt ended up cracked. Records are pretty flexible but if you aren't careful they break. I'm certain that my next attempts at this will be with much simpler shapes. My second attempt was going well until my last cut. I ended up breaking the ears off of my rabbit. So I needed replacement ears. I looked around and didn't see anything good until I ran across some brass sheets. I knew that wouldn't crack on me :) I traced the rabbit's head on to the brass and cut out those ears. I used my flex shaft tool to drill holes in both pieces and used head pins to rivet them together.

For some reason, I drilled the hole for the jump ring to hang it from in a silly spot. It was crooked so I bent his ear to hold the ball chain and keep the rabbit upright. Not bad for a spur of the moment effort but I look forward to trying this again with a little more planning.

My saw

The mess I made while sawing

Lantern Fest 2010

2010-04-07T16:07:00.008-05:00

The WonderCraft is one of the awesome vendors at this year's Lantern Fest held at the Sri Atmanda Memorial School on Red River at 41st street.

We'll be bringing out Stella and doing a super fun and easy scratch-board printing craft. Bring your whole family ready to enjoy another one of Austin's unique and local events!

Want to craft your own lantern? Come out to the festival and learn how, or check out this quick and easy tutorial on Suite101.

Clever Easter Egg Dyeing Tricks

2010-03-31T10:20:00.004-05:00

I've been seeing a lot of great Easter crafty goodness here on the interwebs lately, so I wanted to share. The technique above is my absolute fave - these eggs, spied on Craft, were made by using electrical tape to create stripes. That's genius! Great results that look pretty fancy, but this would be so easy to do!

Design Sponge also featured an egg-dyeing stroke of genius:

This technique would be more time-consuming than the electrical tape one, but still looks quite easy to do. It's a simplified version of the traditional Ukrainian hot beeswax technique, which I wrote about last Easter. Design Sponge has a full-on, step by step tutorial that makes it look like a cinch!

Southern Living also has a great how-to up for creating speckled eggs. They used tea to create the brown ones and blue food coloring to make pretty robins' eggs.

Do you have any plans to dye eggs this Easter? What's your preferred method?

re-posted from Crafty Mishmash, Beth H's blog

Found It! Thanks, Daily Texan!

2010-03-25T19:13:00.011-05:00

Ok...so it's been ages (well a couple of months anyway) since this article came out and we've been dying to share it with you. A (as we affectionately call co-owner Beth Albrecht) and I drove by the newstands every week to look for this super cool article that the lovely and sweet Maddie Crum of The Daily Texan wrote about us. Of course, as luck would have it, the one day we didn't swing by to pick one up was the day it was published. :) Well anyway here it is for your reading pleasure, or if you like, you can see it in context at http://issuu.com/thedailytexan/docs/02-03-2010

Better late than never!

The Wondercraft

By Maddie Crum
Photos by Andy Phung

The muted silver exterior of the Airstream trailer that resides behind a row of retail shops on Burnet road is deceivingly commonplace. Inside, you won’t find camping supplies or tacky ‘70s décor, but electrifying orange walls, elegant brass jewelry, do-it-yourself screen-printing kits, handmade stationery, and four women who are enthusiastic about art.

“Come on in!” said Beth Hempton, one of the founders of The Wondercraft, a mobile art studio and craft shop. “And you can’t leave until you make a button.”

Hempton met Beth Albrecht, Jenifer Bryan, and Kimberly Sae-Eua through EtsyAustin, a local craft group, where they recognized their varying talents. Hempton enjoys drawing and sewing, whereas Bryan’s focus is on photography and resin jewelry. Both Albrecht and Sae-Eua have a knack for fashion design. The women decided to open a store that utilized these skills to create an all-inclusive artistic experience for customers.

“We were brainstorming the best place in Austin for an art store, but we couldn’t decide,” Albrecht said. “So we decided to go everywhere.” Admittedly inspired by Austin’s recent food cart fixation, the women purchased and renovated an Airstream trailer, which allows them to attend events and customized parties in addition to the classes that they offer. In keeping with The Wondercraft’s celestial theme, the women lovingly refer to their trailer as “Stella.” “We sort of saved her in a way,” Albrecht said. “She was being used for storage. We brought her to life and gave her a purpose.”

Though their business, which was conceptualized in July and began classes in October, has already been invited to a slew of local events, the Wondercraft’s journey has not been without a few bumps in the road. Each of the four women owns and operates a personal craft company, ranging from screen-printing to recycled children’s toys. These separate projects have graced them with entrepreneurial and promotional skills, but makes time management a challenge. Albrecht likened her balance of responsibilities to that of a student. “You could spend all of your time doing homework, but there are also dirty dishes in the sink, and your dog wants to be played with.”

Fortunately the business has been met with overwhelming support from other creative companies. “Austin loves quirk,” Sae-Eua said. “And the atmosphere for local businesses here is great. People who would be considered our competitors elsewhere are our friends here.”

One such friend is Carole Schatz Robberson of The Art Pad, who allows the women to park their trailer behind her store and provides them with supplies. The Wondercraft will be celebrating their partnership with The Art Pad on February 25 by hosting a necktie themed party in which each attendee can screen-print, embroider, and generally craft a vintage item into a unique statement piece.

It’s no wonder that Austinites have been welcoming towards the women of the mobile studio, as they are strong advocates of using recycled, or “upcycled” supplies for their products and classes. “Upcycling is like recycling, but instead of just creating something new or different, you create something better,” Hempton said, acknowledging her bold, ruby-red floral necklace, which had been made from an aluminum can.

Another unique component of The Wondercraft is their selling of do-it-yourself merchandise, such as floral chokers and paper stars. “We want to inspire people to make things with their hands,” Bryan said. “Plus, it’s really interesting that you can give a kit to several people and the final product will always look different.”

The Wondercraft also offers holiday-themed classes, such as their upcoming “Valentines & Anti-Valentines” lesson, in which attendees will learn rubber stamp carving, embroidery on paper, and fabric envelope-making. “Those crafts are perfect for Valentine’s Day but some people don’t like that holiday,” Albrecht said. “Maybe they could make a card with a monster eating hearts on it.”

As seen through the nature of many of their events and classes, the mission of The Wondercraft is a light-hearted one. “We want to bring crafting everywhere,” Sae-Eua said. “We want to create a community of crafters.”

Recap: New Media Fashion Brunch & Boutique Crawl

2010-03-15T14:35:00.011-05:00

The New Media Fashion brunch and boutique crawl was an all day fashion networking event held March 12, the first Friday of SXSW. This awesome event for fashion-minded individuals who run online style sites, communities and fashion blogs was hosted by Indiana Adams of adoredaustin.com & it was the first of its kind here in Austin. Way to go, Indiana!

L to R: Anna; Kelly; Katy; Pamela; our fabulous hostess, Indiana; Kristin; Diya & Rachel

This delightful brunch was sponsored by Polished Two and EtsyAustin, whose members provided amazing handmade & goody-filled swag bags for all of the guests.

The WonderCraft also sponsored the event, bringing a trunk show from Stella's Boutique for the ladies to shop. We also donated our DIY obi-style belt kits for the goody bags & demonstrated how to fashion the fabulous belts from vintage neckties. The belts were designed by Kim & are shown here modeled by the Beths.

The gals all had a great time picking out ties & sewing them together to make their own stylish obi belts!

L to R: Rachel from Austin Style Watch & Cassiday from Mix 94.7 get some tips from Beth A; Grechen of Grechen's Closet & Janette of Fashion Loves People sewing with Beth H

L to R: Janette, Pamela, Grechen , Rachel, Kelly, Indiana, Diya, Kayla, Tiffany & Jacqueline

After the brunch, we all headed down to the 2nd Street District for a super-fun boutique crawl! We started at Eliza Page where we browsed the beautiful jewelry displays with champagne in hand.

Beth A got these awesome shoes at Girl Next Door. I found a beautiful blue retro-styled (& magnificently marked-down) dress at Estilo.

clockwise from top left: Merritt, Tran, Diya, Indiana, Kayla & Rachel at Cru

Along the way we enjoyed wine & chocolate-covered strawberries at Cru Wine Bar and amazing cupcakes that lived up to their name at Delish. We visited so many fabulous boutiques that I can't even remember them all, so be sure to check out the handy 2nd Street District directory to get the deets on all the great shops & restaurants in the area.

Big thanks to Indiana for hosting this & inviting us to participate - we had a fabulous time! We enjoyed meeting all of these awesome bloggers - every one of them is so cool and so sweet. Check out their blogs. More great pics of this event in our Flickr set & Fashism's Flickr photo set & in blog posts by Diya, Rachel & Cheryl. Also, be sure to check out Anna's News 8 story & video!

International Inspirations

2010-03-10T12:26:00.004-06:00

Our lovely partner Kim and I dream of Paris often, so I thought I would do a post dedicated to her. I googled "Paris Crafts" and found this amazing little shop called French Touche that carries handmade crafty items that were so inspiring! I hope someday we can all visit and bring everyone back gifts from this shop!

One of the best things is the names of the designers (called ), this first little bag is made by Please Don't, isn't that a great name!?

I just loved this little bag too, I'm seeing Alice in Wonderland tonight, so the white rabbit was speaking to me! Its got another cute name designer: Mini Labo

And of course the French have always had this fad, the mustache, by Macon & Lesquoy

Now I don't speak French, but if I'm right, this kit is for the Rebellious Gardener!!? Amazing...
Hope you've enjoyed this cultural exploration... comment with any additional international inspirations!

Featured Artists- Gypsy Harte and Gem Junkie

2010-03-02T15:02:00.016-06:00

We have two more fabulous local artists that participated in our grand opening soiree last Thursday and who have some of their work in our boutique.

First up is Joyce Hazlerig of Gypsy Harte. She is a master of felted goodness and is talented with polymer clay as well.

As Joyce says, her interests are varied and eclectic; from working as a Tarot reader and Palmist to hair-wrapping and braiding at Renaissance Faires.
Her pocket ninjas always bring a smile to people's faces. They are posable and just plain fun! She has several different pocket friends, including zombies and pirates.

She also offers great kits so you can learn the process of felting yourself by making felted sushi. She has done some amazing demos at Etsy Austin events.

I think my favorite thing from Joyce is the piece of felted bacon she made for me.

Be sure to visit the Gypsy Harte Etsy shop. Joyce is a very talented artist!

Next up, Kelly Owens Pratlett of Gem Junkie. Do you love beads? Well, Kelly has an amazing assortment of unusual pieces for all your jewelry making needs. She manages to find unique beads and pendant pieces that you would be hard pressed to find in your local bead shop.

She said she got started collecting beads when her sister saw a necklace in a magazine she wanted but couldn't afford. Her sister then sourced the materials and put them all together. In the process, she taught Kelly all her jewelry skills and she has been a bead and jewelry fanatic ever since. Take it from us, Kelly has come into her own.

Kelly's Etsy shop is full of amazing gemstones & other unique jewelry supplies. She even has turquoise skulls!

Kelly is also co-secretary for the Etsy Austin street team.

She was out at our Grand Opening selling her famous $5 earrings! They're awesome - hope you got some! If not, you can find her out at the 78704 Artist Market on SoCo this Saturday, 3/6.

Kelly has recently put some of her Budding Designer DIY kits in Stella's Boutique, too.

Come by the boutique & see the great stuff we have from Kelly & Joyce!

Fabulous GO Vendors: Baby Bolt & Craft Chi

2010-02-25T08:52:00.018-06:00

More vendor awesomeness! Baby Bolt & Craft Chi are two more local faves who'll have lovely handmade gift items on display at our Grand Opening tonight.

First up is Becka Spellman of Baby Bolt. In addition to the brand spankin' new & awesome trailer bibs she'll have at our Grand Opening, Becka also makes crazy-cute clothes & plenty of functional items to make life easier for parents and kiddos. Pacifier Bibs keep drool in check and the pacifier nearby. Crayon Rolls keep your little artist's tools on hand whether inspiration strikes at a restaurant, car trip, or the doctor's office.

New-Baby Gift Sets, available in custom combinations like this cute little cowboy, are the perfect, stress-free gifts that will stand out at any baby shower. What a great idea!

At BabyBolt you will find designs that combine new, upcycled/reclaimed, vintage, and imported fabrics - resulting in unique, one-of-a-kind or limited-run clothing and accessories.

Becka says, "Through my life I have attempted to find a home in all sorts of arts and crafts. From oil painting to photography to knitting to collage, I never really felt I had found my "thing." Shortly after my son was born I pulled out my mom's old Kenmore and started working on small projects and took a few sewing classes. As I gained skills and confidence, I turned our spare bedroom into my studio."

Come out & say hello to Becka tonight; she is super-sweet & also quite a funny lady. You'll enjoy meeting her and you will love her ah-DOR-able kids' stuff!

Next I'd like to tell you about the multi-talented Amy of Craft Chi, "the universalizing life force of craft." Love that! Amy makes all kinds of things, all handprinted with her original artwork. Her beautiful handmade wares include bags, pillow shams, tees and pretty linen tea towels.

I love the fluid patterns Amy creates & her screen-printing technique is impeccable. Amy also keeps a wonderful blog about her craft process that is full of great tips & interesting behind-the-scenes pics.

In addition to her printed items, Amy sells cute rubber stamps made from her own drawings and screen-printing screens that can be custom-made with your own image on them. She also offers a wide assortment of screens for sale with all kinds of cool images that are ready to use. We carry these in Stella's boutique & they are awesome!

Tonight at the GO we'll be using some totally cool screens on loan from Craft Chi for screen-printing on neckties. It's gonna be super-fun! Join us, won't you?

Fabulous GO Vendors: SoCoDivka Designs & Anne Marie

2010-02-24T09:01:00.025-06:00

I have two more amazing designer/crafters to tell you about today: SoCoDivka & Anne Marie Beard. Both of these ladies are exceptionally talented & I know you'll want to meet them!

SoCoDivka founder Shanna Howard says, "I've been creative all of my life—for years I've been painting, drawing, designing, writing, making mosaics, jewelry-making, sewing, costuming, and more—but it had taken a backseat until the last couple of years. Thanks to a Saturn Return and some inspiring friends, I started to make creativity a priority."

Well I'm certainly glad that Shanna has gotten her priorities straight! : )

In case you're wondering about the unusual name, she says, "SoCoDivka is a nickname based on where I call home—the South Congress area of Austin, Texas, and "divka," which means "girl" in Czech. I'm half Czech, and I'm 100% native Texan."

Shanna's work is inspired by mid-century modern, '50s Lucite, Bohemia and whimsy. I just love the look! How gorgeous are these Cherry Candy Drops?!

Speaking of gorgeous, have you seen the *annemarie* Style for the Individual line? Founded by Anne Marie Beard in 2002, these handcrafted bags are full of sass, polish and style. And as anyone who's had the pleasure of meeting Anne Marie can attest, she herself fits that description, too!

Anne Marie began designing handbags in 2002 with the mission of creating beautifully made accessories for women with unique taste. Her Degree in Costume Design from the University of Texas at Austin was the springboard in making her lifelong passion for sewing a business reality.

What I love about Anne Marie's line is that you can order your own custom creation! There are several designs to choose from, such as the Adah Clutch and the Rosie, both shown above.

I'm the proud owner of a Mirella reversible(!) bag similar to the one shown on the left here, & I absolutely adore it. I got to choose the style of bag I wanted & then pick 2 fabrics from her swatch collection. It was so fun, but hard to choose from all of her awesome bag designs & beautiful fabrics! Maybe it's time for a second one...

Along with her beautiful purses, Anne Marie creates fun coordinating Mini Wallets, Cosmetic Bags and Zippy Wallets. They are so cute, and so useful!

Come out and meet these super-chic crafty ladies tomorrow night at our Grand Opening!

Fabulous GO Vendors: Sweet Wolf & Nepenthe's Bathtime

2010-02-22T16:05:00.005-06:00

Nepenthe's Bathtime and Sweet Wolf are two of our awesome vendors at the upcoming Grand Opening celebration. We've gotten to know the two of them well from the numerous events and EtsyAustin meetings we've all been together at, and they are certainly some talented, creative, crafters!

Samantha Hlavaty of Nepenthe's Bathtime creates some awesome soapy goodness, of the likes you've probably never seen before! Check out our favorite: the airstream soap of course! For sale in the Boutique, only $6!
About the history of Nepenthe's Bathtime Sam says "Creating soap and bath products began about 5 years ago as a hobby and a way to diffuse after a stressful day of work, and has managed to morph over the years into a full time business".

Despite the fact that Nepenthe's Bathtime is relatively new, it sounds like she's always been on this path "As a child, I loved to raid my mom's gardens and make little concoctions out of the flowers and herbs. Unfortunately for her, at that age I had absolutely no clue what preservatives were. To this day, I am uncertain of how many moldy jars of mush she discovered throughout our home. I’m afraid to ask! Thankfully, I’ve learned a lot over the years. In general though, I have always loved bath products, aromatherapy and botanicals. Mixing with this a passion for art, design, and colour ... it was a natural fit!"

Another favorite is her popular Sushi Soap! Come see and smell them in person on Thursday at the Grand Opening!

Sweet Wolf is the creation of crafty gal Cathie Fuentes. She's a self proclaimed "nerdy gal who loves to get crafty." Her whimsical creations include flower brooches (above) handbags & clutches, scarves, and even tartan plaid bows, my favorite.
About her craft Cathie says "I have always made things for myself and friends and family. I have dabbled in many, many crafts over the years but I have always loved to sew. I learned how in 2nd grade when my parents bought me my first sewing machine. I then had my first
little entrepreneurship, making and selling tooth pillows. I still have one of the first ones I made and am still proud of it!

I really like to make people happy and giving them something I created helps me do that!
And for a long time, friends have been telling me I need to sell the things I make -- so here we are!"
Check out her Etsy shop Sweet Wolf, and come meet her and see all the wonderful sewn things she makes, Thursday at the Grand Opening!

Fabulous GO Vendors: DeLisa, Pigsey Art & Pommes Frites

2010-02-22T09:07:00.043-06:00

Today I have the pleasure of telling you about 3 of the awesome makers who will be vending at our Grand Opening this Thursday night: DeLisa Designs, Pigsey Art & Pommes Frites. They are all super-talented and will have fabulous items for sale.

First up is Lisa Linbrugger of DeLisa Designs, who says:

"As long as I can remember, I have liked making things. I was lucky to have a father who was an artist and could recognize my artistic side. When I was eight he gave me his collection of glass and African beads which he had been collecting and making his own jewelry with. Since then I have loved making jewelry."

You've gotta check out DeLisa's Etsy shop - her work, most of which is sterling silver, is so interesting! I just love this "little painting for your neck!" I also love how multi-dimensional most of her pieces are. I've seen the work up close & it is stunning, and Lisa is a real sweetheart, as well as a talented jewelry designer.

Next, we have Brandy Davis of Pigsey Art, maker of unique, upcycled journals. Brandy is a very funny gal who's always saying wacky things like this:

"I currently am focusing on journals when I'm not loving my squirrels or my dachshund or making fun of my pirate husband."

But on a more serious note, she also has this to say about her work:

"I love tearing apart vintage books and items to make things. The texture and look of vintage items sends a thrill down my spine. It's a gorgeous quality and style that is lacking in many things in current times."

Well said, Brandy, well said. I really like how she intersperses the vintage book pages randomly throughout her journals.

Last, but certainly not least, we have another vintage book lover, Kristen Pumphrey of Pommes Frites (clever, no?). Kristen makes hollow books, pins, magnets, record bowls & more, all of them "reclaimed, repurposed & handmade with love!"

Some of her hollow books are cleverly-disguised flask safes, and include a stainless steel flask. Others are less specific & function well as hidey-holes for your cash or other valuables.

Kristen also makes really cool pin-back buttons & magnets with images from old dictionaries & her favorite fabric, plaid. Another sweet & funny lady, she keeps a blog that always makes me laugh.

Hope you'll come out & say hello to all of these crafty ladies this Thursday!

Rockstar Sponsor: The Cupcake Bar

2010-02-19T10:44:00.008-06:00

Get this guys: we've got not one, but TWO amazing local bakeries sponsoring our Grand Opening! Trust me, you don't want to miss out on all this deliciousness! In addition to those amazing bourbon bites from Blue Note Bakery, we'll also have a gorgeous spread of mini-cupcakes from The Cupcake Bar.

The Cupcake Bar is a full-service cupcake catering company that's always a hit at parties. They're a new fave of ours since meeting them a couple of weeks ago when we hosted an Austin Cupcake Meetup. It was so much fun! Jackie, the fearless leader of the cupcake meetups, wanted to combine cupcakes & crafting. What could be better?

So we led the guests in a cupcake-themed sponge-painting craft, and Rachel from The Cupcake Bar was our fabulous bartender. She was so sweet & helpful & the cupcakes were super-tasty. You can see all of the pics from this event in our Cupcake Meetup set on Flickr.

The Cupcake Bar offers 12 delicious varieties of cake, fillings, icing and an array of toppings that is simply astounding, including cotton candy, Pop Rocks, mini Oreos, and even pretzel Goldfish for those who like a sweet-salty mix.

It's so fun to choose & create your own custom cupcake. I had the Tres Leches cake topped with Rice Krispie Treats & silver shimmer dust. Yum!

Don't miss your chance to sample the delights from The Cupcake Bar at our Grand Opening!