Fabulous GO Vendors: Baby Bolt & Craft Chi

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?

Have you tasted the goodness of Blue Note Bakery?

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Free First Thursday Fun!

We'll be out at Wooldridge Park today from 4-7 pm for the kick-off party of the month-long Get Your Art On celebration. Come by and make some art with us! Just look for Stella, our 32-foot Airstream trailer!

Other event highlights include: Greater Tuna’s Aunt Pearl (Joe Sears) making Halloween cards and crafts with kids; The Biscuit Brothers of PBS as strolling minstrels; theatrical excerpts from Austin Bike Zoo’s “Wheels of Wonderland,” an imaginative treatment of Alice in Wonderland; improv comedy courtesy of The Hideout; and musical performances by The Austin School for the Performing and Visual Arts, featuring YouthCast Choice Award winners, “AfterMath.” So much to see! And did I mention it's all FREE?!

Be sure to check nowplayingAustin.com for a complete list of all the Get Your Art On events going on this month.

Stella's Big Debut

Handmade Nation, a super-cool documentary by Faith Levine, was screened last Sunday at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema and there was a mini craft fair outside the theater. The WonderCraft was invited to participate (thanks, Sublime Stitching gals!) so we worked around the clock to get Stella, our Airstream trailer, ready. Sunday was to be her big debut, the first time the trailer was opened to the public, so we wanted her to be beautiful inside & out!

We painted, had flooring installed, Beth A & her husband built bench seating that doubles as storage, and I made curtains. It was a mad scramble to get everything done (and of course there is still a lot more that we want to do), but Stella looks radiant! Everyone seemed to be pretty impressed with her & we had a blast showing her off. We did a fun make & take project creating accessory bags from old t-shirts (shown below). The craft fair and film screenings drew a wonderful crowd - we met tons of lovely people and were inspired by all of the creativity in the air. It was a beautiful day filled with craftacular fun! [Photo at very top of post is the brilliant work of Houstonian Magda Sayeg, a.k.a. KnittaPlease, who was in attendance at the premier. All photos taken by Jen Bryan & Stephanie Nance. Thanks, ladies!]

Stella's interior-its a concept!

Jen and Kim (along with their wonderful men!) put in a ton of work on our girl Stella this weekend. We got the second sub-floor put in, thanks Wes! And even more shining done! She's looking Stellar. Next up is installing the recycled wood flooring we bought off Craig's List, and begin moving on the build out. Here are some rough ideas for what we're planning:

On the left is a long bench that will double as storage and above it a peg board. In the front a bigger table and shelving on the right. Down the middle we'll put up a folding table for classes.

Here is the back, it'll be set up to do check out, or another work space during classes.
We're also painting, making curtains, and figuring out lighting. Anyone have some creative lighting ideas??

The Shining!

Our Airstream, Stella, is still in the process of renovation and this past Sunday Kim, her husband Jimmy and Beth A spent all day shining her up. Here are some before and after pics:When we got her, she was very dirty, she'd been sitting in the middle of a field in Victoria, TX.









Her windows were covered in dirt, but with a little work, she cleaned up quick.









After trying several different things we got a dull shine out of her, but we wanted more! Using several different polishers was the only way to get her to shine!








Next week, I'll show you the inside!