I participated in the annual SF Etsy Indie Holiday Emporium in a big way! Not only did I have a booth to sell all my Feed the Fish co felt goodies, I also created a 4.5ish-foot felt flower wreath for the photobooth centerpiece! Her name is Awreatha (had to). Here’s my show recap plus the Awreatha creation story!

The show.

The SF Etsy Indie Holiday Emporium is always held over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Since I’ve been participating for a few years now, it always feels like a craft fam reunion! It’s an all volunteer-run event, mostly put on by these two above (snapped this shot because it looked like they were going to report on something real important!).

The show is free to attend but if you get special VIP shopping hour tickets you also get swag bags filled with fun Etsy stuff! (The maker oath design is by my friend Angie of Bobo Design Studio!) And in addition to shopping small, there are activity stations for all. This year there was face painting, designing a carousel candy cane horse, a coloring station, decorating gift bags with handmade stamps, and a sand art craft.

My booth.

I shared a booth with friends Lighten Up Shoppe, I had some limited run Karl the Fog plushies (from a collab project I worked on), and I actually made a garland for my backdrop! Here are some of the faces I got to see that weekend! Feeling all the crafty love!

There were over 150 makers in the space. I came for early set up to get Awreatha ready for the weekend so I got to see the space before it got divvied up with booth markers. The panoramic views of the City from the space (it was held at Pier 27 in San Francisco this year) were lovely.

The photobooth.

Here is Awreatha all set up at the entrance of the Indie Holiday Emporium. This was the first stop of many for Awreatha. She’s going on craft show tour!

She has since been to the San Francisco Civic Center for a tree lighting and pop-ups at the Foster City Rec Center and Viansa Sonoma Winery.

Awreatha!

I was inspired to create a wreath that looked like the wreath logo on our event flyer. I thought wouldn’t that look so cool in felt form? Then Rebecca, co-captain of the SF Etsy team, put the idea in my head that we could make a giant one for the photobooth! I was SO IN.

Awreatha is made with:

• 6 pool noodles
• 3 connector pipes
• 84ish zip ties
• 24 – 3″ by 75″ strips of felt –>37.5 square feet of felt!
• 22 candy canes (8 red, 7 pink, 7 blue)
• 40 white rosettes
• 7 white blooms
• 1 large white bloom
• 30 small red blooms
• 9 large red blooms
• 1 small green bloom
• 5 pinecones (with with part of a plastic wine glass and baker’s twine)
• 25 felted lights, multicolored
• 19 loose leaves
• 43 leaf stems on floral wire (3 types)
• 25 holly
• 20 felted balls (4 red, 8 cream, 8 grey)
• 6 fringed foliage
• lots of hot glue

Whoa.

Before attaching everything, I mixed up all the pieces to make sure they all looked good together as a whole.

Then, assembly. First, the pool noodle base. I had to cut grooves into the inner ring so the pool noodle would curve more. The two ovals are held with zip ties then wrapped with felt strips. I added leaves, then larger flowers, smaller flowers, pinecones, and accent felted items.

I also made some props!

On set up day we attached her to a stand with fishing line. Oh, and check out the back! I added some felt lettering. The finishing touch were two felt plushie dinosaurs made by my new felt friend Amanda of Felt Flanerie.

More Awreatha BTS and an interview with SF Etsy on the SF Etsy blog.

And because you made it this far, I leave you with this Boomerang.

Did you get to see Awreatha in person? Share your photos by tagging @feedthefishco and @sfetsy on Instagram. You can also search #awreathagoesontour.