All posts tagged: craftcation

clover weave.

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I thought today would be an appropriate day to share these Clover brand weaving looms. See what I did there? I was suppose to teach two weaving workshops (sponsored by Clover!) at Craftcation 2020 in April, but unfortunately, Craftcation has been cancelled given the latest COVID-19 developments. I thought I’d share anyway because these tools are so fun! Thank you to Nicole of Craftcation (and Dear Handmade Life) for sending me a Clover mini weaving loom to play with! It’s such a nice portable craft tool. I particularly like the ‘lift’ it gives you when you’re working on your piece. Also a plus – the tines are removable so you can weave until the very top and still take your piece off the loom (versus leaving some warp blank for tying). Here are a few samples I’ve been working on, made with three basic stitches: tabby/basic stitch, rya/tassels, and soumak. Mixing up colors, yarn textures, and size of your tapestry can add so much variation. With this tool you can also …

screen printing.

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You thought I was done posting about Craftcation classes? MUHAHAHA, nevarrr! Seriously though, I learned so many things! Screen printing was one of the craft workshops Hubby picked out for me. He thought it would be a useful skill for business gear or for making tennis team shirts! The screen printing workshop was taught by Jenny Kraten. She taught us how to DIY a screen and gave us some insider tips on how to create a more sturdy set up later on. I’m really into it, but I’ll need an expanded craft budget. I would go crazy picking out paint colors alone! We made small screens in class using simple materials: cardboard, precision knife, ruler, pencil, mesh, and spray adhesive. The screen has a 1″ border and the mesh was pulled taut across the frame in all directions, making sure there were no wavy bits. For a stencil, I created a triangle pattern (easy to cut!). We used paper that was waxy on one side and dull on the other, cutting out patterns on the …

sew yeah.

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To commemorate Fashion Revolution Week (April 22-28), I’m excited to share two more sewing projects from Craftcation. In addition to espadrilles, I made a cardigan and a bias dress. I had a whole outfit; it didn’t match though. 😉 My cardigan class was taught by Kimberly Payne of Straight Stitch Designs. She creates her own patterns so it was really helpful to learn how to read the class pattern by the designer herself. This was my first time working with knit fabric; it wasn’t as scary and difficult as I thought it would be, but you really have to pay attention to the stretch direction or else it will be all sorts of wonky. Also, there were so many pieces; focus is key. I had to run off to teach a class mid-cardigan, so I finished my project in the sewing lab later in the week. My friend roomie Rebecca hosted (I told you she taught all the things, too!). My bias dress class was a shorter project, but also confusing. There was fabric origami …

all the crafts!

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There were so many classes to choose from at Craftcation – over 50 for each day! Most required pre-registration, but there were others that were drop-in and you could also get waitlisted for classes, too. Here are a few I got to take on a whim! Each day there were casual crafts set up poolside – what a lovely setting! They were less structured and more open play; you could stay for as little or as long as you wanted. I taught one of these casual sessions (my mini succulent terrarium craft) and attended two others: terrazzo jewelry (above) with Jennifer Perkins and fabric dye coloring pages (below) with friend roomie Rebecca! I don’t play with clay much so it was fun to learn a trendy technique – I would love to create some clay beads and charms to use in my pomtass crafts. For fabric coloring, we used rainbow patches and Jacquard liquid color. I’m thinking I’ll make a mini plushie with my rainbow patch. After teaching back-to-back classes, I still wanted to make …

ice dyeing.

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What’s fun about Craftcation is that they bring makers together from all over. That means crafty knowledge and expertise abounds and you get to take all kinds of crafty workshops. My super talented friend roomie Rebecca taught a number of dyeing workshops and I got to join her for one of her ice dyeing classes. Ice dyeing is so magical! Rebecca gave an overview of the chemistry and art of ice dyeing and provided a demo. She had lots of samples, too, for inspiration, and she even made recipe cards if you wanted to work with specific color combos. This was helpful in trying to narrow down what colors to use (because I wanted to use them all!). We each dyed a bandana and a pair of socks. Similar to shibori dyeing, you can manipulate your fabric with folds or ties; you can also simply crinkle your fabric or leave them flat. The ice does lots of magic as it melts. The water travels and moves the colors throughout the fabric. First, we prepared the …

craftcation: teach all the things!

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This year was my first Craftcation experience. I had it on my wish list for a few years now, and finally made it happen. I knew I wanted to do more than just go and take it all in though. So my friend Rebecca of Oodlebadoodle put in a good word for me and viola, I got on the schedule to teach five classes! I taught all the felt things – felt flowers, felt succulents, felt airplants, and felt flair! Here are some photos from all the workshops. Felt flair. For the opening/welcome dinner, we all gathered at the Ventura Fairgrounds for an evening of food, friendship – and felt! I hosted a felt flair table. I heard there was also button and magnet making, a pom pom earrings station, and book signings, too. Everyone got to pick their own design. There were rainbows, pet portraits, pennants, name tags, avocados…. Himmeli, pom-tass, and felt air plants – oh my! I taught this class twice in one day (with a lunch break in between). It’s basically …

craftcation.

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Hiyee! I’m back from a whirlwind craft vacation ~ Craftcation! There is so much to share…so get ready because I’m flooding the interwebs with all the fun craft magic! Here are some Craftcation highlights. Craftcation is a conference for makers and creative business owners. It’s hosted by the awesome crew at Dear Handmade Life at the Ventura Marriott. I spent five days teaching and learning, and getting inspired! More on all the workshops I taught and took soon. (Oh, there are a lot of them!) Biznez. I took one business class with Marlo Miyashiro of The Handmade Showroom on how to develop wholesale line lists. There were so many other business classes, too (but I was busy with all the crafting!!). You could also schedule a one-on-one consult with experts to discuss your handmade business. Fabric wall. There were sewing classes, dyeing classes, textiles and embroidery…so many things to choose from. For all of the sewing classes, there was a fabric wall to select your class materials. For all other classes, all the materials were …