Crafty Bastards was crazy fun! Huge thanks to all the amazing vendors for their hard work and fabulous craftertise!

The Washington City Paper would also like to thank Marie Reed Learning Center, the fabulous entertainers, the generous sponsors- Scion, Stitch DC, Adobe, Paper Source, Whole Foods, Avatar Wellness, Pinz-N-Needlez, The Dog Spot, the yummy food vendors- Carmen’s Italian Ice, Cake Love, and Sticky Fingers and the dedicated City Paper staff that made the day such a success.

Big yummy thanks goes to Craft Magazine for providing the sweet treats for all our crafty vendors. CRAFT is dedicated to the renaissance that is occurring within the world of crafts, and carries the torch of the DIY spirit by sharing stories and resources from the exciting independent crafting community.

Huge thanks as well to Etsy which hosted how-to workshops all day long at Crafty Bastards. ETSY is THE place for DIY makers and shakers to buy and sell handmade goods, and network within the ever-growing indie craft community. Check out ETSY for all your shopping needs this holiday season, and get in the crafty-know with The Storque.

Hey, check it out! Crafty Bastards is on the Etsy Storque!

The Crafty Crew is super-duper excited to have Etsy Labs hosting the workshops at Crafty this year. Sounds like they have lots of goodies in store. From the Etsy Storque:

Etsy will be set up with an exclusive tutorial display (find us on the tennis court) and will be leading tutorials throughout the whole event including:

* How to make a pincushion
* Making boxes from recylcled papers
* Making your own envelopes

So stop by, say hello, make something, tell us your Etsy story and get some sweet promo merchandise while your there (rumor has it the Etsy booth always gives away the best free promos at Craft fairs…wink wink).

Don’t miss out! Enough said.

Etsy hosts a full day of hands-on how-tos to get you crafting in no time!

11am Knitting with Stitch DC

12pm Bookbinding with the Paper Source

1pm Food as Art with Whole Foods

2pm Puppet Manipulation with Washington Action Group

ALL DAY! Etsy Labs! Make your own pincushions, boxes and envelopes! Plus learn how to fuse plastic bags into fab new finds! Hooray for Etsy!

Get details here and on page 91 of this week’s City Paper.

Hooray! Crafty Bastards is on the CRAFT blog.

Plus CRAFT magazine has got some special treats in store for all you Crafty Bastard vendors this Sunday!

Oooh, I can’t wait!!!

Check out the awesome Craft Mutiny podcast brought to you by Tina Seamonster and Sara Dick!

In the first episode, Sara and Tina talk about upcoming indie craft shows that are accepting applications and they preview the Crafty Bastards Arts and Crafts Fair. Watch and listen for a preview of some of the super fabulous vendors that you won’t want to miss!

Listen to the podcast here. Watch the slide show here.

Welcome to guest blogger Christy Petterson!

Christy is currently preparing for her second drive to DC to participate in Crafty Bastards and her third drive to Chicago to participate in Renegade (this weekend!) with her line a bardis. She co-organizes the Indie Craft Experience in Atlanta, co-produces the annual Starlets of Craft Calendar and co-edits Get Crafty.

When she’s not busy prepping for, travelling to and selling her goods at craft fairs, Christy will be dishing out tips and hints to help you get ready for your next craft show. To get a taste of the helpful info Christy will share, check out the How to Prepare for a Craft Fair entry (complete with checklist) she wrote for Get Crafty a couple of years ago.

Welcome Christy!

Hurry, hurry! Don’t forget to apply to these great craft shows…

Applications for Craftland 2007 are due tomorrow, August 31st!!! Get to it!

Deadline to apply to Handmade Arcade in Pittsburgh is by midnight this Saturday, September 1st!

Now accepting applications for holiday shows…

Charm City Craft Mafia’s Holiday Heap is scheduled for December 1st in Baltimore. Applications are due October 1st!

BUST’s Holiday Craftacular in NYC is now accepting applications. Show will be December 8th. Deadline to apply is October 15th.

Post a comment and let us know about any shows or deadlines we missed.

Earlier this month, fellow Crafty Bastards organizer Kim Dorn and I attended the first-ever Craft Congress in Pittsburgh, PA for a 2-day extravaganza of 50+ craft fair organizers from across the nation. There were sessions facilitated by notable members of the indie craft community with topics ranging from helping vendors sell at craft fairs to tax advice to online markets to copyright and trademark protection.

The sessions were info-packed and inspiring. And to top it off, we had fun screen-printing at Artists Image Resource during the Saturday night reception. Here are some of the results:

We had a blast and were excited to see all the Crafty Bastards alumni in attendance:

Kathy Malone
Kpoene Kofi-Bruce
Deb Dormandy
Shannon Mulkey
Christy Petterson
Jennifer Baron
Jill Chisnell
Al Hoff
Alison Gordon
Jessica Manack

We wish everyone the best of luck in the craft fair production endeavors!

Special thanks to Shannon Mulkey (far right in picture) of the I.C.E. Collective for the accidental tour to the heights of the ‘Burgh and her ability to channel the parking gods.

We were tickled to discover that Matt Stinchcomb (one of the masterminds at Etsy, the extremely popular online marketplace for all things handmade) is a DC native!

Other highlights included the sneak preview of the Indie Craft Documentary (due out 2008), meeting the fabulous Jenny Hart of Sublime Stitching, being in a room full of people that love craft fairs and the DIY movement, getting a better idea of how the indie craft world functions outside for the DC area, all the awesome free stuff and the non-stop crafty brainstorm with Kim on the way home!

Want more? You can watch the Craft Congress video footage on Threadbanger.com, view photos on Flickr, and read Christy Petterson’s excellent wrap up.

We’ve got lots of great ideas in store for Crafty Bastards this year and we’ll be accepting applications for the fair soon. To get the latest updates, send an email to craftybastards@washingtoncitypaper.com with “Subscribe” as the subject.