This year’s crop of Young and Crafty offer a wide range of products. Let’s check them out!

Bicker are sisters Rosemary and Lucy. The girls make headbands and bags out of recycled magazines. Check out their wares at the fair in Booth #156.

Isabella Davies creates large colorful creatures painted with acrylic on wood cut-outs. Her work is lovely! Check her our in Booth #156 at the fair.

The Mighty Shoe Box of Oz makes “companions that save you from your worst enemies and bank robbers.” Check them out in Booth #157 at the fair, unless you are a bank robber, of course!

Spark & Shine make unique collection of original jewelry designs of brooches, decorative hair pins, earrings and necklaces. Be sure to support Booth # 158!

Corey’s Green Gifts makes “friendly and eco-friendly snakes out of old ties and each snake comes named and is one of a kind.” Friendly AND eco-friendly. Sold! Check out Corey in Booth #158 at the fair.

Buttercup’s Garden makes bookmarks from reused Scrabble tiles and Japanese Chiyogami paper. She started making these in first grade after her class studied Japan. Check these out in Booth #157 at the fair.

Young & Crafty is a fantastic opportunity for burgeoning artists to meet other crafty kids, explore a wide range of creative endeavors, showcase their artistic talent, and get hands-on entrepreneurial experience. We hope that visitors to the fair on October 1st check out these young makers and help foster the creative spirit for a new generation!

Volunteers are also invited this Thursday to come out to the Black Squirrel in Adams Morgan from 6:30 to 8 p.m. for a party and tour of the festival grounds. Meet fellow Crafty Bastards vendors and volunteers while enjoying craft brews, yummy munchies, and a tour of the festival grounds. Promotional posters and postcards will be available for the taking. Plus, Crafty Bastards veteran, Caitlin Phillips of Rebound Designs, will share her insights about selling at the fair and Crafty staff will be on hand to answer questions.

The fun kicks off at 6:30pm at the Black Squirrel with free appetizers, and specials on Williamsburg Alewerks and wines (cash bar). At 7:30pm attendees will take a walk down the block to the festival grounds for a full tour of the festival space.

Can’t make it to the party but have questions? Reach out to craftybastards[at]washingtoncitypaper[dot]com.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Hello Craft.

Use the options along the right hand side to sort by category. New this year is the ability to sort by state! Checkout your hometown sellers or be amazed at how far some vendors travel from all over the country to attend.

Also new to this year’s vendor gallery is the slideshow feature, allowing you to view vendors pictures up and close in via a nifty presentation. After you click on one of the images on a vendor profile page, a small slideshow will pop up and you can keep clicking the image to cycle through all five photos like the below from Red Prairie Press.

When you’re done viewing photos, just click the little x on the lower right-hand side to go back to the main vendor page. There you can also get links to social media like Facebook and Twitter so you can stay in touch with your most-loved vendors.

The event map and individual vendor booth numbers will be added shortly so you can map out your shopping route at this year’s Crafty Bastards.

Schmancy
Making the trip from the Pacific NW, Schmancy will be joining Crafty Bastards from Seattle, WA. Not only does Schmancy make awesome plush like below she says: “I am currently obsessed with making cute little magnets and pins, embellished pouches which are great for makeup, pencils, etc. I also enjoy making other small stuffed things and hair accessories. I like to think I am always evolving and changing.”

Slide Sideways
Also coming from the Pacific NW this year is Slide Sideways from Tacoma, WA. Slide Sideways creates fun prints and accessories for your home, like the pouch below. Everything is hand screen printed and sewn in their shop using environmentally friendly water based ink and natural and organic fabrics. Full disclosure: this handmade buyer owns a reusable produce bag from Slide Sideways, uses it daily and can attest that it rules.

Pommes Frites
Coming up from Austin, TX, Pommes Frites has a slew of fantastic accessories for your home in their arsenal. They make magnets, candles and book safes among other things. Wait did I just say book safe? Yes, book safes! Which are not only super amazing as seen below, but also super useful.

Kelso Doesnt Dance
Traveling cross-country for this year’s fair (from Lake Forest, CA, to be exact) Kelso Doesnt Dance makes accessories, clothing, pins, magnet and stickers from upcycled materials.  Expect wallets made from repurposed maps, dictionaries and book pages, as seen below. The best part about these library card notebooks is that each one is unique and tells a little story of where it came from and who checked it out when and where.

All photos from the Crafty Bastards vendor gallery.

Ginger Root Design
Hailing from Washington DC, you may have already shopped in their store on U Street. If you haven’t then you’re in for a pleasant surprise at this year’s Crafty Bastards as Ginger Root Design will feature their handmade, original neckwear (see below)  such as the Lady Ties and the uni-sex Ascot. Also on hand will be spats made from refurnished vintage fabric and scraps, as well as clothing.

Metal Musings
Sue Derge, the designer behind Metal Musings, repurposes found tins to make one-of-a-kind jewelry. She also incorporates stamping, hammering and etching techniques onto sheet metal like the earrings seen below. You can find her sharing a booth with Ginger Root Design at this year’s Crafty Bastards.

Party In My Pocket
Party In My Pocket = PIMP Gloves = fabulous gloves for riding bikes and going on adventures. The brightly colored, surprising fabric combinations will make every cyclist a little more awesome as seen below. Making the short trip down from Philadelphia, this will be the debut of Party In My Pocket at Crafty Bastards.

Magic Industrie
Magic Industrie makes handmade magic wallets and accessories from found materials in libraries and stores across Los Angeles. Not sure what a magic wallet is? See an example below. Ryan Hansen, the designer behind Magic Industrie, is  traveling cross-country from Santa Monica, CA, to make his debut at Crafty Bastards.

All photos from the Crafty Bastards vendor gallery.

You can now apply online for a chance to sell your handmade wares at Washington, DC’s largest indie crafting event.

Do you knit cozy scarves, screenprint bags, design your own hats, create plush monsters, sew dresses or upcycle men’s clothing? If you create or design anything by hand, we welcome you to apply to this year’s Crafty Bastards Arts and Crafts Fair!

Now in its 8th year, Crafty Bastards promises to be bigger and better than ever with an added media lounge, urban farming space and kids crafting area, as well as more food, bikes, entertainment, workshops and all around good crafty times.

Sign up on our mailing list to receive updates about Crafty Bastards throughout the year, and be sure to submit your vendor application by July 4th to be considered for the fair.

I know you’re thinking of really making this year a handmade holiday right? You’ve probably already gathered your ingredients for all the cookie platters you plan to make for parties, clipped all the necessary recipes from various resources and maaaaybe didn’t look away from the TV while some lady named Martha prattled on about ‘easy table centerpieces’.

But now you’re too tired to knit that hat or solder that pair of earrings right?  So where can you find people who have done all the crafty hard work for you?

You’ll find them at the Bloomingdale Holiday Art Market! This annual holiday market returns to the Big Bear Cafe in Washington, DC on Sunday December 5th.  6 top-notch, DC-based crafters  have done the work for you and will be selling unique handmade goods from 4-9pm (full disclosure, I am one of them but I assure you, we are the notchiest).

Organized by the artistic husband and wife team of Goshdarnknit’s Rania Hassan and Scenic Artisan’s Sean Hennessey Big Bear Cafe (now with alcohol!) is hosting this event with many things to do. Caroling! Buy a Christmas tree! Have a Bloomingdale photographer snap your holiday portrait! And let’s not forget the spiced rum… let’s never forget the spiced rum.

Other vendor offerings include luxe, one-of-a-kind handmade bags by Eve VanDalsen , the green (as in recycled) jewelry of Figs & Ginger and the kid-centric embroidery of  60 Bugs. And… oh yeah, me! I make plush animals out of recycled sweaters .

The Bloomingdale Holiday Market is Sunday, December 5 from 4-9 pm at Big Bear Cafe located at the corner of 1st and R street NW in the adorable Bloomingdale neighborhood.

Roden & Lueth – a husband & wife team as well as a talented print making team – have an enormous 36″ x 52″ Conrad Machine Co. Etching press in the front room of their Pittsburgh home on which they pull wood block prints on archival paper with oilbased inks. A traditional and difficult process they keep alive with the enthusiasm of sports fans. They do every part of the process together from the initial sketches of their original artwork to the final editioned block prints – made from hand carved wood blocks, which they often bring along with their prints to craft fairs to help educate & excite their fellow printers, non-printers & print enthusiasts alike.

Check out Tugboat Printshop in the vendor gallery or in booth #57 at Crafty Bastards tomorrow in Adams Morgan!

Check out this week’s Washington CityPaper for the Official Guide to Crafty Bastards! There are super fun DIY projects (like the one below) and interviews with some of your favorite Crafty Bastards.

The center is an awesome map that you can use to start planning your trip.

Crafty Bastards is Saturday, October 2, 2010 from 10am-5pm on the grounds of the Marie Reed Learning Center at 18th & Wyoming in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, DC. See you there!

Check out this autumnal beauty. The pouch is removable!

This is a spring bag, but you bet that I’ll be sporting that this fall.

This is exactly what I mean:  that cord to keep a picnic blanket on hand. So smart!

Check out LAYERxlayer at the vendor gallery and at booth #31