Don’t miss Hello Craft’s holiday party tonight in Adams Morgan.  Bring your holiday cheer, a small appetite and a handmade gift to play in the holiday gift exchange.

Head to the Black Squirrel’s upstairs lounge tonight, Dec. 15th from 7 to 10 pm.  Hello Craft will provide supplies to make holiday cards, gift tags and buttons and will conduct a Handmade White Elephant gift exchange.

The White Elephant will begin around 8:30 pm. To participate, bring a handmade gift worth no more than $15. It can be something you made or by someone else, just as long as it is handmade. Not sure what the White Elephant thing is all about.  No worries.  Hello Craft will explain the rules of the game before the exchange starts.  If you attended the Summit of Awesome last spring you know how much fun this is!  I totally scored at that one and went home with an awesome Jaime Zollars pirate hedgehog pencil sketch.  Looking forward to another awesome surprise tonight!

The Black Squirrel is located at 2427 18th St. NW in the Adams Morgan neighborhood in Washington, D.C.

Happy Holidays!

And run wild it did. The Make Something Awesome Area was packed from start to finish all day long. Anyone who sat down could make a pin cushion from Etsy, earrings from Mary Ellen Doran, knit up a scarf from Knit Outta the Box, embroider patterns by Sublime Stitching or let their imagination dictate the project with access to a myriad of materials.

Much thanks to the DC Craft Mafia who helped guide project makers throughout the day.

Did you make anything awesome? We’d love to see! Be sure to upload your photos to the Crafty Bastards 2009 Flickr Group.

With Crafty Bastards just days away, Hello Craft is busy getting ready to offer you some amazing fun during this, the most awesomest craft fair ever.

Stop by the Hello Craft booth (#126) during Crafty Bastards to enter a handmade giveaway, make a button, sign up for a membership or just say hi!

Hello Craft’s handmade raffle giveaway includes some really neato prizes. While the raffle is free, there is a suggested donation of $1 per ticket to help support Hello Craft. With your entry you’ll have a chance to win a Hello Craft membership, entrance to the next Summit of Awesome, one of two Etsy prize packs, a Knit Outta the Box kit, a book journal from Ex Libris Anonymous, prizes from Sublime Stitching, Jaime Zollars and more!

Then, after strolling through Crafty Bastards and buying handmade, why not try your hand at making something handmade? Hello Craft will also be hosting the Make Something Awesome Area (booth #134-137). This making and crafting area is the perfect spot for you to stop in, sit a spell and flex your crafting muscles. Follow directions for projects from Etsy, Knit Outta the Box, Mary Ellen Doran and more. Or or use the materials to come up with one of your own!

Also don’t miss these fun and exciting demos happening throughout the day at Booth 129.

10 am – Knitting Lace with Laurie Gonyea of Knit Outta the Box
11:15 am – Bike Tune Ups with the Bike Rack
12:30 pm – Hoola Hoop Making with Surprise Hoops!
2 pm – Bike Tune Ups with the Bike Rack
3:15 pm – Hoola Hooping with Surprise Hoops!
4:30 pm – Small Book Making with Esti Gerson

In this week’s episode, Tina Seamonster (that’s me!) learns to embroider! And relax!

Listen!

Click here to download the episode (right-click and choose “save as” on PC, or control-click and choose “save as” on Mac)

* Above photo taken by Anya Seamonster, age 4.

In this week’s episode, Beth Baldwin finds herself stitching the words ‘thug life’.

Click here to download the episode (right-click and choose “save as” on PC, or control-click and choose “save as” on Mac)

You can check out Beth’s shop online at http://www.tigerflight.etsy.com. Check out a gallery of the Mortal Plush show.

Crafty Bastards 2009 planning is underway and vendor applications will be availble soon!  Please forgive the outdated info on the site.  We are working to get everything updated.  A couple notes about Crafty Bastards 2009.

There will not be a Crafty Bastards show in Silver Spring, MD in June. However, the folks at Pyramid Atlantic have paired up with Party Hat Rodeo (aka Kimberly Dorn) and 60Bugs (aka Debbie Lee) to produce the first ever Handmade Mart in Silver Spring.  Vendor applications are being accepted through April 30th.  Read more here.

The fall showing of Crafty Bastards is scheduled for Saturday, October 3rd, 2009 from 10am-5pm in Washington, DC.  For 2009, the City Paper has joined forces with Hello Craft and promises another awesome showing of handmade goods you won’t find anywhere else in the area.

Applications for Crafty Bastards 2009 will be online soon!  We will announce when applications are ready on the blog and to the Crafty Bastards email list.  Stay tuned so you don’t miss out!

Have you heard about the Hello Craft Summit of Awesome? Have you seen the line-up? Keep reading and prepare to be wowed!

Hello Craft’s Summit of Awesome is 3-days (May 1-3) filled with business seminars for artists and crafters, hands-on workshops, the D.C. premiere of the Indie Craft Documentary, Handmade Nation, and a Saturday night party. Through a partnership with the MidCity Business Association, all Summit seminars and workshops will take place in the wondrous and vibrant independent businesses in MidCity (14th and U Streets NW).

The Summit is a great mix of learning and crafting from discussions to hands on workshops, with a little something for everyone.
Special Craftnote Speakers:

• Maria Thomas, Etsy.com CEO
• Jenny Hart – Sublime Stitching

Demos/Workshops:  Learn a new technique or make something awesome with guidance from our amazing speakers.

• Fun with Duct Tape with Kristina Bilonick
• Simple Mold Making with Adam Maron – Pearson Maron
• Fiber Demo with Jamie Chan and Blas Herrera – Urban Fauna Studio
• Embroidery Demo with Jenny Hart – Sublime Stitching
• How to Photograph your Work with Sherry – Dandelion Blu
• Sew a Felt Broach with Beth Baldwin – Tiger Flight
• Make a Snow Globe with Esti Gerson
• Plate Breaking Demo with Juliet Ames – The Broken Plate
• Sewing Demo with DC Threads
• Make a Small Book with Esti Gerson
• Screen Printing Demo with Christy Petterson

Learning Sessions:  The main part of the weekend is to learn and grow your crafty endeavors. Visit Hello Craft for a full list of speakers.  Session topics include:

• Am I a Business? How and when to form a business for your crafty endeavors
• Tax Implications of Starting a Business
• Developing a Product Line. Deciding what to make and sell
• Branding and Identity
• Copyright and Tradmarks, How to protect yourself and your work
• Customer Service. Crafting with a Smile
• Selling Successfully Online 
• Craft Fair Booth Set up and Displays
• Selling in a Brick and Mortar
• The Ins and Outs of Trade Shows
• What’s a Social Network and How to use it for Good
• Street Teams. Why you should connect and collaborate
• Crafting a Green Craft
• Consumption and Sustainability. How DIY will Save the World
• Navagating the Art world with Craft
• Going out on a Limb
• Organizing a Craft Fair
• Event Sponsorship

Also in store for the weekend, you’ll have access to a screening of the D.C. premier of Handmade Nation, a make something awesome crafting area and the first even Handmade White Elephant gift exchange and swap!

Register by this Friday to get the discounted price of $150. After Friday, the cost will be $180. Discounts available for groups and craft collectives. Email hellocraftinfo@gmail.com for group rates.

On Friday, May 1st, Hello Craft will host its first ever Summit of Awesome in the heart of the Nation’s Capital.

Geared specifically for independent artists and crafters, the Summit of Awesome is 3 full days of seminars and hands-on workshops, which will provide business and technical educatation for those in the handmade arts communtiy. The Summit also includes the D.C. premiere showing of the Indie Craft Documentary film, Handmade Nation – A highly anticipated film that captures the superstars of the indie crafting world, and documents how the handmade community began and took it’s current shape.

The entire Summit of Awesome will take place in the independent shops, restaurants and bars in the MidCity area of D.C., along 14th and U Streets NW. The film screening of Handmade Nation will be hosted at the DCJCC’s Theatre J.

Seminar topics include Business Identity and Branding, How to Green Your Craft, Small Business Basics, The Ins and Outs of Trade Shows, and many more. An exciting line up of speakers who are leaders in their field include Maria Thomas, Chief Operating Officer of Etsy.com, Laura and Allison from DC Threads, and the founders of Cosa Verde, Liz Grotyohann and Jeff Fein-Worton, just to name a few. A complete list of speakers and topics will be posted soon. There will be hands on demos and workshops from some of your favorite indie crafters (wanna see Juliet Ames break a plate?!). But best of all, you will get to meet and hang out with artists and crafters just like you. People who love to make and learn.

Registration includes all programming from Friday through Sunday and is open now.

Hello Craft is putting together a holiday episode of their podcast and would love to hear from you! This is easy and fun!

The theme of the episode is getting and giving handmade for the holidays. Maybe grandma made you something really weird one year, maybe you gave someone the most amazing handmade treasure and they didn’t appreciate it. Maybe you are making all of your handmade gifts this year and it is changing your view of the holidays completely. Call their toll free voice line at 1-888-317-3785 and tell them your story in 5 minutes or less. Start your call out like this, “Hello Craft! My name is…” and then tell your story.

Calls for this very special episode are due on 12/21, so call right now!

>>Image is from The Decorated House.