Friday Finds- Happy Halloween!

My taste in Halloween decorations tends toward the folk or primitive, and here's what caught my eye this year...

Skeleton shelf sitter by lunaclaydesign.

Painting by blueyeduckstudios.

Ghost paper mache by Middleburg.

Spooky Halloween banner by StoriaHome.

Decorative boxes by juliegrace.

Happy Halloween!

Twenty Things - Sugarpaperie

1. I grew up in the heartland of Indiana.
2. I LOVE everything about the Big Apple.
3. As a kid, I would spend hours playing dress up with my Barbie’s.
4. I played basketball for years and dreamed of becoming “Pistol Pete”.
5. I am obsessed with organizing things, especially magazine tear outs.
6. Collecting is another obsession of mine – anything pretty gets rescued and comes home with me.
7. My bathroom is painted a crisp Apple Green.
8. One day, I hope to sell my cards to Anthropologie.
9. I teach elementary art.
10. I studied Fibers in college and love anything to do with fashion.
11. My favorite shows are Project Runway and Lipstick Jungle.
12. I used to dream of working for Martha Stewart. Frankly I love her, but I’m afraid of her too.
13. I can be equally laid back and Type A.
14. Tom Selleck once held the door for me at the Ralph Lauren store in Manhattan.
15. I have a crush on Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, and Tom Selleck. P.S. Don’t tell my husband.
16. When it comes to technology, I am pretty incompetent. I’m working on that though.
17. I dvr Oprah and the Martha Stewart Show daily.
18. I babysat for a Kennedy a few times and spied Ethel’s phone number on the fridge.
19. Two foods I can’t live without are spinach and ice cream.
20. I love all kinds of music and listen to everything from James Taylor to Outkast.

Would you like to be featured? Email your twenty things (keep it clean, please!) to baltimoreetsy (at) gmail (dot) com. Be sure to include your photo, name and URL.

Last Chance!

Applications for the Alt-Craft section of the ACC show are due tomorrow!

Fifteen makers will be juried into this bustling section, which celebrates the innovative techniques and materials of the burgeoning handmade movement. This is an opportunity for talented artists and indie designers to gain national exposure at a well-established show.


Lidded Bowl from Circa Ceramics

Every year more than 700 artists present their work at the American Craft Council Show in Baltimore, attracting a crowd of 25,000 enthusiasts to the largest juried, indoor craft show in the nation. The average booth is valued at $1,500 but as part of the Council’s commitment to indie crafters, the cost of participation is just $400, which includes a skirted table, electricity and lighting trusses in a shared space. Plus, there’s no application fee!

Applicants are eligible only if they have NOT shown in an American Craft Council show previously. Embellished commercially-bought objects (e.g., tee shirts, note cards, etc.) are not eligible. Show dates are February 27-March 1.

The deadline is Thursday, October 30.

Please submit:

• (3) low-resolution images of your work
• A brief description of your work (materials, dimensions, techniques)
• Your contact information (mailing and email addresses)

Send submissions and inquiries to Erika at altcraft@craftcouncil.org.

Finalists will be announced in November.

-From the blog at americancraftmag.org

Art-ket @ the Market- Rain Date, This Weekend

Join the Baltimore Etsy Street Team and the Charm City Craft Mafia this Saturday, Nov. 1, at Highlandtown's Art-ket @ the Market. Arts and crafts will be on sale during the regular farmers' market, from 8 a.m. until noon on Bank Street near Conkling.

See you there!

Hello Craft!

Hello Craft is collecting stories about making and buying handmade. This will be a weekly podcast hosted by Tina Seamonster. Tina is a regular Cut the Craft and Storque contributor and gnome and zombie extraordinaire.


Call the toll-free voice-mail line at 1-888-317-3785 and tell Tina, Sara, Kim and Kelly your story in under 5 minutes and it might appear on a future episode of their soon to be launched podcast. They want to know everything from who inspires you to make, buying your first sewing machine, how the handmade community effects your life, crafting injuries and failures and brilliance and successes.

So how do you do it? It’s easy!

1. Decide what story you want to tell.
2. You can either record it yourself and email it to them if you have the know-how or call the toll-free voice-mail line (1-888-317-3785) and leave a message up to 5 minutes long.
3. Please start your message like this: "Hello Craft! My name is *your name here* and I make *blank*. If you don't make anything, then say, "and I buy handmade". Then tell your story. Extra points if it is funny or sad!
4. At the end, give your email address, business name, etc. and they will edit out the email address. They just need to be able to contact you.

Email tinatheseamonster@gmail.com with questions. The phone number is toll-free in the US. Be sure to contact them if you are outside of the US and would like to contribute. Get your stories heard!

Happy Birthday, Sherry!

aka dandelionblu

Random Photo Photo

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The Great Halloween Lantern Parade Postponed!

Due to inclement weather, The Great Halloween Lantern Parade will be postponed until Sunday, October 26, 2008.

7pm to JOIN at the Pulaski Monument,
7:30pm to WATCH on the eastern side of Linwood Ave.
Then stick around for hot cider, goodies & live music!

Please call 410-276-1651 for further information.

Friends Of Patterson Park
27 S. Patterson Park Avenue
Baltimore, Maryland 21231
410-276-3676

Halloween Pop-ups!

We posted a link to Robert Sabuda's awesome pop-up tutorials last week, but thought these projects are so timely that they're worth posting again... just in case you missed them the first time around!


Witch


Bat


Frankenstein

Art-ket @ the Market

Postponed due to a rain date:
Art-ket @ the Market in Highlandtown, Sat. Nov. 1, 8 am–noon Highlandttown Farmer's Market will be hosting the Baltimore Street Team and the Charm City Craft Mafia. We will be selling our work from 8 a.m. to noon on Bank Street near Conkling. (If it is raining, we'll be set up inside at the Skyloft Gallery 3701 Bank St.)

Hope to see you there!

Friday Finds- Halloween Costumes

Halloween is next week! So I'll be spending this weekend making my daughter's costume. Here are some really cool costumes on Etsy:

I love this colorful kids monarch butterfly costume, by worldofwhimm.

This headpiece has always kind of fascinated me, reminds me of playing Princee Leia when I was a kid. By ansleybleu.

I love the color and texture in this luau skirt by sandcookies.

Just plain cute. And aren't all kids little devils inside? By DanburyLane.

Minimalism. By Buttonhead.

Twenty Things - Anne Ditmeyer

Twenty things you didn't know about Anne Ditmeyer, blogger at Prêt à Voyager . You can also find Anne as one of the contributing editors on design*sponge , where she manages the sneak peeks and runs the "regional roundup" column.

1. My current theme song is "Suddenly I See" by KT Tunstall - I like to imagine myself as Anne Hathaway in the opening of "Devil Wears Prada"
2. My dad and I applied to be on the Amazing Race. I'm still bummed we weren't picked!
3. I HATE sauerkraut
4. The highest compliment someone ever gave me was that I was a French woman trapped in an American body
5. Pancakes and potatoes are my two favorite foods. I do love strawberries too.
6. I always thought I hated cherries because I associated them with the medicine I took as a kid. Turns out I love them!
7. I can stay I traveled around the world -literally - by the time I was 21 (and on a ship!).
8. As a kid I wanted to be an Olympic athlete so I could have an awesome warm up suit - I would have been a swimmer.
9. I have two friends who are gold medalists.
10. I'm UBER independent and not afraid to do things or go places alone. That being said I also have the coolest friends in the world!!!!
11. I've lived car free for over 2 years now, and wouldn't have it any other way. (The only thing I miss is car dancing).
12. I've been known to dress up as costumed characters.
13. I have no desire to be an actress, but I'd kill to be an extra!
14. My mom makes fun of me for dressing up for casual occasions, and down for dressy occasions.
15. I'm trying to come up with a plan to run away to Paris.
16. In college I voluntarily woke up at 5:30am everyday!
17. My best friend and I live in the same city and still send each other real letters.
18. Amelie is my favorite movie.
19. In another life I'd be a dancer.
20. I don't drink coffee.

Would you like to be featured? Email your twenty things (keep it clean, please!) to baltimoreetsy (at) gmail (dot) com. Be sure to include your photo, name and URL.

Protect Your Work!

The second of the series of five Maryland Lawyers for the Arts workshops is this Saturday! This one is called "Protecting Your Work: Navigating Contracts" with Gorman & Williams attorney and MLA Board Member Michael Yang. A road map to the types of contracts artists can expect to encounter—services, consignment, assignment, licensing, and sales—and overview of common terms and concerns.

The workshop will be held this Saturday, October 25th at Maryland Art Place (Power Plant Live! 8 Market Place, Suite 100, Baltimore 21202), 2:00 to 3:30 pm. Admission is Free.

Lantern Parade - This Weekend!

The Great Halloween Lantern Parade '08 is this Saturday! The new route in Patterson Park takes the awesome procession of a thousands of lantern both right past and high above viewers - so we can all watch it twice and twice as well! Themed to Lewis Carroll's wild characters GHLP's BEWARE The Jabberwocky has a plethora of pumping Parade bands - Samba Travao, Mambo Combo's Escola de Samba, Sac Au Lait, The Barrage Band! Stiltwalking knights romp on horseback, a plethora of pleasing floats roll, and sparkling flowers sing! After rising to the hill the Parade marches back to the Pulaski Monument where the floats and bands join together, playing and shining in the Jabberwocky Jam! Then Sac Au Lait takes to the stage in the Haunted Hamlet where we gab about our gorgous night with hot drinks and fun company amidst vendors.

Pulaski Monument, Linwood & Eastern Ave. 7pm Line-up, 7:30 Parade. FREE!

Via the Creative Alliance

For information about the image, please click on the image.

Mark Your Calendars - BEST Virtual Trunk Show!

More info coming soon!

Featured Seller: Gabriella Lucretia

I LOVE jewelry. I am obsessed with it. It is my passion! Up until recently I have been a hardcore silver only jewelry wearer… that is until I stumbled upon Gabriella Lucretia. Donna (the shop owner) is not only a lovely person, she is truly talented!


She takes cast off vintage and antique found objects and gives them new life, or as she would say, “reinvents” them into something spectacular! She has a lot of large chunky pieces that are brass or bronze, things I would never have worn, but somehow her designs just drew me in! Her design style is categorized as Steampunk, which I had no idea what that was nor had I ever heard of it before coming to Etsy. It is definitely a style that I now appreciate!

Erica from CEK Custom Designs wearing work from Gabriella Lucretia

Donna is a great communicator and ships out fast! She is in CA and I got my items in MD within 3 days! That’s always the worst part about shopping online… you find and buy something really cool from an Etsy shop and can’t wait to get it… the waiting is terrible!!! I sometimes stalk my postal carrier when I know something is coming!!! Donna packages her items very nicely in a lovely box with tissue paper and ribbon. I love this!!! It’s so nice to open a beautifully wrapped package!!! Please go visit her shop… you won’t regret it!

Post written by CEK Custom Designs

Random Baltimore Photo

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Fall Giveaway

This is our biggest giveaway yet! A collection of gift certificates worth $200!

All you have to do is join our mailing list (if you have not done some already) AND visit a participating artists shop and leave a comment on the original post about your favorite item(s). Winner will be chosen at random on Thanksgiving Day - just in time for Cyber Monday! Good Luck!

(photo courtesy of tigerlillyshop)

Open Studio Tour - This Weekend

Friday Finds- Leaves

Oh, it's that gorgeous time of year when the trees are just full of color... so here's a little leaf-themed inspiration - get outside!

Remind a friend who lives in, say, Florida, just how beautiful the leaves are with these handmade note card with original photography by mercyming

Knit a leaf-inspired sweater or scarf, with this beautiful yarn by jewlbal3

It's getting dark earlier, so you might need this leaf luminary by paperplanet

When you want to wear leaves, these enamel studs by our own dandelionblu will be perfect

Or these felted hair clips by juliepersons would be gorgeous too

And to bring the season inside, I love this felted ornament by littleloveblue

Twenty Things - Miscelena

1. I’m a Maryland native, but I don’t eat crabs… or much other seafood.
2. I love heights, but hate the feeling of falling - I’ll sit on the edge of cliffs, but never ride roller coasters.
3. I’m on the Council of the Annapolis City Center of the International Interior Design Association as an Event Planner.
4. My three cats are named Links, Java, and Adobe… because of their colorings: one looks a bit like a lynx, one is a black-coffee colored tortie with latte speckles, and the last is an apricot tabby. The fact that their names are also computer-related just proves I’m a geek.
5. Within the last six months I’ve read no less than five nonfiction books about the fifteenth century exploration of the Americas. (More proof that I’m a geek.)
6. I just bought my third Honda Civic – and this one’s red!
7. My wallet, card case, compact mirror, moleskine and leather portfolio are also red. (One guess at my favorite color…!)
8. I can move my pinky toe independently of my other toes, and often pick dropped things up with my feet, causing my younger brother to teasingly identify me as The Missing Link.
9. I wear glasses only for reading, so I had my prescription put into my mother’s aluminum cat-eye frames from the late 50’s…. and they were perfect for HonFest, too (see photo!)
10. I’ve driven cross-country twice; once from DC to LA, the other time from Phoenix to Baltimore.
11. Being part-Scottish, I think a bottle of The Macallan 15 year expression is worth the splurge… but I’m unlikely to shell out for anything older.
12. I’m mostly tone-deaf.
13. The Greek side of my family has owned restaurants in Annapolis since the 1930’s – but my grandfather chose instead to deliver mail on the Naval Academy Yard… and that’s how he met my grandmother.
14. I once sold a gorgeous hand-carved-wood Louis XVI console table to a client who needed a place to put their keys when they came in their front door … and it cost them more than my yearly salary at the time. This convinced me that I no longer wanted to work in residential interior design.
15. Last year, a Maryland State Representative found one of my photos representing his District on my Flickr page, and requested a print of it to hang in his office. In return, he donated to my son’s school.
16. My specialty in the kitchen is waffles… cinnamon-spice or almond most often… and I make them in my heart-shaped waffle-maker.
17. Favorite vacation to date: Fifteen teenagers, thirteen days in Europe, ten cities, six chaperones, one of which was me.
18. Dream vacation: Alaska cruise.
19. When I was eight, my hair was so long that I could sit on it….and then Dorothy Hamill was in the Olympics and I got it all cut off to match her swingy-bob.
20. I feel so blessed and lucky to know so many creative people in so many different design communities, and I’m so impressed with the work produced by my fellow members of the Baltimore Etsy Street Team!

photo by bodhi47


Would you like to be featured? Email your twenty things (keep it clean, please!) to baltimoreetsy (at) gmail (dot) com. Be sure to include your photo, name and URL.

Must-See Sites - COLOURlovers

If you are a graphic designer, fashion designer, or anyone who works with color, COLOURlovers is a site you should know about. I personally haven't tapped all of the resources available on this huge site, but if I ever need a color wake-up, this is the first place I'll go.

COLOURlovers™ is a resource that monitors and influences color trends. COLOURlovers gives the people who use color - whether for ad campaigns, product design, or even in architectural specification - a place to check out a world of color, compare color palettes, submit news and comments, and read color related articles and interviews.

The COLOURlovers™ community is regularly updated with information and examples of the way colors are used in the real world -- along with news articles on color trends and interviews with top creative professionals. Here everyone who is interested in the practical applications of color can find an index of color trends as they are happening. Together, they create a color trend index for the entire world provided by users of color worldwide. It's a tool designers and artists of all kinds use to work with colors in new ways and quickly find out what's hot and what's not. This site allows anyone to find their inspiration for color by searching, sorting and filtering through keywords to a color scheme that interests them... or create and share your own!

I generally don't need this kind of inspiration for my own work, as I enjoy the experimenting a bit too much. But to think of the time it would save me when deciding what color to paint my living room? Now that, I love.

When 2-D Just Won't Do

Pop-up artist Robert Sabuda's books belong within everyone's reach. OK, so maybe I don't leave my 2 year old alone with our copy of Winter in White, but we most certainly explore it's pages at her pace and whim.


Peter Pan Pop-Up Book by Robert Sabuda


Ark Pop-up Book by Matthew Reinhart

I cannot even tell you how am thrilled I am to have discovered instructions for making simple pop-ups through RobertSabuda.com. And I cannot wait to share these creations with my Pepita. She is going to LOVE them!

Atomic Knit Night

At the super-cool smoke-free Golden West Cafe Long Bar in Hampden!


Image courtesy of sugarfreak

It's easy to fall into isolation from working by yourself in a studio day in and day out, but you learn so much more when you can brainstorm with your peers. Get off the couch and out of the house to join a crafty bunch in a chill setting on Tuesday Nights from 6- 9pm.

Favorite Seller: Silvia66

As the days become cooler, especially in the mornings and evenings, I crave nice warm accessories. One of my favorite Etsy shops is Italian designer Silvia66. She creates wonderfully original scarves, capelets, neckwarmers and more. Luxurious materials are used such as Merino and Wool and Mohair, with interesting embellishments like buttons and hand knit flowers. Best of all, it's all made in Italy, which makes it even more special for me. Don't be surprised to see me wrapped up in one of her creations this fall.

Monday Inspirations - Street Mosaics

Viva La Pothole! If you live in Baltimore, chances are, you've experienced a pothole or two. or ten. My street is chock full of them. But, for those who are crafty and for those who dare...the pothole should be looked at as an opportunity, right? Why not beautify the pothole, snaz it up, give it some bling? Maybe our own Juliet of the Broken Plate Pendant Company could be hired to solve our city's pothole crisis!

Ah, the possibilities....

post written by yummyandcompany

Random Baltimore Photo

Photo courtesy of BlockPartyPress

I Sew Knits

And so can you. Of course you can!



I resisted buying Sew U: Home Stretch by Wendy Mullin and Eviana Hartman for a long time because I already know how to sew knits. Actually, I've never bought an instructional book on sewing before, ever. Until yesterday. I convinced myself that I could stand to use the included patterns to make myself something cool for a change.

Was it worth it? Sure. If you don't sew regularly, this would be a good place to start. Wendy assures you that sewing knits really isn't that tricky, and so will I. But it does take practice. Get this book and experiment, and don't even worry about completing a project until you've played scientist with your fabric and your machine. Make charts with fabric samples and thread tensions. Be stubborn and you will figure it out.

She recommends a serger, and I have to say, I really, really want a serger (Hello, Santa? Are you listening?) But I have sewed hundreds of tees and dresses and more with my conventional sewing machine with no problem. It takes a little more time and a lot more finesse to sew knits this way, but it's totally possible.

If you already know how to sew knits, you might appreciate the variation of patterns and ideas for garment reconstruction. Regardless of your level of experience, it's always helpful to explore other artists' styles and methods to help develop your own distinct style.

Taste of Waverly - tomorrow!

Come on out and show your support for Main Street at the Taste of Waverly Village on Saturday, Oct.11 from 4-9 pm at 32nd and Barclay St. (the site of the Waverly Farmer's Market). Sample a variety of food from local restaurants, enjoy local bands and get started on your holiday shopping. There will even be a free kid zone.

Best of all, an entire section of the event is dedicated to local crafters. You'll find stained glass windows and ornaments by Fabulous Glass; all natural essential oils from Natural Aromatics; handmade journals, pots and wreaths from Waverly Wanderers; soaps by You and Me Soap; note cards by Sugar Paperie; children's clothing by Sweet Pepita; fine art paintings and screenprinted tees by Yummy & Company; handmade jewelry by Tigerlilly Shop, The Littlest Bean, CEK Custom Designs and For Queen Victoria.

via Baltimore by Hand