D.I.Y. Louisville Annual Handmade Ornament Swap

D.I.Y. Louisville’s 4th Annual Holiday Party and Handmade Ornament Swap!

Saturday, December 14, 2013
3pm – 6pm
Good Garbage Center for Creative Reuse
2020 Duncan Street, 40203

Our 4th annual handmade ornament swap!

Entry Cost: One Handmade Ornament

Make one handmade ornament, wrap it pretty, and bring it to our swap party. Your ornament will be swapped with another handmade ornament from a D.I.Y. Louisville member.

We’re also doing a mini-version of a cookie swap! If you’d like to bring a plate of cookies or holiday treats, we’ll share them during the party. All goodies not eaten at the end of the party will be distributed for our guests to take home. If you’d like to provide your recipe, Julee will be sharing her favorite desserts (with recipes) on the D.I.Y. Louisville blog!

The first 20 attendees will receive swag bags!

A special thanks to our sponsors:  Pinot’s Palette, Good Garbage, Fly Away Fox, and My Ordinary Fairy Tale. 

If you or your business would like to sponsor this event, email julee @ diylouisville@gmail.com for more details.

RSVP HERE

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D.I.Y. Louisville Crafty Halloween Party

This past weekend D.I.Y. Louisville members gathered at Louisville Nature Center and celebrated their 3rd annual Halloween Craft Party.  Crafts + treats + Craft E Magee dressed as a black widow = good times.  Good, good times.

With an assortment of Halloween scrapbook paper on hand, participants put together their own Halloween Owl Plaque.  I always love to see how unique everyone’s piece turns out.  I especially love the kid’s plaques.  I firmly believe anything adults can do, kids can do better.

No Halloween party is complete without treats, and we had them in abundance.  Wholeport treat cups filled with candy corn were placed on every table.  Members provided lots of sweets, homemade cupcakes, pumpkin dump cake and even pumpkin salsa for everyone to nosh on while we waited for our painted plaques to dry.

It’s hard to believe that our little craft group is on its 3rd year of celebrating holidays and crafty good times, but there it is.  I’m so thankful for all of the fabulously talented ladies who pull together every month to help put these events together.  I could never, ever do it all without them!  Here’s to many more crafty celebrations!

If you’re a Louisville Local and are interested in joining us for future craft parties and meet-ups, please join our Facebook page to stay up to date on all future events.

Happy Halloween, DIY’ers!

~julee~

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Maker Faire Louisville: Recap

Louisville Mini Maker Faire last weekend was a huge success and tons of fun!  Makers from all over Louisville were out showing off their talents.  Robots, roller coasters, exploding watermelons, Lego building, and remote controlled Colonel Sanders were in abundance as participants enjoyed using their imaginations to create, build, and empower. 

D.I.Y. Louisville members set up a booth to showcase art and craft demonstrations throughout the day.  Em Dash Designs hosted a tissue paper flower make and take, Craft E Magee showed participants how to make an easy iron on transfer with crayons, and I brought along metal stamping tools to make initial necklaces for those who stopped by our booth.

One of the most exciting demonstrations from our day came from Miss Happy Pink who graciously built and set up a tabletop screen print press and created a new print just for Maker Faire.  The print says, “I make Louisville better by ____.” and encouraged us all to think about how we positively impact our community.  Awesomeness.  We all loved taking our turn using the press.

So many of our members were participating in the faire volunteering, selling handmade wares, and working with kids to create art pieces from what would otherwise be considered junk.  Fellow D.I.Y. Louisville member Lynn from Good Garbage was one of the many event organizers who put heart and soul into making this event a reality for our city.  I am so grateful for their hard work.

Did you go to the Louisville Mini Maker Faire this year, or have you been to a Maker Faire in your city?  Share your experience with me in the comments below.  I hope to see more participants join us next year for an even bigger, better event!

Happy making, DIY’ers!

~julee~

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D.I.Y. Louisville 3rd Annual Crafty Halloween Party!

Louisville Locals join us for our 3rd annual crafty Halloween party!  We’ll be making a spooky owl wall hanging, plus giving away prizes and sharing lots of treats!  The cost is $10 and includes everything you need to make the craft.  Purchase tickets and RSVP at Eventbrite:  diylouisville.eventbrite.com.

I hope to see you there!

~julee~

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Louisville Mini Maker Faire

The first ever Louisville Mini Maker Faire is happening on September 28, 2013!

Not sure what a Maker Faire is?  Well, it’s a family friendly faire that celebrates and epitomizes the do-it-yourself spirit, and encourages participants to join in the fun of creativity.  Makers are thinkers, innovators, doers.  Think ingenuity at its fullest.  Dale Doughtery, Founder of Make magazine, describes the Maker Movement as, “Fostering a participatory culture that invites and inspires creative communities of makers to come together and share what they make and do.”  Pretty awesome stuff, right?

The Maker Movement is generally heavy on technology and engineering, but when I heard Dale Doughtery speak earlier this year, he also emphasized that each of us are makers.  Those of us who make anything, are makers.  Cooks, homesteaders, knitters, painters, artisans, crafters – all makers. 

Indeed, D.I.Y. Louisville is itself a crafty makers group.

D.I.Y. Louisville will have a booth set up at the Louisville Mini Makers Faire presenting six various art and craft demonstrations throughout the day.  Many of our group members including Craft E Magee, Miss Happy Pink, Em Dash Designs, and artisan Robin Chard will join me as we share the talents that make up our group. 

For more information on the Louisville Mini Maker Faire, the maker movement, and maker faires in general,  check out the LMMF website makerfairelou.org.  You can also keep up with announcements and events on their Facebook and twitter feeds:  facebook.com/MakerFaireLou and @makerfairelou. 

I hope to see many of you at Louisville’s first Maker Faire!

~julee~

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Louisville Etsy Craft Party: Recap

Last week I joined forces with Emily of The Em Dash and Mary of Block Party Handmade Boutique to host the Louisville Etsy Craft Party as part of Etsy’s global crafting celebration.  Over 25 makers in Louisville came out to participate in the event and we had an amazing time.

We chose to decorate terra cotta pots as our project for the evening.  Using paint, chalkboard paint, jute, and fabric, the participants were able to create beautiful outdoor art for their potted plants.   Etsy also provided a fun-filled box of supplies from various Etsy sellers, plus fun “Craftivist” stickers to pass out to guests.

Check out The Em Dash for more details of the event plus the full instruction list for the many ways you can decorate your own terra cotta pots. 

It was a wonderful evening and so much fun meeting new creative friends in Louisville.  A big thank you to Block Party for sharing their space with us, and to everyone who came out to participate.

Emily and I are already planning for next year’s Etsy Craft Party!  We hope to see you there!

~julee~

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D.I.Y. Louisville Upcoming Events

Summer is off to a great start with so many community happenings for crafty minded and local blogging folks.  Here are just a few upcoming events that D.I.Y. Louisville will be partnering with this month:

Louisville Bloggers Meet and Greet!  Louisville Bloggers are invited for a fun night out to meet fellow bloggers in our community.  Hosted by Em Dash Designs, The Hanger, and D.I.Y. Louisville.  June 13, 6pm, The Hanger.  RSVP HERE or email at diylouisville@gmail.com.

 

Etsy Craft Party with Block Party Handmade Boutique, Em Dash Designs, and D.I.Y. Louisville!  Keep Louisville DIY and join the global celebration of meeting and making at the local Etsy Craft Party 2013: Craft for the Community.  

The craft du jour will be terra cotta plant pots. Paint them. Decoupage them. Do with them what you will in a crafty way. Just show up. We'll supply the rest!

Some other surprises are also in store, not to mention snacks.

A $5 supply fee will be collected at the door. Capacity is limited, so sign up early!

For questions, e-mail emily@theemdash.com, info@blockpartyhandmade.com or diylouisville@gmail.com.

For more information on Etsy’s Craft Party, check out this article: https://www.etsy.com/craft-party.

RSVP at etsycraftparty-louisville.eventbrite.com.

Make and Take at New Albany Library!  FREE event!  Thursday, June 27th, 6:30pm.  RSVP by calling New Albany Reference Service Desk at (812) 949-3523.

I am excited to be out in the community meeting new friends and hope that you’ll join me at these events!

~julee~

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Louisville Bloggers Meet and Greet

I have excit­ing news to share! Emily from Em Dash Designs and I have been work­ing to cre­ate a new group in Louisville — the aptly-named Louisville Blog­gers.

And our first-ever meet-up will be from 6 to 9 p.m. June 13 at The Hanger, a chic store owned by Louisville Blog­gers mem­ber Amanda Hinds. Light refresh­ments, door prizes and swag bags are in the mix.

If you’d like to attend, please RSVP on the Face­book event page or e-mail me at at diylouisville(at)gmail.com.

We have a closed Face­book group that all Louisville-area blog­gers are encour­aged to join, and please “like” our pub­lic page, where we hope to share posts from our members.

Work­ing together, we can learn about each other’s blogs, net­work and help each of us gain more expo­sure and skills. The hope is that we will con­nect via Face­book as well as through events, meet-ups and spe­cial train­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties, where we’ll bring in experts in pho­tog­ra­phy,SEO, web design, etc. Sug­ges­tions are very much expected!

We hope to see you there!

~julee~

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D.I.Y. Louisville Meet-Up Recap and Michaels Gift Card Giveaway

D.I.Y. Louisville’s monthly meet-up was held last week and this month’s theme was Bring Your Own Project.  I love these nights because it gives everyone a chance to really show off their amazing talents.  Our group is so diverse and I love that we all come together to share our strengths.  Here is just a small sample of what everyone was working on this week:

  

Lynn from Good Garbage was looking through reuse books for fresh ideas, Miss Happy Pink was organizing her freshly screen printed t-shirts,  Carrie from My Ordinary Fairy Tale was working on a knitting project, and Emily from Em Dash Designs   was working on new fabric coasters to sell at upcoming craft shows. 

How about you?  Has spring inspired you to begin any new projects?  Well, to help you get in the crafty mood, I have teamed up with some amazing bloggers to give away a $50 Michael’s gift card to one lucky reader.  No more excuses for putting off that project you’ve been wanting to work on any longer!

This giveaway is sponsored by: Oh My Gosh Beck!, Happy Deal - Happy Day!, Hott Mama In The City, Frugal Experiments, Celebrate Woman Today, Shopaholicmommy.com, D.I.Y. Louisville and Little Inspiration.  One lucky reader will win a $50 Michael’s gift card.

Giveaway is open worldwide and ends April 18th  at 11:59 PM EST. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

PS – You can check out all of my current giveaways HERE.

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Recycled Valentine’s with Good Garbage

D.I.Y. Louisville February meet-up was sponsored by  Good Garbage: Center for Creative Reuse.  Lynn, co-founder of Good Garbage and long time D.I.Y. Louisville member, brought out an assortment of collected recycled objects for our group to use to make Valentine’s cards.

Lynn showed us a few ways to recycle everyday objects like wine corks and paper rolls into Valentine’s stamps, and then everyone used their own creativity to make cards for their someone special.  I love how unique they all are.  My favorite cards came from the kids in attendance, as they all seemed to be drawn to these plastic white disks that were a cast-off from a printing company.

A great big thanks to Lynn and Good Garbage: Center for Creative Reuse for spending the evening with our group!  Be sure to visit Good Garbage on Facebook for more information about this exciting art, craft, and educational resource opening soon in Louisville.

~julee~

 

P.S. – You can find more information about D.I.Y. Louisville Craft Cooperative HERE.  If you or your company would like to donate supplies or sponsor an evening with our group, email me at diylouisville @ gmail dot com.

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Handmade Ornament Swap Recap

The D.I.Y. Louisville handmade ornament swap is my favorite group event of the year.  Ornaments are just so fun to make and so fun to receive. 

The D.I.Y. Louisville glitter ornaments were made by Angie, and it seems fitting that my daughter selected them from the group of wrapped offerings.  They are the perfect addition to our tree.  Indeed, I’m seeing a tradition here as Kim made me a D.I.Y. Louisville ornament last year.

I love to see the creativity of our group and how each ornament is unique.  I have plans to make a wine cork wreath for myself.  To the right is a glass ornament with melted crayon shavings inside.  The effect looks like painted glass.  So pretty!

This little tree was made from a recycled cardboard base and kraft paper.  Simply adorable! 

We had a wonderful night making new friends, noshing on delicious baked goods, and drawing for door prizes.  Thanks to everyone for coming out, and for all of our group members who really pulled together to help me get everything organized.

A big thanks to our generous sponsors for donating some fantastic prizes and goodies:

Golden Heart Massage

The Hanger

Good Garbage Center for Creative Reuse

All’s Fair in cookies and crafts

Em Dash Designs

Mia Bella Photography

Craft E Magee

I’ll be sharing more of our pictures on our Facebook page if you’d like to check them out.  Have you ever participated in an ornament swap?  What was your experience?

Happy Holidays, DIY’ers!

~julee~

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D.I.Y. Louisville 3rd Annual Handmade Ornament Swap

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D.I.Y. Louisville 2nd Annual Ornament Sew-Along

 What do you get when you cross a group of crafty ladies with a stack of felt?

 

A whole family of snowpeople. 

 

And just who are the lovely ladies behind this adorableness?

 

Emily – Em Dash Designs

Karen, Katie, Amanda  – Independent Crafty Ladies

Molly – MoMo’s Creations

Robin – A Sterling Reputation

Patty – All’s Fair in cookies and crafts

Liz – Craft E Magee

Lynn – Good Garbage

Carrie – My Ordinary Fairytale

 

Click on the links to check out what these amazing ladies are doing when they’re not spending the evening with me at the D.I.Y. Louisville meet-ups.  I am so fortunate to be a part of this wonderful group!
 

Have a great weekend DIY’ers!

 

~julee~

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D.I.Y. Louisville Halloween Party

The D.I.Y. Louisville group got together for a little Halloween crafting party this year.    Kim led the group in sculpting pumpkin and ghost charms made from polymer clay.  We also noshed on delicious Halloween treats, met new friends, and held a costume contest.  Miss Happy Pink passed out treats and sponsored one of our great giveaways of the night.  As you may have guessed by now, the DIY gals love Halloween!

The group working on their clay charms.

Everyone’s charms are unique.

Goodies and treats from Miss Happy Pink.

Miss Happy Pink as Hello Kitty.

Craft E Magee came dressed as – what else? – a Craft E Magee doll.  So cute, and she won the costume contest, too!

Schlemiel, schlimazel, hasenpfeffer incorporated!  Kim & Julee – A modern day Lavern & Shirley.

We have more pictures up on our Facebook page if you’d like to stop by and take a peek.  Happy Halloween, DIY’ers!

Kim & Julee

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Chicago Renegade Craft Fair

This weekend Kim and I and our good friend Liz (aka Craft E Magee) went on a getaway trip to Chicago for Renegade Craft Fair.  And let me tell you, Renegade was awesome.  Amazing.  Overwhelmingly good.  So many talented artists and craftspeople.  All of them excited about their art and thankful for the opportunity to show off, and even more grateful for your business.  So much fun.

Our only complaint about Renegade is that by midday the crowds were so thick that you could hardly get into any of the booths. So even though we walked the entire fair twice, we feel like we missed seeing some things, and we even skipped on buying a few things because we were just too tired to elbow our way through the crowds.  It was no less fun, but maybe a little disappointing.

With all of the busyness and crowds, I didn’t pull out my camera much.  Here are just a few of the snapshots from our weekend:

Kim taking a break from the crowd at Renegade.

 

Blueberry cheesecake Puffs of Doom.  Heaven.

 

The only picture of all three of us.

 

Being tourists at Millennium Park.

 

Kim adding to the graffiti at Gino’s East Pizza.

 

Refreshments.

 

Of course we had to stop at Magnolia Bakery for cupcakes.

 

We had an amazing weekend. 

Have you ever been to any of the Renegade Craft Fairs?  What was your experience?

We’ll be sharing more of our photos on our Facebook page if you’re interested in checking them out.

~julee~

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