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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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 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 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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D.I.Y. Louisville Meet-Up Recap

Our D.I.Y. Louisville Craft Collective group met up for the September meeting this week.  As always, it’s great fun and I am constantly blown away by all of the amazing projects our members are working on.  Here is a little sample of some of things our group brought out this week:

 

The only project I had time to work on was this amazing Cake Flour muffin and my favorite Sunergos Moroccan mint iced tea.  Mmm, mmm.

A box full of vintage buttons was fun to sort through.

Molly used her vintage buttons to work on some fun arm accessories.

Miss Happy Pink worked on her super cute screen printed note cards.

Becky of Buttons by Becky came out for the first time.  She worked on her corded button necklaces.  How cute are these chevron buttons?  They can be worn on the interchangeable necklaces.  Yeah, these came home with me.

Holly has been a Facebook friend for ages, and she finally had a chance to join us this week.  She was working on a crochet project, and will be helping to demonstrate basic crochet how-to next month.

A portion of our group working on their projects, drinking amazing Sunergos beverages, and chatting.  We’re big chatters, our group.

If you’re in the Louisville area and would like to know more about our meet-ups and how you can get involved with our group, check out our events page for upcoming meets or email julee at diylouisville@gmail.com. 

~julee~

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Properties of Metal: Meet-Up Recap

What an amazingly fun night we had last week at our meet-up with silversmith Robin Chard!

Robin is an extremely talented artist and we are so fortunate to have her as a member of our D.I.Y. Louisville Craft Collective.  Her work has been accepted into some of Louisville’s biggest art shows, including St. James Court Art Show.  Last year, Robin won first place at The Kentucky State Fair for a stunning jewelry piece made from various metals.   We pretty much can’t brag about her enough!

We had a great turnout for this event and were happy to meet so many new friends.  Here are a few of the pictures from our night working with Robin learning to harden metals, make swan necked jewelry clasps, and findings for earrings.

 

At the end of the evening, we each walked away with a swan necked clasp, and a pair of earrings that we created from start to finish with copper wire and beads.  It was a great night full of laughs and creativity, and we are so grateful to Robin for spending her evening sharing with us!

julee & kim

 

P.S.

You can see the full set of pictures from this night on our Facebook page.

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Local Event: Properties of Metal with Silversmith Robin Chard

Come and learn the metal side of jewelry making! Robin Chard, local silversmith, jewelry artist and longtime D.I.Y. Louisville member will be having a ‘Properties of Metal’ workshop Tuesday July 17^th.

She will bring softened copper wire and everyone will make a swan neck clasp. These are very practical and used in both bracelets and necklaces. We will also be making at least one pair of earrings.

Bring any jewelry pliers and cutters you might own. We will share what we have but more is better! Also any beads you’ve bought but haven’t used and craft wire.

Other techniques Robin will be showing are:

• Make your own jump rings
• Make your own ear wires
• How to harden wire
• How to make proper loops for wire jewelry
• How to “chain” wire loops

Please RSVP on our Facebook Events page if you would like to attend this exciting event.  We look forward to seeing you there!

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Copic Marker Event–Recap

Recently, we very gratefully  hosted a D.I.Y. Louisville meet-up sponsored by Copic Marker.  Copic Marker generously loaned our group a wide assortment of sketch markers and airbrush systems to try out on our altered journal projects. 

We have some talented artists in our group and having the chance to demonstrate these items and seeing their creativity unfold was awesome!



Copic Sketch Markers are amazing in that they let you create brilliant shading and blending effects for your art.  Each marker has a wide tip and a brush tip.  (Actually, the tips are called  nibs, technically.)  The Sketch markers come 358 colors, and all of the Copic markers are refillable.  Less waste makes the environmentalist in us really happy.



A new toy for everyone in our group was the Copic Airbrush System.  The whole thing hooked up and was ready to go in just a few minutes.  After you attach the included airhose and aircan, you simply snap in one of the Copic markers and bam! you’re airbrushing like a pro.





Even my daughter loved creating texture on her art with the airbrush system.  (I think this is a portrait of one of the Sunergos baristas, but I can’t be sure.)

 

Copic representatives were twittering with us to answer any questions we had about their products.  Do they guarantee color matching between batches of markers?  They certainly do!  What is the average shelf life of their markers?  Three-years.  An insanely long time in marker years as long as you properly care for them.  Do the fine folks at Copic love DIY’ers?  Indubitably!



This was such a fun and wonderful night for our group!  We owe a special thanks to Copic Marker for lending us these amazing products to review.  (We were not compensated for this review and all opinions in this review are of our own.)  We also owe a special thanks to Sunergos Coffee and our favorite barista Tristan for always generously accommodating our group.

If you would like more information on Copic Makers and Airbrush System, visit their website HERE.

If you would like to see more photos from our night, visit HERE.

If you would like more information on D.I.Y. Louisville and are interested in joining us during our next meet-up, check out our events page HERE.

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