things to do :: midori holiday heaven

I first spotted Midori at Urban Craft Uprising last July in Seattle. Jars of buttons, spools of ribbons, stacks of pretty paper... crafters with arms full of supplies headed towards the cash desk... I asked myself, who was this vendor? Started 21 years ago, Midori is a wholesaler of fine ribbon and decorative packaging. Located in Seattle, Midori will be hosting their 12th annual Holiday Heaven event on Saturday, November 20th and Sunday, November 21st, 2010 in Seattle.

Holiday Heaven is the one weekend where Midori opens their doors to the general public where they can directly purchase products such as discontinued, second, sample and overstock items at discounted prices. Fabric ribbon, decorative packaging, craft items, oh my! Perfect for the upcoming holiday season!

Here are the details:

When:
Saturday, November 20th, 2010 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Sunday, November 21st, 2010 from 9:00 a.m. to Noon

Where:
Midori warehouse - 708 6th Avenue North, Seattle, WA

buy handmade :: Blue Diamond Stamp Company

The Blue Diamond Stamp Company was one of the vendors at Urban Craft Uprising in Seattle. Even though, I hadn't done any stamp projects since I was a teenager, their booth set up caught my eye as I have never seen anybody hand make stamps before. Liz Rosino, owner of the Blue Diamond Stamp company, creates clear art stamps from photo-polymer using a mixture of her own drawings and unique, found imagery. There are over 120 designs to choose from including Victorian ladies, tattoo themes, nature themes and robots!

For you stamp lovers out there, Liz explains the benefits of clear polymer stamps versus red rubber mounted stamps on her website as well as tips for stamp placement, storage and cleaning. Visit her Etsy shop here to purchase one of her stunning designs. Happy stamping!

image from Blue Diamond Stamp Company

buy handmade :: Bison Letterpress & Flying Bird Botanicals

image from Bison Bookbinding & Letterpress (Flowmotion Summer Meltdown - Festival ticket design, printing, foil stamping)

I heart letterpress. I love the raised surfaces that letterpress creates and the added hand touched quality that you don't always get with print. I met Carly and her husband, owners of Bison Bookbinding & Letterpress, at the Urban Craft Uprising show a few weekends ago in Seattle. They have a fantastic selection of hand bound notebooks and greeting cards. Some styles are available in their Etsy shop or you can find them at the Bellingham Farmers Market every Saturday.


In addition to their products at the market (which included handmade awls!), Bison Bookbinding & Letterpress are also available for custom projects and offer workshops and studio tours to help keep the tradition of letterpress and book arts alive in the community.


image from Flying Bird Botanicals

The booth space was shared with a friend, Scout Urling from Flying Bird Botanicals who offers 100% hand crafted, vegetarian teas and bath and body products. You can check out their Etsy shop here.

I'm not sure which booth it belonged to, but one of my favourite things there was the hand crafted jars of glue for sale. I just love (love!) their whole booth set up and how well it reflected the look of both companies and you know what I overheard while shopping? "I love seeing people smile when they look at our products".

seattle love :: urban craft uprising

Urban Craft Uprising began as a holiday show and their show dates were always the same as Got Craft which meant that I always missed it. Last year, they annouced that they were going to hold the event bi-annually, one in the summer and one in the Winter, but of course, we were already booked and missed the Summer show. So, when they announced their 2010 Summer dates, I entered them into the calendar and refused to take any bookings, because it was UCU time!


(birthday celebrations at Wann)

Through the magic of Twitter, we realized that one of our friends was also thinking of heading down and we started laying out some road trip plans. On a side note, I just want to mention that making plans 140 characters at a time is no easy feat!



(PVC pipe display - genius!)
Robert and I first met Kristen from Schmancy a few years ago on one of our visits to Seattle. Kristen, is one of the organizers of Urban Craft Uprising and let me tell you, if you can make it down there, this is a must stop! 100 swag bags are given out to the first 100 people in line. I'm pretty sure we got there 10 minutes after the doors opened and there wasn't even a bag in sight. They were all spoken for!


We made a run to Target... we drank icees... we had birthday donuts and sushi... we vintage shopped (pyrex love above)... we went over budget at Urban Craft Uprising... We met new friends... a whirlwind of good times!

day one

Day one was technically on Friday, but since my internet connection was finicky for the entire trip, I didn't get a chance to post until now.

Despite the rain and cold weather, we, along with Gnorman the gnome (get it? so bad, but so good), made a visit to Pike Place Market and then grabbed a coffee and some sandwiches for lunch at Le Panier.



Just before we left for Portland, we popped into Schmancy and met Kristen from Urban Craft Uprising. UCU is held every December over two days and it is the ultimate indie craft fair in Seattle with 7800 attendees this year. Keep an eye on their website for some new events!