etsy craft party round up

Hey! Did you make it out to the Etsy craft party in Vancouver last month hosted by Got Craft?, Collage Collage, Spool of Thread Sewing Lounge and RubyDog's Art House? Hope so! We, unfortunately, were not able to attend, but it sounded like good times were had by all.

Here are some long overdue pictures from Erin at Collage Collage. Collage Collage is a workshop space and retail shop that focuses on children, so Erin whipped up some kid friendly projects including using ceramic friendly markers provided by Etsy to paint their own teacup!


I am proud to announce that the Vancouver Etsy meet up had a whopping 81 RSVP's. Out of a total of 602 meet ups around the world, we ranked 11th and no other Canadian city even came close to us. Goooo... crafty Vancouver! The top 50 cities with the most RSVP's received a box of goodies from Etsy (pictured above).


Thank you to everybody that made it out and a BIG thank you Rita for bringing lemon cupcakes and Stace for the raspberry shortcake cookies. Happy belated birthday Etsy!

tutorial :: Smeeta’s Easy Peasy Coffee Sleevy

Ever shrink a wool sweater in the wash? What do you do with it after? Give it to a really tiny friend? Well, I guess you could, but let’s be realistic, it would probably be really ill fitting – so let’s save a tiny friend from a fashion faux pas and do something else cool with that sweater. I’m going to show you a really simple way to make a re-usable coffee sleeve from an old sweater that will incite 'oohs' and 'aahs' from your local barista and coffee-drinking cohorts.

When wool is washed in hot water and dried, it becomes “felted”. Felted wool has some really great characteristics- it’s dense, insulating, and my personal favourite, it doesn’t fray when you cut it! So that means crafting with felt is generally non-fussy.

Materials:
• shrunken wool sweater
• paper coffee sleeve
• 1 piece of paper
• Something to decorate your sleeve (buttons, trim, felt)
• Thread
• Needle
• Scissors


First, you’ll need a shrunken wool sweater. If you haven’t already ruined your favourite sweater in the wash, you can take an 80-100% wool sweater, stick it in the wash on hot and machine dry. The sweater I’m using as an example was purchased at a thrift store.


Step 1 – make a pattern for your sleeve. I’ve used a paper sleeve I got with my coffee and traced it onto paper and then cut it out.


Step 2 – pin the cut out pattern to your sweater and cut along the edge. It might not come out very straight but that’s OK – you can trim it afterwards.

Step 3 – if you want to decorate your sleeve, do it now! I’m a big fan of buttons, so that’s an easy way to snazzy it up.


Step 4 – figure out how you want to connect the two ends together. Again, I love buttons! This was so simple, I pinned my sleeve together so that the ends overlapped, then I sewed the buttons on through both layers. Make sure that you’ve made it the proper size- if your felt is a bit stretchy you might want to make the sleeve smaller.

There you have it – an eco-friendly, re-usable sleeve that you can just pop in your purse and protect your hands from your hot cup, but keep them warm in winter.

So what are you going to do with the rest of the sweater? Why not make some coffee sleeves for your friends as a sweet gift? Or save the rest of the material for another great project like a stuffed toy, a bag, or a pair of fingerless gloves – the possibilities are endless!

Note: for those who are in a hurry, you could even just cut the cuff of the sweater sleeve and use that around your coffee cup! And of course, you don’t have to use a sweater to make one of these puppies, go ahead and re-use any type of material you have around the house (a lovely dinner napkin with a stain in the corner for example).

Smeeta, aka Rita Leung is an avid crafter based in Vancouver. She loves to find creative inspiration from around the world and of course from the West Coast. You can find her goods at smeeta.etsy.com.

Smeeta - feature #27

Name: Rita Leung from Smeeta
Website links: Smeeta on Etsy, Noticle blog

What do you make?
I make lots of different things... but as for what I make to sell that would be mostly felt brooches, toys, and bags/purses. I was encouraged to be creative with what I had when I was a kid (read: no money for fancy toys! Oh wait... that's now too! haha) so I've always that "well, if I can't buy it, can I make it?" mentality.



What or who inspires you?
What doesn't inspire me should be the question here I think! Whether I see something that is so fabulous that I want to try making it myself, or whether it's something so horribly designed that I know that I can make a better version, I find that I'm constantly inspired by the things around me. I think particularly in the spring and fall I'm influenced by the natural environment and I love all things Japanese so that definitely plays a part in my style and design.

Also, when I go shopping for supplies, rarely do I have an extensive list of things I need to purchase. A lot of the time the things I make come from being attracted to a particular material. When I go to the fabric store, if I see something I like and really want to use, I think, what can I make with this?



How did you get started?
I guess I've had a bit of an entrepreneurial streak ever since I was a kid. When I was 12 one of my best friends and I started "R & B Odd Jobs". We went around the neighbourhood stuffing mailboxes with our photocopied fliers offering services such as babysitting, garden work, dog walking etc. We ended up with only ONE gig all summer which was cutting grass for my friend's dad's friend. Hah!

As for the craft selling, when I was fourteen I learned how to make my own little weaving loom out of cardboard and wove a bunch of purses. My mom sold all 6 of them for me at $15 bucks a pop. I was hooked! First off, I really enjoyed the process of creating, and then secondly, I realised how satisfying it was for other people to like my work enough to pay for it. Mind you, they probably only bought them because they were my mom's friends... but hey, it was that little bit of encouragement that planted the seed for my crafty future!

What are your favourite materials to work with?
Currently that would be oil cloth. I do have a bit of a love/hate relationship with it though. I love the way it feels and looks but I hate the way it sews! I also really enjoy working with felt. It comes in such pretty colours, is soft, and is non-fussy to work with.



What is the hardest and most favourite part of crafting?
Hardest: Not being able to figure out what you're doing wrong while making the same mistake over and over again. For example, I was not a happy camper when I first tried sewing in zippers.

Favourite: Holding the finished product in your hand and just feeling proud because you created something (you think) is awesome.



List 5 of your favourite links and why you like them

flickr: In addition to the crafty stuff, I also love taking photographs. This is a great wealth of inspiration not to mention a great site to find really cute pictures of cats. meow. p.s. my flickr is here: http://flickr.com/photos/smeeta

keyofgrey: did I also mention that I'm into music? Key of Grey is run by my boyfriend and is a daily blog with music gear reviews, questions and answers about producing music, and general music banter.

facebook: I was hesitant to join at first, but am so glad that I did! It's really helped me connect with so many people and made organizing my 10 year high school reunion soooo much easier.

etsy: I think this one is pretty self-explanatory. It's a place I get to sell my wares, and sometimes, more importantly, a place I get to *buy* goodies! It's so easy to get lost in browsing all the incredible things that people make.

icanhascheezburger: no explanation required. hehe.



Do you have any advice for those in the biz?
Two words: TIME MANAGEMENT. Learn it. Do it. Or else get sucked into spending 6 hours too many surfing the net and only 1 hour being productive. Lesson learned. :P

And a few more words: spend some time to really think about pricing. In general, things always cost more than we think they do to make and sell them. It's not only the cost of the materials and the time you put in creating - there's so much more involved. For example, are you going to charge for the time it takes to design your product, purchase supplies, photograph, list, promote, package, and ship your items? Also, there are the cost of packaging materials, your tools, electricity, internet bills, camera, and so on. Eeps! I'm still not sure if my prices are what I want them to be or what they should be, but for now, they will suffice!



Do you consider yourself an artist or a crafter?
Yes, these are different. What I am at any given point depends on what I'm doing... I consider myself both an artist and a crafter. However, for the business side of things, I would say that I spend most of my time as a crafter.

Craft for me is something that is generally done with your eyes and your hands. You can craft without designing your own product and you can also make several of the same item. To be a skilled crafter is to be able to produce something of high physical (and preferably aesthetic) quality. Art, on the other hand is emotional and very subjective. It might be difficult to quantify the quality of a piece of art whereas you could simply say a craft is either well made or it isn't. I would say a lot of the people in this business are both artists and crafters. It's a very good combination. :)

(photo images courtesy of Rita Leung / Smeeta)

If you are interested in being featured, please send us an email at info(at)gotcraft(dot)com.

Check out our past features...

ACageyBee - feature #26
Maked - feature #25
Firefly Notes - feature #24
Florence Ann - feature #23
Him Creations - feature #22
Jenny Hart - feature #21
district thirty - feature #20
tinywarbler designs - feature #19
telly designs - feature #18
Cabin + Cub - feature #17
Rachel Hobson - feature #16
Green Couch Designs - feature #15
Tanis Alexis - feature #14
Sweetie Pie Press - feature #13
Fibre Manipulator - feature #12
Sam Made - feature #11
All Things Paper - feature #10
Owl + Pussycat - feature #9
Bliss in a teacup - feature #8
It's Your Life - feature #7
Faythe Levine - feature #6
Coco Cake Cupcakes - feature #5
pomomama design - feature #4
GroovyGlassGirl - feature #3
Bueno Style - feature #2
The Beautiful Project - feature #1

Featured Vendor #6

This is Smeeta.

Aren't her items absolutely darling? SO cute! I was actually secretly eyeing her items on Etsy for the longest time, so I was super happy to receive an email from her asking about the craft fair!

She doesn't have many items in the shop right now, but that's because she is saving her goodies for the show!

Smeeta will be joined with her sister Vicki who makes these lovely cards...


Fun fact: lotus events is planning her friends' wedding in 2009!