May 30th, 2009

We will be at the Main Street Farmer’s Market tomorrow, May 31st, doing needle felting demos all morning, from 9am-1pm It is our first time being invited to participate in the farmer’s market and we can not wait!!! Follow your noses to the pancake booth because we will be set up right net to it. Needle felt with us, then get your fingers deliciously sticky with maple syrup after :-)

Read more about the local farmer’s market here

Tomorrow is also an amazing day of clothing transformation at the Santa Monica Museum of Art. 2525 Michigan Ave. Beginning from 2pm-5pm.
Bring a bag of t-shirts, any size, and get in for $5. Once inside you will be able to visit the design stations including, Hoodies, Silkscreening, Felting, Shopping Bags and more! Learn to alter your clothing into something unique! Find more about the event, including what to expect and what to bring, here

May 19th, 2009

Kelly Kilmer is the kind of teacher who never fails to stir up boundless creativity. Her classes provide the encouraging nudge that gets you making things without hesitation or concern for perfection. She has been teaching altered art, journaling and mixed media classes for 12 years now, and has built a phenomenal reputation within the crafting community. In all, Kelly has taught over 400 classes; at least one class every weekend, major art retreats throughout the year and has most recently expanded to offering online courses.

This weekend, Kelly will be teaching a class called Swatch Books. What is that exactly? The project itself is creating a series of 3 books, assembled from “found” papers, stitched together and assembled with a variety of altered art techniques learned along the way. Kelly emphasizes that her classes are project based in order to apply specific techniques, but that the real goal is to explore and express a variety of creative ideas and apply new artistic approaches to any crafting endeavor you have or will have and want to pull from in the future!

Kelly’s favorite Swatch book is a Frida Kahlo book she made last year to document her trip to San Francisco to see a Kahlo exhibit at the SFMOMA. It ended up being a beautiful art book as well as a wonderfully unique documentation of a special and exciting moment. You’ll learn to make swatch books quickly. Kelly even carries her favorite little scraps around town and makes several little books throughout the day! Who needs Twitter when you can make Swatch books all day long? :-)

It’s no surprise that Kelly gets her students to take in their surroundings and express them in their work. Some of her greatest influences are the seemingly impulsive expressions of graffiti art and childrens’ art. Kelly talked to me a little via email about what inspires her and wrote that “They [children] realize that you can’t make a mistake with art, that everything is an opportunity and a fresh chance at seeing the world in a new way. I’m also inspired by keeping an art journal. I’m a firm believer in keeping a journal and have made thousands of them over the years. I always have one by my side. I post my journal pages on my blog, too, so that people will see that you can journal about anything and that we all have good days and bad days, and that your journal is your safe place to play.”

You can take Kelly Kilmer’s Swatch book class, here, at The Urban Craft Center this Sunday May 23rd from 10am-2pm. The cost of the class is $65 non-member/$60 member. Sign up in person, or over the phone at 310-392-0139. You can find the additional materials list here. See what else Kelly Kilmer is up to on her blog here!

May 16th, 2009

If you are in the Santa Monica area on Monday, head over to the Urban Craft Center for a free screen printing event. Join us while we participate in the filming of a screen printing demo! Get the scoop on a new home screen printing system and possibly be on tv. We will have free screen printing make and takes all day so head on over. If you have your own design that you would like to screen print, just bring it (note: it must be a black and white image 8 by 11 size). You’ll also get a chance to meet crafty author Mark Montano from The Big-Ass Book of Crafts. Plus, our studio will be free for the day as well as giveaways, food and fun. Join us at any time on Monday May 18th from 10-5pm.

Open Studio & Free Screen Printing Event
Monday, May 18th, 10-5pm
@ The Urban Craft Center
2433 Main Street
Santa Monica, CA 90405
310.392.0139

May 7th, 2009

May 5th, 2009

Look how cute! Special guest teacher Heidi Vyncke will be teaching this two part class at the end of the month, Thursdays May 28th and June 4th from 4pm-6pm. I can’t wait for the studio tables to be crawling with little woodland creatures. I’ll be keeping mine at home on a shelf to keep my houseplants company. The cost of the class is $65, and an extra $5 for the pattern and kit to make Buck, Doe and Bambi.

April 30th, 2009

I made my first skirt!

The conclusion of Christine Haynes’ first class at The U.C.C, the Ruffled Skirt, was truly a great success. While we have been open for almost 6 months now, building a strong community takes time, and every person who learns something new in our space is a celebration of the crafting community we so eagerly invite everyone interested to be a part of.

I learned a lot from this project; I sew slowly, I like to mix seemingly discordant patterns together and make it work. I’m not a big fan of ironing. :-) I was glad that at one point, Christine noticed this and made me go backwards a step to re-iron a hemline. It made the project look more flawless and ended up saving me time at the end. She really does pay attention to details – thanks Christine!

I used my first order of Spoonflower fabric in this project (the blue, design by my partner in craft, Champ. See sewing blog post #1 for further info about Spoonflower). It turned out great and is truly a custom piece of work!

Voila! Here are our finished pieces. If you’ve been wondering whether sewing experience is enough to make an actual piece of clothing, I hope my testament gives you encouragement to try it out. Making fun and useful things yourself brings confidence and lots of happiness. Create! Create! Create!

April 22nd, 2009

Last week was the first of a series of sewing classes taught by very special guest teacher Christine Haynes, seamstress extraordinaire and master of projects that are both “chic & simple”. Christine is an energetic and patient teacher, important qualities to have when working with excitable new sewers and their shaky hands!

I participated in part 1 of the ruffle skirt class last Friday and finally got to use my first order of Spoonflower fabric!! If you don’t yet know about Spoonflower, it is an awesome website that allows you to design your own fabric prints. I know. These days, you really can do it all.

The Intro to Sewing class last Saturday was a full house. Students made a lavender sachet with matching mini slip cover to match. I heard it was a lot of fun!

Part 2 of the ruffled skirt class is this coming Friday and I have to say, I’m really excited to finish my very first handmade piece of clothing! Next week I will share photos of the finished project, The ruffled skirt is a great next step from our Intro to Sewing class – someone with a basic understanding of the machine who wants to learn clothing construction and pattern reading. All of Christine’s classes, from her new book Chic & Simple Sewing, are within a similar skill level, and tailored to help people who catch on quickly and those of us who prefer a little more time and practice before moving on to each step.

Happy Earth Day everybody – go out and ride your bikes!

April 9th, 2009

Thank you to everyone who entered last week’s giveaway of our favorite recent arrivals in the store. Participants left a comment on our contest blog, requesting a prize pack first choice as well as mention of a class or two (or four!) that they are looking forward to most. We generated winners, randomly, using random.org.

Congratulations to the following people!
Eric: Prize Pack #1 – Tattered Angels Clear Stamps
Allison McDonald: Prize Pack #2 – K&Company Chipboard and Dimensional Stickers
Shelley Mann: Prize Pack #3 Moda Wonderland Collection Fat Quarter Pack

One of the classes I’m looking forward to most is Christine Haynes’ reversible wrap skirt class.

The two session class starts on June 13th, costs $125 and is a perfect project for me, since I’ve been sewing pillows and curtains for the past few months add only daydreaming of taking my sewing skills to the next level. I think some of these Wonderland prints would be perfect for a wrap skirt.
You can read more about special guest teacher Christine Haynes here, or download our latest class schedule for more classes taught by Christine and a very special book signing event later this season!