Cyclops Fest

The festival you did not want to miss!  Click the pics to go to each vendor website.

Channeling Emma Pillsbury - Handmade Dayton Style

Do Emma Pillsburys outfits make you swoon? 

Get the look!

Tracy Sews is a busy, busy full time child care provider who makes amazing body skimming dresses in the "spare time" 

I think both of these dresses are Emma worthy!

So how about Emma worthy jewelry? 

FIRST TO BLOOM by Dayton Artist Julie Crusenberry who also just happens to love custom orders!
 

Also you wouldn't want to leave out the sweater clips. Dayton area crafter Gina XOXO makes them out of recycled and vintage finds

And for the stuff you can't see...The silky bits. Check out this vintage lace slip from My dear little shop. 

It's one of those slips you can let show because it is lined on the bodice. Super dreamy and the perfect ultra light peachy pinky beige.

Focus Pocus

Sherri Mash also known as "Smash" is one of Dayton crafting gems. Sherri can turn just about anything into a beautiful object. She transforms books into fabulous garlands, quilts into pillows, and buttons into jewelry.

Sherri will be the first to tell you she has the classic artist brain. A million ideas running around inside just waiting for the right moment, the right time, the right object to work with. I identify with that feeling. I think a lot of crafters do.

For Sherri;  focus, when forced brings a wealth of items pouring out of her workroom. From a pile of linens to a stack of books she just needs to tell herself to buckle down and once she does it starts coming together.

So it's not a bad thing to hold yourself to a standard and "work like a grown up" as some folks say. If you need to have the perfect cup of coffee or the right lighting, make it happen then get to work! You may leave a huge mess behind you but after the dust settles you'll have a pile of wonderful things in front of you.

Here is one of Sherris latest creations. Her Etsy shop is TheEccentricLady

Fresh Dayton Shops

When we had our first meeting in June of 2009 I never though Handmade Dayon would get this big. There's a picture waaaaaay back on probably the oldest post of six members sitting on the front porch of a coffee shop.
Jana (handyjan)
Angie (angelabradley)
Sherri (theeccentriclady)
Ana (recycledjewelry)
Me (jaimenicole)
Wendy (catharticslant)

The past two months we've had record numbers of new member requests. Here are just a few of the talented new members.
Yetunde of the shop JesPlayin is an Omni crafter who uses everything from fabric, leather, and recycled steel cans to lye and soap moulds. She is curently inspired by screen printing and using her techniques on scarves and pillows. Her hand crocheted earrings are a favorite in a local boutique but you can't just get them anywhere. Yetunde is so overwhelmed sometimes with her various crafts that she keeps production to very small batches of two or three at a time. Her shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/JesPlayin  has 12 items right now but each one is carefully selected since the most important thing to her is quality and making a lasting impression on each customer with an item they can't find somewhere else. The result is stunning.

Candie of the shop Bodacious Brag Books is new to Etsy and also a new mom. Her shop just opened up in July. Candie and her husband are fans of The Rennaisance Festivals and both extremely creative people. Her brags books are designed to be easy for the non-scrapbookers because some of them come prematted so all you need to do is slip the photos in! 

They stand out because each page is indivdually lettered to spell out a word. Here is one of my favorites and sure to be a good seller when the next "Twicrack" movie comes out. I love the weight and sturdiness of her books. They have a surprising amount of space inside for pictures, movie tickets, or whatever you want to brag about.

Local Shopping

Look what I found under the Etsy tool "Shop Local"
Today from SewSweetStitches

You can really tell how much time and thought went into creating this piece. AMAZING!

And this cheeky pinback button from PaperRockit

Adorable & Affordable

Check out the Shop local feature for your area. It's always fun and new people pop up all the time!

Meet our Member and Guest blogger Julie!

From StephsJewels4

The biggest benefit to me for being in the Handmade Dayton Etsy Group (besides the wonderful friendships!) is "My Creative Collective".

This is a term used by Kari Chapin, author of The Handmade Marketplace. I found her by networking on Etsy.com in their Virtual Labs speaker series. The values that I gain from My Creative Collective are too many to list, but some of them are:

* Getting Unstuck - have you ever had a glimmer of a great idea, discuss it with another creative person and it becomes a rock solid idea?

* Networking - When you are in business for yourself, you simply cannot have too many connections, right?

* Swapping materials - need I say more?

* Your Creative Collective gets ideas from you... AND you get ideas from Your Creative Collective... But I bet that if you give two artists or crafters the exact same materials, they will not come up with exactly the same outcome.

Guess my point is... that there are so many more reasons for having a Creative Collective than there are for not having one!

 I know.. long post but if you've gotten this far you should know that one example of the Creative Collective is the pictures in this blog post. I contacted Julie on facebook and told her I wanted to help her with her photos. Not just take them but show her how to do it herself. We spent an entire evening together at her home. Staging and photographing her beautiful jewelry.We worked together till we ran out of light and then spent some time editing a listing. The result is I had fun (I love photographing jewelry) and Julie got some inspiration.

♥☻♥☻♥☻♥☻

Heidi

Question #2

What are your meetings about anyway?

This photo is from our very first meeting. Held on the steps of a now closed coffee shop. (the guy would close up shop randomly.. which is why he's out of  business I would think.)

That's a good one. I've been to all of them and I still don't know! Here are some random topics I remember from past meetings:
~How to do a "Twilight" item without looking 14
~Boob earrings
~Packing supplies
~The dog ate my brass chain
~The merits of daily costume wearing
~Etsy is causing divorces.. (kidding, but seriously.I wonder if it has?..)
~Pictures of poo.. will they sell or not? 

So basically we're just gabbing and talking and also sharing and giving advice. We've moved from doing sit-down coffee meetings at Panera to hosting craft nights in members homes. I think this was a natural evolution. Speaking of.. something very exciting is being planned for this month! June 18th Etsy is launching the ETSY CRAFT PARTY in honor of their birthday Please follow this link and RSVP to show your interest in attending.
http://www.meetup.com/Etsy-Craft-Party/3110/