Upcoming Events

We had a great meeting this past Thursday and the sweet treats that everyone brought, well I might as well just apply them directly to the location where they were going to end up!





First, We Can DO IT - to show up at our T-shirt workshop & Parade that is! See note at end on why we need to DO IT!

Here is the line-up for the next months meetings, all meetings are at Emily's home at 7pm until otherwise notified.

March 15th - Wichita Handmade T-shirt night! Bring your T or "T's" to the meeting where we will either stencil or bleach print our WH logo or name (ok or both) onto them and we shall be all prepped and ready for the parade on Saturday. So... this means workshop day & fun all wrapped up into one!

March 17th - Represent Wichita Handmade in the Delano St. Pat's Parade, we need everyone! Bring yourself, your children and your children's children, all are welcome! $3.00 donation for the parade fee would be greatly appreciated (it's been paid for by other members).

April 19th Stash Swap (timely planned just before the Parking Lot Sale - see note below)! Bring any tools, papers, books from your crafting stash that have been ignored and are undoubtedly unwanted and help them find a new home.

April 28th Parking Lot Sale at Wichita Pottery/Secret Garden (fee to be announced, it's usually really really low).

May 17th Photography workshop. Ever wanted to know how to get the best photo for your products for Etsy or your website?

June 21st Notepad workshop. Learn how to make some snappy, snazzy notepads (which I think always come in handy).

July 19th Stamp making workshop. Learn how to make some handy, dandy stamps (which I think always come in handy too)!

August 23rd Handmade Necklace workshop. What else can you make with a t-shirt or fabric, why a necklace of course. Two different demos will be provided.

September 20th Christmas Gift Exchange. Yeppers, planning ahead we are! This way we can get gifts lined up way before Christmas, rather than the night before Christmas!

Now for some busy-ness, we are working on an Etsy Grant and to schmooz them a little bit we could really, really, really use a good turn out for the T-shirt workshop and at the parade for St. Patty's day. We are trying to get a screen printer so we can do our own t-shirts in the future. Here's my thinking, the more people we have at the parade wearing our homespun handmade T's will help them take pity on us while also applauding our ingenuity. They will then agree completely that we truly do need a screen printing machine and knowing in their heart of hearts that we will put it to great use immediately for the betterment of the handmade community. Great idea don't you think? Thought so! Can we DO IT? Yes, we can, so please - we need a really great Wichita Handmade "family" photo and would like everyone and their youngen's and their youngen's youngens to come to the St. Patty partay with the T's we make March 15th! Also, any photos that you may have of our buttons from our past grant winning button machine would be welcome also. Trying to put together a really great grant package and both of the above would help tremendously.

WICHITA HANDMADE RULES!

New Year, New Attitude.

This time of year always seems so inspiring, so full of possibilities--New Year's Resolutions have yet to be broken (hopefully!), the hours of daylight are increasing, and visions of spring gardening dance in my head as I page through the R.H. Shumway seed catalog…(snuggled under a warm blanket, of course.)

I feel particularly inspired and motivated this year. Why? I have no idea! But I do.

To keep myself motivated, this year I've decided to embark on a 365 project. (My particular project is to make an apple a day, be it drawn, painted, sculpted, cut, arranged, etc.)

Day 4 of An Apple A Day

I'm also making a habit of collecting and saving inspirational photos, be it in a physical scrap book or the virtual scrapbook known as Pinterest.

A sample of my Pinterest board...

And finally, I am attempting to get organized. This is a tough one for me, and I can't make any promises, but I know that I have to clean up my act if I want to be more productive! This means organizing what I need, getting rid of things I don't need, and keeping better records...

What are you doing to get yourself inspired this year? I'd love to know!!

xoxo,

Leanne

Fall is in the air

I love Halloween! It's finally here, the chill in the air is always a welcome sign for me that my favorite time of the year is at hand. Halloween is the beginning of "THE HOLIDAYS", that time when we all bundle up and hunker down for the whirlwind of what is the last three months of the year.

For people like us it's the perfect excuse to showcase our talents to put a smile on people's faces. Whether you crochet, knit, sew, paint, scrapbook, sculpt, or one of the many other countless mediums, it's your opportunity to share your creations with all the people you love, or just put them on display to share with the world. It doesn't matter if your a master craftsman or just like to dabble in the creative arts your offerings will usually be well received if not just simply because you took the time to make it with your bare hands. Of course nowadays our high-tech mass produced world has seemed to drown out some of the appreciation for the simpler things. I think there is a lot to be said for something you put your time, heart and soul into. So no matter what you like to create, take the inspiration of the holidays and use it to bring some joy, and some really great items to the world.

Art on the Farmland

It was our last day in Wisconsin. Our last day to soak up whatever the dairy state had to offer that we weren't likely to find back in Wichita. Having had our fill of cheese curds and brats, we were delighted at the possibility of a Fermentation Festival in the next town over. Apparently there are a lot of things that are fermented we didn’t even realize… Kimchi, silage and chocolate (yes, chocolate). And apparently, we're the type of couple who's interested in such odd things as fermentation.

Along with the Fermentation Fest, for its first year ever, was a coinciding exhibition. The "Farm Art D’Tour" (quickly renamed by Stephanie as the F’Art D’Tour because she can’t resist assigning her own name to anything) became the most intriguing part of our trip. In our 2003 Alero with Stephanie’s parents in the back playing the not-always-asked-for roles of navigators, we traveled a 50-mile route along some of the most beautiful scenery we have ever seen. Rolling hills, red and yellow leaves, cow-filled pastures. As Nathan put it, “I feel like I’m inside Norman Rockwell’s imagination”. But this amazing beauty was just a backdrop to the surprising views we were to see along the route.

With a rudimentary map that contained often-cryptic titles, we drove mile after mile looking to the side of the road for something to appear somewhere. And what that something would be, we had no idea. We discovered “Field Weave” was an amazing, large installation of colorful acrylic fibers that danced in the wind. Unfortunately a photograph can’t capture the beauty of its movement.

Further along, an artist literally uses land into his art with “Farmed Frame”, and just a bit up the road from that was “Stonehenge” made entirely of hay bales.

We passed along such sights as silage bags painted as catepillars, messages mowed into fields as well as more than a few Amish farmers going along with their regular day-to-day life as looky-loos passed them along the curved, hilly highway. Then we took a stop into a town along the route, population 326, where we visit “Granny’s” diner for homemade chicken dumpling soup, cheese curds (we couldn’t resist) and our first ever taste of Walnut Pie and also a Blackberry pie made with wild blackberries.

Being most intrigued by fiber arts, Stephanie’s favorite installation was “Come What May” by artist Katie Schofield, who we were fortunate to meet right at the beginning of the Farm Art D’Tour. It was a scene you'd expect to see in some sort of fantasy movie, with about a dozen or so of these cocoon-like objects hanging on trees. The crafted objects felt like they belonged in the nature, like they were created by some sort of supernatural creature. The artist is one of many people who live at something called a WormFarm (which is sort of a commune of arts working on a farm).

We never made it to the Fermentation Fest. Our accidental discovery of the art in the FarmArt D’Tour, not only by mostly local artists but also by farmers living along the route, was more than we could have hoped for. It was art. It was craft. It was clever ingenuity. I’m sure their 2nd one will be even better. And despite the 12 hours it takes for us to drive to Wisconsin, I’m sure we’ll be there to see it.

Thanks for sponsoring us Etsy!

Wow we had a GREAT turn out for the

Farmers Market and Craft extravaganza!

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you Etsy for sponsoring us!

ShopVintageGirl.etsy.com

BackYardStudio.etsy.com

PinkelEmbellishments.etsy.com

 WhitneyWest.etsy.com

Ryleighsmomma.etsy.com

krexcreations.etsy.com

TaylaBDesigns.etsy.com

LilStinkersCraft.etsy.com

PickelsandPumpkins.etsy.com

www.themissinglink76.etsy.com

 

Thank you AGAIN, Etsy!

So....we got an Etsy grant. We used it for a super-sweet button machine. And then, as if that wasn't wonderful enough, we get THIS sweet little package direct from Etsy headquarters!

Vegan lip balm, cool craft-themed buttons, awesome bumper stickers, OH MY! :D

Thank you ETSY!

thank you!

thank you!

thank you!

thank you!

THANK YOU!

Thank you Etsy for the lovely grant for the button machine!

We adore it!  

Look out Wichita, we have buttons and we are here to stay.

I can't wait to make a ton of these to hand out at all of our events!