The Creating Place Blg

Exciting times

Creating Placers, Let's craft! I challenge you to craft everyday. It's doesn't have to take more than 30 minutes. Make a card using old newspaper and packing tape or whatever. Whoever you give it too will be impressed that you made them something. People love to receive handmade gifts even if they fall apart or aren't really their taste. For example, my sister got married a couple years ago so for this occasion I decided to make my first quilt, my flaw is that I never use patterns, so I tried to figure it out. When I gave her the quilt, she loved it! She said it was the best gift they received. A few weeks later she put it away because some of the thread was coming undone.....but she still cherished it. Wouldn't you love to receive something made by hand?

Our lunch time crafting classes are a great way to squeeze in a little craft each day. I will be teaching a lunch time bottle cap magnet class on March 4th (see calender) it's a great way to create recycled personalized art.

If you need ideas stop in and check out our crafting magazines, they are full of inspiration.

Buying Handmade

I feel like our store has always supported the efforts and talent of local artists. Juneau is a town with a disproportionate number of jewelry, tourist and art stores. However, most of what is sold on Franklin street is not art that is handcrafted by local artists. We believe in our local artists and are taking a strong stand to support handcrafted local and regional art. Along those lines we have created a new section on our website dedicated to local artists. Check it out here The Creating Place. We are also on the quest to find new and interesting local artists...so if your an indie artists stop in and show off your stuff!

We took the handmade pledge at Buyhandmade.org where we pledge to buy handmade and ask others to buy handmade for us.

We've also found some amazing sites that support handcrafted art all over the country. Check out these great links.

Poppytalkhandmade.com 

Poppytalkhandmade is a monthly "online street fair" that showcases unique and amazing talent. I love getting inspiration and motivation from the artists on this site. It also offers some great gift ideas.

Justbebrave.com
Just be brave is a home for indie artists to list their blogs, showcase their work and connect with other artists. It's a great site for interacting with other indie artists and gaining inspiration.

Indiepublic.com
Indiepublic is an independent art and design community. For artists, designers, retailers and bloggers it's the perfect place for someone who loves indie art. - Anji

My Minds Eye

Scrapbook 3 layouts in 1 night with Amber using My Minds Eye - Kiss & Tell and Adore kits [Saturday, February 16th]. You will love putting your Valentine photos on the adorable paper & using the die-cut paper embellishments/accessories. You can view the complete layouts & sketches in the PHOTO ALBUMS to the left. Come ready to create.....finish pages & leave with ideas for your next layout!

Wearable Art

Juneau has its annual fun (funny) artistic event over the weekend--the annual wearable art show!  It was started by the arts council 8 years ago to raise money for their scholarship fund and has grown into quite the attraction...for one Creating Placer, it has an even special(er) place than most people...I have entered a piece in it every year, and (except for one when the piece was too small and another year when I made my subject children) have modeled my own pieces every year as well....I love the idea of being able to take something that is, well, trash, turning it into something else completely different, even attractive, maybe even wearable, and showing it off.  This year I took the sticker each xray gets adorned with that shows which day it was taken (had a whole years of 2007 date stickers) and turned them into a ballroom (sorta) gown which I sash-shayed up and down the runway in...what a night to remember!!  To see other participants (esp the top two winner--a fish and good use of old puzzles--look at the Juneau Empire on-line..otherwise a couple pics of my outfit are below!  I'm gonna start looking for my inspiration for next year right about now, so if anyone has some unique stuff lying around, let me know!!  amy  

Hello Creating Placers!

Hi there, I am the newest addition to the Creating Place crew. My name is Jenyfer and I am crafty. I am new to paper art, and very excited to learn! My craft of choice depends on the day. I have a bachelor of fine arts with a specialty in stained glass, however, I paint, sew, knit, experiment with graphic art, and I am a photographer. I am very excited to be a Creative Consultant here at the Creating Place and look forward to meeting you, the Creating Placers. Keep visiting our calendar; starting in March I will be hosting several photography classes to help you understand your camera and give you basic guidelines for taking creative images.

Check out my website! It is always under construction.
http://web.mac.com/jenyferlewis

The week of February 3rd - 9th:

On Thursday Anji taught a fantastic Bauble Heart class over lunch. We had a great time shaking it up and making a beautiful mess. Don't worry you have a chance to take this colorful class next Tuesday, February 12th from 12:15 -1:00. Bobble hearts make a great handmade gift for that special person in your life!

The week of Feruary 10th - 16th: Coming Up!

Want to get out of the house tomorrow (Feb. 9th) but it's to cold to be outside? There will be a fun Valentine Gift box class here at the Creating Place from 10:00 - 11:30. You will be able to use the techniques taught in this class to create inexpensive gift boxes all year long. I assure you it will be warm inside.

Those of you who understand Photoshop and want to use and create brushes for your digital scrapbooking pages, there is a class for you on Monday, February 11th from 6-8. These classes open a whole new world for scrapbooking creativity. You'll be hooked.

Do you love scrapbooking but just don't have the time? Think about attending Anji's Digital Scrapbooking class on Wednesday, February 13th from 6 -8. It will give you another creative scrapbooking option.

Cards for snow days??

So today has been the snowiest day we've had so far...I had a couple customers come in today and both joked about "hey, do you have cards for congradulations on the best (or most) snow yet?" and I thought--jeez, we should!!  I do love all the cards we have--they are all visually beautiful, from the technically stunning Nikki McClue to playful Shannon Cartwright to whimsical Evon Zerbitz to simple Bella Muse to our always entertaining Kids Quotes (and of course the Mina Lee always tickle the funny bones).  And I totally love the new ones we got for valentines da (see previous blog from Anji) and of course, I'd be remiss to not mention the handmade cards we get from Sue Clover (which are amazing and very well done!).  In a society that seems to thrive on email, instant messaging, it's comforting to see handwriten cards still take center stage with such magnificence!   amy

Love for All!! new Valentines Cards are in.

Ahhhh Valentines...you love someone, they love you, they give you stuff, you give them stuff. I call Valentines Day a hype holiday. Much like new years for me it doesn't quite live up to the hype. However, recently I have been finding Valentines Cards that fit the occasion, in my mind at least. You know when you see something and it just fits...there are no words..but somehow it just fits. That's how we feel about these cards from Kim Bagwill. They just fit. They're funny, but not corny, subtle, humorous. Perfect!!

                                                                        

Precious Metal Clay Class

It's a cold cold day, but it was really warm working with torches and PMC. Heidi taught us to layer, texturize and create with PMC. Here are some pics of our work.

 

Cinder Knits are Here

We are so excited to have these great hats in by fiber artist Lucinda Pannell. We love love love these great hats. In Alaska your hat is your most important fashion accessory and these are perfect. They come in sizes for kids and adults.

Most amazing hats

So we have the good fortune of having a very talented knitter as our bookkeeper and she has made us the most wonderful knitted hats. I am really excited to post them here tommorrow after I get some good pictures. Look for them soon!!!

Tonights Digital Scrapbooking class is on using templates both that you make yourself and that you can find on the web. I love the topic of this class because it pulls the whole idea of digital scrapbooking together, from sketch to finish. I will be posting the pics from our digi class here tommorrow as well.

I'm off to teach Digital Scrabooking...bye for now

Anji