The Make Something Awesome Area nestled under the roof covering of the Marie Reed Learning Center was the warmest, coziest spot in all of the fair.

At the Hello Craft booth, shared with Etsy, we also had a giveaway for those who signed up for the Hello Craft mailing list.

Those winners are:

1 of 4 Craft Books
Katie Harley
Christina Parisi
Sam Gangwer
Jaime Joy

1 of 3 Notebooks
Julia Robinson
Ashley Garcia
Chelsea Merchant

The Make Something Awesome Area is made possible from a 2011 grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities under the Small Projects Program.

The grant allows Hello Craft to bring the Make Something Awesome Area to different events all over the District of Columbia.

You can see more photos from the Make Something Awesome Area at Crafty Bastards in the Hello Craft flickr.

Interested in submitting a project to the Make Something Awesome Area in 2011-2012? Email info[at]hellocraft[dot]com for more information.

Projects to make include embroidery projects, duct tape wallets, knitting, make your own buttons, felt fruit plushies, and envelope making.

There will also be giveaways at the booth for a bevy of craft books and a free pass to the 2011 Summit of Awesome!

If you want to take the making with you, kits for sale will include all the materials and instructions to make your own:

• hair pins
• fabric button hair tie
• sidewalk chalk
• owl brooches

When you’re finished creating with us at the Make Something Awesome Area make sure to pay a shopping trip to our upcoming Summit of Awesome speakers who are also selling at the fair:

• Christy Petterson
• Jen Menkhaus
• Jeffrey Everett
• Shannon Mulkey
• Jon Wye
• Kasey & Kelly Evick
• Caitlin Phillips
• Megan Auman
• Rhonda & Elijah Wyman
• Tina Seamonster
• Jay McCarroll
• Jaime Zollars
• Diane Koss
• Rania Hassan

The Make Something Awesome area is the traveling create and take space where anyone can use an assortment of supplies to create a fun project or follow directions to make an instructed project. Our crafty friends such as Sublime Stitching, Etsy, Glue and Glitter, Knit Outta the Box, SCRAP-DC and Kristina Bilonick have all submitted projects to the Make Something Awesome Area.

Interested in submitting a project to the Make Something Awesome Area in 2011-2012? Email info[at]hellocraft[dot]com for more information.

Click the little arrow below to listen to the episode, right here on page:

Click here to download the episode (right-click and choose “save as” on PC, or control-click and choose “save as” on Mac)

If you’re wondering exactly what Hello Craft does, check out last year’s series dubbed “Diary of a Festival Organizer” to read about the planning and expertise that goes into making Crafty Bastards the annual success that it is. The four Directors of Hello Craft, including myself, also served on this year’s Crafty jury (more on that here.) That judging process is done, notifications have gone out to vendors and this year’s vendor gallery will be up soon for folks that want to get their shopping lists organized early.

This year Crafty Bastards will present a brand new addition to the fair, Young & Crafty. It’s only for vendors in the 9 to 18 age range who make awesome handmade items. Applications are accepted until August 8, and interested kids (and their crafty parents) can fill out an application here.

With Crafty Bastards happening the first weekend in October and the Summit of Awesome just a few miles north and a few weeks later (October 20-22), it’s no wonder we’ve dubbed October a CRAFTOBER of epic proportions!

With only a few days left in 2010, Hello Craft would like celebrate all that this year
has brought by way of crafts, crafting and crafters. We’d also like to thank all of our friends,
family, members and readers for supporting our efforts to help promote, educate
and encourage the handmade community.

As Hello Craft gears up for our 3rd annual Summit of Awesome, the 8th annual Crafty Bastards Arts and Crafts Fair, as well as a host of partnerships, educational and retail endeavors,
we invite you to join us for a trip down 2010’s memory lane…

We partnered with Washington Project for the Arts for Craft Week DC…

Partied it up crafty-style with Pabst Blue Ribbon…

Produced the 2nd annual Summit of Awesome in Portland, Oregon…

Hosted super cool online giveaways…

Brought our Make Something Awesome Area to Crafty Wonderland…

And co-produced the 7th annual Crafty Bastards Arts & Crafts Fair!

We hope that this year has been a prosperous one for all those in the indie craft community.
In the upcoming year we look forward to seeing all the new and exciting work from our crafty friends, as well as new shows, new blogs and other crafty opportunities.

So here’s our toast to everyone who supported Hello Craft throughout our sophomore year and cheers to a happy and crafty new year!

xoxo,
Kimberly, Sara, Kelly & Christine
Hello Craft Directors

The Make Something Awesome Area is the awesome create and take space where you can use an assortment of supplies to create your own fun project or try your hand at making an instructed project.

At Crafty Bastards this year projects included embroidery patterns with Sublime Stitching supplies, a mini-bunting project from Etsy, a scrappy-bracelet from SCRAP-DC and our button maker to create your own flair.

And as usual, the Make Something Awesome Area was filled with makers of all ages throughout the day:

A big THANK YOU shout out goes to our friends, and Crafty Bastards vendors, El Jefe Design, goshdarnknit and Kelly Towles, for creating limited edition Hello Craft pins for our fundraising project, which we launched at the fair. Please visit their sites and show them some love. More about this project will be coming soon.

For more pictures from the handmade goodness that is Crafty Bastards check out the slideshow below:

This Saturday come take a crafty break, during Crafty Bastards, and sit down with us at the Hello Craft booth (#76!) and Make Something Awesome.

This fun make and take area is where you can try your hand a making some of the instructed craft projects, or go crazy and use the supplies and come up with something of your own. We’ll have our awesome button maker, as well as embroidery projects with Sublime Stitching supplies, make a mini-bunting from Etsy and a scrappy-bracelet from SCRAP-DC, plus much more.

Hello Craft will also have memberships for sale as well as craft kits where you can make your own: terrarium, sidewalk chalk, hair pins, hair ties and Hello Craft plushies available with donation! And as a special treat we’ll have super awesome, limited edition, Hello Craft button packs designed by Crafty Bastards vendors El Jefe Design, goshdarnknit and Kelly Towles, also available by donation.

Be sure to stop by and also enter our raffle where you have the chance to win a copy of Mess by Keri Smith, a Sublime Stitching tote bag with embroidery goodies, a
Hello Craft membership, a copy of Craft-In, a box-set of 12 project booklets or a Silhouette cutting machine!

To plan your day, pick up a copy of the Washington City Paper for map and event guide or check out the Cut the Craft blog for vendor profiles and updates.

So much handmade and DIY goodness! We can’t wait for Saturday. See you there!

If you’re in the WAMU listening area, tune in at 1 p.m. today and hear some of the “Crafty Bastards” on the Kojo Nnamdi show.

Kojo will be talking with our very own Kimberly Dorn, Tina Seamonster and Jeffrey Everett of El Jefe Design. Both Tina and Jeff will be selling this weekend at Crafty Bastards.

The show is billed as Indie Artisans and “Crafty Bastards”:

We may live in an era of mass-produced, disposable “stuff.” But a growing community of artists and craftsmen are thriving on the web and at local markets, plying their handmade wares and avant-garde art directly to consumers. We meet the local artisans behind “Crafty Bastards,” the city’s biggest craft fair.

So tune in and maybe even place a call!

The three vendors with the most votes cast in their favor will be awarded one of the following prizes:

1) A grand prize package of a $500 Etsy shopping spree, a trip to New York City to visit the Etsy Headquarters (up to $500 of travel expenses covered) and a feature on Etsy’s blog.

2) A second place package of a swag bag full of Etsy, Crafty Bastards and Hello Craft goodies plus a one-year Hello Craft Membership.

3) A third place package of an Etsy t-shirt and a one-year Hello Craft membership.

For all the Hello Craft readers outside of the DC area that want to help elect the next Craftiest Bastard, votes may be cast online until Friday, October 8. And for all handmade shoppers who plan on attending the fair next Saturday, votes may also be cast in person at the ballot boxes located at the City Paper booths and other locations on site.

More information about Crafty Bastards (including the vendor map) is here. Hello Craft is also looking for a few handmade enthusiasts looking to volunteer that day.

Are you getting just as excited as we are for the upcoming craft fair Crafty Bastards on October 2?! This large fair is attended by over 30,000 people and is one that many on the east coast (and beyond!) look forward too all year.

Hello Craft will be there with our own little slice of crafty goodness. You can expect to find a Hello Craft information booth (with button making!) and our very own Make Something Awesome area (which we’ll have more on soon!) But we need your help.

We already have some super awesome volunteers ready to help us rock and roll at the Hello Craft booth, but now we need some crafty people to help us out at the Make Something Awesome Area. Specifically we have two shifts: morning from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and afternoon from 1:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Basically we’d need you to help keep the MSA rolling along during the festival, making sure projects are organized and people have what they need to sit and make awesome things from Sublime Stitching and Etsy to name a few.

If you are interested please email us at membership [at] hellocraft.com. We’ll have surprises for anyone that wants to come and help and craft for a shift as a way to say thank you.