Local Craftiness: Crazy Fun Weekend!

Sometimes you only have time for one load of laundry, do you yours or your kid's? I chose to do Jasper's and ran around town wearing whatever seemed cleanest all weekend. But it was an awesome few days. I started it early by throwing caution to the wind and taking my son to Junk Bonanza on Thursday for the Blogging Party. I sound dramatic but it's a big risk taking a 4 year old with to an event like that. Fortunately God smiled on me and I thought to call and invite my cousin to join us. We played tag team with Jasper and I got to meet some fabulous craft personalities.

What I liked best however was meeting some local gals who I'll introduce you to in my next post. Fellow moms like Jill Hinson (who created the Thrify Mom's Challenge Table- which rocked), and artsymama (blogger extraordinaire!). I was completely blown away by the creativity of the vendors as well. I saw a bit on Thursday and then returned on Saturday morning with a friend to see the rest. When I got home I filled 4 sketchbook pages with ideas I had and sketches of what I'd seen.

Two hours at home and then it was off to Scrapfest 2009 at the Mall of America. I'd registered for the Stylish Standing Desk Calendar workshop sponsored by Me and My Big Ideas. It was a good little project and I liked that they gave us a lot of extra materials. We got the majority of it done right there in class and I'll finish the rest up sometime this week. I took the class because I eventually would like to teach classes like this and wanted to experience one first. So between the blogging party I attended on Thursday and the Scrap class on Saturday I feel like I really did some positive things for my future art career. Yay!

Material Obsessions

So I really appreciate it when other bloggers mention their favorite play things and it occurred to me last night as I was going to sleep that it might be fun to do the same here. So all day long I've been thinking about all my favorite things but rather than do a best ever list I think I'll share a few of the things I'm really excited about right now.

First up- the YUDU. I think I mention this fabulous new screenprinter at least once a week (ok day) to someone. I've actually consciously limited myself from mentioning it too often. I've been trying to avoid seeming too "obsessed" reasoning that the lapel is seriously close to "crazy" in the mind of many. But I'm way to excited to share so... here's the link. I started out as a printmaking major a long long time ago and screenprinting has been on my to do list for years. I love the idea of taking my sketches, doing a little silkscreen magic, and having wearable art. Creating my own silkscreened fabric is one of those "want to go there someday" idea destinations for me as well.

Next- INKTENSE watersoluble ink pencils from Derwent work on fabric, paper, canvas, and wood. I have been loving the intensely saturated marks I can make with these. I first saw them on Zinnia's blog and bought my first few open stock just to try. I am currently saving up for the biggest set I can get. LOVE the vibrancy of these!

I've also been playing with Tim Holtz line of "Distressable" products lately. My favorites- the Distress Inks, the masks, and the metal embellishments. I've used at least one of these in everything I've done lately. "Broken China" is maybe my favorite paint color ever (or at least lately). I think I want to paint my kitchen this color- and that for me is a huge commitment to a color!

So those are a few of my latest and biggest obsessions. I'd love to know what your favorite "must haves" are. What do you use over and over again? What new cool thing are you dying to have?

Hope you have a great night/day-
Jen