What are your weekend plans? The weather looks very promising in Greenville, so I know I’ll be outside for sure…hopefully joining friends for a couple exciting Greenville events. Both Artisphere and the Greenville Urban Farm Tour are this weekend, and I want to take full advantage of both. Outside that, it sure would be nice to get some kitchen updates underway. Today’s round up features 4 incredibly easy ways to add a little interest to the room we spend a ton of time in.

Love this rainbow of spoons painted and covered with food save shellac, as demonstrated on Little Bit Funky.

The broom is definitely my weapon of choice when it comes to keeping a clean kitchen, so why not follow House of Ernest’s lead and make it pretty. 

It’s fairly easy to find nicely patterned cloth napkins on the cheap, but they still lack the punch of the napkins found in high end boutiques and kitchen stores. The Fab Miss B found these inexpensive napkins at Target and quickly spruced them up with thrifted pom pom and lace trim.

And finally, I just love these tins turned refrigerator holders. As created on A Pretty Cool Life, they’re an adorable way to keep that fridge tidy.

Happy (almost) weekend!

Looking to expand your crafty skills? Want to learn to make some new jewelry? Well, there’s a fun jewelry class next week that you might be interested in. Jen Moreau, an regular Indie Craft Parade participant, is teaching a fabric jewelry making class at a local boutique, Even a Sparrow. The class will include all of the supplies and instructions to make a fabric ring and a brooch. Plus it will be a great evening of meeting other crafty people in Greenville. So sign up with a friend, and contact Holly at the boutique if you have further questions.

To see a sample of Jen’s work and get an idea of what kind of jewelry you’ll learn to make, check out this link.

There’s a week and a half before Mother’s Day, which means you still have time to buy presents. Seriously, this year skip the teapots and flowers (unless they’re orchids), and make sure she knows how much you love her with a fabulous handmade gift. To give you some inspiration, we’ve put together this Etsy Treasury, featuring local and regional artists. The list includes cards, jewelry, even a DIY book for all the crafty mamas out there. But if this list doesn’t fit your fancy, many of the other treasuries for Mother’s Day have great ideas you’ll want to check out.

Mom’s are awesome, and they deserve the (handmade) best.

We’ve mentioned before the Mini Book Collective that’s been on display at Art and Light for most of the month April. Well, if you haven’t seen it, there’s just a few more days left in the month for you to swing by. Besides the Collective on display, the rest of the gallery is curated with everything made from paper and books.

Entry way to Art and Light Gallery where it’s books, book, books.

Display of Greenville themed books. Jason Wagoner, Christin O’Bryan and Rachael Madeline have new work including lots of handmade journals. The pieces are quite beautiful.

Teresa Roche also has a new collection of mixed media pieces using book jackets. The pages of the books were folded into creative mobiles shown below.

Only a few more days to see these. It’s worth the trip!

It’s that time of year–the calendar is filling up with creative events. Can you believe that it’s just a little more than a month till applications open for Indie Craft Parade?? We’re so excited to see the work of artists and crafters this year. But in the meantime, the final days of April hold a number of events that we just have to share with you. It’s already been an awesome month with events like the Mini Book Collective and Illyria Pottery Show. So if you don’t already know about these upcoming shows, you want to take note.

In two weekends, there are TWO notable crafty events on the same day. (Oh to be in two places at once!!) The first event is here in Greenville. It’s the Spring Flea hosted by the Swamp Rabbit Cafe and Grocery. If you’ve never taken a bike ride on the Swamp Rabbit Trail, you just don’t know what you’re missing. It’s one of the best ways to be active in Greenville. And local establishments like the Swamp Rabbit Cafe and Grocery just make it that much better. The Cafe and Grocery offers light meals and snacks to hungry trail goers as well as a host of local farm fresh foods.

This past Christmastime, Swamp Rabbit Cafe and Grocery hosted their first Flea Market. A number of Indie Craft Parade vendors, including Parachute Clothing, Red Clay Soap, and Malo, participated in the festivities. The event was a smashing success, and we’re expecting no less for their Spring Flea. This is an outdoor event where you can sample great food, find new handmade products, and meet some great artisans who are making a difference in our community.

The second event on April 28 is one we’ve already told you about, but it’s definitely worth the reminder. It’s Crafty Feast in Columbia, SC.

This year, Crafty Feast is hosting 67 vendors at the Columbia Convention Center. Admission is $2. If you’re a fan of Indie Craft Parade, then you’ll be happy to see some familiar faces at the event. Some of our previous exhibitors will have booths at this event.

Besides, these two large festivals, I have a couple of small, but noteworthy events for you to be mindful of. This is short notice, but if you’re free this Thursday, April 19, you should stop by local boutique Even A Sparrow for a trunk show. From 5:30 to 8:30 PM, Holly is hosting the Spring Debut Collections of Yellow Elm and  Creative Rumors. Elizabeth Blanton of Yellow Elm creates adorable felt accessories, and Rachel Hrinko and Lauren Runion of Creative Rumors remake cast-off clothing into handmade goodness. It will be a fun evening you don’t want to miss.

And last but not least, Deb Potter of Merciful Hearts Farm is teaming up with the Greenville Museum of Art for an educational event. Deb has supplied Indie Craft Parade with gorgeous hand spun yarn for the past two years. And on April 22 at 2:00 PM she’ll be demonstrating hands-on coil basketmaking.

Ok, that’s it for now, but stay tuned. The season of crafty goodness is just warming up, so we’ll have plenty of updates coming soon.

We love getting updates on the success of Indie Craft Parade participants, so we can’t wait to tell you about Beth Schaible who owns Quill and Arrow Press. She’s an incredibly talented letterpress artist, and she’s recently moved into a new studio. Beth was kind enough to share her move with us, so we asked her to tell us a little more about the move and about her work as a letterpress artist.

Indie Craft:  How did you get interested in letterpress? When did you start doing it professionally?
Beth: I got interested in letterpress when I was in college. As a graphic design major I felt like I needed to spend more time working with my hands. I completed a two year fellowship at the Penland School of Crafts where I learned the majority of what I know about letterpress and got a lot of time to tinker in their beautiful letterpress studio.

A shot of the front room and gallery.

Indie Craft: What kind of projects make up the bulk of your business? Do you have a favorite type of project (posters, business cards, etc?)
Beth: As someone who does both letterpress and calligraphy, I find a lot my time being devoted to wedding invitation projects. While I enjoy that work, my favorite thing to print in the studio are postcards and paper goodies to send in the mail. I really love sending mail, so a lot of my letterpress work revolves around making stationary. In my “free time” I also love printing large monotypes on my press because the process is so much different and open ended.

View of the print shop.

Close up of Beth’s press.

Thanks, Beth! If you want to see more of Beth’s work, check out her Etsy page.

Remember when we announced the call for entries for Mini Book Collective? Well, now all of the applicants have completed their work, and they’ll be on display this weekend at Art and Light Gallery. We’ve got a sneak peek of the work to show you. All of the books are themed on the artists’ experiences in Greenville, and I think they’ve made our little city quite proud. The opening celebration of the Collective is tomorrow night! The show takes place April 6 from 6pm to 9pm as part of First Fridays.

This is one special event you don’t want to miss!

Mini Book entry by Furman Student, Patrick Rice

Melinda Hoffman, Director of the Mini Book Collective’s book

Jason Wagoner’s Handmade Greenville Journals

Wallpaper Book Series by Teresa Roche

Easter might just be a few days away, but there’s still time to think about cute crafts to do with or for the family. Here’s a round up of easy tutorials that we find particularly perfect for the season.

Simple paper carrots from Oh Happy Day. Perfect for table settings or stuffing in Easter baskets.

Skip the jars of food coloring this year when you dye Easter eggs. Use ingredients you already have in your kitchen to produce these gorgeous natural dyes. Tutorial from The Kitchn.

Have kids or having kids over for Easter dinner? Make these bunny ears ahead of time for them to play and pose with. Family pictures will never be cuter. Featured in Country Living.

Finally, these adorable treat bags from Mer Mag are sure to delight Easter guests young and old alike.

You know how we love to share what’s going on in the art sphere of our creative little city. We try our best to keep you updated on the professional events, but we’ve also recently become interested in sharing what individuals do around Greenville (and surrounding areas) to exercise their creativity. We started this post series a couple weeks ago, and I’m happy to share some new projects with you today.

Chalkboard Kitchen Wall.

The ever talented Elizabeth Ramos kindly shared her new kitchen wall with us–which she and her husband painted with chalkboard paint.

From her blog: Around Christmas time, Andrew and I were discussing how (in spite of us both being designers) our everyday lives don’t seem to allow for much creativity. One small way we decided to combat this is by adding a small chalkboard wall to our kitchen. We’re hoping that this will give us a good place to make art that’s intentionally temporary and help us remember to have fun creating things.

Not only did Elizabeth share the pictures, her post includes a great tutorial for doing this yourself

Greenville is getting a letterpress shop!

Our friends over at Dapper Ink have exciting news. They’re the screen print shop that makes our tee shirts each year, and they’ve just expanded their printing capabilities to include letterpress printing. The vintage Chandler and Price letterpress still needs a lot of care to get it up and running, but they expect by summer time to be fully set up and taking orders.

Celebrating the press arrival to the Dapper Ink lot.

Located in the shop window, the press is ready to be cleaned and tuned up for action.

Don’t forget–we want to see what you’re working on. Please email photos and stories to jen@indiecraftparade.com.