We had so much fun this past Saturday at our first ever Crafternoon! We are definitely going to make this a monthly event – so please sign up for our email newsletter or follow us on Facebook/Twitter for updates!
We met up at Penelope Rakov‘s studio in the morning & she treated us to donuts & coffee while she chatted about her work & walked us through her process. Here are some photos from the visit. Check out all the photos on Flickr.
Penelope (far right) chatting about her work
bars of colored glass that Penny uses to pull glass cane used to make her jewelry
Penny showed us each step that is involved in her process. Here are bundles of pulled glass cane.
after Penny talked about her work, we all got to shop her entire collection, which included new & older pieces. All crafternoon purchases were 20% off!
We found a drawer filled with finished glass pieces that just needed to be set in sterling silver. A few of our crafternooners picked out their favorites from the drawers & Penny custom set them!
After we were finished at Penny’s studio, we headed over to Art Star for a lovely spread of food from A Full Plate Cafe. Bonnie & Susan of Kaye Rachelle were all set up & ready for us. They chatted a bit about their line of printed home textiles & then we dove right into our make & take! They created 3 simple chevron designs cut from acetate & crafternooners could choose their color/design/placement for their tote/tea towel. We had tons of extra totes & towels, so everyone got to make a few. The results were great!
Bonnie & Susan with their three screens. They gave us step by step instructions on how to silk screen. The cut stencil technique is so simple to do at home. Their chevron designs were inspired by the One & Two Liberty Place Buildings right here in Philly. All three designs worked so great together – perfect for layering them onto the totes in different color inks.
Bonnie & Susan showing us how to print. Everyone loved the minty green color they mixed! They chose the perfect fall palette – this green, mustard yellow, & navy blue. Susan suggested mixing a little of each color in with the color you choose so they all have the same tone & work nicely together.
The lovely Lisa Castellano is the first one up to print her tote bag!
Lisa with her completed tote bag
Me (Megan) hanging up all the printed totes to dry.
Thanks so much to Penny, Bonnie, & Susan for making our first Crafternoon so special.
Visit their websites: http://peneloperakov.com/ + http://www.kayerachelledesigns.com/
We love making these pretty gift bows when we are feeling overwhelmed with projects & need to see something finished. It is our way of dealing with stress…… We offer free gift wrapping in our shop & our customers are always asking how we make our fancy bows. Here is a little how-to so you can make your own!
You just need some paper raffia & a pair of scissors. We always keep a variety of colors in stock. We buy ours from 
Step 1: take one color of the paper wraphia & cut 6 pieces that are 6 inches long.
Step 2: Peal each 6″ slice of paper raffia completely open
Step 3: Layer all 6 pieces together – one on top of the other. Then cut points on either side.
Step 4: Cut a long piece of raffia (enough to go around your package) & one 12″ piece in a contrasting color. Lay 12″ piece of raffia down flat & then cross longest piece on top of that. Take two petals & pinch together in center. Lay at center point of the crossed raffia pieces. Take shorter piece of raffia & tie once in center of two petals. It should look like the image below:
Step 5: continue adding petals in the same way.
Step 6: Cut 6 more pieces of contrasting color (here we used pink) about 5″ long. Tie 2 pieces at a time in the same way you tied the petals. When you come to the last 2 pieces, tie a double knot & trim.
The next time you are in Art Star buying a gift – ask us to wrap it for you! You’ll get one of these lovely flowers to top off your gift!
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