“Do it your mole” was a contest to create your own “cut and assemble” paper figurine from a pre-made mole figurine (available for pdf download). The translation on the page is a bit rocky, but the project looks like it was fun!

I’m *supposed* to take a blogging-break on weekends, but I fell a little in love with this and couldn’t help but share (so glad I stumbled upon Design Mom’s blog for this goody!).

It’s the ASL alphabet made out of matchbooks from JK Keller (who, by the way, has a wonderful web-page and is apparently friends with the voice from inside the Postcard Machine at Renegade!).

There is a little place in my heart for all crafty, cool, and incredible things I wish I had thought of, but there is also another special place in my heart for ASL (I took a few years worth of sign language classes at Galladuet, the university for the Deaf in Washington DC.)

Anyway, this would look really awesome in a frame. On my wall.

As you well know, I’ve done a week of posts about the awesome 2008 Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn, a fest of handmade, do-it-yourself, Etsy-ian fantastic-ness.

There is only one thing to do after spending an entire week rounding something up, and that’s re-rounding it up. Yes, that’s right, re-rounding it up. So click on the images below to be taken away to various web-sites to see various wonders.

Or, just scroll through my entire collection of Renegade Craft Fair posts on Stickers & Donuts. Enjoy!

CLICK ON IMAGES!
(no worries, they’ll open in a new window)

WARNING::WARNING::TONS OF POSTS COMING UP::WATCH YOUR WALLET

Above: piles and piles of business cards from the Renegade Craft Fair.

When I arrived at the Renegade Craft Fair, I started collecting business cards with two purposes in mind:

1. To take notes about my favorite vendors on the back of the cards (typical use of business cards).
2. To provide myself with little rectangles (occasionally squares) of free art that I could later scan-in and post on this blog.

But, alas, with over 200 vendors, some of them sharing a table with a friend, there suddenly became way too many business cards to even carry in my pockets (see pictures above)! But, as it goes with pretty things, I couldn’t help myself and even forced my partner-in-crime to take some, too, if the back and the front were both pretty (I didn’t want to seem like I was hogging all the business cards, even if I was).

When I arrived home, though, the poor scanner couldn’t handle such a load of cards, and thus I laid-out a few (okay, a bunch) of my favorites on a bulletin board (click on the picture for a larger view).

Above: some of my favorite business cards from the Renegade Craft Fair (click to see larger).

One big business card theme was the use of Moo.com’s MiniCards, which are about 1/3 the size of a regular business card, and each card can contain a different image. Some crafters choose to place random images of their crafts on the back (front?) of their cards and others choose to alternate between a few images or logos.

Above: moo.com’s MiniCards, a favorite of Renegade Crafters.

Since this was a big gathering of DIYers, there were also lots of hand-stamped, hand-cut, hand-pasted cards. Others were printed more traditionally. One of my favorite business cards included My Imaginary Boyfriend, which had a black and white photo of a high school boyfriend on the front, and thus looked like one of those pocket yearbook photos you share with friends (near bottom of left of bulletin board photo). Another favorite was from Timber!. Their card was square, but still convenient for a pocket, and the back looked like tree bark (bottom right hand corner of bulletin board photo).

But my favorite business card, hands down, was from Iskra Print Collective. Although I usually don’t like business cards in the shape of large pamphlets or postcards (ie things I can’t fit in my pocket or wallet!), I was so pleased to see that these pretty business cards could fit on my face! There were many glasses types to choose from, but I picked these (it was between these and the aviators!). You can checkout Iskra’s print shop online.

Above: a business card that is irresistible as a wardrobe accessory!

One of my favorite things yesterday at the Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn was the Postcard Machine.

A woman sits inside this crafty little “postcard vending machine” with a microphone and speaks in very terse, robotic voice as you interact with it to get your postcard. (more…)

Today I went to The Fourth Annual Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn, NY at McCarren Park Pool (yes, the pool is an actual empty community pool where concerts, free movie screenings, and a craft fair full of renegades all take place — if you are as curious as I was about what an abandoned pool looks, see below).

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Above (left to right): two of the many ivy-grown arches surrounding the empty pool, the entry way to the pool (looking up), a row of crafter tables setup under tents (notice the pool-floor ground).

This craft fair is one of the premier DIY and crafter fairs and occurs four times a year (twice in Chicago, and once in San Fransisco and Brooklyn). So many people want to fill the 200 available tent spaces that the selected crafters have to be pretty wonderful to have a spot. This year, Etsy had a big overall presence at the fair and its own table with magical freebies such as a “passport” to the fair, stickers, buttons, and temporary tattoos.

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Above: mango slices with lemon juice & salt were available just outside the fair, the Treats Truck, NYC’s traveling dessert truck, provided me with my chocolate fix.

While I’m still recovering from the heat, I’m mostly still recovering from the awesome-ness of seeing so many creative people in one room (er, pool). After a full day of oohing, ahhing, note-taking, business card collecting, and wishing “I had thought of that” I am returning to you with not just one post on the Renegade Craft Fair but a fabulous week of posts. I just couldn’t help myself.

Enjoy! (All Renegade Fair 08 posts will be collected here!)

Above: Your intrepid reporter (right) and her intrepid friend (left) at the 2008 Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn.

A post on SwissMiss yesterday had me gallivanting around Fred & Friend’s which led me to discover these Arty Party paper plates which I think are awesome not just for children and art history majors, but some very exciting themed parties (how cool would it be to have a Picasso-themed party and gunk up some of these plates?!). ($7.45 for a 12 pack on amazon.com)

“These 8 1/2” x 10” dinner plates are realistically molded from thick, coated paperstock… so bring on your barbecue brush strokes, your pudding pointillism, or your pasta imposto – they can handle it!” (Fred & Friend’s).

Just found this “Make Your Own Slime Creep Toy” at The Blog of Rowan Tedge (a pretty cool Australian illustrator). You can make your very own crazy toy by printing out this sheet & cutting & taping away!

Welcome to my first YouTube video from the new Stickers & Donuts YouTube Channel. Our first video (by Maria) is a bottle cap jewelry & magnet do-it-yourself tutorial. This how to should provide some basic instructions, tips, and tricks on how to start creating fun crafts out of bottle caps!

Here are two photos from the depths of my own Bottle Cap Craft Lab: (more…)

Journals made from real book covers. Love how crafty-cool these are ($13, bookjournals.com)!