Last Friday, we hosted our 5th Tulsa Etsy Craft Party at my little handmade shop.  Here are a few shots from our previous parties.   What a sweet community of makers we have here in Tulsa.

This Year’s Etsy Craft Party

The 2014 Etsy Craft Party theme was “Recapture: Bring new meaning to your photographs”, so we incorporated photographs into each of the projects.  We embroidered on photos, made photo coaster tiles, pinback buttons with photos, and a stamped photo stand.  

My mom picked up these antique cardboard frames at an estate sale earlier in the week and we thought they’d make really fun favors for the party.  Some of them had handwriting from the owner, listing names and years, and although these were from the estate of someone else, the penmanship looked identical to my own grandma’s letters and notes, which made them special to me.  Hopefully they will be for their new owners as well.

I can’t have a party anymore without fresh flowers, so I put some at each project station and gave them away as some of the door prizes at the end of the night.

We had a spot for everyone to drop off business cards to and also created a “let’s be friends” board, where each attendee could list their name, email address, website, and links to all social media.  We’re compiling the list and sending it out to everyone this week so everyone can go fan/friend/like/rss and connect with the other attendees.

I’m pretty obsessed with this easy photo stand project and will post a DIY tutorial soon, although it’s easy enough that you barely even need instruction.  I made a few, some with initials of people I like as little gifts, and a few for the shop that spell out MADE.  I think I might make some more of these to use as signs around the shop or at craft show booths.  I adore the #mydadisrad one that a creative lady came up with at the party.

I’m not gonna lie, it was a *rough* day.  My little shop got robbed that afternoon and rather than all those last minute party prep things, I was dealing with trying to recover our stolen money and police.  That’s a post for another day though… The party went really well and it’s always inspiring to meet new makers!  We had lots of lovely ladies join us at the party and we gave out lots of fun prizes from the shop.  I want to give a public thank you to Holly from Hollyrocks and Briana from Bifftastica for helping lead the projects and for always being so supportive of these crafty events.

We’ve had lots of requests for more craft parties and we are working on plans for another one soon for those crafty Tulsa folk.  What kind of projects would interest you?