Craftoberfest Featured Artist!

Living in the Sacramento area inspires my work as an artist. My creations are born from thoughts about history, social class, and pop culture; blending the old and the new, exploring traditional crafts and techniques while giving them sassy modern twists!
I am punky, crafty, and a sweet Mommy/best friend of 2 brilliant little boys. I’ve made a personal committed to make a living off my artistic abilities. My work has shown in galleries and craft fairs all over NOCA and in NY, and I am currently awaiting the release of my first “Art Memoir” book this December. It’s called "Sweet Charlotte's Seventh Mistake". (Seal Press) Be sure to check it out! I love dabbling in everything- I mean everything... jewelry, ceramics, writing, drawing, music, cooking, sculpture, shrinkydinks... the sky's the limit. Visit me at CoriCrooks.com and be sure to stop by my table at CRAFTOBERFEST!

Craftoberfest!!!

Is there anything else worth talking about? NO! Cuz it is going to be the hottest event in town for this next Second Saturday!!!

So come out and see us!!! 10am-4pm on the corner of J and 20th...There are going to be 27 artists and crafters!!! So Cool!!!

Dave's Pumpkin Patch

A big shout-out to our sponsor:

Open for business this weekend!!!
3010 Borrows Avenue West Sac, CA 95691
No admission or parking fees!
Hours of Operation:

Tues - Fri 3 PM to 7 PM

Sat - Sun 10 AM to 5 PM

Closed Mondays

They offer great in-season produce & vegetables

Please visit their website for information about birthday parties, field trips, and other special group reservations!

Craftoberfest Featured Artist!

The Yummy-Dummy chocolate company was started by two sisters who wanted to turn their Christmas gift idea, of making their own chocolate bars, into a business. They invited 5 other girls to help them and the rest is history. The company is now three years old, and its young owners range in age from 10 to 14. They have sold over 13,000 chocolate bars at the Davis Farmer’s Market, through retail outlets like the Rominger West Winery, at craft fairs, and through their website. The girls are involved in every aspect of the business from manufacturing to marketing. Everything at Yummy Dummy Chocolate Company is done to make the best dark chocolate bar on this planet. Yummy Dummy uses all natural, fresh, local ingredients in their chocolate bars. The girls give 10% of their profits to different children’s, animal and environmental charities. To learn more, visit the Yummy-Dummy website at http://www.yummy-dummy.com/.

Go All Locovore

The term "locovore" is typically used to describe eating locally grown food - while that is all well and great I'd like to propose that everyone expand that definition to also aim to support your local businesses, artists and crafters.  Why support local businesses? I know most people don't need that question answered we intuitively know its a good thing.  Seriously there are lots of reason so, here is a link to an article if you need an explanation http://www.tradelocal.org/why_local_bus.htm

Lets start with supporting our local coffee houses. First I'd like to give a special shout out two The Coffee Garden on Franklin blvd and the Java Lounge. These two coffee hang outs not only serve great coffee and have great atomosphere they have been good to the Craft Mafia and other local designers and artists.  The mafia frequently meets and holds shows at the Coffee Garden and every second tuesday we decend upon the Java lounge for a "craft along" - if you haven't check it out please come and get your craft on. 

With a Starbucks on every corner it can be tempting to swing in and pick up that tasty soy carmel machiodo (or however the heck its spelled), but if you don't know where to go to give a local coffee shop some love check out the "Delocator" http://delocator.net/index.php  This is a site set up specifically to help you not support Starbucks - type in your zip code and it will list all the lovely unique coffee houses in your area (it will also show you just for comparisson how many starbucks surround it). 

Of course you can support your local businesses by shopping the gridhttp://midtowngrid.com/, and by comming out to the craft mafia shows like our upcomming "Craftoberfest"  on October second saturday (October 11 from 10am to 4pm) in the SN&R parking lot. Check the craft mafia myspace for updates on that: http://www.myspace.com/sacramentocraftmafia.  

The weekend before, Saturday October 4 you can come out and support local designers at the WonderFall Fashion show at Freestyle clothing in citrus heights. Check out puppybird's myspace for more info on that :http://www.myspace.com/puppybirdclothing 

Back to the food. If your out there looking for a restuarant that offers some vegan alternatives check out the newly redesigned and expanded sacramento vegan eating guide -it now covers the whole U.S. and is called Vegtopia http://www.vegtopia.com/ 

So go out there this Fall season and go all loco! 

Blogging off 

Puppybird 

http://www.myspace.com/puppybirdclothing  

EASY Handmade 2 for 1 Necklace!

Our girl, Yoli, AKA Sacred Snatch has a fantastic blog filled with color, humor but most of all, CRAFTS! I just read this cool tutorial she posted on how to make a really cool (and REALLY FAST!)two sided glass pendant A La Crafty Chica!

If you are in need of some inspiration, and some new life in your jewelry wardrobe, visit YOLI'S BLOG and have some crafty fun!

SCM knows SWAG!

If the prospect of Craftoberfest isnt exciting enough...get a load of what we are doing for swag for this show! The following is from Katie's blog, who so generously created our cool bags with Claire! It's gonna rock, people!



The Sacramento Craft Mafia is putting on a show in three weekends called Craftoberfest. They will be offering upcycled tshirt totes to the first 100! Claire and I are in charge of making these bags. I have quite a few shirts that I have been hanging onto and the rest we will be getting from a thrift store. Below is the first one I made and am sooo happy with it, I am going to be keeping it! It was also made from one of my all time favorite shirts. The shirt reads “God Save America”. The bags will be stuffed with goodies, but I think the shirt tote pretty much sells itself! Stop by 1015 20th St Sacramento, Ca on October 11th from 10-4 and be one of the 100 to nab one of these!



For a first look at the bags, take a look at Katie's blog!

Crafting & selling in a poor ecomony.

Even if you have decided to hide in your yarn basket until things improve, you can't help but to notice where our economy is right now.

Gas prices, homes in foreclosure, downsizing and my favorite current trend, the "staycation". It is amazing how things have changed over the last couple of years. I have been thinking recently about how does/will this effect the Crafting community?

As people are more and more careful with their money, putting off purchases, only buying "necessities" (Sorry, but I NEED glitter and yarn!) how are Crafters coping?

I found an interesting discussion on this subject, and I found some real inspiration there, so I thought I would share it.

Would love to hear from you all, too!

It's important, especially now for Crafters to encourage and support each other. Yes, times are tough, but so are Crafters!

Read the discussion.

Pour Some SUGAR on Me!

Our fellow mafia sister, Melody of Handmade Luck is working hard to help find a cure for Juvenile Diabetes. How can you help? By shopping silly! Everyone knows that. Check out Sugarcube Society on Etsy and indulge a little. 100% of the proceeds go to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (after the minuscule etsy listing fee) to help fight Juvenile Diabetes. Start that early holiday shopping while the prices are low. Get a great hand-made gift AND help children in need. Totally WIN-WIN!

Meet a Crafter!

To gear you up and get you excited about Craftoberfest we will be featuring some of our sellers on the blog in the next coming weeks. We have 27 people selling at this event with a wide range of items that all will enjoy!

To get it started I'd like you to meet Cris of Skeletal Drop Kick!

Living in the Sacramento area, Cris tends to be a tad overwhelmed by the ordinary at times. By releasing her inner monsters, she is able to produce many cephalopods and critters to make room for new stuff in her head. Her latest materials of choice are yarn and ceramic. All of her clay is fired to the astounding temperature of 2350 degrees F, making them stinking sturdy and fantastically wonderful. Her glazes are all handmade and her pieces are thrown on the wheel and then altered to appear a bit more like they do in her head. Her crochet cephalopods are done when she cannot get her hands on some clay. They are all her own original design and actually, she doesn't work from a pattern which explains why they don't all look exactly alike. For more information, please visit her Etsy store!

More Beadstores?!?!

Yes...its true there are more bead stores in our wonderful metropolitan area!!! Who knew that Sacramento was a true bead haven!

Bead Ware
This Elk Grove institution is located at 9687 Elk Grove Florin Rd
Elk Grove, CA 95624. While I have never had the pleasure of visiting this store in person (I am very limited and hardly ever leave downtown) I have surfed the website extensively and they look to be quite the bead store. There is a workbench and tools available in the store, as well as, staff that are willing to answer all your queries. They also offer quite an extensive class list. Everything from right angle weave to caged pendants...my kind of place! So if you are from the "Grove" or feel like a little drive, then this is the place to visit!

That's going to be it for now...but next Sunday we are going to explore more options in Roseville and then extend out to even further off (yet close enough for a trip) communities!!! Stay tuned!

P.S. - Today is the last day for the Bead Fetishes Second Saturday sale!!! Check it out!!!

Craftoberfest!

Sacramento Craft Mafia's biggest group show of the year is just around the corner! Please check back for regular posts where we will be featuring some of the exciting craft vendors who will be there!
Not only will you have the usual fantastic SCM crew, but we are proud to be sharing this event with our sisters from the Petaluma Craft Mafia!
Its going to be a great time-we look forward to diving right into fall with all of you!


Also, BIG thanks to our own Erika Ashley for her cool pumpkin postcard design and also to Lorrain of Rain's Embellishments for the "loteria" styled back of the postcard.

September Craft Along with The Sac Craft Mafia

Second Saturday is Coming!!!

Well it was Sunday 6 hours ago...so I almost made this post on the right day. You do what you can do...right?

So...guess what it right around the corner? SECOND SATURDAY!!! Are you exited? I am!!!

Where are the hot spots to be, you ask? Well...

1. McMartin's Park Your Art Event- The parking lot on K Street between 20th and 21st. You can see some of the ladies from the Sacramento Craft Mafia. I know Charming Co., Kaytea, and Simply Strands will be out there.

2. Susan of Secret Little Relics will be at the Smith Gallery so check her out if you get a chance.

3. The Bead Fetish (okay I know this not an art show per say) will be having its monthly Second Saturday Sale...it is going to be big this month so come on out and make your bead collection grow!

So there are three of the places that I consider to be smoking hot for the weekend...hope you get a chance to come out and enjoy some local art and craft.

SCM's NEW Flavor: ITS MINTY AND NEW!

At our last officer's meeting, we gathered to brainstorm about giving Sacramento Craft Mafia some new flavor! Well, not exactly flavor, but color anyway! (lol)
Some may remember the color scheme from when our group first started out, which really took us a long way.
Since we have stopped adding new members and have really hit our stride going into our second year, we decided it was time for a little make over.
After some deliberation, we threw it out to all of our members and then made our decision at the officers meeting.
We decided on the fun new combination of green and brown.
The color scheme will be incorporated into our myspace(which I have linked to the title), this blog, our NEW logo (stay tuned!) and our up and coming brand new website!
We really like that the colors are representitive earth, life and more acurately the trees that has earned our city the title "City of Trees".
It also has associations with being "green" and "eco-friendly" and really, that is what DIY is in many ways all about.
I say it's MINTY and DELICIOUS!
We hope you like it and stay tuned as SCM continues to grow, create and evolve!

Handiwork Group

College Greens Swim and Racquet Club presents:
HANDIWORK GROUP...anything created using a pin or needle.
Every 4th Wednesday, 6:30-9:00 p.m.
Bring your needlecraft, quilting, applique, or sewing projects to a fun-filled night of crafting, munchies,* and friendship. Adults only. Guests of non-members are invited at no charge.

*Bring an appetizer or drink to share.
E-mail for info: info@collegegreens.net

Another chance to craft with others in the Sacramento Area!