Urban Craft's 1st Birthday: The Popcorn Bar!

{From The Party Dress}

 A birthday bash wouldn't be a birthday bash without some awesome snacks, right? In addition to the awesome food vendors we'll have at the show on Saturday (including Hummingbird Chocolate, Totally Squared, Koko Chocolates, Red Door Provisions, Bake Mob and Sweet Secrets), we decided to put together a gourmet popcorn bar for all of you lovely people to snack on while you're shopping! The popcorn bar is free, but we'll also be accepting donations for the Ottawa Food Bank should you feel so inclined to give back in exchange for your de-lish snack!

While we're keeping the exact details about our popcorn bar under wraps until the big reveal at the show on Saturday, we thought we'd share some of the inspiration we stumbled upon while putting our bar together! A preview:

A popcorn bar where you can mix different flavors of popcorn together to create your own special flavor! {Source}

An adorable display & toppings galore! {Source}

Creative popcorn cones for easy portability! {Source}

Delicious & inspiring flavors, like Rosemary & Sea Salt! Yum! {Source}

I'm salivating just thinking about it! We absolutely can't wait for you to see the popcorn bar on Saturday!

Urban Craft's Birthday Show!
Saturday, September 1st
10am-2pm
The GCTC (1233 Wellington Street W, at Holland)

Urban Craft's First Birthday!

Guess what, guys & gals!? Urban Craft is turning one in September! We are absolutely thrilled to be celebrating our first birthday, and incredibly grateful for how Ottawa has come out and supported our show over the past year.

As we sat down to plan our September 1st show, we decided that we better celebrate in an awesome way. What better excuse to throw a party than a birthday, right!? So we're throwing a big birthday bash in conjunction with Urban Craft on September 1st! Throughout the week we'll be showcasing all the awesome activities we'll have at the show in addition to an extended lineup of vendors for you to shop from this month! Here's just a teeny taste of all the awesomeness we'll have at the show:

• Free gifts for the first 25 attendees through the front door! 
• Free gourmet popcorn bar with tons of delectable toppings and goodies
• Free kids crafts and activities for your little ones
• Multiple door prizes to be won! I'm putting the finishing touches on the gift baskets and they're pretty sweet, folks!
• 25 Vendors to shop from! We've usually got around 20 at the show; this month we've brought in some extra vendors so you'll have a bigger selection!
• Admission is, as always, free!

When & where does it all go down?

Saturday, September 1st
10am-2pm
The GCTC (1233 Wellington Street W, at Holland)

Stay tuned this week for more sneak peeks of all the goodies and activities we have planned! It's going to be grand!

Our Feature in The Ottawa Citizen

At the beginning of last week, I got a call from an editor at The Ottawa Citizen whom we've worked with before. She mentioned she'd been wanting to do a piece on Urban Craft since we launched, and thought now would be the perfect time to do so. We were more than happy to oblige, obviously, and found out our piece was to run on Friday or Saturday--right before the November edition of the show!

On Friday, the piece ran and in the midst of our day-before-the-show prep, we found the article online and I was pretty over the moon excited. I didn't think it could get any better until we picked up a copy on Saturday and saw that the article was a full half-page big and included images from Anne-Marie Bouchard of AMBPhoto, one of our very favorite photographers to work with in Ottawa. We were thrilled and so thankful for the article. You can read it here: Shop Local At Ottawa's Urban Craft.

It's A Hit & A Winner

Helllllooooo everybody! Well...we are happy as clams over here this Monday morning. The October edition of Urban Craft was incredible and we're so thankful to each and every one of you that came out to see us! It was a chilly day but we had a really fantastic turnout and we're pleased as punch! We're already looking forward to November!

Last month we had a little contest going where if you checked into Urban Craft on Facebook, you could win a gift certificate from our lovely sponsor, Victoire! It turns out that technology was conspiring against us because as it turns out, we weren't able to access the names of the folks who checked in. We were super bummed. Cue sad faces. So we set out with another plan to get some Victoire goodness into your hands.

So we did a little drawing for the gift certificate at the show this weekend and had a whole slew of entries! Yay! And now...for the winner. Drumroll, please!

Yay! Our winner, Stacey, is getting hooked up with some Victoire goodies! Time to shop, Stacey!

The Unexpected Launch of Our Charity Project!

kindness kits & the urban craft charity project. photo by Andree-Lise Photo
Whew! Hello, guys and gals! I'm coming atcha today from a brand new computer (thank goodness), armed and ready to get this show rolling again! We are still reeling from the fabulous success that was our first show and already gearing up for the next show on October 1st (which is just a little over 2 weeks away--can you believe it?)! I'm really excited to share today's post with you, because it warms my heart like little else can.

The weekend before our first show in September, Robin and I went to brunch at The Manx with our good friends Lauren and Justine. All four of us are small, creative business owners so the conversation inevitably ends up turning towards business whenever we get together. As we were chatting about business-y things, we got to chatting about Urban Craft and how things were coming along. I off-handedly mentioned to the girls that I had seen the neatest thing called 'Blessing Bags' on Pinterest just a few days before. These bags where kits assembled with important hygiene and food items that you could assemble and hand out to homeless people you encountered on the street. I immediately fell in love with the idea and told the girls that I hoped we could assemble and sell these at a future edition of Urban Craft. They loved the idea, and then the conversation moved onto the next topic.

blessing bags! photo & idea from Joy's Hope
Two days later I received an email from Lauren. "Krista," she asked me "How serious are you about putting together those bags? I've already got someone who's willing to donate 78 bars of deodorant!" In the 48-some hours since Lauren and I had had the conversation about the blessing bags, she had literally gone out and started launching the project. Her passion and enthusiasm was so evident that I was just blown away. She offered to take the project on, assemble the bags and man the table at Urban Craft if we had space for her.

Needless to say, our answer was a resounding YES!

lauren and her lovely table (she'll probably hurt me for posting this photo! photo by Andree-Lise Photo
On Saturday Lauren showed up with 24 adorable, color-coordinated paper bags filled with useful items, which we decided to call 'Kindness Kits'. Lauren set up her table and filled it with all of these kits, priced at $5 each to recover the costs of the supplies only. She had arranged to be donated to The Ottawa Mission after the show so they would go directly to those most in need. As people began to stream into the show, the kits began to go very quickly. By 11am, Lauren had sold all 24 of the kits she had assembled.

By 11:15am, she had to start taking orders for the bags.

By the end of the day, Lauren had not only sold all of the 24 pre-assembled bags, but had raised enough money to assemble FIFTY more. "People would not only give me $5, but just hand me a $20!" Lauren told me. The kindness and generosity of our show's attendees was so exhilarating and still touches me to this day. Last week, Lauren dropped off the 75 'Kindness Kits' to The Ottawa Mission. We truly hope they help the people who receive them.

At that initial brunch meeting, I told Lauren and Justine that I had hoped we could run a charity table to benefit a different charity "every other month or something." I had hoped that we could help out charities that addressed issues in urban areas, since we're called "Urban Craft". Thanks to Lauren, we will not only be helping out a different charity "every other month or something" but a new one every single month. We already have charities lined up between now and December and we're so completely thrilled and excited!

Urban Craft's First Edition: A Smashing Success!

{our snazzy signs on the street - image courtesy of foodiePrints}
Ladies and gents! I'm writing to you this morning a very happy camper as my computer has been brought back from the edge of the cliff! You see, about a week before the first edition of Urban Craft, my already sickly computer started to do some really funny things. This included flickering screens, multiple iterations of the blue screen of death, shutting down on its own and other strange behaviors. About two days into this strange behavior, I sat down and had a chat with my computer. "Computer!" I pleaded, "If you will hold on until Saturday--if you can just hang on until the first edition of Urban Craft is over, I will love you forever." The computer beeped a couple of times--which may have been a sign that it was closer to death, but I chose to believe that it was it's way of saying "Okay, Krista." Sure enough--my computer held up its end of the bargain and lasted through Saturday--and then promptly decided to cough, sputter and kick the bucket earlier this week.

Which made blogging very difficult.

As it turns out, I am surrounded by a bunch of awesome computer-savvy dudes. Robin, our friend Anne-Marie's husband and Robin's friend JJ combined their powers to help my computer come back to life--at least temporarily. So I'm now coming to you from a ZOMBIE COMPUTER--back from the dead!

All of this to say that this is my first chance to tell you about how incredibly amazingly stupendous the first edition of Urban Craft went! The beginning of the day was a complete whirlwind of activity as our vendors showed up and set up their tables and readied their wares for the show to begin. I can't tell you how completely satisfying it is to see so many talented people come together for one event. Each and every vendor brought their A-game and all of their tables looked SO very snazzy!

{gorgeous sewn goods from manus made - image courtesy of foodiePrints}
And then it began--the crowds began to show up and we were ready to begin what would end up being a spectacular show. I cannot tell you how blown away by the public support we received for this show. Over six hundred people showed up to the first Urban Craft show. We were completely blown away by how many people came down to our show. The outpouring of public support that we received was just awe-inspiring and I can't say THANK YOU enough to all of the people who came to check out our show!

{drool-worthy cupcakes & brownies from auntie loo's - image courtesy of foodiePrints}
So many friends and familiar faces stopped by, which just completely made my day. At one point, someone remarked: "Standing next to you is like standing next to the bride in a receiving line. Everyone keeps coming by to congratulate you!" And it was indeed true--so many friends stopped by to check out the show and to say hello, which truly made my day.

{colorful macarons from urban baking co. - image courtesy of foodiePrints}
We were so thrilled with how the show went and are already so excited for October's show, which is shaping up to be so fabulous. We've got a whole new slew of local talent lined up for you! In the coming days we'll be sharing some more details from the big day including pictures from our fabulous photographer, Andree Lise Photography, the winner of our Victoire contest and the unexpected launch of our charity program!

An Urban Craft Sneak Peek: This One's for the Ladies

Ladies, listen up: if you're into jewelry as much as I am, you're going to want to take note. We've assembled an ridiculously talented group of ladies with really gorgeous, modern creations that I'm pretty sure you're going to fall in love with immediately.

Leah Christina recently started offering a truly unique and innovative line of jewelry made from recycled cardboard. The unique thing is that you'd never guess it was made from such an everyday, ubiquitous material. Leah hand paints the cardboard and embellishes it, making each piece a refined, lovely piece of wearable art.

Chelsy Anne creates these truly fantastic pieces of jewelry that are not only unique but also eco-friendly. All of the materials that go into a Chelsy Anne piece of jewelry are sourced from within Canada. Chelsy also often uses recycled and vintage chain and other elements, which really makes her pieces special.

If you're looking for gorgeous, organic sterling silver jewelry, Jasmine Virani is your gal. Jasmine's pieces have such a modern-yet-organic feel to them and are truly lovely. They're perfect for gift giving.

I'm a huge fan of the way that Alyssa of Strut Jewelry uses pops of color and gorgeous gemstones in her creations. Her pieces are striking and yet very affordable, and feature some really fantastic stones.

Kathrin Von Dehn's artistic background truly comes through in her pieces. As a painter -and- jewelry designer, she has such funky and creative jewelry in a wide range of styles that are all very interesting.

Behind The Scenes: Building a Brand & Identity

One of my very favorite things about starting a new project is building its brand and identity. There's something about bringing together the perfect colors, design elements, shape & type that's so very fascinating and satisfying to me. We've developed quite a few brands over the past couple of years, and each time I get so excited about the prospect of creating a new identity for our new venture.

When we set out to create the brand for Urban Craft, we started in a very familiar place: we tend toward clean, modern logos and often find ourselves drawn to color palettes that include light blues, greens, teals and grey. Case in point:

While all the brands are definitely distinct, you can see a lot of similarities in colors, styles and shapes. So when we began building the brand for Urban Craft, we set out to do something unique and distinctly different than what we've done before.

When I first sent logo ideas to our graphic designer, I had a brand in mind that was heavily inspired by the cover of Steve Martin's book, 'An Object of Beauty'.

I wanted to do a spin on this idea potentially using images from our city -or- maps of our city. We did a few iterations of the logo and it just didn't have the je ne sais quoi that we were looking for. So we decided to take it in a different, more vintage direction.

We began with a color palette that we discovered on Design Seeds, a great resource if you're looking colors that work well together:

As you can see, we didn't do a very good job of getting very far away from the teal/grey combo. But we all fell in love with the color scheme and how it worked together, and loved the fact that shades were a bit deeper and more rich and luxurious for fall, which is when Urban Craft would launch. I was also particularly proud that we incorporated that lovely yellow as I'm not typically one who tends toward the color. It just worked so well in this and we had to use it.

We then sent some basic ideas to our designer, giving her an idea of what we were looking for. She redeveloped our logo for us, which ended up coming out like this:

We were completely smitten with the final product and quickly moved on to develop the poster using our color palette. We knew we wanted the poster to have a vintage-yet-modern feel to it. We also wanted it to be striking and to stand out amongst other posters in store windows so it would draw people in as they walked down the street. We decided to literally frame all of the information inside what looked like a vintage frame and voila! A poster was born:

We're so completely tickled with the end result and have received such a rousing response from all the business owners who have put it up in their lovely shop windows. We couldn't have been happier with the way it turned out and the way it conveys the exact things that we wanted it to. We hope you love it too!