Urban Craft: The Thanksgiving Edition!

Happy fall, folks! We love this time of year at Urban Craft headquarters. A slight chill in the air, pumpkin-flavored everything, warm scarves and gloves & the changing of the leaves in Gatineau Park. What's not to love!? The turn in the weather also signals that one of our favorite holidays is near: Thanksgiving!

If you've got friends and family coming to town this holiday weekend, bring them down to Urban Craft this Saturday! In addition to our awesome usual lineup of vendors, we have 5 new vendors who will be at Urban Craft for the first time! Plus DAVIDsTEA will be on hand with free tastings of their awesome tea -and- we'll have gifts for the first 25 people through the door! What's not to love?

Now: a sneak peek of those brand new vendors. We think you're going to love them!

Kiersten Eagans illustrations are just so charming & intriguing. I love her illustration style & can't wait to see her work in person!

 

Ellie and Len create darling vintage-inspired jewelry with a modern twist. 

 

N-Product makes this awesome ring, which is made from cardboard! Can you believe that? I can't wait to check their work out in person!

West End Chiles creates unique jellies, spice mixes & other tasty treats. With flavors like Mango Habanero and Port Wine Serrano, I can't wait to pick up a jar to pair with some cheese for Thanksgiving on Monday!

If you're looking for some treats to take to your Thanksgiving celebrations, Morsel Desserts will be at Urban Craft for the first time with awesome cupcakes, bars & delectable loaves to take to your Turkey Day dinner! Yum!

The Full Lineup:

Purple Urchin

Strut Jewelry

Urbanite Jewelry

VersaTile

Kokobaru

Bake Mob

Jasmine Virani

Heart Meets Paper

Flo Glassblowing

Koko Chocolates

Salvage Jewelry

Magneties

Morsel Desserts

Red Door Provisions

Kiersten Eagan Illustration

N-Product

My Stow N Tow

West End Chiles

Ellie & Len

We can't wait to see you all there!

Urban Craft's October Edition
Saturday, October 6, 2012
10am-2pm
The GCTC (1233 Wellington Street West - At Holland)

Urban Craft's Birthday Recap!

One year. One whole year of shows! Guys--we are so proud of Ottawa and so happy to be a part of this community (as always). You showed up in droves to support us and made our birthday show a smashing success! If we could give you all kisses and hugs, we would. A recap of the festivities in pictures:

Our outdoor signs, all dressed up for our birthday!

Our crazy long lineup out the door! You guys are fantastic!

Our ever-awesome producer and front door gal, Amy of Splendid Events!

The wonderful Andrea of Yelp! hands out free bags to attendees

Salvage Jewelry's awesome vintage jewelry & table display

Red Door Provision's gourmet preseves

heart meets paper's lovely paper goods

Vibrant cake pops from Bake Mob

Purple Urchin's line of handmade bath & body goodies

The lovely Kate of Flights of Fancy

Monsters never looked so adorable (from Kokobaru)

Sapling // Seedling's adorably awesome mini book pendants!

Funky screen-printed ties from Magneties!

Eufemia Bella's vintage-inspired home goods

Flo Glass Blowing's gorgeous hand-blown garden stix!

Tribal inspired jewelry from Jasmine Virani

A huge huge thanks to all the vendors, volunteers and especially to all of you from the public who came out to support the show! We love you to pieces!

Urban Craft's 1st Birthday: Presents for You!

Guys & gals: we are SO excited for the show tomorrow. I can hardly stand it! We've had such a blast putting together this show for you and cannot wait to welcome you all through the doors at 10am tomorrow! 

We've been sharing sneak peeks of all the goodies that we'll have at the show, and we decided to save the best for last. A bunch of our vendors stepped up this month to donate prizes that you can get your hands on for free! So many people offered to give you awesome gifts for free that we were able to put together not one, not two, not three, but four gift baskets for you to win! Aren't our vendors flipping fabulous? We think so!

So while the exact prizes that you can win are heavily guarded secrets until tomorrow morning, we wanted to give you a little preview of the prize packs that you can win!

Prize Pack No. 1
Alyssa Spaxman Design & Strut Gemstone Jewelry have teamed up to give you an awesome prize package that will help you adorn yourself -and- your walls (hint, hint)! 

Prize Pack No.2
VersaTile Design & Heart Meets Paper have teamed up to give you a prize pack with goodies to give and goodies to keep!

Prize Pack No.3
Eufemia Bella & Sweet Secrets have teamed up to give you something that'll give your house a perk and something that'll give you a perk!
Prize Pack No.4
And finally, Totally Squared has given us a generous gift that'll satisfy your sweet tooth for sure!

To enter to win these prizes, all you'll need to do is fill out a survey at the front door when you arrive at the show. You'll automatically be entered to win all four of the gift baskets. Totally sweet deal, don't you think!? 

And while we're at it, I'll give you another rundown of all the awesome vendors we'll have at the show tomorrow. You're already putting together your plan of attack, right!?

Koko Chocolates
Heart Meets Paper
Red Door Provisions
Eufemia Bella
Purple Urchin
VersaTile Design
Kokobaru Creations
Jasmine Virani Jewelry
Strut Gemstone Jewelry
Magneties
Urbanite Jewelry
Salvage Jewelry Co.
Flights of Fancy
Sapling//Seedling
Sweet Secrets
Flo Glass Blowing
Clever Plumage
Winged Beast Outfitters
Bake Mob
Totally Squared
Hummingbird Chocolate
Indie*Go Designs
Yakety Yak Designs

We'll see you tomorrow morning, guys & gals! Remember: get there early and line up to snag some swag ! 

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

Urban Craft's 1st Birthday: The Swag!

Earrings up for grabs from urbanite jewelry!

Things are really gearing up here at Urban Craft headquarters! We just finished packing up the mini swag bags and they are almost ready to go! If you're lucky enough to be one of the first 25 people through the door at our birthday bash on Saturday, you'll snag a free pair of urbanite jewelry earrings! Up for grabs are their Los Angeles, Cordova & Portland earrings. You'll also receive a coupon & pack of earring backs (those little plastic guys that go on the back of your earrings that we're all always losing!). You'll also receive goodies from the awesome folks at VersaTile Design and Morsel Desserts!

Mini swag, all packed up!

I'd sort of really like to keep one of these for myself! Be sure you're there bright and early on Saturday to line up and snag a bag!

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

Urban Craft's Tweet to Win Contest!

Good Morning, Folks! We're coming to you with an exciting update from Urban Craft headquarters this morning: we're launching a contest where you can win $20 to spend at *any* vendor at Urban Craft!

We want you to let your friends know how much you love Urban Craft and all our talented vendors. So we're launching a Twitter contest to reward you for what you are already doing: tweeting about it! Between now and Friday, August 3rd, we want you to tweet about Urban Craft and let people know what you're looking forward to. Whether it's meeting our new vendors this month, picking up some baked goodies from your favorite permanent vendor -or- meeting up with friends at the show like you do each month, we want you to let the world know what you love about Urban Craft!

The person with the most tweets about the show at 11:59pm on Friday, August 3rd will win a $20 in Urban Craft bucks to spend at the show!

The fine print:

1. You must tag @urban_craft in your tweet for it to be eligible
2. The person with the most tweets tagged with @urban_craft between July 24th and August 3rd, 2012 will win $20 in Urban Craft bucks to spend at the show on August 4th, 2012.
3. Current Urban Craft vendors are not eligible to enter
4. Please no spamming just to win--we want you to tweet as much as possible, but want your tweets to be fun and interesting  for your readers! :)

Tweet away, kids!

Beat the July Heat at Urban Craft this Saturday!

Urban Craft's July edition is this Saturday! We've got a snazzy group of vendors lined up for you, including a few friends joining us from out of town! What's new this month, you ask? Observe:

 

The folks from Salvage Jewelry will join us all the way from Montreal! I was blown away by the uniqueness of their jewelry the instant that I saw it and knew we had to have them in Urban Craft. The necklace above is made from vintage sequins. Awesome, right?

 Creations Corteza will also join us from Montreal, bringing their fantastic preserved leaf and flower jewelry along with them. We're sure you've seen these beauties over at Flock and Workshop; each piece of jewelry is a true little gem and distinct from the next. Love them!

 

The lovely Meeka of Meeka's Creations will join us with her ever-popular fun & funky stuffed creatures! Aren't they just dripping with adorableness?

The ladies of Flo Glassblowing will also be on hand with their gorgeous works of glass. As the owners of Ottawa's very own glassblowing studio, you know these gals know their stuff. I can't wait to see their creations in person!

And this is just a fraction of the talent that will be on hand. Cake pops, boutique vanilla extracts, handmade tiles, a whole range of awesome jewelry, vegan baked goods, gorgeous home goods. Check out the full list of vendors:

Auntie Loo's
Urbanite Jewelry
Purple Urchin
VersaTile Design
Kokobaru Creations
Liv Well Toys
Strut
Silver Hand Studios
Salvage Jewelry
Really Horrible Enterprises
Sarah's Card Company
Jasmine Virani
Meeka's Creations
Creations Corteza
Flo Glassblowing
Eufemia Bella
Om Nom Cupcake
Petits Plaisirs Chocolata Treats
Bake Mob
Chic Bean

It's going to be good, folks! Don't forget; we're indoors--so come inside for a break from the heat, shop from some awesome vendors and enjoy the weekend!

Saturday, July 7th, 2012
10am-2pm
The GCTC, Holland & Wellington

Purple Urchin's Grand Opening!

Last fall, Urban Craft regulars Sarah and Rebecca of Purple Urchin opened their very own shop in Chinatown. It was so fantastic to see such a talented pair of ladies take such a big step, and we couldn't be more happy for them! The opening of their shop happened to coincide with the street improvements on Somerset, so for the first few months of operation, the sidewalks and street around their shop were quite the mess. Now that the street has cleared and the weather has warmed up, the girls are officially christening their store with a grand opening this weekend!

With help from Amy of Splendid Events (small business event planner extraordinaire -and- Urban Craft sponsor), the girls will open their shop on Sunday for a grand 'ole party. There will be drinks, snacks, music, and hand massages with Purple Urchin body butters! Plus, the first 25 people in the store will get an awesome swag bag featuring samples from other local businesses and, of course, Purple Urchin!

Pop by their shop (882 Somerset Street W) on Sunday, June 10th from 1-4pm to get in on all the goodness (and make sure you show up early to snag some swag)! More details can be found on their Facebook event page here.

Urban Craft's June Sneak Peek!

Awesome bath & body goodies from Purple Urchin

Awesome gourmet goodies? Adorable home decor? Cute things for your kiddo? Urban Craft's got them all this month! Just two days until our June show. A preview:

 

This month we'll welcome Emma Dilemma Designs for the first time. Emma makes really unique vintage inspired home decor that's unlike anything I've seen in Ottawa before--including the really awesomely unique family tree you see above! 

 

Sapling // Seedling will also join us for the first time! How adorable are those tiny book necklaces above? Owner Saara is a trained book binder and makes the most beautiful handmade books and unique accessories!

 

Blush Beads will join us again for the first time since the fall! Owner Sandy is such a lovely person to work with and she makes equally lovely jewelry. We're excited to have her back at the show!

 

 

 Kokobaru will join us with seriously adorable kids goodies including the hats above, which are so cute that I think I'd have a hard time keeping them off my kids even during the hot summer months. She'll also be bringing a whole slew of adorable sewn toys!

 

Bake Mob will join us again with their adorably delicious cake pops in a range of styles and flavors! I'd be remiss if I didn't mention how much the kids at last month's Urban Craft went *crazy* over Bake Mob's pops. Their parents couldn't keep them away from the table!

 

 Lisa of Heart Meets Paper will join us again this month with her gorgeous and modern paper goods. I plan to stock up on her goodies--they make the perfect thank you, birthday and every occasion cards!

 VersaTile will join us again this month with their awesome tile goodies. From magnets to coasters to custom artwork, owners Dan and Kelly are truly making a splash in Ottawa's craft scene even though they've only been around for a few months!

And that's just a teeny taste of all the awesomeness we'll have at the show on Saturday! A full list of the vendors:

Auntie Loo’s Treats
Bake Mob
Purple Urchin
Mains de Mariposa
urbanite jewelry
Strut Jewelry
Blush Beads
Magneties
Sapling // Seedling
VersaTile Design
Emma Dilemma Designs

Kokobaru
Couture Kids
Barnyard Bummz
Liv Well Toys
Buttons n’ Pins
Heart Meets Paper
Carabara
Lillipad

Urban Craft - June Edition
Saturday, April 7, 2012
10am-2pm
The GCTC (Holland & Wellington)

June 2nd Sneak Peek!

A quick peek at all the fantastic vendors we’ll have for you will have for you at Urban Craft’s June 2nd edition!

Foodie Finds:
Auntie Loo’s Treats
Bake Mob
Carabara
Lillipad

Bath & Body:
Purple Urchin
Mains de Mariposa

Jewelry & Accesssories:
urbanite jewelry
Strut Jewelry
Blush Beads
Magneties

Paper Goods:
Sapling//Seedling
Heart Meets Paper

Home Décor:
VersaTile Design
Emma Dilemma Designs

Kids Goodies:
Kokobaru
Couture Kids
Barnyard Bummz
Liv Well Toys
Buttons n’ Pins

Sneak Peek At Urban Craft's May Edition!

I've said it before and I'll say it again: one of the coolest parts of my job as the head of Urban Craft is to be witness to all of the incredible talent we have here in Ottawa. Day after day the most amazing crafters and food makers submit applications to us, and I get tickled every time we come across someone new! There is so much talent in this city of ours, and I get so excited that we get to show it off to you each month.

There will be no lack of talent and awesomeness at Urban Craft May--I can attest to that. With everything from boutique vanilla extracts to organic candy to really fantastic art, picking up a gift for your mom (Mother's Day is May 13th) will be a cinch!

Bake Mob is making their first appearance at Urban Craft. They'll be offering cake pops like the adorable ones above as well as other delicious goodies.With a name like Bake Mob, how can you go wrong!?

The Organic Heretic makes organic candies. Did you hear that!? Handmade organic candies made right here in Ottawa! Talk about the perfect gift for a sweet mom on Mother's Day!

 

Rainbow Nest makes the most adorable little accessories that are sure to brighten up any corner of your home!

Really Horrible Enterprises will be on hand with handmade, boutique vanilla extracts! With flavors like Rum Vanilla and Brandy Vanilla, I know I will definitely be picking up a bottle or two (or three)!

When I saw Jen Lytle's work, I was immediately drawn to how crisp and clean her work was--yet how it was still so soft. I love how she has captured these simple homes and buildings in detail. I can't wait to see her work in person!

Caroline Villamarin makes the most adorable dresses! These would be completely perfect for a wife who's celebrating her first Mother's Day! Caroline will also have other sewn accessories and goodies on hand!

Need some other Mother's Day ideas? Koko Chocolates will be on hand with her delicious truffles and goodies. Urban Baking Co. will have gorgeous and delicious macarons. Purple Urchin will have bath & body products to pamper your mom. Chelsy Anne, Jasmine Virani, Strut Jewelry, Emily's Trees, Water Willow -and- urbanite jewelry will all have gorgeous jewels for your mom--all in different styles and prices. Auntie Loo's will have their delicious treats  for the vegan mom in your life, and Apartment 613 will be on hand with their awesome buttons and shirts!

Urban Craft - May 2012 Edition

Saturday, May 5th

10am-2pm

The GCTC, Holland & Wellington

Transit: OC Transpo Buses 2, 16, 86, and 176

A Sneak Peek At Urban Craft's May Lineup!

Fused Glass Jewelry from Water Willow

We're excited to announce a stunning lineup of fantastic crafters & gourmet food makers for the month of May! We'll have tons of your favorite people on hand and a slew of brand new crafters that we're excited to welcome to the show for the first time! A little birdie tells me that several of the vendors below are working on special gift packs just in time for Mother's Day! The lineup:

Indie Clothing:
Winged Beast
Caroline Villamarin
Apt. 613

Gourmet Food:
Koko Chocolates
Auntie Loo's Treats
Life of Pie
Urban Baking Co.
Bake Mob
The Organic Heretic
Really Horrible Enterprises

Bath & Body Goodies:
Purple Urchin

Gorgeous Jewelry:
Flights of Fancy
Chelsy Anne
Strut Jewelry
Urbanite Jewelry
Jasmine Virani
Emily's Trees
Water Willow

Kid's Goodies:
Rainbow Nest
Baby's Breath

Beautiful Art:
Jennifer Lytle

Home Decor:
Eufemia Bella

Urban Craft: The Easter Edition!

We're celebrating Easter Weekend with an all new Urban Craft, packed full of handmade goodness for each and every one of you! We're incredibly excited to have a new round of awesome vendors on hand in addition to your favorites. And--we've got a ton of goodies for the little tykes in your life! A preview:

Adorable animal caps from Kokobaru

Colorful diaper covers from Barnyard Bummz

Gorgeous kiddie clothes from Couture Kids

Fun diapers & diaper covers from Bumblebaby

And for the adults in your life...

Adorable handmade coasters from VersaTile

Lovely clothes from Paisley

Adorable handmade cards from heart meets paper

Plus 15 more fantastic vendors for you to shop from! If you've got company in town for the long weekend, bring them down to see us! Can't wait to see you there:

Urban Craft - April Edition
Saturday, April 7, 2012
10am-2pm
The GCTC (Holland & Wellington)