Shop Anouncements -- Updates and Magic Items

Our shop at CRAFTED has a new look and layout.  Come to San Pedro this weekend to see the new items and workspace.

One of our popular items is the Magic Wallets by featured artist, Ryan Hansen.  These simple and understated thin wallets are handmade, one-of-a-kind, from upcycled hardback vintage book covers. 

Drop any receipts, monies, or loose papers into the center, close the wallet, open it from the other side and your items are secure.  Magic!!

Wallets measure 4 inches by 2.75 inches and 1/2 an inch thick. Bands are made from elastic and will stretch to fit more and more things.  2 slots on the insides of the wallet can fit at least 6 cards in each side once broken in.

Make.Shop.Live. loves supporting artists who innovate functional items from seemingly used and recycled materials.  Come to our shop at CRAFTED for the discounted price of $20 each.  Be sure to check out Ryan's site for more items and info.


XOXO, KC

Etsy Craft Party at CRAFTED Wrap-up

Last Friday was a very successful Etsy & CRAFTED Craft Party.  The event had about 1,000 people attend and over 20 craft stations and demos areas.  Make. Shop. Live. is lucky to have a store right next to the main craft demo area, so we got to meet a lot of new crafters and visitors to CRAFTED.

Mark Montano, our celebrity Crafter and author of the Big Ass book of Crafts, had a busy table and was on hand to demo a beaded wristband and assist the many that got to make them. If you missed the in-person demo his zip tie bracelet project is in the Big-Ass Book of Bling available in November.

Did some one say Raffle?!?

Some of the make-n-takes for the evening:

Tie Dye

DIY Post Cards

KC broke away from the tie dye station to show folks how to make their own envelopes in our market stall.

Say wha-aaaaat?!? Photo Booth Fun!!!! Thanks to Lauren of Mitsymoto Designs and Andrew from Object Mfg. Co. made this sweet photo booth to capture the fun. Did you get your picture taken in the booth? Check out the amazing photo booth pictures here.

Thanks to all the artists that pitched in on the decor and decorating the warehouse!!! the decorations came out so amazing!!! It was totally transformed :)

For even more pictures of the fun you can check out the photos from CRAFTED here or on the Etsy Flickr page here for parties all over the globe.

Be on the watch for more events at CRAFTED as the holiday seasons approach!   And cheers to this being our 500th post!  We are just getting started with our upcycled and green community here at Make. Shop. Live.  Thanks for being a part of it.

XOXO, KC & Kevin

Big CRAFTED & Etsy Party tonight in San Pedro!

Join us down in San Pedro tonight for an amazing Etsy Craft Party!!!

Parking is Free!  There are a ton of demos and craft setups for you to get creative in!  Several vendors will be doing demos of their process in shop.  KC from Make.Shop.Live will be doing live demos of DIY Envelopes and an outside Tie Dye workspace.  Bring your old shirts and some friends, tonight!!

XOXO, KC

Etsy Craft Party at CRAFTED this Friday!

The creative makers of CRAFTED at the port of Los Angeles have been hard at work getting ready for the Craft Party and we hope you can come party with us! On Friday, August 24 we will be hosting an Etsy Craft Party as part of their worldwide craft party meetup. We’re hoping to make it the biggest and best in SoCal!

Etsy Craft Party: From 7-10pm we will craft party like it’s 1999! For more details and to RSVP go here.

Our theme is “Wish You Were Here” and we certainly wish you were here for this event! Activities will include:
★ Loads of craft projects with the expert makers of CRAFTED! (a small materials fee may apply for some booths)
★ Demos by talented artists
★ Shopping and browsing CRAFTED market stalls
★ Food trucks and a wine bar
★ Live DJ and photobooth
★ Nail bar
★ Tie-dye station
★ Message in a bottle make-n-take
★ FREE PARKING! FREE ADMISSION!

Also, any posts you may share about the event, please feel free to send my way or tweet us at @makeshoplive and @CRAFTEDport_la or hash tag #craftparty  so we can share with our community.

We look forward to having a good time with you that evening! Hope to see you there!!!

XOXO, KC

B-Day Wrap up and upcoming stuff

Kevin here,

Saturday was a hot birthday for KC at CRAFTED.  Several people were just passed out in the community chairs, including me!  What a summer!  Many shoppers took advantage of the 29% sale, so that was fun.  Overall, we ran around making sure the plans were in order for the Etsy and CRAFTED party this Friday evening.  Mark your calendars now.  

KC will be on vacation this week until the party, so the blog will be light and easy.  We have some summer tutorial recaps tomorrow and great finds to show later in the week.  Check back soon!

--Kevin

How-To's Day: CRAFTED Before & After - Display Case

We fixed up a second-hand display case for our cash wrap at CRAFTED and here is the Before & After.

BEFORE:

This Display Case was found at a yard sale for $40 in Lilac, CA when Sharon and I traveled down to Keys Creek Lavender Farm for a day trip. It was small enough to fit in my F.I.T. which is a necessity for all of our display items.  The case was in pretty good shape and I was really exited to find it! A total score!!!

AFTER:

When we finally got the case down to San Pedro all the glass came loose from the frame and pretty much disassembled itself. Because it fell apart there was more steps to put it back together again, but it was a blessing in disguise because I was able to completely rehab the whole case. I worked on the project along side of prepping the walls and the rest of the display so all in all it took me a full week to complete this project. If I needed to come up with a rough estimate of the time I would put it at ~15hours and under $20 for supplies to refresh the beauty back into the case.

First thing, prep the case by sanding the case down. I used a wire brush to make sure the grooves in the case were sanded down and clean.

Once everything is sanded down you can patch up any uneven or damaged surfaces with wood filler.  Let the wood filler dry and sand smooth before moving on to primer.

I think the case looks pretty slick in the grey primer in the all over one color, but I am going to use two colors for the case once everything is said and done.

Using leftover paint from  the walls I painted the main portion of the case in two coats of the turquoise paint and then painted the bottom and inside portion with the contrasting green paint.

Tah-dah! It pops very nicely! I am really glad we painted it two-colors so it will stand out in front of the wood stained wall.

The easy part was painting everything! Then we re installed the hardware and set the shelves before adding the exterior glass.

The glass is held in place with silicone glue that can also be used to glue aquariums.  It is very sturdy and bonds with the glass nicely.  We did put glue on all the top surfaces of the glass before the addition of the top piece of glass. The wooden beam that runs along the back of the case got an extra large heaping of the adhesive because that is the main place that all the case it supported by. Each case will be different. Make sure to figure out where the pressure is held in the structure before working on your case so that you have the weight distributed evenly keeping the glass help together safely. Then we clamped the back portion together with 2" clamps and laid a sheet over everything before lying down weighted objects to distribute pressure on everything as it dries over night.

The next day you can take down the weights and clamps. Our case came with mirrored doors that we placed back into the case to add the finishing touches.

Fill it will all your merchandise and you are ready for business!

Hope you enjoy this before & after. We'd love for you to see it in person at our market stall #A200 at the CRAFTED at the Port of Los Angeles Marketplace if you find yourself down in San Pedro ;)

XOXO, KC

CRAFTED - Move in Begins

 

CRAFTED at the Port of Los Angeles will be Make Shop Live's first permanent store.  We are so excited for the grand opening on June 29th!  It's open every Friday-Sunday and will feature local handmade artists and tons of food and crafty demos!  

Crafted before renovations in Feb. 2012

kc hard at work on an upcoming project for the store

checking out the space

Let us know if you are excited and planning on coming July 4th weekend (June 29th, 30th and July 1st) for CRAFTED grand opening! You can RSVP on Facebook and find more details on the Grand Opening here.


XOXO KC & Kevin