There are several awesome upcoming events and opportunities for you guys! Sunday, January 31st - mark your calendar for a whole day full of fun & art!

Color Me Mine Open House & Art Show

Please join us for an evening of “art and fun!” Sunday, January 31st from 6-9pm. Open house art show at Color Me Mine studio in Ghent featuring the “Who Arted?” artists (and several 7 Cities Crafters members). Upcycled/altered art, fiber/textile art, fine jewelry, photography, woodburned art, painted glass, hand painted signs, fish and mermaids. Light snacks & beverages will be served.

Also on January 31

Fairytales Art Gallery & Studio Grand Opening

7 Cities Crafters member Michelle of Gymbohannah and many other artists will be at the grand opening of Fairytales on Sunday Jan. 31st from 2-6. Located on 920 S. Battlefield Blvd. suite 101 just past Johns Town Rd. near Cedar Rd. in Great Bridge

Fairytales is a new art gallery and studio opening in Chesapeake. They work on a consignment basis, all local artists. Rent is based on sq. ft. of occupied space by artwork. $1.00/sqft for wall space, each pedestal is $10.00 flat rate and big stands are $40.00. Featured wall display is $ 40 flat rate for minimum 10′ x 4′ sqft, so same $1.00 sqft and 10% commission per item sold. Fairytales is offering A MONTH FREE OF CONSIGNMENT RENT, FIRST COME FIRST SERVE . Call 757-512-7494 for more information.

7 Cities Crafters Monthly Craft-Together

Come to our monthly meetup on Sunday, February 7th at 6pm. Our monthly craft-togethers are free and open to the public! Bring a snack to share potluck-style and a craft to work on if you wish! Come hang out with other creative people in the area, everyone is welcome!

@ Grow Interactive: 350 W. 22nd Street Suite 106 Norfolk, Virginia 23517 - in the Palace Station shopping center. Grow is toward the back left corner, across from NYFO.

Virginia Beach Spring Craft Market

The 7 Cities Crafters have personally been invited to participate in the 24th Annual Virginia Beach Spring Craft Market (at the VB Pavilion) coming up March 19-21, and have a group booth. They typically don’t allow booth sharing, but in this case our group is an exception, and the market is offering us a first timers discount of $100 for a 10×10 booth. It could be a great opportunity for some of us to gain exposure to a wider audience of people interested into crafts.  More information about the show is available at www.emgshows.com. If someone would like to head up organizing this booth, please email me and I’ll put you in touch with the show director.

Raffle to benefit Animal Rahat

We have been contacted by PETA to see if anyone would be interested in donating a few items to an in house raffle they’re organizing for Animal Rahat in India. Animal Rahat gives veterinary care and rest to sick or injured animals used for labor, such as cart horses and bullocks, and they even provide a “retirement” home for older animals who would otherwise be killed. The PETA staff would be very interested in bidding on handmade items, and you are welcome to include business cards or fliers along with anything you donate so they know where to buy your goodies in the future! You can find more information on what services they provide and their mission at www.AnimalRahat.org. The raffle will be taking place on January 29th, items need to get to PETA by the 26th. Anything you would be willing to give would be appreciated - they do respectfully request that any items donated not contain animal-derived materials, such as silk, fur, leather, or wool, please.

If you would like to donate an item, contact Ashley Gonzalez at PETA
o. (757) 962-8207
c.  (757) 472-1764

All Senses Artistry at 5 Points Community Farm Market

All Senses Artistry is about to open its doors in the Farm Market! Initial inventory will consist of delicious organic tea, Rich Earth, house plants, handmade soaps, books, local music and hopefully your art work. They have an agreement based on commission. If you are interested contact Jen St. Clair at 757-619-6932. Their Mission: All Senses Artistry encourages the growth of sustainable communities by supplying them with high quality products and services rooted in health, creativity and education.

Thanks to everyone who came out to the trunk show & screening of Handmade Nation! You helped make it a success. The Naro seemed very pleased and I don’t know about you but I found the movie really inspirational!

Here are a few upcoming events plus a little 7 Cities Crafters “official” business.

7 Cities Crafters Monthly Craft-Together

We normally meet on the first Sunday of the month, however in November we are pushing it back a week due to some scheduling conflicts. We will be meeting on Sunday, November 8th at 6pm at Grow Interactive.

Our monthly craft-togethers are free and open to the public! Bring a snack to share potluck-style and a craft to work on if you wish! Come hang out with other creative people in the area, everyone is welcome!

6:00 p.m. @ Grow Interactive: 350 W. 22nd Street Suite 106 Norfolk, Virginia 23517 - in the new Palace Station shopping center. Grow is toward the back left corner, across from NYFO.

Who Arted? Halloween Art & Craft Show

Come join the fabulous artists of “Who Arted?” for Halloween at the Virginia Beach Farmers’ Market. Tons of fun for the whole family. Get your Christmas shopping done early — awesome art and handmade gifts! This Saturday, October 31 (Halloween!) from 10 to 4. Find out more on Facebook.

Barnes & Noble Trunk Shows

There was an opportunity for a trunk show at the Barnes & Noble at MacArthur Mall which you may have heard about from Ashley. However, it  has been canceled by the manager of the Barnes and Noble. She feels that it would be too busy and we’d be in the way of shoppers. Our new option is to take part of the fantasy shopping night at the mall. The 11th Annual Fantasy Shopping Night - Please join us on Sunday, November 15th from 7 pm to 10 pm for our 11th Annual Fantasy Shopping Night to benefit Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters. Tickets are $5/person in advance or $10/person at the door. If you want to join in on this night, please let Ashley know by sending her a Facebook message.

7 Cities Dues/Membership

After some discussion with other members and since the focus of the group has changed a bit, effective immediately membership dues for the 7 Cities Crafters are FREE! It costs nothing to be a member of our group.

If we have a workshop or a trunk show, there may be a small fee to cover the cost of supplies or booth rental, however being a part of our group is now completely free. If you have a few dollars you’d like to throw in the “pot” to cover web hosting or you would like to donate to cover the cost of supplies for a workshop (so we can make the workshop free) donations are always welcome. However we are opening the group to the public, and our monthly craft-togethers remain free of charge as always.

Introduce Yourself

I think it’s high time we made another intro post on our forum, since I accidentally zapped the other one when I upgraded. I’d love to hear who is still around, what sorts of crafty things you are up to, etc. Please go here and introduce yourself, if you’d like!

Holiday Shows?

Are you participating in a holiday art or craft show? Please email us details about the event so we can post about it on the blog, add it to our events page and send out an email reminder! If you have a flyer, even better. Send us a pdf or jpg image so we can post that too!

Facebook addict?

Are you a facebook addict? Would you be interested in running a 7 Cities Crafters facebook page? Duties would include posting photos, setting up event invites, updating the status whenever a blog post or email reminder goes out, approving friend requests, etc.  If you are interested in this job, please let me know.

Want to help us blog?

Are you interested in having posting access to this website? We’d love to see pictures from cool crafty events you attended, hear about neat craft tips or see a photo or video tutorial you put together on how to do something crafty. The opportunities are pretty much endless! If you are interested in making posts to this blog, please let me know and I’ll get you a login so you can get started!

I hope to see you at our next event!

Charmaine’s table at the 7 Cities Crafters trunk show

Summer is wrapping up!

Things have been kind of slow in the Hampton Roads crafty scene over the past few months. Other than several of our crafters who did a great job repping us at the Waterside craft events and a few regional shows, it’s been kind of quiet around these parts.

As the cooler weather blows in, people come back from vacation, kids get settled into school and normal routines resume, we look forward to getting together for our monthly meetings, supporting members who are participating in craft shows, and getting into the mood for holiday crafting.

So, what’s going on with 7 Cities Crafters?

There have been some emails flying around asking about the status of the group, how active it’s going to be, if the focus has changed, what’s going on with Handmade Parade, and more.

I wanted to take this opportunity to address a few of those questions.

Q. Is the group still active? I haven’t heard anything.

A. Yes the 7 Cities Crafters are still active. We had a slowdown toward the end of the summer, but that seems to be a pattern we’ve seen over the past few years.We look forward to getting back into the swing of things starting in October.

Q. Is this group still for networking with other crafty businesses? Is it a monthly craft-hangout thing? What is our mission?

A.  The mission and focus of the group has changed and morphed as members have come and gone over the years. In its current form, the 7 Cities Crafters are a group of crafty people, artists and creatives who meet once a month to hang out, work on crafts, share skills, share some food and brainstorm ideas. Every now and then we might host a workshop or put on a craft show, but mostly right now we’re an informal, social crafting group.

This mission or focus is subject to change, depending on the members. If someone wants to host a workshop, put on a show, or take initiative to do any sort of crafty event - they should speak up and organize it! We are open to ideas.

Q. So what’s up with Handmade Parade?

A. As of now, the plan is to postpone Handmade Parade indefinitely. Thank you to everyone who volunteered to help organize things, but due to many changes in the group, putting on such a big event at this point in time is not feasible.

Q. What events are coming up?

A. Well I’m glad you asked. Please see below for a few cool regional events. There are plenty more on our events page! I hope to see you at an event soon!

-Amber

Upcoming Events

7 Cities Crafters Monthly Craft-together
Sunday, October 4, 2009

Free and open to the public! Bring a snack to share potluck-style and a craft to work on if you wish! Come hang out with other creative people in the area, everyone is welcome!

6:00 p.m. @ Grow Interactive: 350 W. 22nd Street Suite 106 Norfolk, Virginia 23517 - in the new Palace Station shopping center. Grow is toward the back left corner, across from NYFO.

Home Grown Local Zone Music & Arts Festival
October 2-4, 2009

2nd Annual HOME GROWN LOCAL ZONE MUSIC & ARTS FESTIVAL

This event features local artists and musicians in the lively and colorful setting of The Five Points Community Farm Market. Come Celebrate a Bountiful Fall Harvest with us and treat yourself to a taste of our own home-grown variety of fiddlers, guitarists, drummers and song writers as well as artisans and poets.

Visit us on Facebook
http://www.5ptsfarmmarket.org
757-640-0300

Holiday Parade - by the Daffodil Festival Council
Saturday, December 5, 2009
10 am to 4 pm

A holiday handmade art & craft show, presented by the Daffodil Festival Council. Held in Gloucester, Va. Download a vendor app here. Deadline is Friday, November 6, 2009.

Hi everyone,

The Trunk Show last Saturday went great!  Seven crafters showed up to sell their handmade goods.  We were moved inside Waterside because of the morning rain, but we still got decent foot traffic.  We’re going to look into doing more Trunk Shows with Festevents in the future, so I’ll keep you posted on that.

Our Craft Supply Swap will be Saturday, August 29th from 10am-12pm.  Hopefully we’ll be outdoors under tents for this one!  Please join us for this great opportunity to de-stash and get some new, free supplies!

Craft Supply Swap Rules

This is a freecycle—you may not leave with the exact same dollar value of items that you came in with, but it’s a great way to get rid of supplies you aren’t going to use and get some new supplies for free!

Acceptable supplies include: fabric, notions, buttons, beads, yarn, paint, paper, pens & pencils, art/craft books, and anything else directly related to making art or crafts. ONLY unopened/unused/full containers, no scraps or leftover bits please! Also, this is a swap of new items, no reclaimed or found items please.

You will receive a large or small bag to collect “new” items based on whether you contribute a large or small amount of supplies to the swap. All unclaimed supplies will be donated to charity. You must bring supplies in order to participate.

I hope to see you all there!

-Kristin G.

Hi everyone,

Our first event in coordination with FestEvents went great last Saturday–they publicized it well and plenty of people showed up to needle-felt and paint flowerpots. Kristen R. and I ran the workshop.

We have two other events coming up, a Trunk Show on 8/15 and the Craft Supply Swap on 8/29, and I need people to volunteer to help run both of them. They are both great opportunities for us as a group and as individuals. How often do you get to sell your handmade items on a Saturday afternoon in the brand-new, beautiful Town Point Park with NO BOOTH FEE whatsoever, and the tables, chairs, and tent are provided? Totally free for us! How awesome is that?

And the Craft Supply Swap will be short, as simple as we can make it, and incredibly fun. We’ll meet (and recruit) other Hampton Roads crafters, get rid of supplies that are junking up our craft rooms, and get new supplies for FREE while we’re at it! And both events would be perfect for promoting Handmade Parade–to draw both applications and attendees.

These are amazing opportunities for us and I cannot run them all by myself. I will be there both days to help, but I really need some people to step up and coordinate these with me. I promise you it’ll be fun (and profitable) and the small amount of work involved will totally pay off.

If you can help, please comment and/or shoot me an email at kristin@craftandsewstudio.com.

Thanks in advance for your help! I think it’ll be great if we can get out there and do something more than just meeting up once a month to craft (as fun as that is :)).

-Kristin