One Of A Kind Show

Last weekend my mister gave me the best early Christmas gift!
He took care of the boys while I flew to Toronto, ON and met up with my mom to fill my head with all sorts of creative eye candy at the One of a Kind craft show.
I had two whole nights of undisturbed sleep and an entire day that I didn't have to worry about entertaining my boys.

I'm not sure if I was "allowed" to take pictures while we were in the show, so probably best if you keep these pictures under wraps but I couldn't help myself from sharing.
 Recalling the images and the energy and excitement just isn't the same without a picture.

There were a lot more art pieces then I remember being there previous years but I loved them all.
It's a shame stuffing one of these babies into my overnight luggage isn't exactly an option...

  (I don't have a store link for the middle and right pictures, but the pic on the left can be found here.)

I love seeing the clothes and dress up things that make their way to the show. There is always such amazing talent!

1. Precocius Boutique 2. The Candi Factory 3. Dream Power Costumes

SOOO many amazing things for kids. I bought the boys little superhero stuffies (you can see their legs in the top right picture, in the middle compartment) and mini monster puppets (original size pictured bottom left) and I can not wait to give them to them!

1. KatKaland 2. Monster Factory 3. No website 4. Banjo Puppets

And then there were so many things that simply couldn't be categorized but were still too amazing to pass up showing!

Soaps, handblown glass, crazy cool purses, glasses made from repurposed glass bottles, felted hats and pictures, handmade beads, adorable clay ornaments and decorations, painted clocks and wacky pigs from recycled propane tanks!

I think the most amazing booth I saw though was The Recycler.

They use old bike parts to make crazy cool tables, chairs, shelves, stools and the list goes on. They were really an amazing booth to wander through and ridiculously inspiring! To be able to look at an old junker bike and make such amazing pieces is mind blowing!!

I was a bit of a nut collecting any and every business card, which left me in a mass of websites to go through in order to share with you. Although I haven't been able to match every picture up with a link (some of the business also don't have websites, opting to only sell at the show), I really hope you check out some that I have included.

My head was ready to explode with ideas by the time that I got home I had to write everything down.
Now to locate my supplies and get started!!

Inspiration Board

The walls in my craft/sewing/laundry room are a tad depressing.

I decided a little while ago that I need to spice it up a bit and make it a nice inspiring cozy space that I love, especially since I spend most of my "me time" in there.

(sad that I consider doing the laundry "me time"!)

I wanted to add some colour to the room and put some things up on the walls. The walls in that room are completely bare, so my plan is to eventually have them covered with wonderful fabrics and adorable art.

My first project was an inspiration board.

I love how it turned out and thought I'd share some of the "how to" with you!

You'll need some sort of board for the backing (I had a cork board that the previous owners of our house left)

Fabric

Staple gun

Scissors

Quilting batting

Scotch Tape

Ribbon

Pins (picture includes push pins, but I ended up using satin sewing pins... I liked the finished look better)

Cut your quilting batting the same size as your board and your fabric roughly 2-5 inches bigger then the board.

Fold the fabric over the board and staple gun it to the board.

When your doing this work opposite sides together. So staple gun the middle of the bottom, then the middle of the top. Sides of the bottom, sides of the top. Then do the same on the sides. Always start from the middle and pull it super tight. If you don't work from the middle out your fabric can go all wonky and look funny when you're done. Once you have the fabric all stapled on you can trim up your fabric.

The corners can be a bit tricky, I usually pinch the fabric together and then lay it flat and staple it down once it's flat.

Another method is to fold the corners like you would with wrapping paper when wrapping a gift.

Flip it over and it looks like a lovely square pillow!

Now it's time to place the ribbon!

I find it easiest to work one direction at a time, so lay the first layer of ribbon down and scotch tape it in place (this will help hold it in the right place when you flip it over to staple it down... it's also WAY easier to get the right placement of the ribbon doing this right side up)

Staple the ribbon down, flip over the board and do the same steps laying the ribbon the opposite way to form diamond like shapes with the ribbon.

You could weave the ribbon a bit if you wanted... I didn't...

Flip it over and it looks so pretty now! I pushed a pin into every spot the ribbons crossed which made it look lovely and bubbly because of the quilting batting that's under there.

Hang it on your wall and start filling it with things that inspire you!

I'm so excited to FINALLY have something up on the wall in that room that I can't stop planning what my next project should be long enough to actually do it.