Houston Craft Mafia

Meet new member Joy Carpenter of SCINTILLATING JOY!

Not for the faint of heart, SCINTILLATING JOY has the same whimsical, over-the-top exuberance as its spirited namesake designer—a woman who dreams with her eyes wide open, dances whenever she feels like it, and sees each and every day as an opportunity to passionately pursue all things beautiful and true. Joy Carpenter grew up in suburban Houston, moved to Austin to study theatre at the University of Texas, but earned her BA in Religious Studies instead. After having lived in China for a year and Atlanta for a short while, Joy moved back to “the ‘burbs” (Sugar Land) and decided to share her eclectic assortment of carefully hand-crafted fashion accessories and home décor with the world!

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Please welcome new mafiosa member Amie Needham. She runs A Punkin Card Company & Punkin Trunkt

Punkin Card Company is an independently owned business in the area of Houston, Texas. All our stationery is hand designed, created, and cut with simple goals in mind. Make something handmade, simple, and completely unexpected. A Punkin Card Company started in February 2007 when I decided to create my own wedding invitations. After the first cut, I was hooked. I have been creating unique, modern stationery ever since. Each greeting I make is a little piece of my child-like manner, full of whimsy and fun.

She blogs here: http://www.apunkincardcompanyblog.com

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Every day this week I’ll be posting an entry introducing each new mafia member. Today’s featured profile is that of Traci Bocock of Mandorla Designs.

Traci Bocock Mandorla Designs

Traci Bocock is the innovator behind Mandorla Designs.

“Traci’s my name, designing funky handbags is my game. Well, it’s not a game, but rather a way to bring artistic urges into fruition.”

Designing handbags is a recent creative outlet for Traci. After college and an M.A. in Linguistics, Traci came to an artistic epiphany. This epiphany has grown to be Mandorla Designs. Mandorla Designs began when a friend encouraged her to trust design and artistic instincts. Traci sprung into action with a mentor persistently teaching the basics of sewing. Her commitment to learning paid off, as after a short amount of time her design ideas began to come to life. Uniqueness and originality of design brought forth original handbags. The pairings of wild and tame, old and new, crafty and couture are a key element of the Mandorla Design aesthetic. Mandorla Designs encompasses transformation and re-creation. The epicenter of the Mandorla Designs aesthetic is taking an old concept and re-creating it by adding original fabric pairings, or taking vintage textiles and inventing something new.

The symbolic mandorla represents a place of enlightenment where the spiritual and physical meet. This ‘liminal space’ represents Traci’s current artistic evolution, and quest for personal growth and development through designing and crafting one-of-a- kind pieces.

When Traci is not at the sewing machine pounding out legit handbags, she is chasing two kids, teaching ESL, tutoring students, and sustaining a multi-functioning household.

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The Houston Craft Mafia is a network of indie craft businesses in the Houston area. Our goals are to promote our member businesses and to provide our business owners with information, opportunities, and resources to help their ventures be successful.

What do I have to do to be a member?

• Be a legally registered business. (if you need help with this step, let us know!)
• It would be a good idea to have a website for your business, as the print ads from Craft Mafia direct people to the craftmafia.com website, which directs the visitors to all of the Craft Mafia websites.
• Split fees/costs as they occur. A yearly registration fee of $200 is split between all members; this fee goes directly to the Craft Mafia parent organization for the use of the Craft Mafia name. This fee is due on June 30th. We also purchase print materials (business cards, post cards, etc.) throughout the year, and we hold a vote before each purchase is made. As of June 16, 2008, Lisa Chouinard is paying for the domain name, hosting fee and management for the Houston Craft Mafia website.
• Participate in email group discussions
• Participate in the promotion of the Houston Craft Mafia at your craft booth (if you do shows) with our promotional materials
• Attend Meetings and networking events

Member benefits

• Business Cross-Promotion on the internet and print press through the houstoncraftmafia.com website and through member websites.
• Website help from Lisa Chouinard - if you don’t have a website or need some education on maintaining your website - she will help!
• Shopping cart/blog hosting at a low fee
• Graphic Design Advisement from Stevie Ballow of Rara Avis
• Workshops

Future!
HCM membership is open to any indie craft business in the local area (with approval). As membership expands we hope to host regular networking “meet & greets,” art & craft sales, and other events of interest to the membership. We invite you to contact us to learn more!

Current Members are:

• Lisa Chouinard Feto Soap
• Stevie Ballow Rara Avis
• Maira O’Campo Mio Designs
• with a commitment from Traci Bocock of Mandorla Designs, Amie Needham of  A Punkin Card Company, http://apunkincardcompany.etsy.com &  Joy Carpenter.

We want to know if you would like to join us. The Deadline for this round of membership is June 27th. At that point I’ll tally up how many members have committed and send out a paypal bill for the fee that needs to be paid by all members by June 30th. ($200 split between all the members)  Comment here or email info (at) houston craft mafia (dot) com.  Don’t forget to remove the spaces!

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MindBites wanted to let you know about their Spread the Craft Contest. Due to recent requests, they are extending the deadline for the contest until July 21st! The contest is a call for submissions for original crafting instructional videos for the chance to win a $1000 Grand Prize or a $500 People’s Choice Award! We are certain that this is exciting news for you and your members. Visit www.mindbites.com/spreadthecraft to register, upload, and Spread the Craft!

People’s Choice voting begins today, and allows the crafting community to choose their favorite video and award $500 to one crafter. Registered users can vote for one video, once per day, until August 1st. Winner’s of the $1000 Grand Prize and $500 People’s Choice Award will be announced on August 5th.

Check out Jennifer Perkins’ (of Naughty Secretary Club and the Austin Craft Mafia) MindBite: http://www.mindbites.com/lesson/456

And also from Margot Potter, the Impatient Crafter: http://www.mindbites.com/lesson/458

Finally, here is our super-fun series of promo videos:
Thug’Nit: http://www.mindbites.com/lesson/474
And Thug’Nit 2: Nit Off: http://www.mindbites.com/lesson/486

MindBites.com is a new instructional video community, self-publishing platform and marketplace where people can teach what they know and learn what they need to know. We are like the eBay of the instructional video space: Video authors put their “how to” videos up for sale and viewers purchase and download them to their pc or portable device.

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Houston Craft Mafia Members Feto Soap and EUTECTIC handcrafted jewelry (possibly) will be vending at the Midtown Farmers Market Local Crafts Spree on Saturday, June 14th from 8am - Noon. The Midtown Farmers Market is located in the front of Monica Pope’s T’afia. 3701 Travis Street @ W. Alabama directions here.

Don’t forget Dad! Father’s Day is June 15th! I will have many manly soaps for Dad such as Bay Rum, Man Smell, Cold Water & Pepperberry!

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At the last Midtown Farmers Market Local Crafts Spree, I ran into crafters who had never worked a craft market, so they didn’t know what to bring t. Here’s a list to get you started. For you experienced Craft Marketers - what do you take to a craft market? Please comment and let us know!

• Tablecloth
• Displays
• Tape - duct, masking, clear
• Scissors
• Bag for trash
• Shopping Bags for customers
• Gift wrap/tissue paper
• Business Cards - http://vistaprint.com
• Email sign-up Sheet http://constantcontact.com
• Banner http://ultimatebanner.com
• Zip ties
• Twine
• Knife
• Paper towels/tissue
• Hand sanitizer
• Calculator
• Change
• Cash Box
• Signage to accept Credit Cards http://propay.com (or a Cash Only!) sign
• Personal Cash in case you want to buy food/goods at market
• Receipt log
• Mini-Stapler for Receipts
• Notepad
• Pens
• Permanent Markers
• Price Tags or Signs
• Shopping Baskets or containers
• Tools (jewelry)
• Cart/dolly
• Plastic storage bins in case of rain
• Tarp (in case of rain)
• Water
• Snacks
• Rug
• Cushion/Comfort Mat
• Mints/Gum
• hair clip or hair-ties

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Hello. There is an Houston Craft Mafia meeting on Sunday, June 8th, from 6-7 pm. We’d like to invite everyone who has shown an interest in becoming a part of the Houston Craft Mafia. We’ll discuss the future direction of where we’re going by writing out a simple business plan. Send an email to info (at) houstoncraftmafia (dot) com for directions. Light refreshments will be provided.

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Houston, TX - April 20th 12 noon to 5PM
Super Happy Fun Land @ 3801 Polk Street

Feto Soap will be there! More details to follow soon!

http://swaporamarama.com/

Looking for another venue, keep checking back!

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