Craftcation: a Crafty week in California

This spring I went to my 3rd Craftcation in Ventura, California. It's a life-giving 5 days of crafty classes right by the beach, including sewing, stamp carving, paper making - you name it! It happens once a year and it's one of my favorite things ever.

I left hot and muggy Nashville and landed in sunny, 70-degree Santa Barbara. First of all, the weather was so gorgeous! Sigh.✨ The highway to Ventura is RIGHT NEXT TO THE OCEAN - it was so pretty I wanted to cry. Sigh.✨ I stayed in a light-filled Airbnb where I could walk to downtown Ventura, a picturesque few blocks full of restaurants and shops. Le Sighhh.✨ 

The first night, I met up with a bunch of other attendees for dinner. We walked from the Marriott (where Craftcation takes place) to the ocean and ate fish tacos on the beach. YOU GUYS. I sat in the sand looking at the sunset and thought, "People get to LIVE HERE?!?" 

This year I really soaked in the Ventura Beach surroundings. Everything I ate was yummy, every latte I drank was magical, and even the seagulls wanted to be my friend. Ok maybe the seagulls were indifferent, but they were cute to watch because they were all around the Marriott! And they're kind of noisy - I like to imagine them with a surfer accent.

Speaking of surroundings, I took a silly amount of pictures of palm trees and flowers as I walked around Ventura. I stayed in a little cottage called Twin Palms, took a photo of said Twin Palms, and then had them tattooed on my arm while I was in town! It's only my second tattoo and I am so happy how it turned out, which is good because you know, it's permanent and all.

Of course, the reason I was there was to MAKE ALL THE THINGS! Literally - it's on the official Craftcation sweatshirts! One of the "Casual Crafting" stations was a table full of iron-on decals from Hot Dang Press. Most people used them to jazz up their Craftcation tote bags, but I decided to go for it and deck out my Craftcation sweatshirt! I'm so glad I did because this sweatshirt is now 1000 times cuter. I loved the decals so much that I ordered them for the shop! They will be here any day now!

This year, one of my classes was Beaded Butterfly Brooch - I used a bead spinner for the very first time! It looks easy, but dear reader, I was not very good at it. Translation: I won't be incorporating this into my jewelry designs. I also took a Pet Embroidery Patch class and used a photo of my daughter's gecko, Houdini. It turned out so cute! I love a good embroidery project.

My most unusual (to me) class was Flower Pounding, which was surprisingly easy and like nothing I had ever done. It involved hammering, a sound I'm quite used to, so I felt right at home smashing flowers onto fabric to make a pattern. That's definitely something I want to try again.

Another class I loved was Upcycle Your Clothing with Needle Felting. I brought a flannel that I thrifted just for this class and needle felted a jewelry hammer right on the back! If you see me in the studio, I may be wearing it because it's my new favorite thing.

As much as I love taking classes, I also really love teaching classes! Teaching to a room full of crafty people is SO FUN. Everyone is excited to learn something new and I can be silly and goofy and no one looks at me like I'm an oddball because we are ALL the oddballs at this conference. It is delightful. I taught Hammered Hoops and Hammered Wire Bow Necklace classes again, so next year I have to think of something NEW to teach. If you were taking a jewelry class, what would you want to learn to make?

One great thing about this being my 3rd year is that I started to recognize and connect more with other attendees. It was nice to see familiar faces and have that true sense of community. Not only does Craftcation fuel your creativity, but it also fills your friendship tank!

I can't wait until next year! You should come, too! For all the info, visit their website CraftcationConference.com.