Handmade Detroit

Need some art supplies? Today through Sunday the Royal Oak and Detroit Utrecht stores are offering 20 percent off everything in the store for members of MOCAD, DIA, BBAC or the ArtSmart card. If you’re not a member, you can sign up for the ArtSmart card in store. They’re also giving away free memberships to the BBAC and DIA. More info on the Royal Oak Utrecht store blog.

Part 2 of 5 in a series on DIY biking.

Let’s start at the beginning. If you just pulled your bike out of the garage, it may need a tune-up. Check out this basic bike tune-up for beginners.

Maybe you just bought a used bike and it needs a little work. Instructables has lots of handy bike how tos on everything from adjusting your seat to overhauling a hub — many of them taken from Bicycle Tutor, which has videos on a ton of bike repairs.

If your bike seems beyond repair, you can bring it to The Hub, newly opened in the Cass Corridor where they use used parts to fix your bike. (Read about BAB’s transformation here and here.) Or, if you don’t even own a bike, I also recommend this as the place to get one — the non-profit shop is run in support of Back Alley Bikes’ youth programs.

Know a great DIY bike repair site? Share it in the comments.

Now that your bike is ready to roll, it’s time to up the DIY ante. Up next: Projects to pimp out your ride.

Previously: DIY bikes, Part one: Get involved

Loop takes it on the road to Detroit, where we will have our May Circle at the Detroit Evolution Lab this Sunday, May 18, from 2:00-4:30 p.m.

Please bring a craft of your choice to work on, while spending the afternoon hanging out with other crafty people!

The Detroit Evolution Lab, located in Eastern Market, offers tools and techniques, from yoga to vegan and raw food, to assist in growing a healthy and sustainable New Detroit.

Vegan and raw snacks will be available for purchase.

Loop is a collective of area crafters who like to get together and share the love of making, We encourage everyone who crafts to join us for Social Circle, to create, get to know one another, and help unite the DIY community in metro Detroit.

THIS EVENT IS FREE, AND SPACE IS STILL AVAILABLE, BUT SIGN UP IS REQUIRED. SEND AN E-MAIL TO AMY AT LOOPDETROIT {at} GMAIL {dot} COM TO RSVP

Today is the last day to apply as a vendor for the summer Shadow Art Fair, which happens July 19 in Ypsi. If you’ve never been before, this is an awesome event open to more than just crafters — artists and DIYers of all stripes are invited to apply. Washtenaw residents also have until June 15th to apply for the event’s new art grants. Applications and more info on the event and grant is on the Shadow web site.

Part 1 of 5 in a series on DIY biking.

May is National Bike Month and to celebrate National Bike to Work Day tomorrow (May 16) Detroit Syngery is hosting a Woodward bike to work ride. A Michigan Avenue ride is planned for May 23.

Can’t make it to that ride? No worries, there are lots of other groups to join up with. In the metro area there is: Beat the Train (rides every Saturday morning starting in Detroit), Alleycat Detroit (Next race: June 18), Defying the Law Bike Club (rides every weekend starting in Ferndale), and the Hamtramck Lizard Gang.

In A2, you can ride with the Ann Arbor Bicycle Society and keep track of local bike issues (and get a good dose of DIY bike fun) at carfree Ann Arbor. Ypsi has both Bike Ypsi and the Ypsi Bike Club. Or there is the Kalamazoo Bicycle Club. And this is just what a few minutes of Googling found. If you know of a bike group in your area, please post it in the comments.

Before you can pedal though, you’ll need to get your bike in top shape. Up next in this series: Fixing your bike.

First of all… Happy Mother’s Day to all our crafty mamas out there!

Second of all… My gift for my mama totally backfired on me Friday night. OF COURSE, two days before Mother’s Day. What to do? Start over with some DIY love.

Idea #1: BAKED GOODS
This is a no-brainer. Every mom loves baked goods! My mom loves brownies, so I whipped up a batch of my uber-chocolate chip brownies. BUT, I made the packaging extra cute, to make up for me dropping the ball on the original gift.

After slicing up my brownies, I used a simple brown lunch bag left over from the Green Street Fair and some squares of parchment paper. I put a few pieces of parchment paper at the bottom of the bag to keep the brownies from oiling through, and then a square between every layer. This, again, helps with the oil but also adds a cute bakery touch to it. Did I get these from a trendy bakery, mom? Oh, no. Just my crusty oven.

I finished the bag with some pink ribbon, a gift tag I made and, poof, gift #1, done.

Gift idea #2: Pop culture sampler

My mom LOVES Project Runway, so I decided to make her a new sampler for her office. This didn’t make me more than 45 minutes to stitch, and a quick trip to the store for a nice frame (didn’t cost more than $9.99!) finished it off. I used some vintage-looking fabric scraps behind the cross stitch to act as a reverse mat. Not bad!

And of course, I had to add an appropriate gift tag

What did you guys either give for Mother’s Day or get for Mother’s Day?

Thanks to everyone who came out to the first-ever Green Street Fair and Handmade Detroit involvement! Despite Saturday being described as “Krafty Katrina ‘08″ by Heart With Wing’s Shannon, the weekend was a huge hit and we loved every minute of it. I don’t think we’ve ever made so many purses and tote bags in such a short period of time.

Our vendors were fantastic and put up with a lot as we guessed our way through this first event. And our volunteers? Holy le crap. If we didn’t have our volunteers I’m sure Beth and I would be down a few digits right now.

Here’s a sampling of photos we snapped during the weekend. You can check out more in my Flickr account and Beth’s Flickr account. If you weren’t able to pick up your Rethunk merch, don’t worry. We’ll post it soon!

More than anything else, I hope you had a chance to think a bit more green this weekend and see if you could make some earth-friendly changes, crafty of not, in 2008.

How cute!

It got a little dicey Saturday night…

Our super buddies Great Lakes Myth Society sport the newest Mitten pins during their set.

See this? NOT a sewer and worked on it for two days in the tent. Dedication!

We were all drooling over Shannon’s serger!

Natalie Zebula might be THE best pouch maker in all of metro Detroit

Steph makes an adorable cuff on one of our donated Janome machines

Success!

I traveled to St. Paul a few weekends back to take part in the St. Paul Craftstravaganza. Although the weather wasn’t the best (it was snowing and freezing, yuck!), I still managed to have a good time. Some of my favorite items included felt pins from Pink Sparrow, Wellie shirts from Charlie and Sarah and letterpress mix CD sleeves from Zeichen Press (of which I bought several). Also, I must say “Hello” to fuzFrenzy and Wild Oats  who (sitting on either side of me) helped make the cold, which my sister is smiling through in the photo below, better.

The day after the fair, we set out for some of the DIY-centric businesses in Minneapolis.

We stopped first to check out I Like You. Owners Sarah and Angela (pictured at left) have turned this handmade gift shop into a must-see, stocking favorites like ERKA and Too Many Suitors. I especially enjoyed the library card catalog turned card rack and the suitcase full of cute shrinky dink zipper pulls (of which we also bought several). 

Next we checked out Design Collective, an indie fashion boutique focusing on local designers that definitely reminded me of the much-missed Pure Design Lab. I spent a little too long lingering over Marisa Grey’s Anouk line admiring the adorable tailored, girlie pieces.

And finally, just before they closed for the day, we hit up Crafty Planet. I wasn’t suppose to spend any money there, but once I saw the new, bigger store (they just recently moved) who could resist? The fabric in particular is much easier to see and covet and I ended up with 4 different kinds, including this adorable Wizard of Oz print. Detroit definitely needs a shop like this — Trish, if you ever want to franchise, I would be happy to run a Detroit arm!

View some full size photos of my trip here.

Some good reading, in case you’ve missed it! Both on us and Green Street overall.

Observer and Eccentric

Record bowl tutorial

Green Street Overall

Meet Green Street

CRAFT

Autoblog Green

Michigan Green

Channel 4

Michigan Radio

Woot! It seems like it’s been a long time, but tomorrow is the Green Street Fair! If you’re coming to visit us, and you should, we’ll be at the corner of Main Street and Ann Arbor Trail in downtown Plymouth, in front of the Michigan Gallery and the Book Cellar. And right across from a Starbucks. Which will be perfect considering some of us have to be there at 5:30 a.m.!

To get the latest schedule updates, check out Green Street’s web site.