The all-day opening party at the Museum of Contemporary Craft on Sunday was amazing — and exhausting, hence the day off I gave myself yesterday. We taught crafts for nine hours (!) and people flooded in all day long to make things with us! I had really hoped to do more walking around to check out the other craft tables and see more of the museum, but things were pretty wild and Andrew and I had a wedding picnic to go to mid-afternoon (thank you Cathy and Torie for covering for me while I vanished for two hours!) so that was pretty much my break. However, Diane has a lovely post and series of photos up if you’d like to see more than just the alt-craft craziness! (Also, the action photos below are hers too — thank you, Diane.)

The ladies of PDX Super Crafty offered a matchbox shrine craft table — and it sure was popular… we ran out of everything by the end of the day!

We had tons of vintage and new bits and pieces for people to use — I especially liked the ballerinas, telephones and scissors — and we picked out some fun papers too, including Martha Stewart’s gorgeous new patterns from her crafts line (you can see my favorite polka-dot print lining the poodle-parasol shrine on the lower right).

Next to us, Diane of Portland Church of Craft taught hordes and hordes of enthusiasts how to make bracelets out of recycled water bottles… the variations everyone came up with were very cool!

She had felt, beads, ribbons, buttons, electrical tape, yarn, and all kinds of other stuff to wrap, glue, sew, and wire on, plus a neverending supply of bottles coming her way all afternoon.

And Jen and Melissa of DIY Lounge kept busy all day with an Artist Trading Card-making marathon, using lace, fabric, photos, decals, and anything and everything that can be affixed to cardboard. Melissa also offers a free ATC swap every month at Collage if you’re here in town!

It was an amazing spectacle and I’m very glad to have been part of it. I am so excited to see the Craft In America exhibition again this week now that the museum is open — I caught a tiny bit of a panel discussion with the director and four of the artists so I’ll definitely be writing that up separately. Thank you again to everyone who came by our table to say hi and make something cool!

One quick PSA: if you come to a craft demo, please don’t take the project samples away with you. They’re to use on the spot for inspiration, not walk off with — it’s more fun to make your own piece to bring home instead, anyway. We lost most of our own handmade shrines in the first few hours and had to whip up more on the fly and keep a sharp eye on them going forward, making a busy day busier. Sorry, I’m sure I sound lecture-y, but in case it isn’t clear if something is up for grabs, please ask first… we really, really appreciate it.