5 Mother’s Day Gifts That Beat Flowers

Mother’s Day is right around the cor­ner! We’re not going to tell you to ditch the flow­ers and candy in favour of some­thing more thought­ful — we think most moms are pretty amaz­ing, and deserve some­thing thought­ful and unique as well as flow­ers and candy! We can help you with the thought­ful and unique part (you’re on your own for the flow­ers and candy).

Turn messes into cheeky fun with these Bulls­eye Burp Blan­kets and Hon­est Wash­cloths from My Favourite Blan­ket. Hand made out of a soft and super-absorbant cotton/bamboo blend that is washer and dryer safe. Because, after all, they are designed to get… dirty.

Give Mom a lit­tle time-out with a treat from the Naked Soap­works line of body­care prod­ucts. Naked prod­ucts are 100% nat­ural, hand­made in small batches, and guar­an­teed cruelty-free! They also smell deli­cious enough to eat.

What kind of mom would like to be given a seat to one of our work­shops? A mom with lit­tle kids at home who could use an after­noon away from them, or a mom with adult kids who would like to spend an after­noon with them! And it’s no coin­ci­dence that we have a Card Mak­ing Work­shop sched­uled for Mother’s Day this year. It starts at 1:30, which leaves you plenty of time to treat Mom to a yummy brunch on Main Street first.

If classes aren’t Mom’s thing, you can still spend some qual­ity cre­ative time together with a needle-felting kit from Blush­ing Lotus. Learn­ing a new skill together is always a bond­ing event!

It’s true, jew­elry is hardly an unusual gift for Mother’s Day! That hav­ing been said, we have a fan­tas­tic col­lec­tion of unique pieces from Pink Gar­goyle Designs, Megz Majew­ski, Lotus Flower Pen­dants, and A Cagey Bee, among oth­ers. Whether Mom’s already a fan of one of our artists or whether you’ll be intro­duc­ing her to some­thing new, we’re sure to have a piece she’ll love.

Oh, and if you’re still think­ing of flow­ers and candy, may we sug­gest that while you’re on Main Street you visit The Flower Fac­tory (Flower arrangers extra­or­di­naire!) and Choco­la­terie de la Nou­velle France (Trust us. We know our bon­bons, and these are delicious!).

 

 

 

DIY or DIE!!! Field Trip

Every once in a while, we pack up our DIY or DIE!!! work­shop series and go on a field trip. We love get­ting out into the world and get­ting involved in some of the amaz­ing inter­ac­tive events that hap­pen in our beloved city, and par­tic­i­pat­ing in larger events helps keep our enthu­si­asm and cre­ativ­ity lev­els high. One of our favorite events to be involved with is the Van­cou­ver Mini Maker Faire, and we were excited to help kick off the 2012 event at last night’s Maker Faire Fundraiser with a lit­tle bit of inter­ac­tive crafting.

We packed up a buck­et­ful of colour­ful wool rov­ing, some felt­ing nee­dles, and a big woolen easter egg, and then invited peo­ple to try their hand at a lit­tle bit of needle-felting.

Peo­ple really didn’t need a lot of coax­ing! Turns out most peo­ple really like being given the oppor­tu­nity to repeat­edly stab something.

The end result of the evening’s efforts was impressive!

Now that we’ve had a lit­tle taste, we’re already get­ting giddy about the main event in June. The Van­cou­ver Mini Maker Faire is only in its sec­ond year, and has already out­grown its first home (the BCIT cam­pus on Great North­ern Way) and has moved to the Forum Room at the PNE (they grow up so fast, don’t they?). Mark your cal­en­dars, you won’t want to miss it!

 

Meet your Makers

Thurs­day, March 15th marks the kick-off for Maker Faire 2012 ! Join the orga­niz­ers of Maker Faire for an evening of food and drink, live music, and inter­ac­tive demon­stra­tions (Plush will be there, “inter­ac­tively demon­strat­ing” one of our favorite craft­ing activ­i­ties for any­body who wants to try their hand at a lit­tle bit of needle-felting!). This is your oppor­tu­nity to meet some of the 2011 Mak­ers, and to learn how to become a 2012 Maker.

The doors open at 5:00, and the sug­gested dona­tion is $10-$15. As a bonus, your admis­sion to the fundraiser also gets you in to see the MOVs cur­rent exhi­bi­tions!

Flake Out Kicks Off On Main Street

Let’s just get it out in the open: Main Street has a rep­u­ta­tion.  Sure, we have a rep­u­ta­tion as being ground zero for lovely things that are all-kinds-of-ethical: locally made, upcy­cled, organic, sus­tain­able, vegan.  We have a rep­u­ta­tion as a haven for hip­sters. And a rep­u­ta­tion as an urban Van­cou­ver neigh­bour­hood that –despite the sky­rock­et­ing rents in the area– has a high con­cen­tra­tion of artists and musi­cians here to keep the place inter­est­ing. And although we might try to deny it, we’re all aware of the other rep­u­ta­tion we’ve built up over the years… the one you’re all whis­per­ing about while our backs are turned as we sip our fair-trade organic almond milk lattes while we pore over the lat­est issue of Wall­pa­per (you don’t need to whis­per, you know. We can’t hear you over the really-obscure-I’m-sure-you’ve-never-heard-of-them-band we’ve got play­ing on our iPhones any­way. Wait, are we still using iPhones?). Let’s just get it out into the open: we have a rep­u­ta­tion for being a bit eccen­tric. For being just a lit­tle quirky. A lit­tle nutty. For being –do I really need to say it?- just a tiny bit flaky.

Well, this month we’re embrac­ing our idio­syn­crasies with a lit­tle com­pe­ti­tion to set­tle once and for all who’s the flaki­est of them all! Par­tic­i­pat­ing busi­nesses are com­pet­ing for brag­ging rights as to who’s got the best win­ter win­dow dis­play. What’s in it for you? How about the chance to win one of three killer prize bas­kets (val­ued at about $300 a piece!) full of good­ies and gift cards from local mer­chants? Not too shabby! And for extra karma points, don’t for­get to drop off your non-perishable dona­tion for the food­bank at any par­tic­i­pat­ing busi­ness (busi­nesses with bal­lot boxes are also autho­rized to take mon­e­tary dona­tions for the food bank). Actu­ally, never mind the karma points –bring a lit­tle some­thing for the food bank to Plush when you come cast your bal­lot, and we’ll give you 5% off your pur­chases! Hey, win-win-win all around!

You can pick up your bal­lot at any par­tic­i­pat­ing store, and cast your vote at one of the des­ig­nated vot­ing sta­tions (psssst… we’re one of them). Flake Out runs from Decem­ber 3rd to 18th, with the prize draws being held at On The Fringe Hair Designs at 4:00 p.m. on the 18th.

Project Figo

The Figos have landed! Project Figo is hap­pen­ing all this month at Plush. The brain­child of local artist Clau­dia Segovia, Figo dolls and DIY Figo kits have been here for some time vis­it­ing us from a world of dreams and pos­si­bil­i­ties with the express pur­pose of help­ing to make our wishes become real­ity. Each Figo has a spe­cial pocket just for this pur­pose –you sim­ply write your wish down on a piece of paper, slide it into your Figo’s pocket, and then hug your Figo close to your heart until your wish comes true! This month, Plush is host­ing a giant Figo and invit­ing every­one to drop by, make a wish, and give the giant Figo a big bear hug.  Come Decem­ber, Clau­dia will be post­ing the col­lected wishes on her website.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Please join us Tues­day, Novem­ber 29th, from 7 — 9 p.m. for the Project Figo wrap-up! This is your chance to come in and not only make a wish with the giant Figo, but also to make a Figo of your very own to take home with you! Par­tic­i­pa­tion is by dona­tion, with all pro­ceeds going to the Make-a-Wish Foun­da­tion to help grant the wishes of chil­dren with life-threatening ill­nesses.  We’re also donat­ing the pro­ceeds of all Novem­ber Figo sales to the Make-a-Wish Foun­da­tion, so if you’ve got some­body on your hol­i­day shop­ping list who could use one of these adorable lit­tle wish­ing dolls, this is the time to pur­chase one!

 

Trick or Treat!

Plush loves all things cos­tumey.  Plush loves candy.  And, more than just about any­thing, Plush loves giv­ing treats to strangers.  So you can just imag­ine how ga-ga we get around here every year when Hallowe’en rolls around!

This year, we’re mark­ing our favorite time of year with a lit­tle con­test.  We’ve stuffed as many Hallowe’en treats as we can man­age into one of our “Got-it!” re-useable bags (made right here in East Van!), and now we’re leav­ing the rest to you!  Drop by the shop (4296 Main Street) on or before 4:00 p.m. on Octo­ber 29th, and take a guess at just how much one of these amaz­ing lit­tle bags can hold.

The entry with the best guess wins a bag­ful of locally made good­ies val­ued at over one hun­dred dol­lars!  The prize includes the fol­low­ing hand­made treats:  One 4″ “Grim Bunny” pouch from Kukubee, a Sugar and Spice soy can­dle, five Hallowe’en mag­nets, a pair of Melissa Abram pony­tail hold­ers with creepy skulls, two Hallowe’en cards by local paper artist Lock­ette, a nee­dle felted pump­kin from Blush­ing Lotus, one light switch plate with sugar skulls, one Figo kit, and, of course, your very own set of Got-it! bags.

Good luck!

 

HALLOWEEN CONTEST UPDATE

Con­grat­u­la­tions to local 10 year-old genius Yas­mine, who used some impres­sive math skills to win the con­test!  There were 271 good­ies in the “Got it!” bag, mak­ing Yasmine’s guess of 278 the closest.

 

Mighty Ugly Redux

Hello, my name is Plush, and I am a perfectionist”.

Ok, so maybe it’s not the kind of thing peo­ple form sup­port groups over.  Whether or not we need a twelve-step pro­gram for per­fec­tion­ists is a dis­cus­sion for another day, but last year when the Plushettes were caught rip­ping out seams that were a six­teenth of an inch away from what they had been aim­ing for, it was obvi­ously time for an intervention.

Enter Kim Werker, crafter, author, and blog­ger extra­or­di­naire.  Kim is the mad genius behind the Mighty Ugly project, which will turn every­thing you thought you knew about cre­ativ­ity and craft­ing on its head (actu­ally, by the time she’s done with it, it may not have a head anymore!).

Here’s the chal­lenge: cre­ate the most hideous and revolt­ing lit­tle crea­ture that you can.  Not cute-ugly!  Really ugly.  The more grotesque the bet­ter.  It’s nowhere near as easy as it sounds, and you may learn some things about your­self along the way.  For those of us used to striv­ing for sym­me­try and love­li­ness in every­thing we cre­ate, it is incred­i­bly intim­i­dat­ing to set out to make some­thing delib­er­ately repug­nant.  For those of us who aren’t usu­ally artis­tic or crafty and are intim­i­dated by the very idea of sit­ting down to cre­ate some­thing, Mighty Ugly is a lib­er­at­ing expe­ri­ence, as all the pres­sure of try­ing to con­struct some­thing pretty is gone.  It’s sort of like kinder­garten, but for grown-ups –there is no wrong way to make a Mighty Ugly crea­ture.  Unless it’s too cute.

This fall, the Mighty Ugly project returns to Plush on Sat­ur­day, Octo­ber 8th, from 1:30 to 3:30.  Cost is $35, and includes all sup­plies, tools, and point­ers.  Absolutely no craft expe­ri­ence is nec­es­sary to take this work­shop!  None!  Even if you’ve never picked up a glue gun or a nee­dle, you can do this.  Reg­is­ter by phone (604 708 5199) or in per­son at Plush (4296 Main Street), or online at MightyUgly.com (right now Kim is offer­ing an online spe­cial: reg­is­ter 2 or more peo­ple for $30/person).

Just Like Craft Camp. Except Better.

Get out your camp stoves and pic­nic blan­kets –sum­mer has finally hit Van­cou­ver!  It’s time to pack up your gear and head for the hills –or the beach, as the case may be.  But once the hik­ing, swim­ming, and cycling are done, the sum­mer read­ing is caught up on, and the hot dogs and s’mores have been devoured, what’s left to do? Exer­cise a lit­tle cre­ativ­ity and make some­thing, of course! Our DIY kits make it easy to pack a lit­tle bit of arts and crafts in with your sun­screen and bug spray.

 

BOTTLE CAP NECKLACE KIT

If you missed out on mak­ing one of these with us at Maker Faire or Car Free Day, or if you want to make a few more, here’s your chance!  Each kit con­tains enough mate­ri­als for three com­plete neck­laces, with 12 dif­fer­ent images to choose from.  These are with­out a doubt the eas­i­est arts and crafts activ­ity you’ve ever come across –if you can wield a pair of scis­sors well enough to cut out a cir­cle, you’ll be successful!

 

FIGO KITS

The brain­child of local artist Clau­dia Segovia, Figo “wish­ing dolls” are vis­it­ing us from a world of dreams and pos­si­bil­i­ties with the express pur­pose of help­ing to make our wishes become real­ity.  Each Figo has a spe­cial pocket just for this pur­pose –you sim­ply write your wish down on a piece of paper, slide it into your Figo’s pocket, and then hug your Figo close to your heart until your wish comes true!  The Figo DIY kits are packed with an assort­ment of fab­ric embell­ish­ment and trims for you to choose from when design­ing your doll.

 

NEEDLE FELTED HEART KIT

A favourite at Plush no mat­ter what the sea­son!  Each kit is stuffed with every­thing you need (includ­ing com­pre­hen­sive instruc­tions!) to make six needle-felted hearts.  Or make just one heart and use the rest of the mate­ri­als and a lit­tle cre­ativ­ity to make any­thing else that you want!  Needle-felting is a per­fect craft for trav­el­ing — the mate­ri­als weigh next to noth­ing, and you can sit down and do it just about any­where with very lit­tle fuss.

We’re the first to admit it: we’re die hard mak­ers here.  We don’t let lit­tle things like road trips or camp­ing adven­tures inter­fere with our craft­ing, and why should we?  With enough prac­tice, maybe by next sum­mer we’ll be ready to knit a sweater while we’re white-water raft­ing.  Or not.  Time will tell!

 

 

 

 

 

 

3 Reasons Steampunk Trumps Swimwear This Summer

Jared Axelrod and Lisa James.  Photo by Kyle Cassidy.

If you’re work­ing at home instead of at our Steam­punk Drop-in, an appro­pri­ate com­pan­ion would be Jared Axelrod’s excel­lent pod­cast, Fables of the Fly­ing City. Photo by Kyle Cassidy.

Let’s face it, it’s way eas­ier for most of us to look fan­tas­tic in a corset than in a bikini. But the real rea­son to stop by Plush for our upcom­ing Steam­punk Craft Drop-In?  Okay, well, aside from the fact that it’s free.  Yes, the acces­sories!  Who knew that the quin­tes­sen­tial steam­punk accou­trements fit so per­fectly with the sea­son?  Here are some help­ful tuto­ri­als, in case you’re look­ing for inspiration:

1) GOGGLES No, not for swim­ming, although you’re wel­come to try.  Steam­punk gog­gles are use­ful year round, but noth­ing beats them in the sum­mer for keep­ing the sun, sand, and bugs out of your eyes while you’re out boat­ing, cycling, or tool­ing around in your air­ship.  Here’s a fan­tas­tic visual tuto­r­ial to help you get started.

2) PARASOLS We’ve been notic­ing more and more umbrel­las doing dou­ble duty as para­sols in recent years.  While we absolutely appre­ci­ate the prac­ti­cal­ity of this, we can’t help wish­ing for some­thing a lit­tle more whim­si­cal.  Here’s how Tracy tricked out a thrift shop umbrella.

3) FANS Really?  Some­thing that can help you stay cool, and add to your mys­tique?  Sounds like the ulti­mate sum­mer acces­sory to us!  You can pick up cheap fold­ing fans in Chi­na­town or at Dressew and turn them into some­thing both prac­ti­cal and spec­tac­u­lar with just a few addi­tions.  At least, we’re pretty sure you can.  We couldn’t find a sin­gle tuto­r­ial or image on line to help you out, which we’re tak­ing as a per­sonal chal­lenge.  If the Plushettes have time to work on a project of their own at the Drop-In, this will be it.

We were blown away by the cre­ativ­ity and skill exhib­ited at the Steam­punk Drop-in that V-Steam hosted here last year, and we’re super-excited to see what hap­pens this year under Tracy Ernst’s direc­tion!  The fun starts at 11 a.m and goes until 4 p.m. on Sat­ur­day, July 16th.  Admit­tance is free, and there is no need to pre-register.

Please note that Plush is a fully func­tional pro­fes­sional work­room full of sharp things and pointy bits, and so we ask that small chil­dren and pets (small or large) be left at home, and that you eat all your food and drink all your drinks before you come.

 

Maker Faire Field Trip

This week­end marked the inau­gural run of the Van­cou­ver Maker Faire, and from where Plush was sit­ting it seemed to be a humon­gous suc­cess! We took our DIY or DIE!!!” work­shop series out for its first ever road trip, which was an immense amount of fun.

Making things at Maker Faire

We hardly had a sec­ond to catch our breaths all week­end, as we crafted our way through more than 700 bot­tle cap neck­laces and mag­nets with atten­dees.  700!  That works out to more than one every minute, which absolutely blows our minds.

A mil­lion thanks go out to our amaz­ing vol­un­teers, with­out whom we never could have pulled it off!  Also a shout-out to the orga­niz­ers and vol­un­teers at Maker Faire, who did a bril­liant job of bring­ing this event to Van­cou­ver.  We’re look­ing for­ward to Maker Faire 2012!