Lots of hustle and bustle here getting ready for Brooklyn Craft Camp, which is THIS SATURDAY!!! March 16!!! Where did the time go?! It’s been a complete whirlwind of crafty prep at my place, I tell ya. Here are a few pics… up above are some adorable washi tape packs that will be going into everyone’s swag bag, courtesy of MailChimp.

West Elm donated a pair of these gorgeous vintage-inspired scissors for everyone to take home.

Fifi’s been doing her part by hanging out next to me all the time and looking cute (which is a very important job, you know).

There are two enormous boxes of Red Heart yarn in my living room, which are being transformed into a zillion pom poms for the decor.

Fifi supervises the pom-pom making with great intent. (It’s basically torture for her to sit and watch all that yarn being whipped around! Every now and then she takes a swipe, but mostly she just glares menacingly.)

Did I mention the amazing Jay McCarroll (winner of Project Runway season 1) is our keynote speaker?!

One pom pom done… 999,999 to go!

Prepping for the Painted Wooden Bead Necklace class with my craft pal and neighbor, Christina Batch-Lee!

I’m so, so happy and excited to report that Brooklyn Craft Camp is almost sold out! I’m just blown away and so grateful for the great response we’ve had. It really is going to be a special day, so if you’ve been thinking about coming, grab one of those last few spots! We would love to see you there!!

Over on the West Elm blog today I’m sharing an easy DIY tutorial for making your own billy ball pillow! It starts with a purchased pillow cover, which is great if you don’t sew or if you’re just looking for a little crafty embellishment to spruce up a pillow you already have around the house.

All you need is a pillow cover (of course you can use any pillow cover, but in this post we’re using the West Elm Cotton Velvet Duo Pillow Cover, which I love because it’s made from a linen fabric that has a great criss-cross weave that’s the perfect texture for embroidery. It’s kind of begging to be cross-stitched, too!), plus a little bit of yarn and embroidery floss, and of course needles and scissors.

The billy ball stems are made from split stitch (sometimes called back stitch), which is my all-time favorite embroidery stitch for making basic lines. I use it all the time. Over in the post I give a very detailed step-by-step for how to make this stitch, so head over there to check it out if it’s new to you!

The billy ball tops are made from cute little yarn pom poms, and I show my favorite method for pom-makin’. (Personally, I find the pom pom tools confusing/cumbersome and I like to make them just by wrapping the yarn around my hands!)

And voila! DIY billy balls! Isn’t this project so springy, and doesn’t it give you so much hope that someday we will see the sun again?! Sigh.

Head on over to the West Elm blog for the full tutorial on this project (there are tons of photos, if embroidery and pom poms are new to you, it’s broken down into really easy steps). Thanks to West Elm for having me! xo

I’m super excited today to share a little news about a very exciting new project I’ve been working on: BROOKLYN CRAFT CAMP!!!! What is Brooklyn Craft Camp, you ask? Well, it’s a one-day event I’m organizing and hosting on Saturday, March 16, 2013 in Greenpoint, Brooklyn–where attendees will come for the day and take a little mini DIY vacation! There will be a fantastic assortment of hands-on crafts workshops where you can learn all kinds of fun things like print-making, crochet, embroidery, terrarium-making, jewelry-making, paper crafting, nail art and much more. AND, there will be amazing Brooklyn food from a local independent chef, good music, a cocktail hour, and goodies & giveaways! It’s total crafty nirvana, if you ask me!

I’ve been so excited while planning this event because as each element falls into place, I’ve realized that I’m basically creating my idea of a perfect day. Getting away on a Saturday to do nothing but make things with a bunch of cool crafty ladies (and who knows, maybe some gents), where everything is set up for you so you’ll have all the supplies and tools you need (plus great teachers), where you’ll enjoy delicious Brooklyn-foodie food and listen to good music, take fun photos and walk away with at least four finished projects and an amazing goody bag?! Sign me up!

Oh wait, I don’t have to sign up, I’ll be there!! But YOU should sign up! And I hope you will. The web site will go live and registration will open next week, so please stay tuned for details. In the next few days I’ll be sharing exactly what classes we’re offering and who’s signed up to teach (only some of my favorite NYC-area crafty people, that’s who!). Be sure to sign up for the Brooklyn Craft Camp mailing list to be notified when registration opens, and to be the first to know all the latest Brooklyn Craft Camp news!

(And PS, if you live out of town, why not make a weekend trip of it? Once the site is live I’ll be sharing a weekend guide with some of my favorite NYC crafty stores and spots, plus recommendations for restaurants and hotels. So come for a long weekend, and make Brooklyn Craft Camp your Saturday activity!)

I hope to see you there! xoxo

Are you ready to start crafting for the holidays?! I know, I know, it’s not even Thanksgiving quite yet… but let’s get real. It’s never too early to start thinking about glitter.

…or big puffy yarn pom poms…

…or mini mooses made of felt!

This year, Country Living Magazine invited me to take part in their Holiday Pinspiration party, which is a fun event where several crafty bloggers were asked to submit three holiday craft projects (the three above are my entries). Each blogger’s three images were pinned to the Holiday Pinspiration Party board on Pinterest, where folks can repin their favorites. The image that gets the most repins from each blogger will be demonstrated by that blogger at a live party in December. Whew!

So! If you’re on Pinterest, hop on over to the Country Living Holiday Pinspiration Party board, where you can check out all the entries and vote for your favorite from each blogger. And stay tuned because I’ll be posting full tutorials for each of these projects in the next few weeks. (By the way, I’m @brettbara on Pinterest – are we friends?)

Ready or not, it’s holiday time! Crafters, start your engines!

This weekend’s pumpkin carving party, NYC-style: a warm fall night on a terrace on the Lower East Side, overlooking the Williamsburg Bridge. I made the tall evil guy second from the right. But my favorite is the lopsided shark on the far left–made by an adult man who had never carved a jack o’lantern before in his life. (HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE.)

After the pumpkins were carved to perfection we grilled steaks, sipped cocktails and ate warm apple crisp for dessert. And it was just the right temperature for a sweater and some hand-knit/crocheted accessories. All in all, a perfect fall evening in the city. *Sigh!*

When I woke up this morning, Fifi was suspiciously missing. I looked all around the apartment for her and she was nowhere to be seen–all I found was this little grey bunny in the dining room!

I guess it’s true what they say about bunnies multiplying so quickly, because what do you know, all of a sudden I found more…

This crabby little rabbit was hiding by a log in the living room…

And this one was trying to take a nap on Fifi’s chair!

Then I found this little rascal hopping along by the hallway…

And this especially cute one hanging out in the dining room. I think I’ll keep this one.

But as for the rest of them… I just don’t know what I’m going to do with all these bunnies.

Happy Easter, all! If you’ve got a little time for last-minute crafting this weekend, check out my recent eggy projects: 

• Doodle on some easy Chalkboard Eggs (great for kids!)
• Impress your guests with Ukrainian Pysanky-inspired cut-out cookies
• Blow everybody’s minds with embroidered eggs, as seen on the Martha Stewart Blog
• Use up all those hard-boiled eggs with my 12 recipes for deviled eggs, as featured on West Elm!
• Or go non-traditional and make some chocolate gems for your Easter baskets.

Have fun! xoxo Brett & Fifi

In keeping with my theme of Ukrainian-inspired eggs, I couldn’t resist this: chalkboard eggs! All it takes is some chalkboard paint and some chalk markers, and you can go wild creating bright, vivid designs on a black background. Very reminiscent of Ukrainian eggs (or Pysanky), for about 5% of the effort. Win!

Look I made a gif! As you can see here through the wonders of technology, you can just doodle away on these eggs, and if you don’t like what you’ve drawn–wipe it off and start over!

I just love a black Easter egg, what can I say.

This is an insanely easy project. To start, get yourself some chalkboard paint, a brush, and some eggs. (You can use hard-boiled eggs, and eat them later, or blow out the eggs and just paint the shells.)

And just paint ‘em up.

The eggs need 2-3 coats of paint to get full coverage. I found that the most difficult part of this project was stopping the wet-paint eggs from rolling around, so I made these little trays out of aluminum foil, which kept the little buggers in place. (I didn’t like using the egg carton to hold the wet eggs because the compartments are a bit too deep, making it hard to paint the center area of the eggs.)

Once your chalkboard paint is dry, just start drawing away. I liked using wet chalk markers, which are super vivid and really pop against the black paint. (To fully erase the chalk marker, I find that glass cleaner and a paper towel does the trick, and leaves no shadow of the original marks.)

But you can totally use old-fashioned chalk, too! This would probably be better for little kids, if you’ve got any of those helping you with this project.(I did find that regular chalk tends to leave a slight shadow after erasing, though.)

Chalkboard eggs! Easy, quick, fun and no commitment. What’s better than that?

Just a quick post today to share this image of the embroidered monogram sampler we’ll be making tomorrow at the American Folk Art Museum! If you’re in NYC, join me there tomorrow, Thursday April 5, to learn everything you need to know to get started with hand embroidery. We’ll cover how to transfer an image to fabric, how to do several basic stitches (split stitch, chain stitch, satin stitch and french knots), and how to finish off your piece and frame it in a hoop. Plus there will be wine! So much to do! Click here for all the details and to see how to sign up.

See you there! xoxo Brett

This year my Ukrainian egg obsession merged with my desserts obsession… and Ukrainian egg cut-out cookies were born!

A few points to share:

*Black icing is pretty gnarly. You need to add like two whole containers of black food coloring to get a really black frosting, and by that point it tastes too bitter to eat. So in the future, I’d make a few cookies in black for display, then make more with different-colored backgrounds to actually eat.

*I used royal icing for these, and a #1 tip for the piping. (I don’t own enough #1 tips for all of the colors I was using, so some of the colors were done in #2 and #3 tips, and I think those look too heavy. I’ll definitely stock up on #1s next time I’m at the baking store.)

*I’ll share my recipes for royal icing and cut-out cookies and how-to’s in another post… I’m rushing to finish some deadlines but wanted to share these photos before Easter passes me by! Hoppity hop!

Did you know the fantastic Folk Art Museum here in NYC hosts crafting nights on Thursdays? I mean, what’s better than being in a space filled with rooms of inspiring handcrafted art, while doing some handcrafting of your own??

I was so honored to be invited to lead an upcoming Make It Thursday at the Folk Art Museum–so if you’re in the area, please join me this coming Thursday for some museum crafting! I’ll be teaching hand embroidery, everything you need to know from how to transfer a design to fabric, to the basic stitches used to make your design come to life. Also, very important, I’m told there will be wine!

When: Thursday, April 5, 6-7:30pm

Where: The American Folk Art Museum, 2 Lincoln Square, New York, NY

Cost is $10 to register (free for museum members). Click here to sign up.

Hope to see you there!