a little love makin'

To help you get ready for this weekend's love ridden holiday, benny and I will be sharing some crafty love with you all throughout the week!  Let's start things off with some Candy Heart Tea Bags!!

So invite your "hot momma" over for a cup of tea in this rainy weather.  We are sure they will find you irresistible!! How tos after the jump...

Step 1:  gather supplies

Not much is needed really, most of which you probably already have lying about.  Things to get...glue (any kind really depending on the material you plan on gluing here), scissors, card stock, bagged tea and any needed markers/pens/paints.

Step 2:  cut out hearts

First, we need to create our hearts for the end of the tea bags.  To do this cut out a template heart (make this one a real good one it is what all your hearts will look like) and then trace it multiple times onto your card stock.  You will need two hearts for every bag of tea.

Helpful Hint:  A good trick for cutting out a template that is symmetrical is to fold the card stock in half and then cut out half a heart with the folded edge acting as the middle divider of the heart.

Step 3: decorate hearts

Once the hearts are cut, it's time to color and decorate them, making them look more like candy hearts. We used spray paint as a quick and easy way to color the hearts to our liking.  But you can color the hearts however you want with markers, paint, crayons, anything really!

And now for the very best part of this craft!!  The part where you get to bring all your witty genius to the table, coming up with hilarious saying for your intended valentine.  Although we have our talents, Kelly thought we were a bit lacking in the creative writing department, so we enlisted the help of our friends.  They helped us to brainstorm a great little list of tea related love sayings, for your pleasure of course!

10 tea-tastic love sayings...
"U warm my heart", "steaming 4 you", "chai love U", "UR my sweetea", "steep in love", "honey 4 my honey", "boiling hot", "berry nice", "2 hot 2 touch", and "stir it up"

Step 4:  gluing!

The next step is just putting all the pieces together.  Take your glue (we used our trusty hot glue gun for this one) and bagged tea, remove the small paper square at the tip of the tea's string and glue a pair of your hearts together, sandwhich the end of the string between the two hearts. Once the glue sets you have yourself a custom tea bag!!

Show us what hilarious sayings and creative designs you come up with.  We would love to post them!!

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving to all our awesome friends out there!   benny & I hope you all have a fabulously filling meal with those you want to be with most!!  And just in case the party needs some decorations or just some crafting fun, we have compiled a few awesome turkey crafting templates for you to enjoy...

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="479" caption="turkey name cards for the table!"][/caption]

ABCO craft fair!

This saturday, ABCO Art Space is hosting the start of a series of crafty shows. The event will featuring local artists from around the bay area. Shoppers will find clothing from local designers, hand made belt buckles, hair accessories, organic body products, ceramics, original artwork, organic coffee, and so much more. There will also be live music, DJ's, Food and Beverages.

The idea was first explored last November by ABCO's founder and director, Barry Monigle. With no place for artists to gather and sell their wares, Monigle stepped in to offer up the expansive amount of space that ABCO has to offer for an event like this. With a huge outside area, a large indoor gallery and an expansive warehouse to spread the event through, it is an ideal location for a craft fair.

When:  saturday June 6th  12pm - 8pm
Where:  ABCO Art Space 3135 fillbert st, oakland

recycled button coasters

Buttons are something kelly and I just seem to gather, from extras that come with new jackets/pants to random garage sale finds. We have always wanted to use them for some form of craftiness but could never quite figure it out.  Then yesterday it just hit us...how cool would it be to create a cup coaster out of old buttons woven together?

These coasters are the perfect gift for a friend's birthday, father's day (which is just around the corner) or just to add a little handmade touch to your home!  So start scouring for old buttons and get to craftin'! All the how tos after the jump...

TOMORROW!! TOMORROW!! TOMORROW!!!

can you tell we are excited?

Only 3 left to gather up those swappables..

we just hit up goodwill yesterday to pick up some extra goodies for the clothing swap!  we can't wait to swap and stencil with you all!

SAVE THE DATE: oakland DIY Spring Craft Show!

We are stoked to announce our participation in oakland DIY's Spring Craft Show and we are sure it is to be bigger and better than the holiday show!!  The show will be taking place on saturday May 9th in this amazingly awesome abandoned factory turned into artist living/show space.  This place even has a kitchen where oakland DIY will be whipping up some fantastic treats!  So mark your calendars...we'll see you soon!

When:  Saturday May 9th  doors open at 6pm

Where:  Sunshine Biscuit Factory  851 81st ave, oakland

*To make this show just a bit sweeter benny & I are offering 10% off one item of your choice if you use the code word "stenciled geese"!!

Chruch of Craft

We are loving this new movement and we just had to let you in on the awesomeness that is the Church of Craft!  The church is a collective of people coming together to create an environment where any and all acts of creation have value and simple satisfaction.  The Church of Craft maintains no dogma or doctrine beyond what every member believes for themselves.

These churches have begun popped up throughout the US, Canada and now the UK!  We are lucky to have one of these great churches locally meeting in the always crafty Rock Paper Scissors Collective!  This month's Sunday School will be teaching embroidery basics on refurbished and recycled fabrics.  Come and spread a little crafty goodwill!



When: Sunday, April 19th, 12-5pm (always the 3rd Sunday)

Sunday School from 12pm - 1pm

Craft On from 1pm - 5pm  (craft whatever you like, open house style)

Where: RPS Collective 2278 Telegraph Ave, Oakland

What to bring for Sunday School: Embroidery Basics
Needles, thread and fabric scraps will be available for use in the class. Bring clothing or household items (such as pillowcases or napkins) to begin or discuss an embroidery embellishment project now! OR use the fabric scraps to master some of the basic stitches. A hoop and a highlighter is helpful but not required.

Looks like a good week...

As we compiled our plans for the week throughout the day, we began to realize this week is going to be awesome!  Then we got so excited we started jumping up and down (well, in our heads), but it is only a matter of time before you do the same...

Here is a sneak peek of the exciting posts to come this week:  a website devoted to pie and nothing but pie, the launching of new bennykelly styles (yay!!), a possible craft party announcement, oakland art events, & free art.

And to tops things off on the home front we get to finish off this fantastic week up with a few days in the sierras!!  Looks like a good week.

End your monday with a little craftin'...etsy style

We all need a good craft night every now and again. Well for all on the east side of things (New York) that feel that inexplicable need to craft regularly, check out etsy lab's monday Craft Night! Craft Night is a wonderful opportunity to not only make something awesome but learn new crafts and meet new people!!



Tonight is open craft night, so bring your most recent work in progress or start a new project (if your just so good that you actually finish one project before moving onto another...). Etsy is always looking for more craft tutorials! If you would like to share an idea or host a craft night just email labs@etsy.com with the subject line "craft night ideas".

When: Tonight & every monday night

Where:  Etsy Labs 325 gold st,  brooklyn 11201

Homemade Cardstock!

Kelly and I were recently brainstorming on ways to incorporate more recycled products in the overall makeup of our line, while cutting costs everywhere we can (usually these two ideas don't go hand in hand...).  In our brainstorming process we decided to do a housewide craft supply/material inventory to see what we already had.  We ran around the house gathering anything and everything that could be used to create something, which rules out very little.  Once we gathered our overwhelming pile, we soon realized we had an ungodly amount of old paper bags from all the different sorts of shopping we do.

Looking at all these bags, we just had to figure a way to use them.  One of our biggest cost here at bennykelly is cardstock.  We use it not only for all our tags and marketing fliers, but also as stencil paper.  And as of recently we've been having difficulty finding cost effective cardstock made from 100% recycled paper.  So to end our paper woos and bring more sustainability to our line, we decided to create some HOMEMADE CARDSTOCK!!

Make your own cardstock...all the how tos after the jump!

Mission Indie Mart this Sunday!!

Don't forget the awesome craftaganza that is Mission Indie Mart is this SUnday!!  This will also be the first time that our favorite store Pretty Penny will have a booth of all the best vintage styles for Spring.  They usually has an unbeatable selection of sunglasses and shoes!  We hope to run into you there!

Recycling and Resourcefulness: Quilts of the 1930s

There is a fantastic show going on at New York's American Folk Art Museum, that highlights the relevance of DIY crafts in a struggling economy.  We have seen the DIY community grow increasingly in the last 5 years out of interest and not necessity.  Back in the day, innovative crafts were largely completely because of a necessity or a need to conserve.  As our planet and economy begin to push this "resourcefulness" mentality on us, we should be looking to the past for not only inspiration but also instruction.

"Recycling and Resourcefulness: Quilts of the 1930s"  is an exhibit of 12 quilts made during the Depression ear by reusing clothing, feed sacks and other recycled textiles.  They created these "new" quilts with vibrant patterns, making the absolute best of what little they had and in the process creating amazing works of art.  We can only hope that in our current economic downturn we will be seeing more and more creative means of making ordinary items.

When: Exhibit runs until Sunday March 15th  (hurry or you'll miss it!)

Where:  American Folk Art Museum  2 Lincoln Square,  NY

Save the Date: Mission Indie-Mart

Mission Indie-Mart just announced their next show, so mark your calendar and tell a friend!!



We will bring you more info on the artists and designers as it is released...

Candy Heart Tea Bags

Our Next Valentine's Day gift is what we personally gave out to our friends this lovely holiday, custom  heart tea bags!  They are super easy way to create a custom gift and sure to please any tea lover.  They can be made in no time, with little need in the way of supplies!

So invite your "hot momma" over for a cup of tea in this rainy weather.  We are sure they will find you irresistible!! How tos after the jump...

Craft us some love!

Valentine's Day is soon upon us and nothing tells your honey "i think your awesome!" more than a sweet handmade gift of love.  To help guide you on your crafting way, Benny and I have gathered a few v-day gift tutorials.  We will be sharing these sweet ideas with you over the next few days, so start gathering those supplies!

First off we have beaded keychains!!  This is a simple project that can give you results that will stun your love! And the best part of this whole projects is you probably have most of the supplies lying around the house.   Overall a low cost, fashionable way to show you care!



All the how tos after the jump...

trade recycled plastic for leather...

As you know we love textiles and reusing anything we can, so when a friend suggested that we try substituting leather with recycled fused plastic we were intrigued.  We then learned that this "substitution" was a textile fabric you could easily make at home and we just fell in love!!

This fabric you can create is extremely versatile, being relatively strong (dependent on the # of plastic layers you fuse) and weather resistant.  You can take a sewing machine to it with no problem and we have even been contemplating making a full blow rain coat!  So in the true spirit of how we learned, here are the how tos to make this fantastically versatile homemade fabric...

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="483" caption="here is a sweet 100% recycled envelope we created with this lovely fabric!"][/caption]

tutorial after the jump...