What better way to celebrate the handmade goodness of all things Etsy, than by throwing a party? Especially if you are a SoCal Lady Blogger? 😉  The other week I was invited out to CRAFTED in San Pedro, CA, for their first ever ETSY party.  Friday, August 24th was National Etsy Day, and Etsy formed meetups across the US for artist’s to come and craft together. And boy, did the crafters come out in droves for this fine occasion!! There were well over 1,000 in attendance for this milestone event.

In case you are wondering, what exactly IS CRAFTED?? CRAFTED is Southern California’s largest permanent craft marketplace, so it was the perfect venue for an event of this kind. Crafted has a 35 year lease for this space so they are not going anywhere anytime soon and are in this for the long haul. Every few months they plan on expanding in phases to become the largest permanent CRAFT venue in the United States.

So how EXACTLY can you become a vendor for this crafting extravaganza? In order to be a vendor for  CRAFTED, your goods must be substantially made by hand in the Los Angeles area. Crafters/Artists are welcome to share a space with other artists, BUT they must be there 75%  of the time. The price artist’s pay for a 10 x 10 space for one month is what they would pay for one weekend at a Renegade Art Fair festival or Unique LA?? That’s a GREAT deal!!

They have EVERY kind of craft you can possibly imagine and it’s impossible to list all of these amazing artists in one post. Ranging from paintings, wood crafts, metal crafts, plant crafts, to jewelry, clothes, coffee, cookies, pies, jams & jellies, scrapbooking and other paper crafts, the list goes on and on of all the wonderful finds you will see at Crafted!! You are guaranteed to walk away with something unique that no one else will have.

One of our favorite booths we found is called It’s Me Mary. We got some really beautiful bracelets from her in our gifts bags. Of course our Mary had to get a pic with the other Mary!!! 😉 We also had a lot of fun over at Hydrangea Hippo, who does a lot of paper crafts and scrapbooking. Mary and I made a super cute mask craft.

Other events of the night that one could partake in included craft stations throughout CRAFTED in which you could make either for free or for a small fee. You could decorate a jar to put messages or ideas in, do your nails at the nail bar, make masks, pop-up cards, wood-crafts, and much more!  Can you tell what one of the 1st things us SoCal Lady Bloggers decided on doing by the picture below? YEP! We all did our nails in bright, sparkly, vibrant colors. Of course we also had to leave our mark that the SoCal Lady Bloggers had been there. 😉 Celebrity Crafter Mark Montano from “The Big ASS book of Crafts” was also in attendance.

FINAL THOUGHTS OF THE NIGHT: Crafted is a GREAT place to shop and to support local Los Angeles Artisans. It’s a great hang out spot to craft and meet other like-minded crafters. They have fun food trucks and drinks outside (they also had live music this night) that you can grab a tasty treat from. It truly was a fun way to spend a Friday evening.

WHEN can YOU go to CRAFTED??

CRAFTED is open every weekend of the year

DAYS/HOURS OF OPERATION:

*Fridays: 12pm to 8pm

*Saturdays and Sundays: 10am to 7pm.

LOCATION:

110 & 112 E. 22nd St.
San Pedro CA 90731

Disclosure: I was invited out to the Etsy party by the CRAFTED Etsy Team. I was given a whole lot of swag and we had a  marvolous night out of crafting fun. All opinions stated above are my own and  I will be back again in the near future.