Rewind- Our Trip to the Fall Creativ Festival in Toronto

Last weekend my husband and I had the pleasure of going to the Creativ Festival in Toronto for my 3rd or 4th time! Yes I am addicted! If you have even the tiniest creative bone in your body, you have got to check out this festival! There are so many suppliers, creators, schools and businesses set up to get your creative mojo going and if you don’t leave inspired you haven’t seen enough! I love seeing all the amazing quilts, creative paper crafts and the wonderful things that can be created with yarn and fibers, not to mention all the glittery beads! Every time I go there is something that inspires me to keep crafting and pursuing my creative business!

Over the past year being on twitter and being a part of the BlissDom Canada Handmade Marketplace has made my confidence soar! I am no longer afraid to talk about my sewing and crafts at these types of events so I was able to make so many connections and met some incredible people. I cannot believe how amazing it feels when you get recognized in another city by people or run into incredible vendors who are excited to see you again! While at the festival I ran into the lovely Ashley from CraftMeLovely! This girl is amazing at what she makes, and I met her at BlissDom. It was so exciting to see that she had a booth at such a huge event and hope she had a great weekend! I cannot wait to do some Christmas shopping from her!

My absolute favourite thing to see at the Creativ Festival is the amazing yarn “sculptures” and this yearThe Crochet Crowd proved to have the most unique booth at the show! Check out their amazing crochet fish tank, it is the greatest thing I have ever seen!

Click through to see some more up close detail shots of the fish and other creatures!

Just when you thought that booth couldn’t get any better, it did! In the center of their booth was this incredible crochet tree! I was in complete awe of not only the size but how creative and unique this thing is. My dream craft room definitely has something like this in it! They were also showcasing some patterns they offer as well. We loved this pink top hat and the gorgeous circles afghans!

But it gets even better! (Their booth was huge!) They had this awesome “Hooker Alley” crochet street sign, mermaid and lady holding the coolest umbrella! I could not believe the umbrella! How cool would it be to take apart an umbrella and crochet one? I cannot wait to attempt that some day! I love the fun mermaid and her curly locks and big bright orange fish! The Crochet Crowd certainly won for favourite booth that day and I cannot wait to see what they do next time!

The other amazing thing to see at the Creativ Festival is just what you can do with fabric! Take this chair here by Re Style StudioToronto. Their booth had the most gorgeous fabrics and the coolest kits. One kit I almost bought was an ottoman kit, it came with legs and instructions on how to build your own ottoman! It inspired me to make a slipcover for my new accent chair. I loved the patchwork style of this chair so I will definitely be making something similar to this!

One of the next booths we visited was one of my main reasons for wanting to attend the Creativ Festival in the first place! Log Cabin Yardage is a Canadian online fabric store (and now bricks and mortar store) that sells the most unique and creative fabrics I have ever seen! The last time I visited her I bought the Pacman, cassette tape and Lorax fabric from her and this time i went all out! I actually had to stop myself from buying more… they were just so awesome! As you can see there will be some fun and exciting new items coming your way soon!

The gorgeous fluffy fibre that you see on the right is from the amazing Wendo Van Essen. She was by far the most interesting person we met during the entire festival! Wendo not only does the coolest needle felting I have ever seen but she also draws for Disney! How often can you say you met a Disney artist nowadays when most things are computer generated! While we were chatting with her she was working on drawings for the next Kung Fu Panda movie. It was so neat to see her work away and to hear first hand what it is like! She gave me a very quick lesson on how to needle felt and that night I made the little bear that I shared on both Facebook and twitter. He will be getting his own blog post next! To say Wendo inspired me would be an understatement! Hearing firsthand from someone who followed her dream and got to draw for Disney made me never want to give up my crafts! This is my dream I cannot wait to grow!

After we left the festival, we had a little bit of time to do some shopping around town and as per usual we headed to the fashion district for what? More fabric and zippers of course! I hit up some of my favourite stores before heading home, one of which is Affordable Textiles to get some super hero fabric! I had to have more female super heros because what girl doesn’t want that type of empowermemt! I also have a zipper problem…. like an obsession problem… and one of the stores had zippers on for 5 for $1 so I snatched up 25 zippers (to add to the 12 I had just bought from Fabricland the day before!) Now I am all stocked up for Holiday orders and the festive shows coming up!

Overall I’d say our Sunday trip to Toronto and the Creativ Festival was a huge success! There was one other pack of charms I bought but I am working on a project for them before I share, but trust me when I say this next project is going to hit home!

Have you ever been to any festivals that inspired you, or have you ever been to the Creativ Festival? I would love for you to share the people, events or moments that have inspired you to create! Share in the comments below and just maybe you can inspire me too! 🙂