Happy Birthday BrisStyle!!

It's hard to believe we've just celebrated BrisStyle Inc.'s 5th birthday, the years seem to have flown by!  What a whirlwind it's been since that very first chat over coffee to our now thriving little community of amazing artists, crafters and makers of all kinds.

We celebrated with a well deserved night out at the fabulously cute Southside Tearoom where the cider's on tap, the sweet bar guy, Ben makes ace cocktails and the chip platter is an assortment of Twisties, Pringles and potato chips with a generous serve of delicious homemade french onion dip!  Did I mention the pizza?  The pizza was amazing also and then there was cake...three different flavours in fact with candles too.  I highly recommend not only the caramel carrot cake but the vanilla cake which was a sweet, sweet journey to sugar land!

So many wonderful members came out to play and we all had such a lovely time catching up away from the usual market environment.  

The air was electric with creative conversations, market anecdotes, general silliness and lots and lots of laughter from our very newest members to those who've been with us from the very beginning!

Big thanks to everyone who donated a lucky door prize and congratulations to everyone who won!  For a full run-down see below:

$50 Collective Store voucher - Barry Johansen (Barry Johansen Creative)
$50 Nook voucher - Jennifer Bell (i do it yourself)
$25 Tangled Yarns voucher - Candy Barnes (Candykins Crafts)
$50 Incube8r voucher OR 1 month shelf space - Kathy (Ra Ra Superstar)
Earrings and hair-clip set from Hot Toffee - Sandrine Marsh (Imagein Cafe)
Movie Passes to the preview screening of First Position at Palace Centro - Dyani (Little Deer Creations) and Maciek (Marta Walenda)
$50 Handmade High Street voucher - Clare Collyer (Zillpa)
$50 Ministry of Handmade workshop voucher - Kirsten (Each to Own)

Check out more fabulous photo's from the night here.

Until next time, as they say, that's all folks!

xSam

BrisStyle is turning 4!

Happy Birthday Cake Topper by Company B on Etsy

Hello Friends.....BrisStyle is turning 4 and we'd love for you to come to our party. Join us for an afternoon tea of nice things to eat, cups of tea and lots of chatter about BrisStyle and Etsy. Our Australian Etsy Representative, Kirsteene Phelan will be on hand for one on one Etsy shop critiques and to answer any Etsy questions you may have.

When: Saturday, April 21st

Time: 1.00pm - 3.00pm

Where: St. Augustine's Church Hall, Racecourse Road, Hamilton, Brisbane.

RSVP: by April 16. To RSVP register your details HERE. Bookings are essential for this lovely free event.

Membership Special
To coincide with our birthday celebrations we're offering a membership special of 2 months FREE! That's right, if you join BrisStyle anytime between 16 and 21 April you'll pay only $80 for a full year's membership (renewable July 2013).

Memberships will be open at our party so if you've been thinking about joining, please come along and join in all the fun!

Happy Birthday BrisStyle!

What a month of celebration it has been!!! BrisStyle turned 3. In 2008 a small group of Brisbane based Etsy sellers met and started what we now call BrisStyle. Over the past 3 years, our membership base has grown to over 150 and we are so proud to be supporting the handmade movement in Brisbane.  On March 16th, we celebrated in style at Lock n' Load, West End. What a great night it was.....delicious food, great company, lucky door prizes and a much anticipated handmade gift swap.

Our special birthday cupcakes, handmade by Bel from Enticing Icing

Bel from Enticing Icing and Rebecca from edward & lilly

Emma from Red Revival, Sophie from Strat Designs and Teneale from Wicked Child Designs

Shadi & Shidan from Shhh Accessories and Renee from insulate

Great company!

Chrissy from Little Chrissy with her lucky door prize.....a $50 gift voucher from nook!

The lovely Helen from Ruby Red Studios (centre) making a heartfelt speech

Maleena from Maleena Eve Designs, Kellie from Kellie Christie and Bronwen from Whizzbangle

Renee from insulate and Krystal from Denver Mackenzie

Shelley from shelleyberelli and Rachel from Darling Girl

Steph from Wimcee, Renee from Renee's Artwork and Amanda

Happy Birthday BrisStyle!

Happy Birthday BrisStyle!!!!

(photo sourced from jossy02116 on Flickr)

Welcome to the BrisStyle 1st Birthday bash!!! Come in. Pop on a party hat. Grab a balloon, and get ready to talk some serious craftapalooza!

Ok, so I'd better be honest. I'm sure not many of the 60 odd members of BrisStyle are actually extroverted enough to rock up to an outdoor cafe wearing party hats and waving balloons. But we did manage to get at least half of our group together on the exact anniversary date of the birth of BrisStyle. And 30+ people all sitting around talking about craft and doing show and tell around an enormous table, is still a formidable effort (sorry to any tourists who were hoping for a quiet lunch at this lovely Roma Street Parklands cafe)!

So it was only 12 months ago that a small group of 12 Brisbane-based crafty ladies who had never seen each other in real life, all met up at a West End cafe with a view to maybe starting their own little local craft collective. An Etsy Street Team. And fast forward to now. Sixty plus members and growing every week. A very successful BrisStyle market under our belt, and more to come. A blog that has people from all over the world drop in and say hi! And many more things in the pipeline that will come to fruition this year - a bi-monthly newsletter, a website to be a central repository for all things BrisStyle. And even better than all these achievements, is that a whole heap of nice people have managed to meet a whole heap more nice people. And you know, that's just really, well...nice! Friendships have been made, inspiration has been fueled, creativity has been nurtured, and a real sense of community has been fostered.

Speaking of community, the very lovely Therese from Little Mary Moo, made a simple request to the BrisStyle group recently, asking if anyone who sews could make a little bag to help in the Oncology Unit where she works as a Registered Nurse. The bags are used by patients to take their chemotherapy infusions home in, and are used by people of all genders, and ranging in age from 16yrs - 80+ yrs. As Therese said, "having a nice bag to take chemo home in often makes the patients feel a little better about such a difficult experience".


Many members said they would bring some bags to the next meet-up.


And this is just a sample of what was given to Therese on the day. There were many more that wouldn't fit on Therese's arms!!! Not a bad way to kick off a birthday party, with a little community spirit, and lots of ooh-ing and aahhhing over everyone's different interpretations of a simple little bag!


And although we didn't whoop it up with party hats and birthday cake, we did do a crafty lucky dip, with people popping in a handmade gift, and pulling out a surprise for themselves.


Yours truly made a sensational score, with these fabulous handmade oven mitts - something I not only actually need, but totally love.


Thank-you so much Robyn from Hot Fudge!!! And thanks so much to Catherine from Made by Maisie who organised the lucky dip swap :)

And of course no birthday get-together would be complete without a little speech looking back on the past twelve months.


Helen from Ruby 2 GoGo and Ruby Red Studios, who was one of the original 12 members at the very first meet-up, gave a great speech, that made us all feel proud to be a part of this little (ok, maybe not so little anymore) group.

Thanks to everyone who has made and is still making BrisStyle everything it is today. It is a true collective, full of inspiration, motivation, community spirit, and general loveliness. And I feel very proud to be a part of it all.

So please raise your glasses people....

Hip Hip, Hooray!
Hip Hip, Hooray!
Hip Hip, HOORAAAAY!!!!!

Happy Birthday BrisStyle, and here's to many more wonderful birthdays.

In the words of the lovely Helen, "...it's good to be crafty"!!!

PS. Don't forget our giveaway is still happening. Comment on this post to go in the draw!