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This Wednesday, July 22nd, 2015 from 9pm until midnight (or later) at Akbar, it’s CRAFTNIGHT!!!
Project: Votive Holder with FREE Electro-Candle! 
$3 Processing fee, please
$4 Drink Specials: Let’s make excellent happen.

CRAFTNIGHT CAMPFIRE RESORT IS THE BEST DAY OF YOUR NIGHT!  

It only takes a spark,
to get a fire going,
And soon all those around
can warm up to it’s glowing…

We are not a church by any means, but the traditional purpose of lighting a votive candle is to send a good intention for yourself or someone in need. Back in the day, you’d saunter into the place, buy a candle for a buck, light it, say a prayer, set it and forget it. Your candle would illuminate the vestibule in lovely luminescence with all of the other prayer candles. It was like social media except nice, and pretty much anonymous.

You don’t have to be attending bible camp to light candles and send well wishes into the world.
You can be a regular person who wants to send the planet and its people some good vibes.
A radio signal coming from the heart might not have the most valiant veneer, but I believe that its intention contains a type of cosmic horsepower.
Introspection is also not a requirement of this week’s craft.
If you just like pretty candles and pretty colors, this is the night for you.

I have beautiful glass receptacles and tissue paper, you’ll plaster the glass using the tissue paper (and other crafting geegaws) with a design of your own. When you are finished, I will give you a FREE electro-candle for your votive holder, and the light will shine through the slightly translucent tissue paper and it will be SO PRETTY!
Why electro-candles and not real candles?
One of the things no one ever talks about when they talk about votive candles is their terrible history in burning shit down!!!

See you at the Craft Table,

JP Craft Captain

PS- We will also have Resort badges for anyone who wants to earn them. You can get a campfire badge, a glowing brain badge, and who knows what else…

www.crafthead.com

www.akbarsilverlake.com

This Wednesday, June 11th, 2014 from 9pm until midnight (or later) at Akbar, it’s CRAFTNIGHT!!!
Project: FlatPack Wooden Animals: Paint and Decorate! 
$2 Processing fee, please
$4 Drink Special: “The Lyla” • The Proud Cocktail with the Whiskey and the Bubbles… 

What’s a flatpak animal, you’re asking? This is when the little facsimile of the animal itself has been laser cut from a flat piece of wood into pieces that assemble said animal. The pieces are popped out of their framing and put together to make an elephant or something like that. There will be paint, there will be wooden animals, there will be music, fun and friends!

5 WAYS TO LET YOUR MIND BE FREE AT CRAFTNIGHT (and other creative pursuits): 

1.) STOP THE VOICES – Remove the voice of your little sister, or your big brother, or the well-meaning cousin, or the cranky teacher/lover/friend who said something a long time ago about what you made and gave their opinion on how it could be improved. Remove your own voice, the voice of practicality, the voice of perfection, the voice of “real adult concerns” just… shut ’em up. Critical voices have no place when you want to let your brain wander.

2.) EXPERTS ARE NOT ALLOWED – If anyone decides to start telling you what your project needs or could use without your asking, tell them that all paths to art are different, and ignore their critique. Sometimes the most wrong thing is the very best.

3.) FAILURE IS AWESOME – Popsicle sticks take at least 5 minutes to dry when you glue them together, and sometimes that doesn’t work, and when stuff doesn’t work, you try new approaches. When you try new approaches, you use your brain, and your brain grows. Yay failure, the teacher in disguise!

4.) CRAFTNIGHT MAKES NO SENSE – We’re told ALL THE TIME that stuff needs to make sense. We’re also told that stuff needs to be necessary, useful and good. CraftNight tears down that scaffolding every week. One crafter’s “necessary” is another crafter’s “superfluous” and it’s all labels and constructs anyway. The truth is that we just don’t get to know everything all the time, and some things shall forever remain without answers, definitions or levels of merit.

5.) YOU’RE DOING IT RIGHT – There are a million ways to craft. You can’t do it “wrong” so if you feel your confidence slipping, we’re here to catch it, and hand it right back to you. Self-doubt is natural and even healthy, but if you’re scared of messing up macaroni crafts, well, that’s a little too much worry for any one person to handle. Instead of thinking in terms of “CAN” and “CAN’T” think of it in terms of “TRIED IT” or “HAVEN’T TRIED IT” as the world is your buffet, inviting you to try everything! Enjoy the smorgasbord! 

See you at the Craft Table,

JP Craft Captain

www.akbarsilverlake.com
www.crafthead.com

This Wednesday, June 4th, 2014 from 9pm until midnight (or later) at Akbar, it’s CRAFTNIGHT!!!
Project: Sparkle Visors! 
$2 Processing fee, please
$4 Drink Special: “The Lyla” • A hanka for a hunka Lyla! 

We’re celebrating Gay Pride all over the map, and just because we’re such flagrant homos over here, the thing to wear is a sparkly glittery visor shining brightly with flashes of summertime light!
I only have 24 of them, so get here early if you want to make one, otherwise, the rest of you will get to explore CraftNight “GRAB BAG” who knows what you’ll get! 

ALSO: BASEMENT DANCE PARTY!!! Easy Listening Style!!! 

Remember being a kid and thinking that adults were sooo weird? Remember how all they’d want to do is stand around, have drinks and TALK?!? Sometimes they’d dance a little, but not much. Other times they might invite each other over and have food… that part always seemed to make sense. But now you can be your own weird adult, and do whatever you want. 
Anyway, I’ve put together a special summertime mix of tracks for you to sway and dance to, channel your inner Stevie Nicks, your Steely Dan, your Kim Carnes, your Linda Ronstadt… I could go on… 

See you at the Craft Table,

JP Craft Captain

www.akbarsilverlake.com
www.crafthead.com

GAY PRIDE, GAY PLANS 

Dyke Day LA at Barnsdall Park! 

Lavender Menace Celebration of Women 

First Elders