Camp Dear Handmade Life - Event Details
Camp Dear Handmade Life is an at-home summer camp experience for creatives featuring a six-week goal-getting online course with custom-matched virtual accountability “cabins” for support and a 3-day virtual business, craft and wellness summit. Take a “tour” of Camp on our Camp DHL Information Page.
MEET YOUR camp dear handmade life counselors!
Hi! We’re Nicole, Katie Mac and Spaulding…. your Camp DHL Camp Counselors. Click on our names above to learn a little bit more about each of us – including our daily roles within Dear Handmade Life!
We’re here to make sure your “stay” at Camp is nothing short of awesome. We will be working alongside you throughout the six-week goal getting course and virtual cabin experience! Like, literally. Just like you, we will also be custom-matched to a cabin and will be working through the curriculum and creative projects.
We are also available in the exclusive Camp DHL Facebook Group to answer any questions you have about the program, technical support, worksheets, projects, etc.
Have a question that we haven’t answered? Let us know! We are here to help!
*Facebook group is for registered campers only.
GET TO KNOW YOUR camp dhl INSTRUCTORS!
Click the instructor name to learn more about each of our amazing Camp Dear Handmade Life instructors!
live and pre-recorded classes available to all camp dhl campers
Click the class photo to learn more about each of our exciting Camp Dear Handmade Life classes, panels and lectures.
PANEL: Diversity & Inclusion in the Creative Community
with Deepa Shanbhag, Kenya Miles, Monica Tetteh and Dave Laboy
Sponsored by Spoonflower
*all class times are listed in pacific time zone
© DEAR HANDMADE LIFE 2020. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS SITE USES AFFILIATE LINKS. WE DISCLOSE ALL SPONSORED POSTS BY NAMING THE SPONSOR IN THE POST.
I’m a multi-passionate creative, middle-aged first-time mama, impostor syndrome warrior, cheeseburger, cake and Korean BBQ connoisseur and the CEO and creative director at Dear Handmade Life.
At 24, I turned my passion into my profession when I started selling Random Nicole, my handcrafted clothing line at flea markets and backyard craft fairs, which I grew into a thriving retail and wholesale six-figure business that was carried at over 250 shops around the world.
My desire to help other creatives pursue their dream business and discover the joy of making led me away from my own handmade business and into teaching, consulting, running my own workshop studio and eventually co-founding Dear Handmade Life in 2007.
Now, I connect, educate and shorten the learning curve for other creatives by sharing what I’ve learned through the Dear Handmade Life events, blog and podcast. I have a BA and an MA in English from San Francisco State University and a dual “PhD” in crafting to keep your sanity and badass business skills from the School of Life.
Katie Mac is a maker, marketer and Mama living in Atlanta with her husband, two kids and maniacal dog, Murray. She started her professional career working for large corporations like IBM and Rolling Stone Magazine before finding her niche working for and with small businesses.
She believes in shopping small, eating local and always roots for the underdog. Her love languages include tacos, sarcasm, travel, and flavored potato chips. She’s a self-proclaimed foodie-in-training, developed a love of cooking from her (healthy and not at all weird) obsession with Gordon Ramsay and loves to try new and adventurous foods.
When she’s not wearing the many hats in her roles as Community Manager and Director of Marketing & Online Operations at Dear Handmade Life, she can be found crafting all the things with her mini-me daughter, watching The Office reruns with her teenage son, binging ALL the true crime with her husband, cheering on her beloved Georgia Bulldogs, snuggling up with Murray and spending as much time with her girl gang as possible.
Spaulding is a passionate crafter and lifelong learner. She is a knitter, teacher and in a serious relationship with color. She is dedicated to community through the creation of several clubs and teaching co-ops. She has run several small businesses and consulted for other entrepreneurs to help them define and achieve their own success. AND during the COVID-19 pandemic, she started a new side biz called Hot For Color!
When she’s not kicking ass at Dear Handmade Life making events run smoothly, creating foundations for new growth, and plotting new fun things as our Master of Event Operations, she can be found in the woods, reading a book, or gardening, or hand dyeing errrrything. She has a few degrees, a deep and sparkly adoration for travel, and has published a few poems and stories. She is a monster maker, a planner, and an avid DIYer. As it’s been told, she can also make friends at a conference for enemies.
Mentor Mama Bear and Creative Strategist empowering makers + artists to build impact with intention. Leading with emphasis on mission, mindset and muse, we leverage what’s working and cultivate new opportunities to serve — Always prioritizing what sets your soul on fire.
With 15+ years in the handmade and visual arts communities, what now sets my soul on fire is guiding creative entrepreneurs to craft their brands and lives with clarity, confidence, and a bit of sass.
Anne Weil is the creative mind behind Flax & Twine, where she shares projects, patterns, kits and materials for the modern maker. She adores helping others find the joy in making with their hands, which she loves so much. She is author of Weaving Within Reach and Knitting Without Needles. Find her work across the internet and in print at Martha Stewart, Elle Decor, Apartment Therapy, Sweet Paul, Mollie Makes and more.
Cher Hale is the founder and director of Ginkgo PR, a boutique agency that believes in using public relations to amplify the voices of underrepresented and marginalized groups.
As a Taiwanese-Black American woman, Cher is passionate about leveraging the power of media to tell diverse stories through online, print, TV, and podcast mediums so she can play a role in reshaping how our society views social justice, feminism, and multiculturalism.”
As Head of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Sustainability (DEIS) at Spoonflower, Dave champions a diverse workplace and inclusive environment through thought leadership, insights and perspectives. He provides strategic and operational leadership on policies, programs and practices across a global organization. Dave has 21 years of combined experience in Operations, Customer Service, Sales, Marketing, Communications, Human Resources and Diversity.
Dawline-Jane Oni-Eseleh is a visual artist and illustrator whose current work is focused primarily on the shifting urban landscape. An avid observer and prolific photographer, she employs a vast catalog of visual notes and memories to create her work. A lover of materials and process, Dawline-Jane uses a range of media including relief printmaking, pen and ink, photo transfer and encaustic. Ms. Oni-Eseleh’s work has exhibited at art spaces and galleries both internationally and abroad, and she was a 2018 Print Public Artist-in-Residence at Kala Art Institute in Berkeley.
Deepa Shanbhag is a graphic designer and an educator, based in NY. She has worked primarily in-house with notable retail brands to create their marketing. Often finding that she was one of the few, if not only, WOC on her creative team, she was inspired to build TCTLE to help other womxn from feeling like the “other” in the creative workplace. She is also the maker behind all the TCTLE Exclusives.
Holly is a Shopify and Marketing Consultant at Aeolidia, helping creative product-based business owners with their email marketing strategy, conversion rate optimization, and getting to know their Shopify admin. Aeolidia is the friendly agency that helps you set up shop online, establish a spot-on brand identity, or partner with to optimize your online store.
Honey Grace Lopez is a Yoga Teacher, Holistic Chef and the Founder of Nourish. Honor. Play.®, a Whole Being Self-Care approach to coming into authentic alignment with your truest self. Her workshops and retreats are dedicated to supporting you in becoming more resilient in the face of stress, discovering and walking your heart-led path, and falling deeply in love with your whole self.
Janet LeBlanc is a Certified Public Accountant, serial-entrepreneur, maker and mama located in Houston. In 2014, she founded Paper + Spark, where she offers educational content, tools, and spreadsheet templates for makers. Her goal is to help creative entrepreneurs become more confident and less confused about the financial side of running their business. Janet is passionate about empowering makers and helping creatives bring their entrepreneurial dreams to life with clarity.
As a certified, industry expert and with over a decade in the digital marketing space, Jenna brings her vast knowledge of Email and Online Marketing into the classroom with an interactive and energetic spirit. Her passion and experience comes from many years of working closely with thousands of local organizations, small businesses and nonprofits through both online and live seminars, to improve their growth and expand their reach. Born and raised in a family of small business owners, she is passionate and inspired by small business owners and is highly driven to help them succeed.
A deep love of color, pattern and nature are the foundation of Jennifer’s work as an artist, illustrator, author and teacher. Her joyful gouache paintings of flowers, random objects, people and occasional meditative abstract musings open a colorful and enticing window onto a detail of the day one might ordinarily overlook.
Ten years ago she made the move to switch careers from textile design to illustration, to fulfill a long held goal, and began a rigorous daily sketchbook project, doing a 30 minute painting every day. The looseness and intuitiveness of those paintings became her signature style and they are the source of much inspiration to herself and others. She is endlessly amazed and satisfied to see her shelf filling up with completed sketchbooks.
A craft industry professional for over 15 years, Jennifer Priest has been featured in major publications and online by the likes of Apartment Therapy and MSNBC. She blogs at SmartFunDIY.com, sharing smart ways to DIY your life. Jennifer’s digital marketing consulting firm, Smart Creative Social, has a prestigious client list across multiple creative industries, connecting influencers with brands, developing digital marketing strategy, and guiding clients in creating a solid social media strategy for their business.
Jessie is a content director, graphic designer, & life-long maker currently living in NYC. As DIY Content Director at Jumprope, she’s building a creative community of crafters & DIYers passionate about sharing their skills through video content. When Jessie isn’t turning other crafters into video pros she’s making her own craft tutorials and co-hosting the Craft Hangout podcast.
Kenya is a multidisciplinary artist & the alchemist behind Traveling Miles Studio. A one woman textile and fine art studio utilizing sustainable materials from earth pigments to natural dyes. Kenya’s work honors ancient practices while harmoniously drawing on a distinctive contemporary voice. From the valleys of Oaxaca, Mexico to the red clay roads of Ntonso, Ghana, Kenya’s process is a ledger of years of wandering and apprenticing around the globe. She is currently an Artist-in-Residence and Farmer with the Baltimore Natural Dye Initiative. Kenya has facilitated workshops at the Berkeley Art Museum, Headlands Center for the Arts, and the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden. She was a guest artist at BMA’s “The Possible” and recently had a solo exhibition “The Central Sun” in San Francisco. In January 2020, Kenya started Blue Light Junction, a natural dye studio, alternative color lab, retail space, dye garden & educational facility in central Baltimore. Blue Light Junction focuses on growing, processing, and preserving the history of natural dyes and their artistic, practical, and commercial applications. Kenya is an avid traveler, gardener, and above all else Indigo’s mother (her son).
Kerry Burki is the author of the Free Spirit Guidebook: Learn how to use nature, breath, thoughts, imagination, and energy to get unstuck and into the flow of life. The intention of her work is to help you live a more free-spirited, intuitive, creative, and impactful life. Kerry lives in Arizona with her husband, two kids, and cat. She loves people, art, mystery books, and decorating her home.
Kimberly Payne is the owner, designer, teacher and all around one woman show at Straight Stitch Designs. She learned how to sew from her mom in high school and the desire to create hasn’t stopped since. Kimberly now has a growing sewing pattern business with both PDF and paper patterns carried all over the world. She looks forward to sharing her knowledge of the indie sewing pattern world with you.
I have been in the financial industry since 2008 and am a Certified Financial Planner. I am also an artist doing an assortment of jewelry, painting, and works on copper. We are all creatives in some sense. My passion is helping people find financial stability in both their personal lives and in their businesses so that they can be the creative they want to be.
Lauren Myers is an Atlanta based Productivity Blogger & Content Creator helping solopreneurs and bloggers maximize their time by organizing and automating their processes.
✨ Fueled by Goals & Caffeine
Laurie Wagner has been publishing books and essays, and teaching writing for the last 25 years. She is a process guru and has a genius for holding space, helping people unzip what’s inside of them, and get ink on the page. A creative brain-stormer, she specializes in out of the box ways to tell your stories. Her Wild Writing classes are the cornerstone of her live work, and this year she launched the Wild Family, a community of people all over the globe who write together weekly. She is the author of Living Happily Ever After: Couples Talk about Long Term Love, and Expectations: 30 Women Talk about Becoming a Mother. Check out her blog at: 27powers.org
Photo by: @Andrea Scher
Lela Barker has a unique perspective on entrepreneurship because she sits on both sides of the table. In 2003, she launched a bootstrapped beauty brand with $500 cash as a single mother with two toddlers in tow. Over the next fifteen years, Lela guided the company’s growth to include 1500+ wholesale accounts in 27 countries, generating eight-figures in revenue.
These days, Lela is a business strategist who’s wildly passionate about helping creative entrepreneurs bring their products into the marketplace. She parlayed her time in the entrepreneurial trenches into a series of innovative teaching programs and a robust private consulting practice. Through Lucky Break Consulting, Lela enjoys helping thousands of creative entrepreneurs navigate product pricing, brand development, and wholesale strategy.
Lisa Bardot is an artist/creative maven/self-proclaimed-jack-of-all-trades-master-of-fun. Her mission in all her creative endeavors is to bring cheer, color, and playfulness into the lives of her customers and clients. She works full time on her business, Bardot Brush, where she develops digital brushes and art-making tools to help both new and experienced artists find the joy in creating. Her educational videos about drawing and illustration have been viewed millions of times, and she receives high praise for her thorough, concise, and fun teaching style. In her work, she explores and promotes self-development and vulnerability through art.
And when she’s not making things, Lisa likes to indulge in long romantic walks through IKEA, making up songs for her three kids, and dipping french fries in ice cream.
Mallory Whitfield is an accomplished artist, performer, and keynote speaker, with more than 15 years of experience as an entrepreneur and digital marketer. She is building a movement – #TowardsTogether – that will change the way people think about diversity, inclusion, and belonging. Mallory has decades of experience speaking and performing on stages of all shapes and sizes, across the United States. In 2016, she was named one of Gambit’s 40 Under 40, which salutes the brightest innovators, artists, and professionals in New Orleans.
Meghann Halfmoon is the designer and creator behind halfmoon ATELIER, a label for sewing patterns and extraordinary sewing retreats. She believes that simple design and choices can have a big impact on our wardrobe, our lives, and the even world. Meghann’s mission is to help sewists to create a sustainable handmade wardrobe by designing simple, unique sewing patterns, facilitating the search for ethically produced fabrics and sharing her passion for travel through responsibly and carefully curated sewing retreats.
Mélissa Peng a.k.a the Curly Executive is an award winning brand marketer turned multi-passionate entrepreneur and business coach. Mélissa earned her MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management and held roles with marketing behemoths including Procter & Gamble, Macy’s, and NBC Universal. After 10 years of climbing the corporate ladder and earning the title of Director of Marketing at the age of 30, she left corporate and her six-figure salary to build a lifestyle focused on her passions.
Known in the sewing community as That’s Sew Monica. Born and raised in NYC with roots from Ghana, West Africa, she took up sewing to connect to her late mother. Monica has a passion for sewing and the community. She is one of the owners of Sewrority Wear, LLC a sewing apparel company. She hosts a monthly Instagram sew-a-long called SEWYOURVIEW, a monthly in person sewing meetup called Project Sew, “On the Road” YouTube series where she highlights the Dallas sewing industry. Monica’s leadership led her to form Black Makers Matter, A coalition of black makers united to bring about and implement cultural transformation.
Monique Malcolm is a serial entrepreneur, podcast host, and product designer who is obsessed with bringing ideas to life. She’s the founder of Keep Chasing the Stars – an eCommerce shop that sells her popular planner the Visionary Journal, as well as, Pimp Your Brilliance a podcast and learning community for side hustlers. Monique loves developing tools and resources for people who have amazing ideas but struggle to make them happen. When she’s not wearing the many hats that being a creative entrepreneur demands, you can find her soaking up the Florida sun on a sandy beach with her husband and rude teenage son.
Nakeia Homer, Author, Wellness Expert, & Advocate for Aspiring Women
Social worker, turned award-winning songwriter, author, speaker, and mentor, Nakeia Homer has become the first person many aspiring women want to hear from every morning. A true advocate for mental wellness, Nakeia’s work, words, and personal story of turning pain into power helps those seeking purpose, healing, spiritual guidance, and growth become the best versions of themselves.
Known for creating daily “pep-talks you didn’t know you needed,” Nakeia has drafted thousands of transformative notes, quotes, and indelible messages that are empowering readers around the globe to heal and grow. She is a sought-after wellness & wellbeing expert and trauma-informed educator, facilitating powerful workshops and keynotes on the power of story, self-care, and purpose.
Natalie Keller Pariano is on a mission to create a more socially conscious and fun world! A lettering artist, writer, educator, and Chief Sprinkler of Positivity Confetti, Natalie is the founder and artist of NatterDoodle. Known for her colorful take on wordplay, and art with a focus on joy and justice – Natalie wants you to feel more colorful, creative, and connected through her lovingly lettered products and pen parties!
Natasha is the host of The Shine Online Podcast and an Instagram Strategist that helps small businesses shine online. Through intensive strategy days, digital resources and education, Natasha helps you build your brand on the ‘Gram with a video strategy that is fulfilling and fun without the overwhelm.
My desire to help other creatives pursue their dream business and discover the joy of making led me away from my own handmade business and into teaching, consulting, running my own workshop studio and eventually co-founding Dear Handmade Life in 2007. Now, I connect, educate and shorten the learning curve for other creatives by sharing what I’ve learned through the Dear Handmade Life events, blog and podcast. I have a BA and an MA in English from San Francisco State University and a dual “PhD” in crafting to keep your sanity and badass business skills from the School of Life.
Nik is a maker, day dreamer & potty mouth who loves cats, coffee and craft beer. She is a self taught hand embroider and will DIY pretty much anything she can get her hands on. You can see her work on IG @wastingthyme & @nikvphotography . She lives in LA with her husband and her three awesome cats (that she can’t shut up about).
Quinn Tempest is a business mentor & strategist who helps female founders create more purpose + profit in their business *without* burning out. She’s the founder of Create Your Purpose®, a community of global entrepreneurs dedicated to building impactful businesses (and lives) with intention. Her professional expertise is in branding and holistic digital marketing strategy and she is a frequent speaker at events and organizations around the country.
Rebecca Saylor is on a mission to make the world more huggable and more colorful with her small art business. Born from her watercolor art practice, Oodlebadoodle translates art into ethereal and magical home decor pieces. Her love of color has led her to design and launch a line of color kits that encourages everyday people to make their own worlds more colorful through the art of ice dye.
Risa Culbertson is an artist, illustrator, and master crafter living in the bay area. She has a studio in Berkley, Ca where she owns and operates her playful stationery company, Papallama. She is experienced in a wide variety of mediums including fiber arts, paper, edible art, sculpting, illustration, stop-motion animation and more. While she typically houses the majority of her larger projects at her studio, you can reliantly find Risa’s handiwork in her wake wherever she goes. The abundance of her creations stem from the regenerative pleasure of bringing a new idea to life. Creating joy from seemingly everyday items is her specialty. Risa uses her crafty nature as a means to strengthen her connection with her family, friends, and the outside world.
Robert Mahar is a Los Angeles based artist, designer, maker and embroidery enthusiast who teaches clever do-it-yourself projects and develops imaginative craft inspired products. He’s also a proud alumni of the inaugural season of NBC’s crafting competition show Making It with Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman. With an education in studio arts and art history, he has worked in a variety of creative fields including 13 years as an appraiser of modern and contemporary art. Learn more about Robert, explore his video tutorial archive and shop his collection of curious embroidery samplers at robert-mahar.com
Rumana is a doctor from London who uses sewing & crafts to unwind and destress after a long day. She shares her passion for crafting through her Instagram and blog, The Little Pomegranate, as well as being a campaigner for increased diversity within the sewing and craft communities.
Twinkie Chan is a San-Francisco based crochet designer and instructor known for her colorful, food-themed accessories like cupcake scarves, hamburger mitts, and slushee cup purses. She has two published crochet books, is a full-time artist coach, instructor, and content editor at Creativebug, and currently has a crochet installation on view at Sweet Tooth Hotel in Dallas, TX through June 2021.
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