As many of you know, we’ve been in the thick of our Nativity Craft Along for the past 8 weeks. If you’re not familiar with the Craft Along, we’ve made an e-book of our nativity set, and a different guest has helped us paint one piece of the set each week.
We’ve been donating a portion of each e-book sale to builtanest.org, a charity that supports makers in the global hand maker economy. We feel that it’s such a worthy cause, and one we’re thrilled to be a part of.
Now we’ve reached the end of our Craft Along and are so excited to officially announce our charity auction, happening this Sunday over on Instagram! We’ll be auctioning off the set as painted by our amazing guests and all the proceeds will go to Nest.
To amp you up for the auction, we wanted to highlight our amazing guests and give you a chance to get to know them better. To this end, we’ve compiled the weekly craft along videos of each guest and are excited to share them with you!
Amanda Seyfried
Our first guest of the Nativity Craft Along was actress Amanda Seyfried. Yes, you read that right. Amanda Seyfried! Mamma Mia, Mank, Les Miserables, the list goes on. It was so fun to talk with her–we could have talked for hours. We talked about everything from motherhood to the need to make with your hands. I have to say, she did an amazing job painting the angel. Honestly, I wish I could buy it in the auction. Here’s her live video:
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If you can’t watch with sound or need to read rather than watching, we’ve got you covered! Here’s the transcript to her video.
Here she is with the angel. So cute, right?
Sabrina Soto
Our second guest was the lovely Sabrina Soto! Sabrina is an HGTV host, interior designer, blogger and podcast host. Needless to say, we were thrilled to get to craft with her! She was such a joy to have and it was so fun to get to know her. She blew us away with the adorable shepherd she painted. Here’s the highlight:
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All of a sudden I feel like Sabrina is my new best friend. She’s SO fun to talk to!
Mary Engelbreit
This next guest holds a special place in my heart. Mary Engelbret is one of my childhood heroes! To say I was excited to have her paint the wiseman is an understatement. I nearly peed my pants. I even did my hair for the event! To give you an idea of just how thrilled I was to have the chance to talk to her, here are some photos of me as a child.
Yeah, that’s me, and that’s Mary standing right in front of me. Can you even imagine?!
This one is good. Look closely and you’ll see that I am literally wearing “bloom where you’re planted on my hat” and an iron on illustration on my shirt.
Without further ado, here’s our Craft Along featuring Mary Engelbreit!
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I mean, who wouldn’t want a wiseman painted by Mary Engelbreit? Don’t worry, I’m probably as unbiased as you can get.
Elsie Larson
THE Elsie Larson of A Beautiful Mess was our next Nativity Craft Along guest. I’m a huge fan–I love listening to her podcast, and the things she creates are amazing! She painted the Baby Jesus for us, and did such a sweet job. It was such pleasure to chat with Elsie and we’re excited for you to listen in on our conversation! Here it is:
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Tracy Reese
It was such a pleasure to get to craft with our next guest, Tracy Reese. Tracy is an American fashion designer known for her rich, daring colors and feminine silhouettes for modern women. Her work is gorgeous! What a thrill to have someone with such a good eye for color and fashion painting our wiseman. Watch below to get to know Tracy!
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So fun, right?!
I’ve been such a huge Tracy Reese fan for years–I even own one of her coats, so this was a particular thrill.
Erin Jang
Erin Jang was our next featured guest. She’s an artist, designer, and art director who works on some of the coolest projects out there. It was so fun to chat with her about kids, magazines, and trashy tv. What a pleasure to have her paint Joseph for us! Here’s her interview:
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We are honored to have some of Erin’s work in our Lars Print Shop.
Lisa Congdon
Our next featured crafter was the one and only Lisa Congdon! I’ve been a fan of Lisa’s work and Lisa herself for years. To know her is to love her! Her work is bright, cheerful, and inspirational. It has been featured in numerous publications and she is the author of 10 books! She also has a podcast — she does it all! Lisa is an artist I admire for her kindness, mission to give, and authenticity. It was wonderful to have the opportunity to craft and chat with her. And wow, did Mary look good when Lisa was done painting her! See her interview below:
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Woo woo! Isn’t Lisa fun? We sure thought so. She’s also a Lars Print Shop artist
Courtney Quinn
For the finale of our Nativity Craft Along, we were thrilled to have none other than Courtney Quinn, of Color Me Courtney, crafting with us! It was so fun to have the Color Queen herself join us, and I loved talking and getting to know her better. She knocked that last wiseman out of the park and did a wonderful job. See the interview for yourself:
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That concludes our summary of the wonderful Nativity Craft Along! What a privilege to be a part of it. It has been so fun, and the best part is knowing we’re helping makers all around the country, through our partnership with Nest, whenever anyone buys a nativity e-book. We’re so excited to top off our donations with the auction this Sunday and hope you’ll join us! We’ll be releasing more details later in the week. If you have any questions about it, please let us know in the comments!