June 2nd, 2010 • The Amazing Technicolor Wooden Bead-In

This Wednesday (TONIGHT!) from 9pm – 12-ish, at Akbar, it’s CRAFTNIGHT!!!

Project: The Amazing Technicolor Wooden Bead-In

$2 processing fee, please

$4 cosmopolitan special (Akbar is the ORIGINAL sex in the city…)

Any experienced meditator knows that the mind wanders no matter how soft or hard your meditation cushion is. Our minds are being pulled apart by billboards, bench ads, bus ads, e-mails, tweets and phone calls. With so much crazy stuff bleeping, blipping and blooping at us all the time, we sort of end up hurrying through stuff, skimming our way through all that information, trying to get the gist of everything.

Can you “get the gist” of painting a bead? If your hands are covered in paint, it’s certainly hard to text someone on your Droid.

Well good, that’s what we want! Get in here and paint some beads, dammit! Depart from the constant toot-tooting of all your appointments, Facebook IMs, blah blah blah BLAH! Turn off your device(s) get a refreshing beverage, grab some beads and welcome the time and care it takes to glean some nuance, subtlety, creativity, concentration, detail and depth that comes from concentrating on something for more than 15 minutes! Amulets, chokers, love-beads, chestplates, all manner of configuration are YOURS this evening when you decide to rescue the mind from it’s constant barking and join the bead-in!

Tune OUT, Drop IN, Turn ON!

See you at the Craft table,

JP Craft Captain

www.crafthead.com

www.akbarsilverlake.com

May 26th, 2010 • CRAFT Stanleys!

TONIGHT! • May 26th, 2010 • 9pm – 12-ish at Akbar, it’s CRAFTNIGHT!!!

Project: CRAFT STANLEYS

$2 processing fee, please

$4 cosmo special

Flat Stanley was started in 1964, a story about a kid (Stanley Lambchop) who gets squashed by a bulletin board gets to live a FLAT existence! The coolest thing about Flat Stanley’s new 2-D physique is that he can travel around by MAIL to visit friends! Since then, classrooms around the world have used Flat Stanley as a way to connect with other schools of many countries. The project has many similarities to the Travelling gnome prank except, of course, for the Flat Stanley Project’s focus on literacy.It should be noted, the most amazing Flat Stanley EVER (in my opinion) was on US Airways Flight 1549 which landed safely in the Hudson River. He was carried to safety in the briefcase of his traveling companion.

So… since it’s CraftNight, we’re making CRAFT Stanleys, and you can make one to send to a friend, OR you can join us in sending CRAFT Stanleys to TWO AMAZING PLACES:

1.) Craft Cousin Angie in Japan!

2.) Craft Comrade Jen in Prague!

These two generous crafters across the WORLD have offered to take care of CraftNight’s Craft Stanleys and show them a good time, and  document some of Stanleys’ traveling adventures! We’ll be including journals for our Craft Stanleys, documenting their activities at CraftNight before we send them off. And, of course, if you’re reading this, and you are far away, and want a CRAFT Stanley to visit you, let us know, send your address, and we’ll send you one!

See you at the Craft Table!

JP Craft Captain

PS – Keep an eye out for Akbar’s upcoming HAPPY HOUR! Starts June 1st, every Tuesday from 4 – 8pm, featuring tasty specialty drinks, delicious edibles from the Kitchen, and your host, the extremely appetizing and alluring Jeff Rasul >>>> YUM!!!

CraftNight’s Site

Akbar’s Site

May 19th, 2010 • Mini Personal JigSaw Puzzles

TONIGHT! May 19th, 2010 at Akbar, 9pm – midnight (or more) it’s CRAFTNIGHT!!!

Project: Mini Personal JigSaw Puzzles

$2 Processing fee please

$4 Knock-your-socks-off cosmo drink special…

Personal Web Page. Personal Toothbrush. Personal Cell Phone. Personal Pizza.

Yep, we’re taking it personally tonight, we’re drawing and painting whatever our heart desires on PERSONAL JIGSAW PUZZLES. These little numbers are made of sturdy, quality white cardboard, and may be decorated until the cows come home. They are excellent for writing thank-you notes, complicated directions, extra-long math equations, paragraphs of untranslated Latin, portraits of peculiar relatives, maps to forgotten places, greeting cards for nimble friends, or you know, drawings of clumps of dinosaurs, like always.

So come in tonight, create an image or a written something-or-other, then turn it into pieces, and give it to someone to solve!

See you at the Craft Table,

JP Craft Captain

CraftNight’s Site

Akbar’s Site

May 12th, 2010 • METAL CRAFT

TONIGHT! May 12th, 2010 from 9pm until 12-ish at Akbar, it’s CRAFTNIGHT!!!

Project: METAL CRAFT

$2 processing fee, please

$4 cosmopolitans to get you revved up

One of the all-time crowd-pleasing favorite crafts comes alive tonight! We shall be metal embossing, using copper foil and liver of sulphur oil to antique your creation! Make AMAZING relief portraits from CraftNight’s amazing collection of reusable plastic molds in the shape of various wild animals, historical-looking people, turn-of-the-century vehicles and MORE! For those of you who have done this before, I have some NEW molds, so come in and get crazy!

TRUE STORY: One of my crafters saw the very same craft he made at CraftNight, a relief portrait of a native american chief, on sale in an antique store for $20! I’m telling you, make one of these and sell it on Antiques Road Show, no one will ever know the difference!

Like all of our craft projects here at CraftNight, this project is very tactile, but it’s also a great introductory craft for newcomers. It mostly involves burnishing, polishing and then sanding with steel wool to get the final result. It’s a “metal shop” craft, requiring detail and patience, hallmarks of craftsmanship that anyone can learn!

We’ll be digging up some hair band music, a bit of metal here, a bit of metal there, old and new, so get ready to embrace your metal side!

See you at the Craft Table!

JP Craft Captain

CraftNight’s Site

Akbar’s Site

May 5th, 2010 • Cinco de Mom-O Crafts!!!

This Wednesday, May 5th, 2010 from 9pm – 12 or longer, at Akbar, it’s CRAFTNIGHT!!!

DJ EZ-Cheez spinning the dancing wax tunes for your bootie-shaking pleasure!

Project: Maracas & Castanets

$2 processing fee, please

$4 cosmos – WOOOO!

Well now, this upcoming Sunday is Mothers Day, and the 5th is Cinco de Mayo, so if you want to make maracas and castanets for mom, you CAN! And if you want to make them for yourself and start a salsa dancing group, well we’re here to make that dream come true! Come and paint these lovely wooden historic-style instruments, get your cardio in by dancing to the amazing tunes, and if you remember Akbar bartender Bo from back in the day, he’s visiting from PARIS! We love brother Bo, he’s by far a superstar!

Allright, enough typing, you just gotta see this craft to believe it: noise-makin’ shimmy-shakin’ DIVERTIDO!!! (That’s ill-conjugated spanish for FUN, bra…)

See you at the Craft Table,

JP Craft Captain

CraftNight’s Site

Akbar’s Site