Make it! returns to Enjoy Centre

If you’re struggling to come up with a creative Christmas gift, look no further. Make it! craft show is returning to the Enjoy Centre from Thursday to Sunday.

And event organizer Jenna Herbut promises that there will be many unique items to be found.

“Shoppers are really conscious about buying gifts that are ethically made, that have a story behind them instead of just buying mass-produced stuff at a mall,” she said.

“So when you see things that you are not going to be able to find anywhere else it’s pretty tempting.”

The first Make It! event started six years ago at the Edmonton Aviation Centre. Herbut said the idea was born of selfish reasons. There weren’t many craft shows around at the time and she wanted a place to sell her handmade bags.

So Herbut and her brother Chandler created Make It!, a craft show that was reserved for Canadian artists to show off their work and sell it outside of their regular market area, she said.

“I just wanted to make a fun show that my friends would want to come out to,” she said. “And a lot of the vendors are really new to starting their business so they have products that are really unique and people haven’t necessarily seen before.”

Make it! has since grown from 60 to 160 vendors at their biannual St. Albert market (they moved to the Enjoy Centre two years ago) and more than 250 at their Vancouver show.

Vendors sell everything from accessories to clothing, paintings and photography, body care products, food, décor and baby items. Many of the items were refurbished from other products, such as laser cut wood jewelry or handbags made from old jackets.

While artists come to sell their products from all across Canada, there are also many from the Edmonton region and St. Albert, she added.

For more information go to makeitproductions.com/Edmonton. Interviews and background stories on some of the vendors are available at #makeittv.