We were lucky to catch up with McKenzie Fannon recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, McKenzie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

I have always been in love with crafting. There was never a form of artistic expression that I didn’t like. My unrelenting love has let me to be a sort of jack of all trades in this area. I would take any and all chances I had to participate in local arts and craft classes but often times they were expensive, required specialty equipment or were just not that cool or interesting. I decided to bring unique crafting of all sorts in the form of make and take art classes, craft kits, and supplies for an affordable price to my community. I wanted to lower the bar to entry into the wonderful world of creativity and have people make cool crafts they would actually enjoy and be proud of. My mission stems from my love of art in every form and wanting to spread that creative spirit with my hometown of Oceanside, California and beyond. It is time for us to reconnect to making things with our own two hands and feel the confidence and joy of seeing the creation we have made ourselves. In this world of instant gratification there is no better feeling than knowing you have created something from nothing that is completely unique to you and is downright cool.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I started my crafting journey at a young age and I feel that being creative has helped me in so many ways throughout my life. My grandmother was a florist and she took every opportunity to foster creativity with me from the start. As I got older, crafting stayed with me and I was crocheting and creating with my best friend and even joined a beginner quilting class which we joke is a failure since all of us “beginners” have been in the same class for over 7 years. This is yet another beautiful gift crafting has given me, lifelong friendships with other creatives.

I made the decision to quit drinking alcohol at 23 and while all of my peers were out partying I struggled to find things to fill my time, again I turned to crafting which served as a healthy outlet and allowed me to fill my time with something rewarding. Now I get the honor of offering classes and workshops at pop up locations around Oceanside that allow you to come as you are in a judgmental free zone to make some wonderful art in all sorts of mediums! I took all my experiences from previous classes and applied the things I loved, and actively subtracted the things I didn’t enjoy. I want to provide a safe environment for creativity to run wild (no judgement) and get everyone more excited about creating things themselves with crafts that are actually cool. I also provide crafting kits that include everything needed to complete the craft. There is nothing worse than getting a kit and needing a million additional specialty tools to complete it. I am most proud of the smiles I see on the faces of adults and kids alike who get to see their finished products. There is a sense of true accomplishment when we finish something ourselves.

I also pride my make and take crafts on not being ordinary run of the mill or common crafts we all expect to see. It doesn’t have to be stuffy and boring. For instance, we made UV resin bookmarks at one of the local markets to celebrate the start of the school year and sand art terrariums to help us “continue to grow” in our creative art forms. I want to send a positive message with each craft and let people know there are many unique forms of creativity and crafting out there. Crafting can be cool and doesn’t have to fit the norm. I especially like exposing the unique side of creativity to all ages like when we incorporated a kid friendly tattoo booth to get them thinking about that as an art form!

Have you ever had to pivot?

When the pandemic hit in 2020 I decided to turn my hobbies and interests into a business. I started by selling fabric masks I made by hand at home (thank you beginner quilting class!). However, after mass producing them for friends, family, local businesses around town and Etsy, I started to realize this was not the avenue of creative entrepreneurship I wanted to pursue. At times it felt so isolating to have to do this all alone and not as fun as I would have expected. I was losing the drive to create things that got me here in the first place! This brought me to the realization that what I truly enjoyed was crafting WITH others. It was as much about the community and friendships made as it was about the crafting itself. After this epiphany I pivoted my business to keep the crafting element but incorporate others and structure make and take craft classes that would allow us all to create crafts together. I also wanted to provide unique and different crafting kits that can take these newly inspired artists to explore mediums they otherwise would not have considered versus the run of the mill boring kits out there that give crafting a bad reputation as a “grandma” hobby. Crafters can be cool too and I want to spread that message to all.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

When I started this journey I had no idea how rewarding this adventure would be. I have learned so much in the process. The biggest lesson I had to unlearn is that you have to have it all figured out and perfect before you start. Each time I would work with the youngest generation of crafters, they showed me how important it is to not take things so seriously. They are so thrilled at their creations when many of us bigger kids would get caught up on getting it perfect. Let go of the imperfections and focus on the joy of creating is the biggest lesson I learned and wish to pass on to others. This applies not only for crafting but I think for business also. So many of us get bogged down in having everything perfect that we may not even start. You have to just take that first plunge, first brushstroke, first step and figure the rest out as you go along and if it doesn’t work out, you learned something and can create a better masterpiece next time.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.osidehandmade.com
• Instagram: @osidehandmade