The holidays are coming, and that means it’s almost time for Makesgiving, our Holiday Make-A-Thon! Over the past eight year we’ve set aside the Friday after Thanksgiving to welcome aspiring makers to join us in making things for the holidays, because making is awesome, and a gift that’s made is better than a gift that’s bought.

There will be a variety of making activities, some old favorites will return, and we’ll have a few new things up our collective sleeves. Skips the madness of the mall and come hang out at the space with us! You probably have questions, but don’t worry, check out our Makesgiving Holiday Make-A-Thon page for the answers.

It’s happening on Friday, November 29th, 2019 from 1pm-5pm and it’s free and open to the public, though we do ask that you register so we can plan appropriately for the event. We hope to see you there!

This is how excited you’ll be at Makesgiving.

MAKESGIVING: A Holiday Make-a-thon!

Top 5 can’t-miss activities at MAKESGIVING: Holiday Make-a-thon.
Why Buy Gifts on Black Friday When You Can Make Them for FREE!?

The Milwaukee Makerspace and the Bay View Neighborhood Association is getting ready for the annual Holiday Make-a-thon, where we help kids (and adults) of all ages to get their hands a little dirty and make some of their holiday gifts rather than buy them. MakesGiving: A Holiday Make-a thon!, is a free community event from 1pm-5pm on Black Friday, November 24th, 2017. Join us at the Milwaukee Makerspace, from 1pm-5pm, to learn some new skills and create unique gifts for friends and family.

3D Printed Miniature Refrigerator Vase
Add a magnet and some tiny flowers to a 3D printed vase to bring sunshine and cheer till spring is near. A great gift for someone with a refrigerator or locker!

Laser Cut Ornaments
One of our members designed a 8-part laser cut ornament. Assemble and decorate your very own laser cut Baltic Birch ornament to hang on a tree, a window, or a rear view mirror!

Ever-popular Melted Crayon Ornament
Melt and mix your favorite crayon colors into a clear glass globe. Gift this ornament to share your favorite colors with your favorite person.

Learn to Solder a Tie Pin
Double whammy! Learn to solder and create a tie pin for anyone who has an unwieldy holiday tie. Take that ugly sweater contests!

Braided Fleece Dog Toy
Use the square braid weaving technique and a pile of felt strips to make a chew toy for a special puppy. Even if you don’t have a dog, join us to make some toys and we will donate them to the humane society for dogs in-between homes.

Please RSVP on our Facebook events page if you want to attend. (It’s not required, but it helps us estimate how many people might be joining us!)

Since 2010 Milwaukee Makerspace has partnered with Bucketworks to host a Holiday Make-A-Thon on the Friday following Thanksgiving. What do we do at the Make-A-Thon? We make things of course, but more importantly we make things for the holidays and help children of all ages make holiday items for gifts, decorations or donations.

Typically this event was held at Bucketworks. In 2013 Bucketworks was moving into their new space so the event was held at the Milwaukee Makerspace in Bayview.

The question for 2014 is “where are we going to hold the Holiday Make-A-Thon” or is it Make-A-Thons?

The answer is we can have multiple Make-A-Thons at different locations, hosted by different groups on the same day.

Please join us for the Holiday Make-A-Thon happening at the Milwaukee Makerspace and the Mini Make-A-Thon happening at UberDork Cafe on Friday November 28th, 2014 from 1:00pm to 6:00pm.

This event is competely free and we ask for donations to help cover the cost of materials.

Activities
Some of these are tentative and will rely on people to volunteer to make them happen!

• Decorate a laser-cut ornament
• Design a laser-cut ornament
• Learn to solder a tie-pin
• Design & 3D print a cookie cutter
• Make a necklace / bracelet
• Make a rose pin
• Decorate your own gift wrapping paper
• Fold a paper diamond ornament
• Make a woodcut print

Refreshments
Want to bring something delicious to share? Please do!

• Cookies
• Pie
• Leftovers!

We hosted this year’s Holiday Make-A-Thon on Friday, November 29th, 2013 and it was a big bundle of fun! Lots of people came and we helped them make thing. Lots of members showed up to volunteer their time sharing the maker ethos with the folks of Milwaukee, and that was great to see and be a part of.

Besides our CNC cut ornaments from previous years, new member Tom showed people how to fold a diamond-shaped ornament using paper. (He even put a tree together out of pink foam Tuesday night after the meeting just so we’d have something to hang the ornaments on.) For the CNC and laser-cut ornaments we had the typical paint, glitter-glue, and googly eyes for decorating.

There was also soldering using our tie-pin kit. Under close supervision, even kids are able to assemble this kit, which includes some surface mount soldering.

Local printmaker Jenie Gao joined us to help people make blockprint holiday cards, and we also had crowns made from felt, melty-crayon ornaments, pet collars, necklaces, beads, bracelets, and my own personal favorite…

Laser-cut ornaments that we let people design! We used Snowflake 2.0 from Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories which is a super-easy to use Processing application that lets you design a snowflake. We had two computers set up and we helped people do the design work, and then Lance would laser cut them from 3mm Baltic Birch wood. People could then decorate the snowflake they designed.

All in all, this was a great event. People came in and saw the space, made things for the holidays, and all of our members who volunteered seemed to have fun as well. A big ol’ thanks to everyone who showed up and made it a spectacular day of making!

In past years we’ve provided CNC’d ornaments that people have decorated (paint, glitter, googly eyes) and we also had dried gourds to decorate, we did 3D printed cookie cutters (designed by kids) and DIY wrapping paper and we’ve even taught people how to solder.

We’re still working on the list for this year’s activities, but it should be Maker-tastic!

It’s all happening from 12pm to 5pm on Friday, November 29th, 2013. This year we’ll be at Milwaukee Makerspace (2555 S. Lenox St. in Milwaukee) instead of Bucketworks.

(This is a family-friendly event, and it’s free to the public, though we do ask for a donation to help support the event so we can keep doing it every year.)

(Wanna see who’s coming? You can RSVP on the Facebooks.)

It’s no secret that we love making, but did you also know we love helping others make things as well? It’s true… and one of the ways we like to help others is by taking part in the Holiday Make-A-Thon that happens at Bucketworks the day after Thanksgiving.

Why bother putting up with the malls and the traffic and the crowds so you can try to get some great deal on the latest gadget that will be out of date in six months. You’d be much better off joining us at the Make-A-Thon where we’ll help you make something that will serve as a great gift this holiday season.

We’ve got a few things planned, including ornaments you can decorate yourself (new designs for 2012!) You can also learn how to solder, and walk away with an awesome electronic blinky Milwaukee Makerspace logo. We’re also hoping to let people design their own cookie cutters that we will then 3D print for them. Exciting! Who doesn’t love whimsically shaped cookies!?

There will be other activities and things to make, but you’ll have to join us to find out what they are. So head down to Bucketworks on Friday, November 23rd, 2012 from 12pm to 5pm and make with us. (More details? See the Facebooks.)

(This is a family-friendly event, and it’s free to the public, though we might ask for a donation to help support the event so we can keep doing it every year.)

Here’s some photos from the event:

Here’s Royce teaching someone to solder with our Tie Pin Kit. We plan to have these at all the events we participate in so we can show people how easy it is to get into soldering.

Here’s Brant working on some ornaments. We used the CNC Router to cut out a bunch of different shapes for people to decorate.

Here’s a collection of finished ornaments.

Here’s a dried gourd that was transformed into an awesome penguin.

Some crazy looking reindeer Brant made out of scraps from one of my projects…

And finally… Starclops. (Does Starclops really need any sort of explanation? I think not.)

Thanks to everyone who came out to make this event awesome!

We’d love it if you joined us at the 2011 Holiday Make-A-Thon happening Friday, November 25th, 2011 at Bucketworks.

This is a family-friendly event where the focus is on making things for the holidays. It can be gifts for others, of gifts for yourself! Members of Milwaukee Makerspace will be on-hand teaching people how to solder, so if you’re expecting an electronics kit this year, you’ll be ready!

We’re also working on a variety of ornaments that you’ll be able to paint or otherwise decorate. Keep them yourself or give them as a gift.

If you’re into knitting, care to try your hand a painting at gourd, or just want to wrap the gifts you already bought… join us and celebrate the spirit of making!

Detail? See Facebook, and then join us on Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) from 1pm to 5pm. Black Friday? We like to call it Make Friday. :)