The Kingdom 2023 vendors: Meet Creative AF

When you want something a little different as memories, you need to turn your attention to Creative AF. We talked to Aubrey Foye at The Kingdom 2023.

One of the vendors you’ll see a lot at a Sasnak City event is Creative AF. Aubrey Foye is the mastermind behind the store, with a lot of help from her family. After all, Aubrey is also one of the team members and tends to do some of the handler work with the cast members.

Creative AF brings some different types of items to buy to create memories. There are shadow boxes, candles and herb gifts, lanterns, and so much more. This is not a vendor to overlook at any of the events.

We sat down with Aubrey to find out how she got started with the business idea, and how she ended up being a vendor at The Kingdom 2023.

Creative AF at The Kingdom 2023

Claire & Jamie: Let’s start with how Creative AF was born.

Creative AF: So my husband and I also sell fireworks in the summertime. My family has a firework space that they’ve had for over 30 years. My husband and I decided to start our own business, and I wanted to find a way to make our own like T-shirts and our own products to sell at our firework stands. I got a Cricut and then got immersed into the crafting world with it and I started finding things to make.

I thought it would be something that could keep my mind busy and my hands busy; that I could kind of escape in. It’s kind of like my guilty pleasure at the same time.

I really love making all of the paper crafts and then it was in the Cricut world, and there are all these different things with the software system that goes on your computer and you can make lots of different crafts and they’ll do tutorials for you to teach yourself how to make things.

I started with T-shirts with vinyl, and then I got into sublimation, which is pressing the ink into the material. I went through a whole bunch of different stuff, and then found paper crafts and just went in that direction.

C&J: There’s a lot of fandom-related items. I know you were at The Gathering 2022 and had the Outlander items. Is that where it started, or where you grew to?

CAF: I started off doing more personal stuff for my kids. The first thing I saw was a unicorn and my daughter loves unicorns. Then I had to make things for my other kids. My son is super into gaming, so I made him a gaming controller. Then I realized I could make things for a baby shower and put the baby’s name and birth weight on it. I thought it would be great as gifts, and people would tell me what they’d like me to do.

I can work with any theme, so the Outlander items and The Last Kingdom items. Basically, if you have an idea that you want made, I can do a mock-up and then it goes to the machine.

C&J: I love some of the different items, like your recipe card and pillows. How did you branch out from the paper craft and T-shirts?

CAF: I mostly looked at what other vendors were doing. When I came to the first Sasnak City event, I looked at the vendors and wondered what I could do that nobody else had so I’m not competing. Everyone can make shirts, so that would make it harder to sell them. I wanted variety to make my stuff unique.

C&J: So, you were an attendee first?

CAF: Yes, in 2021. Then at The Kingdom 2022, I helped Gina [Phipps-Hubbell] with the raffle and then she asked me to do the handling. I’ve been part of the team since last year.

C&J: What’s it like handling and running this booth? I know I met your husband earlier who helped.

CAF: Yesh, that’s a big part of it. I’m lucky that I have my husband and my mom to help. She’ll watch the kids while my husband and I are here. They are very big helpers to let me do all this. It really does take a village.

Check out the Creative AF Facebook page for more items sold and how to order.