Classes Classes and more Classes!

There are still openings in some of our February classes and we have added some classes to our March Calendar. Including some Happily Ever After classes for brides to be and a Flower & Cake Design class, the next course after basic cake decorating. Soon we will be posting our demo's and make & takes that we will also be holding in March for National Craft Month (NCM). The necklace pictured on the right is the Rosemaling project for this months class. Isn't it beautiful?



We hope to have April's calendar up soon, but will tell you the dates for our Card Chaos classes. They will be held on Tuesday's April 12th and April 19th from 6pm to 8:30pm. We are trying something new, we are offering a daytime card class on April 19th from 2pm to 4:30pm. This will hopefully allow more people to get into the class since it is a popular one.

Our First Cricut Swarm of 2011

Our first swarm of 2011 and you are invited! Click on invite above for information! We hope to see you there!

14 Days of Love 2011: Day 14

Day 14: Doodlebug Layouts & Card - The day has arrived! Love has filled the air and what better way to capture it than in a layout and a card for that special someone. These were created by the very talented Sarah Lynn, who just loves Doodlebug products. Stop into Crafts Direct to get the Doodlebug Sweet Love Collection to recreate these pages/card for yourself. Have a Happy Valentine's Day!

14 Days of Love 2011: Day 13

Day 13: Stuffed Fabric Hearts - You don't even have to know how to sew to recreate these hearts. As long as you know how to cut, staple and glue you are good to go. It is also a great way to make use of a tea towel. Get the project sheet here.

14 Days of Love 2011: Day 12

Day 12: Forever Wall Hook - With Valentines Day only two days away I thought I would share this home decor project with you, as it could be left up long after Valentines. You can purchase the wall hook at Crafts Direct and it is on special for $4.50. Use yours to hold a bag of treats, a bucket with Valentines notes, a coat, or towel. We used them at Christmas for this.

You will then need just a few other supplies:
- Coordinating paper, paint and stickers
(Echo Park's "Be Mine" Line was used for this sample)
- Pioneer Embellishment Glue Stick

1. Paint the base of the wall hook. Let Dry.
2. Cut paper down to fit on the base leaving an 1/8" border on all sides.
3. Using the glue stick apply glue liberally to the back of the paper and postion on base.
4. Apply desired sticker(s) to the paper covered base.

14 Days of Love 2011: Day 11

Day 11: Mini Chalkboard Tags -
Perfect for attaching on a teachers gift for Valentines or anytime of year. They would also be cute attached to bins for labeling. Embellish these little tags with paper and stickers. They come with a jute hanger that can easily be changed out to ribbon of your choice.

14 Days of Love 2011: Day 10

Day 10: Scroll frame Valentines - How adorable are these? The scroll frames are a white paper mache and sell for $1. They have been turned into little valentines, just by adding some paint, paper, stickers, and ribbon. A perfect way to use up some scraps. They are also the perfect size to hold a box of Sweethearts for that special valentine. Sweetheart candies are on special right now for $0.78 for a pack of 4 boxes. It doesn't get any sweeter than that.

14 Days of Love 2011: Day 9

Day 9: Valentines 8x8 Shadowboxes - I just love how these turned out. Nicole made these samples for us and she did not disappoint. My favorite is the XOXO frame. I like the idea of covering the frame itself with paper. Here is the project sheet so you can make one for yourself or a friend. The best part is that these frames are on sale for $5.98 until Friday.

14 Days of Love 2011: Day 8

Day 8: XOXO Mini Clipboard - This little clipboard has been a favorite of many. The clipboards are on special for only $1 and are painted and adorned with coordinating papers & embellishments. Just clip a little note on it for your Valentine and you have a cute little gift. You could, also use it to display a wallet size photo, as this mini clipboard is able to stand. Another option is to string ribbon through the clip on the board and attach a pen to the other end and insert a little note pad under the clip.

14 Days of Love 2011: Day 7

Day 7: Family Vinyl Frame Set - When I think about love I think about Family. Crafts Direct sells this frame kit with the vinyl for $39.97 yellow tagged. All you do is apply each letter of the word to each frame. Purchase desired paper to insert in the frames. In this case I chose the Making Memories line Je t'Adore, which I love. Here is a project sheet. This is a fun piece of home decor that is easy to change out the paper from season to season or holiday.

14 Days of Love 2011: Day 6

Day 6: Clear Tubes - How fun are these? Any kid would love to decorate these, fill them with some treats and give to their friends this Valentines day.

All you need is some paper, stickers, and embellishments. The best glue to use when decorating the tubes is Zip Dry. It dries fast and sticks well to the plastic. You can find all these supplies along with Valentine's goodies at Crafts Direct. Here are a few other tube ideas.

14 Days of Love 2011: Day 5

Day 5: small plaques - These are a great craft or gift for people of all ages. I made one with my daughter. She painted the base and I helped her stamp her hand print on it. She then decorated it with buttons and ribbon. It turned out adorable. I also got one as a gift from her at Christmas, that she made at daycare. They had the kids paint them, glue a picture of themselves on the plaque and they decorated it with paper and stickers. That is one gift I will cherish for years to come.The possibilities are endless with these 5x5 plaques. The plaques are on special now for $1.00 which make this a very affordable craft.

These lines were used on the samples pictured above. My Little Yellow Bicycle : Cupcake Love; Echo Park: Be Mine; Fancy Pants: Love Birds; Doodlebug: Petite Prints w/ American Crafts: Rose Ribbon.

14 Days of Love 2011: Day 4

Day 4: three heart frames - Nicole made this and I just love the simplicity & how cute it is. Perfect for displaying pictures of her three kids. Crafts Direct carries these heart frames that come attached to the rope, and retail for less than $3. All she did was paint them (Tuscan Red), add photos, and applied a sticker below each frame opening. The stickers are from Echo Park's line "Be Mine".

14 Days of Love 2011: Day 3

Day 3 (a day late) : Party Pails - Do to illness I am a day late, but better late than never right? These party pails have many uses. This time of year they make a good gift filled with Valentines goodies or to collect all your Valentines in.
These are quick and easy to make. All you need is a party pail, which are on special for $4.98, ribbon, stickers (we used Doodlebug Design stickers) and/or a vinyl saying. The pail on the far right is a vinyl saying, the other two are stickers. The ribbon we used was American Crafts and was just hot glued around the rim of the pail. Decorate and fill it doesn't get much easier than that.

14 Days of Love 2011: Day 2

Day 2: HUG Frame - I just love this frame for how simple and cute it is. It is something that I would leave up all year long and just change out the fabric. To recreate your own you just need a few supplies from Crafts Direct & the best part is that the frames are on sale for only $5.Supplies:
- frame with 3 openings
- fat quarter of fabric
- "HUG" vinyl from Vinyl Words

Steps:
1. Remove backing from frame.
2. Take fat quarter and fold down to size and place in frame. You could also cut it down to fit in frame.
3. Replace backing on frame and apply one letter, of the word HUG, to each opening and display.

It is as easy as 1, 2, 3.

February's Charity of the Month

Quilt Block of the Month and Accu Quilt Go

You know sometimes I'm a little slow, but eventually I get there. It just came to me today that for those of you that have the Accu Quilt Go*, the die that comes with the system is PERFECT for cutting out your squares and triangles. This whole thing just keeps getting better and better.* The Accu Quilt GO! Fabric Cutter (as pictured above) is a fast, accurate and easy way to cut up to six layers of cotton fabric in seconds. This revolutionary hand-operated roller system uses Accu Quilt GO! dies to cut perfect pieces every time.