Love. This print marks the beginning of what is shaping up to be a fantastic creative adventure. It all started when my 7-year-old daughter, Amelia, got hooked on printmaking at a free workshop in 2012. When I saw her happily making prints on an old book press, I knew it was time to finally surrender [...]

Back in elementary school a wonderful teacher showed my class how to make scribbles into art. I can’t remember if the original demo involved a black marker or crayon, but what I do remember is watching that black line loop-d-loop all over the page and feeling so empowered as a little girl with with a [...]

Hello! While I’ve been away from the blog I’ve become completely addicted to printmaking. LOVE IT! After many  years of wishing I had time to get into it, my youngest daughter, Amelia, inspired me to jump in and now we’re both hooked. We printed daily during Christmas break and like to bust out the ink [...]

The CraftSanity Magazine Issue 8 Preorder Sale is on! Preorder your copy by Wednesday (11/14/12) and save a dollar off the cover price! You can also sign up for a CraftSanity Magazine subscription and have the next 4 issues automatically mailed to your home. Here’s a preview of the fun projects, stories and recipes featured [...]

Hello. Hello. It’s been a little nuts around here as I let myself get completely carried away by April’s Earth Day inspired weaving extravaganza at my daughters’ elementary school. I finished connecting all the woven fabric to create four pieces of varying sizes on Thursday and installed them in the cozy reading area on the library floor [...]

Hello! Here’s the edited video slide show we played for the elementary students who worked on the woven house project at their school assembly last Friday. Enjoy!

We did it! We took the lovely squares woven by more than 500 students at my daughters’ elementary school and we fashioned them into a woven house measuring 7 1/2 feet tall. Check it out! The students in grades K-5 thought they were simply weaving a large rug, but I decided to surprise them with [...]

I’ve been wanting to try dyeing eggs with silk ties for a couple years now, so I thought it was time to cut up the ties I’ve been tripping over in my craft room and my daughter Amelia agreed. So we recruited Amelia’s sister, Abby, to help out, experimented at home and then headed to [...]

Ok, I’m back with Part 2 of the instructions for today’s “Take Five” craft segment projects. My 6-year-old daughter, Amelia, asked for construction paper for Christmas and was thrilled to receive a lot of it. I was thrilled, too, when I saw her drawing microphones (another one of her presents) until the unused paper started [...]

It would have made for a great family photo, but I was too busy participating in the Fourth of July craft time to run for my camera. We were at a family party hosted by Jeff’s parents when his Aunt Lou Ann Cruttenden showed all the ladies at the party how to make embellished flip [...]

We finally kicked off the Handmade Tour last week when we visited lovely Northern Michigan. I’ll be posting details and photos of our adventure soon. In the meantime, I invite you to check out the column I wrote about our DIY chalkboard adventures. Abby and Amelia are really enjoying their new boards. You can read [...]

I’ve been living in a “girl’s world” all my life. I grew up with two sisters and now have two daughters who love to play dress up and host tea parties for their stuffed animal friends. While all the women in my family are fans of pretty things and twirly dresses, some of us have [...]

Clipboards are fun without any enhancements, but they get even better when you paint them them with chalkboard paint, especially if you’re looking to keep the kids busy on the next long car trip. I priced out chalkboard paint (which is most readily available in green and black) and decided that using official chalkboard paint [...]

I met Tom, a Valspar paint represenative, at my local Lowe’s yesterday and he hooked me up with paint samples for tomorrow’s craft segment on WZZM Channel 13′s “Take Five” morning show. (Thanks, Tom!)  Check back here tomorrow to see what the girls and I have been working on. Oh and the curtains are up! [...]

My apologies for the sporadic blog posting of late. I’ve been busy putting the finishing touches on issue 3 of CraftSanity Magazine and attending art shows hosted by my daughters in our hallway. The girls have been painting like mad and burning through their stash of supplies very quickly. They installed their latest batch of paintings [...]