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 [...]

Hello! I’m busy working on Issue 8 of CraftSanity Magazine, but wanted to take a break to invite you to join me at Schuler Books, 2660 28th St. SE, in Grand Rapids on Monday, Oct. 29. As part of this hip, independent store’s 30 anniversary, I’m teaming up with some very talented staffers to host [...]

One of the best parts of my job is the interesting people I meet. Earlier this month I had a delightful conversation with Grand Rapids knitter, Virginia Loukus, who happened to be sporting a hat embellished with a knitted dish scrubbie when she stopped by my booth at the Fulton Street Artisans Market. As a big fan [...]

Earth Day is coming up April 22, so I thought I’d pass along some easy, kid-friendly project ideas for crafting with recycled materials. (I’m going to demo these during my craft segment on today’s “Take Five” show on WZZM channel 13 at 9 a.m. here in West Michigan.) Since my TV appearances are one of [...]

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 [...]

If you found a box “filled with yarn or every color,” what would you do? When this happened to Annabelle, the little girl featured in the new picture book “Extra Yarn” written by Mac Barnett and illustrated by Jon Klassen, she decided to knit herself a sweater. There was extra yarn left over, so she knit [...]

Today’s craft segment is a continuation of the bucket filling conversation started in Sunday’s craft column. The mission is to encourage viewers to forgo the expensive and often meaningless Valentine’s Day gifts and take a handmade approach instead. A special thanks to Amelia, one of the VPs of Fun here at CraftSanity for assisting me [...]

I’m not sure why I decided to go public with my mullet story or how exactly this painful childhood memory landed itself in the middle of my latest art & craft column, but it’s all right here for your reading entertainment. And just so you know, I do actually include some informative craft trend info [...]

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 [...]

One of the big mistakes I’ve made while trying to get my house in order is loading up on many unnecessary and/or unsuitable organizing supplies. I’m done with colored bins I can’t see into and I’m holding off on buying more of the clear kind until I weed out more of the stash. After many [...]

So I spent some time updating my big life list as I ramped up for 2012. Getting rid of stuff and organizing are on the list – again – and I’m still optimistic that this will be my year to literally rock the house. But I’ve been saying I’m going to do this for years [...]

We’re headed to our first family holiday party today and I’m feeling like I could really use a little more time to prepare. I have yet to figure out how to freeze time, so I have to go with what I’ve got. I’m sure you know the feeling. Today Abby, Amelia and I are sharing [...]

Hi! CraftSanity Magazine issue 4 is coming  soon. In the meantime, here are a couple quick paper projects for you to try. These projects were inspired by Whitney Korstange, a Fremont artist who operates a paper mill called Maple Street Paper Co. Her handmade paper is beautiful and available for purchase online and in person [...]

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 [...]

My daughters are gearing up for their first ever lemonade sale, so I decided to whip them up a cute little booth to make it all very official. I originally had an elaborate plan involving appliqued letters with a hand-embroidered outline planned, but thankfully my friend Cydney talked me into stenciling with paint instead. While [...]