This Sunday my newspaper column will feature West Michigan crochet enthusiast, Kendra Wineman. After meeting Kendra and seeing her colorful stash of reclaimed yarn and cute, crochet nesting bowls, I decided to unravel a sweater and make some bowls for my daughters to organize trinkets in their room.

Father’s Day is coming up and my daughters are very excited. Abby has been squirreling away little handmade gifts for weeks and Amelia is on a magnets-for-every-occasion kick, so I thought it would be great to team up with my daughters for this week’s Father’s Day craft TV segment on “Take Five.” First off, we [...]

After a couple weeks of watching my husband, Jeff Haywood, transporting his new iPad around in a recycled bubble wrap envelope, it was high time for a crafty intervention. The iPad is a slick device designed to make consuming electronic media an easy and enjoyable experience, so I decided to sew a simple and soft [...]

Dandelions rank among my favorite flowers. I used to pick them for my mom when I was a kid and now I get to watch my daughters pick them for me. Because most people consider them weeds, no one ever gets on your case for picking them and I love that, too. I wrote a [...]

The nice folks at PAAS sent me some egg decorating kits for today’s craft segment on “Take Five & Company.” The kits include neon dyes and cute stickers to make eggs that look like monsters and fish. Since these egg dyeing kits are self-explanatory, I’ll focus on showing you how I use these dyes to [...]

I’m happy to report that Sunday’s Apron Sew-In was a lovely success. It was slightly less intense than my husband’s video implies, but we had a lot of fun. Thank you to the kind ladies who joined me for an afternoon of apron design. It was a pleasure to see some familiar faces and meet [...]

Happy Spring, everyone! It’s snowing here in West Michigan. And waking up to a blanket of white was a crushing blow after we were spoiled by nearly a week of sunny, spring weather. Ah, well, those of us who live in Michigan are used to this kind of teasing by Mother Nature. We often complain [...]

I’ve never been one to get caught up in the commercialism of Valentine’s Day, but I do LOVE making heart-themed craft projects for my kids all year round. Last night I stayed up insanely late to make a heart-themed bean bag toss game to entertain Abby’s kindergarten friends at the class Valentine’s Day party. I [...]

If you haven’t noticed, I’m on a major beading binge. And after treating myself to some new colors at a 40 percent off sale at my local craft store, my need to bead seems to have kicked into overdrive. I just can’t seem to get enough of those pretty little beads. This week I whipped [...]

There’s something very satisfying about stitching with beads. I love the meticulous work of embellishing one little bead at time. And while many of my bead projects take considerable time, these little heart pins are small enough to whip up in one sitting. Read on to find out how to make some of your own.  Supplies:  Craft [...]

I love baked potatoes. But the potato setting on my microwave has failed me so many times, leaving me with shriveled and lifeless potatoes. Thanks to a fellow Michigan crafter I’ve stopped shriveling potatoes. Gerri Nielsen gave me one of her fabric potato bags and I swear it’s taken the frustration out of rapid potato [...]

Hi folks! Check out my dragon boat video tutorial. This will hopefully demystify the project I’ve been blogging about and inspire you to whip up a batch of these fun holiday ornaments to display in your home and give as gifts. A special thanks to my husband, Jeff, for filming the video and our daughters [...]

‘Tis the season for handmade beauty. These dragon boat ornaments rank among my all-time favorite holiday adornments. Easy to whip up, they’re great for decorating for the holidays and lovely to display in your home all year round. I learned to make these lovely ornaments about a decade ago from Julie Anderson, owner of the [...]

Oh, how I despise cold and flu season. And this year it’s even nastier than ever. After spending several days feeling ill and several days before that caring for a sick child, I decided it was high time to craft myself some feel-better comfort. (A special thanks to Amelia for being my cheerful model.) I’m [...]

This is my first Day of the Dead paper cut banner, or “papel picado.” I LOVE paper cut art, so I had a great time cutting this design out of tissue paper with a craft knife. First, I drew the skeleton wearing a hat on a regular 8 1/2″ by 11″ piece of white paper. [...]