Smock, Paper, Scissors, Spring!

Everyone knows that first taste of spring sun is enough to get all you creative crafters/artists out of hibernation and into the mood for bright colors and productivity!

We've found some more great crafts inspired by the season that are not only fun for your own entertainment but also for the entertainment of your guests if you will be hosting any festive get-togethers for birthdays or Easter!

First up we have good ole Martha coming through with some simple yet adorable ideas:

                

 Martha Stewart Easter Egg Cards        Spring Flower Bowls

Both of these projects are cute and fun for any age. Whip out those decorative papers and fabrics you didn't know what to do with and start cutting! Don't have any? Well, anyone who's been to our store (and this hopefully means you!) knows we have a library of beautiful, surprisingly cheap papers to choose from, as well as a selection of blank Strathmore greeting cards to jump start your creations. We also have plenty of Xacto knives, blades, markers, gel pens, and whatever else you need to make these your own. Not to mention our Buy Two Get One Free sale on any type of open stock paint tubes or brushes ;). We're thinking some nice pastel colored gouache would be a great addition to the card idea! 

And the coffee filter candy dishes (although we don't sell coffee filters or food dye) were just too adorable not to share! We do have plenty of brushes, hot glue guns, scissors, different kinds of non-food-grade dyes, and glitters to spruce it up a bit, though.

Next we've got this awesome idea for a unique table runner:

DIY Pinwheel Table Runner

Again, this idea is begging for the gorgeous cardstocks/papers we have at the store. Some striped or metallic papers would be great with this, but we also have floral and abstract designed papers in vibrant as well as muted colors that would work beautifully! Or even the Cavallini Map papers or tissue papers we've got....but we could go on. Also, if you need a bone folder, come on on down!

And last but not least, for the more fine art/mixed-media oriented crowd we've got another project including (but not limited to) cut paper, dye, paints, and whatever else you can scrounge up:

"Life Springing Up" by Terri Chaney

This piece is a nice inspiration for people of a wide range of age, talent and experience levels. A great exercise in creativity to do with kids, friends, or by yourself is to simply play around with things that are pretty to make something even prettier (because it will be your own!). Flower forms are a very classic, traditional starting template but of course, the possibilities are endless. We've got spray bottles and plenty of beautiful inks (Montana acrylic and dye ink is currently on sale) and Golden Fluid Acrylics that would create some really nice effects. And, what better time to experiment than when our canvas is BUY ONE GET TWO FREE! Yes, TWO FREE! A great pair for our previously mentioned Buy Two, Get One Free paint and brush sale ;)

So, what are you waiting for?! Spring up and get down here to start snipping pretty today!

Easter Crafting fun!

So apparently Martha Stewart's got some great craft ideas....who knew?!

And C.C. Lowell has her brand of glitter (a 24 pack of gorgeous, powder-fine vials) in stock to be used on adorable projects such as these:

Martha Stewart Glittered Eggs

Not that you can't make basically anything gloriously sparkly with this glitter, but it definitely works great in combination with Easter crafts. Follow the instructions in the link above to get all the details, but its pretty much as simple as glue and glitter. We've also seen this glitter used on shoes, household items, jewelry, etc and it's got AMAZING coverage. Not to mention we also stock Glitter Blast spray paint, ultra-fine Pearl-Ex iridescent pigments, and other assorted glitters to supplement!Why not spruce a plain old item up?


Another adorable Martha craft we found having to do with Easter is this:

Baby Creature Eggs

SO adorable. All you need is (the idea, which you now have!), dye, and whatever paper, threads, felt, fabric, etc. you've got around the house to make all kinds of cute creature eggs. The link above has tons of great ideas if you can't decide on which creatures you want to bring to life!


If you've got some more crafty ideas you'd like us to share feel free to make a peep ;) we'd love to hear them.

Also feel free to come down to the store to stock up on some more inspiration!


See ya soon!