Usually I give food gifts to teachers, since I never feel like I know them well enough to make something more personal. This year, however, my son told me that his teacher collects sea horses and he wanted to give her something to add to her collection. Athena made me aware of this craft punch, …

Gift cards are sometimes the easiest gift (especially for your hard-to-shop-for friends and family), but the dilemma seems to be how to personalize them a bit. There are only three nights left of Hanukkah, but these gift-card holders (from the December issue of Living) should take only 20 minutes to make. You’ll find many more Hanukkah …

Hi, it’s Tracy, the crafts intern. Tuesday was Martha’s birthday, so Carrie, our international editorial intern, organized a thoughtful gift for Martha from all the summer interns. Everyone was given a card to write and decorate in any way they liked. All the cards were then compiled into a box we constructed using chipboard, ribbon, …

Tonight I’m going to a birthday picnic in the park for two old friends of mine whose birthdays are this week, Carrie and Ana. As usual, I’m in a scramble to make something to give them, so I’ve turned to my never-fail birthday card which I’ve made a zillion variations of over the years. All …

Sheila asks- “Before I rush out and buy several paper punches, I was wondering if you can use them on fabric or felt?” The answer is YES! you can use craft punches on certain fabrics (though we haven’t had much luck with felt, as it is a bit too thick).  The trick to punching fabric …

I was inspired by Athena’s post on her scrap-box- here’s my  method for storing those precious bits and pieces.  Using a presentation book with plastic sleeves, I store paper scraps according to color.  This makes for a fairly neat and easily accessible stash of papers for card-making and small paper projects.  Though I find it …

photo by Mikael Jansson via T magazine Since I studied Fashion Design, I often look at my favorite designers for inspiration. Dries van Noten is at the top of that list. Especially for his treatment of fabrics with lots of amazing embroidery and beading,  and his unusual sense of color combinations. So for this post …

I was thrilled to try one of  Marvy’s new craft products- Bistro Chalk Markers!   They offer two brilliant pinks in their collection, so I had to try them out on some Valentine cards.  This type of marker is typically used for dry erase boards, chalkboards, and window advertisements, but worked very well on paper …