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When gatherings begin to fill the calendar, a bottle of homemade simple syrup can be your secret ingredient for quick festive drinks and desserts. Made from just sugar and water, simple syrup is easy to customize with seasonal flavors—perfect for cocktails, sparkling water, tea, coffee, or drizzling over cakes, yogurt, and fruit. Basic...

I find seasonal crafting totally irresistible, don’t you? I came across these gigantic acorn caps in early October in Pennsylvania and knew they had to be made into something fabulous. If you can’t find acorn caps where you live, check out Etsy. And if you’re foraging your own, be sure to leave the nut behind for the critters who need it....

You can crochet a cute and stylish granny square bag with just 13 granny squares! Making a bag is super approachable and much quicker to crochet than a sweater or blanket but still highlights the always-on-trend vibes of a crocheted square. I provide the pattern for the sunburst granny square that I used at the bottom of this post, but you can use...

You know that feeling of spending a long time searching for something and when you finally find that thing, a voice inside you exclaims “THIS is what I meant!”? That’s exactly how I felt when trying out junk journaling. If you’ve spent any time in online craft spaces, junk journaling has likely crossed your view. I love...

Personalize your bags and express your personality with bag charms! We’re seeing dangly bag charms everywhere and on everyone. You can have one signature piece or layer many different kinds for a maximalist bag-stravaganza. Your bag charms will be even cooler and more unique when you make them yourself. With my free pattern below, you can...

I’ve been making books for nearly twenty years and have favorite bindings and structures for every occasion. The side sewn book is one of my favorites: it’s a little fiddly at the outset but once the hole-poking is through, it becomes an intriguing puzzle that is excellent for a variety of media. And while I love shopping for...

Do you ever look at the pile of yarn scraps from your knit or crochet project and think, “That is an amazing color palette!” Or do you ever have a tiny ball of unused yarn that doesn’t seem big enough for a new project but would be wasteful to throw away? Keep all your yarn scraps because you can turn them into magic yarn balls...

My daily practice, Crochet Cakery, launched this month (woohoo!). I’ve been joyfully crocheting cakes for years, and I’m so excited to share that magic with you. I know some of you might be wondering, “What do I do with a crocheted cake?” If making full cakes for your house or your friends doesn’t quite feel like...

Summer is the perfect season for painting on the go. Whether you are on a roadtrip, camping, hiking, hanging at the beach or have some downtime at the kitchen table, you can make art and even paint without a lot of fuss and set up. This is essentially the thesis of my book, Make Art Where You Are. It’s a way of being creative in the...

I remember feeling so delighted and enchanted the first time I encountered an accordion travel pouch. It was clearly vintage, made of stained satin and tied with a bow, and had at one time held delicate hankies. It felt like such a compelling puzzle but I couldn’t figure out precisely how it all came together. My maker instincts took...

Me Made May is the month to celebrate your handmade wardrobe. It was started by Zoe Edwards in 2010 as a personal challenge to wear more of the clothes she had sewn. Since then, Me Made May has become an annual and global phenomenon. How To Participate To participate, all you need to do is pledge to wear your handmade clothes more often or...

As artists and creatives, we constantly collect materials and supplies. Many of our projects also leave piles of scraps and leftovers, whether bits of paper, fabric, thread or string. We cannot deny that the art/craft industry has its own environmental impact. It is more important than ever for us to consider our part in that process. To inspire a...

by Sarah Kuntz Jones, Assistant Branch Manager, St. Louis County Library This may come as a surprise, but libraries have limited budgets. I’ll give you a minute to recover from the shock of this revelation. It can be a challenge for programming librarians to strike a balance between our enthusiasm for providing inspiring creative programs for...

by Liza Laird Knitting is a relaxing dance of sticks and string that creates beautiful, finished objects. For those who find bliss playing with yarn and needles, I’ve created a list of the top four ways a knitter can practice self-care and nurture themselves through knitting. 1. Create Projects Just for YOU One of the best parts of...

As a bookmaker, I love a reason to make a special kind of book and Valentine’s Day presents a truly irresistible motif: a heart. These scrappy little books are a lovely format for a long-form love letter, a teeny sketchbook gift, or a more sculptural project. After making the book once, you’ll see how easy it is to customize the size...

The beloved Mary Oliver wrote: “Instructions for living a life. Pay attention, be astonished, talk about it.” Excellent advice to which I would add: pay attention to what you pay attention to. But how can you learn to pay closer attention? Here are three ideas to keep in mind: Look with fresh eyes. Forget, even if just for a moment, what...

Hopefully life is feeling more colorful this month. Generously share your daily color practice with others and ask them to suggest what you should paint next. I love it when someone brings me “something to paint” because then I know that they too are looking closely at the world around them. I believe paying attention with an open heart is good...

How did your first week of foraging and capturing color go? Some days, when the light is right and the colors flow, are delightful. Other days — not so much. But there’s always tomorrow, that’s the constancy and forgiveness of a daily practice. Maybe it’s because I’m a writer, but I’ve found that naming colors helps me to distinguish nuance and...

Let’s face it, after the tra la la of the holidays, January can be a bit dreary. Add to that the relentless hustle to improve/give up/reinvent, it’s a LOT to ask of these darkest weeks of the year. Good news! Creating a daily color study may be the easiest resolution of all. Ease into 2025 with some color self-care. Step away from the noise and...

by Liza Laird The New Year is known as a time for resolutions, which usually means setting intentions to grow in some way. I have always found that my intentions work out much better when I take them in baby steps. Instead of making some grand promise about the future, I try to add in one small thing each day. As a yogi and knitter, my priority...

by Faith Hale Making and crafting is how I show my love the best, but it’s easy for me to get bogged down in overly-ambitions holiday projects. This year, I’ve made a bunch of framed, up-cycled, patchwork art pieces that fill me with joy instead of draining me of it. I first encountered framed quilt blocks from the brilliant quilter (and...

By Cobrina, Artist Coach and Instructor Whether you’re making goodies to take to a party or a treat after dinner for one, it’s lovely to spend the cooler months filling the kitchen with delicious smells. If you’re looking for some inspiration on turning everyday ingredients into edible expressions of love, check out my Daily Practice on...

Handmade gifts always add an unmatched magic to the holiday season. DIY not only gives you the opportunity to make personalized gifts that your loved ones can’t find anywhere else, but it also gives you a moment to slow down and relax into a craft during an often stressful time. One could say that any of the classes on Creativebug could be...

Hey there! I’m Vickie Howell, a multi-hyphenate creative type who you may best know from my patterns partnership with Creativebug. It is officially Fall and unofficially prime knitting & crochet season! This is the time of year when I can barely contain my maker merriment. You know that classic movie scene when Maria, played by...

Creating heirloom holiday crafts is one of the joys of making things for the people you love. When my daughter was born, the first thing I made her was a Christmas stocking. Using a handful of techniques I gathered from various Creativebug classes, I designed and made my own. It’s always such a pleasure to hang it up and remember all those...

Hey there! I’m Tyffany, graphic designer at Creativebug and an avid maker. I’m thrilled to share a few projects I have in the works this fall. Though the sun still warms our Northern California days, the whispers of autumn are drawing near. As I embrace this transition, my creative spirit is set on completing the projects...

Join Heidi Parkes this October to sew so many circles in a month-long quilt-along! This event centers around Heidi’s class How to Appliqué Circles Three Ways but encourages you to take it farther. We’ll be sharing on Instagram on Tuesdays and Fridays. (You can share on other days too, if you want!) How to Appliqué Circles Three Ways...

by Jennifer Perkins You have probably seen people embroidering photographs printed onto fabric, but have you tried embroidering on canvas?  This is a Halloween version of a project from my latest book Creative Crafts For Teens (now available for pre-order on Amazon) because everything is more fun with a holiday twist. No fancy stitching...

I’m packing a suitcase for my first summer vacation in over a decade: a family trip to Iceland. What I’m thinking about most is the real estate inside my luggage. Iceland is cold and rainy right now and will require layers ranging from a swimsuit for the Blue Lagoon to a hooded coat for rainy 45F nights. And of course, I need to...

by Faith Hale, staff artist and crafty mom I love watching how my crafts change with the seasons, especially now that I’m a mom. There’s the back-to-school projects designed to grow scissor or handwriting skills, the holiday creations to be gifted, crafts focused on themes and events. But summer is when I feel the most comfortable relaxing...