Lark Crafts

May is a lovely, lovely month, especially around here! This month, we get to celebrate the relaunch of our site AND the release of the first book in our stash-tacular new series – Stash Happy Patchwork! Love fabric? Check. Have lots of it? Check (me, too!). Love using your scraps and fabric bits in patchwork projects? Yes?!? Hexagon bed sheets, a Dresden plate rug, a too-cute cactus pincushion – blissful stash busting, here we come!

All month long, we’ve got major stash fun planned, including additional chances to win the book, free projects, and more from author Cynthia Shaffer (get a head start now: take a tour of her book, take a peek at her blog, or see inside her fabulous creative space). So check back often!

And to celebrate our relaunch and the release of Stash Happy Patchwork, we’re offering up a copy of the book and the Pretty Petite Dress décor project. To be entered for a chance to win, leave a comment on this post by 9 p.m EST on Monday, May 2. Any comment will do but we’d love to hear how you store your stash! One winner will be selected at random and contacted on Wednesday, May 4. Click here for the official rules.

Congrats to Tammy who was randomly selected as our winner! Thanks to everyone who commented and shared their fabulous stash storage ideas. Stash on a baker’s rack, stash with its own room (!), stash in old kitchen cupboards… we love it!

Any way you slice it, Big Little Felt Universe is fast becoming an online feltie sensation! And it’s no wonder–with full-size patterns and step-by-step photos for every project inside–you can stitch up all sorts of cuteness imaginable.

Our friends at MADE, Cake Spy, Prudent Baby, Maya*Made, and BurdaStyle have all hosted some fantastic giveaways around Big Little Felt Universe, but we’ve been saving this one just for you. Why? Because our Lark Crafts fans are the apple of our eye.

Which is why, I present to you a chance to win the cover project PLUS a copy of the book. Behold!—a crisp lil’ apple that looks good enough to eat. Even sweeter, it’s held together by Velcro and comes with a felt cutting board and knife.

Author Jeanette Lim hand-stitched it herself, and to celebrate our new blog look (like what you see?) we’re giving away this little feltie gift to one lucky reader. How do you enter for a chance to win? Read on to find out.

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To celebrate our redesigned site, as well as a Spring list bursting with exciting titles, Lark Jewelry & Beading is giving away a bundle of 14 fantastic books.

The books include signed copies of Sherry Serafini’s Sensational Bead Embroidery, Creating Glass Beads by Jeri Warhaftig, Steel Wire Jewelry by Brenda Schweder, and 30-Minute Rings by Marthe Le Van, in addition to these unsigned-but-still-oh-so-sweet titles:
Vintage Jewelry Design
500 Silver Jewelry Designs
Masters: Polymer Clay
Elegant Wire Jewelry
The Art of Jewelry: Polymer Clay
The Penland Book of Jewelry
Polymer Clay Beads

Want more? Of course you do! So we’re adding in signed copies of the first three titles in the bestselling Beadweaving Master Class series the Sherry Serafini book is a part of: Laura McCabe’s Embellished Beadweaving, Marcia DeCoster’s Beaded Opulence, and the wonderful book that debuted the series, Diane Fitzgerald’s Shaped Beadwork.

How to enter for a chance to win these 14 amazing books? It’s easy: Leave a comment on this post by 9 p.m. EST on Monday, May 2. Any comment will do, but how about taking a look at our Lark Jewelry & Beading Facebook page and commenting right here about what sort of information you’d like us to be posting on Facebook. We’d also love to know how you use social media.

One winner will be selected at random and contacted by May 4. Click here for the official rules.

Good luck, and please do “Like” and share on Facebook,your blog, and Twitter the Lark Jewelry & Beading Facebook page to encourage your friends to share jewelry and beading news, exhibit info, interviews, calls for entry, and images of their latest work. We’ll do the same. And thank you!

Every Friday evening, I post a set of project instructions.

Practically everyone in the office has left for a long Easter weekend. It’s so quiet!

Egg hunts and chocolate bunnies and roast lamb…in deciding which project instructions to post today, I couldn’t help thinking about Easter traditions. Did you know Easter ain’t Easter in Greece without red-dyed hard-boiled eggs? (I think they’re just gorgeous.) The best way to get them this shade is by dyeing them in onion skins, of all things, that you’ve simmered in water for 30 minutes!

Now, doesn’t the ring below right, which was designed by Cynthia Del Giudice, kind of look like Greek Easter eggs? Okay, okay, it’s sort of a stretch. It doesn’t matter, though—you can still enjoy the instructions, which you can download by clicking here. They’re from the recently released book 30-Minute Rings, by Marthe Le Van. Every one of the awesome projects in this book can be made in 30 minutes or less.

Notice, too, how cleverly I tied 30 minutes of boiling onion skins to 30 minutes of crafting.

Whether you celebrate Easter or not, there’s something about springtime and bunnies that just seems right. A change of weather, a return of farmers markets, Earth Day…all of these things go perfect with a bunny.

We’re not the only ones who think so: For the past few weeks we’ve been noticing all sorts of bunny projects jumping around out there–from teeny tiny ones at Mochimochi Land to finger puppets over at Purl Soho. Now it’s finally time to share a soft, stuffed friend of our own. So this Free Project Friday, we’re going with one of our friends from Craft Challenge: Dozens of Ways to Repurpose Scarves: Hoppy!

Download the project here.

And don’t forget the template right here.

Or, if you’re not up for making anything but really want a stuffed bunny, check out the designer’s store! Sleepy King on Etsy has all sorts of charming stuffies for sale…

Earth Day is celebrated on April 22 every year, both held annually during spring in the northern hemisphere, and autumn in the southern hemisphere. Many cities now extend the schedule of Earth Day observance events to be an entire week or month. These events are designed to encourage environmentally aware behaviors, including increased recycling, improved energy-efficiency, and reduction in disposable items.

In the spring of 1970, Senator Gaylord Nelson, inspired by the grass-roots momentum and energy behind anti-Vietnam War demonstrations known as “teach-ins,” announced the inception of a day devoted to a nationwide grassroots demonstration on behalf of the environment and invited everyone to participate.  The event soon took on a life of its own with 20 million demonstrators and participation from thousands of schools and local communities.

Earth Day has done so much to bring environmental causes into the spotlight and to motivate people en masse to take action. While it remains a wonderful way to have an annual check-in on our progress and push citizens and government to take further action, shouldn’t we consider giving the environmental a permanent spotlight in our thinking? In today’s rapidly changing world when the urgency of large-scale shifts in our modes of thinking and behavior are required, it seems useful, even necessary, to consider every day Earth Day.

As crafters and DIY-ers, I think it’s important to bring these practices into our creative processes, from the materials we use to the projects we make. Some of my favorite eco craft links include: Inhabitat,  Treehugger, Readymade, Crafting a Green World, and Sew Green. Check them out for inspiring eco-minded stories and information.

Lark is a strong proponent of eco crafts with a variety of books that provide a wealth of inspiration to look at your crafting in a new environmentally-minded light. Check out the following books: Eco Craft, AwareKnits, Fantastic Recycled Plastic, Eco Books, Candlemaking the Natural Way, and Soapmaking the Natural Way. Projects from these books can help better connect you (as well as your crafty friends and family) with the need to view your crafting materials with new eyes.

Cherry blossoms, baby bunnies, and bare feet…Oh yes, it’s springtime! And if this warm and fuzzy feeling wasn’t enough to melt the heart of a certain editor who shall remain nameless, it’s also jewelry trade show season…and spring book release season…and summer jewelry season…

—stream of conscious writing comes to a screeching halt—

What? Summer jewelry? Jewelry has a season? Wait a minute…can jewelry be seasonal?

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Welcome back to our Spring Studio Stroll. Join us as we take you on a journey across the country to visit some of our authors. They let us take a peek at their spaces, so we can all see where the magic happens! This week we’ll visit Minnesota to see the inspiring space of Sandy Stone, designer and author of Fabric Remix. Ok, take it away Sandy!

I love the short, vertical commute to my second-story work space in our home. With large windows on three sides, it’s like working in a tree house…amongst leaves in the summertime and overlooking snow-covered rooftops come winter. My collection of vintage scarves covers all four walls.

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