Leisure Arts Blog

Halloween in April

‘Tis the season to get spooky! You’ve heard of Christmas in July, but what about Halloween in April? Halloween may be the last thing on your mind, but here at Leisure Arts we just couldn’t wait. The costumes, the decor, everything is just to die for! We’ve gathered some of our favorite spooky season DIYs because it’s never too early to get started.

General Craft

If you’re looking for quick, fun crafts to do for Halloween, look no further! This collection of easy DIYs is perfect for filling your home with spooky decor. From garland to flower pots, you’ll be covered from door to door. These treats, gifts, and decorations are no trick, they’re just the perfect DIY treat!

Coloring

Color on the go with this exciting Halloween coloring book. skulls and witches and jack-o-lanterns, oh my! Full of spooky icons, this book is perfect for getting in the spirit. You can even frame your finished pages for some seasonal wall decor! Rediscover how fun and calming coloring can be.

Crochet

Crocheting seasonal items is a must for crocheters. This irresistible book is a celebration of celebrations, not just Halloween. But how can you not love the Halloween section? Rugs, afghans, costumes, and more are on offer for the spooky season in this book. So grab your hook and get to stitching!

Craft

This Halloween, get in the spirit with Duck Tape! From bags to decorations to costumes, you can truly do it all with this versatile tape. It’s so easy it’s scary! Conjure up some cool accessories for yourself and your home in just a few simple steps. This book guides you every step of the way so your projects are successful.

Quilting

Spark your holiday spirit with quilted home accents. Another all-year-rounder, this book has extra special Halloween projects that will become permanent fixtures in your holiday decor! Cover your walls and your wardrobe with spooky accents that will have you wishing it was Halloween all year long.

It may be early in the year, but it’s never too early to be prepared! This year, Halloween calls for extra special decorations, costumes, and treats. Now is the time to start crafting your spooky attire and decor! Don’t let a lack of time get in the way of you having the spookiest, coolest house on the block.

-Leisure Arts Team

Sustainable Crafting

Crafting is fun and fulfilling, but can sometimes feel wasteful. With Earth Day coming up this month, we here at Leisure Arts have been thinking about how to reduce waste and make our hobbies more sustainable. Whether you want to waste less or just need to make room for new supplies, we can help you make your crafting more eco-friendly. From home decor to wardrobe updates, being sustainable with your crafting is easier than you think.

Diamond Art

Dress up your wardrobe with Diamond Dotz. With strong adhesive and 13 faceted gems, you can step up your dazzle with ease. Diamond Art Freestyle is all about using extra gems or buying your favorite colors and letting the dots fall where they want! While this book provides more of a guide, it’s a great first step on your Freestyle journey. It’s also a perfect way to use up those extra gems without throwing them away or having to find space and storage for them.

Quilting

What do you do with all those old T-shirts that never get worn but you don’t want to throw out? Take those treasured memories and well-earned mementos and turn them into a quilt! Perfect to give as a gift or remind yourself of good times, T-shirt quilts are a great way to sustainably craft. You can use scraps and small precuts to embellish them, and can even use an old top sheet as your base. Reducing, reusing, and recycling has never been so cozy!

Crochet

If you’re looking for ways to waste less in your craft, turn to your stash! Stash busting is a term for purposefully using up your stash of yarn, fabric, and other materials. It’s also one of the best ways to promote sustainability in your own home! It’s the waste-not, want-not mentality. These 6 projects are meant to be created with small amounts of yarn in various colors, making it the perfect stash busting companion.

Punch Needle

Being sustainable doesn’t mean you have to limit yourself. Whether you’ve never tried punch needling or it’s your favorite craft, it’s a great way to use up yarn in a textural, stylish way. It’s especially great for adding to existing materials, like jackets, purses, pillows, and more. It adds a dimensional element to old pieces in a modern, fun way. Even the smallest scraps of yarn can be salvaged with punch needling!

No matter how you do it, try to challenge yourself this month to be more sustainable in your life practices. From busting your stash to crafting with found materials, there’s so many ways to be more eco-friendly and less wasteful. As always, tag us with @leisureartsinc or #leisurearts so we can see what’s happening in your crafty corner.

-Leisure Arts Team

Live Your Best #Yarnist Life

Do you or a loved one have a serious addiction to all things yarn? Do you buy more yarn than you need, knit more than you can gift, or crochet with all your spare time? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you may be a yarnist! Being a yarnist, yarn artist, is not something to be ashamed about, but rather something to embrace and even expand. Yarn isn’t just for knitting and crochet anymore, check out what else you can do with it.

Yarn can be used for so many crafts, life hacks, and home décor projects. Just like these rainbow vases, you can use yarn to create endless possibilities for common home décor items. It’s the perfect accent for your home and creativity!

Macrame:

Yarn is associated with popular crafts like knit and crochet, but you don’t have to limit yourself! You can create hybrid craft projects by using yarn in place of other materials. Macrame, for example, typically uses craft cord, but it’s nothing that a bulky yarn can’t replace! Update this retro craft with a new, soft spin.

If you’re a classic yarnist or want to dip your toe into the yarnist life, try knitting! With just your needles and hands, you’ll walk 2-by-2 into home décor updates, wardrobe refreshes, and gift giving triumphs. If you’re an absolute beginner, try a book like 1-2-3 Knit. Knitting can be as easy as it sounds.

Crochet:

Another one for the traditionalists, crocheting is as fun as it is fulfilling. You can do whatever you want with it. Do you need a new rug? Crochet it. Have you been searching for the perfect sweater? Crochet it! Does your home need a bit of revitalization? Nothing a crochet afghan can’t fix. Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned yarnist, Afghans For All Seasons is perfect for living your best yarn life.

There are endless ways of becoming a yarnist. So, what are you waiting for? Buy a skein, or five, and show the world your best yarnist self. Don’t forget to tag us @leisureartsinc and #leisurearts so we can see what’s happening in your crafty corner!

-Leisure Arts Team

Spring Essentials

Spring is finally here! Gone are the short, cold winter days. It’s time to welcome rain showers, sunshine, and freshly bloomed flowers. With the new season also comes new necessities. You have a new season to craft for! Whether you want to spring clean your yarn stash or just want a quick home update, we’ve got you covered for all your springtime essentials.

Diamond Dotting

Capture the beauty of nature with a new Diamond Art painting. With 13 faceted Diamond Dotz and hours of fun ahead, you’ll be welcoming in spring with a hefty dose of dazzle! This gorgeous floral seaside is perfect to hang in your home or to give as a gift. Either way, it will be a cherished piece of art all year round.

Crochet

No need to wait for April showers to bring you May flowers, you can crochet them yourself! Brighten your home decor with spring-inspired afghans. 8 designs are each as beautiful as springtime itself. It’s like adding a little bit of your garden into your home this season.

Knitting

It may be spring, but it can still get pretty chilly. Stay warm while your waiting for the sun to come out with a knit cardigan. Whether you have just a little experience with knitting or you’re a pro, these 12 knit cardigans are perfect for you. Cardigans are especially great for those days when it’s cold in the morning and warm in the afternoon. Just throw one on and wait for the compliments to flood in!

Sewing

One of the easiest ways to update your home decor is with a new throw pillow or two. or three or four. It’s easier than ever to make beautiful, textured pillows to go with any home style or taste. Choose from one of these 10 patterns, select your color palette, and go! It really is that easy.

Stitchery

Bring a bit of brightness to your home with an embroidery project. Perfect for hanging on the wall, stitching onto a pillow, or giving to a friend, this mini maker is an easy and fun springtime craft. With everything you need right there in the box, you’ll have a gorgeous embroidered project in less than a weekend!

No matter how you like to prepare for spring, a home or wardrobe update is essential. It’s quick, easy, and can be so much fun! Stitch an afghan, sew a pillow, or dot some diamonds. The new season is here and you’re going to be ready for it. As always, if you decide to craft with us be sure to tag @leisureartsinc or use #leisurearts so we can see what’s happening in your crafty corner!

Happy spring crafting!

-Leisure Arts Team

National Craft Month: Taking Your Crafts Up A Notch

With National Craft Month well under way, it’s time to start thinking about how you can grow your skills and expand your craft. Whether you’re a diamond dotter, knitter, quilter, or something else entirely, this is the perfect time to experiment and see just how good you are. Test yourself, you may find yourself surprised by how advanced you’ve become!

Doily Overload

Combine the elegance of tradition with the styles of today. Doilies are a fun and unexpected way to update your home with a retro flair. While doilies may be easy to crochet, adding texture and advanced stitch techniques ups the anti. Try using threads and thinner yarns for even more added difficulty. Doilies Updated will help you understand the different methods involved in doily making while giving you tips and tricks for styling and using your finished projects.

Bloom and Grow Your Knitting Skills

Whether you are a beginner looking to up your knitting skills or an advanced knitter hoping to switch things up a bit, these designs are perfect. Give your home and closet a fresh new update to go with National Craft Month by knitting a new purse, pillow, or scarf set. Knitted items also make great gifts for birthdays, showers, and all other occasions! Start to Expand Your Knitting Skills and see just how far you can take them.

Dazzle Yourself

Enjoy the relaxing repetition of Diamond Dotz with a Diamond Art canvas. Take a trip to the mountains and float on a peaceful lake with this exquisite project. Turn it into a framed art piece or stitch it onto an accessory for a dazzling patch that will make heads turn. Advanced Diamond Art kits are perfect for quiet weekends and recharged evenings.

You, Too, Can Be An All-Star

Quilt for the stars! You don’t need more pre-cut projects and paper pieced quilts, you’ve got All Star Quilts. Several well known quilters have come together to create quilt blocks designed to take your skills up a notch. By the end, you’ll have a beautiful new quilt to hang, gift, or wrap up in. Discover your own awesome abilities!

Florals For Spring

Take a stroll through the gardens of your cross stitch dreams. Shade the petals and curve the leaves with beautiful colors blooming throughout. Pillows From Paula’s Garden will have you growing your skills and expanding your home decor with gorgeous designs. Guests will be asking where they can get one of their own.

National Craft Month is a great reason to challenge yourself and your creativity. Try a new pattern or pick up a new craft, the challenge is half the fun. No matter what you do, don’t forget to tag us with @leisureartsinc and #leisurearts so we can see what’s happening in your crafty corner.

-Leisure Arts Team

The Therapeutic Benefits of Crafting

Are you in a mental rut? Are the winter blues getting to you? Do you want to celebrate National Craft Month in a relaxing way? Maybe you’ve been working hard and deserve a break. No matter the reason, it’s always a good time to explore the therapeutic benefits of crafting. Even if your everyday life is filled with mental activity, crafting and the act of creating uses a different part of the brain, relieving your mind and preventing burn out. Whether you’re a seasoned crafter or just looking for a way to unwind, these activities are sure to do the trick.

Think Abstract

You don’t have to be Van Gogh to make great paintings. Happy Abstracts shows you how to be fearless with color, texture, and technique. Go beyond the classic still life painting and play with whatever shapes and colors you want. While this book will guide you through each painting, it also teaches you how to take risks with creativity and create your own works of art. Give yourself the gift of a free imagination.

Heavy Petal Artist

The repetitive action of crafting is scientifically proven to reduce stress. Working with paper is a great way to use that repetition to make something beautiful. You can start with a simple flower arrangement or jump right into projects like this shadowboxed set seen above. The art of paper crafting has been around for a long time, but this is a fresh and modern take on it.

I Can Smell the Relaxation From Here

This one is a twofer: a craft that’s relaxing to make and to use. Making your own candles is a fun and relaxing way to create your own ambience. Use found and collected items to make your candles, like jars, shells, coffee cups, and more. Whatever you use, this book is there to guide you to delicious scents, beautiful presentations, and inspiration to keep you making!

Lava Yourself

Jewelry isn’t usually thought of as a self-care necessity, unless you do a lot of retail therapy, but these projects were designed to take care of you! Aromatherapy has been used for centuries as a method of healing, and today it’s no different. With lava beads and essential oils, you can have relaxation on the go in a stylish little accessory.

Punch It

Is your growing yarn stash overwhelming you? Try something new with all that yarn. Punch needling is super easy to master and beautiful to look at. Full of color and texture, the options are endless when you pick up a punch needle. Even if you’ve never done it before, this book will help you learn the basics and progressively build your skills until you can freestyle your next punch needle project!

However you like to relax, there’s always a way to bring crafting into it. It’s just about finding the right activity for you. Next time you craft yourself some self-care, be sure to tag us @leisureartsinc or #leisurearts, we love seeing what’s happening in your crafty corner!

-Leisure Arts Team

March is National Craft Month!

It’s one of our favorite times of the year: National Craft Month! We’ll use any excuse to craft but this month we consider it mandatory. Whether you have just a few minutes or days at your disposal, ’tis the season to get creating! All month we’ll be showing you some of our favorite projects and products, you’re sure to fall in love with one. Let’s take a look at some of our classic favorites.

Diamond Art Freestyle

Diamond Art is one of our favorite modern crafts. There’s so many things to dot and so little time! Although it’s not for everyone, Freestyle is a great way to explore the craft, test your skills, and use up extra Dotz from your finished canvases. If you need a little direction, a book like Diamond Dotting Paper Crafting is the guide for you. With patterns for everything from desk accessories to cards, you’ll find your way to Freestyle heaven!

Crochet

Not only is it National Craft Month, it’s also the start of spring! Welcome the sunshine and flowers with some crocheted afghans. You’ll keep warm during those crisp mornings but feel warm with pride while holding your handmade blanket. Spring Afghans is full of afghans that are perfect for springtime preparation.

Loom Knitting

Whether you want to get into a new craft or you just love looms, this is the bundle for you! Designed specifically for beginners, you don’t have to worry about picking anything out or making sure you have everything, it’s all here. You’ll be covered from top to toe in loom knitted goodies and you’ll have enough projects to keep you busy until next National Craft Month!

Cross Stitch

It’s not always about the big, time consuming projects. Sometimes it’s the little things that mean the most. This mini maker is perfect for new stitchers, time crunched stitchers, and everyone in between. With step-by-step instructions and diagrams included, you’ll have everything you need for your new kitchen wall accent or to give to an avo-obsessed friend.

Quilting

The magic of National Craft Month is undeniable. It’s a whole month that’s just for crafting! And what better way to celebrate than with a quilting project. Learn something new while spending time with the old in this book, It’s Quilt Magic. You’ll learn all the tips and tricks to working with triangles while refining and expanding your existing skills.

This National Craft Month, our team reflected back to last March and all the making we’ve done since then. While there may be more indoor days in our future, that doesn’t mean we can’t fill them with exciting crafts and new creations. These projects and more are how we maintain balance and purpose in our lives during hard times. Finding the light in the dark is an essential part of survival, and what a light this month can be! As always, don’t forget to tag us in your social media creations with @leisureartsinc and #leisurearts so we can see what’s happening in your craft corner.

-Leisure Arts Team

Color Match: Eyes To The Skies With Etsy’s 2021 Color Of The Year

Greetings makers! We’re back with another color match, this time for Etsy and their choice of Sky Blue for 2021. What’s special about their choice for color of the year is it not only fits the year thematically, but it’s based in sales and consumer behavior. Sky Blue has had a nearly 40% increase in searches. Data and life collided with their choice on this one. Etsy says they also chose this color because, «After such a tumultuous year, shoppers are looking forward to bluer skies ahead. While there are still many hurdles to overcome, hope is on the horizon and there is a renewed sense of gratitude and connection to our communities. Etsy’s color of the year perfectly represents this, while offering tranquility and further connecting us to nature.» Let’s take the dive and see what this color could have in store for you.

Crochet

The tranquility Etsy speaks of is definitely a vibe for this year. Weekends aren’t the only time to get some rest, you should feel at ease as often as possible. The 8 afghans in this book do just that. Not only will you feel proud wrapping yourself in your own project, you’ll feel instantly relaxed and ready to take on the world. after this episode.

Kid’s Craft

There’s no tranquility when the kids are running around or whining about their boredom, so let them get their hands dirty! Slime continues to grow in popularity, and for good reason. This mess-free, brain stimulating activity is perfect for when you need some you time or if you want to jump in and have some bonding time. Sky blue is just one of the options, and oh how beautiful!

Sewing

Phil says 6 more weeks of winter, but you’re not going to let that stop you from warming up. The possibilities with fleece, much like the sky, are endless. Try using fleece to add shades of blue throughout your home decor and you’ll warm right up at the sight of blue skies! Take inspiration from one of these gorgeous fleece pillows and blankets for your home update.

Fabric Dying

Etsy’s Sky Blue is to die for, so much so that we think you should dye everything! Or at least a dozen home and fashion items. Gone are the days of blindly dying and hoping it works out, you’ve got expert guidance now. From a keychain to a T-shirt to an apron, this book has you covered for your trip to Sky Blue paradise.

Resin Pouring

This ever-trendy craft is just heating up. Whether you want to make a cheeseboard or a set of coasters, resin is a great way to add just a little bit of color to your home. This kit is perfect for beginning resin crafters. It has everything you need to mix trendiness and functionality. Pair it with your choice of cheese board, cheese tray, or coasters and tray set.

Whether you had a good 2020 or not, it’s all blue skies from here, according to Etsy. Don’t forget to let us know what you’re crafting! We always love to see how creative you all are, so be sure to tag us @leisureartsinc or use #leisurearts!