Dearest Friends of The Crafting Cottage, Welcome Back!!! New Year - new crafting adventures await us all.

I have already been busy with two of the Clubs. One club is the "Get Me Through the Winter" Club. Several members received their January and February kits. I will be sharing pictures in this Musings of cards that I have already received pictures of from our dear Crafting Sister, Sheila, from California!

The other club is the on-going club. The Creative Challenge Club. Anyone can join throughout the year. The information is on the website - I'll have a link later in this newsletter for you to check it out.

I have news to share about the Papercrafters Purge Flash Sale. I have lots of news to share about upcoming events and workshops.

Things are happening inside the main Cottage - things are happening in the back building which will become a second workshop/classroom and be known as the "Studio".

So - welcome back, my friends. On to the Musings...

Both the main Cottage and the building in the back of the property are getting a "refresh". The Autumn, Thanksgiving, and Christmas goodies are being moved into storage for now. Spring, summer, bright colors, nautical themes and more are moving in.

I have some wonderful new products that have arrived over the last couple of weeks from brand new companies for the Crafting Cottage.

Once I get them priced, some will be heading over to the booth at the Shoppes at Oldies But Goodies and the rest will be found in both the main Cottage's mini-retail shop as well as the new "Studio".

One of the new companies is Colorado Craft. They have some adorable and hilarious stamp & die sets.

For all my Dog & Cat lovers out there - these sets are so heartwarming.

These sets will be part of kits for papercrafters to create cards and or scrapbook layouts.

I'll let you all know when they are ready.

In response to many crafters wanting to see more "masculine" themed stamps and papers - this set will put a smile on your face. This set will work for Father's Day, birthdays or simply any reason.

FINALLY!! I am very excited to share many, many amazing products from the company, Indigo Blu. They are based in the UK.

Several mini-workshops will be offered using Indigo Blu products for creating journals, tags, cards and unique albums.

More details later in an upcoming Musings.

I LOVE this Owl stamp. It is stunning in its details and depending on how you choose to color it - the results are limitless.

Look for the mini-workshops that will be offered on Wednesdays as well as on various weekend days and/or evenings.

The fun has just begun!

What is happening with the Papercrafters Purge Flash Sale Group on Facebook???

For those not familiar with this group - The Papercrafters Purge Flash Sale group consists of about twelve independent papercrafting shops owned by women. We (the vendors) stretch from California to Maine. Staci, the amazing coordinator of this whole group, built the group to nearly 4,000 members. It's been going on for over seven years.

Each month, usually the third weekend, my fellow vendors and I put tons of goodies up for sale for a 24 hour period. We send invoices to the crafters that indicated they wished to purchase an item. Then we would ship out the goodies. We all added crafting customers from one end of the country to the other!

Several of my fellow vendors also would offer classes, demonstrations and even some "sneak peeks" at upcoming products that would be part of a sale on the Facebook Purge Sale page.

Unfortunately, for the past several months, Facebook has been making it more and more difficult for us to continue offering this fun opportunity for crafters to find unique products and participate in tutorials from small women-owned businesses. Between algorithms and Bots...it became such a challenge for us to try and describe the items we were selling and/or our crafters would indicate they wanted to purchase something but their request would disappear.

We managed to pull off a sale last weekend.

At this point, Staci is looking to move the group to a new platform. As a group, my fellow vendors and I are working with Staci to see how else we may be able to continue.

I will keep you posted.

Please visit the Crafting Cottage's Booth

located on the first floor

AT:

Lots of activity happening for 2025.

I will be hosting several "Retreat Weekends" this year. These weekends will be geared towards combining serenity and bliss with paper crafting pursuits. I will be announcing the first retreat dates as soon as I have confirmed some of the outside instructors.

Additionally, several groups have already booked the Inn. The following weekends are already reserved:

February 15th - 18th - Group of 4

February 21st - 23rd - Website Work & Retreat Planning Group/3

March 14th - 16th - Group of 4

March 20th - 23rd - Scrapbook & Cards Virtual Workshop Weekend Group/2

March 28th - 30th - Group of 4

April 26th - April 29th - Group of 3

May/June/July & August: Flexible availability for groups. Contact for info.

September 12th - 15th - Group of 4

September 25th - 28th - Creative Goddess Retreat

October 3rd - 5th - Group of 5

October 10th - 13th - Group of 4

The Calendar on the website has been updated. Feel free to check it out to see what weekends are available for you and a group of friends to enjoy a relaxing, stress-free time crafting away.

Staying at the Crafting Cottage is a more intimate experience compared to the large crops held at hotels around the country. Throughout one's stay, the option to stay in one's pajamas for the entire time is fine. Order food to be delivered or enjoy "Crockpot" competitions with your fellow crafters. Guests staying at the Cottage have full use of the kitchen. Many guests bring a LOT of food so that they can just stay nice and cozy at the Cottage and never have to leave until it's time to head home.

Oh - and the Tool Room.....(more on that special room coming).

Get Me Through the Winter Club

January's kit was filled with pre-cut "Postage" blank panels, a package with two different stencils for shading the panels or filling the panels with a variety of designs. The kit also included several blank A2 cards with envelopes plus a clear stamp set, plus "postage stamp" themed papers, ribbon and more!

The stamp set, from Waffle Flower, had several great images and sentiments.

I have already heard from a couple of the club members and they are loving the whole postage stamp vibe.

Here are some pictures from our California crafter, Sheila. I love how Sheila added real postage stamps to some of her cards!

The Creative Challenge Kit for January came with two different die sets to help create slots, pockets and tags with slots plus bright and gorgeous floral papers as well as basic cardstock, ribbon and pre-cut mini-album covers and interior pages.

Those kits went out last week so I expect to start having members send me pictures of their projects in a couple of weeks. I'll be sure to share what they send. Remember - you can sign up for the Creative Challenge Club anytime. To get more information - CLICK HERE!

Mark your calendars for the following Craft 'n Chat Events!

Some of the events will offer "sleep over" options. Some of the events will have a minimum number of crafters needed to sign up. Make sure you check all the information before you register.

Online registrations will be available starting next week!!!

Day Trippers' Craft 'n Chat

When:

Thursday, February 27th - Sunday, March 2nd Thursday: 11 AM - 9 PM

Friday: 11 AM - 9 PM

Saturday: 11 AM - 9 PM

Sunday: 11 AM - 4 PM

Prices: 1 Day Only - $25 per person (Either Thursday, Friday or Saturday)

Enjoy 2 Days for just $35 per person

(Any two days in a row)

Enjoy 3 Days for just $50 per person

(Thursday, Friday & Saturday)

Sunday Only: $20 per person (minimum 4 crafters needed)

• What is included?
• Your own table with cushy office chair & ample lighting
• Full use of the kitchen - please bring your own snacks/lunch/dinner
• Access to the Tool Room
• Enjoy the complimentary Beverage Center which includes coffee, tea, ice, water and mixes for lemonade, ice- tea and hot cocoa
• A goodie bag including a coupon for a shopping discount
• A Make 'n Take Project to create and take home
• 
  

For those who wish to stay overnight and craft the nights away...

A minimum of two nights is required Either Thursday & Friday nights

or

Friday and Saturday nights

Please contact me at: info@thecraftingcottage.com if interested.

Week Day Craft 'n Chats:

$15 per person per day

Tuesday, March 11th - 11 AM till 6 PM

Wednesday, March 12th - 11 AM till 6 PM

Tuesday, March 25th - 11 AM till 6 PM

Wednesday, March 26th - 11 AM till 6 PM

Starting Wednesday, March 5th in the month of March - every Wednesday night from 6 PM till 8 PM will be "Card Sharks" night. A great way to break up one's week.

Each Wednesday night, "players" will be dealt a set of blank cards. Additionally, each player will receive a special bag or box filled with a variety of products, embellishments, die-cuts and more.

Each "crafty player" will receive an envelope with their secret assignment. Using "the hand" each player was "dealt", they get to enjoy "playing" with their stash for about 1 1/2 hours. The final thirty or so minutes is spent "declaring" what each player was given and how they worked with the hand dealt to them.

Everyone goes home with a prize and more, including their completed projects.

Light refreshments are provided.

Card Shark nights are a way to not only break up one's week and get over the infamous "hump day", but players will get to use a variety of products, tools, inks and discover a variety of techniques, ideas, short-cuts and more. This is a very low key, low stress - let's just have some crafty fun time.

Card Shark Nights are $18 per person per night.

Register for one or all!



March 5th, 12th, 19th & 26th.

Register online via the website.

Well, my friends - wait till you all see the newly refreshed Tool Room!!!

I am very excited as to how it is turning out.

First, it began when I was able to move most of the large commercial-grade dies UP on counter tops or hang up high on the walls at eye-level so that all of us crafters could actually read the labels to see what the die was.

I then started to look at the rest of the Tool Room and decided that I needed to tweak it a bit. One thing led to another and the next thing I knew....

...Fixtures were moved. Dies were getting as "themed" as possible so that card-makers could more easily find the card dies and scrapbookers could more easily find the various dies that were meant for scrapbooking.

I will be working on better samples and displays that supply the number of the die so that crafters can more easily spot a project they may wish to create and just look for the number of that sample's die - which should be pretty much at eye-level now.

Crafters will also discover more ROOM to move around in the Tool Room now.

And not to get too ahead of myself or toot my own horn too loudly - but, by golly - I think I have FINALLY created the BEST layout of the tables and chairs in the Main Workshop Room!!! WHOO HOOO!!!!

Yes, yes, - I know - I do LOVE to move things. Yes, I do. True.

However, I usually move things around when either someone makes a suggestion OR I see something not working as well as it should OR I simply don't like the way something looks, feels, functions, etc., etc.

To that end - the main Workshop has certain limitations that make it a true challenge to fit six 6' tables plus comfy chairs. Over the years, I have tried certain "combinations". Some have worked better than others - but the one "thing" that I have noticed is the majority of us crafters not only enjoy as much space as possible to spread out our stuff - but - we like to have space on the floor as near to our table as possible to place MORE of our STUFF.

Throughout the past several years, I know, for a fact, that returning crafters enjoy "specific" tables. Why? Mostly, because those tables offer just a wee bit more space. There were a couple of tables that did not offer the same kind of "bonus" or "extra" space that the other tables offered.

So, I began my challenge today (Monday). I spent several hours today moving tables around the main workshop room. I tried them here. I tried them there. I brought in 4' tables. I brought back the 6' tables. Just when I finally thought there could be no way to create six "stations" for six individual crafters to enjoy bonus space PLUS have enough room IN the room for everyone to easily walk around in - I slumped into one of the cushy office chairs and stared across the room.

That's when the lightning bolt hit and the revelation was genius!!! NOW, I can't wait for the first group of six crafters to come to the refreshed workshop room. Instead of everyone wanting the two "best" tables - ALL the tables will be desired. Whether there are two, three, four, five or six crafters - everyone will not only be able to easily see everyone else - but everyone will have their own special "bonus" spaces to put their extra STUFF in and it won't block anyone else's way.

I'm excited. It's the little things in life that can make a big difference.