Bonjour Everyone!
Just a short note to say that we are “en vacances” this week, doing our best to search out all things crafty in beautiful Paris.
See you next week.
xo
Once Around

Once again, we turn to Wikipedia for an excellent definition of stamp:

A stamp is a distinctive mark or impression made upon an object (or) a device used to make it.

According to this definition, the art of stamping requires just 2 ingredients necessary to complete the craft. The stamp itself (the object that has the design) and the medium (ink, paint, chalk) used to transfer this mark to the paper.

Today, we will focus in on the stamps themselves. While there is quite a bit of variety of in stamps (acrylic, linocut, foam), as sometimes-traditionalists, we prefer our wood-mounted rubber stamps. They are durable and usually stand up very well to repeated use and vigorous cleanings. As a bonus, they are really cute which makes it perfectly acceptable to store them out in the open either in your vintage ice cube tray or in a wooden bowl or basket.

And so without further delay, enjoy these photos of some of our favorite stamps. We are always adding to our collection and are open to suggestions for fun “categories” to carry. Recently, we were asked to offer more stamps with sports themes. Good suggestion!


























































































Tomorrow: GUIDED TOUR (stamps: part 3)

Our latest haul of new stuff is pretty wonderful.

Some products are brand new (i.e. we’ve never had them in the store before) and some are re-orders for popular products that seem to go fast.

We took these photos with our cool new iPhone photo app giving the images a moody, vintage look.
In real life, the colors are all a little lighter and brighter.



Prima’s flower canisters flew off of the shelf last month. Add your adhesive of choice and stick a flower on a card, a gift box, a frame or whatever else you can think of. Made of paper (yay! no yucky shiny polyester), each has a small hole in the center through which to string a bead? It’s up to you. $11.50 per pack.



Needle felting mats are back in stock. Big ones ($17.50) and little ones ($10.00) for our many felting enthusiasts.
By the way, we will most likely be offering a needle felting class this fall. Details to follow...



Oh, be still our crafty, crafty hearts!

Divine Twine has entered our lives and nothing will ever be the same.
Hurry on down and snatch up a spool...or 7.
Butcher’s twine in the most divine colors. $15 for 240 yards. These should last you a little while.





“Rubber cement, please” was in the suggestion box and we aim to please. $2.75 per jar.



An interesting magazine ($16.00)...


The very best sewing scissors ever. These aren’t cheap, but we think you’ll find them quite worth it.
In Dressmaker’s 8” blade ($37.50) and Pinking Shears ($48.70).





Speedball’s “Speedy Carve” blocks are back in stock. $5.50 each.
Just like a big pink eraser. Easy to carve for the new-ish block printer.


Small chalkboards for $2.25. We have mini ones, too for .60. These are 5” x 7”.



Chalk ink palettes of petals.
We’ve always had the “Bright Pastels” below, but just recently added the others.
All palettes are $16.00 each.













Paper Source recently came out with a couple of new colors of their famous ribbon.
We have the 36 mm ($9.50 each) and 6 mm ($5.00) rolls of both colors.





And we love, love, love, love x infinity Olive Manna. Natalie makes everything she sells look delicious, even those products she doesn’t actually craft herself. We ordered a little bit of everything from her, including the Natural Twine Spools below.
20 yards each. $3.75 per spool...



... and Hand-Dyed (by Natalie) Twine Spools, also about 20 yards each. $7.50 per spool.





We also got several packages of Gift Boxes to be assembled (very easily) by you.
A package of 10 boxes for $7.50



In a couple of seconds, they end up looking like this:





And behold these adorable stickers.
Fold one in half, over a piece of twine or ribbon and you have an instant mini pennant.
$6.00 per package of 30 stickers.



photo from Olive Manna

The flag stickers, folded in half (perhaps around a toothpick?) make a cute flag. $6.00 for 24 stickers.



photo from Olive Manna

Natalie even elevates Twist Ties to a whole new level... $3.00 for a set of 25 ties.



You and your favorite young artist can fight over this coloring book ($12.00).
It is filled with beautiful, intricate designs just begging to be colored in.






And finally, some adorable craft canisters. $5 each. Too cute.






And the boxes keep coming... We will keep you posted.

After an unintentional break (sorry about that), we resume our store tour today.

In this clockwise spin around the shop, next up is the world of stamps and printing.

And what better way to launch this topic than with a discussion of vintage ice cube trays!





Huh?

Well, we’ve collected quite a few of these things, actually and we love them. With their multiple cube compartments, they provide an easy-access, neat and orderly way to keep track of your stamps. Alphabet sets (and other mini stamps) benefit from this storage system particularly well.





Our trays are on sale in the stamp department for around $8 a piece.



Tomorrow: GUIDED TOUR (stamps: part 2)

Hi Everyone,

We’re back for our final chapter in the wreath tour. As promised, today we address the fascinating(?) topic of fasteners and adhesives - the tools that help you attach your decorations to your ring to make your wreath.

Our adhesive of choice, as far as wreath-making goes, is the ever-useful glue gun. At Once Around, we carry one that’s cordless which makes an easy task even easier.





Admittedly, the glue gun is not always the best choice. With our wire wreath forms, for example, it makes a lot more sense to tie or tape your decorations, as the open frame doesn’t allow much surface for gluing.

This is the kind of frame we used to make a large yarn ball wreath at our old store, Studio Knit. The balls of yarn were all attached with floral wire, threaded through a clump of yarn at the back of the ball and then twisted around the wire bars. Floral tape is also an option for this kind of frame, although probably not for balls of yarn.




All images via Notions Marketing.


And that completes our visit to wreath-land.

In closing, we leave you with images of some simply beautiful wreaths....all created by crafters
JUST. LIKE. YOU.



Stitching at Stone Cottage (includes tutorial)



Martha


BleuBird (includes a tutorial)



Made By Nicole (includes a tutorial)



Holly Ferencze



New Hampshire Woods Creations



New Hampshire Woods Creations




Tomorrow: GUIDED TOUR (stamps: part 1)


p.s. And by “tomorrow,” we mean Monday, of course.

...to observe a moment of appreciation for pinwheels.

Whether to celebrate the 4th of July, summer or just because, these little beauties are super quick to make, not too tricky and pretty much make everyone smile.

Click here for Martha’s instructions. We didn’t bother gluing together 2 different pieces of paper and instead, just used some of our double-sided paper. If you do decide to follow Martha to the letter (and we would NEVER judge you for that), we suspect that 2 pieces of text weight (i.e. regular weight, like your printer paper) paper glued together would work much better than doubling up on cardstock paper. Too heavy.

We clipped ours to a lovely hydrangea plant brightening up our refreshment area. Did we mention we have complimentary refreshments? Coffee and tea every day and treats usually. Those are apricot bars that you see to the right of the pinwheels in the second photo. We’ve been told that they’re quite delicious!








Back to wreaths tomorrow!