Our group of local crafters, Lincoln Handmade, worked on some squares for the chalk art portion of the festival.

Crafterella worked so hard on this design!  My mom and I helped out with a couple of the squares.

Our Social Media Club also did some art.  I love how they Rick-rolled the festival.

Some things I learned about sidewalk chalk art:

• bring knee pads
• wear a high neck shirt or camisole  (I may or may not have been flashing people)
• spritzing your work with water sets the chalk
• drink lots of water

image copyright threadrare on etsy

Are you ready for Spring?  Here in Nebraska we’ve had a steady layer of snow for a couple of months now.  It’s getting old.  I thought I’d lighten the mood around here by searching for some cute flower items on Etsy.  A few of the items, including the In Bloom Magnolia and the owl amigurumi, come from my fellow Lincoln Handmade members.

This etsy mini has been replaced with a screenshot.

Want an “I’ve Been Featured” button? You can find those here.

You can catch me and some of my Lincoln Handmade Etsy team friends being interviewed on NET Radio.  It will be streamed live at just after 8:30am (Central) and then you can find it on their website after that.

I haven’t heard it yet and I won’t be able to until Saturday night.  I was really, really sick when he came over to do the interview.  I just hope I was coherent enough not to be a total joke.

Did you listen to it?  What did you think?

I’m a member of our local etsy team, Lincoln Handmade.  Last night we all got together at my house for a craft night.  We spent most of the evening using the Big Kick, eating, and chatting.   You can read more about it at the Lincoln Handmade blog.

The Big Kick was the hit of the evening.  I bought mine on sale a couple of months ago at Joann. It is a die cutting machine.  It is great to use with paper, fabric, chipboard, felt, and whatever else you can run through it.   You can make appliques like a dream!  TIP: add your heat n bond to the fabric BEFORE you run it through the machine.  Then you have a ready to iron on shape!

The dies can be purchased at craft stores.  I have a few that are exclusive to Stampin’ UP that match their stamp sets.  The dies can get a little expensive.  Most run around $15.  Make sure to use your craft store coupons!  Alphabet and other specialty dies can cost over $100.  We were talking about maybe charging dues for our team and investing in some of these more expensive tools for the good of the group.

This is actually a pretty good price for the Big Kick if you’re interested.  Do you have one already?  What are some of your favorite dies?

Starting on Monday, the Lincoln Handmade Etsy Team will be hosting a week of giveaways. As a founding member of the team, I’m so pleased to be taking part! Make sure to take a look at the shops of those that are participating and follow us around during the week to win some great handmade items. I’m going to be giving away a 3 month subscription to Christy’s Craft Challenge starting on Monday.