Winter Suncatchers – Holiday Fun for the Whole Family

My favorite days in the winter are those when the sky is a clear, bright blue and the sun is shining. On those days the temperature isn’t much of a concern because it’s just so pretty out. But let’s face it. Sometimes, no matter how pretty the sky is, it’s just too cold to spend time outside. So bring the best of the outdoors, in!

Suncatchers can really make the indoors sparkle with that natural sunlight.  Plus, they are so versatile. My son and I paint them together and then attach them to holiday gifts. My son loves giving out these presents, bragging that he painted the attached suncatcher just for that person.  Some of our friends hang the suncatchers on their Christmas trees and then after the holidays put them up in bright windows so they can enjoy them all year long.

We don’t even carve out a ton of extra time to paint our suncatchers. It becomes part of our holiday preparations. We do have one special tradition though: when we know we are going to get snow, we pull out some special designs and paint them the night before so that they are ready to glitter against all of the pretty fresh snow.

What do you do with your suncatchers?

Crafty Stocking Stuffers

Thanks to our friends over at CraftGossip.com we discovered our favorite new website: Bugs and Fishes! The site is the brainchild of Laura “Lupin” Howard who confesses that she is obsessed with felt. We didn’t need to know much more to love her. But then we took a peak at some of her projects and all we could say was, WOW!

Laura has a creative vision and ideas that got the wheels turning for us. In fact, she published a wonderful article full of adorable projects that would be perfect as stocking stuffers. Check it out!

Do Laura’s projects give you ideas? Share them with us! Tis the season to be making gifts and with all the people on our list we need as many ideas as we can get!

And the Stockings were Hung by the Chimney with Care…

I don’t know about you, but it seems like every other year or so we  are adding stockings. Whether we’re replacing worn out ones or adding new members to the family doesn’t seem to matter. We just need more. Plus, my son loves to give his teachers gifts in a stocking as an extra touch so we’ve had to figure out quick and creative stocking making. Fortunately, we have some really talented designers on our team to help us with that!


Over the next three weeks we are going to share fun and different stocking ideas with you. Make them to decorate your hearth, or give them as gifts. Either way the process is fun and much like snowflakes, you can make each one unique.

This week we’re starting out simple with a basic mini stocking. This little guy is easy to make and perfect for gift cards, candy, dog or cat treats and other small gifts. Mix it up a bit by making it with different colors of felt, or add Stick-It Felt numbers letters or shapes for an extra touch.

Have fun and show us your cute little creations!

Thanksgiving Reflections

Our Thanksgiving holiday was a wonderful time for us to spend with our families and think about all of the wonderful people and opportunities in our lives. It also reminded us what a pleasure it is for us to craft and to share our crafts with others.

Crafting is so much more than just creating decorations or gifts. It’s a time to be creative and bond with friends and family. And in one special case, it was a time to learn a new culture and share some of our own.

A few summers ago we sent Kelly’s suncatchers with the Monaghan Baptist Church on their mission trip to Jamaica. We paint suncatchers all the time. We get excited by the new designs and love to get creative with them. But even we weren’t prepared for the reaction we got. 

The people our friends at Monaghan Baptist visited had never seen anything like our suncatchers before. They took excitement to a new level. And we got to see a craft we do every day through fresh eyes.

The Monaghan Baptist was a success on many levels. We are so glad we got to be a part of it.

Frame It Up for Thanksgiving

We’ve been trying to pull together some fun and quick ideas for your Thanksgiving dinner. This project is an old favorite – easy enough to do for everyone at your table and pretty enough to keep in your house all year long. 

You can get this project done in no time – you just need a frame, some jute or twine and our fall leaves assortment. If you want to change the look a little bit, you can use felt instead of jute for the background. If you stick with the jute, simply wrap it around the frame. Place and then glue your leaves and you’re done!

If you want to use this as a name plate on your table, simply print or write your guests’ names on cardstock and put it in place. Or, take your favorite Thanksgiving photo and proudly display it.

Happy Thanksgiving from New Image Group!

Cute Critters

With their reputations for making a mess of the garbage, raccoons may not be the most welcome sight in your yard. But these guys will stay exactly where you put them. And maybe even get a little giggle out of you. They are easy to make and could even make for cute and unexpected little name holders at your Thanksgiving table. Click here for instructions.

Felt Crafts for Kids

With the weather turning colder and rain and snow moving in, you may be looking for things to keep the kids busy if they’re stuck in the house. Our friends at Better Homes and Gardens have just the thing with this selection of felt projects for kids of all ages. In fact, all of these projects would make great homemade holiday gifts.