The Spunky Craft Co. journal

A little know-how. More making.

Notes on materials, techniques and the small choices that make your next project easier to start and more fun to finish.

Art Supplies

Acrylic, watercolor or gouache: which paint to start with

Three water-based paints, three very different personalities. Here is how each one behaves on the page, so you can pick the one that fits how you like to work.

Yarn & Sewing

Picking your first crochet hook and yarn

One skein, one hook and a little patience. How to read a yarn label, match a hook to it and skip the yarns that make learning harder than it needs to be.

Yarn & Sewing

The embroidery stitches to learn first

A handful of stitches covers most beginner patterns. Start with lines, move on to curves, then fill shapes and add dots.

Crafting

Rainy-day crafts for kids 6 and up, by age

What a first grader enjoys can bore a tween, and a teen is ready for real art supplies. Rough ideas by age, plus the labels worth checking first.