Hi. I’m Rose and this is my site, FineCraftGuild. It’s the blog where I’ve shared over 1500 creative ideas that either dazzled me or that bubbled up in me over the last 10+ years. Now, I focus mostly on patterns, because I’m a tat busy with my ‘day job’ to do ‘all crafts’.
Because of this day job, I write this blog under the name of Rose. It’s like the ‘Rose’-persona in me lives like an artist, and embellishes pretty much everything in sight. My home is filled with art, crafts and DIY projects.
My vision is for FineCraftGuild to be ‘the destination-blog’ for easy, eco-friendly DIY Crafts & Home Décor tutorials & patterns. It takes inspiration, research, experimentation, practice and time to raise a creative project from ‘good’ to ‘great’. I present easy, inspiring and green how-tos, tutorials and patterns. And offer extensive input on what works and what doesn’t. This way, I help readers create craft, DIY and decor projects better: simple, economical, beautiful, trendy and eco-friendly.
Travelling is part of my life. Compared to most people, I travel lots and lots! To far and obscure places in The Netherlands, France (Paris!), Italy, Canada and the US and, most recently, London, England.
And before I come home from my travels, I fill my suitcase with fun, decorative and often ‘a bit crazy’ finds. You could call them ‘souvenirs’.
You can find kitchey aprons from Rome, recycled felt flowers from the US, handmade jewellery and paintings from Canada, vintage table cloths from Italy, soap moulds and scrapbooking stamps from China. Over the years I collected stacks of beautiful fabric found on those wonderful Dutch outdoor markets. Plus some of the happiest-colored high-quality mercerized yarn from Dutch knitting shops, which are just the best stocked in the world, in my opinion.
I also tend to create art projects when I travel. For fun. Some of these may be transient but often ‘something’ from that art experience comes home with me.
Even just a photo. Like this sand-tray circle-of-friends. I found this tray with sand somewhere in a shed outside a restaurant somewhere in a seashore village, just North of San Francisco. I poked around the sand with my finger…Then I decided to create a circle of friends, and put love in the center. Now, do you want a tutorial for this? Possibly not. However I had fun creating this setting, just for a photo…. Am I crazy? (Don’t answer that).
I paint. In acrylics, but I don’t write much about this on this blog. Making art is one of those things that I don’t want to teach, but do. But it is here, and no doubt influences my sense of color, composition, etc. in my projects. (Mostly, it makes a gigantic mess in my house, and being a ‘painter’ justifies that, doesn’t it?!)
I think I have landed in the world from pastels, after a decade of bright full-color artwork. Here’s the latest abstract painting that I just made for my friend in Canada who wanted just that.
She wanted a pure abstract made with the colors of her new sofa, her flooring, her dining room chairs and those lovely turquoise and blue hues that she likes. And there it is. It’s huge! 60 x 24″. Don’t know if you can call it art as its literally made to please and match her living room! She’s happy with it, that’s the main thing. Want a tutorial or tips on how to make your own loft artwork? Or commission an abstract artwork for your living room?
So, as I don’t write about painting, I do write about everything else craftsy and creative! I love restyling fashion, and make something out of ‘nothing’. I like making cards and baking or making friendship bracelets with my daughter. To complement my growing range of handmade knitwear and crochet accessories. I write about all this.
I learned knitting as a teenager. Did not knit for most of my life – too busy with my ‘day job’, and then my baby. Never learned to crochet till 10 years ago. These are flowers on my craft work table. The circles were meant to become a crochet girls cardigan. The pretty crochet flowers, well, they go with just about anything, right?!
About sewing: I tend to write about what inspires me more than about my actual projects.
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Beyond my writing, I also feature guest writers from time to time – artisans from all over the world, covering different crafts. Like me, they love to create DIY, Crafts & Home Décor, and have a keen interest in eco-friendly designs.
We’ve had two regular guest writers. Janeen van Niekerk, who lives in South Africa, loves paper piecing and Quilting. For almost half a year, every Thursday she features a free post with what started as tips for beginning quilters, and has evolved in a series of free online workshop for easy quilt projects you can do on your own with her detailed, illustrated instructions. When she’s not on our blog, you can find her quilting at www.quiltartdesigns.blogspot.com, wheres she shares her quilting adventures.
And for a couple of seasons, the wonderful Tammy Henderson, a natural home decorator, wrote for Fine Craft Guild. Tammy is incredibly creative. (… used to own a craft shop….) Her weekly illustrated tutorials feature DIY beautiful seasonal arrangements that use recycled materials’. Her photos are stunning!! They make you overlook that she typically uses mere dollar store trinkets, cheap vintage finds, recycled materials and free garden clippings. Beyond our weekly feature, Tammy used to write her own beautiful blog OneMoreTimeEvents.com, but this is no longer an active site.
Who else? Occasional writers are active crafters, jewelry makers, quilters, seamstresses, crochet-ers, knitters, home decorators, renovators, furniture DIY-ers, upcyclers and other artists. We share DIY & craft tutorials, tips and techniques on this blog. We feature what inspires us!
Last but not least, behind the scenes at FineCraftGuild.com we have a guy dubbed ‘Michael’. He is the technical to-go-to guy. He writes … in bullet points… Nah,…. not for you. But he has helped overcome many hurdles with this blog, so that you, here today, can be reading this.
There is a privacy policy page, with lots of details, but let me sum things up:
Fine Craft Guild’s Privacy Policy
We don’t sell email addresses. In the course of ads being served on this website, third parties may be placing and reading cookies on users’ browser, or using web beacons to collect information. Please Google the latest, most up-to-date information about your user options for cookie management. I don’t do anything special – it’s the same for all websites with Google ads.
Fine Craft Guild’s Disclosure
Our articles contain affiliate links. We often make recommendations for products we believe in and will earn an affiliate fee if you were to buy them. We do however sincerely recommend them. We hope you will use these links to purchase your craft materials. Earning little fees for each sale helps to maintain this blog. There are also Google ads on this site. We will receive a small return if you were to click on these image-links. And all these little amounts have helped us to pay expenses and keep Fine Craft Guild alive and well and continue to grow and be maintained.
A New Structure of Support
To more successfully and securely manage this blog and several other websites in specific niche markets, e.g. by sharing cost of shopping carts, blog development software, etc. a few years back we set up a little company called Aryta. So, in the paperwork you’ll find that FineCraftGuild.com is now owned and operated by Aryta Ltd, registered at 1 Rosemont Road, London NW3 6NG, England. But don’t expect a big corporation or anything. It’s just me, Rose.