Author Archives: Erin Lewis

Fun on Creativebug

April Creativebug Fun!

Garden season is here – be inspired to try something new through Creativebug!

Using your library card and PIN, create your own account for FREE and nurture your creative side with 1000+ video classes in painting, knitting, crafting, sewing & more!

Seed Bombs

Liana shows you how to make self-planting seed bombs, just in time for spring! This video originally appeared on Facebook Live on February 21, 2017.

Woodland Mushroom

Learn to make a soft sculpture with both hand and machine stitching. Tamar provides a template but encourages you to develop your own projects according to your personality and style. She also encourages you to emphasize the character of your creations with sweetly stitched features for an organic, dreamy aesthetic.

Botanical Sketching Techniques – Available April 24!

Few things are more rewarding to sketch than botanicals. Fine artist and art coach David Tenorio emphasizes the importance of observing and respecting your reference material, and also encourages leaving some aspects of the work in process. In this class, learn essential elements of sketching plants, including lending 3D quality to leaf and flower shapes, creating varied line quality, and exploring a range of botanical images to add interest to your work. This class starts with simple sketches before moving onto more detailed drawings and is designed to build confidence in your core drawing skills, increase your set of techniques, and encourage a relaxed time to create. David inspires a conversation between drawing and painting, adding richness to the work, always remembering that, as Emily Dickenson said, “Beauty is not caused, it is.”

Crocheted Carrot

This crocheted carrot is not nutritious or delicious, but it sure is cute! Whip up this seasonal favorite taught by renowned yarn foodie, Twinkie Chan. You’ll learn how to increase and decrease in single crochet to give the carrot its classic tapered shape, and you’ll use easy-peasy slip stitches to make the green fronds. If you’re interested in making other crocheted fruits and veggies, learn how to make other delicious (in)edibles in Twinkie’s Eat Your Fruits and Veggies Crochet-Along!

Garden Journaling

Garden historian Mac Griswold poetically states that “Gardening is the slowest of the performing arts,” but this art moves swiftly once the growing season is underway. In this class, led by lifelong gardener and artist Lorene Edwards Forkner, learn how to make the most of every season by developing a personal garden journal that provides space for exploring garden dreams, stashing pertinent plant tags and seed packets, and diagramming planting ideas. Included is a practical garden log sheet: a place to record seasonal weather and keep track of bloom time and harvests, along with garden wins, losses, and discoveries. A well-used garden journal is a valuable reference when plotting for the future but you need not limit yourself to the realities of your growing region or resources; simply choose any plant that appeals to you and have some fun!

Dyed and Painted Pots

Join Courtney as she shows you how to make painted and dyed terracotta pots. This video originally appeared on Facebook Live on February 28, 2017.

Mass Center for the Book 2024 Reading Challenge

How the challenge works:

  • Choose a book that fits the monthly challenge.
  • After you read, fill out this form to tell Mass Center for the Book about the book you choose.
    • Using the Mass Center for the Book submission manager, you will be able to log in and access the entries you’ve logged throughout the year.
    • Dedicated readers will be invited to a year-end celebration hosted by Mass Center for the Book.
    • If you read a book in each of the 12 months, you will be entered in a drawing to win 1 of 2 totes filled with books.
    • Mass Center for the Book will be drawing two names on the last day of each month to win a free book! Make sure you get those entries in before the end of the month.

April Challenge:

Check out a list of suggested books which might fit what you want to read for this month’s topic!