The Crafting Revival
Watercolor papers - one of the first projects in my crafting revival!
Are you feeling it? Do you see it? There is a crafting revival that’s tugging at heartstrings across the globe. There’s something so deeply moving about this moment—people everywhere are starting to reach for paints, glue, threads, papers, yarn, stamps, clay…not just to create but to pour their souls into something real.
Amid big box craft retailers closing their doors, a movement is emerging to bring us back to our crafting roots. The small mom and pop stores, the online creative communities…it’s the slow movement whispering to us, “It’s time”. It is about reviving generational crafting.
It’s a tender call to pause, breathe, and let our hands tell stories of love and care, one imperfect, beautiful piece at a time. Handmade isn’t just about things—it’s about feeling alive, connected, and whole in a world that often rushes by too fast.
At Cool2Craft, we’re holding space for that raw, messy, creative joy, inviting you into a warm circle of makers where our goal is to have every creation feel like a hug from the heart.
Why do I call this a crafting revival? Because that is what is happening to me. When my Momma Aleene (of Aleene’s Tacky Glue) passed in 2015, I gave away my HUGE studio full of supplies and walked away from crafting, thinking that I would never return.
In a quick retrospect, I was at the peak of my crafting career with my Cool2Craft YouTube channel, had just finished authoring my 12th craft book, I had hosted over 2000 episodes of Aleene’s Creative Living TV Show, and had overseen over 60 monthly issues as the editor of Aleene’s Creative Living Magazine. Needless to say, crafting had been a part of my life forever, and I thought I was done, done, done. Then, almost 10 years later, I am hearing this voice in me calling, “It is time for a revival!”
I was born in the 1950s, a time when Momma Aleene’s business was just starting to boom. When she started in the 1940s, little did she know that it would take 10 years to hit “the big time”.
In the January 5, 1953 issue of Life Magazine, the headlines read “The American and His Economy”. One of the feature articles is “Money-Makers of a New Era - Despite taxes, they take risks and profit from own businesses”. I am proud to say that one of the six businesses (and the only women-owned business) featured in this article was Aleene’s. You may recognize this household name through Aleene’s Tacky Glue – you know, the glue in the gold bottle. My mother, Aleene Jackson, was a pioneer of the craft industry, which actually didn’t even start to take hold until she launched her Craftmaker’s Caravan event in the late 1960’s.
When she was featured in this 1953 issue, she was 28 years old with 3 children under the age of six. Four years prior, she had lost $1,200 in a mail order business set up to sell corsage supplies, but a year later, she came across some Formosan wood fiber, found it ideal for making artificial flowers, and bought $12 worth. She started selling the materials from which housewives and hobbyists were making artificial flowers. (Remember, you couldn’t run to Michaels to buy silk flowers at the time because it would take another 20 years before Michaels first store started from a converted Ben Franklin store.)
From that initial $12 investment, in 1952, Aleene’s Fibre and Floral Supply Co. grossed almost $1 million and employed most of the family at the time. When I asked Mom about how she did it, there was no long detailed marketing and promotion plan, she simply said, “I just saw the creative opportunity and just did it.” She wasn’t swayed by the “economy or taxes” news of the time. She was a woman who was purely fearless.
As we head into this crafting revival, I pray that I have the wisdom, insight, and fearlessness of my Momma Aleene.
