Create this special piece of artwork as a reminder to yourself that you are beautiful, inside and out. Using pieces of painted and vintage paper, artist and designer Dawn M. Cardona leads you through the magical experience of capturing your essence on paper. She encourages you to either use the template included or freehand cut pieces to represent your unique appearance and then celebrate yourself for who you are with messages of love, empathy, and kindness. As you create this project, you’re reflect on and conjure up precisely what makes you uniquely, beautifully you.

If you can trace an image, you can make a blotted line monoprint. Artist Extraordinaire Courtney Cerruti has spent years incorporating this technique into her art practice and shows you everything she’s learned in this daily practice class series. First made popular by Andy Warhol, this technique utilizes just a few unique materials that create inky outlines that can then be colored in and embellished. In addition to perfecting your monoprinting technique, learn how to make composite images, work on black paper, and paint with metallics. Inkblots and turn-of-the-century ghost signatures round out the month. Whether you color (or paint) in the lines or outside of them, you’ll be inspired by Courtney’s eclectic influences and thoughtful instruction.

There's a uniquely good feeling that accompanies making something to give away. Whether you're a knitter, crocheter, or general crafter, there are many places that could use your generous donations. In this class, staff artists from Creativebug talk through some of their very favorite projects they personally make for charitable crafting. Faith Hale talks you through three knit hat patterns and her favorite charities for gifting these toasty toppers. Crocheter Twinkie Chan shows how to make a rectangle that can be incorporated into a larger, group blanket, and Courtney Cerruti demonstrates a no-sew fleece blanket project that's so simple, you can even get the kids involved.

There's plenty of evidence that regularly drinking herbal tea can have a lasting impact on your wellness. In this class, Arina of BellaCreme teaches you her favorite recipe and also how to make your own custom blend. Herbal tea is such a healthy beverage and has been associated with a variety of benefits due to the powerful plant compounds they contain. Arina's tea blend is composed of flower petals and dried berries, and once you see how easy it is to make, you'll be well on your way to making your new favorite beverage. Besides being hydrating and nutritious, it can help you unwind and become a vital part of a nourishing routine.

Elevate your bathing routine by incorporating salts and scrubs into your baths and showers.  Natural bodycare expert Arina of BellaCreme shares her recipe for a salt blend that can be used both as a bath soak and as a body scrub. You'll learn how to mix together the healing properties of salt, clay, herbs and essential oils to make a blend to pour into a warm running bath. Alternatively, encourage healthy, moisturized skin by adding sweet almond oil, transforming the dry soak to a yummy scrub. Both of these creations are wonderful for easing muscle soreness and relieving tension, and, of course, giving yourself the gift of self care.

Fill your life with your favorite scents, as Arina of BellaCreme teaches you how to make safe and all-natural scented sprays for your home and car. You can choose to make two of Arina's favorite recipes - Amor de Amara with a gentle rose aroma or Calendula Menthe with a fresh, clean, earthy scent - or simply follow the steps to bottle your own favorite aromas. These sprays make excellent room and car deodorizers, surface cleaners, and fabric refreshers, and of course - delightful gifts.

It's time to discover your new favorite perfume, made for you, by you. Creating a custom, all-natural perfume is simple and it can require as few as two ingredients. Natural bodycare expert Arina of BellaCreme walks you through infusing botanicals in order to make a fragrance that you'll love. Learn how to choose affordable and pure ingredients for a balanced bouquet while avoiding expensive, overpowering scents. Follow the recipe for Arina's warm and comforting Amber Spice perfume or experiment with your own inclusions and essential oils.

Filled with care, consciousness, and consideration in every ounce, tinctures are concentrated liquid herbal extracts made from plants and used as herbal remedies. Incorporating such beneficial flora as elderberry, echinacea, and calendula, Arina from BellaCreme demystifies the magic of making herbal tinctures at home. With just two simple ingredients - high proof alcohol and organic herbs - tinctures are taken orally to relieve a wide range of health issues and generally boost your wellbeing.

The depth, texture, and whimsy of cut-paper illustration begins with one thing: beautiful papers.  Artist and children’s book illustrator Dawn M. Cardona demonstrates how to play with acryla gouache on a Gelli plate to make uniquely textured papers to use in your crafts. You can apply these papers to other classes taught by Dawn, or use them to add interest to any collage or drawing projects. While this process is instantly gratifying, you’ll be rewarded by experimenting on papers with different weights, textures, and colors in order to make them uniquely yours.

To see more of Dawn's classes that use the papers made in this class, visit her artist page here.

The Rainbow Road Mini Quilt, based on a vintage quilt pattern, is graphic, bold, and makes an exciting visual impact. If you've been curious about trying paper-piecing in your quilting projects, this beauty is for you. Textile designer and modern quilter Annabel Wrigley demonstrates how to create this gorgeous quilt top one step at time, from cutting all your fabric, to incorporating curved paper-piecing into your block, to creating a paper-pieced sashing panel for a striking quilt border. If this sounds like a lot, fear not; Annabel's confident guidance will lead you to an extraordinary finished project you’ll be proud to display.

It's a puzzle! It's a toy! It's a fabulously fun object to sew! In this sweet little class, professional crafter Faith Hale shows how to design, sew, and construct a puzzle ball. Originally intended as a toy for her baby daughter, Faith became intrigued with the simple geometry of the form. While some puzzle balls are assembled with a solid core, this method relies on three interlocking rings to make the finished object. Once you make one, you'll be hooked.

If you’re a busy person looking for a quick crochet project, Tian Connaughton is the designer for you. Mentor and expert crochet designer Tian shows you how to design and crochet your own unique and cozy shawl. In this class she demonstrates three different shawl patterns and shapes, plus three different styles of borders so that you can mix and match them to create exciting combinations. All the motifs are easy to learn and simple to adapt to whatever sized shawl you’d like - from a small and cute pet bandana to a full-sized, gorgeous accessory for you.

Join illustrator and printmaker Mariko Jesse in committing to make a small sketch every day. You only need a few moments, and you can do it anywhere - from your living room to your local park to a vacation in a far-off location. Mariko shows you how she works in three different kinds of sketchbooks - "everyday," "work," and "observational" - depending on where she is and how much time she has to draw. Throughout the month, Mariko switches between pen, colored pencil, ink, and watercolor, and you’ll learn to adapt to using what you happen to have on hand or in your pockets at the time of your sketches. Consider sketching while you're watching TV at home, eating a snack at a cafe, or even chatting in a Zoom meeting for work. There’s no need to worry about style or getting it precisely right. Instead, Mariko encourages you to enjoy the process of drawing, looking at the world in different ways, honing your skills, sketching in public, and the importance of practice. Your sketchbooks are just for you, and will quickly contain sparks of inspiration for future great ideas. 

Polymer clay is a surprisingly flexible material that you can mix up and manipulate to beautiful effect. Faheema Chaudhury of Unicorn Crafts expertly guides you through creating a gorgeous set of watercolor marbled hair clips. Faheema loves color, and you'll be using a lot of them to give your plain white polymer clay an ethereal watercolor design. You'll learn some clay basics like how to properly condition it, shape it, and bake it. You'll also have so much fun discovering the techniques for making a marbled watercolor slab. Plus, Faheema will even show you her secret tip for giving your hair clips a perfectly smooth finish.

Have you ever wondered how a professional artist begins a piece of work? For Rebecca Ringquist, expert visual artist and designer of Dropcloth Samplers, it begins in the sketchbook. Known for her samplers as well as her textured, stitched drawings on fabric, her sketchbooks serve as collecting tools - a place to write down ideas and gather pictures and patterns - as she nurtures the layers imagery to create abstract autobiographical artworks. In this class, Rebecca cracks open her sketchbooks to show us her process and walks us through three exercises to dive deep into thoughtfully layered and textured creativity.

If you're looking for a quick way to freshen up and brighten your living space, look no further than this dazzling color wheel pillow, which is also an amazing stash-buster. Expert sewist and quilter Leslie Schucker designed this pillow to feature the EZ Quilting Fat Cat template, which makes cutting your fabric shapes a breeze. She'll then guide you through piecing your color wheel together and lightly quilting your pillow top. You'll also learn a neat trick for transferring a quilting design from paper to fabric, and how to sew your own envelope pillowcase. By using various fabrics from your stash, all of your color wheel pillows can be just as unique as you.

Collagraphy is a printmaking process in which textured materials are collaged onto a rigid printing plate. When ink is applied to various textures, you'll see an array of interesting tones and shapes on your prints. You can make your own collagraphs out of items you find around the house. Book artist and printmaker Sarah Matthews shows you how to make different plates using cardboard, hot glue, craft foam, and string. Then you'll learn Sarah's monoprinting technique with a brayer and Gelli plate to create beautiful prints and unique papers with your handmade stamps. This class is great for beginners and kids, and you'll start looking at everything in your house as potential material for future collagraphs.

When asked whether Milwaukee-based artist and quilter Heidi Parks travels with her sewing machine, she answers “yes” and holds up a sewing needle.  Using simply a needle, scraps of fabric, and colorful thread, this daily practice in hand-stitching has something for artists of all mediums. Learn techniques and artistic concepts that relate to a story-telling quilt and sew a quilt top through stitching, appliqué, patchwork, and other hand-piecing methods. This is a wonderful way to use sentimental fabric scraps, work organically to keep creativity flowing, and find beauty in imperfection. The daily prompts of this quilt design are a bit of a scavenger hunt encouraging you to show up curious. And since our hands are our most valuable tool, Heidi - who is also a yoga therapist - shares some hand yoga stretches to give you the self-care your practice deserves.

To follow along on social media, please post your progress using the tag #DailyPracticeQAL 
 

Whether used to attribute your quilt or explain the circumstances of its production, a personalized quilt label is a thoughtful addition to a quilt. In this class, Milwaukee artist and quilter Heidi Parkes teaches how to embroider text in your own handwriting, both printing and cursive, using the back stitch so that you can leave yourself or someone else a special fabric note. The sentiment can be personal or practical, mundane or historical; this embroidered handwritten label can be added to a quilt, article of clothing, embroidered art piece or really anything that can hold stitching. Heidi walks you through the basics of hand-sewing, her easy tracing and transfer technique, and how appliqué the label using a neat trick using aluminum foil. Once you get the hang of it, you can transfer any sentiment onto an embroidered label.

Dyeing fabric with ice is like watching magic happen before your eyes. Lesley Ware, a maker and author of three books on sewing and fashion, takes you step-by-step through the fun and fascinating process of transforming a plain white T-shirt with dye. All you need are ice cubes and powdered dye to add a burst of color to your wardrobe and create interest with dynamic patterns.