Some say Valentine’s Day is a holiday created by greeting card companies. We say: Let’s go all out & celebrate love!
If you’re stumped on what to give to your darling for Valentine’s Day, take a look through our gift guide for goodies that go beyond your typical box of chocolates and dozen roses. You’ll definitely get extra points for giving the gift of handmade and local, too.
Click through the slideshow to see all the goods.
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Our latest virtual visit of an artist’s studio features the Bay’s beloved Tomoko Maruyama! Tomoko describes her style as evoking “feelings of warmth, peace, and happiness.” We definitely agree – you can’t help but smile when looking at Tomoko’s depictions of the Golden Gate Bridge and other iconic landmarks and features of San Francisco! Tomoko makes it easy to spread the joy by offering a variety of products, including totes, tees, magnets, and stationery. And of course, her beautiful, affordable 11×14 prints are perfect works of art for any room.
A …

Lasers! We use ‘em for all kinds of stuff now, not just space gun attacks and crazy eye surgery. Who woulda thunk it? Lots of artists are using laser cutting technology to create unique furniture, sculpture, and jewelry. Philip Eggleston of Unpossible Cuts is one of these awesome folks. According to the Unpossible Cuts website, Philip uses the powers of “Laser cats, Viking blood, Eye of Newt, Unicorn Tears,Hipster Mustaches, and Wizard Beards” to bring his creative visions to life. We have no problem with that.
Here’s a bit more about the laser wizardry comin’ …

Another Crafty Hour for the books! They just keep getting better and better; now we just need to turn our “craft room” into one of those tents from Harry Potter that magically hold hundreds of people. This month we were inspired by San Francisco-based Yellow Owl Workshop’s great guide to hand-printing, Print Workshop. Designer Christine Schmidt created so many simple and satisfying projects, we just had to try one.

Armed with wooden blocks, a selection of differently-textured yarns, and tons of color options, we set out to make some stamps (and …