Make It Yours Crafts opened in October of 2012 with a dream and a prayer. We had many visitors with some familiar faces and so many new ones.
Our selection includes supplies for scrap booking, card making, and other paper crafts as well as for jewelry making. We have a "gently" used section with great bargains on all sorts of goodies and it changes at least weekly. We also have our new section with quality papers, stickers, pens, brads, ribbons, etc. You will find name brands such as S.E.I., Karen Foster, Bo Bunny, Basic Grey, Sizzix, Spellbinders, Fiskars, Scrapbook Adhesives, Zots, Tim Holtz and much more.
We sadly had to close the store in December, TEMPORARILY because one of our daughters grew very sick and was in the hospital in Iowa City for 3 months. It was very hard to make the journey to Iowa City, take care of the family at home and try to run a new business.
Now we are happy to say that she is home and doing very well. So we are rearranging & re-stocking the store with even more of your favorites and will have a Grand Re-opening very soon. We hope you will join us and bring your friends!
Stay tuned for more info on the Grand Re-opening of Make It Yours Crafts.....
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Saturday, February 2, 2013
How Annie M's Collectibles became Make it Yours Crafts
Within 2 years she was using her garage as a warehouse and shipping
packages daily around the country and the world and found it was time to
expand to a "brick and mortar store" and the Lenth's and 14 month old
son Griffin packed up and moved to the rural town of Welton. They
secured property that contained an old retail store and warehouse for a
feed store and a house and some outbuildings. It was a fixer upper, but
suited their needs. They would have a walk-in store and continue to
ship over 20 packages daily across the world from website orders.
The store was painted & carpeted and the warehouse set up over the summer. The grand opening was held on August 21, 1999. Then the first of 3 festivals honoring the movie's canine hero Toto, was held in May of 2000. Meinhardt Raabe was guest of honor, he played the Munchkin Coroner in the 1939 movie, proudly pronouncing the Wicked Witch of the East dead, after Dorothy's house "dropped" on her. Other munchkins in attendance at the festivals included Margaret Pelligrini who was a sleepyhead and a townswoman and Clarence Swenson, who was a soldier.
Ann closed the doors to Annie M's in 2005, to spend time with her growing family that included 7 year old son Griffin and 4 year old twin girls, Gretchen and Gillian. It was time to move on, but was very hard to say good-bye to all of her friends and customers she had met over the years.
The store was used as storage until it was converted into a craftroom for Ann in the summer of 2009. Soon Ann knew her new passion needed to be furthered into a business and once again, the building was turned back into a retail store which is of course now, Make it Yours Crafts.
Please come back later this week for more information on the business and what is in store for customers!
The store was painted & carpeted and the warehouse set up over the summer. The grand opening was held on August 21, 1999. Then the first of 3 festivals honoring the movie's canine hero Toto, was held in May of 2000. Meinhardt Raabe was guest of honor, he played the Munchkin Coroner in the 1939 movie, proudly pronouncing the Wicked Witch of the East dead, after Dorothy's house "dropped" on her. Other munchkins in attendance at the festivals included Margaret Pelligrini who was a sleepyhead and a townswoman and Clarence Swenson, who was a soldier.
Ann closed the doors to Annie M's in 2005, to spend time with her growing family that included 7 year old son Griffin and 4 year old twin girls, Gretchen and Gillian. It was time to move on, but was very hard to say good-bye to all of her friends and customers she had met over the years.
The store was used as storage until it was converted into a craftroom for Ann in the summer of 2009. Soon Ann knew her new passion needed to be furthered into a business and once again, the building was turned back into a retail store which is of course now, Make it Yours Crafts.
Please come back later this week for more information on the business and what is in store for customers!
Monday, January 28, 2013
Welcome to Make it Yours Crafts
Make it Yours Crafts was born of owner Ann Lenth's love and passion for scrapbooking. Located at 411 Main Street, Welton, Iowa, we are just North of DeWitt and South of Maquoketa. Easy to get to from anywhere and closer than you think!
Here is a little background info. on owner Ann Lenth and how many things in Ann's last 20 some years brought her to this moment in her life:
Ann has been an avid scrapbooker for 6 years but is not new to design work or sales. In 1990, she worked for 2 years at the J.C. Penney Advertising District Office, creating newspaper ads, postcards and the like, until the office closed and consolidated elsewhere. She then moved on to L.W. Ramsey Advertising where she worked in sales and helped run the How to Plant division of the company. How to Plant was the signature booklet developed by the company's founder many years ago. Through vast research, Ann helped to update the booklet that was used by Nurseries across the country, and helped develop over 6 new booklets.
Ann made a move to owning her own business in 1996 when she started Annie M's Collectibles (a play on her name Ann Marie and Auntie Em, from the movie) from her living room in East Moline. The business specialized in selling Wizard of Oz Collectibles. The business sprang from her love of the Wizard of Oz movie and was just a fun hobby to collect, until she saw the thousands of visitors at a Wizard of Oz festival in Indiana. People were lined up and down city blocks to buy Wizard of Oz stuff. The items ranged from the original books to items created based on the 1939 MGM movie; t-shirts, dolls, toys, figurines, jewelry, etc. And many of the original 150 Munchkins from the movie were in attendance, signing autographs and wearing replicas of their costumes. She then decided that her hobby could become a business!
Ann created a printed catalog on her home computer, made a one page web-site and ordered merchandise from licensed vendors. Her catalog and products were a hit and soon she had quite a following. Ann and husband James were featured in local newspapers and t.v. for the business as well as their own vast collection of Wizard of Oz items. A very special moment was when they received a call from New York and asked to be a part of a show called Personal FX. The show was about super collectors and went to homes around the country to help showcase people's collections. The show was co-hosted by Tom Bergeron, who is now the host of America's Funniest Home Videos. Ann and James were nominated by the show's staff as one of Super Collector Couples of the year in 1997. Although they did not win, it was quite an honor, nonetheless.
Come back this week for a new post about how Make it Yours Crafts came to be.....
Here is a little background info. on owner Ann Lenth and how many things in Ann's last 20 some years brought her to this moment in her life:
Ann has been an avid scrapbooker for 6 years but is not new to design work or sales. In 1990, she worked for 2 years at the J.C. Penney Advertising District Office, creating newspaper ads, postcards and the like, until the office closed and consolidated elsewhere. She then moved on to L.W. Ramsey Advertising where she worked in sales and helped run the How to Plant division of the company. How to Plant was the signature booklet developed by the company's founder many years ago. Through vast research, Ann helped to update the booklet that was used by Nurseries across the country, and helped develop over 6 new booklets.
Ann made a move to owning her own business in 1996 when she started Annie M's Collectibles (a play on her name Ann Marie and Auntie Em, from the movie) from her living room in East Moline. The business specialized in selling Wizard of Oz Collectibles. The business sprang from her love of the Wizard of Oz movie and was just a fun hobby to collect, until she saw the thousands of visitors at a Wizard of Oz festival in Indiana. People were lined up and down city blocks to buy Wizard of Oz stuff. The items ranged from the original books to items created based on the 1939 MGM movie; t-shirts, dolls, toys, figurines, jewelry, etc. And many of the original 150 Munchkins from the movie were in attendance, signing autographs and wearing replicas of their costumes. She then decided that her hobby could become a business!
Ann created a printed catalog on her home computer, made a one page web-site and ordered merchandise from licensed vendors. Her catalog and products were a hit and soon she had quite a following. Ann and husband James were featured in local newspapers and t.v. for the business as well as their own vast collection of Wizard of Oz items. A very special moment was when they received a call from New York and asked to be a part of a show called Personal FX. The show was about super collectors and went to homes around the country to help showcase people's collections. The show was co-hosted by Tom Bergeron, who is now the host of America's Funniest Home Videos. Ann and James were nominated by the show's staff as one of Super Collector Couples of the year in 1997. Although they did not win, it was quite an honor, nonetheless.
Come back this week for a new post about how Make it Yours Crafts came to be.....
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