Cut & Paste Craft Studio: With New Store, Lifelong Crafter Matches Hobby To Her Career
By John Lynch
Recent research demonstrates that creativity promotes good mental health. That’s a concept that local entrepreneur Laurie Evans has imprinted in her DNA.
Evans has been a crafter all her life, learning from her mother and continuing as she raised two daughters and served as a Girl Scout troop leader for 17 years.
She learned to sew from her mother, was a scrapbooker for years and did arts and crafts projects with her daughters all the time.
Who better then to open Cut and Paste Craft Studio, the only craft workshop of its kind in Kentucky and most surrounding states?
“I feel like I’m finally making my hobby my career,” said Evans, who previously worked in a research lab at UK for 10 years and as a writer and events coordinator for 17 years at Lexington Family Magazine.
The inspiration for her own studio came from her experience as a crafter and as a mom. She noticed that her children especially enjoyed doing crafts when she worked with them.
That’s the experience families can enjoy at Cut and Paste, Evans said, adding that the studio “is not selling a product so much as offering an experience. You and your kids can create something together at the same time.”
Cut and Paste, which opened in June, is a drop-in studio where kids (and adults, too) can create their own crafts by painting, decorating and using decoupage on papier mache animals, wooden shapes, treasure boxes and room décor.
Cut and Paste provides all the tools, supplies and aprons, and the staff cleans up the mess afterward.
In some ways, Cut and Paste owes its existence to the fear of glitter.
“Some people won’t even let glitter in their homes, but we have designed our studio so that it can be glitter bombed and nobody cares,” Evans said.
“Moms have told me for years that their kids love to do crafts, but they are reluctant to buy all the materials and then make a big mess and have to store everything afterward. We have provided a place where we take care of all of that.”
Along with drop-in opportunities, Cut and Paste offers after-school classes, daytime classes for preschoolers and homeschoolers, field trips and birthday parties.
The store also hosts specially themed Super Saturday sessions and Moms Night Out. The next Super Saturday is July 18, and Moms Night Out will begin in August.
“There are so many kids out there who really want to do this and don’t have the opportunity,” Evans said.
And that means boys, too. They can paint and decorate lizards and frogs, and create swords and treasure boxes.
For moms, there are bigger, more complex options available including Deco Mesh wreaths, stenciling and re-finishing furniture.
Another plus is cost. Small papier mache and wooden animals are as inexpensive as $6. A mom and two children can easily paint and decorate for an hour and spend no more than $20.
“I’m really excited to open Cut and Paste because our community needs something like this,” Evans said. “I think families will enjoy the time they spend here.”
Cut and Paste Craft Studio is located 220 Ruccio Way, Suite 180 next to Meijer on Reynolds Road. Hours are Monday-Thursday 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m.
Info: www.facebook.com/cutandpastecraftstudio or 223-0114.