A.K. Smiley Public Library Blog

Serving the City of Redlands, California since 1894

The theme of Mental Health Awareness Month for May 2023 is
“Look Around, Look Within,” according to Mental Health America.
Mental health professionals' aim is to emphasize the ways that our surroundings — like safe and stable housing, healthy home lives, neighborhoods and cities, and nature — affect our mental health.

"There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn't." ~ John Green, 2019

Get Craftsy!

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Attention all crafty people! Do you enjoy calligraphy, jewelry making, or photography? Are you writing your first novel, but need some instruction? A.K. Smiley Public Library’s online resource Craftsy provides over 3,000 hours of free video lessons taught by skilled makers for diverse crafts such as painting, cooking, cake decorating, and woodworking. Available through the Libby app, it’s the perfect way to take an online course and find out which crafts will inspire your creativity. It’s available to all Smiley cardholders and best of all, it’s FREE.

To access this resource:

  1. Download the free Libby, by OverDrive app, available in your app store, onto your mobile device. You can alternately use Libby’s desktop site for computers if you’d like to take the course on a bigger screen. Screen users, start here: https://libbyapp.com/library/scdl.
  2. Choose A.K. Smiley Public Library and sign in with the barcode on the back of your library card and your PIN number – the last four digits of your phone number.
  3. Once you are signed into your Libby account, head to the home screen by clicking the Library Building icon on the bottom navigation bar. Scroll down to the Extras tab, click on Craftsy, then Get. One more click on Get a 7-Day Pass and you’re set. When this pass expires, just get another one.

This will route you to the Craftsy website where you’ll be logged in, ready to browse the collection and take a free course. No need to sign up for an extra account through Craftsy. My husband took the Make Quality Doors course and learned quite a bit. Of course, now I’m expecting him to upgrade our cupboards, so choose wisely.

Smiley Library also has a great selection of crafting books available in the library to check out. Some of our newest titles are: “Classic Calligraphy for Beginners : Essential Step-by-Step Techniques for Copperplate and Spencerian Scripts” by Younghae Chung, “Handmade Clay Jewelry” by Meghan Allen, “Watercolour Landscapes for the Absolute Beginner” by Matthew Palmer, “Crochet in a Weekend” by Salena Baca, “Macrame Made Easy” by Harumi Kageyama, and “Handmade Woodworking Projects for the Kitchen” by Larry Okrend.

Happy Holidays to you all and have a Craftsy New Year!