What a fun activity! I was here with a group of women for a social / networking event. We were…read moreallowed to bring our own food and drinks (pizza and coke, solid!). You can pick your own item to paint. They have so many different options to choose from in varying price ranges. They give you all the materials you need, including apron , sponges and paint. They also give you clear instructions and suggestions. I decided to paint a spoon rest, something I've been looking for- functional and pretty. It cost around $24 which was fair pricing. While picking what to paint, keep in mind you have around 1.5-2hrs. So plan accordingly! After our painting, they text you within 10 days and you can go pick up your masterpiece. Plenty of free parking lot as well as street parking available in the area. I will definitely be back.

We took a 1 session pottery throwing class. Sabrina was a great teacher! When we come to the area…read moreagain, we'll be back!

Can you marry a store? Because if you could, I would marry this place! This boutique/home goods…read morestore is relatively new and I've been interested to see what is inside. I drive by all the time and have never had a chance to do so until today. I finally had the good fortune to do so as my daughter and a handful of her Girl Scouts troop had a socially distant crafting class this afternoon. My original intention was to just drop my daughter off and leave since they were trying to limit attendance, but all of the lovely hand-crafted products drew me in. Even my 5-year old son was intrigued by all of the sparkle and unique handiwork. From custom-built furniture to paintings to ceramics to holiday decorations, there was so much to see and love. Despite my husband's warning not to add any more items to our holiday collection, my kids and I could not resist picking up a few items to decorate the house. It was hard to just choose one item each! In this time of the pandemic, we needed something to cheer us up though! The prices of all of the items were so reasonable, which is not always the case in stores like this. And even when my daughter, who has expensive taste (!), chose one of the pricier ornaments in the place, Erica was kind to confirm that it was okay with me first. When my young son wanted to buy just one of three adorable felted holiday mice that were sold in a set, Erica said it was okay, which made my son so ecstatic! He has been walking around the house with the mouse since we came back from the store! I had the chance to chat at length with both of the owners - Richie and Erica - and they were both so sweet and friendly. They are both retired from their previous careers, and it is clear that they have invested much time and care to this new livelihood. They even treated my two young children so well! Usually, places with such fragile items are hesitant to have children peruse the displays, but neither of them minded my kids carefully looking through all of the ornaments and fun goodies! In fact, as we left, Richie presented both of my kids with a kind and unexpected surprise - some magic reindeer food! That was totally unnecessary, but my kids were so touched by the gesture. Again, in this times of COVID, the kind gesture brought a tear to my eye. My daughter has not had much social contact recently due to the pandemic so she was hesitant to venture out for this event. She and I were so glad that she ended up going because she had a blast and we discovered this gem! When we left, Richie told us to come back again and both of my kids said they wanted to come back everyday and as soon as tomorrow. If that doesn't speak for itself, I don't know what will. Erica is an amazing artist and I cannot wait to come back myself someday to shop more without my kids in tow and to participate in an adult crafting class. Erica and Richie, welcome to Stoneham and I hope your store is around to stay for a long time! Thanks for treating a first time customer with such hospitality and friendliness!

All craft roads lead to Playtime--an unassuming yet remarkable arts and crafts supply store in…read moreArlington Center. As a gifter, I don't fully understand how I didn't know about this place before, but I'm so glad I do now. I went for a family project recently when closer craft shops didn't have what we needed. There's an abundance of arts and crafts supplies here, housed in two interconnected basement rooms, along with an impressive paper and picture frame selection (among other items) on the first floor. The atmosphere is one of a kind--more like an arts-and-crafts boutique curated by the owner, with items you won't easily find together elsewhere. Because of the sheer breadth, some categories (like fabrics, for example) have a smaller variety, which is just an observation, not a critique. Ribbons are unrivaled. If you don't have time to wander, ask--the best part of our experience was the owner, Carol, and the staff (thank you, Lilly). They are wonderfully kind, patient, and creative, offering thoughtful, gentle advice for your projects and genuinely care about their customers. Tip: There's a parking lot in the back or bus 87 drops you off right in front, literally. Highly recommended local business.

How in the WORLD have I lived in Boston, Brookline, and Cambridge for decades and not known about…read morethis place. A friend recommended coming here w/ my mom to look for yarn for her knitting projects and my friend prefaced that this place was the BEST for any type of arts, crafts, decor, etc. Well, WOW!! And funny enough, my mom used to go to this store when she was a little girl in the late 50s-60s to get Nancy Drew books. She said it was EXACTLY how she remembered as a kid. I was awe struck by everything this store had. I will definitely be making this place a regular stop for gifts for people and for fun. Forget going to places like Michaels. Come to this local, family-owned business which I guarantee will have whatever you are looking for. It's an incredible place.

Awesome place for a fun crafternoon!…read more I came with a few friends on a rainy day to do a project, and had never done anything with mosaics before. We bought about 3 hours of time which is really the minimum amount of time it will take for a project. They had all of the supplies and colors and textures you could ever want and helped us every step of the way! It was about $15/hour plus the cost of the actual item you are putting the mosaics on. And note, you will need to let the tiles dry for 24 hours and grout it at home (if you are not local and can't return) The staff was incredibly friendly and helpful, and it was a great experience.

Nice teacher, good glass selection, good choice of shapes for making fused plates and bowlsread more

Had a great experience here when looking for boxes for some rather large gifts (boxes used for…read morebowls and/or vases). Angie was super helpful! She showed me the type box available, and even put it together for me, and when I went to get the item and tried it, it worked perfectly! I felt so happy to find these boxes, and bought several. Angie was friendly and very customer service oriented which I really appreciated. Karen also was helpful at checkout. Although I didn't look around too much on this visit, the store seems loaded with nice gift items! I highly recommend this Paper Store. Kudos to their outstanding staff!

Went in there after Christmas to return 2 items. One with a gift receipt & one with no receipt but…read moreall the tags attached. I knew I would have to accept the "sale" price for the item with no gift receipt. I brought the items to the register and showed the cashier and she said they would give me a merchandise credit and I was perfectly agreeable to that. I asked her to please hold them while I did some shopping. I picked up a few things and went to the register. It was all downhill from there. A surly cashier told me the gift receipt was from September so they wouldn't take it back. So I asked " if I walked in with no receipt you'd take it back?". She became more surly and said " it's from September, it's probably on clearance" I said "No it's actually still on the sales floor at full price". Then she went to the register and asked me the telephone number of the person who gifted me the items. I thought she was trying to help me. She actually pulled up my sisters purchases to confirm that the second item was also purchased in September. My sister would be livid if she knew they went into her account in order to justify poor service. The cashier stepped away to speak to a coworker and my niece and I heard her say "I'm being patient but blah blah blah" She then came back and tossed the stuff back to me and said " we can't take any of this back". It's okay that they start promoting Christmas in September but just know that if you buy a gift before November, even with a gift receipt, your gifted will not be able to return or exchange it. I should have paid more attention when the customer before me stormed out and I could hear the same unprofessional employee complaining about the customer. I'm done with the Paper Store. I have 40 years in retail management and have never treated a customer like I was treated.

Shopping at this store is a terrible experience. Empty shelves, overworked staff and no price…read morecheckers. Recently at check out my item was $10 more than was listed on the shelf. $35 for a pretty standard 5x7 picture frame. I would have caught that if there was a price checker around. Many items do not have prices at all, and besides going up to the register, there is no way to find out. This isn't a store you can rely on to complete a project as they are often out of stock of just about everything. I don't think they've had white acrylic craft paint in stock for 5 years! Also on my last trip there registers were completely unstaffed. There was one staff memeber in the general area directing people to the self checkout. As another poster mentioned this store is a cell phone signal dead zone. I wonder if that's on purpose. Do not count on being able to access your Michael's account to get any coupons while in the store. Plan on printing them out ahead of time if you'd like to use them. My friend thought I was joking until we went to this store together and I told her "watch, I won't be able to get my coupon". Yup. Why do I keep going back? Well every few months they send me a $5 coupon to spend on anything. So if I have time to kill, I browse the store for a craft kit or something else I can donate to Toys for Tots every Christmas. If I need craft supplies, I'll shop on Amazon like everyone else.

Absolutely embarrassing. They have four self checkout stations yet no one can do anything…read morethemselves because everything is ringing in incorrectly. They have one single person manning the whole checkout area by themselves and it's taking over 30 minutes to get 3 balloons filled. HORRIBLE experience. WAKE UP MICHAELS.... Bring back regular checkout and get things moving again!! Lines are crazy.

Top notch equipment and staff is very friendly. Location - 72 Mirona Rd UNIT 15, Portsmouth, NH…read more03801.

Merristitches is my happy place!! Always a fun class, beautiful fabrics and amazing sewing…read moremachines!!

The Stoneham Knitting Meetup Group meets at the Reading Main Street's Starbucks every Wednesday…read morenight at 6pm. I made it to my first meeting on the 5th and am hoping to get to another meeting this Wednesday. I can honestly say I was surprised to see 15 or more (I lost count!), knitters when I arrived. They had pulled the little tables together to form one very long table to the right of the room and everyone was knitting away. Socks, scarves, baby blankets, afghans, and shawls were projects I saw in the works. This group is probably the nicest group of strangers, second to Yelpers of course!, that I've met. Everyone wanted to know about each other's projects and we went around the table with introductions and a little blurb about the project she was knitting. If you're in the area and could use a little inspiration for a project, or just want the company of some really nice ladies and a hot beverage you'll love this group too! Oh, and the best part: it's free!

A few years ago, the shop had a live on-line sale, but it was open for in-person customers. I'd…read morebeen buying yarn from the shop for years, including under previous owners. On that day, I decided to go to the shop to see what yarns were on sale. Very quickly, I found two kinds of yarn I wanted to buy.While the owner was trying to sell on line, I said that I wanted to pay for the yarn. She became angry that I was bothering her during the on-line sale. She did take the payment for the yarn, but what she didn't know was that she'd just lost one of the regular customers. I never went back and do not intend to. With that business sense, I don't even know if she's still there. I wouldn't be surprised if she hadn't survived.

Walked into the store and was immediately welcomed. The gathering of women encouraged me to join…read morethem. The wide selections of products will make it a challenge to decide on my first project.

Went there years ago when I was a beginning knitter. Had purchased needles and yarn for a project…read more Returned with questions on how to do something and was told "We don't give help here!" Needless to say I never went back. Stopped knitting a few years ago and have moved so was looking for a shop nearby. Surprised this one was still in business after such poor customer service!

Absolutely the bestest place to sit and knit, they are so knowledgable and kind. Beautiful…read moreselection of lovely yarns. Definitely a great place to check out, and stay to knit a bit!