Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Teresa Acosta may give the impression she's baking up batches of cookies, but the cookies aren't for eating; they're for craft kits.
Saratogan cooks up creative crafts in her cottage kitchen
By Shari Kaplan
What's cooking in Teresa Acosta's kitchen?
At first glance, it appears to be cookies--enough to keep a dozen bake-sale tables up and running, in fact!
Just like any large-batch baker, Acosta measures her ingredients carefully, combines them in an industrial-strength electric mixer, rolls the dough to just the right thickness on a floured cutting board, punches out dozens of cute and creative shapes with an array of cookie cutters and spreads them on metal trays for the waiting oven.
But appearances are often deceiving. As tempting as Acosta's freshly baked creations look, they neither smell nor taste like their edible counterparts, because cookies they are not! They are actually clay cutouts that, when fully cooled, are ready to become Cottage Kitchen Crafts--instant holiday ornaments, wall decorations, gift tags, party favors, magnets and mobiles. Acosta sells them as part of her new home-based business.
"I designed Cottage Kitchen Crafts for parents who want to provide their children with a fun and creative traditional craft experience," says Acosta, whose small, pretty house on a tree-lined Saratoga street truly resembles a cottage.
"I'm an avid buyer of craft kits for my own boys and for presents as well. But I found many kits were either too complicated or did not allow much room for the child's own creativity," she adds.
Acosta cooked up a remedy for that in the fall of 1998, when a friend who runs a successful home-based mail-order business told Acosta that if she had a hobby she enjoys and is good at, she, too, could probably start a business around it.
"I said crafts--it was that simple!" says Acosta, who has always enjoyed imaginative endeavors, from the creative writing and children's books she works on to the wellspring of arts and crafts projects she does with her two sons, now 2 1/2 and 6.
After perfecting her baking times and "clay dough" recipe, Acosta brainstormed a business name, obtained her license and began taking her craft supplies to local venues such as farmers' markets and art festivals.
Acosta currently has 11 birthday and general-occasion craft kits in fun, kid-tested themes. She also has nine kits with the motifs of various holidays. All kits contain two cutouts in each of five related images, such as a crab, lobster, sea horse, manatee and starfish in the "Ocean Adventure" set or a turkey, roast turkey, pumpkin, fall leaf and acorn in the Thanksgiving set. The kits also contain an instruction and tip sheet and various accessories such as acrylic paints, brushes, sponges, sealer, glue, glitter, sequins, ribbon and stick-on googlie eyes. For parents planning themed birthday parties or teachers organizing a specific craft for students, Acosta also makes customized kits. This winter and spring, Acosta will be offering kids' craft classes through the Saratoga Recreation Department.
For information about Cottage Kitchen Crafts, call 408.741.1859 or visit www.cottagekitchencrafts.com on the Internet.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
