In the beginning: This site started in 1996, back when the internet sounded like a series of beeps and whistles through a dial-up modem. Before digital cameras were in every pocket, we were here sharing the joy of handmade crafts.
A Living History: When craftpals first launched, most of us were busy raising young children, finding moments of creativity in between the chaos of family life. Today, those same children are grown and starting families of their own. It is a wonderful thing to see the circle continue, and it reminds us that while the crafts were the hobby, the connections were the heartbeat.
Through the years: craftpals moved from free hosting to its own domain, survived the rise and fall of web-rings and guestbooks, and transitioned from 8.3 filenames to the modern web. It was built line-by-line in Notepad, fuelled by curiosity and a lot of cold coffee.
The Legacy: As of 2026, we have decided to "frame" the site as a digital archive. The projects found here are a time capsule of a different era of crafting—one where things moved a little slower, were made by hand, and were shared across generations.
From the first dial-up handshake to the final archive, this journey has been stitched together by all of you.
Thank you for thirty years of making, sharing and growing together.
The projects and content remain here, preserved exactly as originally submitted to honour the voices of their contributors—
but the memories belong to all of us.