Although the vision was not quite clear in 1999, Rick was framing and loving it - Peggy learned to do the designing and soon found she loved the framing business too . . . but the 'crafty' side was a gift shop of home crafters bringing things in on consignment.  Framing grew grew nicely; gifts did not.  But everytime someone came in with something stitched to be framed, they complained about having nowhere to buy cross stitch.  

       Where did the customers buy all the wonderful patterns, fabrics, and floss?! With that thought, the half of the store that today is all counted cross stitch was born.  They went to market with $4,000 to see what would happen with selling cross stitch instead of trying to be a gift store . . and that was the beginning of what they are today . . . more seeds planted.  Business continued to grow and flourish so in May 2015, they moved from the Ulmerton Road location to where they are now on East Bay Drive in Largo.

       Today, Crafty Framer is the only full service, full cross stitch store in a 7 county area. They carry 7 lines of floss, multiple pieces of various counts and colors of fabric and over 7,000 patterns. Plus the rest of the store has every piece of equipment or embellishment you could imagine.

       So while Rick is busy framing diplomas, art work, shadow boxes AND cross stitch, Peggy stays busy with retail customers.  They offer classes, seminars, a stitching cruise and a summer retreat. There is never a dull moment at the Crafty Framer!