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October 28, 2009

Meatloaf Hand

Halloween is a great excuse to get a little greusome in the kitchen, and this meatloaf hand is a perfect example of that. Megan of not martha shows how she created the meatloaf masterpiece, complete with onion slice fingernails and wrist bones.

Posted by Rachel Hobson | Oct 28, 2009 08:00 AM
Food, Halloween | Permalink | Comments (1) | Suggest a Site

Big Microbe Knit in the UK

Join fellow crafters at the Touchstones Art Gallery in Rochdale, UK, for microbe knitting! This event is part of the Manchester Science Festival.

Join us for a day of creativity as we 'knit' micro-organisms such as Swine Flu, Salmonella and the common cold! Find out more about the microbes we encounter in our everyday lives and some of the more uncommon ones. Learn how to knit and add to our growing colonies! This is a drop-in event for all abilities - bring your own knitting kit, but some supplies will be available on the day.

If you can't make it out to the event, you can download free patterns for knitting models of Tuberculosis, Cholera, Salmonella, Common Cold, Swine Flu, and Penicillium. [via Art Yarn]

How-To: Reusable Swiffer Cover

Amber of Berlin's Whimsy shares how she created this reusable, reversible Swiffer mop cover from old towels.

Crafty Chica Challenge: Day of the Dead Shrine - Deadline Extended to Nov 1!

Sheenasmom Altar09
Hi Crafters! The deadline for the Crafty Chica Challenge: Create a Day of the Dead Shrine has been extended to Sunday, November 1st at 11:59 PDT. Winners will be announced on Monday, November 2nd. It's easy to enter! Just add the photo of your shrine into the Crafty Chica Challenge Flickr Group and enter in a 250 word or less description of what your shrine represents and what materials were used in its creation.

Pictured above is the current altar-in-progress by Connie Ayers, our own Sheena Stevens' mom.

Sheena writes:

She hasn't yet strung together her marigolds and put the finishing touches on the altar, so this is the basic set-up. All of the photos are our loved ones who have passed away. I love having all of their pictures up in the house every year around this time, it's a nice way to remember!

For more Day of the Dead Inspiration:

Crafty Chica Challenge: Day of the Dead Shrine Inspiration

How-To: Day of the Dead Advent

How-To: Start Building a Day of the Dead Altar!

Flashback: Gory Ghoul Makeup

Zombies and ghouls are all the rage this Halloween, and adding some macabre makeup to just about any getup will immediately zombie-fy it. I have a friend who is a forest ranger, and he's going as the zombie ranger, by just donning his work uniform and adding some gory makeup and some dismembered limbs coming out of his backpack. Maybe I'll just have to be the zombie backcountry snowboarder. This week's flashback is another excerpt from Make: Halloween Special Edition, a 2006 collaboration between the editors of CRAFT and MAKE, our sister publication. Courtney Mault and Max Sparber, experts in horror makeup, wrote an entire Macabre Makeup DIY section for the issue, incorporating simple, kitchen-inspired techniques from master makeup pioneer Dick Smith. I say kitchen-inspired because Smith used Karo corn syrup, unflavored gelatin, and bread crumbs to create many a gruesome look. For this DIY, get out the bread crumbs and get gory!

Macabre Makeup: The Ghoul
By Courtney Mault and Max Sparber

The corpse-eating ghoul is where your kitchen supplies come in handy, because this is a piece of makeup that requires bread crumbs. And if you do a full-face coat of liquid latex, when you're done, you'll have a particularly weird-looking mask that you can reuse.

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Intricate Paper Maps of NYC

Sean @ MAKE points us to studiokmo's 3x4 feet panels, each intricately cut maps depicting Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, and the Bronx, down to the block level. Holy wow! The collection is for sale as a complete set only.

T-Shirt Memory Scarf

While I was cleaning out my closet a few weeks ago, I found an old brown paper grocery bag with the words, "Clothes of sentimental value! DO NOT THROW AWAY!" scribbled on the outside in black marker. Inside were more than a dozen t-shirts and items that I'd saved throughout my life, and I was hoping to protect them from my mom's purging habits with the scribbled warning. As I looked through the old t-shirts, ranging from elementary sports to high school plays, I was inspired to make them in to something special and wearable.

Having seen so many cool scarf ideas through our Me, My Scarf & I contest, I realized just what I could do with the shirts, and set about fashioning them into a Texas weather-appropriate scarf. I started by taking a couple of scarves I already had so I could take notes on their measurements. I decided to cut 11-inch panels from each shirt and use half inch seam allowance to result in a 10-inch wide scarf (I like big scarfs, and I cannot lie). I also like long scarves that are meant to be doubled up and looped through themselves, which worked perfectly for how many t-shirts I had.

I created an 11-inch square template and cut panels out of the front and backs of the shirts. From there, I pinned the panels right sides together and sewed across their widths to attach them in a patchwork fashion. I did the same with the panels from the backs of the shirts to create the backside of the scarf (I alternated the pattern of the shirt fabric from the front to the back so I didn't have to worry so much about things matching up perfectly). From there, I stitched the scarf right sides together, leaving an opening on one end for turning. I then turned the scarf right side out and edgestitched the entire thing, closing the opening on the end.

The scarf is big, unruly and imperfect - just like me. I love it! My childhood Incredible Hulk piggy bank served as a nice model for me this morning, since I couldn't get a good picture of myself in the scarf. My one complaint is that the Smashing Pumpkins t-shirt that ended up right at the nape of my neck is very stiff and hard to work in to a comfortable position. It's the only shirt with a large, heavy print, and if I'd just moved its placement one or two spots, this would be a non-issue. Live and learn!

I was tweeting as I cut the shirts to make this scarf, and put the question out: Do I cut up my Space Camp t-shirt? The shirt is more than 20 years old, and is one of my prized possessions. Overwhelmingly, folks voted to spare the shirt, which I did. I have plans to stretch it and hang it in my office.

Here's the low-down on the shirts I included. With the exception of a representation of my space geek influence, it's a pretty fair picture of my personality and experiences! Now if it will just get cold enough here in Austin to wear it ....

Top L to R:
Makezine Permission to Play shirt One of my favorite Makezine slogans!
My T-Rex t-shirt that I wore all through high school and college, to the point of it almost disintegrating. I love dinosaurs!
Vintage San Angelo Standard-Times "Best News Running" T-shirt My father was the publisher of our hometown newspaper when I was a kid. This was the place where I developed my love of journalism and the smell of ink.
Les Miserable t-shirt from a trip to Toronto. I love visiting Canada, and I loved this play!
My high school newspaper staff t-shirt that reads, "The Power of the Pen" I was the editor of my high school newspaper, and this was one of my favorite shirts. I thought I was so cool (very Andrea Zuckerman)
My Clinton-Gore election t-shirt that I wore on the night of the election. I worked at the city newspaper that night, running returns from the library to the newsroom. Such fun!
My Fiddler on the Roof high school theater t-shirt. I was also a big drama nerd in high school, and Fiddler on the Roof was a major production we did. It was loads of fun.
My Obama hand screen printed shirt from my pal Sarah in Portland.
My New York Yankees t-shirt from my 3rd grade little league team. I played left field, where I would spit and pick weeds and never see a hit.
My Smashing Pumpkins t-shirt from a concert at Southpark Meadows here in Austin. I found a twenty dollar bill on the ground and bought this shirt.
My Tiny Scarecrow "Nobody Panic" t-shirt. I did some marketing and PR work for The Biscuit Brothers, an Austin-based children's duo and television show. It's a brilliant show, and the guys are sweethearts. Tiny Scarecrow is one of my favorite characters ever.

How-To: Refashioned Sweater Shrug

I was shopping for some warm layers recently, and I got tangled up in a tiny dressing room with bad lighting. I accidentally put a loose and draping cardigan sweater on upside down. The funny thing was that it actually looked pretty cute. I was immediately inspired to stop looking for something new, and head home to cut up all my old sweaters and put them on upside down. With a sharp pair of scissors, you can take any sweater and transform it into a totally new shrug. For this tutorial, I used three different sweaters to demonstrate the versatility. The steps are the same, but the results are each one of a kind.

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Book Review + Giveaway: Glamourpuss by Julie Jackson

Header Book Glamourpuss

Glamourpuss: The Enchanting World of Kitty Wigs by Julie Jackson
Book Site: kittywigs.com

Julie Jackson who brings us Subversive Cross Stitch and Kitty Wigs has reached "eleven" in terms of cuteness with her new book, Glamourpuss: The Enchanting World of Kitty Wigs. The fashionable kitties, photographed by Jill Johnson, are styled in various Kitty Wigs amid scenes of their fashionable life. Hey, it's the world of the supermodel kitties! I love each of the hilarious kitty quotes that go with each photo making it super believable that these kitties are living some kind of extraordinary life that we get a glimpse into.

Book Giveaway Time!
We are giving away 3 copies of Glamourpuss. Just leave a comment in this post and tell us why you want this book. Please make sure you include your email address in the comment form field (won't be published). All comments will be closed by Noon PST on Thursday, October 29th. The lucky winners will be announced on the site. Good luck!

Glamourpuss Images

Light-Up Dog Costumes

Mojoindandimain
Alison at Switch appeared on Martha yesterday and showed off how to make this light-up dandelion dog costume and the illuminated porcupine dog costume (below).

Porcupine Costume L

Brian Jungen's Strange Comfort

CRAFT's graphic designer Katie Wilson wrote about Brian Jungen's show, Strange Comfort, at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C. (through August 8, 2010):

Native American artist Brian Jungen (Dunne-za) creates perceived icons of Indian culture from commonplace utilitarian objects -- an igloo from trash cans, a whale skeleton from plastic chairs, an animal mobile from suitcases. Frequently, his materials are selected for their power to comment: "Much of Jungen's work is created out of sports paraphernalia -- a suit of armor made of catcher mitts, a skull crafted from baseball skins, blankets woven from jerseys, and totem poles of stacked golf bags. It's a deliberate choice, Jungen says, to make art from materials belonging to an industry that has claimed names such as The Chiefs, Indians, Redskins and Braves."

More:

How-To: Polymer Clay Candy Corn Earrings

In theme with the soap cupcakes I posted earlier this morning, here's another tasty-looking craft project. These polymer clay candy corn earrings from the Polymer Clay Cookbook look like a good beginner project, and one that could be translated in to a handful of other halloween uses.

How-To: Photograph Halloween Costumes

So you spent all that time making your kid (or yourself) that awesome Halloween costume, make sure you can preserve it in photographs with noahw's tutorial! The photo above is atozfriendly's disco ball costume from last year.

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How-To: Soap Cupcakes

Debbie of Soapy Love has a tutorial on the Soap Queen for making these cute cupcake soaps. Just be careful no one tries to eat them!

Twitter Giveaway Winners: Stencil 101 Decor

Congrats to these 3 winners from last weekend's Twitter Giveaway: @serenajasmine, @pompompon, and @emmaneezer for each winning a copy of the new book, Stencil 101 Decor by Ed Roth. Thanks everyone for entering!

Thrift Store Paper Cutouts

I found these truly stunning pieces of cut paper at the thrift store this weekend for $.60 each! I can't imagine how painstaking these must be to make. They scanned into very perfect pieces of art. I was thinking of using them to burn some screens for screenprinting, and then framing them.

How-To: Pectin from Scratch

Instructables user NoFiller writes:

Pectin causes jams and jellies to gel. When using a pectin poor fruit, pectin must be added or the result will be nothing more than a fruit syrup. I refuse to use store bought pectin because I think it takes the craft out of jam and jelly making. Usually I just add apple skins and cores to whatever I'm making, but I thought I'd give making my own pectin a try.

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Pumpkin Cranberry Cornbread

Amy at Mom advice shares a great recipe for the holidays. Pumpkin cranberry cornbread seems perfect to serve with chili on a cold night. She also shares another recipe to make pumpkin-y cornbread muffins without cranberries.

Betz White's Felt + Stitch Holiday II Online Workshop

Great news! Betz White has opened up a second session of her Felt + Stitch Holiday II online workshop!

Betz writes:

Join me for a second session* of my first-ever online workshop! No matter where you live we can gather together online to make wonderful felted wool projects for your holiday décor and gift giving. I'll be teaching and working with you along the way through a combination of blog posts, downloadable PDF's, and videos posted weekly, where participants can communicate with each other and with me. Projects will include ornaments, home décor and small gifts, designed especially for this workshop and are not available in my books or anywhere else!

Book Review, Recipe, & Giveaway: Savory Baking

Savory Baking: Warm and Inspiring Recipes for Crisp, Crumbly, Flaky Pastries by Mary Cech, photographs by Noel Barnhurst

As it gets colder this autumn, what could be lovelier than a leisurely weekend day in a warm kitchen? Baking at home is fun and rewarding, but there are only so many cookies and cakes you and your family can take. All that prep time and careful attention should yield a delicious and healthy meal with which to feed your family or guests, not just a guilty pleasure! I don't have a big sweet tooth, but I love to bake, which is why Savory Baking by Mary Cech is the perfect addition to my cookbook collection. The book starts out with an overview of ingredients, equipment, and techniques specific to baking, to ensure your success. More so than stove top dishes, it's important to know what to expect in a baking recipe, so the overview of crepe, souffle, and doughs techniques is empowering.

This book is full of inspiring dishes, broken down more by what type of pastry they use than what course they're for: quick breads, flaky pastry, rustic cobblers and betties, puff pastries, cookies, and, finally, sides and sauces. The gorgeous photos tend to draw focus to those particular recipes, but, really, every dish sounds delicious. Baking can be a time-intensive endeavor, so while I wish the book included time estimates for each recipe, I loved reading through the 75 delectable possibilities for this review.

The best part of reviewing a recipe book is the cooking (and subsequent eating), clearly. I decided to make the Cambozola Pear Cream Tart, and enlisted the help of a foodie friend. Read the full article for the free recipe! Baking is a great team-cooking activity, since there are usually different concurrent tasks to be done. It's a great time of year to make this recipe, since the pears at the market will be close to ripe enough already. We used Gorgonzola dolce instead of the suggested Camembert-Gorgonzola hybrid, Cambozola, since it looked really good at the Italian market, and both of us love the flavor. We used slightly more than the recipe called for, and the flavor came out delicate and subtle. I think next time I might try a little more cheese, even, to balance with the delicious walnut crust. The most challenging part of this recipe is working with the dough, which is crumbly and delicate, making it easy to overwork, and hard to get into the shell. Tarts are forgiving, though, so perfect placement in the pan isn't critical, as patching up cracks and holes is much easier than with a flaky pastry dough. Besides licking the filling-covered spatula afterward, my favorite part of this recipe was laying out the pear slice in the shell in a sunflower pattern. It's like a pretty little secret hidden under the cheesy filling.

This is great for the intermediately skilled home cook looking to expand his/her repertoire of favorites. The tart I made required that I know how to toast walnuts (dry in a pan is how we did it), separate eggs (crack the whole thing into a bowl and pick up the yolk with your fingers), handle fancy cheese (remove the foil but let the food processor handle the rind), and work with delicate dough (I used a big cake mover to transfer it to the tart pan). Many of the recipes in Savory Baking are sure to become family holiday favorites, and this book would make a fantastic gift for the foodie in your life who's looking for a new set of ideas to tackle. It's inspiring because of the clever ingredient combinations and "why didn't I think of that?" touches that really satisfy the itch to make something lovely and delicious. Check out my Flickr set with more pictures from the making of this recipe.

Book Giveaway Time!

Three lucky CRAFT winners will win a copy of this book, Savory Baking! Leave a comment on this post telling us why you want this book. Make sure to enter your email address in the form field (won't be published). All comments will be closed Wednesday, October 28th at noon PDT. The winners will be announced on the CRAFT Twitter feed later this week. Good luck!

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Most recent posts: page 6 of 6 1 2 3 4 5 6
Browse the complete archive by category or month.

Craft:

Meatloaf Hand

Big Microbe Knit in the UK

How-To: Reusable Swiffer Cover

Crafty Chica Challenge: Day of the Dead Shrine - Deadline Extended to Nov 1!

Flashback: Gory Ghoul Makeup

Intricate Paper Maps of NYC

T-Shirt Memory Scarf

How-To: Refashioned Sweater Shrug

Book Review + Giveaway: Glamourpuss by Julie Jackson

Light-Up Dog Costumes

Brian Jungen's Strange Comfort

How-To: Polymer Clay Candy Corn Earrings

How-To: Photograph Halloween Costumes

How-To: Soap Cupcakes

Twitter Giveaway Winners: Stencil 101 Decor

Thrift Store Paper Cutouts

How-To: Pectin from Scratch

Pumpkin Cranberry Cornbread

Betz White's Felt + Stitch Holiday II Online Workshop

Book Review, Recipe, & Giveaway: Savory Baking

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