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Heart Craft Projects

Lee Meredith on Threadbanger rounds up heart craft projects for Valentine's Day in her weekly roundup. I love this DIY Valentine Robot tutorial by Sew Green.

Posted by Natalie Zee Drieu | Feb 7, 2010 06:00 AM
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The Crafty Chica's Husband Made Glitter Earrings

February 6th is the anniversary of Bob Marley's birthday, and so I have been listening to a playlist of his songs all day. When I saw the Crafty Chica's flickr photostream, with these bold glitter earrings (in red, gold and green) that her husband made, I swooned. He put them together to sell at a reggae festival that he was playing at tonight. I think it's a perfect accessory, and I just love a man who can get some sparkles under his nails!

How-To: Ruffle Flower T-Shirt Embellishment

BlogHer user CA_Girls shares a tutorial for creating this cute ruffle flower embellishment on the neckline of a child's t-shirt, using scraps of other t-shirt material. The embellishments would be a great way to use up thrifted t-shirts or shirts with stains. (not that I know anything about kids' shirts with stains ... of course.)

How-To: Egg Ocarina

Matt Mets @ MAKE writes:

There has been no shortage of food-based instruments around here, however I particularly like this one that Youtube user heita3 made from an egg shell. It's a good reminder that pretty much any old thing can be made into a fun project!

Egg ocarina Read full story »

How-To: Blow A Kiss Flipbook

Katie Sokoler of Color Me Katie is a constant source of fun and inspiration and colorful projects. Her latest DIY tutorial is for making a cute little blow-a-kiss flipbook so you can give your loved one a kiss to keep in his or her pocket at all times. Adorable!

Jumbo Prawns Art Club in SF

The Luggage Store (which incidentally doesn't sell luggage) in San Francisco is hosting an exhibit called the Jumbo Prawns Art Club, featuring the work of three Bay Area artists: Scatha Allison (Miss Velvet Cream), Jason Dunman, and Julian Prince Dash, from now until February 27th. From these set-up shots, I can tell the show will definitely provide some creative inspiration. Miss Velvet Cream hand-crafts magical clothing creations "for tomorrow's urban nomads." Her work has been featured in previous Maker Faire fashion shows, and she spearheaded last year's Maker Faire Swap-o-Rama-Rama. Her talent and vision are amazing, and I'm excited to see what she has come up with for this installation. She has an on-site sewing date tentatively set for February 20th. Check out some of her previous work on her Flickr page.

Scarf Blocking 101

I've always been really lazy about blocking (although I must admit the Knitter's Block has changed my attitude somewhat), but this great scarf blocking tutorial makes a great case for blocking even scarves! There are a bunch of how-to photos and some advice for hand-washing sweaters to boot.

Crafty Biz Spotlight: Bell and Trunk Flowers

One afternoon in sunny Potero Hill in San Francisco, this small shop Bell and Trunk Flowers caught my eye. I couldn't help myself when I walked in to see the vintage decor filled with crocheted and knitted baby clothing and blankets that peppered the front area. Upon chatting with the owner Vanessa, I found out that most of the items were handmade by her mom and 11 year-old daughter. You can see a photo of grandma and granddaughter knitting away in the picture frame inside the trunk. Most of the goods that decorate the space inside her shop are all handmade or from indie designers. The former newspaper journalist decided to open up the shop a few years ago and shares with us her creative life as proprietor of Bell and Trunk Flowers.

Bellandtrunk Knitting

Bell and Trunk Flowers
1411 18th Street
San Francisco, Ca 94107
(415) 648-0519
www.bellandtrunk.com
Become a fan of Bell and Trunk on Facebook

Read on after the jump for my Q&A with Vanessa and more photos!

Read full story »

Book Review: Card. Paper. Ribbon by Kristin Roach

My Paper Heart

I'm always on the look out for great paper craft projects, especially ones that help you recycle paper at the same time. Just out today is Kristin Roach of Craft Leftovers' new eBook, Card. Paper. Ribbon published by CraftyPod Publishing. Learn how to take your old greeting cards (I have mine all saved in a box just waiting!) into beautiful handmade paper. But it doesn't stop there, Kristin shows you how to take that handmade paper and turn it into a stab stitch sketchbook. Don't throw away your wrapping paper either! Learn how to turn old giftwrap into papercloth and sew yourself a papercloth wallet or zipper clutch. Finally, there's ribbon and how you can learn how to combine your excess ribbon into your yarn projects. Crochet a market bag and a knit project basket that looks ready for spring!

I especially love the eBook format. The step-by-step photos and text are fantastic, along with printer-friendly pages containing all single project instructions on one page for easy reference (and to save paper). Pattern templates are also included as well as a handy list of resources for papermaking, crochet, and knitting. This eBook is chockfull of amazing projects and you can get it instantly via download for only $10. Perfect for a weekend of crafting!

Card.Paper.Ribbon 3
The crochet market bag incorporates all those scraps of ribbons you have.

See more project photos from Card. Paper. Ribbon after the jump!

Read full story »

Enter the New Crafty Chica Challenge: Love Shrine!

Crafty Chica Challeng: Love Shrine

CRAFT and iLoveToCreate.com have teamed up to present to you the Crafty Chica Challenge: Love Shrine!

Kathy Cano-Murillo, the Crafty Chica, has been making love shrines for the past 15 years. Using everything from mint tins to cigar boxes to even kitchen drawers, she transforms them into colorful art assemblages filled with objects, trinkets, mementos and phrases she loves. Her themes range from exotic lands to her kids to her Mexican culture. But her favorite love shrines to make are themed around romance!

In Kathy's new crafty-themed novel, Waking Up in the Land of Glitter, her main character, Star Esteban, makes a magical, glittery love shrine for her ex-boyfriend, Theo as a way to woo him back. Readers will not only have a peek at how Star made her love shrine in the story, but at the back of the book there are directions to make your own. You can also try one of Kathy's Love Shrine workshops in a Box - or start from scratch!

Here are her tips:

Let your heart guide you. Think of all the things that give you goosebumps (or that you want to give you goosebumps!) and make you happy! Your shrine can be exploding with sparkle and shine, or it can be soft and subdued. Start by laying down a foundation and background, and then adding a focal point, and then add accents to round it off. While Kathy likes to use creative containers for her love shrines, you can use what ever you want - anything is fair game! Kathy believes by setting out your love shrine in a place where you will see it everyday is a great way to bring happiness into your life!

Enter in this Crafty Chica Challenge for a chance to win crafty prizes. This challenge will run for 5 weeks, and the deadline for entries is 11:59 p.m. PST on March 11, 2010. The Prize winners will be announced on Wednesday, March 17, 2010. Because Kathy feels that love shrines are oh-so-very personal, the winners will be drawn at random. There will be one (1) grandprize winner, and three (3) runners-up. For more information and official rules, visit the Crafty Chica Challenge: Love Shrine contest page.

The Grand Prize is a Crafty Chica gift basket, a copy of the Crafty Chica's first novel Waking Up in the Land of Glitter and a $50 gift certificate to the Maker Shed.

The Runner-up Prize is a Crafty Chica gift basket as well as a Crafty Chica bobblehead.

To enter this Crafty Chica Challenge, please submit photos of your love shrine to the Crafty Chica Challenge Flickr Group, and include a description of your project, inspiration, and materials were used in the process. (250 words or less please).

If you're joining in on the contest, here's the code for the badge to display on your site or blog.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/ccc_loveshrine/"><img src="http://cdn.makezine.com/make/craft/CZ_CraftyChica_LoveShrine-Badge.gif" width="162" height="171" border="0" alt="Crafty Chica Challenge: Love Shrine" /></a>

Behind the Scenes at MAKE and CRAFT

In January, many of the remote MAKE/CRAFT team members (myself included) convened at the Maker Media headquarters at O'Reilly Media in Sebastopol, California. Take a look behind the scenes of your favorite DIY publications as Goli Mohammadi gives us a tour!

View on YouTube, Vimeo, or Blip.tv, subscribe to the CRAFT Podcast in iTunes, or download the m4v video.

Photo by Sam Murphy.

How-To: Make Sweet Paul's Twig Heart

I'm really into crafts that use natural materials. This twig heart project from Sweet Paul is simple, natural, and romantic. If you visit his site, be sure to click around. His projects are to die for, and he has many new developments.

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Most recent posts: page 3 of 6