Craftzine.com blog: October 2007 Archives

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Archives: October 2007

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October 31, 2007

Dia de los Muertos Pet Cemetery

Carla Blackmar of Sparrowpost has a great Dia de los Muertos sugar skull how-to. She decided to pay a gorgeous and hilarious homage to the fallen pets of her childhood:

Making candy skulls out of sugar is a Mexican tradition. According to internet sources, each skull is painted with the name of a deceased loved one, and then placed on the family's "Day of the Dead" alter. WASP-y girl that I am, the notion of writing the names of my dearly departed in frosting on my sugary craft project seemed a little indecent...
Instead, I decided to make skulls to memorialize all of the various pets of my youth. This was to be an act of atonement, as I was the primary suspect in most of these murders. While I was able to purchase a mold to make the traditional human sugar skulls, it wasn't going to be quite so easy to find a confection mold for a bird skull. Instead, I improvised, using bottles from my recycling bin as molds.

Have fun making your own variations! Link.

Patchwork Lid Sewing Basket Tutorial

Magda of Little Thing shows you how to make this patchwork lid sewing basket. What a great gift to make a fellow crafty friend. Link.

D.I.Y. Vanilla Extract

The Traveler's Lunchbox has an excellent post detailing how to make your very own vanilla extract. Sounds like a great idea for holiday gifts and avid bakers. [via] Link.

Halloween and Autumn Picks on Etsy

Etsy's The Storque features my picks for Halloween and Autumn in their weekly Featured Buyer column. Link.

Recycled Cardboard Toy Kitchen

I am so amazed by Anna of forty-two roads who made this toy kitchen for her daughter entirely from scratch, using primarily corrugated cardboard that was salvaged from the dumpster. Anna covered the pieces in contact paper and joined them together using no glue, no nails, nothing but clever joining cuts, which makes the kitchen entirely disassemblable so it can be packed flat for moving/storage. So cute for the little cooks in your life! Link.

House-Shaped Tea Cozy

Maybe it's my sore throat (and Nyquil buzz) talking, but this Dutch-inspired, house-shaped tea cozy (complete with little curtains!) looks insanely cute and handy to me. Just the thing to keep your tea warm in style. [via] Link.

DC Craft Mafia's The Unusual Suspects Arts & Crafts Festival in Bethesda, MD on Saturday, Nov 3

The DC Craft Mafia presents The Unusual Suspects Arts & Crafts Festival happening this Saturday, Nov 3rd at The Anastasi Room (5020 Battery Lane, Bethesda, MD) from 12pm to 8pm. With lots of fun door prizes and over 50 vendors, you won't want to miss this fun holiday shopping event! Link.

Stop-Motion They Might Be Giants Video

Toy and puppet maker Hine made the above video for the They Might Be Giants song "Ana Ng" just for fun, and it turns out the fellas saw it and liked it. So they had her make another video, for their song "With the Dark" (which you can see here)! It's so fun seeing her work progress--and I love the puppet pix on her website too. If you want to bring some of her craftiness home for yourself, check out her Etsy store, where you can buy fun felted creatured like the birdie below. Link.

Button Greeting Card Download

Yoonie at Home has a free download for these cute greeting cards you can send you someone special. All you have to do is sew on a cute button! Link.

Spooky Ghost Meringues Recipe

Shannon points us to this quick and easy recipe on 101 Cookbooks to make these cute spooky ghost meringues. Link.

Last Minute Lego Costume

Yay for Erin of A Dress a Day for making the Lego costume by Diana Eng from our Last Minute Halloween Costumes for Kids. I love that she used blue painters masking tape since you can't buy spray paint in Chicago. It looks great! Link.

Silkscreened Gift Wrap

Our CRAFT friend Shannon of Make It has launched her own new line of silkscreened gift wrap! The Jigsaw pattern features a simple line drawing silkscreened by hand onto 18 x 24 sheets of white and kraft-colored papers. The 70# text weight paper is flexible enough to wrap a variety of packages and durable enough for use in craft projects such as cardmaking and scrapbooking. Shannon put just as much care, attention, and skill into the creation of this gift wrap, as the handmade gifts you'll be giving this holiday season! To see more, visit the Rifferaff Etsy store. Link.

HOW TO - Make a Box from an Old Greeting Card

Sister Diane shows you how to take your old cards and transform them into a cute box with her tutorial on CraftyPod. Link.

Etsy Halloween Costume Contest Winners

The winners of the Etsy Halloween Costume Contest have been announced! Etsy's Unique Boutique dressed up as a strikingly amazing Edward Scissorhands. See all the winners here. Link.

Fence Posts Obscure Cords

Picket Fence is a clever way to hide cords and cables in your home. This idea is a great inspiration for a DIY project around the house. [via] Link.

Bat Wings Tutorial

My Halloween crush on Evil Mad Scientist continues with this post on how to make (more) anatomically correct bat wings from an umbrella. Is there any limit to what they can do? Link.

October 30, 2007

Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker Pop-Up Mask

Need a cool Star Wars Halloween disguise that you can create yourself? Star Wars: A Pop-Up Guide to the Galaxy author Matthew Reinhart shows you how to make this simple pop-up mask that changes you from Anakin Skywalker to Darth Vader in a flash. Link.

Patterned Pumpkin

Emily Albinski shows you how to make this cool patterned pumpkin. Link.

Circuit Boards and Sprinkles

I love seeing the fun items people drop into their resin jewelry, and Etsy seller stOOpidgErL has made some really eye-catching pendants using circuit boards, sequins, and real ice-cream sprinkles. Link.

Little Savages Faerie Sculptures

Tessa Farmer has collaborated with the London Natural History Museum for an exhibition called "Little Savages," in which her amazing tiny faerie sculptures are installed amongst the Entomology Department's mounted insect and animal collection. - [via] Link.