As a special preview for MAKE's upcoming Alex Rider Dream Gadget Contest, we're giving away two copies of Eagle Strike by Anthony Horowitz, part of the Alex Rider series! Just leave a comment in this post and tell us why you or your kid(s) needs one of these books. That's all you need to do to enter! Please make sure you include your email address in the comment form field (it won't be published). All eligible comments will be closed by Noon PST on Sunday, November 8th. The winners will be announced next week on the site. Good luck! For a sneak peak at Eagle Strike, check out a sample chapter at MAKE.

<

On November 17th, MAKE will be launching the Alex Rider Dream Gadget Contest, to coincide with the release of the next chapter in Alex's adventures, Crocodile Tears. The book comes out the same day that MAKE, Volume 20 (the kid-themed issue) hits newsstands! In case you're unaware, Alex Rider is a young spy whose exploits are chronicled in a popular series of teen spy/adventure books. Alex uses all sorts of crazy high tech contraptions, made from things in his school backpack, to get out of sticky situations.

MAKE is teaming up with the Penguin Group to present The Alex Rider Dream Gadget Contest.

Attention all adventure-seekers, gadget lovers, and closet inventors. You are invited to join in the fun! If you were Alex Rider, what gadget would you want in the upcoming adventure Crocodile Tears? Design your Alex Rider dream gadget, inspired by an everyday object (i.e. an iPod, a toothpaste tube, a pen). The winning gadget will be built here at MAKE Labs. Send us a schematic, tell us what your gadget is made from, and how it works. Your entry can be a schematic, sketches, and/or an explanation by you. Remember that the winning gadget should be inspired by an everyday object that one could realistically build (as much as we wish we could create a pair of scissors that fly us to the moon)!

MAKE and Penguin are sharing some of Alex's coolest gadgets and excerpts from the books, as well as giving away a pile of books! Get on over to the post on MAKE to leave a comment for your chance to win these for you or a special kid in your life.

The 2nd Annual Great West End & Railroad Square Hand Car Regatta & Exposition of Mechanical & Artistic Wonders is happing this weekend in Santa Rosa, Calif. Known to those in the know as the Handcar Regatta, the eclectic steampunk-styled event is centered around a wild race down the train tracks. Teams with hand built cars will push their limits competing for the prize and all the glory. The MAKE fire truck will be there, not in case of fire, but to entertain and educate the public. I, your dedicated blogger and author of Feltique, will be on hand, along with the editors of MAKE magazine and Craftzine, to help you create your very own custom felt mustache! Don't Goli and I look dapper in our photo from last year?

For more details and inspiration, check out the Regatta photo and video gallery, and my flickr set of mustaches from the Oakland Fire Arts Festival. Can't wait to see you Sunday!

A new design studio and shop is opening in San Francisco and they are looking for product submissions. Non*Mart, as the shop is aptly named, touts an interesting alternative to traditional commerce by promoting the barter system. Artists are invited to submit pieces for inclusion in the shop. From the site, "To be considered, your piece must be made (in part or whole) of post-consumer waste and/or address ideas of consumerism, waste, and the ramifications of our consumer culture." Upcoming events at the shop include the opening reception on November 6th and a special event on November 27th to commemorate the annual Buy Nothing Day. Great idea!

If you're in the SF Bay area, don't miss the segment on Maker Faire tonight at 7 p.m. on CBS 5's Eye on the Bay!

Our "Cozy Up to Yarn" theme starts tomorrow so break out your knitting needles and crochet hooks because we're jumping into fall with lots of great projects. Sign up for our monthly CRAFT newsletter which goes out tomorrow and you'll be one of the firsts to get this free pattern online to make a cozy pair of knit and felted house slippers by Liecel Tverli Scully as featured in CRAFT: 05, before it hits our site later in September. And it's easy to subscribe with our new newsletter system! All you have to do is enter in your name and email address. So what are you waiting for?!

Also running throughout September is our very first Crochet-Along! Tamie Snow of Roxycraft will show you how to make this adorable fuzzy panda amigurumi. The materials list and pattern will be available starting tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Thank you to this month's sponsor and our friends at Lion Brand Yarn! Becky and I will be taking a visit to the Lion Brand Studios in NY for special CRAFT Video Podcast to debut later this month. Search the Lion Brand site for thousands of free knititng and crochet patterns. Follow @lionbrandyarn on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

The Maker Shed is continuing our summer clearance sale featuring a wide range of products. The sale will run for the rest of the summer, but only while supplies last. Be sure to check back regularly since we will be adding daily specials throughout the summer on some of our popular products.

Here are some of the things I've had my eye on in the Shed:

i Craft: things- Leatherman "Squirt" S4 (scissors version)

Was $39.95, sale price $29.95!

Bead Simple-Vintagesque Necklace Kit

Was $12.00, sale price $5.00!

Craft, Inc.: Turn Your Creative Hobby Into a Business

Was $16.95, sale price $12.00!

CRAFT: Ladies T-Shirt

Was $15.00, sale price $5.00!

ReMake America Water Bottles

Was $15.00, sale price $7.50!

Mind's Eye Kit

Was $69.95, sale price $49.95!

MAKE, Volume 19 features a special section on robots. Learn how to make a model plane with an autopilot and a small built-in robot brain. We also show you how to make a comfortable plywood chair, a bicyclist's vest that shows how fast you're going, and projects that introduce you to servomotors. There's a free downloadable papercraft diorama featuring a robot picnic with his human and feline friends. MAKE, Volume 19, on newsstands today!

Subscribe to MAKE, or log in to check out the Digital Edition.

Subscribe to the MAKE Podcast in iTunes, or download the m4v video.

Got a favorite author here at CRAFT? Need to cut down on your daily blog intake, or just want more ways to organize your information? We now have RSS feeds for each author here at the CRAFT Blog:

• Shawn Connally (Managing Editor)
• Natalie Zee Drieu (Senior Editor)
• Rachel Hobson (Contributing Writer)
• Goli Mohammadi (Associate Managing Editor)
  
• Brookelynn Morris (Contributing Writer)
• Arwen O'Reilly Griffith (Staff Editor)
• Becky Stern (Associate Editor)

Of course, our site's full RSS feed is available too, if you haven't already subscribed. There are many more ways to read CRAFT, too, including a daily email digest of all posts (sign up in the sidebar), our Twitter feed, our Facebook page, YouTube channel (MAKE and CRAFT together), our iTunes podcasts, and daily tips service.

Today is Craftzine's 3rd birthday and we couldn't have done it without you our lovely readers -- so thank you! If you can believe it, I posted our very first post back on this day in 2006. The site now has well over 9,000 posts with seven of us editors working hard to bring you the best in crafts each day!

Pictured above are some fun memories of the team covering events from the last 3 years. (Clockwise) Katie and Goli at Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago 2006, Arwen at the SF Giants Stitch N' Pitch 2006, Brookelynn at Renegade Craft Fair Chicago 2006, Becky, Rachel, & Natalie with Crafty Chica at Maker Faire 2009, and Shawn & Natalie at Maker Faire 2007.

Thanks for a great 3 years and here's for more fun to come!

Grand Prize Winner:

Royal Flush Cover-up by KJMA

There's an awesome sale going on in the Maker Shed for the dog days of summer. Get your hands on great kits, CRAFT t-shirts, and more this summer in the Maker Shed Summer Sale. Here are some of the things I've had my eye on in the Shed:

i Craft: things- Leatherman "Squirt" S4 (scissors version)

Was $39.95, sale price $29.95!

Bead Simple-Vintagesque Necklace Kit

Was $12.00, sale price $5.00!

Craft, Inc.: Turn Your Creative Hobby Into a Business

Was $16.95, sale price $12.00!

CRAFT: Ladies T-Shirt

Was $15.00, sale price $5.00!

ReMake America Water Bottles

Was $15.00, sale price $7.50!

Mind's Eye Kit

Was $69.95, sale price $49.95!

We're ecstatic about iTunes' recent DIY spotlight feature, showing off CRAFT and MAKE video podcasts, as well as some other great DIY podcasts. Remember check out our video/pdf podcast archives and if you like what you see, subscribe to CRAFT in iTunes!

If you're in the Bay Area in August and are interested in homemade zines, be sure to put this event on your radar. The annual SF Zine Fest is a "free two-day conference for independent and underground publishing. Exhibitors come from all over the West Coast, and while the focus is on zines, all walks of DIY life are represented — comics, arts and crafts, literary presses, and more." Their special guest this year is Xeric Award-winning cartoonist Andy Hartzell. If you've got something you want to share as an exhibitor, now's the time to get your application in. Everything you need to know is on their site.

I've been writing tutorials for CRAFT since Vol. 2, and I am very happy to be a new part of this online iteration. I'll be contributing tutorials and in-depth technique based posts. My favorite craft is the one I haven't tried before! I love the challenge of teaching myself something new. Current obsessions include: hydroponic gardening, recycled sweater accessories, and collecting tiny bits of nature. I also think I craft with words. I take writing just as seriously as I take crafting, because it's important to me that I always give readers clear, concise instructions. My tutorials should be inspiring, never daunting. Cheers!

Here's Brookelynn's needle felted fruit on the cover of CRAFT: 02. You can pick up a back issue in the Maker Shed!

Also, check out her beautiful new book, Feltique!

Tonight the Bluebottle Art Gallery in Seattle is hosting an art opening reception for Tiny Repetitive Motions, a show featuring the amazing woolly art of our beloved miss Moxie and the sweet embroidery of Dana Robson. This collaborative display showcases work that "explores the intersection of craft and art, focusing on humanity and its collective nature." The reception tonight is from 6 to 8 p.m., and the exhibit runs through June 30th. Moxie's work will also be featured in the Fiber Arctic exhibit, which opens at Schmancy in Seattle tomorrow, June 12th.

The always talented and crafty Brookelynn Morris made this forget-me-not bridal headpiece pictured above back in April during our Crafting with Nature month. She'll be back again this month to show you how to make a flowers for the whole wedding party with a tutorial on making a bridal bouquet, bridemaids' bouquets, and groomsmen's boutonnieres. Next, Cathy Callahan will show you how to craft up the reception decor with paper flower centerpieces and Andrea deHart of CraftyBitch creates a bird's nest ring-bearer pillow and flower girl basket. That's just a taste of what we have cooking so keep checking back here. We've also collected lots of DIY wedding projects over the last couple years, so in the meantime, feel free to take a peek at our wedding archives for past projects and inspiration.

Tell us about your DIY Wedding! If you'd like to share your story, a quick project or tip from your wedding, crafty photos, and anything else, please send an email to nat@craftzine.com. Also, feel free to leave a comment to this post if there's a particular wedding craft you are interested in seeing.

Today is the release of Feltique! The book is beautiful, if I do say so myself, and I am happy to announce that Potter Craft has graciously decided to let me give 5 copies away to CRAFT readers. There are many ways to make felt, and make projects with felt, and Feltique covers them all, including wet felting, needle felting, fulled felt, and commercial felt crafts. Feltique has 46 projects for every skill level, from jewelry and accessories to toys for babies and repurposed clothing. More than 15 of the projects were created by contributors from around the globe, representing an amazing number of creative craft styles.

This book is relevant not only because the projects are fashionable and interesting, but because of the low cost of the materials needed. They will fit into your craft budget, and help you build your affordable gift stash. My personal favorites include a necklace made from commercial wool felt using a scrapbooking punch, the needle felted cuff bracelet, and the stunning wet felted scarves, including one that's nuno felted.

Besides just projects, the book gets into some heady felt territory, including tackling the question: what IS felt? The answer, in a nutshell? One basic tenet covers each type of felt: generally speaking, any non-woven fabric can be considered felt. But in the craft world, and in Feltique, we consider fabric that has been knitted and washed until the stitches shrink together to be felt. Strictly speaking they are "fulled," but we include them in the category of felt because if fulled fabric can be cut without unraveling, it has the properties of felt. Feltique also hits on the origins of felt and the science of felt, all while presenting beautiful art that's accessible for every crafter.

To win a copy of Feltique, leave a comment on this post telling us why you need this book. Please make sure you include your email address in the comment form field (won't be published). We'll close the contest at 10 a.m. on Thursday, May 21st, and announce the winners on Friday. Cheers, and good luck!

P.S. If you are in Sebastopol, Calif., I'm hosting a book launch party at 7 p.m. at Copperfield's! There will be cupcakes, champagne, and felting. Come visit!

Thanks to everyone for following us on Twitter! Not following us yet? You can get the latest updates in the craft world as well as ask us questions.

[Photo via HubPages]

Hope all you crafty mamas out there are having a wonderful Mother's Day today. This is my first one as a mom and I'm looking forward to the years ahead where I'll be teaching my daughter Chloe the world of crafts and looking forward to the day she makes me her first handmade gift.

We shared lots of stories about crafty moms this week so I'm including a short roundup. (You can also read the story about my mom from a couple years ago here.)

• Shawn Connally and mom
• Becky Stern and mom Bette Stern
• Diane Gilleland and mom Pam Harris
• Jennifer Perkins and mom Fredda Perkins
• Maura Madden and mom Pam Madden

Happy May Day Crafters! We are kicking off a new theme today for May, Wardrobe Refresh. Yes we're talking fashion! Our new projects feature ways you can look stylish this season without breaking the bank. Learn how to refashion your clothing, embellish it, and make your own jewelry. Pictured clockwise is Dolin O'Shea's crochet-embellished refashioned tank, Vickie Howell's Crochet Tarina O-Ring Necklace (this afternoon's project), and Nancy Minsky's plastic container jewelry. There's lots more to come all this month!

Coming up on May 15th and running through mid-August is our CRAFT Summer Camp theme. Wondering what to do with the kiddos when they are out of school this June? Our CRAFT Summer Camp projects will feature lots of fun kids craft projects to keep your little ones busy and happy. Look for special projects each week from Austin's Future Craft Collective where Bernadette and Kathie will include projects centered on building sustainable family connection through sustainable crafting.

Longtime recycling maven and CRAFT contributor Tiffany Threadgould is a busy, busy girl these days.

Besides running her fabulously clever recycling and reuse company, RePlayGround, she's working on articles for us here at Craftzine.com, writing a book, and is one of the stars (yes, I said it, she's a star!) of the new show Garbage Moguls, in which she works as a product designer for the company Terracycle. The company is taking garbage and making useful things out of this trash, thereby robbing the landfill of more content. The company's home to a lot of different personalities, who keep you highly entertained for the hour-long show.

Here's a shot from the show where she's not licking a cookie wrapper but a coworker named Albe doesn't have any qualms about doing just that:

And here's a preview of the show, which premiered this past Wednesday on Earth Day. You should definitely record this on your DVR-of-choice or tune in this Saturday, April 25th, at 10 p.m. Congrats, Tiffany, and we hope it's a flyaway hit (just like the kite)!

Marc @ the Maker Shed writes:

Okay, here's the deal. We've a huge amount of new inventory arriving at the backdoor to our warehouse in anticipation of Maker Faire. The problem is, we share a warehouse with the rest of O'Reilly and we need to clear out space to make room for the new stuff.

So...we've sharpened our pencils and for the next two weeks, we are rolling back the prices on over a hundred of our existing products. Most around 50% off, but some of them discounted as much as 75% off! Once they're gone they're gone. This is a limited time spring-cleaning sale from now through midnight April 30th (midnight on our San Francisco clocks).

Use code BLOWOUT at checkout for the FREE shipping on orders over $100. (Contiguous US)

Check out all the products that are on sale now!

Here's just some of the crafty goodness available on sale:

CRAFT t-shirts only $5!

LilyPad Pro Kit is half off!

KnitKnit: Profiles + Projects From Knitting's New Wave only $10!

CRAFT and MAKE are now offering up daily tips via Twitter using @craft_tips and @make_tips respectively. Every day get a new tip about something under the CRAFT umbrella. You can even suggest tips by sending craft_tips an @ reply! We'll be sending out the best little nuggets of information that help you make your crafty lifestyle flow a little more smoothly. Follow craft_tips on your Twitter!