Cathe Holden has put together a super useful gift making guide, complete with more than 40 of her DIY projects that are perfect for your holiday gift list.

The composition of this embroidery hoop mobile from Sara of Creative Jewish Mom is so charming! Fun felt accents add a colorful touch and can be swapped out for changing seasons. [via @SisterDiane]

The Sewing Dork shares how to make a small castle using an oatmeal container, felt, embroidery floss and a bit of scrap cardboard. I could see making a whole village of these kinds of buildings for the kids to create their own city!

One of my favorite blogs is Creature Comforts. Ez, the author, has a constant stream of beautiful things to make and see. Last week she moved to a new and way more wonderful site. Creaturecomfortsblog.com is the new url, and the switch brought with it quite a few improvements to the information presentations. All the content is the same amazing quality, but with a very cool new vibe. All the projects, printables, fonts, and inspirations are collected into categories that make browsing for ideas much easier. When you visit, check out one of my favorite tutorials, this butterfly wedding accent that could be incorporated into any lovely event.

Kathy Cano-Murillo's Crafty Chica product line is returning to select US Michael's stores this weekend. She's announced a list of locations that will carry the line. If your local Michael's isn't on the list, give them a call and request they carry the line. When her first line of products debuted last year, supports were snapping pictures in the store and sending out reports of what merchandise was left. Now, Kathy is forming a street team to help get the word out. If you live near one of the stores and are interested in helping, just get in touch with her. I remember checking in at my Michael's several times last year when her line first debuted. It's been such fun following her progress on this dream of hers, and even more fun seeing the generous members of the craft community so enthusiastically support her!

The next time you are in Target, check to see if they have the new holiday Kleenex boxes with Betz White's exclusive designs. Read about how she created them, and see close-ups of all the boxes over on her blog. I'm especially smitten with the ric rac box!

Diane at Crafty Pod shows how to create a snazzy stiffened fabric flower brooch, including some tips for keeping the sheen nice and smooth. This could be a great use for fabric scraps!

Remember the fantastic vintage spool advent calendar from Cathe at Just Something I Made a couple of weeks ago? She's back to share how she used the discarded thread from the spools to make a collection of colorful bird nests!

Katie of matsutake shares how to transfer images from your ink jet printer to wood using Mod Podge and Elmer's school glue. With drying time of overnight, it's a craft for the patient, but the applications for this are endless and very cool. (And while you're enjoying her blog, be sure to check out her very cool Where the Wild Things Are banner!) [via Mod Podge Rocks]

My neighbor Teresa Cuseo is an amazing artist and crafter -- every time I talk to her or go over for a visit she's doing something creative, from terrific mosaics to yummy baked goods to cool jewelry and clever shrines.

She recently bought a Day of the Dead crafting book and has plans to make some Day of the Dead altars, but the shrines and altars she's created thus far pay homage to the various incarnations of the Virgin Mary, bicycling, her loved ones, other religious figures, and roses. I like each and every one of them, and think they offer a lot of inspiration for our Day of the Dead shrines, too. Check them out after the jump and see what you think!

P.S. I Made This shares a brilliant transformation of old vases, bottles and cans to faux porcelain pottery with the help of a little puffy paint and spray paint. [via @thingswemake on Twitter]

Yesterday I visited Spacecraft, a craft studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. They opened just about a year ago and are host to a long list of fun crafty events and activities in the neighborhood. Their menu of walk-in crafts has something for every age and skill level, and they host classes and workshops. They also carry a very wide range of tools and supplies for things like batik, puppetry, felting, embroidery, stamp carving, tie dye, leather working, and I even spotted a few Crafty Chica products on the shelves. They host monthly Church of Craft meetings, make Bags for the People, and even have "Craft on Draft," an adults-only homebrewed beer and crafting session. If you live in Brooklyn, stop on by to check out what's going on, or check out their online events calendar. This Saturday there will be soap making, followed by felting over soap (how convenient)! They'll also be hosting an anniversary/Halloween party on the 31st that is not to be missed. Email to get on their weekly newsletter mailing list, or stop by:

Spacecraft
355 Bedford Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11211

Check out the rest of the pictures from my visit at my Flickr set.

Have you heard what a raging space geek I am? You can imagine, then, my jaw dropping over this little discovery of a Hubble Telescope-shaped paperclip. Greg over at Dinosaurs and Robots writes:

While preparing for her big star party at the White House this past week, my wife scored this awesome piece of swag from a NASA meeting: a paper clip shaped like the Hubble telescope.

Paperclip versions of logos are new to me, and Greg goes on to share examples of a few companies' logos that translated well in to paperclip format. I'm still hung up on Hubble, though. Love it!

When I saw the following tweet from Kids Craft Weekly, "There is no such thing as being too busy to craft - all you need is five minutes!" I was intrigued. I'm always having to remind myself that I don't necessarily need long stretches of time to exercise some creative muscles. The latest issue of Kids Craft Weekly focuses on just that idea, and serves up several crafts that can be completed in about five minutes. Sure, they are geared toward kids, but they can also be a fun excuse for quick crafting for adults! Sometimes, that's all you need to get yourself out of a creative rut.

The dreamlike and the practical merge with objects modern and objects vintage in the new blog of San Francisco designer Teagan Tall. Teagan, who counts among her clients MAKE magazine and our own Craftzine, and has recently begun chronicling her art, her work, and things she loves. She includes diverse posts, ranging from high-end furniture and her collection of books, to papercut art and photography.

These pieces of bird-inspired art represent her ability to render the reality of nature using the softness of the ethereal. The story of her creative journey to arrive at them is modest and sweet:

Two years ago I decided to start finding uses for the stacks of old calendars and scrap paper I pack around with me like a greedy hermit crab. I began to sketch birds drawn from field guides onto the more undesirable side of my paraphernalia — the tree is made from the ghost prints of an old woodblock I did ages ago — and cut out the forms with an X-Acto. This project became one of the few art exercises I've done recently that didn't consume my mind with concept or execution — it was just scrap paper! I wasn't worried how they turned out, and this ended up being very liberating.

Crafty Pod, the podcast that's "all about making stuff" has just released its 100th episode. Diane Gilleland has produced the podcast since May of 2005, and has hosted guests on subjects ranging from crafting with your children to all angles of running a craft business to the relationship between indie and corporate crafters. In her 100th episode, Diane answers questions provided by listeners (and even has an extra blog post with some of the questions that wouldn't fit into the podcast). If you've never listened to Crafty Pod or have only heard a few episodes, be sure to check out her podcast main page and go back through her archives to hear them all.

Bitter Betty Blogs shares a tutorial for making these delicate doily and lace jellyfish. I imagine a a whole grouping of them hanging could be stunning!

I never thought I'd take a lesson from Coca Cola, but this great graphic at Thinkingalaud on the history of Coca Cola and Pepsi logos is a great example of the importance of consistency in branding, whether for a small crafting business or a multinational behemouth (via Swiss Miss). [Note: apparently this is a fairly simplified timeline; for a discussion of the brand evolution and a more accurate timeline, go here. I still like the idea, though, so I thought I'd share it anyway.]

"Breakfast in Neverland," a mosaic cereal portrait by Jason Huntley

Jennifer Perkins of Naughty Secretary Club shows how to take a regular six pack of beer bottles and completely customize them for Father's Day. My husband recently bottled up the latest batch of his home brew, and I'm thinking this could work for him, too!

Photojojo shows how to hollow out a book and insert a camera for some super sneaky picture snapping.

Instructables user keng made this nifty handle for a messenger bag from a piece of paracord and a few simple tools. The technique is called the Portuguese Sinnet (among other names) and makes for a nice chunky handle. The long length of paracord is good to have with you in case of zombiepocalypse (or, say, a hiking accident), too.

I am in awe of this amazing giant button mosaic created by Jo of Button Candy and Angie of Lucky Pony.

Angie and i were given the task to do WHATEVER we wanted to the front bar counter at work. Lucky us, we decided to stick down 4261 buttons (i made that number up - and wouldn't be surprised if it was more) spelling out the word hello.

You can see pictures of the mosaic in process on Jo's Flickr stream. I love it! I have a wall space similar to this counter in my kitchen, and I'm eyeing it in a whole new way now ....

[ via maximum RABBIT designs ]

Some friends of ours, Scott Constable and Ene Osteraas-Constable, are amazing artists, crafters, and builders, whereas my husband and I are merely connoisseurs of handmade furniture and big art projects. Luckily, this works out just fine, because we get to appreciate Scott and Ene's work on a regular basis!

Their latest project, Oakland Fusion, is finished and available for all to see at Jack London Square in Oakland, Calif. It's an installation of lenticular murals consisting of more than 4,500 hand-painted tiles. Painting the tiles took about 8 months, and everyone they knew was invited to help. I like how this project mixes a "traditional" craft, tile work, with a simple animation process. Here are some more details about the project from their website:

Each mural functions like a two-cell animation; the image morphs as the viewer changes position. The eight images are based upon the textile patterns of Oakland's major ethnic demographics. Mounted to the exterior wall of a new parking garage immediately opposite Oakland's main train station, the murals are intended to viscerally orient new arrivals to Oakland's cultural geography.

Recently, their Oakland Fusion project has had lots of media interest, with NBC and the Oakland Tribune running stories about the project. Ene says she thinks this installation has struck a nerve because people really need this type of arts and crafts right now. "The timing's just really good for something like this," she adds.

As a team, they've also built treehouses, art studios, and set up miniature golf and audio tour installations in San Francisco. Besides these high impact projects, Scott also makes skateboards, chairs, tables, and writes thoughtful prose about the world we live in on their Deep Craft and WOWhaus websites. They have a large, thriving garden and orchard, write poetry, throw great parties, are raising a lovely daughter, and come up with clever inventions such as the bicycle composter and a mobile biodiesel processor.

As interesting to me is that they still find time for a walk around the forest, cataloging flowers on the web, volunteering at the school, and helping with local events. They move through the mundane spaces we all inhabit with an eye for the beautiful and have the ability to add to that beauty. Can anybody say inspirational?!

But don't take my word for it. Check out their blog; it's not just a nice way to see what Scott and Ene are up to, but a neat window into their projects, local blossoms, and philosophical outlooks.