Mizuhiki Cord Knots Tutorial

Wow. Just wow. I'm amazed by how cool this knot made with mizuhiki cord looks. Zakka Life provides a lesson on how to make this abalone shell knot. (via Craftzine) Decorate all your gifts!

Green Giving Guides

I'm always trying to find ways to give gifts that are meaningful but environmentally-friendly and/or promote social justice. Here are a few online gift guides that I have found helpful for providing gift-giving inspiration:

Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
Grist Magazine
Environmental Defense Fund
Treehugger (also see Treehugger's general gift guide)

Plastic Bag Gift Topper Tutorial

A great use for all those plastic bags: Creature Comforts provides this wonderful tutorial on turning old bags into pom-poms.

Junk Mail Art Tutorial

Even if you sign up for those nice services to limit the amount of junk mail you get, it's still nearly impossible to avoid getting some unwanted mail.  So I thought this art project from re-nest was a nice idea.  The post even includes a nice step-by-step tutorial in case you want to replicate it.
 

Turkey Time

Unlike all the stores, which started selling Christmas merchandise right after Halloween, I am eagerly looking forward to Thanksgiving.

Found these adorable Turkey Pops from Bakerella, who provides the recipe. Now, I'm waaaay too lazy to actually try to make these myself, so I'm hoping one of you will try it out and report back. =)

Going, Going, Back, Back, to Cali, Cali

I'm off for an exciting 5 day excursion to my glorious California homeland.  I'm not sure what sort of internet service I'll have there, so consider this fair warning:  I may not post again for a few days. 

Please have faith that this is not the month-long abandonment I did during September/August, but is instead merely a little break.

However you feel about the outcome of the election (you know how I feel), these designs from Jeff Domke are amazing.  You can download his font of 24 Obama-inspired dingbats for free! (via How About Orange)

Bridesmaid Dress Table Decor

 

Singer and Craft are sponsoring an Upcyclist Party contest, in which they ask people to come up with creative party decor from unwanted materials.  I like this idea for party decorations made from old bridesmaid dresses, posted by Flickr user Chica_and_Jo.  (via Craftzine)  I really encourage you to check out some of the other contest entries or submit your own (due November 14).

Zipper Jewelry

I love these zipper jewelry items from Kate Cusack found via Make. With suggested retail prices starting around $85, though, I'm wondering if I could make something similar myself.

Handmade Gifts for Men

After yesterday's post, I got to thinking about how difficult it is to come up with appropriate handmade gifts for men. A lot of the handmade items are aimed at women, or at least men with a sensitive side. So here are a few ideas for some gifts men might like:

• A nice wallet. You can make it from fabric, duct tape, bike inner tube, or even classic leather.
  
• Masculine scented soap (like this beer soap)
• Food.  Any kind of food.  Except something he hates.
  
• Shaving products (cream or gel, soap, razor and brush stand)
  
• Framed photo collage
  
• Liqueurs
• A dopp kit (which is a bag for storing men's grooming tools for travel)

Handmade Gift Giving Guides

Okay, Halloween's over and the stores have started stocking up for the holidays. As Christmas (and whichever winter holiday[s] you find meaningful and celebrate-able) approaches, I've started thinking about what to give my loved ones. I like to get family members things that are less harmful to the planet and its inhabitants. In a few weeks, I'll post a quick list of social justice-oriented gift giving guides. Another (arguably better) way to do that that is to make your own gifts.

I know you probably haven't even started thinking about presents yet, but since it can be surprisingly time consuming to make holiday gifts, I decided to post a list of ideas early so you can all get started in plenty of time. Trust me, it's not fun when you are still knitting presents right before the relatives arrive!

Lucky for me, lots of other blogs have already done the hard work for me. [Disclaimer: because these are older posts, some links they use may not be active anymore]


Sew, Mama, Sew! issued roundup of handmade gift ideas last year that really captures a great range of ideas. I especially like the ideas from the gift compilations section, like the picnic set above.


West Coast Crafty also offers a long list of handmade holiday gift ideas. A favorite of mine are the cute matchbox ornaments (above) from Crafty Chica.


And another list of "festive" craft tutorials from Whip Up, including the wool wreath (above) from swallowfield
And another from Handmade Parade, featuring a cute cashmere headband (above) from Bitter Betty Blogs.

Finally, Skip to My Lou provides a fabulously creative list of options...too many good ones to pick just one, so you'll have to check it out for yourselves!

If you're feeling overwhelmed by all the options, take heart: there are always the basics.

• knit a scarf or hat
  
• make a food jar of some kind of mix (ie. brownie mix, cocoa in a jar) minus the liquid ingredients
• make holiday ornaments...practically any material will work
  

And don't forget, if you're not up for making your own handmade gifts you can always buy other people's! Sign up to take the Buy Handmade Pledge.

Happy Halloween!

If you haven't carved a pumpkin yet, you should. It's a cheap, fun craft. You don't need any artistic ability...just do what I did and use a stencil. Lots of patterns on the web.

Have a sweet, safe, and spooky Halloween!

World of Wearable Art

You guys know how much I love art involving textiles. These awesome pieces are just some of the winners of the World of Wearable Art competition. Please go look at the rest. So happy. (via Craftzine)

Where I Stop Pretending to be Nonpartisan

We are too close to election day for me to pretend not to be completely and totally on edge about the results. Everyone who knows me knows that I'm supporting Obama and hoping for a big change for our country.


So, thanks to How About Orange, who has a notably more politically balanced post, you can download amazing Obama posters and distribute them to all your friends. Get out and vote, people!

Borrowed Art

I am soooooo jealous.  Cal (aka UC Berkeley), my very own alma mater, has started a program that allows students to check out framed original art from the library for up to a year.  Students can now decorate their dorm rooms for free with art from a collection that includes

"more than 700 paintings, etchings, lithographs and engravings by artists including 20th century French Cubist Georges Braque, Surrealist Max Ernst, English satirist William Hogarth and contemporary local artists."

Why, oh why, didn't they have this when I was there?????

Housekeeping

Just a quick note that I did a little fall cleaning with the links on the blog.  They are now grouped into blogs I read all the time, ones I check in on every once in a while, and "old school" sites that are either infrequently or no longer updated but are still good resources. 

If you have other sites you'd like to suggest, let me know!   Comments of all stripes are always warmly received (hint, hint)....

Presidential Puppets

Election Day is coming.... It's always been one of my favorite days of the year (yes, yes, complete dork). And if you wanna celebrate it with crafting fun, one way is to print out some of these downloadable presidential/vice-presidential finger puppets. No comment about which finger I'd suggest for certain candidates.

Yum! Gingerbread Skeletons

 

From MyPaperCrane:   Make gingerbread men and owls with icing piped on to look like bones for a yummy Halloween treat.  She even includes a recipe.

What I Did Last Night...

...Was make my Halloween costume using materials from Goodwill and my sewing machine.  It took far too long, and I'm still not quite done.  I'll post results, though I'm undecided whether to wait until after Halloween to show off my little creation.   Either way, here's a hint about what I'll be:

Well, it's either a hint or just a photo I really wanted to look at longer.

Carpet Sample Reuse

ReadyMade offers a few suggestions for creative reuse of carpet samples, including this great geometric rug.

Ooh, pretty.

Bitter Betty Blogs provides a tutorial on how to make a gilded lace crown.  Perfect for costumes or just your everyday tiara needs.  (Via Craftzine)

Halloween Candle Decorating

My friend alerted me to this cute project from Booga J after she saw yesterday's post.  Using stamps and  tissue paper, you can decorate candles!  I love, love this idea!  I want some candles, stamps, a heat gun...

Halloween Votives

For a cute, simple Halloween craft, head over to Skip To My Lou for a tutorial on how to make these Halloween votives.

So Cute! Album Pillows

Etsy seller Toggle makes these absolutely adorable crocheted pillows. 

Maybe I'm feeling some kind of childhood nostalgia for LPs right now (see previous post), or maybe these are just the cutest things ever. Judge for yourself.  You can get one yourself, for $50-68, with albums by the Rolling Stones, the Ramones, Bob Dylan, and others.   (via Craftzine)

DIY Album Cover Wall Organizers

 

Paper and Stitch has come up with this brilliant reuse idea for old vinyl covers.  Make your own wall organizers using their ingeniously simple tutorial.   (via Ready Made blog)

Falling in Love with Autumn

Fall is my favorite time of year...sure, spring has the flowers and the rBlogger in draft: Design Phoenix - Create Postelief that winter is over.  But fall has changing leaves, a crispness to the air, and football season.

In honor of the best season of the year, here's a collection of fall-themed crafts that I put together:

First Stop:

• Threadbanger's own Fall Project Roundup, featuring their collection of fall-themed crafts

Fall Treats:

• Ramshackle Solid--Making Acorn Flour
• Kaboose-- Nature Luminary Candle Holders (pictured above) 
• Folding Trees-- Free Paper Chicken (or is it a Turkey?) Download that would make a nice Thanksgiving centerpiece
• ReadyMade:  Build a Brick BBQ and enjoy fall while it lasts (for the truly ambitious)
• Truly wishing that I could find a decent knitted beer cozy tutorial online to share with you.  I knitted some of these up in my guy friends' favorite football team colors.  Come to think of it, though, I never heard of them actually using them....hmm....
  

Halloween:

• Bakerella--Spooky Sweets (pictured above).  You have to see these adorable treats.
  
• Julie K in Taiwan-- Halloween Paper ornaments
•  For some [Warning: I Mean This] gross Halloween decoration ideas, Mental Floss--DIY Halloween Decorations 2007 provides some disgusting ideas
  
• See my previous post How About Orange's pumpkin decorating roundup 

Cool Weather Fun (maybe not Fall-specific, but I like them):

• Resurrection Fern:  Scarfette tutorial (above).  I couldn't wear this cuz I'd feel like I was choking, but it looks like just the answer for a nippy fall morning 
• Knitty Magazine:  Maple leaf purse (It's cute!  Check it out!)
  

Another Painting

As promised, here is the other painting I've completed (of a wave). One person who say it asked if I finger painted it.  I take that to mean it has good use of texture and not that it looks done by a 4-year old.  Although, finger painting always was fun....

Sorry about the terrible snapshot photo...all of the advice articles on having a nice blog say that you should only post beautiful pictures.  And I constantly ignore that advice.  Well, I'm doing it again:

Jeesh.  I was even too lazy to crop the photo.  But you get the idea. 

Pumpkin Carving Crafts

There's nothing I love more than a good holiday craft.  Growing up, crafting was how we celebrated holidays:  ornament making for Christmas, elaborate Easter egg dying,  crafting our own lace Valentines....the list really went on and on.  And of course, Halloween pumpkin carving.  Usually, my mom and I spurned the messiness of actually carving pumpkins and instead created charming faces using good old permanent markers.

For those of you who want to transform a pumpkin this Halloween, How About Orange provides a great list of links to carve, decorate, and generally maim your holiday gourd.  Hope all those pumpkin guts all over the place aren't too....horrifying!

Profiles in Craftiness: Rock Paper Scissors Collective

My friend Tam told me about this awhile ago, but since I've been neglecting this blog, I haven't shared it with you all yet. 

I'm very, very jealous of all the people in the Bay Area (that's the San Francisco Bay Area, for all you folks from elsewhere who think there might be more than one Bay Area) for many reasons, but partly because they have access to the Rock Paper Scissors Collective, a

"volunteer-run organization that fosters creativity and collaboration in order to strengthen local communities and encourage sustainable practices and alternative models 

RPS currently realizes this through an accessible space that offers free and low-cost classes, curated and open submission art shows, the retail of independently made clothing/craft/zines/music, a drop in arts lab, community events space, and youth involvement."

In other words, it's a place with some of the awesomest crafting classes around.  From classics like Knitting, Crocheting, or Silk Screening to wilder options like "Making Shoes out of Sweatshirts" "Girl-Friendly Skateboarding" or "Messing with Bikes" the options at Rock Paper Scissors are a crafty girl or guy's dream come true.  Did I mention I'm jealous?

So if you are lucky enough to live in the East Bay (or you're willing to commute), check out the Rock Paper Scissors Collective.

My Next Project: Foam Board Decor

Courtesy of Jessica Jones (of How About Orange? fame): Decor8 offers this simple wall art project tutorial.


Just grab some foam board from your local art store, glue on some paper, and start cutting. It's practically that easy. And it's lightweight, so you won't have any problem hanging it pretty much anywhere.

Back on Track: More Painting Pictures

So I haven't posted in an eternity because.....I haven't felt like it. I'm still not sure whether I'm going to keep posting regularly or if this is just a one time urge.

But in case you're interested, here is the most recent painting I did. It's actually really just me repainting a lovely design of someone else with much less skill. But I think it cheers up my office pretty well. I took the picture with my camera phone cuz I didn't remember to take a picture until it was up on the wall at work.


Now that I think of it, I may get around to posting the other painting I've done, which is an unintendedly abstract picture of waves.

More Kirigami Fun

Folding Trees offers a review of Easy Cut Pop Up Cards, a line of pop up card designs advertised as making kirigami simple to do.  I think this card is super cute!

DIY Drink Pouch to Pencil Case

I thought this tutorial on turning a drink pouch into a pencil case was a cute idea. (via Craftzine)

More Painting

So I'm in love...with acrylic painting.  I really just can't stop.  Here's the latest (the slight color variation on the sides is cuz the paint was still wet when I took it) (Oh, and the design came from a picture I saw online--not my own):

You guys don't mind if this blog becomes all about my adventures with paint, right?  Haha, no...I promise there will be other crafts coming soon.  If nothing else, I really need to make myself a paint smock soon! 

Weekend Project

This weekend, I finally started getting serious about filling in my blank walls.   This is one way I did something about covering the boring off-white:

 

  

I'd never actually painted with acrylics before, so I felt pretty pleased with myself for managing not to totally destroy any of the little canvases I had.  If you wanted to make something like this, it's easy to find these small canvases at an art store.  After that, you just have to glue ribbon to the back for a simple hanger (I was happy to get to pull out the old glue gun).

Meanwhile, I've fallen in love with painting.  I want to do more!

Guitar Hero Cake Tutorial

I want this cake.   Will you bake it for me? (via Craftzine)

Checkerboard Coasters Tutorial

I recently made these checkerboard coasters as a host gift for someone who enjoys board games. I thought they'd be fun to have out during a game night or just to liven up a dinner.

They didn't take too long to make, and it was exciting to see the materials come together. The hardest part was finding the patience for making all the squares.


Materials:

• Some underlying coaster material. I used PVC board from the art store. It's used for modeling projects. You could also use chipboard coasters or pre-made coasters but they need to be 4"x4" or able to be cut to that size for this project.
• Red and black paper
• Mod podge or some other kind of acrylic gel medium ( I used the Utrecht brand). You can choose between gloss or matte finish. I chose gloss.
• A brush for the mod podge application
• Scissors
• Pencil
• Spray fixative, available at all art stores. (I used Krylon).
  
• Utility knife (if you need to cut the coaster material to size)
• Cutting board (definitely not necessary, but I found it very helpful because it has a measured grid)

Step 1:


Grab your PVC board.

Step 2:

Cut the PVC board into 4"x4" squares with your utility knife (I made a set of 4 coasters but you can do more or fewer). I swear this is not very hard. In fact it was so easy, I forgot to take a picture at this stage. All you have to do is mark of a square with pencil, and simple keep pushing along the lines with the utility knife. It will take a few go-overs before it cuts clean, but it cuts really clean.

Step 3:

Cut 4"x4" squares out of the red paper and affix to the PVC squares with mod podge/acrylic gel medium. I actually gave myself a little extra room on the paper squares just to make sure they completely covered the coaster. It's easy to trim the edges once they are attached on.

I did a coat on the bottom of the red paper to make sure it was attached to the PVC, and then a top coat (this is the really important one), which makes the paper hard and water-resistant.

Step 4:

Cut out 1/2"x1/2" black squares. You will need 32 for each coaster (that's 128 for all 4 coasters). This was probably my least favorite part of the project. But the grid came in very handy for marking off the right sizes. (Sorry for the blurry image below).

Step 5:

Affix black squares onto coaster by putting mod podge on the back of the black squares. It helped me to look at a picture of a checkerboard to make sure that I got the pattern right (it's not that hard, but who wants to mess up at this point?)

Because cutting paper squares out is not quite an exact science, I had to be careful to check for size issues to make certain all the squares ended up fitting properly.

Don't worry about it looking exactly perfect--the homemade quality adds to the charm! Just make sure you can fit all your squares. On a couple of coasters, I ended up specially cutting out a couple of extra large or extra small squares to make up for tiny differences in square size.

Step 6:

Add mod podge over the top of all the coasters. Let them dry for an hour or two.

Step 7:

Take the coasters outside or to a well-ventilated area and spray lightly with fixative. Give them awhile to dry, and you're done!