Crafty Manolo

I believe I’ve mentioned before that I wanted to try out some new crafting techniques. Well, I took the plunge recently. See that beginner’s needle felting kit up there? Yeah, I ordered one of those from Mielke’s (pronounced ‘Milky’s') Fibers.

The kit comes with eight needles (two each in four different sizes), a 12″ x 9″x 1 1/2″ foam work surface, a generous amount of carded fleece in some eight different colors, a strip of cotton batting, a bit of yarn, and a set of instructions in basic techniques taught in the form of four different projects. The instructions tell you how to do the work and suggest shapes and colors, but leave the final design up to the student, which is great because it encourages you to delve into your own creativity right off the bat. The needles come in a sturdy plastic tube and jabbed into a piece of foam so you won’t hurt yourself before you begin. They also include a handy chart to explain the color coding on the handles of the needles, including the length. That’s a good thing since two different styles have the same color handles, but one is significantly longer than the other.

As soon as the kit arrived, I pulled all the bits out and started playing. What do you know? By the end of an hour of reading instructions, identifying tools, etc. I sat down and in less than half an hour, I had a pretty piece of needlefelt in the form of a red heart I can wear on my sleeve… but will more likely attach to a hat at some point. I even managed it sans bloodshed! My vocabulary of vulgarities remains unenhanced, but at least I’m not wearing bandages on my fingers. I do, however, firmly believe the reason the kit suggests using red fleece to begin with is so that if one does draw one’s own blood, it’s less likely to ruin the project.

All in all, I’m thinking I spent $25.00 quite well. I’d been looking at needle felting beginner’s kits for a couple months, and this one seemed to me to offer the best combination of quality, versatility, and ease of use. If you’re looking to take up this fun craft, I highly recommend this as the kit to get.

Have you visited Alpha Stamps yet?

This rather fabulous sheet of collage images of dancing men is one of theirs, from the steampunk collection. The price varies slightly depending on whether you would prefer it in cardstock, clear sticker, or transparency form.

Not wild about dancing men? That’s okay. They have everything from bathing beauties and Mother Goose illustrations to bicycles and birds. And that’s just the tip of the collage iceberg!

They also carry rubber stamps, metal findings, buttons, charms, adhesives, stencils, glitter, ribbon, shrine forms, chains, tools, instructional materials, kits, and all sorts of other wonderful shiny things for the crafter.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’m going to go browse a bit and dream some pretty dreams. Or you could join me there.

Hey all you baking mavins out there! Fancy Flours is having a series of one-day sales for the next week. The shindig starts tomorrow, thursday, december 15, with a one-day 25% off sale on all cupcake liners, wrappers, picks, and decorations as well as books and DVDs.

Now’s your chance to get something like this rather glorious Nutcracker Suite cupcake decorating set for a quarter off. The set includes 24 cupcake wrappers in two styles, and 24 picks in four different styles: the Nutcracker, Clara, the Rat King, and the Sugarplum Fairy.

Then check back each day for more sales!

Have you ever wondered what sort of crafts an evil mad scientist might do? Well, they might do the deadly champagne cork pictured above (extremely tongue in cheek instructions here), or he might create something less obviously dangerous and less obviously evil, such as this nifty LED Menorah:

But whether your taste runs more to deadly champagne corks, kits for electronic Menorahs, or the infamous eggbot which can print on real eggshells (comes in both standard hen and ostrich), it’s exciting to know that Evil Mad Science is having an open house this coming sunday, December fourth, from five to nine pm.

So if you’re slightly crafty, slightly geeky, fond of great silliness, or just wanting to meet the store cat, Zener, and you’re in the Sunnvale, CA. area (note to Buffy fans: that’s SunnyVale, not SunnyDale) then come on out and see what evil lurks in the hearts of men. The place to go is:

Evil Mad Science

175 San Lazaro Ave, suite 150

Sunnyvale, CA.

BTW, about that champagne cork? I wouldn’t advise trying it at home. I’m just sayin’, m’kay?

Roberts Crafts has two great deals for all of you looking for, well, great deals on crafting equipment and supplies.

First off is the very limited time Beat the Heat offer of 20% off your entire online regular price purchase. All you need to do to get the savings is enter the code: BEATTHEHEATW at checkout, and anything you bought that wasn’t already on sale is 20% off! Not bad. Hurry, though! The deal ends tomorrow!

But wait! That’s not all! There’s another deal available:

If you happen to live nearby a Roberts, Two Fer Tuesday has been expanded to saturdays, as well, meaning you can use two coupons in one transaction. Again, not bad at all.

And now I think I’ll go off and craft some homemade ice cream. That’s my way to beat the heat! Stay frosty, everyone.

Block printing is a medium I have long admired. I’ve enjoyed it the couple times I’ve tried it, too.

If you’ve been thinking about trying this fun technique out, or if you know someone who wants to get started, the best thing you can do is head over to Mister Art and take a look at this fabulous starter kit by Speedball. It includes everything you need to get going creating your own block prints. It includes: a lino block, lino handle, four sizes of cutters, a knife, four colors of ink, and a lot more.

Oh, and the coolest thing of all? Is the price. This kit usually runs $59.99 retail, which isn’t at all bad. But why go for ‘not bad’ when you can get a great deal? You see, Mister Art carries it for just $46.19, which is 23% off. Or, if you join their VIP Club, the price drops to just $40.49, or a whopping 33% off!

I love beads. They can be strung together in so many different ways, each of which brings beauty and grace to a person or a place. For instance, this rather spectacular 3-D choker of apple blossoms would make the woman who wears it stand out in any crowd as someone interesting.

But maybe you’re not a pink kind of girl. I know I’m not! But I am all about purple, so this lilac choker grabs my attention, not least because of how it’s worn:

If you like these, or if they intrigue you enough to make you want to see more, head on over to Beading With Vavara. You’ll find the kits for both these chokers and dozens of other pieces of beaded jewelry and amulet bags. Whether you’re a beginner or an expert, there’s a pattern you can do. There are also books on technique available.

But what if you don’t bead jewelry? That’s okay! Vavara’s got you covered there, too, with finished pieces for sale.

Not feeling very flush? Don’t worry. There are also free patterns available to download.

Mmm… pretty.

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This is a fully dressed lace pillow. Looks scary, huh? All those bobbins that all look different. All those pins. All that… stuff.

When you get right down to it, though, bobbin lace is not a difficult craft to pick up. While there are challenges to last a lifetime and dozens of different styles to master, at any given moment, bobbin lace boils down to just a couple different moves using no more than four threads at a time. As for the bobbins, they’re just thread holders with handles so that you can manipulate the threads without touching them. It doesn’t matter in the work whether they all match perfectly or look quite different. Just don’t mix Midlands and Continental bobbins.

Frankly, if you can tell your right from your left and have basic manual dexterity, you can learn to make bobbin lace. There’s plenty of fine-tuning, of course, but given that children as young as six used to be professional bobbin lacemakers all over Europe, you start to realize that the essentials aren’t exactly rocket science.

But where do you learn how to do it? And where do you get the basic tools?

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Even though my hands are not good at it, I admire a good piece of embroidery more than I can say. One style that has always particularly appealed to me is crewelwork. I love the flowing lines typically seen, the texture with the slightly raised bits, the long history of the technique. If I were any good at embroidery, this would be the one I think I would do most.

If you love crewel, or if you’re thinking of giving it a try, consider heading over to The Crewel Work Company & Historic British Needlepoint and looking into one of their historically accurate kits.

The crewel kits start with historically accurate Jacobean ‘Z’ twist linen to work on. They go on to provide quality thread, one gold-plated needle for single-thread stitching and a nickel-plated one for double threads (so easy to tell apart at a glance!), a booklet of basic instructions in crewel, and a full-sized chart of the work showing the exact stitches and colors used.

I’m in love with the Jacobean period Rabbit pattern shown above. It runs 39 pounds sterling. Other kits are priced individually, and there’s a handy currency converter right underneath each price so you can know what you would pay in US dollars, Canadian dollars, or whatever currency you’re using.

Also, be sure to check out their gorgeous needlepoint canvases. They have me seriously considering taking needlepoint up again.