I love the new collaborative project from Pistachio Press + How Now Design…woodland animals letterpress animal masks. Choose from a bunny, fox or pheasant—each kit include a mask, crayons and ribbon and is $20.
I was thinking the other day of all the arts and crafts I want to do, but just don’t ever seem to have enough time to get around to doing. I thought I might share my crafting wishlist as a first step in making it a prioroity to get around to some of these things.
I’ve created a list of things I’ve never done that I’d like to do, as well as crafts I’ve had some exposure to. This list is actually just a beginning…
What arts and crafts have you always meant to dabble in? Share in the comments!
Do you remember when I featured Chandler Lane, the paperkraft letterpress diorama DIY kit from 1canoe2, back here? Well, the ladies from 1canoe2 sent me a kit as a thank you and I finally got around to putting it together last week. Super easy & super fun to put together, its permanent home is now on the window sill above my desk.
One of my favorite things to do is to curl up with a good craft book. Whether it’s on the couch with a cup of tea in the winter, or on a chaise out in the yard with a glass of lemonade in the summer, there is not much better than whiling away an afternoon drooling over some eye candy of crafty how-to’s and projects. So, when I was asked to part in the blog tour for Anna Maria Horner’s new book, Handmade Beginnings, I thought of the wonderful afternoon I would spend reviewing it out on my deck and said yes.
Now, as you would expect from a book entitled Handmade Beginnings, a lot of the focus is on projects for welcoming baby into the world, but the book is actually more inclusive than that. It’s broken into 4 sections: Mama Sewing, Baby Sewing, Family Sewing, Nest Sewing and actually has a lot of projects that folks without little ones would be interested in as well. The Thank You Notebook, a fabric portfolio for storing correspondence supplies; the Here We Go Bag, a roomy wide strapped diaper bag that minus the changing pad is the prefect tote; and the Dad Bag, a messenger-style shoulder bag, are all projects that would work for those with kids and those sans kids.
But for those with kids (or those gift-giving aunties of the world) this book is chocked full of fun projects for the smallest peeps among us. And never fear, each section includes projects ranging from those that are suitable for novices on up to those for experienced sewers. As a very, very novice sewer, I found the projects to be clear & easy to understand and I even loved looking at and reading the more advanced projects.
My favorite projects included: Here We Go Bag, Four Corners Blouse, Patchwork Sleeping Sack, Center of Attention Quilt, Scrappy Nap Pillow, Daydreams Mobile, Henny Penny plush and Writing on the Wall. There’s even a sample project & pattern available for you to test out.
And here’s some more Handmade Beginnings fun:
- Enter to win a copy of Handmade Beginnings by Anna Maria Horner. Just leave a comment on this post with why you would love to win a copy and I will pick a random commenter to win a copy. This giveaway will end Friday, May 15th at 11:59 pm EST. One entry per person, please.
- Enter to win a Singer Sewing Machine and a signed copy of Handmade Beginnings, sponsored by Wiley Publishing, Inc.
- Finally, make sure to follow the Blog Tour for the book. Most blogs will be doing giveaways of Handmade Beginnings, so you can increase your chances of winning a copy by visiting all the blogs. Here’s a schedule of the tour:
For those who need a little extra help when it comes to not using their credit cards all the time, this quick little project is just the thing for you. From this month’s ReadyMade and by whatabouthoney.com.
