Crafty contests

Okay, I’ll admit I’ve never entered a craft contest, but I’ve always wanted to. Here are a couple of interesting contests that you should enter!

Indie Home Decor Challenge – Send a picture of your DIY home decor project and have a chance to win some really cool indie craft prizes. This contest ends June 18th.

PEEPS on Film – Create a video telling your PEEPS story (how you met them, or whatever…), or create a video showing what you can make with PEEPS. The winner receives several things, including a year’s supply of PEEPS! and a video camera. Nice. The deadline has been extended until May 31st.

So go enter one of these contests and win some cool prizes.

Just thought that I would let everyone know that Craft Tutorials has moved to crafttutorials.net

Your Craft Space

I just moved from one apartment to another this weekend. Moving is stressful and difficult, to say the least. However, it’s gotten me to think about my craft space and how I want to organize it.

I wish I had a whole room to dedicate to crafting, but I’m lucky to get just a corner of a room. I want the space to be organized as well as creative, but that’s a tall order, especially with limited space. I’m inspired by some of the great ideas at Country Living’s Make a craft room photo gallery. Check it out and look at all the cool things you can do with your craft space.

What about your craft space? Do you have a whole room set aside for crafts, or just a desk or a closet? Does your space inspire you, and if not, what could you change in order to make it inspiring?

*Image courtesy of decor8

Just thought that I would let everyone know that Craft Tutorials has moved to crafttutorials.net

Vintage blog to check out

I wanted to share one of my favorite new blogs with you: Millie Motts. She is a self-proclaimed collector of all things 1940s-60s, and she shares all kinds of awesome photos on her blog. Here’s one example of the great pictures you’ll find on the blog (From a post entitled “banana appeal”):

Check out Millie Motts for yourself and tell me you’re not hooked!

Just thought that I would let everyone know that Craft Tutorials has moved to crafttutorials.net

Knit a hat for newborns

Since I’ve been talking about baby hats lately, I thought I would share this awesome way to get involved and make a difference in the life of a child.

Save the Children is calling on knitters (and non-knitters willing to learn) everywhere to knit newborn baby hats to send to newborns around the world. A hat protects infants in other countries from getting pneumonia and potentially helps save their lives.

So check it out. If you’re a knitter, perfect! And if you’re not, they even have a section dedicated to teaching us non-knitters (I don’t know how to knit yet, either) the basics of knitting. Pretty cool. Let us know if you decide to do it – I’d love to see your pictures.

Just thought that I would let everyone know that Craft Tutorials has moved to crafttutorials.net

Easter Crafting

There have been so many awesome crafts being circulated for the Easter holiday. I thought I’d share some of the fun Easter crafts that I’ve found around the web.

 

GENERAL CRAFTS

These adorable egg matryoshka dolls look worth making!

Easter window clings are perfect if you have children.

There’s a cozy for everything, including one for Easter eggs. Check out this Egg cozy tutorial.

 

FABRIC & YARN

Learn how to sew these secret pocket Easter eggs.

Make these adorable knitted Easter egg ornaments.

I love these colorful knitted Easter chickens.

Another Easter egg cozy. Knit one today.

 

EDIBLE CRAFTS

Chocolate bird’s nests. Make these cute bird’s nests for Easter, and then eat them!

Make these fancy golden chocolate Easter eggs.

If you’re looking to decorate your eggs a little differently this year, check out these variations.

This post gives tips for dying your Easter eggs naturally.

Happy Easter, everyone! And happy crafting.

 

*Photo by Lin Pernille

Just thought that I would let everyone know that Craft Tutorials has moved to crafttutorials.net

New craft blog with giveaways

I wanted to pass along a great new craft blog I found. They’re called The Village Shop, and they feature fun tutorials and craft ideas.

During March they’re also sponsoring four giveaways. The first one ends tonight, so head over to this post and leave a comment to win the first giveaway.

I’m looking forward to more great things from them.

Just thought that I would let everyone know that Craft Tutorials has moved to crafttutorials.net

Craft Links around the web

I wanted to mention a few things going on in the craft world.

First, have you checked out CrochetMe lately? The site got a whole new look, but more importantly, they changed it so that the members of the community (i.e. you) are the ones who submit patterns, tips and ideas. Pretty cool! I just signed up.

Also, there’s a contest going on that involves turning an old board game into something crafty and cool. The contest, which you can find here, goes from October 1-5, so find an old board game and get creative!

Do you have a craft business (or really want to create one)? Check out Craft Boom. Written by the creator of U-Handbag, it gives ideas, tips and very helpful information on making your own successful craft business.

–Holli Jo

Just thought that I would let everyone know that Craft Tutorials has moved to crafttutorials.net

Craft Festival write up

Okay, the Yellow Daisy Craft Festival was ginormous! There were over 500 booths, and it was over two miles worth of walking through it all. It was a bit overwhelming.

There were all KINDS of different crafters and crafts there. I’m talking jewelry, furniture, clothing, clay, blown glass, marbles, wooden sculptures, quilts, purses, paintings, and lots more. I was a little sad to note that there weren’t any crocheted crafts. But otherwise it seemed like every other craft under the sun was represented.

It was fun to see all the different crafts, and I got a few ideas for making stuff of my own, but what impressed me most was the fact that over 500 people were together in one place, doing what they LOVE and making a living from it to boot. Pretty inspiring. If you ever get a chance, attend a craft festival.

I’m not going to be making money from my crafts anytime soon, but I’m inspired to branch out in my crafting, and to keep doing what I love.

So this is me saying, craft on!

—Holli Jo

Craft Festival

I’m attending my first craft festival tomorrow! I’m so excited. It’s called Yellow Daisy Festival, and it takes place at Stone Mountain Park in Georgia. They say it was voted the #1 arts and crafts festival in the nation…we’ll see!

Anyone ever attended this? I’m not sure what to expect, but I’ll post pictures if I run across anything cool!

Also, feel free to comment and write about any arts and crafts festivals you’ve attended. I’d love to hear your experiences.

—Holli Jo
my blog: Evolving Blueprint

Crafty News Update

– The winners of Craftster’s Reusable Shopping Bag challenge are listed here. I love what everyone’s doing with fused plastic bags these days.

– Check out this super-mega-adorable Faux Fur Bag from Lisa at U-Handbag. I don’t usually go for wild trims on bags but I’m totally digging this.

– Remember those great eyeball pincushions from my Pincushion Roundup post? They were made by VeryBigJen, and as it turns out they’re being featured in a pincushion book that will be out this fall! I’m really excited to see this book. You can pre-order it from Amazon. (FYI, the link goes to Jen’s affiliate account. No harm in spreading the love.)

– Betz White has a new book coming out this year too! (Looks like an all-book Christmas list for me this year!) You can pre-order this one from Amazon also. (I got the link from her web site, so I think it might be her affiliate link.)

– And last but not least….have you heard about the Periodic Table Printmaking Project? A group of printmakers on Etsy are working together to create all of the elements in the periodic table as prints. This will be amazing to see the finished product.

Cheers!
Donna

Reusable Shopping Bag Challenge at Craftster

There’s a new challenge up at Craftster and it combines creation of a reusable shopping bag with stenciling. Leah was inspired by a project called Morsbags Sociable Guerilla Bagging wherein people get together to make reusable cloth shopping bags for themselves and to give to others. From the post:

“So your challenge is to create a kick-ass reusable grocery bag and stencil it with an eco-friendly statement or decorate it somehow with an environmentally-friendly theme.”

I’m really excited about this one because I’ve always wanted to participate in a Craftster challenge but the timing has never been right. I’ve been sewing more lately, so that increases my odds of coming up with a workable bag, and of course I love the idea of reusable shopping bags. The due dates to post your project are between August 1 and August 5. Get all the details, including links to bag tutorials, here.

Cheers!
Donna

Just thought that I would let everyone know that Craft Tutorials has moved to crafttutorials.net

Inspirational links 5

In preperation for my next tutorial try-out I was surfing the internet for inspiration. So I will leave you with these amazing links and will be back later this week with a brand new tutorial try-out. (You can probably already guess what it is about.)

Yarn and Coffee wrote a very interesting step-by-step walk through the process of designing a stuffie that might help me.

Mochimochi Blog knitted this extremely cute raincloud with raindrops. See picture below.

Absolutely amazing monsters by The Cotton Monster all unique and made from recycled pre-loved materials.

Just thought that I would let everyone know that Craft Tutorials has moved to crafttutorials.net

Inspirational Easter links 4

Easter is almost here, are you ready? I have been trying quite hard to find some inspirational links and fresh tutorials for Easter but so far I have only come up with these, most of them can also be found via Crafster’s new Easter board here

Thread eggs at BH & G Magazine

Via Maize Hutton I found some very cute Bunny Bob Pins you can find the pattern on the page in pdf-format.

Doohickies, Whatchamacallits, and Thingamagigs brings a tutorial on some very cute chickies.

Natural Dyeing of Easter Eggs via What’s Cooking America

Easter Egg Art maybe gets you inspired… if not have a look for a laugh!

And 2 great tutorial on Skip to my Lou for Chalkboard Easter Eggs and Egg Shaped Sidewalk Chalk

A ver cute Amigurumi bunny pattern via Jilly flowers.

A pattern for Easter egg cozies via Crafster.

Inspirational links 3

I have had an extremely busy weekend so unfortunately no tutorial try outs today. Here are some inspirational links to keep the crafty-juices going though.

Look at these extremely cool robots.

 Very pretty birds at While She Naps.

And Moonstitches has posted a tutorial about these incredible owls! I have been checking them out for weeks and they will definately be my next tutorial try out that said I am the worlds worst sewer so they might not look this good…

Have a look here for one of the finalists of the Softie Awards and this lovely fabric bucket.

Inspirational links 2

Another 5 links to keep you inspired this week!

Gooseflesh Amazing crocheted sea creatures by Gooseflesh.

Majeak Ann Extremely cute and beautiful illustrations by Majeak Ann.

Sony My favourite televison ad by Sony, don’t forget to listen to the music by Jose Gonzalez too.

I found TAF via Bloesem a Swedish company that make ordinary every day things extraordinary.

Peter Callesen I had been on this website before but am always amazed about the complexity of his work!

Inspirational links 1

Through all my surfing on the internet I see so many people making great stuff.

Please find below 5 inspirational links from amazing bloggers:

Futuregirl Futuregirl’s amazing handbags and now one for herself, very pretty!

Thimble Thimble writing about the stichette tutorial by Wee Wonderfuls.

Little Birds A peek at Little Birds Handmade new finished craft room.

Bella Dia The little pink house by Bella Dia

Soule Mama Lovely bird aprons by Soule Mama

Whip-Up

I spend a lot of time surfing the net, no let me rephrase that I spend waaaay too much time surfing the net. Since I have only been introduced to the world of blogging for just over a year, most of time is spend lurking at other people’s blogs. There are soo many little communities on the net with people writing about their passion and I find it inspiring to read other people’s experiences. As a newbie crafter and a newbie blogger I thought I would try and get my blog out there on the world wide web so I started posting comments where I’d normally been lurking and send a note to Whip-Up that I was looking for great craft tutorials.

Whip-Up is such an exciting website I visit them at least 5 times a week and I must have read up on most of their archives by now. So when I logged in this morning and saw my note on the rightside of their homepage I almost fell of my chair. “ME!? on Whip-Up! HA!”that is just toooo cool!!

So thank you all so much for stopping by and posting comments and e-mailing me your fantastic tutorials it will take me some time to add them to the list and I will send you an e-mail when I have put yours up. And for all those crafty people out there that have never been onto the Whip Up website, get over there quickly.

In the meantime I am preparing for “Tutorial Try Out 2″it’s something totally different than the felt beads I did last week I am so very excited about this one. Anyway I will not give it away yet stop by again next Tuesday or Wednesday and all will be revealed….

Just thought that I would let everyone know that Craft Tutorials has moved to crafttutorials.net