I Love to Swap

Not that kind of swap - get that out of your mind!

Craft swapping is such a fun thing to participate in (as long as it is well organized and you have a good swapping partner).

Many active members over on the Craftster forum run some fabulous crafty swaps with all kinds of themes. I have participated in a few and have had a lot of fun, crafted some fun things for others and received some fab things in return. The most recent swap had a 'Pink' theme. We were to craft a bunch of things with the color dominantly pink and send it to our partner. I made a purse, some jewelry, a decoupaged box, and a bunch of other things. In return, I received a weekender bag with detachable pin, a shoulder bag, and earrings. Truly amazing - my partner turns out to be a very accomplished sewer. Check out the weekend bag.

My Cool Book for Amigurumi Crochet

I love this book - this is where I found the pattern that I used to make my cute little french hamster. It has great pictures and best of all it has easy to follow instructions (yay). It is called Mr. Funky's Super Crochet Wonderful


I have a whole collections of craft books - from cute felt mascots and other felt objects, needle felting, sewing to mosaics and decoupage. I'll have to share some more.

My Vacation Craft Project

I have been wanting to know how to crochet cute little amigurumi critters for quite some time. Which is why I learned to crochet in the first place. I collect Japanese craft books that I can't read but love the pictures. I lurk and read lots of crafty blogs and have even purchased a few owls from artistic crochet masters. What I like about crochet is that it is forgiving - if you make a mistake or don't like how it is looking you just pull the stitches out!

I found a fabulous little book called Mr. Funky's Super Crochet Wonderful. The directions and diagrams seemed easy to follow so I attempted my first cute creature.

Voila! My version of the featured hamster pattern - french beret and all! I took my crochet hook, pattern, and a ball of yarn on the plane to the Northeast. A great craft to pass the time on the constantly delayed flights!

A Simply Adorable Painting

I am finding that surfing the internet from blog to blog is just mindblowing. I see and find things that I would never have seen had I not been connected to the world. The hours go by but what fun I have. And I can share the terrific sites, ideas, products, art and more here.

This painting is by Creative Thursday. She is a painter and podcaster from L.A. She paints the most adorable, colorful, happy paintings. She posts a new one every Thursday (hence the name). Prints are sold on her Etsy shop (another addicting place to browse and shop!)

ARTful Sunday

Being the crafty mommy that I truly am, I seek out crafty and interesting things to do with my kids. Occasionally our local museum will have a family activity that is cultural and includes a hands on art or craft project. Today we visited for a Japanese themed event. Although the audio visual system was broken and the poor instructor had to speak over the chatty families to give directions on origami animals. Being crafty, my son and I caught on quickly and made a few cute things.
My best discovery, however was in the lobby just outside the giftshop. There was an ARTOMAT. This is a former cigarette machine that has been transformed into a cool piece of pop art itself and dispenses small works of art. How cool is that?! We purchased $5 tokens and had a hard time choosing what to vend. There were small placards that listed the artist with graphics and a hint of what was inside. We ended up with a small simple painting, a paper collage, a pocket square, and a cool printed box filled with 12 printed poems on printed cards (our favorite). My son and I both share a love of cute and interesting little things, so we enjoyed this.

Crafty Fun For All

I have always wanted to make these yo-yo's. It seems like a good thing to do with the basket of fabric scraps that I tend to keep. I just never knew what to do with them once there were made, other than a yo-yo quilt.
Here is a tutorial that I found from Hello My Name is Heather.
Make your own. Kids like these too, who knows what they can do with some cool fabric circles!How to make these cute yo-yos:

Cool Finds

I love these pop art bunny cookie jars from Velocity

I think I have to have them.