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DIY Skin Care

I'm interested in all things DIY and have been looking around. Lots of interesting information.
You might be interested in these sites.
My posting skills are rusty so the pictures are not links. Click the blue text.

Smart Skin Care
"SmartSkinCare.com is an independent skin care information portal for savvy consumers. We don't sell skin care products or cosmetics. Nor do we endorse skin care manufacturers. Our goal is to help you make genuinely informed choices in skin care and rejuvenation."

Skinactives

Bulk Actives

Ruffled Top Pattern

This is the ruffle I've been looking for. Thank you Weekend Designer.

Hand Sewing

Annekata is a fairly new blog with a heavy emphasis on hand sewing. She's a girl after my heart and I'll be interested as she builds her handstitched wardrobe. Just look at what she's wearing! Beautiful.

These friendship rings really knock me out. What a great beginner project.

T-shirt refashion

I'm still looking for ideas for beginning hand sewers. Sachiko shares a variety of ruffle shirt tutorials at Tea Rose Home. Her linky love posts are really inspirational. She finds just what I'm looking for.

T-shirt Hat Tutorial

Kalleen shares this hat pattern on her blog, At Second Street. Love the rough elegance.

Handbag Pattern and Tutorial

This bag is just one of a number of tutorials, patterns and projects generously offered by

Warehouse Fabrics Inc.

Free Purse, Bag and Baby Shoes Patterns

There is a very large library of sewing tutorials at SewLover Arts School. The entire site is interesting and there are more than 50 patterns just in the bags section. Other sections include toys, patchwork, and items for the home. The site is in Chinese but Google Chrome does a very good job of automatic translation. I was even able to say thank you through the message tab at the bottom of the page.

Baby shoes are here.

One of my favorite patterns is for this sweet little case.

Free Doll Clothes Patterns

Susan Kramer shares her doll clothes patterns for American Girl, Bitty Baby, Sasha and other dolls. Some of these would make good projects for young hand sewers, maybe in Alabama Chanin style. Upcycle some T-shirts.

Printable Felt T-Rex Pattern

The pattern for this sweet guy is offered by Random House

on the old Potter Craft News site.

He's been there a long time, I just wasn't looking for him.

He's from the book
Toys to Sew By Claire Garland

Paper Mache Tutorials

The Papier Mache Resource is an extensive site for and by paper mache enthustiasts. Shared are tutorials by various artists, inspirational galleries and articles.

Sally Cats tutorial by David Osborne. These are made of recycled cereal box, filled with sand or sawdust for weight.

How about this article? David Osborne considers Eggs - Their uses in papier mache sculpture. His preferred method is 'Sawing through'. Start with hardboiled eggs.

The tutorial for these little cuties by Pun Hui Falkenhainer have an interesting technique in that the facial features are drawn on a separate piece of paper and applied individually. That's a great tip! I can hardly ever get a whole face right. One eye will be cockeyed or the eyes will be good but the mouth will be awful. She uses lentils as noses.

First posted May 2008.

Free Teddy Bear Patterns

The generous folks at Beary Cheap Teddy Bear Making Supplies offer 10 teddy bear and a bunny patterns shared by various artists.
The patterns are offered as free downloadable PDF files. From the front page click the info and freebies tab. The whole site is interesting but their story is the most interesting of all. Click the About tab.
This Aussie site has been updated since my first post about them. They carry even more of the most beautiful fabrics than they did in 2008. They've added needle felting instructions and supplies.

Free Vintage Labels

This is a great gift from Worldlabel.com

Download these free fillable and spectacular Vintage labels with framed designs

in PDF templates in Mailing and Shipping Label sizes.
That they are available individually and also have the autofill feature makes the gift very special indeed.

Gold Leaf River Rocks

Claire Chauvin has shared this tutorial on Poopscape.

She says it's crazy easy.
"Gold leaf is surprisingly cheap and when used with double tack mounting film, it's really easy to use. The mounting film can be cut into any design, regardless of how intricate or delicate it is. You can add gold leaf to just about any surface."

Monogram ala Yulia Brodskaya

Kara shares this tutorial on Craftastical. Wow!

Jewelry Design Tool

Create Your Style Online with a multitude of different shapes, sizes and colors of CRYSTALLIZED™ – Swarovski Elements!

With the online design tool you can create your own necklaces and bracelets. The tool is unique and your possibilities are unlimited:
•Start from scratch, create and save your own designs with the brilliant electronic version of CRYSTALLIZED™ – Swarovski Elements
•Adopt existing templates, exclusively designed for Swarovski, to your wishes.
•Calculate the amount of Crystal Beads, Crystal Pearls or Pendants you are going to need to realize your creation.
•You can print your colorful creations, save and load them at any time.

Paper Chair Template

Paper chair templates are one of the most popular searches on this blog.
This template is just one of the free templates shared by Petrina Case, a paper engineer and illustrator who has created a world of paper sculptures, paper pop-up cards, greeting cards and made to order pop-up books. This template is offered in .jpeg, .pdf and her cutting machine file is offered for sale. Browse her site. She makes fascinating business card sculptures.

Printable ring sizer chart

A tool from Danforth Diamond

Elf Shoes Favor Box

Love this gift from Valita.
Instructions and printable template from
Valita's Designs & Fresh Folds

Printables from Altered Artifacts the Motherlode of Generosity

Inka Heaton is one of the first paper and craft artisans I encountered. She and others like her were the reason I started this blog. Meggiecat is my filing cabinet.

Altered Artifacts is Inka's blog.
She says:
"All the art on this blog is my own. Because I enjoy sharing my ideas, feel free to copy any pictures for your personal use. However I would like to reserve all rights for any published or commercial use. Thank you."

Check out the list of free online workshops.
This perfume bottle night light and paper shoe favor box are but a small glimpse.
She offers a printable label for the bottle and a template for the shoe.

Bolts, screws & washers

What size do I need or have?
Printable tools from Rule Co.

Making a Turk's Head Knot Ring

Photo tutorials on Maille Artisans International League.
Scroll down the page for photo tutorial.
How to make the jig.

How to make the ring.

How to dye buttons, golfballs, feathers & beads

From the good folks at Rit.

How to dye plastic from PinkBird Beads

Paper Fold Font

Cut out and fold these letters. This is a free font.
Punched Out by Tobias Sommer

Paper Doily Christmas

It's spring. Of course I'm thinking of Christmas. Old habits die hard.

Paper doily cone wreath from Dollar Store Crafts.

Paper doily dove from Origami-Instructions.com

This bowl from Marie Claire Idees.

Paper doily snowflake garland from Design Sponge.

Silk Organza Necklace

For the price of a yard of silk organza, some memory wire, and a sterling silver clasp, you can put together your own version of this stylish piece. From Country Living magazine.

Paper houses

One of the first paper model sites I ever visited and still
a favorite is Paper Models of Polyhedra.

Today I saw these printable paper house models.
Houses with vanishing point.


Matryoshka house

Make your own photo kaleidocycles

Online tool from Foldplay. Enjoy your photo kaleidocycles, moving paper sculptures that turn in an endless cycle.