Costume silhouettes

Costume Silhouettes by Mary B. Evans, 1890, is a recent addition to the HEARTH ( Home Economics Archive: Research, Tradition and History ) collection, Mann Library at Cornell.

Once you've entered the book (I usually click on the table of contents page) use the dropdown box on the "go to page" to find the illustrations.

Printable Embroidery Patterns

The Victoria & Albert Museum is sharing a collection of embroidery patterns from a book containing South African flower designs by Florence Caulfield that are fresh and bold and could be adapted for stitching today.

Found via In a Minute Ago

Ponoko Made Easy

Congratulations to Dave, Derek, Dan and John, the brilliant team at Ponoko who have developed Photomake! A new way to turn your designs into real life, laser cut objects from photos or scans. I am so excited by this development because no knowledge of design software is necessary. This is a big deal. Personal manufacturing is becoming more available to all by the minute. If you have been wishing for your own designs check it out. They are offering a free test drive of Photomake. Be sure to read the FAQ.

Halloween Fun from Better Homes and Gardens

Someone associated with Better Homes and Gardens magazine noticed the Halloween patent designs recently mentioned here and sent a note telling me about BHG's 100 Days of Holidays – their largest and most exciting holiday program ever.

This year's 100 Days of Holidays program has got more than 400 new slide shows, free recipes, craft projects, and decorating ideas; 100 daily email newsletters; 50 new how to videos; five fun new interactive tools; three online courses; new photo contests; and more partner participation.
Access to the fun requires a free registration.

The Halloween page is here and the Pumpkin Stencil maker is a fun tool. The Halloween Costume Gallery is here.

Antique books

Antique book images hosted by L'Ecole Vétérinaire de Lyon. My favorite is The illustrated book of poultry by Lewis Wright .

Papercraft Templates

Some interesting downloads from UK magazine Crafts Beautiful. A 3D vase pop up card and folded butterfly template look useful. There is lots to explore here and they have a few mini magazines to download. Free registration required for downloading.

Halloween Candy Bag 1953

Candy bag design by John Lavezzorio for Dennison Manufacturing 1953.
The anthropomorphic leaves crack me up.

Halloween Designs

I've had a great time enjoying the sunshine. Lots of hard work and lots of play. I've missed my computer and my friends so let's head back to Google Patents for some Halloween inspiration. The pictures are the links to the designs.
Halloween designs by Clara L. Mead for Dennison Manufacturing 1914.


I am not going to be updating the Frankie Files and will be putting my patent office finds here on meggiecat where they can be categorized. I will be leaving the Frankie Files up as it is now.

Matryoshka Dolls

Mayaluna left a comment and now I've found the time to check out her blog. Wow! She is a lot of fun. I was so taken by her newspaper hats for girls, ice cube necklaces and nature bracelets. She puts an enormous amount of creativity into the joy of everyday life.
Many of you probably are already fans of the maya*made blog but if you haven't gotten to know her, you should.
Her complete tutorial page is here.
Freezer paper stencil tips.

She painted stone dolls.

Even the Bathroom Scale

Now I have seen it all. Not even the plainest objects escape the attention of Junie Moon.
Visit for the tutorial.

June has made the decision to move on to other adventures and this is one of her last posts. She has been a generous and supportive friend to me and left a beautiful legacy in the one year she has shared of her creative living. I wish her all the best and am grateful for her gifts.

Fabric Printing with a Brayer

Article by Lois Ericson and Dawn McIntyre on the Threads magazine website.

Downloadable Math Poster

How long is a span, a hand, or a league? Maddy and Maverick offer a 3 page downloable poster with all the answers.

Found via PaperFriendly

Make Your Own Rubberbands and Erasers

I am enthusiastic about trying to make my own things (like galalith plastic) just for the pure fun of it. Make my own rubberbands? Sure, sounds like fun.
From Thomas Holme's page Science Fun for Everyone.
Found by tracking back to Patti Schiendelman on Makezine. Thanks Patti!
BTW are you a technical manual writer and we wrote to one another years ago?

Solder Project

Ellen Hutson shares the techniques for this project on her blog Simple Dreams. She's so very creative and talks about how she hinged her individual glass sandwiches together and then tinned the embellishments.

3D Printing Service

This link caused me to shiver. Those of you who have been reading meggiecat know that I have an intense curiosity about personal and custom manufacturing. Very high end technology is becoming available to the average consumer either by owning your own equipment or by sending your art to production services like Spoonflower, Ponoko and now Shapeways who offer 3D printing of objects.

"At Shapeways we have two ways for you to turn a design into reality. If you are a 3D designer or modeler you can upload your designs to Shapeways. If you do not have any 3D design experience you can use the Shapeways Creator to shape and add text to an existing design. "

Now, I'm not saying that I have any great skills in 3D modeling but I do have a little experience with AutoCad and the free, wonderful program, Google SketchUp. What is exciting is that somebody is offering the opportunity!

There is a great deal of interest in 3D printing including building your own fabrication printer. Take a look at the fabathome.org page for the most comprehensive information on this topic.

I found out about Shapeways in a trend briefing newsletter offered by trendwatching.com. Also read their page 8 important consumer trends for 2008 .

Origami Placecards

Hans Birkeland presents a collection of 31 tablecards folded from a square.

This seems to be hosted on a free site and sometimes exceeds allowed bandwidth. Just try back later.

Handmade Flipbook

Graphic Designer Aaron "Alphonse" Swinehart (of Portland OR, where else has the most talent?) Posts an excellent tutorial about making flipbooks from your videos on his blog, The Curious. Can't get your friends to sit still to view your videos? Put a flipbook on the coffee table. That ought to catch attention!

Paper Chains

Dutch magazine ariadne at Home has some great ideas and patterns for September. One of them is an assortment of paper chains. Mouse over the idea you like. To get the PDF patterns click "Lees verder"

Free Patterns and Tutorials for Baby Clothes

Google brings many visitors to meggiecat searching for free baby clothes patterns.
Amber Dusick's Make Baby Stuff.com offers a treasure trove of ideas for making clothing, toys and accessories. The entire site is interesting and I encourage you to investigate. One of my favorites is about dyeing baby clothes. No more boring pastels. There is also the Make Baby Stuff crafts blog. Want to make fairy wings? Check out the blog. Amber's "About" page is titled
How I Became a Craft at Home Mama...and quit my day job!
I'm constantly in awe of the quality of content and work that is freely shared in our crafting community.

Found via Poppytalk, one of my favorite blogs. I've been reading her for a long time because she is interested in all things design. This blog is always evolving and she is now offering some free printables here.