Free Templates and Great Project Ideas

The Cheeky Magpie has some really great projects and free templates. Love her blog.

Star Shaped Gift Box

Patent dated 1896. Nice star shaped gift box.

Candy Cane Stick Horse Pattern

This cardboard stick horse patent drawing would make a cute cover for candy canes.

Display Ideas

Display ideas have always fascinated me and I watch TV and movies for the set decoration. My brain is tuned to business now, still trying to figure out what (or if) my product will be. Are any of you thinking the same?
The following 2 pictures are from the 1964-65 Fall Winter McCall's Needlework and Crafts. Display needs to be cool but not so cool that people want to buy the display piece rather than the product.
This first pic is of a lifesize paper girl wearing a cloth pinafore. Click the pic for a larger view to study. Don't you think her hair and face look up-to-date today? I think this is a great idea for pattern pictures, craft fair displays etc.

I am fascinated by this winter imp, too. It is made of styrofoam balls, dowel, glittered batting, small christmas balls, silver garland and shiny paper.

Pin Prick Paper Angel Ornaments

1993 Better Homes and Gardens Christmas Ideas supply these angel ornaments. I would print on brochure weight, watercolor or photo paper (If I had a printer....right now I'm out of luck. Printer died). The angels are outlined in gold then pricked with a variety of needles, nails and thumbtacks. Gold cord for hangers and the harp if desired. Click on the pictures for larger versions.

1964 Embroidered Wall Piece

This wall piece really caught my eye. Unfortunately, there are no instructions but the leaflet description says that it is done with a full size tissue pattern of the embroidery which is basted to the base fabric then torn away. Click the pics for enlarged images.

Santa Gift Box

I love the feel of this little box.

Paper Toy Sled

I seem to be interested in paper crafts today. Here is a cute sled pattern by A.F. Lagerstrom from 1902. Clicking the picture will take you to the full patent drawing at Google Patents.

Pleated Paper Ornaments

The 12 Days of Christmas from a vintage McCalls Jiffy Tree Trims (date unknown). The birds alone caught my fancy.
Click the pictures for a high resolution version.

Vintage Angel Cookie Ornaments

These adorable angels are from a McCall's Jiffy Tree Trimmings from sometime in the 70's. The cool things about these are that they are all made from one set of circle cutters, one set scalloped circle cutters and one scalloped star. The white frosting is painted on with a pastry brush. The colored "paint" is liquid food coloring that's been allowed to dry and then touched with a wet brush just like watercolor paint. The recipes are included. Click on the pictures for a larger version and then save to your own hard drive before printing.

Vintage Felt Bird Ornaments

These birds are also from McCall's Jiffy Trims. Click the pics for large version, save to your hard drive before printing.

scanned by meggiecat

Printable Animal Designs

Louise Elliott wrote to me about the downloadable coloring pages she is sharing on her site. She sells really cool panel doll and toy kits. She is sharing the outline drawings for the animal of the world set as a gift to us. Each animal is covered in designs symbolic of it's country. My favorites are the cats from England. Love them and hope you will too.

Printable Boxes and Woven Hearts

Margit Ammentorp is sharing her boxes, woven hearts and printable papers on her blog, Papirklip og æsker . It's a new blog and I found it was well worth the time to explore the archives. She is a creative wonder. Thanks to Diane of CraftyPod for sharing Margit's talent.
Heart with bullfinches

Classical Persian Carpet Design

Pieces of a Puzzle: Classical Persian Carpet Fragments
Examples of fragments of 16th and 17th century Persian rugs, including "three principal surviving fragments of one spectacular 16th-century Khorasan rug [which] are reunited in this exhibition. ... These pieces also fit together like a puzzle, allowing us to glimpse the grand scale of the original carpet." Includes an overview of the Khorasan region (in modern Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan), diagrams of rug knotting techniques, and images of carpet fragments. From the Textile Museum.

Printable Labels

Printable poison labels are a gift from Richard Miller of Spookshows.com. I know that it's a little late for Halloween but I need to file this one somewhere. He has a link to Halloween patents and a link to his other website, Toys from the Sixities, that I have not yet checked out.

Change for All

I rarely say anything political but today I am very proud to be an American. The news is full of wonder over the fact that our president elect is black. Yep, that's great but for me he is one spectacular, outstanding man. I am thrilled that his elegant demeanor will be the face our country will show the world.

I was blown away by his acceptance speech. He is a great orator and thinker who I believe will act in an ethical manner for the benefit of us all. He asked us to work hard and keep faith as Americans, a call to arms that I will answer.

Make your own cookie cutter

Carolyn of Juggling Frogs has a very interesting DIY section. One of my favorites is making cookie cutters from clipart and foil pans. She also shares some downloadables.

Burda Fashion News and Trends

Check out the trends page of Burda Fashion. My favorite is the slideshow from the catwalks.

In the creative ideas section there are downloadable patterns for registered (free) users.

How to Properly Close a Jump Ring

It's been awhile since I've had time to post. I'm working on a very large project that I'll be able to talk about after next week. Bear with me, I have lots of goodies and fun coming up.

Christine Cox, owner of Volcano Arts, publishes an e-mail newsletter that's one I always find interesting. This month there is this tutorial regarding jump rings. It's the finishing skill that elevates my jewelry making and is really difficult for me to do well.

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!