Fabric Covered Jewelry Box

I want this to have sequin appliqués all over it.

I Love these Christmas Trees

They could be made of any thing, large or small.  Beads, Chenille Stems, T-Shirt yarn, Paper or Rick Rack.  They can hang or stand.  The Cone Calculator would be useful here.

Easy Fabric Dyeing

at Made by Dana

How Plaid Forecasts Craft Trends

From the Plaid craft blog.

Runo shares her felt patterns

This is the best site I've found for felt patterns. Since I live in

Deer Island, I'm particularly fond of this little fawn.

Scroll down to find the pattern and excellent photo tutorial.

Please take the time to say thank you to her.

"My name is Runo, not Nuno. "Nuno" means cloth or fabric. I make dolls, clothes and underwear of various nuno."

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.

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."

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.

How to dye buttons, golfballs, feathers & beads

From the good folks at Rit.

How to dye plastic from PinkBird Beads

Paper Lanterns

From School Arts Magazine 1922 by Pedro J. Lemos.

Cement Craft

I stumbled across this great book at the Internet Archive. It's aim is to provide craft skills in school and solve the problem of pottery and tile making without a kiln. Portland Cement is the medium but the skills are the same as potters. The tile making is very interesting and easy to do at home. Also of interest are slip techniques in cement. Published in 1922. Pedro Joseph Lemos, Professor of Decorative Design, San Francisco Institute of Art.

Organza Flowers

Excellent tutorial by capusitalinda. I have this type of organza ribbon. I think some already burned circles should be in the kit I'm making for Sophia. She went nuts for the beads in my craftroom and feels confident that she will like beadwork because she knows crossstitch.

Free Templates and Great Project Ideas

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

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.

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

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.

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.