Coolest Graffiti Sticker Ever! and Crafty Blogger Links Monday!

Have you ever turned the car around while driving to go back and photograph something?
Well I do and did when I saw this graffiti sticker on a power box. You all know I simple love scissors and all they can do, but my other love is the hammer. It can create and destroy as too. It is a beautiful design and so useful.

A silly saying I have heard, maybe military or of mechanic origin,

"Everything's a hammer unless it's a screwdriver then it's chisel."

Well while contemplating this check out what the fabulous Crafty Bloggers are up to this week!

The Impatient Blogger
Come see the entries in The Impatient Crafter Happy Cute Make Kewpie Doll Challenge 2008! (I've got one over there!)

Crafty Princess Diaries
Are Halloween crafts on your list of things to do? How about a little lampwork ghost lariat? The Crafty Princess has a few other Halloween goodie ideas floating around in her head right now.

Layers Upon Layers
Do you find yourself snapping pictures of things just for their texture? Cyndi wants to know what you do with these shots.

Cathie Filian
Check out Cathie's top 10 pumpkin tips and cozy up to fall with recipes for a homemade butternut squash soup and an ultimate grilled cheese sandwich.

Aileen's Musings
Discover what deli paper and sprayable watercolors have in common when you watch Aileen's slide show and see how to create your own bodacious background papers to use in your art or as backgrounds for your scrapbook pages.

About.com Cross Stitch
Halloween is coming soon, but there's still time to stitch some designs to add to treat bags, t-shirts, or Halloween trees.

About Family Crafts
Check out this special events calendar to find out what holidays, birthdays, and other events are celebrated in the month of October; plus, find ideas for crafts, games, and other activities to help you celebrate.

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
It's an upcycled crafty Halloween at Craftside with projects like a recycled sweater devil horn headband, mixed-media bottle cap necklaces, mosaic stepping stones with all sorts of goodies thrown in, clay acorns and a silhouette figure study technique from L.K. Ludwig's new book-True Vision.

Crafty Blogger Links Monday! (Oh and another plaid shorts sighting!)

Crafty Princess Diaries

Flower power time! Tammy posts about a CFE over at CraftStylish for all your flower fanatics.

Layers Upon Layers
One of the most frequently asked questions at Layers Upon Layers is how to do image transfers. Here are Cyndi's favorite methods and tutorials for each!

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
Work and play are in full fall swing this week at Craftside with news like the Crafty Chica giving away a space on her cruise, a job opportunity for a Marketing Specialist at The Quayside Publishing Group, Lisa Engelbrecht signing and demoing at Barnes & Noble, and of course two fun craft projects; a funky recycled denim purse with motorcycle gear handles and tiny needle felted pumpkins.

The Impatient Blogger
What's your brand? Madge shares some thoughts about branding and a new demo reel in this thought provoking post.

About Family Crafts
Check out these spotlight crafts... Make everything from a scarecrow candy jar to a Beaded Safety Pin Bear.

About.com Cross Stitch
Connie has been feathering her stitching nest. Find out how she made her stitching spot work.

Aileen's Musings
Aileen's been having fun again creating another Día De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) project.

Cathie Filian
Halloween is just around the corner so fly on over to Cathie Filian’s blog for some spooky new ideas and frightfully fun projects.

Sweater Surgery Pumpkins

These little babies couldn't be easier to make. I used a rib knit sweater and simply cut different size tubes. (sleeves are a good source to start with)

Then did a gather stitch at each end. Before pulling the gather stitch closed at the second end I stuffed it with batting.

I sewed a few stitches from top to bottom causing the pumpkin to be a bit more pumpkin shaped.

I cut small squares of different green wool felted sweaters and rolled them into tubes for the stems. If you need more pumpkin goodness check out this post over at Craftside for some tiny needle felted pumpkins that I made.

The First Rule of a Gunfight is Bring a Gun Cross stitch

Just thought I'd share with you my latest finished cross stitch. I did this one different than I have done in the past. I used to use the font in the back of the wonderful book Subversive Cross stitch and grid paper to arrange the letters, but now I use a computer font, Home Sweet Home and type out the words and print it out. I just sketched the guns. (The border is from Subversive Cross stitch)

What I did learn though was that it was important to do the boarder before the guns. I originally thought I would do the guns and then the border, but where I had originally sketched the gun placement would have been too close into the type.

This is the favorite saying of a friend's Grandfather and so I thought I'd make it as a gift.

Crafty Blogger Links Monday!

This is a photo of the pier at Huntington Beach-I love the pirate flag sharing space with the American flag and the California State flag!

We have a new member! Whooo-hooo!

Cathie Filian
My hubby and I tested the new goats milk soap base at Michaels. Two thumbs up!

Yey, we "heart" Cathie and her fabulous craftiness!!!

The Impatient Blogger
Who knew hook rugs were such a hot button topic? Madge continues to ponder the future of the craft industry in this sequel to last week's post.

Layers Upon Layers
Mixed media artist Christy Sobolewski shares her artistic passions.

Crafty Princess Diaries
Tammy is still thinking about the good ol' days and tie-dye. Here's a great video she found on YouTube that gives you the 411.

Aileen's Musings
Day of the Dead Cometh Early! Check out Aileen's funky glittered skull beads and see what fun things you can create with them.

About.com Cross Stitch
The 2008 Cross Stitch Forum Ornament Exchange is on - find out how to participate then create your ornaments and enjoy.

About Family Crafts
Let everyone know... What holiday season inspires your creativity the most?

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
What ever your medium there is information and inspiration a-go-go this week with a crazy quilt embroidery motif, bullet casing bracelet how-to, duplicate stitch wing pattern and tutorial, decorative paper stencil patterns, and the altered book technique of "Highlighting Text."

In Loving Memeory

Liberato nos a malo.

Jewelry with a bang! Shotgun shells made into a necklace, bracelet and rings

Fire in the hole! is what you say before firing a gun or detonating explosives on a set. Well, that was all that was running though my mind when I was hacking up these shotgun shells to make this jewelry!

I just love recycling and upcycling!
All I did was cut off the plastic part (I will be sure to post what I make with that soon!) and sanded the remaining bit of plastic flush with the metal edge. I then glued ring blanks to the back for the rings. For the bracelet I taped the bracelet blank to the table first so I was sure to get all the casings aligned, I find it a bit easier to do it this way when gluing multiple items to one project. It also helped keep the glue off the spacer sections.

If you liked this jewelry pop over to Craftside to check out a bullet casing bracelet posted there!

The commercial that inspired the square on the rock and cairns

A while back I did an "art or craft project where I painted a black square on a rock. Well I finally saw the Valspar paint commercial that inspired it and thanks to Tivo (or Moxi in my case) I could rewind and take a picture of my TV so I could share it with you:
I just think this look sooo cool. And in more rock "art or craft" In this post I talked about learning what a hoodoo was. Well the photo I saw were in fact cairns. Hoodoos are naturally forming and cairns are man (or woman) made piles of rocks. I love both! So I made some in my back yard with my left over rocks from my wall demolition.


It has been suggested that the rocks need a little glitter???? hmmmm, maybe???

Strips of type photo corners on ATC's

So I don't know if this is an original idea or I have been reading so many good craft books, all the cool things I see in them just percolate around and then at some random moment an idea pops into my mind and I just have to make it.

My (or one I've seen) idea is to use strips of type as photo corners. In this case for use on ATCs.
I went through a magazine and cut out strips that either had an interesting word or phrase somewhere within it.
I then picked a photo and background paper to go along with the phrase.
I then simply folded back the ends of the strips and glued them to the back of the ATC. I like how the photo floats around under the strips. It can be a very random process just to see what comes from a magazine and how what I had in my "images to craft with box" came together.