Aminekos at Edwards Air Force Base

Jane Doe and Rorschach Amineko had a great day touring Edwards Air Force Base.

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
This week at Craftside there are directions on how to make a hammock, tips on matching paint colors, a cool story about a wind powered knitting machine and a unique calla lily fishbowl flower arrangement.

About Family Crafts
Discover how you can create your own music crafts and then amaze your friends, your family, and yourself with all of the beautiful music you can make.

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi creates a circular collage as a memento of her trip to the big Paris cemetery.

Crafty Princess Diaries
Have you got a lot of crafting crap? It's time to get organized!

Eileen - The Artful Crafter
Time always seems to get away from us, doesn't it? Eileen reminds you not to forget to scrap those special moments.

Margot Potter The Impatient Crafter
Madge finally reveals her project for the JoAnn Fabrics Spring Press Kit!

Mixed Media Artist
Cyndi was introduced to a book artist's video that will take your breath away!

Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery
See how to transform a Rubik's cube with inspiration from the book Photojojo!

3 letter words and multi-color Rubik's cube inspired by the book Photojojo! Insanely Great Photo Projects and DIY Ideas

Today I am transforming an old art school project that was a transformation itself into another fun thing with a little inspiration from the idea packed book Photojojo! Insanely Great Photo Projects and DIY Ideas. The project in the book is to transform a Rubik's cube into a photo puzzle cube.
This was my old art school project originally. Every square was a different color. When it was originally painted each side was one set of colors for each side and they were different shades and hues. I never could get it back that way :) The best I ever did was 3 sides. I couldn't even get 1 side to be all the red/pinks for this photo. That's what 20 years will do to ya.
I am a big fan of 4 letter words (not just bad ones, all of them) so my idea was to use 3 letter words to kick up the puzzle factor. I went to this list of 3 letter words for a bit of help and used Magenta chipboard laser-cut letters. I haven't moved the cube yet but I wonder if I can spell other things with the cube than I originally did? Well, anyway, I am planning on trying out several of the other photo projects and techniques in Photojojo! Insanely Great Photo Projects and DIY Ideas because they look super fun and totally do-able!

Photojojo! Insanely Great Photo Projects and DIY Ideas
by
Amit Gupta and Kelly Jensen

A photo, an idea, and simple crafting skills are all you need to transform your pictures into useful, fun, giftable art. With clear DIY instructions, Photojojo! by Amit Gupta and Kelly Jensen shows you how to turn your forgotten photos into ingenious photo projects.

Do you have lots of pics of friends and family you want to show off? Make a sleek, stylish photo display rail so you can change them up at a moment’s notice. Need something to play with? Make photo slider puzzles, Rubik’s cubes, and temporary tattoos. Or spruce up your pad with a photo chandelier or a giant wall mural you can print at home! All the projects use basic materials and are easy enough to whip up in an afternoon.

Once you’re armed with what you can do with all your images, check out Photojojo’s inspiring ideas to get you shooting photographs more creatively. Investigate the world from a canine perspective with the amazing doggie cam, or grab your friends and head out on a photo safari. Make a sneaky hidden jacket camera and turn string, a washer, and a screw into a monopod that fits in your pocket, MacGyver-style. Learn how to motivate yourself to take a photo every day with project 365, or get the little ones involved with Photojojo’s head-spinning photography method: because you + kid + centrifugal force = awesome. Yep, photography just became a whole lot more fun.

AMIT GUPTA is a photoblogger and entrepreneur. He dropped out of school to start his first Internet company, moved to New York City to help start the nonprofit Change This, and launched the coworking event Jelly in his apartment. And, he’s been known to hang out on street corners exchanging lollipops for portraits. He’s also the founder of Photojojo! (www.photojojo.com, but you already knew that) and blogs at www.amitgupta.com. He lives in San Francisco.
(P.S. You can write him at amit@photojojo.com; he’ll write back.)

KELLY JENSEN sews, knits, draws, builds stuff, embroiders, cooks, messes with cameras, and wrestles her Boston terrier. When not busy with the above, she’s worked as a freelance photographer and cataloguer of the teratology collection at the MŸtter Museum. She lives in San Francisco with her husband, Bryan, and Molly, the dog (as seen on the cover).

What me and Angelina Jolie's charactor in SALT have in common

In the movie Salt there is a scene where they look at her skills listed on a computer screen and I just thought "edged weapons" was really funny. It made me think about all the incredibly sharp objects and ways I have to cut stuff up within arms reach.

Just made me think I could put that on my resume too.

OK, now here are some ideas for some fun crafts that I am quite sure involve sharp objects:

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
This week at Craftside there is a free tulip quilt block pattern and tutorial, interviews with Susan Strawn author of Knitting America on NPR, Carla Sonheim author of Drawing Lab with details of her workshop at the Etsy Lab in Brooklyn, and a couple of cool DIY sewing tips.

Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery
Learn how to make a recycled color wheel dart board.

The Crochet Dude
Drew gives five good reasons why January was a blur!

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi crafts some pretty flower brooches with a new tool from Clover!

Crafty Princess Diaries
Tammy's craft club is now slip stitching squares together to make their first baby afghans.

Cross Stitch at About.com
Connie's dedicating a design to some serious stitchers who are gearing up for some HUGE stitching projects. She reminds them to "Begin with the End in Mind."

Eileen - The Artful Crafter
Here are directions for making a double strand charm bracelet from Eileen. She made this one for a real life angel. Choose your charms to suit any occasion you like.

Mixed Media Artist
Cyndi has a brand new copy of the wonderful book "Scraps" to give away this week! It's a mixed media lover's dream.

About Family Crafts
Stop by and share your crafty cleaning tips and read other people's tips!

Aileen's Musings
Aileen has repost of a fun shipping tag tutorial; stop by and check it out!

How to make a color wheel dart board inspired by the book Print Workshop

Throwing darts is really fun and why shouldn't the dart board be a bit more "artsy" for those of us creative peeps. And what is more artsy than a color wheel. Well included in the super fun new book Print Workshop: Hand-Printing Techniques and Truly Original Projects there is a tutorial on making a transfer version of a color wheel dart board but I thought I would give it a go with painting my own on a bit of recycled cork.
Here is how I made my recycled cork color wheel dart board.
First a bit of research on ye old web for some diameter info. Then I cut a template out of a recycled mailing envelope.
While I was working on that I had to flatten out the cork I wanted to use as it had been rolled up.
I cut 3 rough squares bigger than the circle and glued them together with contact cement.

A quick cote of house primer I had left over.
Then, I used....eeek.....geometry!!! Yup that pesky thing most say they will never use in their lives and what I use all the time! Each segment is 18 degrees so I measured each section and drew the lines. I found as I was painting the color wheel I liked to use the color straight out of the bottle and then blend back to the colors next to it. I then trimmed up the edges.

I had intended to draw in all the segments and I still might but right now I am enjoying it all organic-like. I am going to look out for a dart board at the thrift store and see if I can pillage the wire part.
If you liked this idea and want a whole bunch more of printing crafts then grab yourself a copy of
Print Workshop: Hand-Printing Techniques and Truly Original Projects
By
Christine Schmidt

This is a book for low budgets and high ambition. Read it and you will learn how to put images of things onto other things. You will start by rolling up your sleeves. Your shirt will be stained anyways. At some point, you will harness the power of the sun.

Go ahead, look inside. You will see that you do not need a fancy studio to print a T-shirt or a picnic blanket. There is no specialized machine required to print anything you want in any room you want. A mural, a dartboard, a deck of cards, these are all possible.

In a week or a month, you will wake up to find you know words like acetate and substrate. You will be comfortable talking about ink and shopping at military supply stores. Perhaps most important of all, you will be printing images of things onto other things.

CHRISTINE SCHMIDT is the founder of Yellow Owl Workshop, a company known for its distinctive designs printed with natural materials. Their products are carried in more than 500 stores worldwide, including Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and SFMOMA (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art). Yellow Owl Workshop has been featured in ReadyMade, Martha Stewart Weddings, Daily Candy, Design Sponge, and Apartment Therapy. Chris lives in San Francisco with her husband, Evan Gross, and their two crazy mutts, Calvin and Clementine.

The Jobs I used to have Flashback

I had to go "on the hunt" for some bits of "this and that" that I knew I had and will be included in some upcoming posts and I ran across these! They are the name tags from 3 of my first jobs. All of which don't exist anymore!

My first "on the books" job was at the record store in the mall! It was great. This was the era of Pretty in Pink and let's just say I was one with Molly Ringwald hacking my clothes up back then as I do now. One of the proms I went to my date rocked the "Ducky" outfit too.

Next I was a waitress because there was a lot more money to be made in food service.

Then I even did a stint as a bank teller. Can you believe that one?! I think the branch was on 61st and Lexington in NYC. I totally sported the sneakers with dress outfit like Melanie Griffith in Working Girl for my commute.

OK that's the blast from the past. Now onto Crafty Blogger links in the here and now!

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
This week at Craftside there are 2 chances to win any book of your choice from QBookShop.com, insight into double exposure photography, 2 free Valentine graphic pattern downloads, 3 samples of extreme lettering, a bunch of the cutest Amineko photos (one with Suede from Project Runway!) and a fun decorating idea.

About Family Crafts
If you are in need of a last minute Valentine, check out these printable cards.

Aileen's Musings
Aileen offers you a new recipe along with a cupcake postcard you can download and send to a friend. Remember: when all else fails, keep calm and eat a cupcake!

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi has a pop out card tutorial on her blog this week.

Crafty Princess Diaries
Check out this recycled/reused craft supply score.

Cross Stitch at About.com
Connie has a versatile Heart and Hands Blessing pattern for use as a Valentine, wedding, anniversary, or even a St. Patrick's Day project.

Eileen - The Artful Crafter
Eileen has some tips for Tara and other aspiring young artists.

Mixed Media Artist
Cyndi decided to dust off her needle and thread for a brand new project.

Recycled sweater, fabric and button cuff

I had the opportunity to cut stuff up with the Xyron Creatopia and I just had to test drive it with some recycled wool felted sweaters. So I whipped up a few cuffs.
I applied some dry adhesive onto the back of the fabric with the Creatopia.
I then ran the fabric and a rough cut of wool felted sweater through the Creatopia using the two scalloped edge blades. I widened the blades for the sweater strip to create a border.

Then I pealed off the backing paper from the fabric strip and stuck it down to the sweater strip.

I wired a button to one end and then wrapped it around my wrist to get the button hole placement. I used the die cutting attachment to die cut some hearts for a final embellishment.

That's my latest bit of Sweater Surgery I have to share with you! Happy cuttin'