For the love of Crafty Blogger Links

Layers Upon Layers
Cyndi explores making small quilts from rusted fabric.

Naughty Secretary Club
This week Jen is wishing Abraham Lincoln a sparkly birthday with 10 tips on creating wearable glitter portraits from Hot Pink Pistol.

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
Craftside is sharing the love with free knitted and crocheted flower patterns from Margaret Hubert's new book, Rejuvenated Jewels from the new book by the same name by Amy Hanna, a Valentine heart envelope how-to and an ATC from a box of Goldfish.

The Impatient Crafter
Madge's new book Beyond the Bead has hit the shelves! Check out this sneak peek free project and leave a comment to win a free copy and a special prize!

About Family Crafts
Find out how you can get your creative ideas, tips, reviews, and photos published!

Aileen's Musings
Aileen gives a magnetic twist to her paper towel background technique!

Alexa Westerfield a.k.a. Swelldesigner
Make sand heart Valentines or mix it up with a variation on the idea. Swelldesigner shows you how!

Cathie Filian
Baby slings are all the rage and can cost a fortune in retail stores. Cathie Filian has a simple pattern that only requires 2.5 yards of fabric.

Crafty Princess Diaries
The Crafty Princess has caught up on a little Etsy work, which means more star charms and a few finished piece.

Cross Stitch at About.com
Do you ever find yourself in a stitching slump? Vote in the poll and read (and discuss in) the comments on Connie's blog

Four letter words rock!!!, ohh Rock is a 4 letter word!!!

Ok
I had this old pair of plain black gloves that were crying for a creative touch, oohhhh that was a bad pun.
Click away now if you just can't stand it. But for those of you who can stand my bad puns, hang on....oh there was another one!

I decided to write words across the front of the fingers gangster style, since one of my friend's nick names for me is the O.G. (Old Gangstah) since I am just soooo bad a**.

In keeping with the gangstah look I scored some Old English font iron on letters from Wrights.
And then I needed to figure out what my four letter words were going to be.

Get this, I typed into Google "good four letter words" and the first two sights were packed full!
http://www.scrabble.org.au/words/fours.htm
and
http://www.a2zwordfinder.com/cgi-bin/scrabble.cgi?Letters=&Pattern=____&MatchType=Exactly&MinLetters=4&SortBy=Alpha&SearchType=Scrabble
All I can say is boy it really is all out there to find!

The traditional pair of words is love and hate, I have also seen knit and purl but I wanted to do something original.

I came up with a lot of really fun word combos but what I landed on is:

Knot Nice

This is a photo of how I figured out the letter placement by marking it with a few pins. Sorry about the quality, do you know how hard it is to photograph the front of your own hand while making a fist???

So here you have it:
I followed the iron on directions and it went great! My last note is to triple check how the letters lay out in the right order on the correct hand so it can be read the right way!

I "Heart" Crafty Blogger links!

Our new Crafty Blogger! Who-hoo!

Naughty Secretary Club
Just say no to boring baby shower games, gather up your crafty friends and have a onesie making party instead.

Now onto the rest of our FAB group!

The Crochet Dude
Read Drew's review of the new book by Susan Wasinger called "Eco Craft" - and find out why he's saving all his milk jugs from now on!

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
This week at Craftside my heart is melting with a wicked cool free motion and melted Kunin felt valentine, a way to spiff up a plain envelope with a design from Paper Puppet Palooza and some tips for eating right to fight off Seasonal Affective Disorder.

The Impatient Crafter
Madge is back from CHA and sharing the 411 before she heads off to Tucson!

About Family Crafts
Whether you are an avid crafter or just want to be a crafter, a well stocked craft cupboard is a must.

Aileen's Musings
This week Aileen offers another quickly background technique using a newsletter flier that she received in the mail.

Alexa Westerfield a.k.a. Swelldesigner
Swelldesigner shows you how to make your own really "trashy" Valentine's!

Cathie Filian
Cathie Filian has a yummy recipe for browine muffin bites. One batch will have your friends and family beggin for more.

Crafty Princess Diaries
The Crafty Princess is toasty warm with her new crocheted scarf and fingerless gloves, which are super easy to whip up.

Cross Stitch at About.com
Learn new stitches as you complete one of two Patterns for Pherenice (traditionally know as the first woman to see an Olympics).

Layers Upon Layers
Cyndi is looking at snow-themed art this month. Got any you want to share?

Crafty Bloggers and more crafty peeps from CHA 2009

WOW! CHA was fun!


CHA was great this year. I got to see lots of old friends and meet new people that I had either read their books or articles about them and their creative pursuits, such as Faythe Levine of Handmade Nation.

Then there were the Crafty Bloggers like Drew Emborsky, the author of The Crochet Dude's Designs for Guys that I got to catch up with (and get him to "strike a pose")
Then there was the lovely Vickie Howell who gave me a copy of her new Knit Aid book.


Then back on the new people I got to meet list, Jenny Hart of Sublime Stitching! We had a great conversation about indi crafting which was a hot topic at CHA.

Then some silliness occurred. This is a tutu I sewed for the Wrights booth out of black plastic garbage bags. Here Cathi Milligan of Beadbrains.com is striking a pose with me and the tutu.
And just in case you doubt me, here I am posing in it before it was shipped out! I had to test drive it!

Then our friend Maria got in on the act and we did a pose with our "gang sign".

Another Crafty Blogger, Margot Potter has a new book out, Beyond the Bead, oh so pretty!


And Cathi Milligan was also premiering her new book Mod Knots!
This was such a treat, I got to meet Mary Engelbreit! I have been a fan of her since before I was a professional craft designer.
Whew, what a great time. To see more pop on over here for pictures from my make and take and signing and lots more authors events.

Post Super Bowl Crafty Links

OK, this is just plain funny. A Buddha with a Red Skins football helmet on. These are the lengths crafty sports fans go to. It just cracks me up every time I look at it!

About Family Crafts
You can make your own cards, party invitations, favors bags, place cards, napkin rings, gift tags, and much more using these free templates.

Layers Upon Layers
Wrapping up a month of focus on art education, Cyndi posts links to all the tutorials available on her own blog!

Cross Stitch at About.com
Check out a new free pattern from Connie based on a vintage Valentine postcard.

Aileen's Musings
Aileen's posted an easy peasy funky bottle cap pin/pendant tutorial you won't want to miss!

Crafty Princess Diaries
What do you do with all that left over yarn from your yarn crafting? How about making some young animals safe and secure?

Cathie Filian
It is time to paper and protect! Check out Cathie Filian's ideas for homemade lip balm, sugar and salt scrubs and easy melt and pour soaps.

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
This week at Craftside there is a cool perspective drawing how-to and tons of photos from CHA of the Quayside authors, their designs oh, and Paris Hilton!