Craftside

How to make wedding favor seed packets from the book A Priceless Wedding

All brides want a memorable wedding and one way to achieve special memories is to make custom elements like these adorable wedding favor seed packets featured in the new book A Priceless Wedding: Crafting a Meaningful, Memorable, and Affordable Celebration. In honor of the release of this amazing book, we are giving away two copies - one here on Craftside and one copy at Goodreads.com

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Goodreads Book Giveaway

A Priceless Wedding

by Sara Cotner

Giveaway ends February 07, 2013.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

 

Click on these pages from A Priceless Wedding: Crafting a Meaningful, Memorable, and Affordable Celebration to enlarge and read how to make seed packet wedding favors.

More about the Voyager Press book:

A Priceless Wedding:

Crafting a Meaningful, Memorable, and Affordable Celebration

by

Sara Cotner

How you and your partner plan your wedding can set a precedent for how you will be as a family. How do you work together to merge two different sets of ideas into something bigger and better? How do you disagree in constructive rather than destructive ways? How do you honor the input and experience of family members while simultaneously maintaining ownership of your lives and choices?

 

In this part-memoir, part how-to handbook, popular wedding blogger Sara Cotner shares how you can resist the pressure to create the wedding of someone else’s dreams and instead reclaim the real purposes of a wedding: community, connection, commitment, and fun.

 

A Priceless Wedding covers all the basics: securing a location, finding a dress, deciding on flowers, selecting a wedding party, planning the ceremony, choosing rings, and everything in between, but it goes beyond the elements of a “traditional” wedding to help you plan an eco-friendly, hand-crafted, budget-minded celebration that will be both memorable and meaningful. Featuring do-it-yourself projects that help you create your own unique wedding favors, sew a homemade wedding quilt, and more, this book will inspire you to begin your own traditions and rituals that will clarify your values and let you live them out loud.

Sara Cotner (Houston, TX) is a popular blogger at 2000dollarwedding.com and is a known resource for those interested in meaningful, budget-minded, hand-crafted weddings. She has been featured on CNN.com, Inside Edition, the pages of the Wall Street Journal, and more.

By entering in this contest you will be added to our Craftside family list.

 

Craftside "Hearts" Bead Bug Book Triple Giveaway .....with wings!

Yes you heard right! In honor of the day 'o love Craftside is giving away 2 copies of Bead Bugs! And if you're feeling extra lucky, pop on over to Goodreads.com. We're also giving away 1 copy of Bead Bugs over there :) Good luck!

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

 

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Bead Bugs

by Amy Kopperude

Giveaway ends February 06, 2013.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

 

 

   

I promised you a bit of an inside peek and here it is. Check out how to make the tiny bug wings out of a metal filigree bead cap.

Click on these pages from Bead Bugs to enlarge and read the easy way to make metal bug wings.

More about the CPi beading book:

Bead Bugs:

Cute, Creepy, and Quirky Projects to Make with Beads, Wire, and Fun Found Objects

by

Amy Kopperude

Create 23 cute and clever bugs and little crawly critters out of beads, wire, and other craft materials with Bead Bugs! Each project is shown in step-by-step photos with clear instructions that anyone can follow. Variations of each project encourage the crafter to imagine all kinds of ways to make the bugs unique. Bead bugs and critters can be used in various ways—as ornaments, put on display, made into jewelry, made into mobiles, displayed in a terrarium, or framed in shadow boxes.

In these pages, you’ll learn to create:

- Dragonflies

- Spiders

- Butterflies

- Hermit crabs

- Scorpions

- Sea horses

- And more

The possibilities are endless. Get your imagination crawling with this fun-filled book!

Amy Kopperude was born and raised in Minnesota and influenced by a painting grandma, a quilting mom and brother, a guitar-playing dad, and other talented people who supported her creative growth. She lives in Red Lion, PA where she works for an educational publishing house as an editor and book layout designer. She is an avid crafter, dabbling in all kinds of media, and she sells her creations on Etsy. Visit her blog athttp://www.atomicrose.blogspot.com where you can view her 365 beaded spiders.

By entering in this contest you will be added to our Craftside family list.

 

Telling a story and drawing a space exercise from the book Doodling with Jim Henson

Today I have a fun, and quite frankly adorably cute, drawing exercise from the book Doodling with Jim Henson: More than 50 fun & fanciful artistic exercises to inspire the doodler in you!. This exercise states that you should draw these little creatures in a space and then tell a story about them. I would also suggest giving them a name. I had so much fun naming my aminekos. It was a part of giving them character and a personality after they had their faces. When you draw a character in an unusual place the possibilities of the stories can be endlessly funny and I bet they will just come to you!

Click on these pages from Doodling with Jim Henson More than 50 fun & fanciful artistic exercises to inspire the doodler in you! to enlarge and try this fun creating a space for a fun creature exercise.

More about the Walter Foster book:

Doodling with Jim Henson
More than 50 fun & fanciful artistic exercises to inspire the doodler in you!

by

Jim Henson

Jim Henson, an extraordinary artist and visionary, invented unique worlds and characters that remain just as vivid, original and fresh today as when they were created. A television pioneer, an innovator in puppetry, technology and visual arts, and a performer who literally brought to life some of the most memorable characters ever, Jim Henson's impact on entertainment, education and culture continues to this day more than 20 years after his death.

Jim Henson, an extraordinary artist and visionary, invented unique worlds and characters that remain just as vivid, original and fresh today as when they were created. A television pioneer, an innovator in puppetry, technology and visual arts, and a performer who literally brought to life some of the most memorable characters ever--including the world's most famous frog, Kermit™ --Jim Henson's impact on entertainment, education and culture continues to this day more than 20 years after his death.

 

Craftside "Hearts" crafts and the peeps that make them

First up I want to congratulate Jane V. she is the winner of our double giveaway of copies of 

The Complete Visual Guide to "Good Dog" Training The Balanced Way to A Well Behaved Pet and Vegan Food Gifts.

Next up is a fun podcast featuring Christi Friesen author of Polymer Clay and Mixed Media—Together at Last over at the blog Notes From The Voodoo Cafe. 

Pop on over to the Voodoo Cafe to watch and listen!

Quarry SPOON
Slow cooker appetizer recipes for Superbowl Sunday-Teriyaki wings and Cajun Barbecue shrimp.

RockPaperInk
The Rubik's Cube Erno Rubik, 1974

ACreativeDream
Shrinky Dinks... suddenly the most popular post on June's blog... thanks to Pinterest.

Color My Roving
The Crafty Princess is still in love with her spindle and adding a dash of color to her yarn making affairs.

How to Make Mixed Media Butterfly Tags to Add Sparkle to Any Gift
The right tools make these pretty gift tags look like they they took hours to make. Thank you Xyron, Cuttlebug, and Tim Holtz!

Image transfers revisited
Cyndi's readers never seem to get tired of discussing image transfers in their work!

Message Board - Kinda
Cherie combines a bunch of things laying around to create board for some pictures. That was the plan anyway...

Pinterest Crafts: DIY Ideas
CraftFoxes lists the top 10 DIY projects on Pinterest. You might be surprised by some of the crafts on this list!

 

How to mold caramels from the book The Sweet Book of Candy Making

Just in time for Valentine's Day I thought I'd share this tip from The Sweet Book of Candy Making: From the Simple to the Spectacular-How to Make Caramels, Fudge, Hard Candy, Fondant, Toffee, and More! Here's how to make molding caramels with silicone ice cube trays.

Click on this page from The Sweet Book of Candy Making to enlarge and read about using fun shaped silicone ice cube trays to mold caramels.

More about the sweet Quarry book:

The Sweet Book of Candy Making: From the Simple to the Spectacular-How to Make Caramels, Fudge, Hard Candy, Fondant, Toffee, and More!

by

Elizabeth LaBau

Create your own delicious, gorgeous, and professional-quality candies with The Sweet Book of Candy Making. Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned candy maker, you will find mouthwatering recipes and expert tips to inspire you—and satisfy your sweet tooth.

Inside, you'll find:

—Candy-making essentials: all you need to know about equipment, ingredients, and techniques, including step-by-step lessons on pulling taffy, rolling truffles, filling peanut butter cups, and more

—More than 50 recipes for sugar candies, fondant, caramels, toffee, fudge, truffles, chocolates, marshmallows, and fruit and nut candies

—Troubleshooting tips for each type of candy

—How to perfect the classics you love, from English Toffee to Chocolate Fudge to Peanut Brittle

—Try your hand at something new: Pistachio Marzipan Squares, Passion Fruit Marshmallows, Mango-Macadamia Nut Caramels, Lemon Meringue Lollipops, and more

—Decorating techniques to show off your tasty results

Get started in your kitchen with The Sweet Book of Candy Making!

 Elizabeth LaBau is a food writer and confectioner based in Los Angeles, California. She applies her years of experience as a professional pastry chef to bringing a modern touch to the world of old-fashioned candy making. Since 2006, she has been the Guide to Candy at About.com, an online division of the New York Times Company. At http://candy.about.com, she provides fun, creative candy recipes and step-by-step tutorials for the home cook. When she's not playing with sugar in the kitchen, she can be found running the trails around Los Angeles with a piece of candy tucked into her pocket. Visit her online at http://www.elizabethlabau.com, http://www.sugarhero.com, and http://www.runningwithsugars.com.