Craftside

Whoo-hoo Wing Nuts-NEW!- Making Designer Jewelry with Hardware, Gems, and Beads

I can't tell you how much I am savoring my brand spankin' new copy of:

Making Designer Jewelry from Hardware, Beads, and Gems

by

Nicole Noelle Sherman

25 gorgeous how-to projects!

Interest in beading and jewelry-making continues to grow. Making Designer Jewelry from Hardware, Beads, and Gems offers DIY crafters and jewelry-makers a fun, funky approach to jewelry constructed from not only glass beads, pearls, and semi-precious gemstones, but shows how to incorporate simple stainless steel, aluminum, copper, brass and tin hardware, such as nuts, bolts, washers, and tubing, into stunning, innovative, and modern jewelry pieces.

Using hardware in jewelry has become popular, and features an aesthetic twist that mixes "high" and "low"--inexpensive and common metal hardware with favorite bead-store jewels.

Nicole Noelle Sherman designs and creates jewelry in her studio in Free Union, Virginia. Her work grows out of a family tradition of art and architecture; her aesthetic exhibits complex patterns on a geometric structure with careful attention to detail. Nicole is also the author of Making Designer Freshwater Pearl Jewelry.

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Here is just a little "part" of what's inside!

I will give you a bit of a back story first- the term "wing nut" is a slang term for someone is is wacky. I just love that! So when I saw how fab these earrings that were using one of my favorite pieces of hardware/slang I was in!

(Click on image to enlarge)

So off to the stash:

I do feel the need to explain just a tad about this stash. I bought several of those neat little drawer units at the Target and they came with little baggies of assorted nuts, bolts, washers and such. But I wanted the drawer units for "real" ha! jewelry making supplies. So all those little baggies ended up here in this very messy box.

Well in all this mess I had 2 giant wing nuts. Way too big and heavy for earrings so necklaces it was.

I scavenged the bead department and "test drove" 4000 bead combos, well maybe not quite 4000 but close.

And these are the two necklaces I landed on.

For the necklace on the right I used two light blue faceted  beads and sandwiched the wing nut in between them. I then linked the pendant onto a large ball chain necklace.

The one on the left is made with a bead dangle with a flat coil head pin that I actually made for the book Wire Jewelry Kit: 101 Tips and Techniques: Discover Clever Tricks and Handy Hints for Creating Your Own Stylish Wire Jewelry   and all I did was thread the wing nut over it and it swivels freely on the big sparkly purple bead. I then linked it to a long ball chain necklace.

I will definitely be making more  Hardware Jewelry, be sure to check back and see!

And we here at Craftside have a challenge for you:

Do you recognize these little babies?

They are the tools that come with Ikea furniture that you use to put it together.
As you can see I have 4 (I put together a lot of Ikea furniture) and I don't throw anything away...you too hu?

So leave an idea, suggestion or link to a picture of inspiration of what I can make with these or what you have made with one (or a bunch) by July 3rd.

We will randomly pick a winner to receive a copy of Making Designer Jewelry from Hardware, Beads, and Gems from all the comments!

Sew Gifty- Retro Placemats, Napkins and a Gift Bag

Sew Gifty:Fun Accessories, Decor Accents, Baby Gifts, and Other Perfect Presents

25 Easy Projects for All Occasions
By
Janis Bullis

Easy sewing projects designed to be special, out-of-the-ordinary gifts

Sew Gifty presents boutique-quality gifts that anyone can make in an evening and will be proud to give. There is a perfect present here for everyone on the list – woman or man, baby or teen.

The collection includes on-trend accessories, deluxe linens, colorful toys, gifts for enthusiasts like golfers and cooks, and sentimental gifts for weddings and showers. For gift wraps, there are a stitched card, gift bag, and fabric-covered box. The projects use special fabrics from silks to fleece and instant embellishments, and are perfect for personalizing.

Each has step-by-step instructions with how-to photographs and patterns. Even a beginning sewer can create these projects – in fact, these are perfect first projects. The projects include beaded socks, an embroidered silk cosmetic bag, evening shawl, stadium cushion, linen dinner napkins, shoe travel bags, a custom necktie, even a ballerina costume. Sew Gifty is for everyone who loves to make presents for holidays and special occasions.

About the Author
Janis Bullis is a sewing expert and a contributor to many books including Baby Quilts, When Quilt Designers Think Small, and Exploring Textile Arts.

The cool thing about this book is the range of projects, some are really elegant and intricate while others are fun and fanciful and a snap to sew like these charming retro placemats and napkins.

(Click on images to enlarge)

NTM- (New To Me) What I learn from this project is the brilliance of only fussy cutting one side of the napkin, this totally avoids the drama of trying to align all the scallops!

While I love this project, I currently was in the mood to make a little bag perfect for gift giving and this scalloped edge was calling to me.

So out came the scissors and I cut the pattern down to roughly a square. I was more concerned with keeping the cutting line at the center of the scallop rather than an exact square.

I taped the pattern on a piece of big paper and made a complete pattern as the directions say to do in the original placemat project.

And then cut out my new pattern.

Then from the pattern I cut the purse out of an old wool felted sweater. I made little 1/2 inch snips at each scallop and wove a length of ribbon in and out of the snips each one starting and ending together but on opposite sides to make the drawstring. I then cut little circles of various sizes out of a black wool felted sweater and needle felted them randomly onto the bag.

Now to decide what gift is going in this bag!

Father's Day Quotes for Crafting made with Fonts From Indie Fonts

Rockport Publishers brings you:

Indie Fonts
A Compendium of Digital Type from Independent Foundries
P22

If you’re searching for a font that goes beyond ho-hum, this book is for you. Today’s computers provide a selection of fonts that serve reasonably well for workaday letters and publications, but have become utterly boring from overuse. If you want your project to attract the reader’s attention, you need an original font.

Indie Fonts provides a showcase collection of over 1600 diverse fonts from 18 of today’s hottest digital type foundries and features the best work of these designers. Indie Fonts will help readers find some of the highest quality fonts available today.

The type styles range from the best of Matthew Carter’s classic designs to the latest irreverence of ingoFonts. If you're searching for unique typefaces you will find what they are looking for, whether historical revivals or futuristic techno faces.

On the included CD, you'll also get a collection of fantastic fonts.

P22 type foundry creates computer typefaces inspired by Art, History, and Science. P22 is renowned for its work with museums and foundations to ensure the development of accurate historical typefaces that are fully relevant for today's computer user. In addition to its in-house font design, P22 now licenses several new type designs from around the world. Finally, we're sure you agree that no type foundry is complete without its own record label.

Can I tell you what a font-junkie I am? I am such a font junkie!

I just got Indie Fonts and I could look at it all day, is that weird ?  It's perfect timing for my continued path down the paper crafting/altered art road. Being that Father's Day is just around the corner I wanted to whip up a card for him and I had installed a bunch of the bonus free fonts include with the book. I surfed around ye old internet and found these quotes. I brought them into Illustrator and played around with the fonts and layout. I thought I would share them with you.

Feel free to download and use them for your own Father's Day crafting needs!

And this is what I made with them:

On the left here is the little "sketch" I made to see if my theory of making a modified "maze book" would work.

It did, so I folded and 8 1/2 by 11 piece of paper in half in both directions and then into quarters as pictured. I cut 3/4 of the way down the long center fold. I glued them together so that there were four "pages" in my book/card.

I glued each of the sayings on each inside right page and the collage of "D's"  on the cover.

These bit's of graphics are ATC proportioned.

Leave a comment with a link to share what you make, we'd love to see!

Love to all the Dad's of crafters!

Craftside "I Heart" Postcard Photo Frame

To get the word out in the "real world" about this here blog, we here at Craftside whipped up this fun and very utilitarian post card to spread the word and to give you a place to frame up the one you "heart".

With just a few snips of my fa-vor-ite tool, the scissors, and few folds, you too can surround the love of your life in crafty goodness and remind yourself to pop on in to this here blog to for a behind-the-scenes peek in our crafty world.

Here they are in action:

This is my beloved Jack Rabbit. For the record my first rabbit was Peter Rabbit and the next one is going to be Eddie Rabbit. Hehe.

Here are not one, but two shots, just 'cause he's sooo cute. This is Frank, Mary's baby. Named after the classic crooner himself, Frank Sinatra!

This is Alisha's desk, the Office Administrative Assistant (you know the one that keeps the place running), proudly displaying her daughter Sydney in her "I Heart" frame.

This is the desk of Laurie; the Shipping Manager and in the frame is a picture of her daughters Hannah, Julie and Kaylee.

Would you like one of these spiffy little postcard frames? Simply sign up for our email list (top right column) and include your address. We will pop one in the mail to you!

Not to mention you'll get the fabulous newsletter with even more inside peeks at crafty goodness!

And on the subject of MORE crafty goodness here is this weeks Crafty Blogger links.

Aileen's Musings
Check out Aileen's serendipitous assemblage that started with a book cover and find out why cleaning is like a box of chocolates...

Crafty Princess Diaries
Marketing your craft work and yourself does pay off! Here are a few examples of why this is true and why marketing is worth your time.

Cross Stitch at About.com
Brighten up your day with a happy little sun or select one of the other fun summer-themed patterns.

Layers Upon Layers
Digital manipulations using a torn paper landscape background

Polymer Clay @ CraftGossip
Pearls of Wisdom, a creative challenge.

Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery
Stefanie rubs knitting needles with a bunch of superstar knitters at BEA and takes her turn with the sticks and whips up a bunch of cute knitted purses with bangle bracelets for handles and I don't stick with just yarn!

The Impatient Blogger
Join Madge as she shares some sage advice about getting your work published.


Surf, read, and craft!

Knits for Men- Just in Time for Father's Day

Knits for Men
20 Sweaters, Vests, and Accessories

Classic styles that men love to wear.
By
Margaret Hubert

This book presents twenty original knitting projects for men’s sweaters and accessories. Includes a variety of sweaters and vests and a few accessories, like hats, mittens, scarves and slippers.

You'll find classic masculine styles (Nordic, cables, ribs, stripes) made modern through color and yarn selection. The designs are contemporary--sweaters and accessories that men will want to wear.

The yarns used for the projects represent a full spectrum of choices in both price range and fiber content. Detailed project specs provide generic descriptions used by the Craft Yarn Council of America so the reader can easily substitute similar yarns.

The projects are designed for advance beginner and intermediate skill level knitters. There are lots of helpful tips for customizing size and photographic instructions for special stitches and techniques. For every project, detail photos show stitch patterns and "tricky" areas up close, an extra bonus that knitters don't get with most instructions.

About the Author
Margaret Hubert designs for yarn companies and book and magazine publishers including Crochet, Interweave Press, Quick and Easy Crochet, Crochet Fantasy, and Belle Armoire. She teaches at yarn shops, retreats, and national gatherings and rarely misses a national conference in the needle arts field. A world traveler, Margaret pays close attention to the fashions in Europe and spots style trends as they hit New York. She is equally as passionate about knitting and crochet, and can design patterns for either, in any size or shape. She is the author of 11 other books including five books in our Hooked series.

I think knitting for men is a great idea. I knit two hats for men and both times I didn't follow the pattern and needed to resize. So I thought I'd share with you Margaret's wisdom on the subject:

(click on image to enlarge)

And if your needles are itchin' to get knittin' right now, pop on over to the Lion Brand Yarn website for a free pattern from the book!

Alpine Zip-Neck Pullover

And just to share another fun picture for the day, here Margaret is at being chauffeured in the Yarn Car by Tim