Stencil created using card stock and circle hole punch by pldover12

When I first got this book, I thought “Hmm, $19.95 (actually $11.61 from Amazon) not much to it for just seven techniques. ” I am now completely hooked on potato and leaf printing and have come to truly appreciate this little gem. This is the kind of crafting book I will pick up seeking inspiration and not necessarily instruction. It covers:

• Rubber Stamping
• Iron-on Printing
• Leaf Printing
• Stenciling
• Potato Printing
• Lino Block Printing, and
• Screen Printing

In addition it is filled with gorgeous pictures of completed projects and inspiration tablets that give you a little insight in Lotta’s design process.

Layout

The layout is calm and dominated by pictures. Instructional text is unobtrusively arranged in narrow columns accompanying the pictures.

Instructions and Projects

The instructions are very precise and clear. Seasonally appropriate, my daughter and I first delved into leaf printing. Together, we printed up a whole bunch of greeting cards, and Elizabeth made small prints for a special notebook.

The following day I tried leaf printing with fabric paint, again with terrific results.

Next we started carving up potatoes with our newly acquired linoleum cutters. While I was working with putting together simple shapes. Elizabeth decided to channel Marla Olmstead. Her print did end up with a spooky potato impression.

Potatoes don’t last more than a day. Really.  Today I carved up a new batch and printed some onesies

and dish towels.

I think what I like best about this “medium” is how forgiving it is (I know you are not supposed to play with food), and how it encourages you to work with very simple shapes.

Now, I’m very tempted to move on to linoleum printing–heck, I’ve got the cutters–but I think this will have to be tabled until next year. Too many projects, not enough time.

If you’d like to share your Lotta projects with your review, add them to the Crafty Daisies Book Club Flickr pool.

Change of Venue for the Next Book Club

Speaking of projects, I currently have a little giveaway of the printed tea towels on craftevolution.com where the next book club will meet. On Wednesday, December 3rd we will discuss

 Sew Everything Workshop by Diana Rupp, ISBN-10: 0761139737, ISBN-13: 978-0761139737 and meet at craftevolution.com.

Just a reminder that the next book club will meet on October 22. We will discuss Lotta Prints by Lotta Jansdotter.

For more information, go to the original announcement. Can you guess what project I’ve been making?

With her first book, Kayte shares a glimpse of her crafty life by introducing us to basic embellishing techniques and demonstrating how to apply them to enhance clothing, accessories, and home furnishings. The comprehensive Tools and Techniques section of the book is a great resource. Kayte covers embroidery, crochet, trims, felting, beads and sequins, applique, fabric printing, and painting and etching. This is followed by the Projects section where she seeks to inspire you to combine these techniques and create your own, unique style.

1. Romance Skirt, 2. Glasses, 3. Victoriana Cardigan, 4. Lampshade

I took on this challenge by first shopping in my crafting stash (fabric from curtains sewed in 1993 and felted sweater remnants from a purse project) and then at the Salvation Army ($3.99 cardigan). The result is this flirty, girly cardigan based on the instructions for Kayte’s Victoriana Cardigan.

Needless to say, I love my new jacket! My version has a crew neck instead of a V-neck. I used some leftover tape I had made for this project to embellish and clean up the edge around the cardigan and then added the ruffle. Needle felting is a new craft for me and I’m not quite ready to embark on it, so I decorated my flower with a button covered in the tape fabric. Instead of sewing the flower to the jacket, I attached it to a pin back for those days when I don’t feel quite so bloomy. At a later date, I may shorten the sleeves of the jacket and add some ruffles there, but for now I’m very excited about my new treasure.

If you want to find out more about Kayte Terry, you can read her interviews on the Craftzine blog and the Etsy Storque, and visit her blog at thisisloveforever.com. By the way, Kayte was also the fashion/prop stylist for Sew Everything Workshop, our December book club selection.

1. paper doll dress bookmark, 2. Match Stick Holder Bottom, 3. Paint Chip Bookmarks, 4. Match Stick Holder

Wow, thanks for all your discussions and submissions for the last book club. For descriptions of some of the projects go visit the Crafty Daisies Book Club Flickr group. If you’ve since tackled other projects from the Big-Ass Book of Crafts, please continue to add them to the group.

The next Crafty Daisies book club will discuss Lotta Jansdotter’s book Lotta Prints: How to Print with Anything, from Potatoes to Linoleum, ISBN 081186037X, ISBN13 978081186037.

Thank you to Sarah and Josh for suggesting this book. We will meet in six weeks on Wednesday, October 22.

If you need to plan ahead, the book for our third meeting will be Sew Everything Workshop by Diana Rupp, ISBN-10: 0761139737, ISBN-13: 978-0761139737 and will meet on Wednesday, December 3.

For those of you new to the book club, here are the mechanics of our discussions:

How it Works

Every 4-6 weeks we “discuss” a craft book as follows:

• Make one project out of the book that is due for the next book club meet-up
• Explain why you chose that project
• Discuss the clarity of the instructions, the layout of the book, the illustrations, other projects in the book, and whether you liked the book or not
• Suggest one book for the next book club

You can submit your discussion either as a comment the day of the book club meet-up or by email (craftydaisies(at)gmail(dot)com). If you have pictures of your projects that you would like to share, email them to me or submit them to the Crafty Daisies Book Club Flickr group.

Finding the Book

As with any book club, this is not an endorsement of the featured book (of the ten or so books I read for my fiction book club I only liked three). If you already own the book under discussion, great, take a picture of your project and send me an email. If you think you want to join this endeavor, here are some ways to shop around for the book:

• See if a friend already owns it and lets you borrow the book
• Check with your local library (mine had three copies of this month’s book across the borough)
• Compare prices (I bought this month’s book at list price, but have since seen it significantly cheaper online)

In other words, I don’t want you to get mad at me in case you buy the book and take an extreme dislike to it.

1. Glass Paper Weights, 2. Subscription Card Artwork, 3. Mason Jar Lamp, 4. Big-Ass Book of Crafts Cover, 5. Candle Holders, 6. Frankie Mirror, 7. Drag Art. Pg. 6, 8. Candle holder

Where to begin? The Big Ass Book of Crafts by Mark Montano is certainly big with 377 pages and a corresponding weight.

Organization

The projects are divided into 21 categories by type of object, in other words, desk top decorations are collected under Bored at My Desk, Let Me Entertain You discusses place mats, napkins, refrigerator magnets, and coasters, you get the picture. Each category is color-coded. I like that feature because it does help you orient yourself within this vast sea of projects, which brings me to the layout.

Layout

I experienced the layout to be somewhat in my face. A look at the cover gives you an idea of what to expect inside, namely a barrage of colors, pictures, and text. These are arranged on the page in a fashion that does have some method to its madness, but is difficult to follow when you are just casually leafing through the book. Then again, I’m sleep deprived.

I would recommend setting an hour aside, picking up your drink/snack of choice, and slowly going through the book with some post-its to bookmark your favorite projects. Minor pet peeve: Not every page has a page number; and sometimes it’s not even every other page. I need my page numbers, otherwise I get lost and bad things happen when I get lost. . .

Projects

As with any large collection of projects there are some that appeal to me more than others. For instance, I shy away from anything that involves saws or power tools, but love playing with glue and paper. Also, some of the projects may be familiar (searching Flickr for “pencil roll” renders 1390 results), but sometimes it is nice to have instructions for a project in a format other than stapled 8 1/2 X 11 pieces of paper.

Generally, the instructions were pretty clear. Whitney of sewtrashy.com can certainly attest to that because she truly tested this book. Regarding her Drag Art project (p.6) she writes:

I had such a hard time picking just one project from this book. There were a lot I would still like to try, but this one stuck out for its simplicity. It seemed to have some potential. Also, it was super-duper easy! Just throw some paint down and drag your cardboard through it. Instructions were clear. I’m pleased with how mine turned out, although I will continue to push this method in the future. I don’t like painting with a brush, so this suited me quite well!

The only thing I did differently than the instructions in the book: I put my paint down on another surface and dabbed the cardboard in it BEFORE dragging it on the canvas. I wanted a little cleaner look than in the book.

Would love to see your attempts! Give it a try, super easy, and a quick result. You are bound to have the minimal supplies lying around to try this project. I did!

In addition, Whitney also made glass candle holders inspired by the three-tiered tray (p. 207), paperweights based on the glass chip magnets (p. 219) and a Frank Sinatra mirror influenced by the Japanese hand mirror (p. 230). She used whatever materials she happened to have on hand and substituted Mod Podge for some of the specified glues. You should definitely check out her detailed project descriptions in the book club Flickr pool.

I think that’s what I liked best about the book: You are encouraged to use the crafts and instructions as inspirations for very personal projects.

For my project I chose the marble mason jar lamp (p. 76). After perusing local hardware stores for the necessary lamp wiring equipment, I cheated and ordered an already assembled mason jar lamp kit. Then I snuck into my daughter’s room to “borrow” some marbles (“Mom, what are you doing with my marbles and where are you going with my nightlight bulb?”) and this is where I ran into trouble with my 5-minute project. You need more than 160 marbles to fill a mason jar and the lamp kit blew out the low wattage bulb. To restore the family peace, my daughter and I spent a few team-building hours sorting perler beads into rainbow colors to fill the jar and making the little flowers adorning the lampshade.

If I were to make this type of lamp again, I would add a lamp harp to the fixture that could support a slightly larger shade. In the meantime, I’m thinking of other designs like a jar filled with nuts and bolts and a classy black shade, or a jar filled with buttons and a lampshade decoupaged with old patterns.

What was your experience with the book?

Suggestions for the next book club so far are:

• Craftivity, 40 Projects for the DIY Lifestyle, by Tsia Carson
• Cute Stuff, by Aranzi Aronzo (not to be confused with Let’s Make Cute Stuff by the same authors)

Just a heads-up that the book club will “meet” to discuss the Big Bad Ass Book of Crafts on Sept 3rd. If you are one of the Flickr people (whoa, there’s already 20 of you), I will use whatever images you add to the group pool for mosaics on the blog page. Alternatively, you can also email me your pictures at craftydaisies(at)gmail(dot)com. If you can’t make that deadline, I’ll probably put together another mosaic to post later in the week; so don’t fret.

Also, if you already wrote a critique discussing the book, either post it as a discussion in the Flickr pool, or with your picture description, or email it to craftydaisies (at) gmail (dot) com. I will include your discussion in the main blog article. If it’s not done by the 3rd, you can always add it in the comment section.

Things that should be in your critique:
* Make one project out of the book that is due for the next book club meet-up
* Explain why you chose that project
* Discuss the clarity of the instructions, the layout of the book, the illustrations, other projects in the book, and whether you liked the book or not
* Suggest one book for the next book club

If you weren’t able to participate in this round, but have a book you’d like to suggest for discussion, please submit the title and author. If we have a clear majority for one book, we’ll discuss that. If there isn’t one specific preference, I will randomly select the book taking into consideration acquisition costs and availability.

Further, if you have any feedback regarding the administration of the book club, please let me know. This is our first round and any suggestions to improve this “gathering” are welcome.

By the way, thank you to Lisa of U-handbag for spreading the news about the Wordle, which created the cloud above.

So I thought we could have a virtual book club since I seem to have developed this craft book addiction.

How it Works

Every 4-6 weeks we “discuss” a craft book as follows:

• Make one project out of the book that is due for the next book club meet-up
• Explain why you chose that project
• Discuss the clarity of the instructions, the layout of the book, the illustrations, other projects in the book, and whether you liked the book or not
• Suggest one book for the next book club

You can submit your discussion either as a comment the day of the book club meet-up or by email (craftydaisies(at)gmail(dot)com). If you have pictures of your projects that you would like to share, email them to me or submit them to the Crafty Daisies Book Club Flickr group.

Finding the Book

As with any book club, this is not an endorsement of the featured book (of the ten or so books I read for my fiction book club I only liked three). If you already own the book under discussion, great, take a picture of your project and send me an email. If you think you want to join this endeavor, here are some ways to shop around for the book:

• See if a friend already owns it and lets you borrow the book
• Check with your local library (mine had three copies of this month’s book across the borough)
• Compare prices (I bought this month’s book at list price, but have since seen it significantly cheaper online)

In other words, I don’t want you to get mad at me in case you buy the book and take an extreme dislike to it.

First Meet-Up: 9/3/08

So, after all this preamble this is this month’s book:

The Big-Ass Book of Crafts by Mark Montano, ISBN-13:978-1-4169-3785-2, ISBN-10: 1-4169-3785-4. I selected it to kick off the club because it has a lot of different projects, it weighs in at 2 lbs 6 oz, and I figured it would appeal to a broad group of people.

The Crafty Daisies Book Club will virtually meet on

Wednesday, September 3rd

I’m looking forward to all of your discussions.

This post continues the series of book reviews with Cute Dolls by Aranzi Aronzo. At the end of this entry you’ll find a slide show of a selection of softies exchanged during the course of last month’s softie swap.

This book provides instructions for 21 different cute dolls. The instructions are very simple and entertaining with comments such as

Bear is a slacker.
He’s always looking spaced out.
But it’s strange how relaxing his spaced-out, slacker look is.
It’s also strange how someone like him is actually an Aranzi Aronzo store manager.

Most of the patterns need to be enlarged by 125% to 150% for ultimate sizing. I scanned the pattern and enlarged it with Photoshop. You could also take the book to your local copy shop and enlarge the patterns there.

Each doll is made out of felt scraps and jersey fabric. “Jersey? Ugh, I don’t want to buy more fabric,” was my initial reaction. But then my glance fell on my Goodwill bag filled to the brim with ultra soft t-shirts from last year. So, if you have a special shirt you’d like to recycle, like Elizabeth’s Cape Cod t-shirt on the cat doll, take some shears to your clothing and create a softie. Speaking of softies, check out the softies made by the participants in our softie swap:

You can also read about them at the Flickr Crafty Daisies Softie Swap Group

I got a few new books during the last months, which means y’all will be inundated with book reviews. The first one is Sew What! Skirts by Francesca Denhartog and Carole Ann Camp.

The premise of the book is that you can create your own funky designs with their instructions and a few basic sewing skills. The 16 different styles featured in the book are variations on two patterns: the straight skirt and the A-line skirt. The writers provide straight forward instructions on how to measure and draw the necessary patterns. In addition, they explain how to finish edges, make darts, sew hems, add different kinds of waistlines, and insert zippers.

Exhibit A, my Memorial Day project, is a fairly simple A-line skirt. It’s based on the East Meets West skirt in the book except I changed the zipper around, added a lining and used bias tape for the hem.

I love this hem. It was super fast and looks very neat.

It took me about an evening to make the pattern and cut out the skirt and three hours to put the whole thing together. The waist ended up being about 1.5″ too wide. Next time I would make the pattern smaller, and the A-shape less wide, and maybe try darts for the waist.

What I like about the book is that it gives you a solid basic footing to go forth and experiment with whatever look, fabric, trim, etc. you want to work with. A Flickr search renders 530 pictures. Below is just a small selection of what I found. If you do end up getting this book, make sure to go to the publisher’s website for the errata page. There are a couple of mistakes in the book that you would want to correct before you start cutting up your fabric.

I think Storey redid its website because the errata page I downloaded two days ago disappeared. (Thank you to Meredith for noticing this.) For anyone who has an early uncorrected edition, the corrections on the pdf were as follows:

Page 65 Half Circle Wrap:
All you need is 1 length of 42″–45″ fabric (about 2 1⁄2 yards for the average person), plus 1⁄8 yard for the waistband and ties. If you are larger than average, or prefer a fuller skirt, it’s better to use fabric that is 58″–60″ wide (about 3 1⁄2 yards, plus waistband yardage).
. . .
You will need to add to the W measurement to allow
for fabric overlap in the back of the skirt. To do this, measure where your waistline will be, then add 12″ to 14″ (or the amount you want it to overlap). Divide by 3 and round up to the nearest 1⁄2″. Then make your string compass as instructed.

Page 117 Nature’s Child:
under Stuff You Need it should read:
2 lengths* of 42″–45″ fabric
3⁄4–1 yard of complementary fabric

I finally found the time to make this skirt from this pattern:

Farbenmix is a German company, thus the European sizing. Their patterns are pretty straightforward and leave you with lots of room to personalize the finished piece. You can access step-by-step, illustrated instructions in English for many of the models. They also feature examples of many variations for each pattern to inspire your inner designer. And, for all you craft fair participants and etsy shop owners, they allow you to sell your finished piece based on their pattern as long as you are selling individual items and not churning out mass produced clothing. This is a list of their retail partners including some American online shops.

P.S. No, this is not a paid endorsement, I just like their stuff.