Craftastic!

The crocheted card dress I posted about yesterday reminded me of this book I bought about a year ago ~ The Complete Book of Retro Crafts. Many of the finished crafts in the book are rather scary to me ~ probably because I know I made some of them and my mom has them squirreled away somewhere just waiting for me to be famous so she will have some things for the museum in my honor! I actually have a piece (maybe more than one) of macaroni art that I did in art school ~ maybe I will post a photo of them someday.

Below is the cover and a couple of spreads from the book ~ there are quite alot of good ideas and tips for the craftster ~ organizing, collecting & displaying in addition to a whole bunch of nearly forgotten projects. This book will keep you busy for many a rainy day ~ enjoy!

{popsicle sticks, sock monkeys, bottle caps, paint by number ~ a plethora of craft ideas}

{dress up that drab basket purse that is hiding in the back of your closet}

{great ways to recycle paper goods}

{better than that ship in a bottle}

{Quick as a wink crafts and practical leather lacing}

Scrapbooks: An American History

While I am waiting for a good sunny day - or at least a day that I get home early enough to shoot my treasures from Miss Frenchie's Holiday Market, I thought I would share what looks to me like an amazing new book!

My boyfriend read about it in the NY Times Book Review(here) and is giving it to me for Christmas ~ yes, he has a tough time finding things he thinks I will like so he decided it would be better to ask and spoil the surprise rather than get me something I wouldn't like. Actually it will still be a surprise as I have only seen a couple of pages and now I am really looking forward to getting the book! Apparently the book is causing quite a stir amongst scrapbookers and the design community!

You can order your own copy here ~ while you are there visiting, make sure to check out the video interview with the author, Jessica Helfand. I'll post a few of my favorite spreads after Christmas, so stay tuned!

Added 1.28.2012: Was doing a search and found a written interview with the author at Vintage Image Craft as well.

Japanese Craft Book ~ Crochet

{ ISBN#978-4-277-43113-2}

{lovely projects and photo styling}

{crochet trims}

{cute little crocheted sewing kit project}

Above are a few photos from one of my new Japanese craft books on crochet. I bought this a couple months ago in NYC at the Kinokuniya Bookstore - I posted about the bookstore here. Crochet and knitting are crafts I have discovered in the last five years ~ I love doing both ~ I am kind of surprised that I haven't moved on to something else ~ I just keep coming up with new projects to try and new techniques to learn. Plus, I have enough yarn to open a yarn store, so I am always working on ways to use it up so that I can use my guest room for guests again!

Japanese Craft Book ~ Sock & Glove Animals

{ Sock & Glove Animals ~ ISBN4-579-11061-7}

It's been kind of busy in my neck of the woods lately so no time to take any photos! In the mean time I thought I would post about this great Japanese craft book I bought last year. I love the simplicity of the photographs and the animals ~ even though they are simply made they have such personality! I decided these would be a good project to do when my nieces and nephew came to visit last summer ~ I let them all look through the book and choose which animal they wanted to make and then purchased the necessary supplies. Below you can see the basics needed ~ there are clear directions for each animal as well ~ even though the book is written in Japanese, we had no problem figuring things out.

{ easy pictorial instructions for the dog}

{Simple variations make so many different characters!}

{the full range of creatures all made from socks and gloves!}

Above are the finished animals we made ~ my sister in law made the traditional sock monkey, my 11 year old nephew made the black and blue muscle bound monkey, my 9 year old niece made the pretty dog with the pearl on her collar, my 5 year old niece made the happy dog with the pink tongue. My creations are not finished yet ~ I blame that on the fact that the project was a bit more challenging than I expected and I had to help the others quite a bit so they could all take their projects home with them. Of course, this was months ago, so what is my excuse now??!!

Obsession #4 ~ Craft Books

{Japanese craft book on buttons}
ISBN 4579110633

Another thing I just can't resist are craft books! Lately I have gotten some beautiful Japanese books on different crafts ~ the one above, obviously on buttons. I wish I was able to read Japanese so I could learn everything the book has to offer, but even so, the diagrams and pictorial directions are clear enough that most things aren't too difficult to figure out.

I got this book at a wonderful bookstore in NYC called Kinokuniya ~ it looks like you can order books online ~ type in the ISBN number in the search area and the book should come up. I have bought a few of these on ebay and etsy, but the other large chain bookstores don't carry any at all. Crafting Japanese is a great resource for looking at Japanese craft books as well.