Niles, IL crafty resource

[rhiannontherose.livejournal.com]

I keep forgetting to post about this, in here. There's a little-known (or so it seemed) crafty resource here in the Northern suburbs of Chicago. FibreCraft, the company that makes about 1/2 - 2/3 of the "kiddie craft" type supplies sold in, say, a WalMart Fabrics & Crafts department...actually has an outlet store you can shop in as retail customers. I think if you go further West along the street that the Niles WalMart is on, you first see on your right their wholesale warehouse. I've been told that just past the thing that looked like miniature Leaning Tower of Pisa, though, is this outlet store of theirs. I haven't checked it out yet, myself, but when I was working, I had some customers mention it to me. I thought of it because my husband and I drove past it, the other day. We're not talking really high-quality supplies, here, but if you or your kids or your students have any good uses for things like pompoms, googly eyes, pipe cleaners, fun foam, glitter, popsickle sticks, jingle bells, small wooden boxes...that sort of thing...it's a good source. Why pay even the discounted prices of a place like WalMart, when you know they've got to be making at least one more layer of profit than the company the supples are coming from?! The place should particularly come in handy on those many occasions where every kid in a given grade from a local school has been given the same project needing the same supplies, or crafty birthday parties have recently been all the rage for kids, and the retail stores are sold out.

By the way...if any of you just happened to shop at the Niles WalMart, and have recently noticed the absence of a certain evening worker in Fabrics & Crafts...longlonglong dark hair often bound up into a bun, glasses, dark clothes, knew what she was talking about, probably often looked like she wanted to do dangerous things to her coworkers...that missing worker is me. I quit because my husband and I are expecting. Best of luck shopping there...I never convinced them to let me train anyone.

I'm sorry.

[shaunama.livejournal.com]

I know everybody says this but I really am TRULY sorry for a text-only post. I hate them, so here's the pot calling the kettle black and all that.

But this has been bugging me for a while now. Could anyone help find links to tutorials, or maybe make one, or come over here and show me how to...

Make kanzashi ??

I guess the Japanese word refers to any type of hair decoration for geishas, but what I'm looking for is the fabric flowers, which you can check out here:
http://gaijingeisha.com/kanzashi.htm

There's a girl on craftster that does some nice work too, and has been promising a tutorial, but is apparantly too busy. Any help would be appreciated!! <3

(no subject)

[lucifersamekh.livejournal.com]

small question,
for those of you who have one inch button makers what is the crimp die? I'm looking at makers and some say it comes with the machine and some don't. what is it used for, ect?

thanks!

wrapping tickets.

[zige.livejournal.com]

I knwo this is uber early but...
for valentines ive got my boyfriend tickets to see chicago in the west end. He's never been to the theater and so i figure i'd start him with the best. Thing is i don't want to jsut put them in a card or envelope, i want something far more crafty and imaginative to do with them. I'm sorry if i missed anything in the FAQ. Zi xx

x posted to crafster.

Crafty!

[loony-lola.livejournal.com]

WHoo! Ive been kinda crafty XD I made a pair of shoes, a bracelet,(both behind cut) and earrings!

( Read more... )

baby lampreys

[stickeravenger.livejournal.com]

"lampreys" are a sort of in-joke between a me & a friend. Strangely, they don't look like lampreys, but like...er, mice? Without tails...? Okay. Obviously, they are very fierce; read their little flags for proof.

I used to just make the grown-up ones, but I made him a baby one in brown fleece for a present & then decided to make some out of this nice white bouclé wool I had.

Faux fur coat

[sandmistress.livejournal.com]

I started this coat months ago, and last night I finally buckled down and finished it. I used Burda 8402, and this fabric. I might wear it when my band performs...or I might sell it.

( THE COAT )

Hello crafty people, this is my first post

[names0fthedead.livejournal.com]

Reverse Applique quilt with a design of siamese twin skeletons. Sewn entirely by hand!

( better pictures and instructions )

Trouble finding wool!

[s0yl3ntgr33n.livejournal.com]

Alright, so maybe i'm just blind, but everywhere i go, I can't find wool yarn. I'm really interested in felting some bags, but can't get over the wool thing. I live in a small town, where we have a Zellers (think walmart) and a crafting store, but everything costs an arm and a leg there. When i drive the hour to venture into the nearby "city" i stop at Michael's but can't see wool. There are like 15% wool yarns, but no 100%.

Do they hide this stuff? What are some brands I should be on the lookout for when i go shopping?

or any suggestions for cheap online wool purchases?

Displaying my collection of mints--ideas?

[great-stoneface.livejournal.com]

I have a pretty big collection of mints in tins--some of them are irregularly sized, but most of them are vaguely Altoid-tin shaped. They're just sitting in a container in my room, and I'd like to do something creative to display them. Does anyone have any ideas that they could throw my way? I was thinking I might like to do something with colorful floppy diskettes--can you drill holes through those? I would think they might just crack if I tried. Maybe if I took a small, long piece of wood and used hinges to attach floppy drives to them, creating a sort-of-shelf for my mints to sit on? What sort of glue might work for this--wood glue? Or is there a special Plastic Glue? I don't want to just put them up on a normal bookcase or something, I want it to be something creative.

Thanks in advance for any ideas!

And before you ask, no, I do not eat the mints and keep the tins. Mints are my precious. Would you eat your precious?

HURRY HURRY

[empressjad.livejournal.com]

Thanks to LJ being down until this morning (for me, anyway) I wan't able to post this alert until now...
JoAnn's is having a massive sale, and today is the last day. Not only is the coupon in the flyer for 50% off one item, all the already clearance priced fabric is 50% off the sale price! I went there yesterday, and really stocked up. I got a beautiful embossed paisley look fabric in black (but they also had pink, cream, white, baby blue, and mocha) that was originally $12.99, reduced to $5.00, and then 50% off *that*! WooT!! I've been looking at that fabric for months! There's also loads of Halloween and Christmas fabric in the clearance aisles, so I got stocked up for next season. Go! NOW!

Pom Poms

[tiger-melanie.livejournal.com]

I was wondering if anyone here ever made Pom Poms out of yarn, or knows where I could find a tutorial to do it myself?

Crossposted

ANOTHER WALLET :O

[heaveniswaiting.livejournal.com]

So I just finished another wallet I had been making..

FRONT:



BACK:



INSIDE:
(the pink "explosion" is the change pocket)

(no subject)

[basilidon.livejournal.com]

here is some jewelry i've made recently.  the scans are horrible and don't do them justice at all.  i'm working on taking some better photos but this is all i can do at the moment.  just thought i'd share and see what you all thought.  :)

( photos )

wine labels

[pac.livejournal.com]

does anyone know of a safe way to remove wine labels? i'm thinking water and sponge or steam, but i wasn't sure if that'd hurt the paper. thank you.

(no subject)

[conformityvsme.livejournal.com]

So easy and cheap and good lord if everyone in my harem of friends is not getting a pair to stomp around in now.

(no subject)

[http://users.livejournal.com/_materialista_/]

I have an art project that I'm trying to plan out and I'm hoping you guys have some ideas for me!

This is a new type of medium for me as I don't often work with sculpture so Im very open to ideas!

Essentially I want to make a cast of something, and I'm not sure which materials to use
As a mold I am using a plastic female form bought at a mannequin shop
(similar to this : http://www.displays-store-fixtures.com/products/images/dwlhr35.gif)

I need to be able to glue onto, and stitch into the resulting cast.

I made something like this in the past using bandages and plaster, in a sort of paper mache style, and I can't use something like latex as i need to be able to poke a needle through it...I'm really just looking for suggestions for materials as Im sure there are many options I don't even know to consider!

ideas?

Thanks!

Minty MP3

[onefrabjousday.livejournal.com]

I don't know if anybody's seen this, and I have yet to make one myself, but here's a do-it-yourself mp3 player made out of an altoid box. The tutorial is here:

http://web.media.mit.edu/~ladyada/make/minty/index.html

With a preview:

It seems pretty straightforward, although some equipment might be difficult to acquire (soldering iron, etc.) if you don't have that lying around and are only going to do this once..

NATURE! Goulet

[lovelyrita07.livejournal.com]

So it's a little bit after Christmas, but here's a pillow that my best friend made for me for Christmas.

( Read more... )

(no subject)

[phlegmy.livejournal.com]

this was my first time making earrings. please tell me what you think!

01




( + tons more )

purses..

[dai3sy.livejournal.com]

two xmas purses I made for some friends..
The first time one of my friends wore hers, she actually got stopped in the street and some guy took a photo of her with it.. we're wondering if it'll show up somewhere crazy!



didn't take a picture of the inside, but they are both lined with the green flower fabric..

Stuffs!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_recoil/]

South seas pearl, blue quartz briolette, that seems upon inspection of that pictures, wiggled out of it's wrapping.

( stuff! )

I was considering writing a review of Creative Cash It's a business book about profiting from your talents, which has been oh so helpful in starting and now being completely consumed by my business.

Would anyone be interested in reading a review? More importantly is craftgrrl an appropriate place to post a review of it?

Thanks!
-Adam

(no subject)

[toastess.livejournal.com]

so my dorm did trading spaces with the bathrooms this weekend. for those unfamiliar with my dorm, there are 2 bathrooms on each floor, one for each section. this project consumed my entire weekend... good thing i have no life ^_^
( there are lots (28) of very large pictures behind this cut... slow connections should not click this )

if you have a slow connection then you should go to my webspace to see the pictures: http://www.nd.edu/~dlaframb/trading%20spaces/

(no subject)

[tummymunkey.livejournal.com]

( martinis, ponies, and a pouch )

Silver Leaves

[rhiannontherose.livejournal.com]

Wow...it's been a while since I've been able to post anything of my own in here! My first trimester of pregnancy was nice enough to grant me maybe 5 hours total of productivity for anything at all, and in the last month, during which I've finally started to be able to function again, all my technology has been betraying me, and going *ppfft*. Nevertheless, a friend was nice enough to let me come over this morning and use her scanner for a few minutes before she went off to work, to get a design sketch to someone. So, I now have something new to show off...well...sort of.

I don't know if anyone remembers this:



...but it's one of my favorite pieces from my silver leaves collection. I LOVE designing and creating these pieces, but as they use fine silver, I simply can't afford to buy a mess of extra supplies and make a back-stock of jewelry, just in case someone wants them. Besides, I have access to just about any stone/gem/mineral out there, which gives me way too many choices, just for my own whims. Heck...if I could get away with that, I'd probably just want to keep them all for myself, anyway! I'm such a sucker for silver, and stones, and elvish-looking things...even if I'm the one making them. Hehee. Well eniways, I just the other night got a huge commission, to make four pendants of this caliber, each distinct from the other, and one of them a "replica" of the original you see a picture of, up there. The payment and leaves (the customer doesn't want to wait for Spring 'round here, but he lives somewhere where it's always warm, so he's sending me leaves to use, himself) are on the way, so I don't have any of the actual work done yet, but behind the cut you'll find my design sketch for the four pendants. (It's black and white, but it's large, to allow for detail.) Each one uses a different kind of leaf shape, a different arrangement, and different stones (which he's still making final decisions on the nature of). I'm so excited to be able to make these again!! I'd love to know what you think of the designs. These are my babies...I had sooooo much trouble sending the first one away!

( Design Sketch )

EDIT ~ Since a few people have all mentioned the stone choices, I figure I should make note of the fact that it's the customer who chose the stones, not me. I could set almost anything in there, from diamonds to roadside gravel, as long as it was available to me in the right form. But, since he's paying for it, and it's a custom order, he gets any stone he pleases, whether or not it pleases me.

(no subject)

[naelany.livejournal.com]

I'm wondering, where are the best (and preferably affordable) places online to go for photo gifts? I've checked kodak.com, walmart.com, shutterfly.com. imagestation.com and walgreens already. Where else can one go? I was hoping for a puzzle or something, but am willing to keep an open mind for better inspiration. Any ideas??? I don't really have the means at the moment to attempt photo transfering things myself, so that's pretty much out of the question. Also, this is for my anniversary, which happens to be Valentine's Day, so it'd have to be able to get back here on time for that.
Thank you for any help/advice you can offer

(no subject)

[exousia.livejournal.com]

( Atari Cartridge Coin purse )

(no subject)

[antlermoose.livejournal.com]

Stencils = love.

( even all the sad songs ain't so saaaaaaaad... )

(no subject)

[tummymunkey.livejournal.com]

eeep. i could've sworn this question was asked within the past couple months - sorry, i didn't bookmark it, and the stuff in the faq isn't so great.

what are some sites that sell chunky, colorful handspun yarn like mypapercrane?

thanks!

Drop stitch?

[dexstarr.livejournal.com]

I've looked in the memories. I've looked on google. Yet I can't find a site that can tell me how to do drop stitch. I've only found patterns that you have to pay for, which isn't what I want! I just bought some really pretty chunky yarn, and I'd love to drop stitch with this, as it would be perfect to show it off.

So some help on drop stitch, please?

Thank you.

(And my digi cam is sitting here, just waiting to take a picture of the final product.)