Whiptips is an crafts advice column for readers to ask questions or offer advice by leaving your comments. View the Whiptips archive here. You can submit questions, to whiptips@gmail.com. Please include photos with your questions! And a link to your own blog :)
Thank you to all the commenters making Whiptips so helpful!

Valdemar is “stuck in the middle of Swedish nowhere” and just started his own new craft blog. He writes in to ask for some newbie advice saying “I am kind of lost in the internet jungle.”

If you’ve just started your own craft blog, what are the first things you should do? Any services or ideas you should try?

I think it depends on what area work in, or what are your goals with your craft blog. There are alot of advantages to keeping a blog. For example:

- Developing a focus in your life for your hobby/budding business
- Getting help and helping others
- Selling
- Documenting
- Meeting people for swapping

So depending on your goals, the things you try might be different. But there are some ideas for participating in the blog-world in general. I’ll kick this off with four tips, I look forward to hearing from others:

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Spirits dancing made this suit for the theatre group A Bunch of Posers for a performance at an event that marked the closing down of the Australian Bureau of Statistics mainframe computer earlier this year.

Pixelgirl Shop - a place to give artists who make unique high-quality items a central hub to sell their creations.
CRAFT Magazine - A new magazine from the creators of MAKE! Coming this fall. Sign up for the free CRAFT newsletter.

To enter go to the whiplash page - see button on your right - and read for instructions.
There are three categories to enter:

Tutorial:
I love a good tutorial - these must have clear photos or illustrations and good detailed instructions, the project can be simple or complicated - can be a deconstruct/reconstruct project or a embellish/decorate project but the main criteria is how easy the tutorial is to follow.

deconstruct/reconstruct:
This involves taking a piece of clothing - yours or someone elses and changing it in some way - you might like to turn some old pants or jeans into a skirt, or take a baggy t’shirt and make it fitted and funky, or turn your old clothes into new clothes for your children, or take that old shirt with the gorgeous fabric and do something fun with it … Before and after photos please

embellish/decorate:
This involves taking a good but plain item of clothing and enhancing it in some way - you might like to embroider or bead some detail, edge or trim the cuffs or hem, or crochet a collar or cuffs, silkscreen or handpaint a design… Before and after photos please

Resources:
Wardrobe refashion check out the side bar for lots of resources and read the entries for great ideas
fiftyRX3 good ideas and links
what the craft check out the patterns
generation T will be reviewing the book and offering it as a prize too - the website has some free tutorials to get you started.
sew whats new some great how-to if you are new at sewing also advanced techniques too.
craftster search for tutorial or altered clothing
wists search for tutorial or altered clothing

Prizes:

Book:
Megan Nicolay, Generation T; 108 ways to transform a T-shirt, donated by Workman publishing and generaton T.
There’s a new revolution in town - a T-shirt revolution. … Generation T; 108 ways to transform a T-shirt is the new bible for the legion of hip, urban, craft-it-yourself teens and 20-somethings rebelling against cookie-cutter apparel and mass-produced fashions.

patterns:
3 patterns from Amy Butler - for the Cabo Halter top and the gypsy fashion set.

How-to instructions are one of the best things about the internet. I stumbled upon a wonderful site the other day that has a whole Do-It-Yourself section. It’s called No Media Kings. A lot of it revolves around writing and book promotion, but there’s two sections that might be of interest to Whip Up readers:



1. How to silkscreen posters and shirts, which has a really clear step-by-step guide to the gentle art of silkscreen printing. I’m not a screenprinter, but I may be after reading this. It’s demystified the process a lot.



2. Do It Yourself Book Press, with good clear instructions on how to make casebound (hardback) books and perfect-bound (softback) books. To be honest, as an aspiring bookbinder, I recognise that the methods in this section aren’t Teh Right Way, and that there is a lot more to know if you want to be a Real Bookbinder, but I’d rather see you all make beautiful books this way than never try for fear of not being Kosher.

I’ll hopefully post a lot more about book-making methods, both traditional and experimental… but this is a quick start, and I hope it helps some of you to have a go!

Okay, I’m a self admitted Flickr junkie, but the combination of yarn and Flickr — can it get any better? Yes it can! People selling their yarn at rock bottom prices as they clear out their stashes. And if you need a little more space and a bit of cash in your pocket, you can do it too. Just check out Destash & Restash the super cool new Flickr group dreamed up by Jess of Fig and Plum. Now excuse me while I go photograph some of that yarn that’s been lingering in the stash. . .

Whiptips is an crafts advice column for readers to ask questions or offer advice by leaving your comments. View the Whiptips archive here. You can submit questions, to whiptips@gmail.com. Please include photos with your questions! And a link to your own blog :)

Alyssa writes in asking about the 3 tiered skirt tutorial she saw on Whipup. However, the often-linked 3peas blog is no longer. Alas! 3 Peas are you out there? Alyssa would love to see the tutorial.

This one isn’t for kids but MediaTinker (who makes alot of excellent tutorials) posted one tiered skirt tutorial that is very fabric-efficient. As a guideline she writes that: ” The lower tiers are about half the length of the one above. Each tier is 1.5 times as wide as the previous one. This gives enough fullness for suitable flair while dancing, but without using too much fabric.”

First of all thank you to everyone who entered. There were so many fantastic entries, I really enjoyed looking at them all and discovering new and wonderful crafty blogs.
The winners were chosen by a panel of judges, who scored a short list that was chosen by viewers and authors.

So here they are - congratulations all - the three top scores in each category will receive a prize and there were also a couple of special mentions in each category - no prize but lots of praise for fantastic entries.

So here goes.
Fancy category - the three winners are:

Tumbling blocks with the frouchess bag

Completely cactus with the flamenco satchel

Polvoron de limon with the cocktail purse

Special mentions go to:
girl on the rocks with the socks for lunchbox

ruby crowned kinglet with the snark alert satchel

Skill category - the three winners are:

half birthday knits with the grocery bag purse

moonstitches with the ugly duckling

bees nest with the laptop backpack

Special mentions go to:
planet june and the crochet and satin evening bag

Kristin la flamme and the bolivian weekender

Tutorial - The three winners are:

Pink chalk studio and the water bottle carrier tutorial

giseloschoene and the round bag tutorial

k8tykat and the clothes pin bag tutorial

special mentions go to:
petulant feminine and the lingerie evening bag tutorial

tamdoll and the summer felted tote tutorial

I will send emails out to all the winners this week.
Congratulations to everyone who entered.
Watch out for next months theme - with more great prizes.

over at january one I have been admiring the log cabin blankets for a while - the colours are simply stunning and I love her photography too.

i followed her to Tilkkupeitto and her 107 blankets - you simply must must check them out -

the two pictured are no’s 96 and 46.

You can make a lot of things with felt:Itaka has personalized her t-shirt ,Silvia has “painted” a felt picture and Sara, a spanish designer, makes great felt brooches like this octopus.

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Puedes hacer infinidad de cosas con fieltro. Aquí tenéis unas cuantas ideas: Itaka ha personalizado una camiseta, Silvia ha “pintado” un cuadro con fieltro, y Sara, una diseñadora española, hace broches de fieltro tan geniales como este pulpo.

When I saw this on be*mused I loved it immediately - definitely plan to make one.

Instructions at be*mused blog.

Whose Lace is it Anyway? Sounds mysterious, doesn’t it? Donna of Random Knits and Ailsa of Pick up Sticks are putting together a little something and I think the website’s subtitle may give you an idea of what it is:

Have you ever had a surprise parcel, and when you opened it, the contents were lacy and the sender mysterious? Well, no, neither have we. But it would be fun, wouldn’t it? So we decided to get together and host a mysterious lace swap, where you get to spoil someone with a lacy project, and receive one of your own to boot. The mysterious and lacy swap.

That’s right, a new swap! If you would like to give and receive a fun package that includes enough laceweight yarn and supplies to make a lovely shawl or other lacy project, pop on over to the website and sign up. But don’t delay! Sign-ups close August 1st and all parcels must be mailed out no later than August 31st.

Whiptips is an crafts advice column for readers to ask questions or offer advice by leaving your comments. View the Whiptips archive here. You can submit questions, to whiptips@gmail.com. Please include photos with your questions!

Heather Bailey from Hello My Name is Heather writes in looking for Trim Cards.

“I’m looking for an easy place to purchase cards on which to wrap trim or something to take their place. My trims are the final frontier before I can enjoy an efficient studio. Here’s a photo to see what I’m talking about.”

These look home-made, out of cardboard… but it sounds like she’s is just looking for an easy solution! Anyone seen these around?

The Summer issue of Spindlicity is now online and it offers quite a few articles, book reviews, a couple patterns and a nice section called “kidspin.”

Articles in this issue that caught my eye included an interview with Dave Larson who makes laser engraved spindles. Another interesting article covers obtaining your COE, or Certificate of Excellence in spinning — not an easy task! And the spinner’s look at “man-made pseudo silks” was also worth a look and includes a nicly organized chart that compares the fibers covered.

As far as patterns go, I think Marigold is a beautiful lace hat! And if you are a spinner who loves crochet, you’ll like Tutti Frutti a cute little bag that includes directions for a fabric lining.

And while you’re there, don’t forget to stop by and check out the shawl contest. Ther winner’s shawl is gorgeous, but all the contestants’ entries are worth taking a peek at!

Looking for information of Ana I found these beautiful words about her work: “Ana Ventura, a girl enchanted, weaves a tale from found objects and forgotten things. Using her nimble fingers to piece together a moment in time that will forever lay frozen within a frame, we, the hapless voyers, are left to furrow our brows and imagine, “what happend next?”

————–

Buscando información sobre Ana, encontré estas bellas palabras sobre su trabajo, de la cual ofrezco un traducción libre-pido perdón por ella- para respetar el origen de la cita.”Ana Ventura, una muchacha encantadora, teje un cuento de objetos encontrados y cosas olvidadas. Usando sus ágiles dedos para juntar piezas en un instante en el cual permanecerán para siempre,tras un marco, congeladas mientras nosotros, los desafortunados voyeur, arrugamos la frente y nos pregúntándomos “¿Qué ocuriría después?”.

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Others paper links:

*Wishes & Heros.

*Zai-Zai.

*Faz de contas.

or journal or scrapbook or ideas book, whatever you want to call it - most artists and designers keep one. And so should you.
Whether you keep a visual journal to sketch in, or jot down your thoughts, or glue in your magazine cuttings or draw up your craft designs, visual diarys are a wonderful way to keep track of your thought processes.

work out what the purpose of the journal is - to play, to help create, to collect memories, to be organised, to express yourself

begin when you feel the urge - get a book, make one out of recycled papers, buy a beautiful one from an art shop, or get a blank white spiral bound A4 book. Choose a sturdy book that will survive being carried around and has sturdy pages that won’t tear or deteriorate quickly - choose a book that will last.

time to get over the first intimidating blank page - how do you start? write down how you feel at that very moment, write a list of what you want to achieve, your goals and hopes, write about your observations, write about your day, a conversation you had, something your heard or read and what you thought about it.

(edited to ad - seems the writing excercises I linked to no longer exists - but even better try 52 projects - his book is an inspiration - but Jeff also has a list of writing inspirations on his sidebar)

how do i get started on the visual aspect - you think you can’t draw, you think you are not an artist - well who cares, this journal is for you - for your personal growth. Start off drawing what you see, a tree, a leaf, your cup of tea - draw maps and plans, draw your ideal frock or just scribble and draw a page of circles. try some drawing excercises like blind contour drawing - not looking at your page and not taking the pen off the page, try drawing self portraits - give yourself time limit - do 1 minute sketches.

adding colour and interest to your journal - collect bits of things that interest you and stick them in your journal - press a flower, glue in some shiny chocolate wrappers, theatre tickets and newspaper and magazine cuttings. keep wonderful bits of paper and make a collage, use watercolours and crayons, experiment with colour. try some of keri’s 1oo things.

find a time to write or draw in the journal everyday, make a habit of it, a quiet time.

tips for journalling:
a helpful page on how she started and how you can too
a trail through leaves
read layers of meaning’s archives

some inspirational sketchbooks
karin erikson
tania keeps cutting of things that inspire her
joleen
kim’s journals are filled with wonderful sketches
beautiful pages from a travel journal
i love emma’s mixed media journal pages
keri’s journal pages are a wonderful inspiration
great sketch book pages here
and here.

where to get a journal
lovely design
ex libris anonymous
blissen

The great annual Plush You show at Fancy, Schmancy and Pants in Seattle isn’t until October 6th, but there are lots of goings on over at the Plush You blog to tide us over. First of all, there’s a great, huge Flickr group where you can preview the submissions. Lots of cool creatures there!

Also on the Plush You blog you can preview artists’ work, and also check out some free tutorials that have been posted, like these for a spider or some steiner dolls.

i saw these pretty handmade knitting needles at nicole’s knits. she made a cool pink and blue design… and it looks like “i could do that!” she shows how you get the wooden dowels, match up with a knitting gauge guide, and whittle with a pencil sharpener. you make fimo ends, paint, and voila! you have your own very pretty knitting needles. (i suppose after a couple layers of paint and polyurethane you’ll have to check gauge again).

there are some more detailed tutorials online:
Detailed tutorial by Curious Girl
Tutorial with lots of tips at CheapStix
How to make circular needles at Strings and Things

Anyone else have pics of their own homemade needles?

A couple of years ago I was given a secondhand iMac as part of a work Christmas bonus. At the time it was considered old and is sluggish and running on an old operating system, 8 I think. Anyhow, I’ve been thinking what do I do with it? Give it away? Throw it out? Try and sell it? As a computer it’s not useful anymore. Makes a very large doorstop and collects dust very well.

You know where I’m going with this don’t you? The kitschness of all kitch, the computer fishtank. Yep, I think I’m going to have a go at converting this baby to a tank. Who said anything about me keeping it? Hmmm which one of my buddies wants it as a birthday gift?

Some great information here and an excellent, detailed tutorial here here.

Which bag do you like best?

[image from vintage martini]

Want to get that retro feel into your outfits? Why not use vintage patterns.

Where to get vintage patterns online - some ideas… do you have more?

rusty zipper
vintage fashion library
vintage cat
sew fun patterns
karens variety
vintage martini
all free crafts