tutorial here

Read more about re-usable cloth menstrual pads here

Design sponge is a faboo design blog, just wanted to let everyone know about the new stuff that is happening over there.

The design sponge scholarship looks like a great idea to help and showcase new designers. I also love the guest design blog , the women to watch in 2007, and the shop. So much great stuff over there.

and Amy at Angry Chicken has written a book - Oh I can’t wait to see it - congratulations you amazing talented woman.

oh and the bloggie awards are open for nominations… if you think whipup deserves to be there a nomination or two in a few categories would be great. You could nominate us for craft, for group weblog, for Australian weblog and for new weblog and a few others perhaps.

And Lori Marie will ba appearing on Martha Stewart - how exciting - congratulations

and to conclude I direct you to yarn harlot to read this incredible story.

Freespirit Fabrics has released some new additions to Heather Ross’ Lightning Bugs and Other Mysteries line. There are dogs, old VW-esque buses, and wildflowers, plus stripes and dots in new colorways. It’s a motley collection altogether, but (I think) that’s a good thing!

Related: Sewzanne’s Fabrics has an in-depth and inspiring video interview with Ms. Ross.

I have big news! I´m going to edit an on-line craft magazine, its name is ” We love crafts mag”. The graphic designer is Mónica and there are others collaborators from different countries. Besides, we´ll have a blog with the making off of the magazine.

The first issue is dedicated to: the studio of several designers, the zakka´s world and, finally, ideas and patterns of different designs.

More info very soon!!

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¡Tengo una gran noticia! Voy a ser la editora de una revista online de temática craft. Se llamará “We love Crafts Mag”; del diseño gráfico se encargará Mónica junto con otros colaboradores de distintos países. Además, tendremos blog donde iremos mostrando el “making off “de la revista.

El primer número está dedicado a los talleres de diferentes diseñadores, al mundo zakka, y,finalmente, daremos ideas y patrones de distintos diseños.

¡Espero poder daros más información muy pronto!

I love these cards made from home made paper and doodled on with ink. They are simple and look good too. From craftster by Anushka at magic fingers

Thank you everyone for your feedback and for entering the competition. Hope all the gifts and your handmade efforts were appreciated by family and friends.

I only have a few prizes this month to give away. So here goes:

The following three people will each receive a copy of ‘The Crafters Companion’ Edited by Anna Torborg Published by Snowbooks.

Alisa made sock monkey sets, pjyamas and sock monkey slippers and sock monkey dolls. Really fantastic handmade gifts - I am sure those kids just loved them.

I love the knitted/felted wine cozies at dropped a stitch - with pattern for those of you wishing to make some for gifts.

Runaway penguin made a set of three beautiful knitted linen facecloths.

The following three people will each receive a set of handmade/letterpress/gocco greeting cards designed by various artists and donated by Artstream studios

grasswire made a beautiful beaded handing mobili - and has a tutorial if you want to try this yourself.

Some wonderful cozy slippers for Alaskan winters made a wonderful gift by notorious.knitting.ninja at craft addicts

Mama urchin made this giant knitted/felted pea to accompany the book.

The following people’s entries were also excellent, great ideas and tutorials and definitely need to be mentioned. - I am sorry I don’t have enough prizes for all of these.

Fourty-two roads had a great idea for gift wrap and the presentation of gifts.

Merete has some wonderful small beaded tree table top decorations, and a good tutorial for those wanting to try this out.

k8tykat made vanilla essence and presented it beautifully in sweet little bottles. Great idea - her recipe is available too.

livebird gave all her nieces and nephews an alien stuffie.

kat-knits made a simple doll with a wonderful array of outfits for a very lucky little girls.

Paranee did a wonderful job making cool aid dyed and felted camera cases as gifts. Her tutorial is pretty good too if anyone is interested in making these.

What a fantastic advent calendar by pink chalk studio - longest to complete but really gorgeous.

I love this idea for making a christmas tree using a road works cone by Not scarlett, good directions too.

I love the wee jumper/decoration from under construction

the cards made from pressed leaves and flowers at completely cactus are just beautiful.

Ihanne made the most beautiful wreath from flowers and candles.

Future girl has the most adorable octophrost - ornament.

ruby crowned kinglet with her suede reindeer

At artstream, each year we have tried to give back in many ways to our community. In turn, we are given so much. Our greatest gift has been a host of interns, college aged, young women (ok, and one male!) who have been indispensable to us in running our busy studios.

Our last intern, Mattie had just graduated from Dartmouth College and was contemplating furthering her education in art. She dropped by the gallery one day to introduce herself and a line of jewelry that she and her two sisters have been making jewelry for the past few years to raise money for Breast Cancer Research. I was mesmerized with her story as she continued. The three young sisters had lost not only their mother, but their aunt to breast cancer three years ago. Since that time, they have tirelessly made a line of fun and affordable jewelry to sell to shops and galleries with the sole purpose to give their profits to research of this deadly disease. Mattie not only wanted us to carry their line “Betty’s Jewels” (named after her grandmother who loved big earrings) but also jumped at the chance to intern with us for a few months. We loved her instantly, as she was not only efficient, but willing to try anything we threw at her.Per usual when it came time for her to go, we felt we couldn’t do enough to show our gratitude.

As we became swamped with work at the end of the year, we missed Mattie and her helping hands even more. Thinking back on all that she had really done for us, we finally hit upon an idea which would honor her time with us and plan out our philanthropy for the upcoming year.

We decided to do something we felt was significant for women everywhere and to celebrate Mattie and her sisters dedicated charitable works. We also wished to stay true to our mission and encourage emerging artists and include artisans from around the world. The Lovely Hearts exhibition idea was born. This is how it shakes down thus far:

• We created an online submission form which allows artists and crafters of all levels to enter work into a juried exhibition.
• We have kept the size limitations small due to the expected numbers of works.
• We are giving all of artstream’s profits to charity, however we are not asking the artists to do the same, (although some have donated works) there is a small fee for the jury process, to help offset the massive amount of work to catalog.
• All the works will be for sale on line in our shop and in the gallery, and in our regular site at artstream.
• We are encouraging non traditional fine arts as well as outsider art and student works. Nothing need be framed.

It is our hope to reach as many artists as possible and exhibit as many new interpretations on the theme of love and raise some money for a very good cause. The initial outpouring of work and support has been wonderful! Please consider joining us with your work or perusing the fabulous variety of art and craft work which will be available on Feburary 10th online. Of course if you are in the ‘hood, please do drop in for the opening!

love this bag made from an old rice sack - over at craftster from liz at everything at once

make this fabulous funny hat for yourself or a friend

BakeSpace.com was created by media producer (and avid baker) Babette Pepaj as the first true social networking website devoted to bringing together people who enjoy cooking and baking. It’s an online community where you can make new friends, exchange recipes, share ideas, find answers to your questions, download coupons and, in general, get inspired about one of life’s great pleasures.

via Cupcakes Take the Cake.

Photo Centrepieces

Photojojo has a bunch of ideas for using photos - and with digital cameras, it’s easy to take lots! Their weekly newsletter just highlighted this project from Martha Stewart: using vellum paper and photo frames to create illuminated photos.

Crafty zines, flip books and self publishing is becoming really popular. You can self publish anything from a novel, a DIY craft book to a book of photographs or illustrations, poetry, recipes and your memoirs. But how do you do it?

Caren at Ampersand Duck has written up an excellent resource for planning a small run of printing up your very own book. This sort of thing is perfect for artists books, illustrations, zines, DIY tutorials or book of poetry etc or any sort of publication.. Caren advises on types of printing, how to ask for a quote from a printer, and talking to your designer. :: Para Publishing has a very good resource on all the steps required to write, design, publish and market your own book. The producing your book section has good information. ::
No Media Kings also has some good resources to get you started on your self publishing venture. Action girl online has instructions for the most basic sort of DIY zine :: Papress has a snippet from their book DIY design on how-to make and self publish a zine.

Most of us has probably seen Croq zine if not in the flesh then on the internet somewhere, but there are lots of other crafty DIY zines and publications around: here are some recent finds : Crafty pod puts out a crafty zine :: Have you seen the Haiku Squirrel Zine :: or the Haiku monster zine :: Check out the cat flip book :: I really like the degrees of separation postcard book :: What about Jelly - miniature hardbound artist book - a stream of drawings and words from the subconscious mind :: Dual - fine art letterpressed book :: Urban landscapes - expressing the visual chaos of urban living ::

Images above are: 1. Scribble faster 2. sweetie pie 3. About town zine 4. The big exit 5. Grand magick zine 6. Twin graphic novel

love these hats by sew what at craftster - there is a bit of a tutorial on how to convert a shirt/sweater into a hat - and all the various ways of personalising it.

What a lot of fabulous entries - and having the extra time didn’t hurt I bet!

What did everyone think - are you enamoured of any one particular entry? Are you inspired for your next gift idea or getting set for the next set of holidays already?

Let me know which entries were your favourites…

Whiptips craft advice column for readers to ask questions or offer advice by leaving comments. Whiptips archive here. Questions to whiptips@gmail.com. Please include photos!

Nina writes in with a desperate plea for a stuffed robot pattern

I work at a fabric store in St. Paul and a customer came in last week with a cute pattern for a stuffed robot. I should have gotten more
info from her but she said she got it off the internet, so I figured I could find it. Help, I can’t find it.

Learn how to embroider a design on your knitting at weasleys sweaters

Just a couple more days left to upload your entries for the holidays whiplash. I will be announcing winners and featuring others during the second half of January.

… then I will be announcing the February Whiplash - any ideas for themes?

The one year anniversary of whipup is coming up and I have a great competition, which I will be announcing soon, to celebrate.

Whiptips craft advice column for readers to ask questions or offer advice by leaving comments. Whiptips archive here. Questions to whiptips@gmail.com. Please include photos!

Valerie from BeingCrafty.net

What can I do with yarn and other fibers besides knit or crochet with them? I’ve made yarn pom-pons before and have used some in place of ribbon to wrap gifts, but I’d love to hear some other craft project suggestions.

Thanks in advance!

From Ruthie:
hello! I’m a crafty spanish girl that loves all things crafty and of course whip up!! I really enjoy reading it every day. I wanted to introduce you to my blog and shop “Mi Lado Creativo”.

From Anna:
Hi - I love- LOVE - your blog. Can’t wait for the nest Whiplash competition to be announced! Just wanted to pass along this shelving idea I made for my desk with recycled things from around the house in about 45 minutes. It’s made of foam core, wire hanger pieces, and hot glue - with white walls, it just blends right into the wall space. The full description is on my blog - fourty-two roads.

[looks like this months whiplash is right up your alley! ed]

From Jen:
Jen Kubeck wrote:
Hello! I have been enjoying Whip Up since day one. I am what I refer to as a multi-crafter - sometimes one craft will dominate, sometimes another. Lately, the dominant crafts have been yarn-related - knitting and spinning. With a tight budget, it’s a stretch for me to acquire some of the tools, but
I’ve done okay. One item that has eluded me so far, however, is a yarn swift. Just last night, I came up with an innovative and inexpensive solution for my lack of a swift - Tinkertoys! The experiment was successful, and I wrote it up on my blog, Crafting Jen.

From Amber:
Thought you might like to see my elemental figures crafted from my own hand dyed felt and found objects. I also knit and am currently creating a series of shawls one each lunar month this year for our local hospice (blog).

From Kate:
I really am inspired by Whip-Up and I have made a few of the projects that have been featured. Here is the how-to for the recycled address file that I made after being inspired by the one posted on your site.

make a peasant skirt this summer - instructions at J Caroline Creative