designed by Regina from monster crochet

pattern available on crochet me.

Sometimes it is good to try a longer term project with children in a few small segments of time. In three or four one hour settings, most of my 56 students, ages 6 and up made these little creatures of their own design. Few of them had done any handsewing before and yet after the initial few falters, embraced the process with zeal! One boy told his mother at the end of the hour that he was going to sew all of his own clothes from that point on. Pretty ambitious for age 7. The process was pretty simple. They drew their monster on paper first. They drew it a second time on a piece of mid weight canvas about 18 inches by 12 inches large.Using acrylic paint and a wet brush, they painted the front of the monster. The next hour was spent by cutting out the front of the monster close to the edge of the design and tracing it onto another piece of canvas. They then painted the back of the monsters and embellished the fronts if they wanted to with scraps of material, strong glue, sewn on buttons, puffy paint, and other bits of collected items.

The next 2 hours were spent using tapestry needles (they are blunt and don’t hurt little fingers as quickly as other needles) and colorful embroidery floss. I used the floss at full strand, doubled and knotted at the end.

They then stuffed the creatures with poly fluff and finished sewing them up. The entire collection will be hung for a month at our local library children’s room, which is fitting, as such hard work deserves to be recognized!

Meah Warburton is a an Irish tapestry weaver. currently living in the South of France.

Make sure you see her new blog where she showcases her work process.

Lizzie Ridout, a visual artist, is the new Pearson Creative Research Fellow at the British Library. Over the next year, she will search the collections for domestic objects from the past, seeking out unusual references to both the mundane and the bizarre. By teasing out what is compelling about these historic sources and re translating them into entirely new artworks, Lizzie will coax the past out into the present day.

While you are checking out Lizzies website be sure to go to her Art Sparklets section - a notebook of discoveries. And a design blog space where you can find out more about her work.

Image above is from Lizzie’s once more with feeling project and is of paper decorations.

the first entries are in…

Here are couple of the first entries to get your creative juices going. How marvelous and unique and gorgeous are these? Hurry only a week left to enter…

mama qilla and her felting dog

completely cactus and dem dry bones

bitter betty and her basmati bag

Beck Wheeler - artist and toy maker - Beck combines painting, sculpture and toy making to explore narrative and the art of story telling. Her work reflects an interest in comic book art, contemporary illustration, medieval cartography and children’s toys.

Moose: Art for Living - is an online store whose aim is to foster the creative spirit in everyone.

modamuse - a design blog featuring Australian and New Zealand artists, designers and makers. (see image)

Klei - hand-built porcelain with a muted organic aesthetic.

Made it - Australian directory of designers

Georgie Love is a website store, which promotes and sells handmade delights from independent and emerging artists from Australia.

oiko - design for sustainable living

wild garden design - Wild Garden is the creative outlet of two accomplished designers and sisters … to create products featuring simple, yet sophisticated designs produced by hand. (see image)

Fold NZ - hand-knitted scarves, throws and cushions all 100% New Zealand made, hand knitted in Marino wool.

Morphe ii soft toys exhibition are online and on sale

Sophie Milne - earthy ceramics

A very sweet film about a woman obsessed. She finds out that knitting can be dangerous.

During the week the phone rings too frequently to listen to anything that requires concentration while I design or sew. But we here in Chicago are lucky enough to have the greatest Saturday line-up on our local public radio station. My idea of a really wonderful Saturday is being in the studio working on a quilt while listening to This American Life, a beautifully written radio show of stories from various contributors. Despite the title of the show, listeners will find that the subjects of the stories translate nationality. These are sometimes moving, sometimes funny, always memorable stories about human beings and their foibles. There are times, I confess, when I laugh so hard that I have to put down my rotary cutter for fear of losing a finger. If you have not discovered this program, download one episode and you’ll be hooked.

The other podcast I listen to regularly while I’m making things is CraftSanity. If you are new to this site or the CraftSanity site, you will find WONDERFUL interviews with Whipup’s fearless leader Kathreen, and contributors past and present including Alicia Paulson, Drew Emborsky and me. Jennifer is a talented interviewer and her longer format allows for more in-depth interviews.

Please post your favorite podcasts, downloadable radio programs and other spoken word pieces that can be downloaded via the internet.

Yep you heard it. One year of whipup, hasn’t it been a blast?

To celebrate I want to give something back to you guys. (A forum - but more on that later), and a new look banner. Prizes are sponsored by Princeton Architectural Press, who is donating a couple of packs of quality design books for the winner and runner up. The winning design will be used as the whipup banner for at least 6 months and possibly 1 year. Elements of the banner may also be used in badges and buttons etc for the whipup site. The runner up banner may also be used in some capacity as well, either for part of the year or for a different segment of the site.

Check out all the details including deadlines, design parameters and the great prizes.

an interesting read, some good resources and a mention of our very own Julie. Read the article here.

lots of great indie artists and makers, send in your submissions.

New issue of Adorn mag is out - looks fab + they are running a craft challenge.

Karrie from girl on the rocks sent in this link to the Walker Treasury Project - The goal of the site is to use color photos to document all of the stitch patterns in the Barbara Walker Treasuries (and Mosaic Knitting). The patterns will not be posted on the site since they are protected by copyright. Volunteer swatchers/photographers needed to contribute to this great resource! the brainchild of Nicole from all buttoned up.

Burda style is an online pattern resource - with free downloadable patterns.

jeanie at flit knits sent in this link to a great resource - The Vintage Pattern Lending Library

A hospital needing a cheaper alternative to fake breasts has begun knitting its own. The woolly breasts are being used at Liverpool Women’s Hospital to show new mothers how to breastfeed and how to express milk if necessary. Read the whole article.

(more…)

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

Kate writes in with a cake decorating question:

I’m not sure if this is a typical whipup question, but I’m sure that there’s a crafty solution out there somewhere, so maybe someone can
help….

My daughter will be having her first birthday later this year and I’m planning on making her a healthy cake - free of refined sugar and that kind of thing, but I’m stuck when it comes to decorating ideas. Obviously the usual icing/frosting with lollies/sweets, licorice etc won’t be an option, so I was wondering if anyone has any creative or crafty ideas for decorating a cake?

It would be wonderful if the whipup readers could get my creative juices cooking!!

Thanks so much, I LOVE LOVE LOVE whip up!!

Do you remeber this post? Well, it´s ready!You can see the magazine here: http://www.welovecraftsmag.com.

It´s a summary of simple crafts projects(for beginners),with articles about crafts rooms, talent people or zakka things; in spanish, but there are a lot of pictures and graphics patterns easy to make.

I hope you like it!!:-)

Note:I have opened an account on flickr and upload some pictures from the magazine with instructions in english.

¿Recuerdas este post? ¡Listo! Ya hemos editado la revista digital; puedes verla aquí: http://www.welovecraftsmag.com

Es una recopilación de proyectos sencillos(para principiantes), con artículos sobre talleres, gente con talento o cosas zakka. Hay muchas imágenes, dibujos, sugerencias e ideas.

¡Espero que os guste!:-)

Nota: he abierto una cuenta en flickr para todos aquellos que no puedan verla por distintos problemas técnicos.

Laurie of Old School Acres has written a great post on wool vs. acrylic felt. She includes photos of various types of felt sewn together and includes a bunch of useful links.