creative crafts - your own design

this necklace - interesting

love this squid tie

and craft as art group

wonderful wooden necklace

journal quilts titled ‘drive by shootings’

Refashioned watch is a great idea from Ox-hill´s blog(Portugal).

Recicla tu reloj. Una buena idea, en el blog de Ox-hill(Portugal).

so much craft inspiration to be found on various craft groups over at flickr - I will be featuring a few over the next weeks - check them and out and decide which are for you.

craft rooms - yummy

this is a great studio - with fab storage and story board wall

love the use of space in this bedsit - a lovely inspirational room

jewellery studio - with flea market finds all over the walls - how fabulous

Wear your own creations - check out this group

patchwork short skirt to wear over jeans - lots of pockets - very cute

shibori dyed fabric in this skirt

handprinted ties

for those wanting something a little bit alternative

felted skull bag

crochet bike

Greengrocer mosaic by Ruth Buchanan

If you’re stuck for colour inspiration, try wandering the aisles of a greengrocer’s shop and really look to see the colour combinations. It’s so simple to resort to assumptions, and inspiring to see how colours really go together (let alone textures). The variety of subtle browns and creams in taro root. The colour run from creamy yellow to pinky red on white cherries. The suffragette brilliance of beetroot. The sheer variety in polyanthus (that one’s pretty seasonal, but worth looking forward to). Take some photos, to help you see, and try them in the palette generator.

I put photos together for the mosaic above with fd’s flickr toys mosaic generator from one midwinter visit to a favourite (well lit!) greengrocer’s.

If you have other suggestions for colour palettes and inspirations, by all means share them in the comments. How do you arrive at the colour combinations you use in your craftwork?

for the geek in all of us

laptop bag

knitted ibook

scent of water - knitting organic cotton washclothes

toast and cupcakes making some pretty groovy hoodies

small things from the south island of New Zealand has a tutorial on making knitting needle protectors

anemone are a two woman from Belgium and the USA, who now live in Auckland, New Zealand, and make gorgeous things together.

cloud of birds makes the most wonderful soft toys with amazing faces

I have had so much fun exploring the paper craft pool - lots of scrapbooking and card making and other paper crafts too

paper beads

altered matchboxes

While I do tend to read a fair amount of blogs and magazines, sometimes I need to go elsewhere for a little creative inspiration. It’s less about getting tired of everyone’s amazing creations and constantly inspiring and innovative designs, and more about re-thinking my own creative boundaries.

My Friend Liisa as a Princess,
Colored pencil,
Heli R.,
Age 6,
Sotkamo, Finland

And lately, the Global Children’s Art Gallery has been doing the trick. The gallery is a large collection of user-submitted content of children’s artwork from around the world.

It reminds me to stop thinking about what I can’t do with my work, and to start remembering that there is nothing wrong with coloring over the lines or off the page or even just drawing squiggles with no particular idea of what the end result is or should be.

Seeing art through the eye of children takes me back to my childhood where I created without worry or expectation, just full of energy because I wanted to express myself with paint or chalk or marker or crayon. Just because.

So if you’re looking for some new ideas, try going back in time and see where it takes you.

Smiley Face,
Colored pencil,
Fatima W.,
Age 7,
Kuwait

Lise Lefebvre’s graduation project explores the emotional potential of sound in domestic appliances. She researched the detrimental effects of environmental noise upon human health and well being and uses design as a tool to counter our overproduction of sound.

She created a range of hand felted appliances, audibly, but also visually silenced, creating a new aesthetic that celebrates domesticity and fulfils the need to bond with one’s objects.

very excited to have discovered Lovely blogs - which features New Zealand blogs [found via the shopping sherpa]

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crafty New Zealand blogs include so tread softly - Agnes is a UK gal now living in Carterton, Wairarapa. This is a capelet made with Rowan biggy yarn and a small felt no-seam purse.

just jussi - many of you will know this knitting blog and the excellent patterns that are available - she is from Titirangi in Wild West Auckland - check out her shibori felted jumper scarf tutorial.

tiny happy based in Nelson NZ, she makes gorgeous crafty things including these wrap recycled cardigans and these lovely baby shoes made from old embroidered linen.

Anknel and Burblets is from the western slopes of Mt Albert in Auckland and writes about her return to NZ and rediscovering her homeland. She started up the Lovely blogs website.

crafting japanese group has lots of inspirational crafts.

gorgeous amigurumi sumo

this plain linen bag with beautiful detailing

lovely fabric stamped with a blossom tree

lots more great entries this whiplash - and a week or so left to upload before next months challenge is announced.

angelia* a style made a neck wrap from recycled t-shirts

kc’s quilts has made a gorgeous lap quilt

One red robin posted a pattern and tutorial for making a ruby doll - have to go to the site to see the pic - the tutorial is a PDF.

office chair makeover is a super cool idea

a book bag at spark*west

turn an old t-shirt into a baby dress

sunnyside ellen has made a great outdoor tablecloth tutorial

a purse with machine stitching by kate beautiful

dose of inspiration decoupaged some shoes - check out how she did it

joybucket has a tutorial (PDF) for making this baby bunting

tutorial to make a gathered headband at altered cloth

In respect of Liana Kabel’s work I have removed the tutorial on how to bend knitting needles. If you would like to know more about her designs please visit her site and support an indie artist. Liana wrote to me upset that I had posted this tutorial - and while I support these tutorials and love them in fact, I am torn between wanting to share knowledge and support artists who have original ideas. I justified posting this tutorial to myself and to Liana by the fact that it is a pretty simple idea and someone else somewhere is going to - and have already - thought it up for themselves. Liana wrote back with this reply …

Yes it is a simple idea, but it was my idea. Jodie wasn’t the first person who has tried it out, and not even the first Aussie to boil up knitting needles to make bangles. I don’t have a problem with this, people can try things out for themselves. What I do have a problem with is when people claim ideas as their own and even more of a problem when they are supported by those in powerful and responsible positions.

Liana I apologise to you and I also apologise to Jodie for removing your tutorial.

bored and crafty makes an artists paintbrush roll

and jpolka has a pattern for making a mini octopus

Picture from Ester.

Two interesting blog in spanich(you can use google traslate, but thanks to the pictures it´s easy to understand):

* El jardín de los Sueños. Ester is the queen of decoupe.

*Capusita Linda. Crafts easy projects, step by step. I like this one.

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Aquí tenéis dos interesantes blogs en españosl. El primero de ellos es “El Jardín de los sueños“; sin lugar a dudas Ester es la reina del decoupe. Tampoco os podéis perder “Capusita Linda“, muchas manualidades descritas paso a paso; éste es uno de mis tutoriales preferidos.

This flickr group - crafts for boys is great fun - if you have some boys to craft for then there is lots of inspiration in this group - go and check it out.

I love these cowboy booties for a baby

and these matching bags to store matchbox cars are fab

this boys scrap quilt is wonderful - I particularly love the mix of shapes

how wonderful is this Luchador Amigurumi

there are lots of cloth slippers - these are very stylish and simple

basic boys pants in some wonderful retro fabrics

the most adorable boys purse/pouch

Chic knits for young chicks by Sarah Paulin, published by Lark.

This book is very specifically aimed at teenage knitters. With a funky design, fonts and colours and are all bold and bright, and pictures of young girls knitting. So it is no surprise to learn that the author of this book, Sarah Paulin is a young teenage girl with a penchant for knitting and a desire to bring her designs to others. A teen knitting book written by a teen, this book has credibility and authenticity.

All the basics are there, from making a slip knot, casting on and the basic stitches to gauge, and binding off. Through the book are various tips like caring for your needles and how to organise a knitting group, along with good illustrations on how to make fringing, pom poms and i-cord.

I checked with my daughter and she agreed that most of the projects and patterns were pretty cool. So we are on the right track. My daughter and I both loved the ‘Biggy rib scarf’ with pocket, made with fun chunky multicoloured wool, the chunky ‘cuirass shrug’ which is made with wool slub and size 35 needles in a really simple shape, and the tube top/skirt in multicoloured stripes. There are heaps of other projects in here, many more scarves and shrugs along with a multitude of bags, cuffs and cosies.

Other projects I found interesting were the recycled yarn bag and water bottle cosy with cotton yarn. I also found it interesting that there is a section on gifts at the back, so teens can knit up a hat for their boyfriend or dad, a tea-cosy for grandma, a baby blanket for their new niece or cousin and a journal cover for their sister or best friend.

Only bad thing I can say is that all the patterns call for specific brand name yarns without explanation of what they are in order to be able to substitute - eg Rowan ribbon twist and Charles Ritratto, Noro Daria and Bernat Boa! Otherwise its a great book well worth the purchase - a perfect gift for the young knitter in your life.

fd’s flickr toys palette generator

fd’s flickr toys offer lots of possibilities for manipulating, exploring and combining your photos. If you’re looking to use a photo in craftwork, or just have a photo with colours you like - but you’d like to work out more precisely what they are - then the palette generator tool might be just what you need. You can upload from your own computer, so you don’t need to be a Flickr member to play.

Put in a photo and get back the colours and codes for it, as per the above example.

A fabulous blog from Japan that is totally into the process of the making. Check out the current experimental projects. And her denim jacket reconstruction which is the cover of the current Yarn Magazine.

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

I need your help. I would like to make my own “typewriter key necklace”. I have an old typewriter and I need to know where I can get the piece that the key is held in for the necklace? Thank you for your assistance,
Kelly