Its christmas eve, and our household of family and extended family have survived a bout of some sort stomach virus, three of our lot, including one baby, one child and one adult vomited for a day and a night and so instead of all my last minute baking I found myself cleaning up vomit, laundering sheets and towels and attending to sick people. The rest of us survived the night and so our fears of postponing christmas festivities have come to naught. We are now all well and good.
In the meantime this is my last update of whipup before christmas as today I do plan on some serious baking and organising and planning and having some nice family time.
A perfect last minute gift for your crafty friends is the whipup calendar – full of excellent contributors and great crafty images, find out more here (only $5).
Have you been checking out my book recommendations this week?
Plenty of good books for paper lovers, dads, sewing geeks and more… Creative paper cutting ::: Geek dad ::: closet monsters ::: Pop-up ::: printed patternHoliday season is in full swing
Gift wrapping :::
Baking
Gingerbread moomin house
Free pdf download
Free paper fold-out Row of Trees pattern from the Creative paper cutting bookLinks and crafty news
do you have time to whip up this bolero in time…? you just mightYou might have time to make this child’s apron for last minute holiday makingor maybe pierre the yarny snowman takes your fancyOk so get making…
Kathreen
xx
Whip Up Mini Quilts
: archives to mini quilt month here where you can learn about the book contributors, get patterns and tutorials and lots of lovely mini quilty things.
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Creative Paper Cutting: Basic Techniques and Fresh Designs for Stencils, Mobiles, Cards, and More (Make Good: Crafts + Life) by Shufunotomo. Trumpeter (2010)
I love the crisp simplicity and the soft and quirky originality of these paper cutting projects. This latest book in the sought after Make Good: Crafts + Life series of Japanese books translated into English, is a welcome and fresh addition to the series. With traditional Japanese paper crafts inspiring us ever more to experiment with paper cutting and folding techniques, paper newbies and more experienced aficionados will fall in love with this book.
With very easy to follow instructions to make a variety of fun and interesting cut out designs, even primary school aged children will use and love this book. Together with the hand-drawn illustrations, clear how-to photos, templates and plenty of inspiring projects this book makes an excellent addition to our families growing papercraft book shelf.
[PS. you can see more loveliness inside this book at the Shambala website]
Geek Dad: Awesomely Geeky Projects and Activities for Dads and Kids to Share by Ken Denmead. Gotham (2010)
As the wife of a geeky man, and mother of some pretty geeky kids, I was really excited and intrigued by this book. My husband loves to do science and electronics projects with the kids, often involving fire, and explosives (with all the safety precautions I assure you!), so I was interested to see whether he and the kids would go for this book.
First thing I noticed about this book is that the projects are non-prescriptive, they are for people who are used to thinking outside the box and making it up as they go along (and because this is a book for geek dads, there is a forum and website where you can share ideas and projects from the book). For example, to make your own board game there is no ‘pattern’ or strict ‘how-to’ do it my way, instead, Ken goes through the process of how and why, giving various options and ideas on how to develop the idea further, but with plenty of examples and lots of helpful hints, this process of developing your board game will be a fun experiment that who knows where it will lead.
I know everyone in my family will love the electronic projects, like electronic origami, the geek wreath and cyborg jack-o-lantern. There are some mad-science cooking experiments, balloon camera and night time kites, obstacle courses and even the science behind compost! We will be having a lot of fun with this book over the holidays – hope you do too!
[PS. Ken Denmead is the editor of the GeekDad blog on wired.com, and has his own website where you can find out more about him, listen to podcasts and watch geeky dad type videos]
Closet Monsters: Stitch Creatures You’ll Love from Clothing You Don’t by John Murphy. Lark Books (2010)
John Murphy, after the huge success of his previous books Stupid Sock Creatures
, has done it again and made a whole slew of new creatures, this time monsters made from your recycled clothing.
The monsters in this book are seriously cool (you can get an idea of the type of creatures by checking out John’s creature gallery on his website). John is also incredibly ingenious with his use of materials, and about a quarter of the of the book is taken up with how to use various parts of clothing in your monsters design as well as lot of techniques for cutting up clothing and sewing all the body parts. For example the neck of a turtle-neck sweater makes a pretty cool mouth for a monster, as does a zipper pocket from a pair of cargo pants and saved shirt pockets and collars can be used to great advantage in the monsters body.
Patterns are given in the project pages, but you will have to enlarge these using a photocopier or graph-paper, but as they are reasonably basic shapes this should not pose a problem. These same project illustrations give you instructions on cutting out the pattern from your piece of clothing, thus getting the most benefit from recycling. About 8 pages are devoted to each project with really in-depth instructions and how-to illustrations. And for many of the projects you will appreciate this as some of them are quite complex – think monsters with many appendages and strange shaped body parts.
For me though this book is a bit of a revelation – its not like I lack imagination or access to cool ideas – but the guys in this book seem more imaginative and interesting than many I am seen in a while.
[Read an interview with John Murphy here and go to his website and explore his many other critters here]
Pop-Up Design and Paper Mechanics: How to Make Folding Paper Sculpture by Duncan Birmingham. Guild of Master Craftsman (2010)
Duncan Birmingham explains how to create pop-up mechanisms in a clear and precise way. The colourful diagrams and interesting projects will inspire you to get making immediately. There is no complicated measuring, just really sound basic techniques which are built on throughout the book. It takes you from simple techniques and projects that children will be able to happily make to complex designs for adults and advanced paper players.
Bonus templates at the back add to the excellence of this book. I envision quite a few family round table making sessions with this book as our guide and inspiration.
[ps. This book is not yet available in the US but you can get it from UK Amazon already. And if you are in the UK Duncan runs pop-up workshops - see his website for more information]
Printed Pattern: Printing by Hand from Potato Prints to Silkscreen by Rebecca Drury. A & C Black Publishers Ltd (2010)
Mother and daughter team, Yvonne and Rebecca Drury, produce their own wallpaper range, inspired by midcentury design, they first draw their designs by hand and touch them up with Illustrator, before they are printed on low-impact paper with non-toxic dyes. They have simplified their process for the home print-maker, and take the reader through step-by-step showing how to create the design through to various printing techniques and running repeats.
This book is beautifully laid out, photographed and written, with inspiring simple designs, interesting ideas and fun techniques. Print onto ribbon with your own hand-made rubber stamps, print a border design on your pants with a lino-print, make your own wall-paper with vintage wood-block prints, or screen-print your own fabric to create unique upholstery covers for your couch!
With some beautiful templates in the back of the book, this book is not only a great resource of printing techniques, but a lovely design source as well!
[PS. this book is not yet available in the US, however you can purchase it online from Amazon UK, and in Australian it is distributed through Allen and Unwin You can get more a glimpse inside this book here. The authors Yvonne and Rebecca Drury are a mother and daughter team you can find out more from their website MissPrint. ]
Almost Christmas – almost Solstice, Hanukkah has begun – the season of celebration is upon us. I love the elving that has been going on at Soulemama’s place, and we have been some of our too. The making of goodies is a fun and special time, we have been sewing up decorations for our tree and special little somethings to add to everyone’s gift pile. Today we are busy bees, stocking up at the markets with yummies for the table, wrapping gifts to put under the tree, playing with cousins, baking more shortbread and just generally having a holiday time.
Don’t forget about Whip Up Mini Quilts book - perfect for gift giving for beginner and more advanced quilters and sewists. Whip Up Mini Quilts : archives to mini quilt month here where you can learn about the book contributors, get patterns and tutorials and lots of lovely mini quilty things.
Another wonderful last minute gift is the whipup calendar – full of excellent contributors and great crafty images, find out more here (only $5).
Have you been checking out my book recommendations this week?
Cowl girls – for knittersThe Complete Idiot’s Guide to Amigurumi – for crochetersSew Serendipity – for sewistsyummy ‘gurumi – for crochetersKnit and purl pets - for knittersHoliday season is in full swing
make a sparkly baubleMake some paper decorations10 garlands to make10 recycled ornaments to make8 natural holiday wreaths17 crafty holiday wreaths to make15 felt ornaments to make10 paper ornaments to makeI am getting inspiration for some gingerbread house making next week
grownup gingerbread housediy gingerbread houseMini gingerbread housesSome gingerbread for givingLinks and crafty news
>Make some topographic gift wrapCheck out the new Craftsanity magazine – available in both print and PDF formats. Full of patterns and articles – great valueknitted envelope ornaments – ya gotta make some of theseSheet music ornaments
I was sent some wall decals to test and use from Pop and lolli – they are super colourful and fun and easy to apply and remove – great last minute gifts + With every set of “experience-design” decals you purchase, ‘Its chic to change’ will provide educational materials and resources to positively influence a South African child in need.Loving the bloesem series of readers holiday decorationsCheckout the online Amelia’s magazine. Focussing on fashion, illustration and earth, + Amelia is about to publish a book- a compendium of fashion illustration and it looks like it will be fantastic!Make this cute felt mushroomMake this multiple use cape – great for last minute giftsMake these cute machine stitched gift cardsMake this gift pocketgive the gift of life this christmas – Donate blood on behalf of someone you care aboutRead about this web designer’s proposed redesign for Amazon.com’s international buyersSew some comfy wrist warmers as the perfect last minute giftMake some candle cosiesCheck out The Happy Holidays Guide to DIY – a completely free eBook from papernstitch blog.These Moustaches on a Straw would be so fun for the holidaysMake a frost family ornamentThe Home Depot has rolled out a new version of their iPhone application to help busy DIY-ers handle everything from fixing a squeaky door, buying last minute gifts or measuring how much holiday garland to hang.Funtastic gift ideas from Pascale - pyramid pillow and fabric covered notebooksMake this coin purse as a super cute last minute giftOk so get making…
Kathreen
xx
Whip Up Mini Quilts : archives to mini quilt month here where you can learn about the book contributors, get patterns and tutorials and lots of lovely mini quilty things.
Did you miss last weeks roundup? get them all here or subscribe to our weekly newsletter via email here
Find out where to buy my new book Whip Up Mini Quilts
If you already subscribe why not forward this email to a crafty friend you think may enjoy it.
Grab a featured on whipup button and find out about how to ADVERTISE with whipup.net.
Follow us on twitter: whipup: @whipup and Nicole: @craftapalooza + join our flickr group
Send in letters, ideas and links to whipup[at]gmail.com
We use and recommend Igloo self service ads: igloo
