Nov 6th 2009 12:53:02 pm

Wow. It is November. Are you ready for the holiday season to start? I’m not, so for this week I have NON-holiday links for you. Please add links to any of your own fun, crafty finds in the comments section. Happy weekend!

• Do you still have candy left over from Halloween? CraftGossip.com has a Round Up of Leftover Halloween Candy Ideas.
• Have you seen the Craft In America television program on PBS? I have watched a few episodes and I think it is amazing! It is so refreshing to see people who are so dedicated to their craft and who are making beautiful things. You can watch full episode online here.
• Creature Comforts (such a pretty blog!) has a new PROJECTS & FREEBIES section with lots of free tutorials and printables.
• Check out this detailed video tutorial for how to make glass tile pendants and rings using your own artwork on CraftStylish.com.
• My most important link: Swap-bot user Polymath is hosting a great swap in honor of World AIDS Day on December 1st. The swap elebrates love, generosity, and fellowship while bringing awareness to the important cause of AIDS research. The sign up deadline for the World AIDS Day Swap is VERY SOON on November 10th, so go sign up now and support this important cause.

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Oct 23rd 2009 09:53:30 am

The Halloween countdown has now begun in ernest! Only one week until the big, spooky day! There are tons and tons of Halloween craft projects and articles out there on the vast interwebs… I cannot possibly link to all of the good stuff, but here are some of my favorites from the last week:

Halloween

• Aren’t the two Halloween amigurumi seen above just adorable! There is a link to the free tutorials on the Craft:zine blog. (To get the crochet tutorials you have to create an account at Lion Brand Yarn, which is annoying, but worth it!)
• You can download a really amazing free Halloween printable papercraft from Jinjerup: “Jack of All Trades” gift box. It is the perfect size to pack with candy for trick-or-treaters!
• Chica and Jo have a tutorial for making a really cute candy corn sachet - another perfect way to package your Halloween candy!
• Do your kiddos still need something to carry all of their trick-or-treat loot around in? One of my favorite blogs, Blah to Tada, currently has two great upcycle tutorials for candy buckets here and here.
• Want to make some old-school Halloween popcorn balls? Craft:zine has a good recipe, or check out CraftGossip.com’s Popcorn Ball Round-up.
• It is not too late to decorate your front door for Halloween! The Making Memories blog has a tutorial for making a Halloween wreath using decorative paper.
• Bon Appetit has all sorts of great stuff for Halloween, like Halloween Menus and Pumpkin Desserts, including these Mini Halloween Pumpkin Cupcakes. You will love their lists of the 10 Best and 10 Worst Halloween Candies. (Pop Rocks were ALWAYS on my best candy list!)
• Speaking of Halloween desserts, these Tricked-Out Caramel Apples on Chow.com look pretty spectacular.

Non-Halloween

• The winter season is getting nearer, and this sledding cake from Better Homes and Gardens is just too cute! It would be perfect to serve at a winter birthday party.
• Kootoyo has a tutorial for making an ingenious corner bookmark out of fabric.
• One last cute craft: Little Jenny Wren has a tutorial for making a pinwheel bobby pin. So adorable!

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Oct 16th 2009 08:44:39 am

I tried to move away from Halloween stuff this week, but there is just too much out there! Also, I am super-heavy on recipe links this week….

Non-Halloween Stuff:

• Aren’t these Baked Pear Dumplings beautiful?! What a fabulous fall dessert!
• This is a Martha Stewart Weddings idea, but it is just so cute that I think it would be fun any time: Mini Donuts! Martha served them with coffee, but really, they would go with anything!
• Here is a tutorial for crocheting “Where the WIld Things Are” finger puppets on Meet Me At Mike’s.
• If you are in the NYC area, I think you should attend Monday’s Etsy Labs Craft Night. The project will be wool felt photo wallets led by Kata Gold - who makes completely adorable felt toys and goodies. Bonus, you can enter to win her new Hand-stitched Felt book by commenting on her too cute promo video here.

Halloween Stuff:

• Want to make your own candy corn? Serious Eats shows you how!
• Whip Up has an Ultimate Halloween Knitting Roundup.
• Here is a recipe/tutorial for making really cute, and pretty easy, pumpkin cupcakes.
• Hostess with the Mostess showcases Eight Fashionable Creepy Halloween Treats all from Martha Stewart.
• How about something healthy? Pennies on a Platter shows you how to make adorable “Snack-o-lantern” fruit cups out of oranges.
• Wow! 24 halloween crafts in 24 hours.
• As part of their EK Success vendor spotlight series, CraftCritique.com has a review of Halloween papercrafting supplies today. Also, you can enter to win EK Success products by commenting on the CraftCritique.com blog posts this week.

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Oct 9th 2009 08:59:46 am

Just a short little list of links today, but remember to check last week’s post for more Halloween craft links. I have been adding to it! There is a lot of great Halloween craft stuff out there!

Linky Links:

• October is SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) Awareness Month, and for the entire month of October 20% of all sales at Click Clack Distro will be donated to First Candle, a SIDS organization. Order some zines to help the cause! (Click Clack Distro is run by Swap-bot member, Nicole.)
• Do you love cute things? Do you love food? How about cute food? Then you need to check out EpiCute - The Cute Food Blog.
• There is a wide variety of handmade stuff out there… Regretsy.com features some of the more unfortunate items. (Warning: some posting on Regretsy may be NSFW… also, some are a little mean.)
• I (racheljohnson on Swap-bot) have a product review article on Sakura gel pens published on CraftCritique.com today. Check it out and let me know what you think.

6 Comments » Categories: friday link love

Oct 2nd 2009 05:23:33 am

October is here and I have an extravaganza of Halloween links for you! There are soooo many Halloween projects and ideas out there, so I have tried to gather all of my favorites here, in one place. I’ll add to this list as I find more fun stuff…

Halloween Crafts

• A quick and easy way to make snowflake-style paper jack-o-lanterns on mer mag.
• The Crafts Dept. has some (sort of weird) ideas for egg-shaped Halloween treat containers. They are just one of the many ideas included in Martha Stewart’s Halloween Party Workshop Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle movie download .
• Artbeads.com has a free tutorial for making Spooky Sparkly Spiders using felt beads.
• Speaking of spiders, HGTV.com has a really easy tutorial for making Spooky Spider Soap.
• Elle’s Studio has a few downloadable PDF, scrapbook-style Halloween craft tutorials.
• CRAFTzine.com and iLoveToCreate.com have teamed up to present the Crafty Chica Challenge: Create a Day of the Dead Shrine! It is a contest to see who can create the coolest Day of the Dead shrine, and two winners will win some pretty cool prizes. Read the official rules before entering.
• If you still need one more reason to make Halloween crafts, why not join my Happy Halloween Matchbox Swap? It is a great reason to make and receive cute, little boxes of Halloween cheer like the ones seen above.

Halloween Food

Ideal Husband, An movie download

• Mini and delicious: Bakerella has a recipe for adorable Pumpkin Pie Bites. So cute!
• The Fondant.com Club has a detailed Frankenstein Cookie Tutorial

  download Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace

  on Flickr with step-by-step photos.

• Better Homes and Gardens has a round-up of a dozen Sweet & Spooky Halloween Drinks.
• Holidays can definitely get expensive, but Allyou.com comes to the rescue with 18 Halloween Treats that can all be made for under $1! Wow!
• If you don’t mind spending a little more than a dollar, Southern Living has a really cute group of Halloween Treats & Desserts. There are some extremely decadent recipes on the list, like Heavenly Candy Bar Cupcakes. Yum!
• And, there is one more round-up of Halloween recipes over at Woman’s Day.

Ok. I think that is plenty of Halloween crafts and recipes to keep me busy for a while, but if you have more projects or links to share, please leave a comment!

MORE:

• Adorable Mummy Dogs (hot dogs wrapped up like mummies) recipe on Instructables.
• Makezine.com has a HUGE round-up of Halloween crafts and ideas.
• Not Martha also has a helpful list of Halloween links.
• Jinjerup has a free Halloween tag download available. You can also enter a contest to win Jinjerup’s adorable new Halloween digital scrapbooking sets.
• Now, this is refreshing! HEALTHY Halloween treat recipes on Shine.

2 Comments » Categories: friday link love

Sep 18th 2009 01:33:11 pm

Happy Friday, folks. I only have a handful of links for you this week… I would definitely love to receive any of your suggestions for new and exciting craft links. Send your tutorial, blog post, recipe, and event links my way!! (Email rachel [at] swap-bot.com)

• Mmmm… I am going to have to try making Bakerella’s Mini Maple Pancake Muffins (seen above). Sounds like a delicious autumn breakfast to me!
• Need a fun project to get started on for Halloween? How about trick-or-treat goodie bags. I like the examples over on {capture the moment}’s Spooky Sweets Design Challenge.
• Another free and beautiful download from Hey Suzy: Many Thanks floral greeting card
• I wrote a quick, little article about Etsy Labs Craft Night on CraftCritique.com - Check it out!

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Sep 11th 2009 05:04:57 pm

Some lovely links gathered over the last two weeks just for you:

• The pretty photo above is from the tutorial on Bakerella for how to make adorable cookie kits to give your friends as gifts. You’ll find the complete recipe, instructions, and even a free download for the cute label here (plus a bunch more beautiful photography).
• KrisKnits has a free pattern for an absolutely adorable knitted pin cushion here.
• For those of us who have a mutual love for all things crafty AND all things geeky, there is now geekcrafts.com - a blog devoted to all kinds of geeky-cool craft projects.
• Ever wondered if you could make your own gummi bears at home? Well, SheKnows has a tutorial here.
• A blog called Creative Ramblings has a free and detailed tutorial for how to make a mini sewing kit in a jar.
• I like the wacky and fun garlands featured on Craftzine.com’s Party Garand Roundup.
• For ATC lovers: The craft blog, Ink Stains, has a template you can use to create a perfectly-sized ATC holder box here. (Also for ATC lovers: don’t forget to enter our giveaway for an ATC display system.)
• And finally, if you need help getting in the mood for the upcoming Halloween holiday, you need to check out the cute and clever Halloween cupcake ideas on the Better Homes and Gardens website. (I like this little skeleton the best!)

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Happy weekend, everyone!!

• wait wait… One more totally cute link: Twig & Thistle has the most adorable free download here for little back-to-school lunch sack notes. So sweet!

1 Comment » Categories: friday link love

Aug 28th 2009 08:56:26 am

Another week, another collection of awesome craft links. Enjoy and have a nice weekend!

• I just discovered another fancy blog that features indie designers: Indie Craft Corner.
• Another lovely blog, the b-line, has a cute tutorial for making pet pouches (your dog can wear the pouch on their collar to carry baggies or keys or money).
• This is too cute to pass up!! Fantastic Toys has an amazing set of five, free, gnome-themed, paper toys. They are all downloadable PDF files and the set includes a “gnomie” paper doll, finger puppets, a mobile, and a gnome bowling set! So adorable.
• Speaking of adorable, Swap-bot member lisajhoney makes the most amazing felt food (her felt chocolates are pictured above) and she was recently featured on the Penguin & Fish blog and Craft Gossip. Awesome crafty skills! You can purchase her creations in her Etsy shop.
• Digital Photography School has eight great tips for how moms can take better photos of their kids.
• This is the most amazing graffiti I have ever seen!
• Saved the best for last: Check out the premier issue of Parasol Craft magazine. It is a downlodable PDF publication (available for $2.50) created by Yasmine of the original Parasol mag and A Print A Day. Parasol Craft is 111 pages of crafter interviews, projects, tutorials, and beautiful photography. So pretty!

2 Comments » Categories: friday link love

Aug 21st 2009 03:19:50 pm

This is going to be a two-week version of Friday Link Love since I missed last week’s post. I have divided the links into a few categories: freebies, bookmark sites, tutorials, and just plain cool sites. I hope you find something you love!

Freebie Downloads & Printables:

• Creature Comforts always has nice free downloads, but these floral calling cards by Suzy from Hey Suzy* are especially nice.
• These black and white Designer Labels on Got Crafts? seem extremely versatile and user-friendly.
• Speaking of labels, I really love these lemonade-themed labels from Dandy Bread and Candy (seen in action in the image above).
• A darling, little greeting card free for download at The Small Object.

Crafty Bookmarking Sites:

• If you need a place to find interesting craft links and keep track of our favorite articles and places on the web, check out VoteHandmade.com. It is a place where you can submit links to anything craft-related and the users vote on which items they like most. (You can vote for Swap-bot, if you are so inclined.)
• Craftig.com is a very similar site, but with amazingly cute graphics. It is a social bookmarking site for crafters where you submit links and the most popular ones rise to the top. (You can also vote for Swap-bot on Craftig. Thanks!)

Tutorials:

• Very hip ruffle necklace tutorial on Happy Together.
• Cute and clever blue jean pocket place card idea from Chica and Jo.
• Flower gift box band tutorial on Gingham Cherry - use one instead of ribbon on your next package!
• A really pretty crocheted bracelet tutorial by Wren Handmade.
• Some tips on how to do archival framing to preserve your artwork on the Etsy Storque.

Cool Websites:

• I’m Just A Guy Who Quilts
• Blah to TADA! - a blog full of crafty recycling projects.

1 Comment » Categories: friday link love

Aug 7th 2009 09:49:28 am

More links to fun, crafty, cool things I found around the internet this week:

• Easy-to-make “Indie Foxx Garland” tutorial and template from Indie Fixx.
• Instructables and Singer are hosting a Kids Craft Contest. To enter, you must create an Instructable tutorial that explains how to make a kid-friendly craft project, involves some sewing, either by hand or machine, and be made with, by, or for a kid. You must enter before September 13th, and winners will be announced at the end of September. There are many prizes, but the grand prize winner will receive a professional Singer serger.
• I like these 10 Everyday Tips to Change the World from Etsy’s The Storque.
• Handmade Romance has a ton of detailed information about how to design and create softies (aka stuffed animals and characters).
• Learn how to make your own sidewalk chalk on Mad Maggie Designs.
• The independent craft resource website, Craftbits.com, just got a make over! The site is a great place to find tons of craft projects.
• Just for laughs: theoatmeal.com (but beware, it may be a little offensive).

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