Help for left handed crafters
Are you a lefty who has problems with embroidery patterns? Check out this tutorial of basic embroidery stitches – made specifically for left handed embroiderers.

How to Rescue Family Heritage Photos
Eileen just completed a photo restoration class and made an exciting discovery in the process.

Providing Bird Nesting Materials
The best materials to provide, plus a creative way to house them.

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Artsy blogging round-up!

Stefanie Girard’s Sweater Surgery
The amazing detail packed book Boutique Knits by Laura Irwin provides the inspiration for a half felted/ half non felted bag Sweater Surgery Style.

The Impatient Crafter
Madge shares another fab free jewelry project from her new co-authored book Bead and Wire Jewelry Exposed. Leave a comment for a chance to win a free book while you’re there!

About Family Crafts
Are you up for a crafty challenge? Design your own simple Mardi Gras mask.

Aileen’s Musings
Aileen crafts a whimsical birthday banner from rock salt, watercolors and fun embellishments! Let yourself be inspired and create your very own banner!

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
A sneak peek into Angela Cartwright and Sarah Fishburns’ new book: In This Garden, as well as Robert Vetica’s: Good to Great Hair, a watercolor Maneki Neko (Lucky Cat) greeting card and two fun uses for vintage garter clips.

Crafty Princess Diaries
Tammy and her DH show off their donation to a local Humane Society event. The piece is call “I Heart Animals Necklace” and combines her metal clay skills and his chain making skills.

Cross Stitch at About.com
“Let the Good Times Roll” with Connie’s free Mardi Gras Cross Stitch patterns.

Naughty Secretary Club
It’s Stencil 101 at the Naughty Secretary Club. Learn how to make your own Headphone Hotties Skirt and enter to win free fabric paint!

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More artsy links!

About Family Crafts
Over the years I have learned some trick when it some to storing craft supplies and staying organized, and I am happy to share these with you.

Aileen’s Musings
Download some freebie Cabinet Cards from Aileen’s Musings this week, and check out her gouache paint and altered cabinet card tutorial.

Cathie Filian
Cathie Filian has a fun tutorial on recycling jeans into fashion cuffs with personalized patches.

Craftside- A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
Kicking off the new year Craftside will theme each week with a letter from the alphabet and give away a book a week to a lucky commentor. This week there is ATC art, a free antler graphic from Design Parts Sourcebook: Romantic, photos from an appearance by Patti Medaris Culea with doll and altered book pocket design, and a sneak peek at some of the cool pages from Essential Fashion Illustration-Men.

Crafty Princess Diaries
The Crafty Princess asks: Are you a tweaker or a tried and true crafty type?

Cross Stitch at About.com
Be the first to stitch and submit a photo of Connie’s free BGB Gizmo Pattern and have your photo featured as the stitched model. Get your 15 minutes of Cross Stitch fame!

Stefanie Girard’s Sweater Surgery
Check out super cute pair of camo baby booties I knit from a pattern in the book Faith, Hope, Love, Knitting.

The Impatient Crafter
If you’re attending the Tucson Gem Show or CHA, Madge would love to meet you! Check out her schedule and come take a class or get a signed copy of one of her new books!

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More artsy links!

Drawer Pull & Pants Hanger Project
Turn these items into a unique photo display via Craftynest.

Gravestone Rubbings for Fabric Art
Mary Emma, at Quilting and Patchwork, discovered instructions for turning gravestone rubbings into fabric art and family history.

How to Make Soap Petals
Soap petals are simply silk flower and leaf petals dipped in melted soap. They are single use and look pretty sitting beside the sink. Let Eileen show you how to make them.

Mapping the layout for a new book
Noreen is working really hard on a new book that she’ll be releasing very soon. It’s called: Rosie Recycle Pin Dolls, and it’s full of adorable little dolls that combine recycling with knitting or crochet or spool knitting. Right now, she’s up to the gills in the layout process….

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Artsy blogging round-up!

Cross Stitch at About.com
Make some stitching resolutions for the coming year using these ideas from Connie G. Barwick to get you started.

Crafty Princess Diaries
It’s time to get organized for 2009! The Crafty Princess talks about her own battle with the clutter bug.

Stefanie Girard’s Sweater Surgery
Jackalopes are real and they love being the motif du jour on a needle felted pillow made from recycled wool felted sweaters.

Craftside- A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
The last week of 2008 at Craftside brings you a mixed media polymer clay design, a sneak peek into the upcoming book Paper Puppet Palooza with a fun egg and bird moving card and a melting Tyvek technique. Happy New Year Crafting!

The Impatient Crafter
Need some solid advice about how to do what you love and make money? Madge shares some old advice for a new year.

About Family Crafts
If you are looking for a reason to celebrate, find out what holidays and birthdays are celebrated in the month of January 2009 using this special days calendar.

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More artsy links!

Favorite 2008 posts from Tangled Thread
Chloe has gone through the archives and has selected her favorite posts from 2008 to share with you.

Favorite Junk Creation Posts of 2008
Peggy takes a look back at junk artists and junk creations featured in 2008.

Goodbye 2008
Saying farewell to 2008

Inkle loom dimensions
Years ago, Noreen’s husband built Noreen a really wonderful inkle loom using reclaimed wood from old pallets. One of Noreen’s readers asked for the dimensions, as her husband is building her an inkle loom. So, Noreen took pics and measured the loom. Anything to help another weaver!

Looking for Scrapbooking Supplies?
Wherever you live, if you’re looking for scrapbooking or paper crafting supplies, Eileen can help you find what you need.

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Artsy blogging round-up!

Cindy McCornack was a friend and mentor to beaders, in person and online. She lived in Alaska, but had friends all over the world through the online beading community, especially the Bead Art forum. Among the things she left for for beaders was her book, Exploring Beaded Art Dolls, full of instructions, inspiration, and photographs of beaded art dolls that she and her friends created.

When Cindy was diagnosed with lung cancer, the Forum responded with flowers, gifts, support, and contributions. In thanks, Cindy began the Mystery Image Challenge. Inspired by the Mat-Su Valley Bead Society in Alaska, she cut an image into rectangles, emailed the rectangles to interested participants who were to bead the lines with black beads, and then embellish the rest of the rectangle. No one knew the finished image except for those who created the central face blocks: Cindy herself, Marya LeMieux-Ruibal, Mary Elter, and Rebekah Hodous.

One of the completed mystery panels

Cindy died in 2005 of her cancer before being able to complete the project. Moderators of the Bead Art Forum have since completed assembling the Mystery Image Challenge. These four completed panels are now for sale in the Remembering Cindy Etsy shop. The panels, postcards, and a couple of the dolls (explained below) are already listed. There’s much more to be added, which will happen over the next three weeks or so. All profits after expenses will be donated to the American Lung Association in Cindy’s memory.

Also for sale in the shop are some of the dolls that were made for her during her battle with cancer. Her partner, John, gave them back to the Bead Art Forum for this purpose. There are also items that have been donated specifically for sale in Cindy’s memory. Those who would like their own small memory of Cindy’s Mystery Image Challenge can also purchase postcards of the four panels. Again, all profits after expenses will be donated to the American Lung Association.

Please visit the Remembering Cindy Etsy shop (she would have loved Etsy). The shop will be open through the end of 2008, closing in early 2009. Cindy is missed, and we want to help fight that disease that took her away from us, with funds from your purchases in the shop.

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Remembering Cindy

I have a suggestion for those of you who are good organizers: think about doing a card deck! I was involved in two different deck projects and they were both fabulous experiences. They were both organized through Yahoo groups, and participants would sign up there for the cards they were to do, could discuss the progress, and make all the arrangements.

The groups that I was in did two Biblically based decks: one was limited to verses from the book of Proverbs, and the other was any Bible verses. These are my entries from the second:

Doing a collaborative project like this is a lot of fun, but also a lot of work for the coordinators. I bless my friend Linda everyday when I think about how much effort she put into running the group.If you are interested in starting a group like this for a swap or a collaborative project (please don’t ask me to head it…I will have to decline), please let me know about it: I’d love to help publicize it for you! Also, if you’ve been involved in a collaborative art project, please let me know about it…it’s never too late to brag about it!

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House of cards

Ning, the place where you can create your own social network for just about anything, has a really nice group that many of you might be interested in: Fiber Arts/Mixed Media. I recognized many names and faces over there, including Arlee Barr, who wrote an artist profile for Layers Upon Layers awhile back!

Ning provides a nice format for a group, allowing for photo albums, videos, event planning, forum discussions, and member pages. Take a trip to visit Fiber Arts/Mixed Media, and if it’s not exactly what you’re looking for, consider creating your own social network!

Peacock Moon by Arlee Barr

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Fiber Arts/Mixed Media group at Ning

Have you ever been on an art retreat? Either one of the biggies or a small private one like mine? Did you enjoy it? What was it like?

Here are a couple links to some well-known retreats in case you’d like to think about a future getaway. Has anyone been to one of these or do you have others you’d like to add to this (very brief) list?

Art Unraveled

Art and Soul

The Art Nest

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Have you ever been on an art retreat?