This is a super-cool concept!
Spoonflower custom prints anything you design onto premium cotton fabric. So you can create your own quilts, aprons, potholders, baby clothes, hats, curtains, purses, and anything else you can think of!
There is no minimum yardage order, and each yard is $18.  For a truly homemade personal gift, that sounds pretty interesting to me.   All the details are available on the Spoonflower website.

Altered Yesterdays is a blog dedicated to adding color and a sense of fun to discarded photos from yester-year!  Doesn’t that sound like fun already?  Grab a cuppa and visit the gallery…you’ll be wowed by the artistry and tickled by the humor of the captions 

You’ve got to see this!  It reminds me of my favorite TV show of olde…Monty Python’s Flying Circus.  BubblyNumbers has created this amazing online treat, called the Book of Numbers!  Visit the site and click through all the animated pages with your morning cuppa 

We’re crazy about books here…we love everything from altered books to handmade journals. We love making them, decorating them, filling them, and even reading them! I have gathered up a load of links from our archives that cover every aspect of books that we’ve examined over the years. And I’ll be adding more to this list as we go on.

Book Arts Links

Artist: Margie Kelk
Website: Margie Kelk
In the past few years, I have made several trips to China. I became fascinated with the history and the people of that country, and for the past three years have been studying Mandarin. I have been been practising Chinese calligraphy and have developed a keen interest in Chinese painting and brush techniques. I have produced five Chinese style-accordion fold-out books, eight wall panels and two fans, all of which focus on the social and environmental problems resulting from China’s extremely rapid launch into the current world of mechanization and industrialization.

My book, “Caged,” centers on the …read more

My friend Aileen Roberts just let us know that she had posted a sneak peek of the doll that’s being put together to raise money for ovarian cancer research.  The project is called the Ties That Bind, and is an art doll using decorated neckties and handmade charms.  I am excited to see the final doll.  You can go to the site to see the sneak peek if you’d like, but I’ll refrain from posting it here in case anyone wants it to remain a complete surprise until it’s done 

Allyson sent me information on her terrific new adult coloring book, called The Color of Joy.  She is pleased to announce that her next coloring book, Dancing With Life, will be coming out in mid-April!

Artist: Allyson Rice
Women’s Coloring Books
Coloring is the best kept secret out there for stress reduction!  Playing with color is deeply relaxing, meditative, incredibly fun (with no artistic skill required, but plenty of room for your own personal artistic touches like writing or collage images, etc), and it’s completely addictive once you start. This book, designed specifically for women has a colorful glossy cover that’s very visually …read more

Artist: Ray Bliss Rich
Website: Sumi Art

I make my hand bound books and journals from scratch… first making the paper by recycling old cotton denim blue jeans and plant fiber. I use some non-traditional materials as inclusions in my paper to make a more interesting sheet; including feather filaments, iridescent mylar threads, and ground up bits of mica. I also under beat some fibers for an organic look and feel. My unusual papers give my books and journals a very distinctive look.
My books and journals are bound in Japanese styles including stab bindings, hanging journals, and fanfold designs. …read more

Artist: Birgitte Hendricks
Website: Sew Danish

I’m a Danish Textile Artist, living in England with my American Husband. Since early childhood I have been making things. Through out my life, I have never stopped creating. Creating and making things makes me happy. It energizes me. I love building up surfaces from scratch with focus on the texture. I often use very basic and recycled materials in my work.

I find it very appealing giving discarded items a new lease of life. It challenges me. Probably due to my Danish background, I’m very attracted to light to medium tones and colours, often combined …read more

Artist: Joshua Barber
Website: Joshua Barber Fine Art

Internationally shown artist Joshua Barber paints modern-day icons. Whimsical and stark, his figures illustrate the poignant pull of love and separation in everyday human interactions. Joshua Barber’s paintings have been exhibited in Britain, New York and Los Angeles and featured on the Vice President’s 2004 holiday card. His work has also been exhibited at the prestigious Virginia Museum of Fine Art’s “Art After Hours” for the last four consecutive years.
Joshua wrote to tell me about the Sketchbook Project:
They accepted sketchbooks from across the world to be in a group show in Atlanta, DC, Boston, …read more