Fine Craft Guild .com » An Artsy Life

Kaleidoscope Crochet Scarf

Fine Craft Guild — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 11:03:00 +0000

Remember that freeform crochet bolero I received but which did not fit whatsoever? I modified it into a rather fun and happy scarf that sure stands out.

(I have a few crochet flowers / rosettes left over, one of which is going to be a crochet brooch, which I’ll show you another day.)

Tada: The New Freeform Crochet Scarf …

It fits and it’s beautiful.

It still is the most unusual color combination you can not envision in your wildest dreams (particularly in certain light). I might give it a tea and/or coffee natural yarn coloring bath to tone down all those bright colors. However, for the moment, I like my new scarf on a pair of jeans and a mustard green t-shirt. It’s whimsical.

On a real positive: what is great about this scarf is that it will allow you to mix & match almost any piece of clothing you own, because this scarf has all the colors to pull that outfit together (smile).

Crochet Scarf – Rosette Jewels

Now that the shape of the clothing is no longer ‘jarring’ your attention goes to the beautiful crochet flower rosettes themselves, which is a mixture of granny squares, granny circles, and double layered crochet flowers. Each is like a jewel, and the result is like a kaleidoscope.

Like my new freeform crochet flower scarf?

Crochet Patterns

Want me to make you a pattern to make a scarf like this? I promise I’ll stick to no more than 11 colors. No, just 10. Joy: how about a holy number 7. But, I’ll make sure that all these colors harmonize. How about that!?

Save OUR Internet Liberty

Fine Craft Guild — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:28:00 +0000

Today, NO new tutorial. Instead, we protest over the SOPA and PIPA bills that are before the US House and Senate. We unite with many sites who are taking their entire site down for a day.

SOPA/PIPA = prohibitive for bloggers like you and I. If you want continued creative finds from around the web featured on this site, side-by-side showcased with our own designs, then ‘click + read + click’.

What’s going on?

SOPA, “Stop Online Piracy Act” (H.R. 3261), and PIPA, “PROTECT IP Act” (S. 968), will harm Internet’s essential spirit of information sharing and people empowerment, and you can influence the US government on this issue.

Learn More

5 excellent resources to learn what you need to know & do:

Google: TELL CONGRESS: Please Don’t Censor the Web
(sign the petition here)

O’Reilly Publishers: SOPA and PIPA are bad industrial policy

Wikipedia: Imagine a World without Free Knowledge

Washington Post: SOPA’s ugly message to the world about America and internet Innovation

Latest News on SOPA/PIPA

Experts agree that there are better ways to shut down pirate websites than asking
US companies to censor the Web. Join the groundswell of experts, organizations
and people from all parts of America united in their opposition to SOP A and PIPA.
Tell Congress not to censor the Web and not to cripple our innovation economy.

(source: google.com)

As publisher O’Reilly says, SOPA protects the wrong people. The problem of piracy isn’t the real problem, he says. The entire content industry is facing massive systemic changes, and to claim that declining sales are because of piracy is so over the top. “

BTW Disney has made its mega-money by COPYING stories that previously were in the public domain. Who wrote Cinderella, Beauty & the Beast, Snow white? It wasn’t Disney. Disney copied them, or as they like to think ‘reinvented’ them. Now, the entertainment industry will have to reinvent itself. Fast, and going with the flow of the internet, rather than against it.

What You Can DO

READ UP + TELL CONGRESS you oppose web censorship. You can choose any of the above links to do both.

Act today, because the US Senate will begin voting on January 24th. Thank you. Our existence depends on your support.

Martin Luther King Craft: Dream Quilt

Fine Craft Guild — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 17:45:00 +0000

Martin Luther King Day coming up again on Monday January 16.

To me, Martin Luther King Jr. stands for following your heart, your soul desire, your dream, your conviction and for courage doing so. Therefore, every year, I like to orchestrate a creative project in his honor.

This dream quilt pattern featured today is a tribute to Martin Luther King who created peace and freedom for all people, no matter what color their skin. So, make it a colorful quilt, will ya?!

Quilting Pattern

(click left image for true-scale design, and to start fabric measurements.)

Kim Diamond designed this peace symbol quilt pattern, that allows you to use up a thousand remnants of fabric, or perhaps splurge on a gorgeous quilting fabric set….

You will have to do a bit of math to figure out how much fabric you’ll need of each type of color, and perhaps it’s best if you design freely as you go along. Filling the field with more and more peace symbols.

Tip: add a double layer of ruffles on the outside of the quilt in colors that make the entire quilt come together.

"I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’ I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood…" ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

More Creative Ideas

Martin Luther King Crafts (crochet, paper craft, and more)
Quilting Projects / Patterns (from simple ideas to full blown detailed quilting patterns)

Tip: this pattern can also be used for a rug, albeit that I would enlarge the design so it’s less work and more durable.

Freeform Crochet

Fine Craft Guild — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 12:11:00 +0000

As you all know, I love knitting & crochet. So it’s to be expected that I get these kind of gifts. Usually I am thrilled with them, but sometimes, …. sometimes, it’s a miss… (silence) …

So, here is my first challenge of 2012: a white elephant. It’s a ‘designer’ freeform crochet bolero vest. Could have been awesome, and almost is, … but …..

Before

… here’s absolutely no fit …!!!!
The back section is too wide.
The shoulders are too wide.
The crochet flowers on the top front are too wide so that, in an unflattering manner, they cover the top-arms.

If that was not enough, the bolero is not long enough. It’s a few flowers longer at the front than at the sides and back, but it’s not long enough anywhere.

It looks and feels like there weren’t enough flowers, so they added the tie at the front so you can close the bolero.
However, the tie is not in the right place. It’s way above the breast instead of at the décolleté.

And last but not least: notice that appliqué: a color-clashing bright yellow embroidered crochet banana paired with a dangling strawberry. I love the idea of a crochet fruit, but not in this color and style clashing way.

Crochet Challenge
How to transform this item that positively makes any woman look fat, shapeless and nerdy, into something fun, hip and contemporary. I’m taking on the challenge. Check back later this week to see the ‘after’: i.e. what I’ve come up with.

The ‘AFTER’

Click here to see the beautiful kaleidoscope crochet scarf I made with it.

New Year Umbria Jazz Festival

Fine Craft Guild — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 12:55:00 +0000

Happy New Year from Italy!!! We were partying here on the first day of the New Year.

Umbria Jazz Festival is held every year around this time in the gorgeous Italian city of Orvieto. As this year, New Year’s day fell on a Sunday we enjoyed the happy opportunity to actually go see it and enjoy Funkoff jazz band live parading, playing, and dancing through the street. Funky!!

I taped it, so you can hear them too!

For more info: Umbria Jazz ~ Orvieto’s annual New Year Jazz Fest

Orvieto is also famous for its delicacies, which range from rare black truffles, divine olive oil to top Italian wines. On New Year’s day, on the menu of many restaurants and on all dinner tables at home featured a traditional Italian comfort-food dish that is to bring both luck and prosperity.

What Italians eat at New Year
(click link to see)

Artistically, Orvieto is known for its hand-decorated ceramics. While we might think that all these gorgeous Italian table settings are made in Florence, realize that Orvieto hosts the skilled Italian artisans that we all know so well. Have a look…

Italian Hand-decorated Ceramics
(click link for beautiful photos)

Overall, Orvieto is an amazing cultural center, that dates back to Etruscan times. It’s perched upon a volcanic flat, high up in the sky. Its most visible magnificent art center piece is the monumental 14th century cathedral. Its most famous hidden secret is the original underground Etruscan city. For trip and vacation info and gorgeous travel photos, from now on, visit our other site, http://www.TravelTripVacation.com, where we’ll host more of our travel info, to keep FineCraftGuild purely about art and fine craft.

DIY ZhuZhu Pet Food

Fine Craft Guild — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 11:59:00 +0000

Pin It

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What are Zhuzhu Pets?

Do you know? Zhuzhu pets are delightful little furry animals, that can race around the floor, go in all directions, make funky sounds when they bump into something (like ‘ohoh’). In short, they are adorable. They started out as being just hamsters, but there are raccoons and all sorts of little critters. Really fun.

Zhuzhu pets stimulate good imaginary child play, and come with tons of accessories, ranging from Zhuzhu pet fun houses, tunnels, slides, hamster wheels, warrior outfits to ballet costumes and crowns.

Zhuzhu Pet Food

Anyhow, once your kid has one of these animals, there comes the day that "more accessories" are urgently required.

And the one thing that you can not buy (yet) is Zhuzhu pet food.

Well, this Christmas break (or any other day for that matter), why not get creative and make your own Zhuzhu Pet Food?

We’d fun making these simply from colorful meltable plastic perler beads. A fun hour making the food and many fun hours playing with the Zhuzhu pet and his/her delicious snacks and meals.

Zhu Zhu Pet Food Designs

So simple, don’t think you need instructions. Just play. Look at the picture for design examples.

My favorite the set of bananas, ranging from green bananas to overripe bananas that are ready to become banana bread… See the fruit section on the bottom right of the food picture.

How to Use Perler Beads

What you’ll need besides the perler beads themselves is Perler Ironing Fuse Paper and Perler Beads Peg Boards.
Choose the right board for the main shape of the object you are making. Play around with colors and design away.
Once finished designing, gently lift up the board and put it on your ironing board.
Place a sheet of the iron-on fusing paper on top and with a medium-warm iron, gently press onto the bead.
Tip: Don’t rub (as that might undo the design below your paper) but press your iron gently, lift it up, and press it again on in a different position. Most irons do not have even heat on the ironing surface so to get your beads to melt evenly, place the iron in different directions on your project.
When the beads are melted together, wait 30+ seconds before gently removing the paper.
Remove the object you’ve created also from the pegboard and place it upside down on your ironing board. Again, cover with the iron-on paper and melt the other side of the object a bit. This will add to the strength of your item.

Zuzu pets go!

Buon Apetito, Zhuzhu!

Blog Milestone: 600

Fine Craft Guild — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 09:05:00 +0000

Yesterday we posted the 600th post on our craft blog http://www.FineCraftGuild.com.

Wow. What a milestone.

I am just amazed and grateful for how much I’ve learned in these past few years, writing all these articles. As well, the ’600 articles’-milestone means that we either handmade or studied nearly 600 DIY, craft and home decorating projects!!!! No wonder our house is starting become rather artful…

Thank you, my reader, for being here and having shared things with me over the years. Stay tuned for more creativity and design!

Funky Coat Hangers

Fine Craft Guild — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 12:56:00 +0000

These coat hangers caught my eye at Paris’ main Flee market.

\While I personally have been designing crochet coat hangers, I was enamored by the thought of having these colorful wooden, felted and bead bejeweled coat hangers to cheer up my wardrobe.

Which ones are your favorite? I love the ones in felt with flowers!

French Cafes in Paris

Fine Craft Guild — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 14:33:00 +0000

Many people in North America have a notion of ‘French Bistro’-style that actually does not really exist. The real-life version is less manicured. Instead of gentle and refined, French cafes in reality are more ‘edgy’. Come have a look.

The famous cafe “Les Deux Magots” on Place Saint Germain des Pres, had once the reputation of being the social center of the literary and intellectual élite of Paris. It was frequented by Picasso and his surrealist friends, by writers/thinkers like Camus,Satre and Simone de Beauvoir.

Les Deux Magots

And, today, it’s a great tourist destination…

Montmartre Cafes

Because Montmartre has been for so long the area where many artists live and work, most of its cafes have appeared in famous (or not so famous) French paintings. Here are some charming French cafes on Mont Martre.

But also worth seeing is this crepery whose walls are covered with little pieces of paper. It’s located around the corner from Le Consulat.

Another French Cafe sample is Au Cadet de Gascogne which can be found on the main square in Mont Martre where you can have your portrait made.

As you can see, these cafes have a certain amount of ‘funk’ to it. The wall-covered crepery is obviously ‘off the wall’. The second cafe, I’m not so sure about. Is it my imagination or are those huge terra cotta planters placed on a ledge ??!! Just so you know, this ledge is just above ‘000s of tourists passing-by every day. I suppose, in France, it’s fine. Adds to the funk.

French Patisserie

Fine Craft Guild — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 12:53:00 +0000

May you find inspiration in the art of Paris’ world-famous patisserie house, Laduree, who creates refined chocolates, macarons and patisserie which taste exquisite and look like beautiful jewels, and which make glamorous gifts. Artists & artisans throughout time have been inspired by the colors and shapes of food. While renaissance painters may have preferred fruit for still lives, interior designers of 2011 can find inspiration in today’s fine food in Paris.

Showcasing …

Laduree !

(click on each image for a larger, close-up version)

Laduree – French Macarons

Laduree – French Patisserie

Laduree – Paris Shop Window Design

Laduree – French Chocolates, Candy & Patisserie Gift Baskets & Boxes

(no, this is not something to feed your dog!)

Click here for More FRENCH DESIGN from Paris.