Did I ever men­tion that I had this past week off? Time off means lots of time to browse (and craft! :D). Came across lots of nice things this week, it was kind of hard to choose so this post won’t go on for ever and ever… but here are my favourites!

 

This is so sim­ple, yet so bril­liant! I, too, find myself turn­ing into a bro­ken record when I work with the class­room of young chil­dren. “Did you put the toys away?” “Please put the wrap­pers in the garbage before going to play.” “Did you wash your hands?” “Did you change into your indoor shoes?” On and on and on and on… I would be total­ly annoyed too if I were one of the kids. When I went to the dol­lar store the oth­er day and saw the bags of plas­tic farm ani­mals and dinosaurs I thought of this great idea, but then I also remem­bered that the kids I work with don’t know how to read yet. Darn. But still! See­ing the ani­mals deliv­er­ing these mes­sages made me chuck­le. I’m sure it’s effec­tive with both kids and adults, and turn nag­ging into fun! See how to say it with ani­mals at Fam­i­ly Chic.

 

Also from Fam­i­ly Chic, a super clever way to make a tiny vase for those tini­est flow­ers you or your loved ones bring home — with a bal­loon and a votive can­dle hold­er! Very chic, indeed!

 

This tiered dessert stand from Martha Stew­art is pret­ty genius — it’s made with paper plates and cups, so it’s dis­pos­able, and one would­n’t have to keep it when the par­ty’s over. I’m def­i­nite­ly keep­ing this idea in mind for future gath­er­ings, because I like a tiered dessert stand but we don’t have the space to store one in our small apartment.

 

I’ve always won­dered how these bracelets are made! I need to study the tuto­r­i­al more close­ly but looks like it’s some­thing that would make sense once I start mak­ing it. I don’t have leather on hand, but I think it would look nice with some grey felt! Tuto­r­i­al on I Still Love You.

 

Kids would love this but what about a few float­ing in the punch bowl? Ice boat how-to on Alphamom.

 

 

These cork hair clips (and ear­rings and brooches too!) by Kara Paslay Design are just a great source of inspi­ra­tion. I don’t drink wine but I was once giv­en a num­ber of wine corks by a friend. I’ve made some stamps with them (kind of failed, but fun any­way) but I’m run­ning out. Time to get me some more corks!

 

See­ing what oth­er peo­ple do always inspires me, and that’s part of why I write the favourite things Fri­day posts. It makes me take time to look at what oth­er peo­ple are doing and get moti­vat­ed myself. I’ve only recent­ly come across the 52 Crafts in 52 Weeks project and the project had end­ed. But the blog own­er is host­ing anoth­er year of week­ly craft­ing (kind of like a year-long make-along!) start­ing… today! It seems very flex­i­ble and one could par­tic­i­pate in one, two, three or four crafts a month. I’ve decid­ed to join when I saw that the theme for July is print­mak­ing — I just had to! I don’t think I’ll be able to do all four crafts though, and I’m not going to feel bad about par­tic­i­pat­ing in only two crafts or even just one a month, because if I end up doing some­thing just because I feel like I have to then it’s not fun at all. But I think this will give me the moti­va­tion I need to make more art. Here’s all the info if you’d like to join in the fun too! :D

 

And because this mon­th’s theme is print­mak­ing, 52 Crafts in 52 Weeks has got a love­ly round-up of print­mak­ing tuto­ri­als, like this very styl­ish pota­to print how-to on the Guardian. This has got to be the most sophis­ti­cat­ed-look­ing pota­to prints I’ve seen, and I love that it show­cas­es the nat­ur­al shapes of the pota­toes (and yams too!).

 

Also via 52 Crafts, a great mono­print tuto­r­i­al that works with any flat, non-porous wash­able sur­face one could find at home (like a mir­ror). From Janet Clare.

 

The cro­chet motifs from Cro­chet a Lit­tle are real­ly nice­ly done. Look at the detail in the bal­leri­na’s dress and shoes! And I love how the begin­ning cro­chet ring of the head becomes the eye. The Swan Lake (pic­tured) is my favourite, but also check out the mer­maid and Alice in Won­der­land! The site is in Japan­ese, Chrome trans­lates it for me, but the pat­terns are chart­ed and looks like they’re pret­ty easy to follow.

 

More cro­chet good­ness — a Nyan Cat scarf! XD If you haven’t seen the Nyan Cat video, you can see it here. Some peo­ple find the song annoy­ing (I can only take about 30 sec­onds of it myself), but the Pop Tart cat is SO ridicu­lous­ly cute it makes me burst out laugh­ing every time I see it. And I think this scarf is a per­fect cro­chet rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the Nyan Cat, because the rain­bow trails behind him end­less­ly :D Bril­liant idea (and free pat­tern!) from Ramen Nee­dles.

 

 

I love these funky per­ler bead jew­lery by OMEGAZOID on Etsy. I espe­cial­ly love the heart neck­lace, the Boo Ghost, and espe­cial­ly these heart meter pins!

 

I don’t like the feel­ing when I’m colour­ing hap­pi­ly with some mark­ers and sud­den­ly it starts to drag on the paper, mak­ing some faint screech­ing sound and chok­ing out weak, dying marks. Some mark­ers just die too soon, espe­cial­ly the cheap no name ones that I some­times get. But before toss­ing them into the garbage dis­ap­point­ed, I can make water­colour and it’s all good again! Just soak them in water and store in bot­tles. Fab­u­lous! From Artopota­mus.

 

Baby food jars — they’re so cute! The herb plants look love­ly in them, and they only take up a bit of room on the counter. From The Char­lotte.

 

For those who love camp­ing — start the month of July with a camp­ing scene cal­en­dar! Set up a mini camp site on your desk and count down to the day of your actu­al camp­ing trip! :D (via How About Orange)

And for those who don’t like to camp (I saw this on my friend’s Face­book page and loved it)…

I must admit, I belong to the camp that does­n’t like to camp. I’ve only gone camp­ing once and I hat­ed most of it. I’m embar­rassed to tell you (but I’ll tell you because you’re nice) that when we went camp­ing last time, by night­fall and I was utter­ly sur­prised (and increas­ing­ly ter­ri­fied) that there were no street­lights! How am I sup­posed to walk 5 min­utes to the wash­room when it’s pitch black out? Pitch Black! What if I run into a rac­coon? A skunk? A bear? So, no camp­ing for me. Not until we get those gigan­tic super bright gas lanterns anyway.

 

I love sand dol­lars. These cook­ies are made of tapi­o­ca starch and coconut milk, and the holes are made with straws — very clever! Recipe on Dia­monds for Dessert.

 

This brings back fond child­hood mem­o­ries. When I was a small child I used to call broc­coli “tree veg­etable”. Brock Davis’ broc­coli house was built for his son, because he could­n’t build him a real tree house. I’d take a broc­coli house over a real tree house any time! (Part­ly because I’m afraid of height and can’t climb a tree :S) (via Swiss­miss)

If I have that knife I would yell “Hi-YA!” with every chop and it would be AWESOME. Karate chop let­tuce knife via Inspire Me Now.

 

And final­ly, it is Cana­da Day today and Inde­pen­dence Day on Mon­day! Here’s an awe­some project to cel­e­brate. The project itself was inspired by Philadel­phia, which reminds me that I once cel­e­brat­ed Inde­pen­dence Day in Philly too! The group of us watched fire­works sit­ting on a hill. Illu­mi­nat­ed fire­works pho­tos, how-to on Design Sponge.

Have a love­ly Fri­day! :D