Our Handmade Gifts wants to give back to the community, and will be doing so with our Support a Cause section. Our first section focuses on Breast Cancer Awareness, and purchases made in this category will have a portion of the selling price donated to various breast cancer organizations.

A group of jewelry designers got together and decided to build a better website, that showcases handmade and custom jewelry that isn’t run of the mill. Our Handmade Gifts is a site where you can find beautiful beaded jewelry, gemstones turned into earrings and necklaces, chainmail (also known as chainmaille) and custom polymer clay combined with canvas and fabric creations. While the site is focused mainly on jewelry at the moment, you will also find things like cell phone charms and wine glass charms, which site creator Deborah Carney didn’t even know existed a year ago.

Our Handmade Gifts includes jewelry created by artisans Deborah Carney, Liz Ababon, Leah Helmrich, Ralph Helmrich and Vinny O’Hare. Formerly involved with Print on Demand companies to sell her photography and art, Carney found the handmade community sites to be too corporate focused and not personalized enough. Investigating some art links posted by other artists on Twitter, Carney discovered that there is a market for “mini prints” or art on pendants. While most artists work with polymer clay and transfers, Carney perfected a technique to print her art and photography on canvas and fuse it to the clay, and create art you can wear.

Father and Daughter team Leah and Ralph Helmrich work with intricate wire and create jewelry using a technique called “chainmail” which is creating chains, earrings, necklaces and bracelets using small wire rings and weaving them to create their pieces. Leah also creates “steampunk” and enjoys working with wire to create other designs that appeal to the younger crowd. Ralph actually creates not only the jewelry pieces, but the components their jewelry is made of. Handmade in the USA with wire and jumprings made in the USA also.

Liz Ababon loves working with wire and beads and all sorts of components to make her jewelry and gift items that appeal to a wide range of people. Vinny O’Hare focuses on earrings created out of the wire jumprings that Ralph makes.

Do you make beaded jewelry or accessories? If you do, then you might be buying wholesale beads quite often. But have you ever tried buying them online? These are the same beads that you can buy in your local bead shop.

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Buying Beads Online – Why to Buy and How to Order

My father took an early retirement from the sinking ship of print journalism and has, for the past few semesters, been attending cooking school. Its his and my mom's dream to run a bed & breakfast in New England, so he's honing his commercial kitchen skills to be the "breakfast" half of the equation (my mom's got the other half covered). I awoke this morning to an RSS reader full of lovely photos of his recent creations. Check out his mouth-watering Flickr set. Just a little Monday morning eye candy! I know he gets a log of his recipes from Bread by Jeffrey Hamelman

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Are you creating a history for your posterity? Just like we cherish the history of our ancestors, someday someone will cherish your history. What are you doing to create it?

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Family History – Why it is Important to Keep Yours

tiger_hand_puppet.jpg

The Chinese New Year is almost upon us, and you can celebrate the Year of the Tiger by whipping up some of these cool hand puppets made from cereal boxes. Tali of Growing Up Creative shows you how!

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John Baichtal @ MAKE points us to this prototype flatpack cardboard high chair. I'd think it would have to be wax-coated to withstand a toddler's meal, what do you think? Maybe it's a neat idea in need of a few tweaks?

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Chasity of Belle and Burger shares how to make these fabric Valentine books. She shares several great ideas for personalizing them and adding great embellishments.

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Wendy Costa’s art has now been adapted to needlepoint and is available from Maggie Co.

There are nine whimsical dresses and two delightful veggie designs that would be great in a kitchen. They are on 18 mesh.


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Related posts:

  1. Needlepoint & Social Networking
  2. More New Needlepoint Products in Canvas, Charts & Kits
  3. New Needlepoint Products (threads, finishing, canvases & more) – July 2008
  4. TNNA Preview – MAP Designs
  5. Chaos & the Need for Needlepoint

Originally posted here:
Wendy Costa’s Art Now Available in Needlepoint

Over the weekend Denise at Craft Gossip published a post of free needlepoint designs. You know I’m crazy about her round-ups of free projects, which she publishes often.

Usually needlepoint charts are listed among the other charts, so this is a rare opportunity to indulge in the wonderful talent and generosity out there.

There are also lots of whole stitch cross stitch charts (which can be stitched as is in needlepoint). I’m particularly fond of the mosaic motif in the previous post. But there are tons of great ideas in that post (A is for Apple, that great rooster) and in the Valentine’s motifs, she’s been posting all week.

If you’re in need of a little pick-me-up, especially in light of the recent snow storm, take a look and give yourself a present. In fact, I’m going off to print a bunch of my favorites right now.


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Related posts:

  1. Freebie Alert — Poodle Outline
  2. Great Source for Free Needlepoint Charts
  3. Needlepoint Leaf Ornament Pattern – freebie alert
  4. Little Amish Quilt Freebie – Sneak Peek
  5. Kilim Designs in Needlepoint – Book Review

Go here to read the rest:
Freebie Alert – New Needlepoint Designs

Amigurumi Ukulele

Amigurumi? Check. Ukulele? Check. Anthropomorphic-stop-motion- beach-action? Check! [via boingboing]

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How-To: Stencil Plates

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I love this fun way to spruce up old plates with simple stencils and spray paint from 101-woonideeen. It would be a great way to add a decorative touch to any wall or shelf. [via Bloesem]

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