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.
Crepe paper is not just used for party streamers, either. It can be used in making craft flowers, or in costuming. Crepe paper is sold in long narrow strips that are up to two inches in width. It also comes in folded or flat sheets.
Go here to see the original:
Crepe Paper Streamers – How and What?
There are a lot of electric sewing machines on the market. Some are more expensive, and some are less, but there are some features of the Singer 7470 Confidence that make it better than the rest.
Read the original:
Is the Singer Confidence the Right Sewing Machine For You?
It truly does not need to be all that hard to come up with a digital scrapbooking notion, and you just ought to be creative and innovative. You can find also many terrific resources out there which you can use to your advantage and use to assist you come up with a digital scrapbooking idea, one on the finest resources of all being the digital scrapbooking plans which are available.
See the article here:
Making Use of a Digital Scrapbooking Software
Scrapbooking is one of the oldest and most widely loved hobbies in the world, and it really is actually no wonder why. It is really a fun and enjoyable way of displaying your personal memories and mementos, and surely a hobby that everyone ought to try at least after.
Excerpt from:
Anniversary Scrapbook Concepts – Figure Out If It’s Working Or Not
When planning a scrapbook it could be challenging to locate inexpensive supplies. This guide is here to aid you not only locate inexpensive, but totally free scrapbooking supplies! The only thing you may require to complete your scrapbook project is really a PC with world-wide-web access and a color printer.
Here is the original post:
How to Discover Free of Charge Scrapbooking Supplies
By Diane Gilleland
Zines (short for "fanzines" or "magazines") are self-published booklets about any subject that grabs you. (Seriously, you can find a zine about just about anything.) There's a rich zine culture around the world, where music fans, writers, comic book artists, citizen journalists, poets, and others of every stripe are making, trading, and selling their creations.
Zine-making is also a fantastic activity for kids. Not only are zines a fun means of creative expression, making them gives kids a little insight into how published books and magazines are made, and may help them think more critically about what goes into those mainstream publications.
Here are some fun ways to create zine-making experiences for kids of all ages.
My son turned 8 last week, and in our family when it's your birthday you get to pick the type of cake and the birthday dinner. He chose crab legs and artichokes for dinner, which basically translates to things he can dip into butter, and Snickerdoodle for his cake flavor.
Never having heard of Snickerdoodle Cake, I scoured the internet for recipes, finally settling on one that used a cake mix (thank you, Betty Crocker!) and called for cinnamon in both the cake batter and the frosting.
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I substituted applesauce for half the butter in the cake, and sprinkled cinnamon sugar on top once it was frosted. And it was delicious, if I do say so myself! We were all amazed at how much it really tasted like a Snickerdoodle cookie, and how enjoyable that flavor sensation is in a moist cake with buttery topping. Ah, there's that butter theme again. He's obviously wise beyond his eight years...
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Download the Recipe PDF | Subscribe in iTunes Right click to save the PDF to your desktop. Directions on downloading PDFs. |
Snickerdoodle Cake with Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting
[adapted from Henrie's recipe]
Cake Ingredients
- 1 pkg. yellow or white cake mix
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 stick butter, melted
- 1/2 cup applesauce
- 3 large eggs
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
Frosting Ingredients
- 1 stick of butter, room temperature
- 3-3/4 cup powdered sugar
- 3 T milk (or a bit more to thin the frosting)
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
Fancy sugar sprinkles and more ground cinnamon on top for the finishing flourish.
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Note to Readers: There was no double-dipping in this shot. He did NOT touch the cake with the spatula again, I swear.
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and flour two 9" round cake pans.
- Place cake mix, milk, melted butter, applesauce, eggs, vanilla, and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. Mix for 3 minutes until well blended.
- Divide batter between the pans and place them in the oven side by side. Bake until they are golden brown, about 27-29 minutes.
- Remove cakes from oven and cool for 10 minutes, then invert them on a rack and cool completely.
- While the cakes cool, prepare the frosting (directions below).
- Frost the cake and put it in the fridge until the frosting sets if needed, probably for about 20 minutes.
- Sprinkle fancy sugar and a pinch of cinnamon on the top if you like, or make a simple cinnamon sugar mixture and sprinkle liberally.
- If you have leftovers (after breakfast the next morning we had nothing left), keep refrigerated.
Make the Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting
- Place butter in large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low until fluffy, about 30 seconds.
- Add powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla. Blend on low until sugar is incorporated, about 1 minute.
- Add the cinnamon, and Increase the speed to medium. Beat until light and fluffy, about 1 minute more.
- Blend in up to 1 tablespoon milk if the frosting seems too stiff.
Flickr user, sarahxsea, created this awesome cross-stitch for some friends as a thank you/housewarming gift.
They gave me an awesome Lego set of an RV when I moved into my apartment last year, so I thought I would return the favor!It's an rad gift indeed! I love it. Read the Full Story » | More on CRAFT » | Comments » | Read more articles in Cross-Stitch | Digg this!
