Category Archives: crafty books

Stuffed magazine

Apparently, not only has this publication been around for a while, but it’s only published twice (?) a year. But I have to tell you it’s the cutest magazine, full of such eye candy.

I had one in my hand during one of my cross border expeditions but I passed on actually purchasing it. I regret that now. It’s hard to find now since it’s published in January, and I’ve found it once here in Canada and it was $15 which just sort of breaks my brain and I can’t part with all that money for it.

I did find a download for a bit cheaper online, well I think it was $10 so not *that* remarkably cheaper.

I tried to be a cheater pants and take screen shots of parts of it but they seem to be onto that sneaky trick. You’ll just have to trust me it’s a super fun magazine. Find a copy and flip through it.

USA shopping scores

Well I guess it’s about time I actually sit down to write this post about the fun things I picked up on my USA excursion at the beginning of the month.

I got this amazing bag, that I’ve been using almost non stop since, for $3. Actually, not even $3 I’m rounding up. Insanely good find.

I got some great clothes, which I suppose call for some outfit posts. But that’s a tricky one since I’m usually the one behind the camera, I really need to change that.

Other than that my scores happened in JoAnn’s, surprise surprise.

Some FQs just because.

A taste of Denise Schmidt.

Some yardage. Apparently I was in a floral sort of mood.

Whales because how could I not buy those!?! Sure I had a moment of “Gee I’m 30 something should I really be shopping from the juvenile section for myself!?” but I *had* to get these whales.

And I found an english translation of a Japanese craft book I already own. Since I had some coupons the book was half price and I figured it might work like a little guide to help me decode my ever growing stash of Japanese craft books. I have 2 new Cotton Time magazines and today I figured out which symbols say ‘fold’ so I’m pretty proud of myself.

I know it involves more hexies but I need to get around to making this, again it’s just too awesome.

I also picked up some ridiculously cute scrubs that I plan to hack to bits and sew into other stuff.

Fun Fabrics

I was asked recently by My Girl Thursday to share my sources for the fun fabrics I have. She says she has the bug now, if you kind of sort of like fabric I’d leave now because you’ll be totally addicted to hoarding it after this post. Almost all of mine comes from Etsy shops so I’ll share some of my favs with you. Sometimes I just do a search for scraps, but my brain gets confused with number crunching the prices and shipping combos and I usually head back to the stores I know.

I’m addicted to cutesy Japanese prints. Boqinana has great stuff. It’s so hard not to fill my cart with ribbon after ribbon after ribbon. This store is also full of some great fabrics.

This and That from Japan . . . well the store name says it all. Sadly on vacation at the time of posting this but check back, it’s totally worth it. They carry great fabrics, supplies and craft books. Pages and pages of awesome I tell you!

The Hey Day Shop has fun fabrics and usually has a selection of scrap packs to choose from.

I’ve ordered from The Dainty Squid’s destash store before, not sure if it’s still up and running.

The only place I’ve been able to find fun Japanese fabrics in person is at Quilt A Bag in Markham, which is only good to know if you live nearish to there. The ladies are lovely and they carry a lot of Japanese craft books and supplies for projects, coin purse frames, handles, cute ribbons, Japanese craft books. They attend the Creativ Festival in October and carry a lot of great kits with everything you need to finish the project.

I’ve ordered vintage fabrics from Pink Fawn Designs before. While it’s pretty easy to find vintage linens if you go thrifting you can expand your collection, handy if you have a certain project in mind, and not have to use the entire sheet you bought on the one project.

Starlit Nest has packs sorted by designers, themes and even offers a big ole flat rate box deal. Shop 4 Craft has some great wooden buttons, if I’m just in the mood for buttons I go there if I have a hankering for fabric I’ll hit one of the shops that carries fabric AND buttons and get all splurgey.

For snaps I go to Cowgirl Snaps. When I found this shop I thoguht that the pictures must be tweaked adn there’s not way the colours could be that vibrant but when they arrived they were amazing. The colours are great and there are options for mixing and matching.


On my wish list are these great fun scraps. Sometimes, being in Canada, it’s hard to find scraps worth purchasing because shipping can get ridiculous. Someday I’ll splurge on these teeny bits of loveliness.

Small business reading.

Ok so as I’m writing this post about all the craft business books I have piled up to read, physical and eformat, what do I do? Wander off to read an Etsy article and end up buying this! I’m insane. I’m like a craft book hoarder. Someone else please tell me you have this problem too.

Ok so here are some of what’s in my stash and hopefully I can get through them this summer and start implementing all my great learnings in the fall.

I have read Creative Inc, however I read it in my KOBO app and made notes there and since my app died on me a few times I’ve lost those notes. So a re-read is in order.

I’ve also read Handmade Marketplace, but I forget all the wisdom. Sheesh, for a teacher I’m apparently a terrible reader and retainer . . .

Mom Inc is a great read, I’m about half way through when a shiny object distracted me. What I like about this book is that it’s written by 2 Canadian ladies and since often it’s US authors writing small business books there’s entire parts that just don’t apply, mostly financial bits. It’s nice to read things from my own country since getting supplies and shipping costs and financials are so different from country to country.

Craft Business Handbook is yet another book I carry around in my bag and might maybe sort of look at from time to time . . . kinda. This book is written by a UK author but so far I haven’t found that too much info doesn’t apply.

Crafty Superstar is in progress . . . yeah I have a lot of those.

Mollie wrote about this book so of course it’s on my wish list now.

I know I’ve already got my work cut out for me here but if you know of a book I’ve missed, small business of creative type stuff, please leave a comment! Also, if you’ve actually finished any of these and have anything review-like to say you can do that too.

Yes, another craft book!

About sewing totes and bags no less! Because I need more of those. My copy of Lisa Lam‘s new book arrived and I love it. This Too Cool for School Satchel is amazing, but it looks like an ambitious project.

This one is great too, just a compact little thing to carry a few necessities to a craft show or conference.

Can’t wait for school to end and have those empty days to sneak in some sewing between playing with my kids!

Craft and Click

I’ve had a digital subscription to Mollie Makes since the first issue. If you download the Mollie Makes app from the app store and purchase your magazines there they also have this magazine for sale. I was debating purchasing it for a while and wasn’t sure I should.

Then I finally caved and bought it. I was a bit disappointed flipping through it at first, it starts with simple things I knew like making your Facebook page and setting up Twitter. But then I realized if you’re relatively new to social media or have just started a blog it could be useful.

Then as I flipped through it I started to jot notes on a little paper. Blogs I hadn’t heard of, sites to explore, I ended up filling the entire paper and having to flip it over and scrawl on the back.

I still have to make the time to check it all out but thought I’d share that this magazine is worth the few dollars it costs! Oh, so is Mollie Makes!

Garden Gnomes

I’m published again! This book was recently released by Forklore Publishing and one of my cup cozy patterns is included. It’s a DIY book all about Garden Gnomes! There are some really fun projects included and they use a wide variety of materials. There are a bunch of contributors as well. Click this link for a peek at the projects, click here to purchase. There’s a print version that comes with the digital one for free, or you can buy just the digital.

Zakka Style sewalong

Catching up on the Zakka Style sew along. Here’s my project.

Here’s Ayumi’s creation. You can see more in the Flickr pool.

Spot my cozies on the Martha Stewart Show!

Well thanks to some help from Outright.com to pay for my part of my Etsy Success Symposium trip, I was able to justify traveling back to NYC this past weekend to be part of The Etsy Show at the Martha Stewart Show. It was a special show with the audience made up of only Etsy sellers. We were invited to attend, many of the people had been at the symposium as well.

I know I still haven’t gotten to writing much about that day yet and here I am forging ahead but at the symposium I sort of stood out, being Canadian, having travelled so far, receiving the Outright scholarship thingie. I was known to Etsy admin and some of the people attending.

It was really neat to bump into many of them on Monday again. In fact, things ran a bit late and I realized it was after 4 and I had a 7:30 flight so I ran down to jump in line in front of Etsy admin Kimm so I could get out quick and run off to the subway. Luckily she remembered me, she had the job of telling all the people who were given corporate gifts at the symposium the good news so we spent some time talking.

The show is going to air tomorrow details here. I’m not even sure we get the channel up here in Canada so someone let me know if you get to see me waving my cup cozies around. I’m the one in the green shirt with a white cardigan. The girl behind me had a giant sparkly M so that might distract you but try to look out for me will ya!

Friday Create Along

Now in the interest of being totally honest, I have to tell you I’m usually finishing my projects on Thursday nights. Which is ok with me, but usually leaves me scrambling for photos the next day! This week I was done my project on Saturday. Yes Saturday. Probably because it involved cracking open my copy of Zakka Style by this lovely lady and I couldn’t wait to get sewing.

I actually even made 2 kits since I’m involved in a handmade swap right now and I enjoyed the project a lot.

I hope she likes it! Anyone know where you can get awesome pins like those?! I can’t find any fun pins anywhere. These ones were gifts from Amy during the swaps where we happened to get each other, it’s happened twice.

Since I’m so busy this weekend, being away and all, I’m not going to choose a project for next week. I proclaim it a Create Along vacation. I’m allowed, it’s my blog.

Zakka Style Sew Along

If you have a copy of Zakka Style and are interested in a sew along there’s one going on over here. I’ll kinda sorta play along, I’m a free spirit and like to jump around and not follow directions exactly.