How-To: Chevron Chenille Baby Blanket
Looking for the perfect gift for an upcoming baby shower? Check out this chevron chenille baby blanket tutorial!
Month: July 2013
How-To: Vintage Fork Napkin Rings
Add handmade charm and quirky thrift store style to your next dinner party with this vintage fork napkin ring tutorial!
Making Fun | Sneetches: Putting Stars Upon Thars
In Dr. Seuss’s story about the Sneetches, birds with plain bellies are shunned by birds with stars on their bellies. A stranger comes to town and offers the “plain-bellies” a chance to be just like the “star-bellies” by taking a trip through his Star-On Machine. The newly-starred Sneetches are then happy, but the naturally-starred Sneetches are mad that they lost their elite status. The stranger produces a Star-Off Machine and the naturally-starred Sneetches have their stars removed, but then are followed by the newly-starred. All the Sneetches make multiple trips through both machines until they have spent all their money and none of the Sneetches can remember who was previously a star-belly and who was previously a plain-belly. The stranger packs his machines and drives off with all the Sneetches’ money. The Sneetches, not remembering each other’s status, stop worrying about stars and begin to all come together in a society free of discrimination. Inspired by this terrific story, I decided to make the Sneetches and their machines for my young boys.
Threadbanger’s Macrame Planter
Our friends over on Threadbanger are always serving up DIY realness with their projects. I love that their spin on a macrame planter involves bold colors and GOLD.
How-To: Easy Felt Needle Book
Keep your pins, needles, and other sewing sharps organized and within reach with this easy felt needle book tutorial.
Cardboard Heaven
Artist Nina Lindgren created this amazing sculpture from cardboard called Cardboard Heaven.
Lighthouse Charter School: A Beacon for Making
In spite of its gritty industrial location near the Oakland International Airport, Lighthouse Community Charter School is one of the most in-demand schools in Oakland. The high walls and black security fences keep unwanted visitors out, but the popularity of the school makes it hard for prospective students to get in, too. Last year there were 700 applicants for just 60 open seats. The school holds a lottery to see who attends. And for good reason. Ninety five percent of the school’s graduates leave ready for college—90 percent of whom are the first members of their family to go college.
That may come as a surprise in a school where 85 percent of students are low-income and 50 percent come from families living below the poverty line.
Starting next year Lighthouse will soon have another distinction: this fall it will become one of the the first public schools in the U.S. to make making part of a campus-wide curriculum.