Some Much Needed Monday Inspiration

Check out this wonderful flip book video of George Lange's work from 2006. Really beautiful.

via sfgirlbybay (aka Victoria Smith)

I Only Have Eyeballs For You

Is there anything better than an eyeball pin cushion? Not if you're weird like us there's not. I found these creepy cool eyeball bottlecap pin cushions while browsing through all the entries for the Softie Awards. I kept seeing these wonderful pin cushion entries and found that they were all made by VeryBigJen. She has generously shared her method for making these little beauties with a Flickr tutorial. Thanks Jen!

Design and Illustration Goodies

Here are a few links to some graphic design-y type things with an illustration site thrown in for good measure.

Create, share and search color schemes online with Adobe's Kuler.
via Spencer from Kernspiracy

Another color tool; generate a palette based on any image.
via Josh from Kernspiracy

Paul Giambarba's blog 100 Years of Illustration and Design.
via the Illustration Friday blog

Logo trends of 2006 from LogoLounge.
via Graphic Design Bar

Bazaar Bizarre at Maker Faire Application

Interested in being a vendor at Bazaar Bizarre San Francisco with the Maker Faire this year? Last year was a blast and I think this year will be even better. The big news is that the craft section is being held indoors this year! This will eliminate the problem we had with windy conditions. Over 20,000 people attended and it was the first year for this event so I think the numbers are going to be much, much higher this time. The Maker Faire will be held on Saturday and Sunday, May 19th and 20th, 2007 at the San Mateo Fairgrounds. Deadline for BazBiz applications is March 25, 2007.

Grandma's Lawn Chair Redux

Remember those old plastic-webbing-clad aluminum lawn chairs from your youth? The ones that your grandparents brought out for the family picnics? April from Rosewebs has found a new, and dare I say, better use for that durable but stiff webbing that was always scratchy on bare legs. She makes the cutest little zippered pouches, clutches, wallets, and messenger bags, all from lawn chair webbing. I found her through her submission to the Bazaar Bizarre/Etsy contest and had to order a little pencil pouch. It was so adorable, and so well made, I ordered a bunch more for family and friends. She uses webbing that she finds at thrift stores and home sales but which has never been used on a chair. It's a clever use for a recycled material and I love the nostalgia factor.

We'd Like to Thank the Academy...

We were thrilled and honored to discover that we were the featured artist on The Little Bitty Kitty Show's Girl Power Moment! If you haven't heard of Little Bitty Kitty go check him out asap. We're featured in episode 8: John Wayne's Ghostie Must Die.

When we first started Four Idle Hands one of our goals was to reach the feline market and Little Bitty Kitty has helped us take this all-important first step. LBK is the definitive voice in feline podcasting and we can't say thank you enough.

Photo Gift Idea

Need a unique and inspired gift idea? Something personal, and above all useful? Then check out PicPads, notepads created from your personal photographs. I haven't ordered them yet but I'm making a mental list of potential gift recipients. The cost is only $27.95 for four 5" x 8" or four 3.5" x 8.5" notepads and you can add an inscription. Starting March 1st they'll have color notepads available but I'm a sucker for black and white photography so I'll probably stick with the original.

Thanks to Lori for the reminder on this! (I think I may have also seen them last year on Fototiller.)

Prolific

I'm reading a book about Picasso. Here is what was inventoried from all of his houses, apartments, vaults, etc. after his death. (And it took 4 years to catalogue everything by the way.)

•1,885 paintings
•7,089 drawings
•1,228 sculptures
•6,112 lithographs
•2,800 ceramics
•18,095 engravings
•3,181 prints
•149 books containing 4,659 drawings and sketches
•8 carpets and 11 tapestries

These are just the works he had in his possession. This doesn't count everything he sold or gave away throughout his life. And I think I'm doing good if I manage to get a couple of print editions out in a semester! ha!

Winners Announced!

Craft magazine announced the winners of their Valentine's Day Card challenge and they're incredible! There are three winners:

Postbird by Ciana Bodini; love the map envelope. Be sure to look at her other photos so you can see what the card looks like unfolded.
Monster Valentine Card by Blythe Church. This one is a personal favorite because it opens to reveal an anatomically correct heart pin. So cute.
Altoids Tin Valentine by Emma Axelson. I love the floating frame in the lid of the tin with the little hearts suspended there.

You can see all of the entries here.

My Bloody Valentine

Have you seen these Bloody Valentine earrings we have in the store? I love these little heartshaped hematite beads, and in two sizes no less. There's also a matching necklace if you're so inclined. Sorry, the knife is not included. You'll have to get your own Valentine's knife.

And if you're just not feeling the love this year maybe you'll relate to these Anti-Valentine e-cards by Meg. I especially like the "Do the Math" cards.

Someone's Got a Case of the Mondays

Okay, not necessarily an official case of the Mondays; just wishing it were still Sunday. I finally have our photos up from Bazaar Bizarre. We really didn't get that many good photos. Luckily Robin took some good ones of the set-up the day before. I didn't make it upstairs for any photos at all of Swap-O-Rama-Rama and of course no sponsor shots, no DIY shots, no favorite vendor shots. sigh. Actually, I'll have to remember this for next time.....on-site professional photography would be a good service to offer at a craft show. That way one person could be dedicated to just photographing everyone in their booths and taking candids throughout the show.

On another note, some fun links:
Check out these really interesting photos by Chema Madoz. via kottke.org

Serious bookbinders rejoice - extensive tutorial on case binding from Indiana University. via the Craft blog.

Don't Go Breaking My Heart

I've always loved that song by Elton John and Kiki Dee. Call me a sap but I can't resist those light-hearted pop songs of the 70's. But I digress....I really want to tell you about Craft magazine's Recycle Your Heart Valentine's Day Card Contest! Put your creative genius to work and fashion a Valentine's Day card from recycled materials. And they're not limiting it to paper either, so this is a good excuse to get crazy with found objects and unusual materials. Hurry though, the deadline for entering is Friday, February 9th at 5 pm PST. Ooooooo, one of the judges is Megan Reardon of Not Martha; I love her blog!

Splenda heart garland by Rakka.

And the Winner Is......

Congratulations to JackRabbit, the first place winner of the Etsy/Bazaar Bizarre Upcycle Contest! There were around a thousand entries and believe me when I tell you it was difficult to whittle the list down. Everyone put a lot of thought and time into their projects and it was very obvious that the upcycling theme really struck a chord with a lot of folks. Over the next week or so we'll be featuring some of our personal favorites so be sure to check back. There were so many beautiful, clever, and kooky items that we just can't resist pointing them out to you. They'll really get you in the mood to think creatively and be more mindful about what you're throwing in the trash. For the complete list of winners check out the Etsy blog. Many thanks to the whole gang at Etsy, and especially Matt, for doing a stellar job with this contest!

Finally, a New Use for Post-Its®

Walt must be very popular and much beloved by his coworkers because they spent a fair bit of time artfully covering his Jaguar with post-it® notes. Growing up in a household of car enthusiasts my first thought was one of concern for the finish on the car. Granted, post-it® notes are pretty benign as far as sticky stuff goes, but I wonder if they will leave any marks. heh heh We'll have to check with Steven (yes, that Steven) to get his professional opinion on the after affects of post-its® on automotive paint. In the meantime though take a look at all of the work-in-progress photos of the Jag. What I'd really like to see though is the photo of Walt's face when he went to find his car after work that day!

Found via the Flickr blog; photo by Scott Ableman.

Bag Empty - Cat Gone

I'm very excited that I can finally let everyone know about the big secret project that came up in September. I wrote a linocut tutorial for the second issue of Craft magazine and it will be out any day now! (Actually, subscribers should be receiving their copies any day and it will hit newstands on January 23rd. Subscribe here if you haven't already.) The theme for Craft:02 is Creative Copies and I can't wait to see all of the other stuff they've got in there. You've probably noticed from my earlier posts that I am a bit enamored with Craft, so to be able to write for them, about printmaking no less, is beyond exciting. I'm totally geeked about it! They're such a great group of people and the whole experience was thoroughly enjoyable.

The photo above is just one example of why you won't see anything but my hands in the article photos. ha! I have a tendency to close my eyes or make some other equally goofy face when having my picture taken. And by goofy I mean weird and frightening. But I feel good about posting this one on our blog. If I can't share embarassing photos with the whole internet then what's the point of having a blog, right?

Back Amongst the Living

Holy Smokes! I think the month of December gave new meaning to the word "over-committed." We're just now coming out of the fog of a whirlwind December and a much needed holiday rest.

Thank you so much to everyone who came out to Bazaar Bizarre and stopped by our booth to say hi! We had a great time, met lots of wonderful new people (Tess and Heather from Vermin and Tess, the uber-talented Jaime Zollars, and the infamous Matt from Etsy, to name a few) and reconnected with some old friends too. (Hi Karen!) Lori from Hip Line Media did a fantastic job with Swap-O-Rama-Rama. All eleven sewing stations were busy the entire day. And kudos to Marshall, silkscreener extraordinaire, who came to LA just for this event. He printed like a maniac all day and barely had time to eat lunch!

One last thank you to all of our volunteers.....it takes more work than you might imagine to put on events like the Bazaar and the Swap and we honestly couldn't do it without the generosity of like-minded folks who are all about promoting the DIY spirit. Thanks a million!

Bazaar Bizarre + Etsy Contest

You could be a winner! Bazaar Bizarre has teamed up with our wonderful sponsor Etsy to bring you this amazing contest which will bestow upon the winner a free booth at Bazaar Bizarre San Francisco, which is held inside the Maker Faire, along with airfare and hotel accommodations. (Well, up to $1,000 anyway.) The theme of the contest is "upcycling" a term coined by William McDonaugh and Michael Braugart in their book on ecologically intelligent design, Cradle to Cradle. Here's an excerpt from the Etsy contest page:

In the simplest terms, upcycling is the practice of taking something that is disposable and transforming it into something of greater use and value. In this contest we challenge all Etsy users to create an object to sell on Etsy that is comprised of materials that would have otherwise ended up in the trash heap.

Take a look at all the great entries that have been submitted already. You can find more details about the contest and submission guidelines here. Go ahead and open your own Etsy store while you're at it. You'll be glad you did.

Everybody's Working for the Wiikend

We picked up our new Nintendo game system a couple of weeks ago, the Wii, and let me tell you, this thing is a work of pure genius. We're not hardcore gamers by any means, so I hesitated to even blog about it, but then I realized that's the true beauty of the Wii; its accessibility to anyone! I'm lefthanded and have always had issues with "normal" handheld controllers. Computer games were fine as long as I could use the mouse and keyboard, but even joysticks presented a problem if there was a "fire" button on the side. Our most recent console purchase was the GameCube and I hardly ever played it because it was backwards. I thought I would be able to find a left-handed controller for it but alas, there is no such thing. So you can imagine how excited I was when my husband told me about this new thing called Wii. (I agree, they missed the mark on the name, but the controllers and the functionality make up for it.) The main controller is about the size of a tennis racket handle, which is very convenient for playing the Wii Sports tennis game, and an additional joystick controller attaches to the remote with a cord. Having these two components separate makes a lot of ergonomic sense and makes me wonder why it hasn't been done before now. Even for rightys it's an easier, more comfortable position for your hands and arms. The Wii controllers are sensitive to motion and position in relation to a sensor bar you set on top of your television. You get to move as if you were the game character. This is what makes the sports games so fun and also what has already led to cases of tennis elbow. I can vouch for the fact that even though you know it's a virtual game, and you know you don't really have to swing it that hard, it's difficult not to when you're trying to slam the ball over the net. And this is also why the remote comes with a wrist strap! We're still figuring out all of the Wii's bells and whistles so stay tuned for more updates.

Will It Blend?

Robin has discovered the Holy Grail of blenders! Does everyone else already know about these blenders? You've got to go to this site and check out the videos. They're divided into two categories, Don't Try This at Home, and Try This at Home. I haven't even looked at the Try This at Home videos yet because the Don't videos are so much fun. I think it's the cheesy 70's music that adds the perfect touch. Check out the Thanksgiving dinner blend and the Movie blend. Oh, and you have to see the Marbles! I can barely get my blender to chunk up a couple of ice cubes and this thing is turning marbles into dust. They're not cheap, but the ability to make every single meal into a milkshake would be well worth it.

Quirky Collectors Unite!

Angelica over at Swapatorium is compiling a list of people interested in helping each other with additions to their quirky collections. And by quirky she means things that might seem "worthless" to the uninitiated. Things like business cards, worn photos, gum wrappers, buttons, you get the idea. I signed up for ticket stubs! hooray! Members send stuff (for free) to other members on the list to help them build their collections. She's only allowing one collection item per person, and she won't list duplicates. So once she has someone down for take-out menus, which she does, she won't add anyone else who collects those. Sounds fun, huh? If you wanna play hop on over to the site and sign up. And take a few minutes to visit the rest of the site, there are some really great finds!