happy mother's day, and tiger babies

my mom is for sure a big reason why i love crafts. when my brother and i were little she always made sure that there were art supplies available to us all the time, and made us homemade playdoh and potato stamps. i learned many crafts from her directly, like sewing and knitting. my mom is the kind of crafter (and compulsive teacher) who is interested in almost any craft activity and wants to try it herself. from her, i picked up the idea i could replicate (almost any) crafty project i see, and that of course handmade gifts are best!
so when several of my friends became mothers for the 1st time this spring, of course i wanted to make handmade presents for their babies. i used japanese kimono tops (so soft, and so practical and easy to tie), and did a little handmade stamping. since these babies were all both in the year of the tiger (2010) i reused my tiger cub stamp from my new years cards, and added some bamboo.
the bamboo stamp was really fun to do, making different combinations of the leaves and stalks. of course i used the wonderful stamp carving material available here in japan, which i also have in my shop.
here's what the stamps looked like.

come to think of it, my mom was also a champion card maker with lino prints from back in the day. i bet she would enjoy rubber stamp carving.

what about you? what crafts did you learn from your mom or enjoy together?

happy mothers day!

elephant bib project in process

i've been doing some crafting for friends with new babies recently, and this project is something i've been thinking about for a long time--i love these tiny elephants and especially how they look together with multiple colors. also, i now have elephant fat quarter sets in the shop, which is something else i've been planning to offer for a while.

i made a simple paper pattern for the bib, using a 5 cm grid. unfortunately, all the babies i know are far away, and i just made up the pattern based on what looked reasonable to me. i tried one with pieced blocks of fabric,
and one with more strips of elephants in rows.
the bibs will be reverseable, and i'm thinking about using this cute mouse fabric for the other side, or using larger peices of the same elephant fabric. what you do think? which would be better?

felting for baby

this book is one of the newest additions to the makegoodbooks craft + life series, which provides english versions of japanese craft books! by saori yamazaki, felting for baby is the english version of the japanese 'small articles made of wool felt for baby,' with the same sweet projects.

usually japanese craft books are quite easy to follow even without being able to read the text, but the english version will be especially useful for beginning felters. this book covers several basic methods and feltmaking techniques (both wet and needle felting, making felt balls as well as felting around a resist), and these processes are explained clearly with step by step english instructions along with photos. so not only are the projects cute (of course!) but this book would be a great resource for a beginning felter, or someone who wanted to try some intermediate projects.

oh, and there are a few free downloads from the book available on the makegoodbooks website too!

elephants are back!

look at these adorable baby shoes by mette from erleperle (where there's also a link to the pattern if you want to try to make them yourself).

the fabric she used is the wonderful and wildly popular elephant linen/cotton print that is available in a number of different colors. and i just restocked it in my etsy shop in almost all of them!

let me tell you, it was quite wonderful to visit the fabric shop again after being out of commission for a month with a broken foot. i'm still using crutches, but at least i can walk around using two shoes. i came dangerously close to buying more fabric than i could carry home, which i still have to photograph for an update later this week.

ipod nano sleeve

the felt ipod nano sleeve is finally up in the shop!
here are some hand felted and naturally dyed baby booties that went out today.

vote TODAY on change.org to save handmade!

have you been following the news about the c.p.s.i.a.? it stands for 'consumer products safety improvement act,' new legislation slated to go into effect on february 10th.

the idea behind the new law is to protect children from toxic products. but the way the law is currently written, even small and home based business who make all natural items in small batches for children would be forced to pay exorbitant testing fees to say in business legally.

the image above is from cool mom picks.

there is a lot of information available at http://www.handmadetoyalliance.org

most importantly, today is the last day to vote at www.change.org!!

hand made baby gifts japanese craft book

i just listed this book in my etsy shop. it may be the cutest book yet of hand made craft projects that would be the perfect gift for a new baby.

"sweet baby, hand made gifts"
ISBN 978-4-07-246385-7 i love that it includes such a wide variety of projects and different kinds of crafts, from sewing, embroidery, applique, and handmade rubber stamps. you can more pictures on my flickr account, in the japanese craft book set, but here are just a few more.