Pretty Little Presents (Lark Books, $17.59 US, $23.50 CAN) is a compilation of 29 gift-related sewing projects created by 17 different designers. As the title indicates, each project is “little,” which for the most part means not overly time intensive or involved.

Many of the projects can be recreated using scraps such as the “I Heart You Coasters,” “All Buttoned Up” napkin rings, and the “Keep Your Place” book mark. Other projects use a minimal amount of fabric, so phat quarters are ideal if you are like me and enjoy collecting those for your fabric stash.

When I picked this title from the book club I joined, I anticipated that I would probably want to make most of the projects, but after looking it over, I can’t really say that. I could see myself maybe finding the desire to making about half of them, which isn’t too bad. Now, this is me. If you are the type of person that needs to make lots of small gifts (for the baby sitter, teacher, house keeper, third cousin once removed), you may have a different opinion.

The main appeal of this book for me were the simple projects that would probably not take much time, especially for anyone with some sewing skill. For those who haven’t sewn very much, the projects aren’t too difficult, though the instructions may not be enough for the total newbie.

If you were thinking of paying full price for this, my suggestion is to check it out in person at a book store first.

Beading Arts
Cyndi is running a contest on Beading Arts, and the prize is an absolutely free advertisement!

About Family Crafts
Sherri shares some suggestions to help you celebrate National Craft Month.

Aileen’s Musings
Aileen’s altered a pair of old white tennis shoes and gave them a whole new look….they were pretty wild but she’s toned them down with some spray webbing. She’s even worn them out and about and received some great compliments on them!

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
Craftside’s got a post about working with grids in mixed media, a ribbon embellished quilt from The Quilt Bible, 3rd Edition, tips on outlining a photo and a bunch of journal pages from 1000 Artist Journals.

Farm Girl Roots, City Girl Style
Linda’s making progress in the sewing and craft room. Check out the closet!

Margot Potter The Impatient Crafter
Ever wondered what it takes to get a craft book published? Join Madge in this first installment in her How To Write and Publish a Craft Book series.

Stefanie Girard’s Sweater Surgery
How to make Egg Cup pincushions inspired by a wonderful project in I “Heart” Patchwork by Rashida Coleman-Hale.

The Artful Crafter
Take a spin with Eileen and Shaaron on the Craft-N-Spin crafting turntable.

I wish I could show you more than a box filled with bubble wrap, but that’s one of the downsides to doing a jewelry book. You can’t show off the finished goods until the book is published. This is the last of the jewelry for my next book, Complete Photo Guide to Making Jewelry.

This box has about 10 pieces for the gallery section as well as about 15 for three of the 10 how-to sections (bead stringing, wire work, chain making, fabrication, soldering, resin, fiber, metal clay, polymer clay, and mixed media). The total number of projects is 47, wow! Look for the book out in fall 2010, published by Creative Publishing International.

Have you ever thought of entering a craft contest? There seems to be a never ending number of them on the Internet. I even have a CFE/Contests category on this blog for just that reason.

Honestly, I’m not one to normally enter contests myself, mainly due to lack of time, but this article from a Meylah, entitled “Everyone Wins: Why You Should Enter Contests,” got me thinking more seriously about the additional benefits to entering contests other than winning.

Generally, some of the reasons suggested in this article includes added professional exposure; a chance to expand your creativity; trying something different than you might usually do when it comes to your normal crafting direction; and creating traffic for your blog, shop, or web site.

If you aren’t normally the type to enter contests, then you may think differently after reading this article.

My husband and I have a special place in our hearts for our local Humane Society because two of our “boys” came from there, Jasper and Rocky.

We provide a membership donation every year, and in addition, we donate hand-craft jewelry items for the group’s annual Fur Ball, which has a silent auction. This year, though we’ve been really busy with the book, we managed to put a few special jewelry pieces together for the auction.

I made the attached charms on these earrings using silver metal clay, and then just added some hematite heart beads and Swarovski crystals.

My husband made the jump rings using sterling silver round wire and then assembled it into a bracelet. He added a lobster claw clasp and one of my metal clay silver  heart charms.

Hopefully, both of these jewelry pieces will bring in a little money for the cause.

Cathie Filian
Turn a hardware store washer into a papered necklace with Cathie’s tutorial.

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
At Craftside there is tutorial on turning a box into a book, how to paint a bunny rabbit and carrot Chinese brush style, putting words on a spoon and a sneak peek into the new book 1000 Ideas from 100 Fashion Designers with my own fashion star sighting.

Farm Girl Roots, City Girl Style
Organization in her creative space isn’t Linda’s forte, so check out a “before” shot. Any ideas on getting her craft room organized are welcome–post a comment with your ideas.

About Family Crafts
Sherri challenges you to create your own leprechaun trap. Use her tips and the photos that have been submitted so far for inspiration.

Aileen’s Musings
Come journey with Aileen along her creative process as she transforms a paper napkin into 3 whimsical pieces of art!

Margot Potter The Impatient Crafte
Make a fab mixed media journal cover with Madge in this week’s post for iLoveToCreate!

Mixed Media Artist
Cyndi tried having some custom-printed fabrics made, and she learned a lot in the process.

Stefanie Girard’s Sweater Surgery
Consider a Mixed Media Greeting Card Album using embellishment ideas from the book The Scrapbook Embellishment Handbook by Sherry Steveson.

The Artful Crafter
Eileen shares directions for making flowers from fabric scraps or from paper coffee filters.

The Crochet Dude
Drew reveals his favorite cookbooks and answers 8 important questions.

Included on my “after the book is done to-do list” is to resuscitate my poor little (sad) Etsy shop. I think I’ve got something like 3 things in it right now! But, it takes time if you want to make a go of anything, especially a business. Sometimes I wonder why I even bother when I have so little time to devote to it and there are so, so, so many jewelry people over there.

Then I read one of the latest “Quit Your Day Job” articles, and I realize that yes, it does take time to develop a successful shop over there (as in it’s not going to happen over night, folks) and yes, it can actually be worth it if I ever do find the time. This series is always enjoyable and informative, but one of the more recent additions is even more so because it features a jewelry designer, yeah!

K. Gardner Designs talks about how she started with just a small investment and eventually turned her jewelry business into a full-time gig. As of this post, she boasts an impressive 1,838 sales, and her membership dates back to January 2008 (which may or may not be the date she started her shop since many members, like myself, open accounts but not necessary shops right after joining).

One detail that I noticed after taking a look at her shop is that like many of the more successful Etsy shops, K. Gardner’s shop is very focused on a specific style. She has a niche, a look, a signature if you will: “Chic Jewelry for Bridal and Everyday” is how she puts it. She isn’t all over the road trying to sell 10 different styles of jewelry or even a mix of crafts for that matter. In fact, I know some Etsy members will open more than one shop just so that they can create a niche feel to each one.

This idea of “niche” is something I’m still trying to figure out myself over there, so perhaps that is why it was so noticeable to me. I like to make so many different types of jewelry as well as other crafts that finding one focus has been difficult. For writing, being all over the road trying all types of techniques has worked for me because it means I have more to write about. However, a clear focus is really something I think is important if you are trying to stand out in a sea of other crafts in a network as large as Etsy.

February is almost gone, and March looks like it will be just as busy for me. One of my commitments includes presenting at the Indian River State College Writer’s Weekend in Ft. Pierce, Florida on March 27th and 28th, 2010. The weekend kicks off early Saturday morning with presentations on various writing subjects such as style and literary conventions. I’m scheduled to present “When Life Gets in the Way: Finding Time to Write” at 3pm. My title is pretty much self-explanatory, but I’ll be giving tips and suggestions for meeting deadlines, both self-imposed and from clients. Saturday participants will be served lunch about mid-way through the day, and the last presentation is at 4pm.

Sunday starts up again, this time at 1:00pm and ending at 4pm. It includes more presentations and an assessment of writing samples from participants/attendees. The assessments involve submitting work before the workshop and meeting with English faculty for review and suggestions.

Last year’s writer’s weekend filled up quickly, so anyone interested in attending should sign up as early as possible. For more information, call 772-462-7708 or query rconsidi at irsc.edu for email information.

Margot Potter The Impatient Crafter
Madge is so ready for spring, how about you? Here’s a tutorial for a yarn flower loom embellished frame that’s sure to cure the winter blues.

About Family Crafts
Sherri shows you how you can transform ordinary flower pots into a variety of fun craft projects.

Aileen’s Musings
This week Aileen has a fabulous dollar store find she wants to share with you! Stop by and see what she’s created and take part in her challenge.

The Artful Crafter
If you’ve done metal embossing in the past or would like to learn about this art form, let Eileen bring you up to date.

Cathie Filian
Check out Cathie’s blog for 11 DIY wedding favor ideas.

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
Craftside has an inside peek into how to choose the right color for a design, a free pattern for knitting cuffs with the boy/girl icons on them, a fun logo made with a scribble, a tutorial on how to make a Steampunk style necklace with a recycled soda can and polymer clay heart and some Lisa Kettell news about her Art Opera.

Cross Stitch at About.com
Connie’s added more stitchable signs to her Laundry Room Collection - add a little humor to a household chore.

Farm Girl Roots, City Girl Style
Being creative for a cause is great inspiration. Check out what Linda did with some t-shirts for Camp Shaw’s silent auction.

Mixed Media Artist
Want to try a little layers experiment in Photoshop?

Stefanie Girard’s Sweater Surgery
See how to make a Chain Soup and Photo necklace inspired by the fab book Chain Style by Jane Dickerson.

I haven’t been as chatty about my latest book project as some might have expected me to be. Some of it is because I don’t like to give away too many details until it is all put to bed, but also, I’ve just been worked my you-know-what off so much on it that I haven’t had time to blog about it! However when I look ahead on the horizon, I see the end is near.

The last major deadline is only weeks away at this point, and unfortunately, I have a lot more to do than I would normally like to at this point.  Don’t get me wrong. I have a lot done. I should actually say “we” because my husband is helping me on this project, especially when it comes to some of the metal sections. So we have a lot done. Still, this project has been so large that it has just about done me in. It includes 10 sections, each with a different type of jewelry: bead stringing, wire, chains, soldering, fabrication, fiber, resin, mixed media, polymer clay, and metal clay. Three of the ten sections I contracted out, and now that I look back, I probably should have done that for a few more sections, just to give myself a little break. Each section includes techniques and then 4 to 5 projects. Yes, do the math, 10×4 = 40, and actually, there are a number of sections with 5 projects, so there will be more than 40 projects total when all of this is wrapped up.

We are finishing up the soldering chapter and will take lots of pictures for that this weekend. My husband actually did all of the projects for that, and boy, they are very cool. He really has a good sense of design. Now getting him to explain his process to me so that I can write it down has been challenging, but we are managing to do it.

I’m also in the middle of the metal clay section, so I have projects in various stages, some drying, some ready to fire, some still rolling around in my head. Again, looking back, I should have done this section sooner because of the time involved with drying and firing pieces. It’s not a huge amount, but you are talking at least a few days. For other types of jewelry, you don’t always have to figure in an extra day or two for stuff like that. We will also be taking metal clay pictures too this weekend.  So, Saturday and Sunday will be pictures, pictures, pictures!