I surpassed my goal of 12 and have a total of 18 amigurumi toys to donate to the shelter. Along with loads of wash cloths, soaps, coloring books, blank journals, and crayons, my car is just about full, and I will be delivering the goods tomorrow.

It feels weird saying good-bye to my little gang of amigurumi, but hopefully, they will comfort a little one or at least put a smile on a few faces when they arrive at their new home.

11 Free Sundress Patterns for Summer
Summer is a great time to wear a comfy sundress, whether you are at home, in the garden or on the beach! Check out this round-up of easy sundress patterns you can sew for yourself.

Background papers galore!
Cyndi is amazed by how many tutorials she has written and collected on making background papers for your mixed media artwork!

Burlap Heart Hanger
Follow along with this tutorial and discover how easy it is to make a sweet-smelling heart using burlap.

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at our crafty world
This week at Craftside there is a video where Helen Hiebert shows of the projects feature in her book Playing With Paper, tutorials on how to make a clothespin book and a file folder book along with how to stamp on fondant and a recipe for peanut and banana whole wheat vegan muffins.

Hey You!
Cherie puts lettering on three paintings this week.

Make Your Own Glimmer Mist to Add Panache to Projects
With a few inexpensive art and craft supplies you can DIY glimmer mist. Here’s Eileen’s recipe.

The current 31 Gifts sale going on for May 2013 is a great example of what I was talking about in a previous blog post about whether or not 31 Gift products were overpriced or not. I think most of the thermal products (there are 11 of them) are generally priced okay, except for the largest, the Fresh Market Tote, which is a new product that just came out in the summer catalog. It normally retails for $50. Now this bag is super big, 10.5H” x15.5W” x10D” and it is really well made. Here is a look inside and out.



The lining is thermal so it will keep hot food out and cold food cold. It is also soft, so it expands a lot, and it’s got snaps on each side along with a strap.



At the full price of $50, it can take you aback. However, if you use one of my tricks and wait for monthly sales, then the price is very reasonable because during May 2013, this and all thermal items are half off with a $31 purchase. That brings the price down to $25.

Below is kind of a, shall I say….corny….? video, but it gives you a good idea of the size of the Fresh Market Tote. My own market tote (pictured above) is in the new Pink Pop Medallion pattern, but it is also available in Navy Cross Pop and Party Punch patterns.

I’m an independent 31 Gifts consultant, so if you are interested in finding out more about the new monthly special contact me at tammypowley [a] yahoo.com or go over to my 31 Gifts site for more information.

Sew Pretty T-Shirt Dresses is a new title from Sixth and Spring Books. It retails for $14.95 and has 25 patterns.

Here is a description from the press release I was sent: “Learn how to make a basic beautiful girl’s dress—without straining your schedule or your budget. Employing a little know-how and a lot of imagination, the designers at Sweet Seams Studio offer easy instructions for transforming a simple T-shirt into a stylish dress for a special little girl. Perfect for tomboys, fashionistas or anyone in-between—the 25 projects use playful quilting fabrics and clever embellishments to create outfits that are anything but ordinary.”

ONE!

TWO!

THREE!

You can now purchase three of my Crafty Princess Earring kits at the wholesale price. I have bundled them together to create this wholesale earring kit package. The three kits include all the materials required to make three different pair of earrings, three full-color PDF file tutorials, and three gift boxes. All of this including shipping for only $30!

These same earring kits have sold retail at a major web-based jewelry supplier for $15 each, and that does not include shipping.

Head over to my Etsy shop now, and take advantage of this limited time wholesale earring kit collection offer!

6 Mother’s Day Gifts Ideas for Kids to Make
Here are 6 fun and easy crafts your kids can make to give as Mother’s Day crafts.

ACreativeDream
June’s made an awful lot of mail art of late… come see!

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at our crafty world
This week at Craftside there is tutorial on how to draw a motorcycle, tips on working with stencils, info on leather finishes and tanning processes, and how to turn a baked potato from a fast carb into a slow carb.

Dinosaur Cake Pops
Enjoy this fun birthday party idea–dinosaur cake pops!

Finding Inspiration in the Psalms
Cherie uses the Psalms for inspiration in three new prints.

Mixed Media Artist
When you find yourself too distracted to make art, try making chocolate whiskey fudge instead!

Saturday May 4 is National Scrapbooking Day
Here are some easy scrapbook ideas. Digital layout templates allow anyone to do beautiful scrapbook layouts; or scraplift the design to do a paper one.

Above is a photo of some of the bags my craft club is putting together. They include travel soaps we have been collecting as well as hand made cotton wash cloths made by both club members and the Yahoo Crochlist, who have sent a whooping 33 wash cloths already! We are even able to double up and add two cloths per bag, which is great. It looks like I will have about three boxes full of these bags by the end of the semester.

Along with the toiletry bags, we have made blank journals and coloring books. I picked up some boxes of crayons at the dollar store. Plus, of course, there are the amigurumi toys I’ve been make. I’m up to 15 so far. I may be able to squeeze out one or two more before I deliver everything. We may also be teaming up with another club who wants to donate children’s books to the shelter. So I will have one full car when I make the final delivery!

Like any dedicated crafter, I try to make sure I have a small project with me pretty much all the time, just in case I have any downtime or, in my case lately, I’m stuck in a meeting and need something to keep myself busy. I am not the type that can just sit and listen without doing something or my mind wanders. In the past, I have either taken notes that I never actually go back and reference or I would doodle. Now that I have come out of the crochet closet and crochet during meetings (at least many of them), crocheting a wash cloth is my form of doodling.

Luckily, one of my favorite 31 bags is perfect for keeping my yarn, books, ipad, phone, wallet, keys… umm……yeah..everything but the kitchen sink handy.

Recently, I posted some tips about getting good deals on 31 Gifts bags, and I briefly mentioned one of my favorite bags and showed a picture of it along with a smaller bag, but I did not give details about these two bags, so here goes:

• The larger bag is called the Cindy tote, and retails for $70 (unless you use my tips for getting deals of course…I paid $35 for mine). It has a zipper on the top to close it up, and it has two outside pockets on each end that are large enough to hold a water bottle, a large zippered inside pocket, and three other inside pockets. There is also a hook inside for attaching your keys. It has a flat base with little metal feet, so it stands up (when you put stuff in it), and it comes in 4 different patterns. Mine is in Railroad Denim.

• The smaller bag is part of a set of make-up bags that come together. The set retails for $35, and they come in 5 different pattern groupings. For mine, the larger makeup bag is in Woodblock Floral, and the smaller one (that goes in my Cindy tote) is in Grey Pin Dots.

I have been trying to figure out a good bag solution like this for awhile and before discovering 31 bags I was looking a lot at Namaste’s products, but the large bags are all are made of vinyl, which I’m so-so on. The Cindy tote has plenty of room for a skein of yarn plus all my school stuff, and I keep a little pair of scissors and a crochet hook (along with makeup, pens, and other odds and ends) in the smaller makeup bag. They work perfectly together, and I now always have a project handy just in case I’m stuck somewhere.

When I originally signed up to be a 31 Gifts independent consultant, I have to admit that I was a little surprised at some of the prices. Some products are very reasonable, especially considering the quality, but others, seem a little on the high side. In fact, price is the main issue that I’ve heard commented on from folks when I have shown them some of my 31 bags: “I wouldn’t pay that much for a bag!”

I agree. And you do not have to pay full price for many of the 31 products, at least you don’t if you follow a few tips I’ve used myself to get great deals. For example, pictured above are two bags I use just about every day. The largest bag is called the Cindy tote, and it normally retails for $70. How much did I pay for it? I paid half of that, $35!

So before anyone dismisses 31 Gift bags as costing too much, here are some tips you should use so that you can get quality products at bargain prices:

• Check the current monthly special. If you go to my 31 Gifts web site, you will see rotating images that have information about new products, contests, and the current monthly special. Every month, the company has a deal of some kind, normally a purchase with a purchase type deal. For example, when I bought my Cindy tote, the monthly special was spend $31 and get another select bag for half off. I selected the Cindy tote as my half off item.
• Check with me (tammy powley @ yahoo dot com) about future monthly specials. Since I am an independent consultant, I get to know about future monthly specials coming up. Sometimes I will know what the specials are for the next two months coming up. This way, you can find out which works best for your needs and plan ahead.
• Host a 31 Gifts party and get discounted and free products. You do not have to have a bunch of people come over to your house. I can set up a web-based party for you, and as the host, you just need to invite a few friends. They can shop on-line or through a hard copy catalog. I will write a post sometime with more details about how a web party actually works, but as far as bargains go, this is how that works: A party has to have a minimum of $200 in sales. With that, the host receives $25 in her choice of free products, an opportunity to purchase any item of her choice for half the retail value, and a chance to purchase special discounted products only available to the host. As the sales go up past the minimum, so do the host’s benefits, meaning more freebies and more discounts.
• Host a web party during your favorite special. As a double whammy, keep an eye on the monthly specials, and then when you see one that you like, schedule your party (with me of course) so that you get double the goodies, free products plus extra discounted products.

My strategy is not really groundbreaking. Just like any place you shop, it’s really all about the specials and discounts and timing your purchases around these. If you go into any department store, you will see lots of bags that are regular price, but if you are like me, you head to the back where the marked down bags are kept. The difference with 31 Gifts is that you don’t have to trudge to a mall or buy bags that have been handled by a zillion other people, and many of the bags and other 31 products do not have a department store equivalent anyway. Instead, you can relax at home and flip through a catalog, either on-line or in your hands, and you still get an opportunity to get plenty of bargains.

Running Press sent me a review copy of a new title called Cut Up This Book: Special Occasions: Step-By-Step Instruction for Festive Decorations, Invitations, and Moreby author Emily Hogarth, and yes, you literally can cut this book up and make all kinds of fun paper-art items like cards, garlands, cup cake toppers, and other adorable decorations. The copyright on this book is May 2013, but I noticed it is already available through Amazon.com. It normally retails for $19 US and $22 Canadian. It has a flexbind cover book, is 144 pages long, and is divided into three sections: Getting Started; Project; and Templates.

In the Getting Started section, it explains about the tools and materials you need to make many of the projects in the book, and it has photograph step out images for the techniques too. My only slight beef about this section (and this could be due to my age) is that some of the text is a little hard to read. It is chock full of information, which means in some cases lots of text on pages, and that text could be larger for some of us over-40 types.

There are 25 projects in the second part of the book, and a good number are clever but also easy to accomplish. For example, there is the “Cake Toppers,” which uses a little paper and tape to make a cute “Congratulations” sign to but on top of a cake, or another favorite of mine are the “Food Flags.” Again, you just cut the paper as described in the step by step instructions (which include step out photographs too), stick it on a toothpick, and you end up with little flags to stick into sandwiches that say “ham” or “chicken.” How easy is that and how practical too?

Finally, you get to actually cut up the book in the third section that has loads of templates and decorative paper. Each page of this section corresponds to projects in section two of the book. There are total of 60 templates, and while you can just cut out what you need directly from the book, the instructions also suggest that you can photocopy or trace images as well. Each template is numbered and includes the project name and page number it goes with also.

Considering all of the templates and papers you get in addition to the projects, I think this is book is a bargain.