How to make a macramé doll?

I'm sure you had a go at macramé at least one time in your life. It used to be immensely popular and owls and plant hangers were made abundantly. Among kids, macramé is used to make little friendship bracelets and the use of different colors of yarn makes it a fun activity.
This tutorial shows you how to make a macramé doll which you can use as a promotional item, add it to your giftwrapping, make a key chain from it, add it to party favor bags,...
Here is what you need:
cotton twine, tape, scissors, a waterproof liner, wooden beads
Cut a piece of twine, fold it double and tape it onto the table with the folded side on the bottom.
Cut another piece of twine and put it underneath the folded twine.
Then take the end of the twine underneath and put it on top of the folded twine.
Now take the twine on the right hand, put it underneath the folded twine and make sure you put the end of the twine through the loop you created first.
Now pull on both sides. Your first macramé knot is ready.
Repeat the above process a few times. Always put the twine over the folded thread where you see the little bump (right in this picture)
Then you go with the twine through the loop on the other side.
Make about 5 knots.
Then you pull the wooden bead through the folded part of the twine.
You see a loop on top of the head now. This might be too long so pull the little doll's legs until you think it's long enough. Leave room to make a knot too.

Then make knots on all the ends of the doll for the arms and legs.
Cut off the twine that is too much.
Draw a little happy face on the wooden bead.
The little macramé doll is ready to conquer the world now...

Dream in progress... part 5

Uh oh, am I in trouble for not getting much to show this week?
I have had a very hectic week so only got one of the two 12 round squares done of The Babette blanket I'm making.
I hope to show the second square one next week. :)
Since I thought it was so little to show you, I decided yesterday evening to wip up something fast and fun. I'm subscribed to Lion Brand's newsletter. It arrives every friday and it has lots of fun links to patterns and projects. Last friday, this chrysanthemum flower was the crochet flower of the week. It looked like fun to make so I gave it a go.
I decided to use the sugar 'n cream yarn that my friend Stephanie sent me just because...
I'll make a brooch out of this and if you like to receive it, please leave a message. I'll pick one lucky person in my next saturday crochet post. :)

Time to play

Earlier this week, new supplies arrived. Yay!
Since I was expecting them, I fired sample tiles last weekend.
Time to play! The first set is the same set of tiles I made a few weeks ago, only, I now use the new oxides.

Bare tiles

Tiles with oxide on

Tiles with oxide washed off

I made some tiles with new textures I intend to use in future. And those needed to be colored with all oxides I have. I put several different textures on one tile so it would save me some work.

Bare tiles

Tiles with oxide on

Tiles with oxide washed off

They are all ready to be fired now. I'll show the results on my blog soon! :)

My creative space

Yesterday I got some new supplies in the mail. I'll be making more sample tiles today but first I'm making colored clay slib (engobe). I have bought ready made stuff but it's so easy and much cheaper to make it yourself.
The downpart is that some of these oxides are very poisonous so I'm protecting myself well as you can see! :)Want to show your creative space? Hop over to Kootoyoo's to play! It's fun! :)
Kirsty challenged us for next week's creative space - I'm already getting giddy for that so stay tuned! :)

I also want to tell you that I have been really behind on my blogroll. Either I follow to many blogs or I have too little time to do it all. Please know that I do try to hop into your blogs but since I'm only human... ;)

How to make a sketchbook?

Did you know I am really terrible at drawing? I am!
But sometimes, there are so many ideas in my head that I just need to scribble them down somewhere. I really wish I could draw better but hey, I've got other qualities I suppose... Anyway, I needed a little sketchbook at a certain size and decided to quickly make myself one.
And while I did that, I took some pictures so I could share this with you.

Here is what you need:
A cutting mat, a cutting liner, a cutting tool, a scoring tool, a pencil and eraser, paper, cardboard, book screws and a hole puncher.
I wanted a sketchbook in the size of a square of 15cm by 15cm or 5,91" by 5,91" so I could scribble my wall art ideas in there.
I cut my paper larger because I will make folds in them: 15cm by 19cm or 5,91" by 7,48"
From the cardboard I made a template of 15cm by 17cm or 5,91" by 6,69"
Put the template on top of the paper and make a scoring line.
Fold the paper back on the scoring line and go with your scoring tool over the paper.
Use the template to cut out the cover of the sketchbook. Make it a tiny bit larger then the paper. That way, it will cover the paper that is not folded or cut nicely. You won't see it on the outside.
Tip: I go to home decoration stores and ask for wallpaperbooks that they are going to throw away. In those books, there usually are some very cool designs paper which are a much heavier quality then the wallpaper. You can use them perfectly for little projects like these. Fun and free!
Mark on the template where you want the holes to be. I did this 2,5cm or 0,98" from the side.Then punch a hole in the template and put the template on the folded paper. Trace the hole.
Now you can clearly see where to punch the holes.
Take your hole puncher and take the back part off so you can see where to punch.
Put a bunch of papers in between and punch the holes.
Make sure to do the same with the front cover of the sketchbook and also add a scoring line.
For the front cover, you also need to score over the paper to make it easy to open up your sketchbook.
Now you have everything ready to assemble.
Take the bookscrew and put it through the holes.
Close it up on the back of the book.
An now it's ready for me to draw. :)
Thank goodness I made this babushka stamp so it saves me to draw that shape each time! I just stamp it in the sketchbook. :)
I made numerous guestbooks and picture albums this way. Instead of using the cardboard cover, I used a thick piece of felt for it to make it prettier.
This kind of bookmaking is an easy way to add more pages later on as you can buy larger book screws.

Showing off

As I slowly want to start listing my wall art to my shop, I decided to give my newsletter readers a head start. In case you are interested in one of these two, sign up for my newsletter to find out the deal. I'll be sending off the message later tonight.
Floating on creativity was already reserved from the first day I listed the picture in my blog. A very special person bought it today. Thank you very special person! :)
These two are available:

Falling sadness
(the tears need to be fired and attached to the embroidery thread)

Disguise in ferns

Flickr favorites

1. Crochet experiments, 2. fibonacci green, 3. Escalera caracol! (Fibonacci), 4. fibonacci rabbit 2

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

For this weeks favorites, I thought it would be nice to go with a theme. My inspiration came from the picture of the crochet experiments from Sophie Buckleberry. I find it amazing how she used the Fibonacci sequence to come up with the pattern. Wish I could do that! :) I love these organic shapes. Then I used the Flickr search to find more Fibonacci treasures. Too many to make a mosaic off but these are a few of my favorites.
The Fibonacci numbers are nature's numbering system. They appear everywhere in nature, from the leaf arrangement in plants, to the pattern of the florets of a flower, the bracts of a pinecone, or the scales of a pineapple. The Fibonacci numbers are therefore applicable to the growth of every living thing, including a single cell, a grain of wheat, a hive of bees, and even all of mankind.
And above all, I think it's very inspirational on a creative level.
How about you show me a mosaic about what inspires you? :)
Post your mosaic in your blog or Flickr and I'll pop over to have a look.
Click on the link to Mister Linky below to leave your name and link please.

Dream in progress... part 4

OK, I have been cheating this week. When I realised I wasn't getting the 4 row squares done by today, I decided to make the 10 row squares ones. I only needed to make 2 of those so that was easy! :) They are quite big: 25 by 25cm or 10 by 10 inches. However, these still are not the biggest ones, I also need to make 2 pieces of 12 rows. I might do that this week as the bigger squares are quite fun to make.
Colorwise, I didn't keep to the pattern either so I'm curious to see how it will all look when it's finished.

VivaLaModa

A while ago, Loli from Gilbea asked me if she could publish some of my work in her on line magazine called VivaLaModa, a handmade fashion magazine.
At first I thought: 'what does my art has to do with fashion?' but then, the way you feel does reflect the way you look. How the outside can tell how you feel inside...
It's a great magazine to browse through and shows wonderful handmade items in a very classy way. Make sure to check it out.