In Need of Some Crafty Inspiration?

Kathy over at Kathy's Cottage is giving away the cutest black and white apron. She's part of One World-One Heart 2009 and there are an amazing amount of craftsters, photographers, jewelery makers, and artists of all mediums over there. There is a huge list of participants, over 400 and growing. Each one has a link and each one has a give away. It's a great way to find a lot of inspiring work all in one go. Or should I say several goes since it'll take hours to go visit them all. I just spent over two hours, time I was going to spend working on sewing a pillow for ER's room, captivated by all the inspiring work. I am so glad to have found this medium through which so many people can share their work and ideas.

I think I may have to begin several new crafting hobbies; my husband is going to freak out! I especially like seeing all the jewelery, my MIL makes things but I haven't learned the trick to putting things together so they look pretty. The altered art was also very cool to see, that's a little closer to what I have done in the past. The vintage inspired flair to a lot of them is so beautiful. I wish I could do that style of work, but I am never happy with the results! After seeing some of the pieces that have been created I think it's time to try again. I want something that lovely for my house, and I'm so unlucky I can't count on winning anything!
One crafter in particular caught my eye, she's Nikki at WhiMSy Love. Her give away is overflowing with cuteness, I especially love the Valentine owlie plushie, {sigh} if only my little endeavors came out that nicely.

Take a look at her long list of very helpful tutorials, I want to make the hanging advent calendar, top middle photo, cause I just so happen to have an extra organizer hanging around here. On her blog she has detailed pictures of all the neat-o ways she came up with the represent the numbers like, a handprint for five, a domino for eleven, and so on. Great ideas! The fabric luggage tag she made would also be great on backpacks with your child's name, school, teacher, and room number, the paint sample notebooks are the cutest, and the felt art kit would be a great quiet activity to keep ER entertained in places like church or restaurants. I love how it can all roll up into a small zippered case to take along with you. I have lots of felt scraps, so glad I saved them! Other fun tutorials I plan to use include the button flower bouquet and felt dessert picks, I think they'd be great a pencil toppers too.

Now the point of this blog was to show off my own crafting endeavors, but sometimes one has to make exceptions. I stopped at this blog and stayed. Check it out and get your craft on! And for the record I did ask to use her pictures and she did email me and give me the go ahead, yea!

I thought of one more source for free graphics that I forgot to include in yesterday's post, it's at Homegrown Hospitality, a blog I found because I bought all four special issues of Home & Heart that featured the artwork of Stephanie Ackerman. On her blog in the left hand column there is a box titled RAK Doodles. Click on that and you'll be taken to a gallery of her doodles that you can save to your computer, print out, share, and post. Just don't sell them, but DO add a link to her blog. That's where I got the cute on in this post. She also has some fun inspirational sayings. I have a feeling this blog will become peppered with them:)