Patriotic Wooden Block Craft

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The link to this project was in my email from Michaels today. As a veteran and military spouse I have always loved the phrase "Land of the free because of the brave." I might make a sign instead of three blocks (I have sign making materials but no blocks on hand) but either way it's a lovely summertime patriotic craft. The free instructions are available here. If you don't want to click through the link you should be able to go to Michaels.com and search "land of the free patriotic blocks" for the instructions too. Happy summer and happy crafting!

Source:  http://www.michaels.com/Land-The-Free-Patriotic-Blocks/e10440,default,pd.html?cgid=projects-craftpainting-brands-americana&start=1

Drawing / Art Bootcamp Exercise

Creative Jewish Mom is conducting a drawing / art boot camp for her kids this summer. I'm thrilled that she's sharing the exercises via her blog because I'm going to join her boot camp from afar. How could I pass up free art training? I may not have been able to enjoy art as a kid but I can now. My results may very well look like they were done by a child anyway but I'm fine with that. I just want to enjoy the process.

The first exercise was to draw a horizontal pattern using two colors. I wanted to use hot pink for my second color but that marker wasn't available. The above picture is my final drawing. I wish I'd sketched it with pencil first so I could have avoided the screwy infinity symbol in the biggest butterfly but other than that I kind of like it. Can you tell the difference between the final draft (above) and the almost final draft (below)?  And if you can, which do you like better?

Source for art bootcamp: http://www.creativejewishmom.com/2012/06/building-drawing-confidence-in-kids-bootcamp.html

Cute Crocheted Cat (or Kitten)

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Saw this cute stashbuster crochetted kitty on Creative Jewish Mom today. It's so cute I might either have to learn to crochet or figure out how to transfer the crochet instructions into knitting instructions so I can make my own little crafty cat and maybe some to give as gifts for fellow cat lovers. They're adorable and what a great way to use up extra yarn (or less than one skein of yarn)!

The original source gives a nice how to tutorial here (in both German and English): http://breienenhaken.blogspot.be/2011/07/crochet-cat-free-tutorial.html. Happy crafting!

Cat Quilt

Cat Lover's Bed
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My friend Nadira posted this fantastic photo on her Facebook wall and my first thought (after "awwwww") was what a great quilt that would make. Only I don't know how to quilt yet ...but maybe someday. I think for dog (or rabbit etc.) lovers you could pick your favorite two or three kinds of dog (or rabbit) and do a similar patterned quilt too. And if you wanted to get really fancy you could draw or use photos of your actual pets and go to one of those custom fabric sites and make a quilt with customized images of  your very own pets. You could pick a couple and repeat them (like in the image above) or go wild with a whole bunch of different photos (or anything in between). Now I'm wondering how much that would cost. If I ever were to spend that kind of money on a quilt (I'm kind of frugal) I'd probably pick my favorite two or three photos of our cats and have them in a fun repeating pattern so it's not too busy. Happy crafting!