Search Results for: books

March 21

Book Time!

You know what I don’t ever take time for? Paper books. When I do sit down to read, lately, it’s either webby stuff or library articles on my ereader. While doing things around the house, I enjoy listening to audiobooks (by the way: thanks, Liz, for suggesting The Parasol Protectorate! fun characters, fun story, great voice actress!). And, I mean, audiobooks are definitely “real books.” As are ebooks(!). But you can’t do anything crafty with them.

Also, yeah, very funny, right? The librarian who doesn’t touch books. But I don’t: I’m really not that kind of librarian. (You’d be surprised how little books have to do with most librarians’ jobs.)

I do think I could find the time to hold a book for this project, though! It’s very pretty!

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February 21

Tutorial Tuesday: Hollow Book Giftbox!

I just love the secret agent element to Franki’s hollowed out book tutorial.

If you’re giving a friend a gift in one of these home-made giftboxes, I wholeheartedly suggest you wear a mac and dark glasses meet aforementioned friend in a park at dusk. “You’ve never seen me, right!?” haha.

But seriously I’d love to make something like this as jewelery box…. excellent idea!

Category: Books, Craft, Geek | 1 Comment on Tutorial Tuesday: Hollow Book Giftbox!
February 18

Support Your Local Death Eaters!

Support Your Local Death Eaters!

Voldemort’s been defeated. Muggles are no longer tormented by wizards. There’s not many openings for experienced Death Eaters in the wizarding world today. What’s an unemployed DE to do? Since they weren’t qualified for unemployment benefits and the training they had previously was rather specialized, there weren’t too many options open.

Some were lucky. Word along Diagon Alley is that Lucius Malfoy became the new Spokes-wizard for one of the top hair care product companies. Some were not so lucky. Two of them, however, were rather crafty (pun intended) in their search for new careers and opened up a lovely craft shop on Etsy named Death Eaters Delights.  Owned by Dixiebell and Qui, they’ve put their passion for magic into crafty magic and have created some lovely items.

Dixiebell has recreated the text books from the Harry Potter Series as keepsake boxesto store your precious mementos and currently has several in stock.

Support Your Local Death Eaters!2It seems, that with so much extra time, the pair have discovered Muggle television and so Qui has recreated the Kitty Riley I <3 Sherlock buttons that are seen in the third episode of season 2 on BBC’s Sherlock series.

They offer other items as well ranging from pillows to masks and wands. So, please, stop by, browse, shop. Support your local Death Eater!

Category: Books, Craft, Geek, TV | 3 Comments on Support Your Local Death Eaters!
February 7

A S’Minchin of Miraculous Matilda

Matilda is one of the quintessential geek kid’s books; the story of a nerd girl who uses her brain to bring a pinch of justice to the world is bound to resonate with swots of all ages. A couple of years ago I managed to get myself to Stratford ‘pon Avon to see the RSC’s christmas musical version of the book and was completely blown away by it – one of those performances that remind me why I work in theatre. Anyway, since then the production has transferred to the West End, won a load of awards and caused a considerable dent in my finances from ticket purchasing.

Laura, or LollyPolly as she is known over at the Minchin fan forums (the music for Matilda was written by our very own rock nerd Tim, who of course did a fantastic job with Dahl’s dark comedy), made this brilliant cushion commemorating the show’s opening song – which echoes the prologue to the book in that we get to hear about how miraculous all the children except Matilda are. It’s a fantastic example of how effective even simple embroidery can be if the colours, fabric and design are well chosen. With any luck Laura will now have caught the needlework bug and will go on dazzling us with her work in future.

Matilda the musical official site

Angry (Feet) – Tim Minchin’s fan forum

Category: Books, Craft, Music | Comments Off on A S’Minchin of Miraculous Matilda
February 6

Everything Alice Book Review, Craft and Giveaway!

***Update! We have a winner! bunnysmommy!! Congrats!***

When I heard that there was an Alice book to review I jumped at the chance, and begged. I have loved everything Alice (how fitting!) my whole life.Everything Alice: The Wonderland Book of Makes & Bakes by Hannah Read-Baldrey and Christine Leech is a truly beautiful book. Even if you aren’t crafty but love Alice, this would still be a good book to own as the pictures and projects are stunning.I actually made two projects from Everything Alice to show you. The first one is so simple, even a non crafter can do it. No, really. It’s called Dress Me Alice and White Rabbit. This project is so simple, that you can even cheat a little, which I totally did. They say to copy the pictures and then glue them onto thin cardboard. I simply copied them onto white cardstock and cut out the middle man. The downside to this is that you really have to bend the spine to get the book to lay flat enough to copy it without shadows and stuff on the sides.



Paper dolls but even more fabulous!

I also made the Cheshire Cat handwarmer. I sewed it by hand and you can tell I am by no means a seamstress. It was fun to make though so that really is all that matters. I’m going to actually keep mine in the freezer for headaches.

The Cheshire Cat is my favourite character in the books so that project was a no-brainer. Now, for a chance to win your very own copy of this book let me know in the comments who your favourite Alice character is. One winner will be chosen at random on Feb. 13.

Category: Books, Craft, Geek | 34 Comments on Everything Alice Book Review, Craft and Giveaway!
January 19

Library Book Bag.

     My little Kindergartner was super excited to get her library card the other day.

       She was concerned she would loose her new library card, and she wanted to make sure she had somewhere safe to keep her borrowed books. (A real concern with 3 little siblings, and a house full of books)  So I made her a special library book bag.

I made it out of a pair of old jeans. Actually 3/4 of a pair of old jeans, I used 1/2 of a leg for a different project. It’s a simple messenger bag with a few special touches.  The front has a great decoration I embroidered on to a piece of felt, using a pattern from Urban Threads. I just zigzagged around the edge to keep it in place.

On the inside, there is a pocket for the library card. I cut a pocket off of the butt of the pants, and sewed it into place. We were nervouse the card might fall out and get lost, so we put as little hole punch in the card, and tied it on with a ribbon.

 

It has lots of room for all her special library books, and she loves it very much. She has already taken it to school for show and tell.

Category: Books, Craft, Geek | 2 Comments on Library Book Bag.