The Magic Bean

Freebie Friday - Be My Valentine Patterns

February 14th is coming soon.  I've never been much into Valentine's Day as I find it pretty commercial.  However, there is a sure-fire cure for commercialism - make something by hand and straight from your heart.  Here are some great free Valentine patterns and tutorials:

For something simple that says it all why not make these felt love hearts from Lavender and Limes.

Click here to get a pattern for a simple Valentines cherub by Karen Samuelson.

This Japanese Kokeshi paper doll pattern is such a funky way to say I love you.

The shops are full of little teddies to give at Valentines day, I think this simple felt bear from Annies Cupboards looks so imploring.  Doesn't he just say "You know you want to love me".  Put a valentine in his hands and you are set.

I love the story of what this crafty lady did with her friends and their kids for Valentine's Day.  They made sweets and gorgeous Valentine's rag dolls click here to see what they got up to. For the free pattern for the rag doll designed by Emily Martin, click here to get the link to the pattern.

Very hot right now in the craft world is amigurumi.  Click here for a cute heart pattern from Roxycraft.  If you are not sure how to crochet your way to cuteness, check out the sidebar of the Roxycraft Blog and you'll find a whole lot of lessons.

Make these cute little hearts designed by One Red Robin that link hands to form a great Valentine's bunting if you want.  Click here to get the free pattern.

Click here to get the cutest little hedgehog softie with a built in pocket for love notes.  Ahhhh...if that doesn't just melt your heart.

Click here to check out last year's Freebie Friday Valentine round-up.  Click here to see 2008's free patterns for Valentine's day.

Feel like entering a Valentine's Day doll challenge?  Judi Ward is hosting a Wide-Eyed Wendy challenge.  You need to get the free pattern here for Judi's Wide-Eyed Wendy doll.  Judi has added face instructions and a shoe pattern to the free pattern goodness.  The doll is not due until February 28th - 14 days after Valentine's Day.

So go forth and use craft to declare your love.

Wordless Wednesday - Through the Window

Freebie Friday - Free Chinese New Year Crafts

This year Chinese New Year starts on February 14th, so right about now you might want to start getting ready for the celebration with some crafts.

I love these paper fortune cookies featured on Whip Up.

These re-purposed glass jars make great Chinese lanterns.  This tutorial was created on the Alpha Mom blog last year so is more focussed on the Year of the Ox (2009). 

2010 is the year of the Tiger.  Here is a list of Year of the Tiger crafts especially for kids.

Here are more Chinese New Year crafts for kids.  This list seems a bit more refined and the crafts could be enjoyed by adults too.

When I think of Chinese New Year I always think of dragons.  Here is a great free pin doll pattern of a dragon designed by Jennifer Carson.

What I find most fun about Chinese New Year is finding out what year you were born under.  I was born in the year of the Snake.  Apparently, that makes me a bit of thinker.  Find out what Chinese zodiac you were born under by clicking here and entering your year of birth.

To find out more about Chinese New Year and to get some links to traditional Chinese New Year recipes, click here.

The end of the New Year is marked by the Festival of Lanterns, which is a celebration with singing, dancing and lantern shows. To make your own fabric lantern, check out a free tutorial here.

I think that it is so perfect that I'll be teaching the Bamboo Oracle,  a Chinese inspired doll, complete with Chinese Opera style make-up during the Chinese New Year, so you could always celebrate the festivities by joining in the class.  Click here for more info on the class or to sign up.  It starts January 26th.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Wordless Wednesday - Snow Rocks

Come Join Me in Chesham, Buckinghamshire

I will be teaching at Blue Haze in Bucks,

You better sign up now or you'll miss out - shucks.

We'll be making Finders Keepers, a sweet little imp,

 

With a wire armature that we'll bend and crimp,

We'll learn about body proportion and size,

And how to create her own little guise,

We'll be drawing and sculpting little cloth faces,

But you could use this method to put any medium through its paces,

So if you like to work in cloth or clay,

You may want to come out to learn a new way to play.

 

For more info on the course which takes place Friday Feb 5 and Saturday Feb 6, contact Hazel at:

Blue Haze Arts & Crafts
2 Church Street, Market Square, Chesham, Buckinghamshire, HP5 1HT
Telephone - 01494 782030  Fax - 01494 782060  Email - info@blue-haze.co.uk
Opening Hours - Monday to Saturday 9am to 5pm

Click here for more information on the course click here.

The Thing About Handmade Christmas Gifts

The thing is...

You make them and they're awesome.

You are all excited and you want to share.

But you can't.

Because the designated recipient of these handmade treasures reads your blog.  Foiled.

So the only thing left to do is share them once the paper has been ripped open and Christmas is long over.

 

First there was a bookmark made for my mum from Patti Culea's book Creative Cloth Explorations.

And then I got a wee bit addicted and made this notebook cover.

 

The instructions in the book are for a fan blade and not a notebook cover, but a few grommets later and voila!  Notebook cover.

Dudes, I so wanted to share this earlier.  It is a testament to the strength of Christmas that I managed to suppress the urge.  Phew.

Freebie Friday - Creating E-Patterns

On one of the online discussion groups that I belong to, Doll Street, we have begun a very interesting discussion about e-patterns, that admittedly I started.  The survey that I recently posted certainly seemed to find in favour of e-patterns.  The main reasons for the appeal of the virtual pattern form seem to be the instant gratification factor and the often cheaper price tag.  Certainly with e- patterns there is also no postage making international doll making much easier.  However there are several things to consider that not all doll makers are aware of, particularly beginners.  So here is a handy guide to creating e-patterns for any budding designers out there (our perhaps for established designers who want to go cyber).

Why PDF?

E-patterns generally come in PDF format.   Most programs can create a PDF such as word processors like Microsoft Word.  PDF is the preferred format for sending e-patterns as they are compatible across all computers provided that the user has a free bit of software downloaded called an Adobe Acrobat Reader.  If you don't have that program click here to download it. 

How do I get my pattern onto my PC?

The next step is to get your pattern into a program that can create a PDF.  There are many ways to do this; including, scanning a hand drawn pattern into a program such as Word or using more sophisticated software such as Illustrator to draw the patterns electronically. 

How do I create the PDF?

You then need a PDF creator.   You can use many different programs available free on the internet or for purchase.  I use a free program that we used when I was working my non-doll job still doing a lot of IT.  It is called Primo PDF.  You can download it for free here:  www.primopdf.com  Essentially a PDF creator is a piece of software that functions like a printer driver except there is no actual printer.  So to create the PDF from a document (such as Word) you go to Print, select Primo PDF as though it was a printer and then you select OK or Print.  I find that all PDF creators that I have used are a bit slow from here.  It takes a few seconds to process, don't worry, that is normal.  Then you'll get a box from the PDF creator asking you to name and file the PDF and then save it.  Read the Help menu of whatever PDF creator you are using to find out how that specific program works. 

 
An important fact about paper size

I find that many North Americans do not realise that many of us are working with a completely different size of paper than 8.5" x 11".  In England and Australia and many other places we have A4 paper which measures 8 1/4" x 11 5/8".  So if you create an e-pattern  where the pieces extend right to the edge of the width of your paper, we can't make it fit on our paper with the same proportions (the pattern will be distorted).  So if you produce online class PDFs or e-pattern PDFs, create the pattern pages so that they are well within the borders of the paper and put a 1" square on every page so that we can verify the size.  Many designers have sent me patterns with a 1" line (which I started out doing myself), but if the pattern doesn't fit to the size of the page it distorts in both directions and you get some pretty big variances in the pattern. The 1" box allows us to check for distortions in every direction and enlarge or reduce accordingly.
 
Making sure the PDF prints properly

Also, you may want to tell all your PDF buyers that when they print the PDF they should check that the drop down menu marked "Page Scaling" is set to "None" and NOT "Fit to Printable Area" or again, the page will often be shrunk to fit and the pattern will therefore come out an entirely different size.
 

Troubleshooting

One major problem that I noticed when I first started creating PDF patterns was that when I scanned the patterns into Word and printed them out the scale and size was perfect, but when I created the PDF it was fractionally smaller.  I have learned that when I scan an A4 size piece of paper into an A4 Word document and then convert that to 8.5" x 11" PDF the pattern shrinks.  (I use the North American size paper as the  8.5" x 11" seems to work still with A4 paper, so everyone is happy).  So when I scan the pattern into Word I simply enlarge the picture (that is, the pattern) by 106%.  I have found that when I then create the PDF the pattern is sized absolutely perfectly.  Happiness is.

I hope this brief guide helps to demystify the e-pattern slightly.

If you need some general help on writing patterns then check out this post from my archives.

Wordless Wednesday - Dormant

New Year, New Gadgets and New Freebies

I must admit that I am not much of a New Year's person.  I never make New Years resolutions.  However, as a new year and new decade dawns I tend to think about new things, like new freebies and newly discovered gadgets.  Check out these fun new things for 2010.

New Freebies

Patti Culea gave us these two freebies over the holiday period.  First a free pattern for a Joyful Angel here.  Then this great tutorial on how to applique here.

Here is a great way to recycle your old Christmas cards and wrapping paper into a notebook, perfect for jotting down your inspirations, courtesy of the Craftside blog.

This pattern to make a crafter's apron is not new but it is new to me, so I've decided it counts.  So there.

New Gadgets

I found a couple of great new gadgets over the holidays. 

First the Fons & Porter mechanical pencil with white lead.  It marks out pattern pieces beautifully.  On dark fabrics I've tended to use white gel pens which means, of course, that the lines are not removable.  With the Fons & Porter mechanical pencil the marks are fine, the line goes on smoothly and the lines are easy to see on dark fabrics.  Lovin' it.  I bought mine at the Marsh Store in Ontario Canada while visiting my parental units for the holidays.  You can read a bit more about Fons & Porter marking tools from Shirley at the Marsh Store's blog here.

Apparently Fons & Porter also do a glue pen.  I missed that one while visiting the Marsh Store.  Darn.  It sounds pretty good from what Shirley says.

I also purchased unto myself a little LED finger light.  This way I can do a really good ET impression and see what I am sewing at the same time.  To check out this little device see Shirley at the Marsh Store's post here and refer to number 2.  What would we do without the Marsh Store?

 
One question that I get asked an awful lot is "What fabric do you use for the skin of your dolls."  Well, I often use a cotton Hoffman Batik in Latte.  It can be hard to come across, but www.cassierafferty.com is now stocking it here in the UK.  It is not currently up on the website, but I am told that it will be shortly.  I love this fabric as it has a slightly uneven tone (as does human skin) and a tight weave.  Incidentally, Shirley at the Marsh Store also stocks this fabric in Canada.

May your 2010 be full of new creative adventures!

Calling All UK Doll Makers

Your mission:  To make a doll like you've never made before with your fearless leader, Colleen Babcock as your guide

Your destination:  Blue Hazein Chesham, Bucks

D Day:  Friday February 5 and Saturday February 6

Think of it as training to be an elite troupe of doll makers, except there will be no press-ups, no uniforms, no drill sargeant.  Come to think of it, there will be mostly a lot of laughing, playing and learning new things.  So not like a mission at all.  But you get the picture.

Join me for a class in making Finders Keepers, an imp of a doll in February.  Contact Hazel to book your spot now and give yourself something to look forward to in February:

Blue Haze Arts & Crafts
2 Church Street, Market Square, Chesham, Buckinghamshire, HP5 1HT
Telephone - 01494 782030  Fax - 01494 782060  Email - info@blue-haze.co.uk
Opening Hours - Monday to Saturday 9am to 5pm
ALL NEW WEBSITE - www.blue-haze.co.uk

Or for more info on the course or to book online click here.