More than a dozen categories include Alphabet, Asian Chic, Baby, Celebrations, Embellishments, Fruits & Veggies, Space, Trees, Flowers, Winged Wonders, and Woodland Creatures-and each section includes one motif stitched by the author. The motifs on the CD are in simple black lines, so readers can easily manipulate them using their own image-editing software, print them out, and transfer them onto their substrate of choice using the instructions in the book.PROJECTS INCLUDE:Wearables: Jewelry, pajama pants, hat and mittens o Home Décor: Fabric basket, decorative wall hangings, more o Gift Items: Keepsake gift bags

    Altered books bring together a variety of mixed media and papercrafting techniques including collage, journaling, rubber stamping, embellishing and scrapbooking. The creative possibilities are endless - go where your imagination takes you!Through 18 step-by-step demonstrations and 65 variation ideas, Bev Brazelton teaches you basic, intermediate and creative techniques for crafting unique altered books. You'll find helpful tips as you're guided through the process of altering pages along with captivating embellishment ideas such as adding doors and drawers to your altered books.Whether you're a beginning crafter or a fine artist, Altered Books Workshop will give you comprehensive instruction and inspiration for creating multi-dimensional art that is a reflection of your moods, thoughts and life. Make your altered book the greatest story ever seen!

    You'll find hundreds of new ideas to incorporate into your scrapbooking lifestyle. You'll discover Ali's Guiding philosophies behind becoming a life artist.

    For knitters looking for something new to spark their imaginations, AlterKnits is the answer. Featuring 27 imaginative projects, 10 creativity exercises, and thought-provoking quotes from Albert Einstein, Martha Graham, and many more, AlterKnits inspires knitters to expect the unexpected, to enjoy the rewards of experimentation, and to see the possibilities of knitting with broader vision.Some projects call for unusual materials-plastic tubing (for a bag handle) or sterling silver wire (for a necklace). Others blend different craft techniques-a pullover with sewn-on velvet cuffs, a baby blanket with painted-on polka dots. Still others apply knitting in unexpected places, such as laptop cases and bulletin boards. The creativity exercises-called AlterExercises-challenge knitters to try out new ideas and to ask provocative, sometimes amusing questions. Tucked into a pocket on the inside front cover is the 32-page AlterKnits notebook, the perfect place for readers to work on their AlterKnits exercises and do their own creative doodling .With AlterKnits, our concept of what we can knit will be forever altered!

    It's at the heart of all visual communication and is one of the purest forms of design, one that can always be improved and refined. Typography Sketchbooks gets into the minds of designers who create typefaces, word images and logos through their private sketchbooks. The result of these wide-ranging typographic musings provide fascinating insights into the expressive quality of letters and words. Aimed at all those who use type, whether by hand or on-screen, this pleasing compendium stresses the importance of good typography at a time when reading habits are changing and celebrates a craft that has endured for centuries.

    Encouraging you to make journaling a part of your daily routine, Keeping a Nature Journal is full of engaging exercises and stimulating prompts that will help you hone your powers of observation and appreciate new aspects of nature’s endlessly varied beauty.

    Following a simple step-by-step approach, Acrylic Painting For Dummies provides hands-on instruction and easy-to-follow exercises in acrylic painting techniques and styles, making the medium accessible to would-be artists at all levels. Featuring large-scale projects at the end of most chapters and ample additional opportunities for readers to paint along, this friendly guide will help anyone discover the artist within.

    Now, the influential needlecraft guru has become a “two-timer,” bringing the same ingenuity, innovative eye, and solid fashion sense that she’s always exhibited in her knitting design to the world of crochet. In Loop-d-Loop Crochet, Durham presents more than 25 designs that are as up-to-the-minute, style-wise, as they are thoroughly steeped in crochet stitchwork tradition. Each of the projects, which range from purses, skirts, shawls, and sweaters for the whole family to a hammock and a pair of brocade boots, epitomizes Durham’s signature design sensibility, which she describes as “a tension of opposites—rough-hewn yet delicate, stark yet feminine, organic yet structured.” Decked out in evocative color photographs (by Adrian Buckmaster), a diverse cast of models show off the finished garments. Beginner and advanced crocheters will find Durham’s novel approach refreshing and inspiring. And for newcomers just making the switch from knitting, Loop-d-Loop Crochet provides the perfect introduction to what Durham terms the “flip side” of needlecraft’s heritage. Crochet is a freeing experience, Durham says—a sentiment with which her many fans are certain to agree.

    Fortunately, Simple Soldering proves that does not need to be the case. This handy how-to guide is complete in its exploration of the craft of creating soldered metal jewelry, including tools, techniques, and 20 beautiful projects that beginners and enthusiasts can make at home.Author and teacher Kate Richbourg demystifies basic soldering for any home crafter, showing how to create sophisticated, polished, and professional-looking jewelry pieces through simple soldering techniques. First, she instructs how to set up a jewelry workspace that fits the confines of your budget and living space. Detailed step-by-step instructions walk you through the basic tools and materials you need, plus how to use them. A sample chapter gives a host of introductory exercises that teach solid skills, allowing you to test these techniques on a small scale. Finally, you'll discover 20 finished projects that include earrings, pendants, rings, bracelets, and clasps that may also include bead or wire embellishment.Kate also demonstrates how to combine and layer techniques to gorgeous effect. She also examines common mistakes, shows how to correct or adapt them, and gives advice on when it’s time to start over. Most of all, having taught thousands of classes on soldering, Kate has a "you can do it!" attitude that shines through to help even the most reluctant jewelry maker fire up the torch with ease.Paired with an instructional DVD, Kate’s expert teaching skills will help projects come alive, right in your own studio.With Simple Soldering, the art of metal working one-of-a-kind jewelry is now at your fingertips.

    The Inspired Artist series invites art hobbyists and casual art enthusiasts to have fun learning basic art concepts, relaxing into the creative process to make art in a playful, contemporary style. With Draw Every Little Thing, the first book in this new series, you can learn to draw and paint your favorite everyday items. From learning to draw and paint plants, flowers, and bicycles to the neighborhood café and the contents of the kitchen cabinet, this contemporary drawing book demonstrates just how easy it is to render the world around you with little more than a pencil, paper, and paint. Following a brief introduction to the joys of simplistic drawing and painting, this aesthetically pleasing book familiarizes you with a range of drawing tools and materials, including graphite pencil, pen and ink, colored pencil, and gouache, before offering a quick overview of basic color theory. Each subsequent chapter is then devoted to a specific theme—kitchenalia, hobbies, neighborhood haunts, and much more—and packed with simple step-by-step drawing projects. This accessible book encourages you to jump around so you can draw what immediately inspires you. Interactive prompts, creative exercises, and inspiring ideas make the process fun and engaging. Easy techniques and helpful instructions show you how to develop your own personal style, as well as add color to your drawings using gouache and colored pencil. Crafty projects round out the book, allowing you to use your newfound drawing and painting skills. Filled to the brim with whimsical artwork and loads of creative ideas, Draw Every Little Thing encourages artists of all skill levels to draw any time inspiration strikes.

    Readers will love the opportunity to practice the creative art of hand-lettering in a way that inspires them and helps them relax.As an example of what’s inside, Workshop 1 encourages readers to renew & recharge by writing, “It’s me time,” with the easiest technique for a scripted, calligraphy look. Workshop 2 builds on the theme as readers use their skills from Workshop 1 to write, “Practice makes progress,” and add a new skill of drawing laurels and wreaths that take their calligraphy to the next level. With each workshop, readers are inspired with a brief introduction reminding them to relax and cultivate joy, then learn step by step how to letter each word of an example lettered design and draw embellishments. With plenty of practice space and a page to draw their own final design, this interactive workbook meets readers’ every need. High-quality, thick watercolor paper with perforated edging allows readers to tear out their finished hand-lettered art to display. This book goes beyond basic hand-lettering books to calm and relax, and goes beyond adult coloring books to teach a usable creative skill. It’s the perfect gift for yourself or friends and family who love crafts and coloring.

    guide to peace of mind, you'll find inspiring ideas for how to do exactly that through a wide range of creative exercises. In this book, author Maggie Oman Shannon explores crafts and creativity as a practice with enormous physical, mental, and spiritual benefits. By immersing ourselves in a craft with intention and mindfulness, we can quiet those voices around us and in us--we can enter sacred stillness. Through revealing interviews, personal stories, and forty suggested activities, the author shows how creative processes can become spiritual practices. Whether you're an aspiring artist, longtime craftsperson, or someone who has never set foot in a craft-store (yet!), you'll find something in Crafting Calm to inspire you.Crafts and how-to ideas include contemplation candles, visual journals, prayer shawls, collage mandalas, intention beads, finger labyrinths, personal prayer flags, spiritual toolkits, and tabletop altars.Features inspired craft ideas from luminaries such as Angeles Arrien, Mary Ann Radmcher, Shiloh Sophia McCloud, Sister Marianne Heib, May Ann Brussat, and many more.

    You’ll love Adrianna Adarme’s easy-to-follow instructions and will enjoy getting lost in her warm and comforting photographs. Organized by the months of the year and by categories as “Live,” “Do,” and “Make, ” this book offers ideas for activities, recipes, and DIY projects that make the little moments in life just as exciting as the big. Adarme gives us special (but totally doable) things we can do for others and ourselves. From quick recipes to easy crafts, she focuses on simple, inexpensive undertakings that have a big reward: happiness. The Year of Cozy will surely inspire you to march into your kitchen and craft closet to make something you can truly be proud of.

    We want them to buy something, read more, or take action of some kind. Designing without understanding what makes people act the way they do is like exploring a new city without a map: results will be haphazard, confusing, and inefficient. This book combines real science and research with practical examples to deliver a guide every designer needs. With it you'll be able to design more intuitive and engaging work for print, websites, applications, and products that matches the way people think, work, and play.Learn to increase the effectiveness, conversion rates, and usability of your own design projects by finding the answers to questions such as: What grabs and holds attention on a page or screen?What makes memories stick?What is more important, peripheral or central vision?How can you predict the types of errors that people will make?What is the limit to someone's social circle?How do you motivate people to continue on to (the next step?What line length for text is best?Are some fonts better than others? These are just a few of the questions that the book answers in its deep-dive exploration of what makes people tick.

    In The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters, Sherri Lynn Wood presents a flexible approach to quilting that breaks free of old paradigms. Instead of traditional instructions, she presents 10 frameworks (or scores) that create a guiding, but not limiting, structure. To help quilters gain confidence, Wood also offers detailed lessons for stitching techniques key to improvisation, design and spontaneity exercises, and lessons on color. Every quilt made from one of Wood’s scores will have common threads, but each one will look different because it reflects the maker’s unique interpretation. Featured throughout the book are Wood’s own quilts and a gallery of contributor works chosen from among the hundreds submitted when she invited volunteers to test her scores during the making of this groundbreaking work.