And the MIVEST blog has links to all the members’ stores, where you can find even more wonderful gift ideas.

Find the blog post here:

http://vermontetsystreetteam.blogspot.com/2011/11/gift-guide-for-guys.html

Here it is:

The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanely sensitive. To them… a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a friend is a lover, a lover is a god, and failure is death.
Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create — so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, their very breath is cut off…
They must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency they are not really alive unless they are creating.

–Pearl Buck (1892 – 1973)

Good one, huh?

I was tie dying women’s shirts today, so I’ll have them listed in my Etsy store soon.  First, I’ll rinse them out and wash them several times tomorrow. 

Here’s a few photos, including of the cloudy skies!

Shirts tied up and ready to dye

The dying has begun!

Gray skies above that quickly turned to rain!

Truth be told, in some ways, the rain helps.  It washes away the dye from the table and makes clean up that much easier!

Here is a photo of all 4 cards.  The insides were a pretty basic “Happy Mother’s Day!”. 

 I hope everyone, especially all the mothers out there, had a wonderful Mother’s Day!

Crafts

• How About Orange has a great tutorial on making some really pretty flowers out of crepe paper.  If you’ve got some crepe paper lying around, I suggest you give it a try!
• Interested in doing some collages?  You can download this eBook for free:  Peace By Piece: Collage Your Way to Inner Peace and Harmony.  This workbook guides you through several collage projects, each one designed to bring you closer to your true self and your powerful ability for manifesting your dreams and desires.

Business

• If you’re writing a blog, Copyblogger is a great resource.  I liked this week’s article about 4 Ways to Keep Your Lifeless Blog from Boring Your Readers to Tears. 
• Google is always changing things up, and now they’ve added the +1 feature.  ProBlogger, another great resource for bloggers, writes about What is Google +1 … and What Does it Mean for Your Blog?
  

Like I said, it’s a little short this week.  We’ll see what I can come up with in the next week!

What articles or blog posts have you run across that you enjoyed? Feel free to share by leaving a comment!

So here’s a few of my latest tweets:

Crafts

• If you have some old, ugly, or even broken Easter baskets laying around, give them a new life by covering them in some cute Easter fabric.  Chica and Jo show you how to make your own fabric covered Easter basket.
• Also from Chica and Jo, create an Easter wreath made of clothespins.  Though really, you could make this with any theme, so this is good for many holidays and seasons!
• Remember folding up gum wrappers to make necklaces?  Use that same idea with magazine pages to create a lovely upcycled clutch purse.  I found this on Cut Out + Keep.
• Heartmade is a wonderful website for entrepreneurial crafters.  It has both business and crafting ideas, all in one place.  Including this idea to create your own colorful alphabet magnets.  It’s easy, simple, and cheap!  Can’t beat it!

Business

• For those of us on Etsy, where PayPal is the only option, or if you use PayPal as one of your payment options, this article from TechCrunch about how Paypal Is About To Get A Bruising From Facebook And Square was very interesting.
• I don’t typically use the favorites option on Twitter, but Problogger suggests 3 Ways to Use Twitter Favorites that can enhance your Twitter profile.
• Also from Problogger, if you’re blogging, you can get Three Blogging Lessons from Leonardo Da Vinci. And new ideas for blogging are always helpful, right?
• And if you’re on Twitter, you might want to know a little about the history.  But, according to MSNBC, the real history of Twitter isn’t so short and sweet.  And the version the company gives isn’t quite accurate.

What have you tweeted about?  Or what great articles or blog posts have you stumbled upon this week?  Feel free to leave a comment!

Could you imagine what the world would be like if more of us used our powers for good? Looking at these virus programmers, imagine the useful programs they could construct, if they wanted to! But what about you? What about me, for that matter? I’m always saying I should volunteer more.

What if I used my powers as a crafter to help people?

I saw this tonight, as well. Craft Hope, which encourages crafters to use their powers to help the world, has a new project.  This one is to gather handmade bracelets for orphans in Russia. The statistics they provide about orphans is overwhelming. And if 60% of Russian girl orphans become prostitutes, the cynical side of me asks, is a bracelet really going to help? But the optimist in me wants to believe that a bracelet could help. Not all of them. But maybe a few will see it as a symbol of hope or caring, and it will help them find the courage to do more and be more.  A bracelet won’t be enough, but it can be a start.

So, while bracelets aren’t usually my thing, I’m thinking I need to put a few together.  Are you with me?

I’ve also been thinking lately that I’d like to get some of my fellow local crafters together to do projects for our community.  Now that I’ve written that goal here, hopefully I won’t blow it off.

Do you have ideas on how to use our powers for good?  Please share them!

Etsy artisans have already begun stepping up to help raise money for relief efforts.  They have begun to list items where some or all of the proceeds will go to charities. This is just a small list, and I’m sure more Etsyans will participate as time goes on.  Please check out each listing to see how their donation to charity will work, since it is up to the individual shop owner to decide that.  Even a small purchase will help both Japan (with the donation) and the artist (because we love to sell our stuff).

My Rubber Stamp has quite a few listings, so you are sure to find something you like!  This Whale Rubber Stamp can be personalized with your web site, your family name, or your favorite phrase.  With the purchase of this stamp, they will donate $5 to the American Red Cross.

Inward, Upward will donate $15 from the sale of this print titled “It Was All Yellow“.  They have also generously listed several items that will include a donation.

This cute Toddler Messenger Bag will let your toddler carry their own stuff!  Sweet Mimi’s Designs will donate 50% of the proceeds. They, too, have additional listings that will include a donation.

This Travel Log with a Map of Japan Cover is from Fourviere Hill.  They will donate the proceeds to the American Red Cross.  If you read their shop announcement, you can see the other items that are available that include donations.

100% of the sale of these Carved Black Onyx Earrings from Stone Savvy Jewelry will be donated to the Red Cross specifically for the disaster in Japan.

This is a win-win! This lovely Beaded Evening Purse in black and beige  from By My Touch is on sale AND the profits will be donated!

Koide Studio has several items that include donations, including these Duo Bowls.  That pink glaze is just breathtaking!

Art Poet is donating 50% of all their proceeds until March 17th.  That includes when you purchase this beautiful Wire-wrapped Bangle in Turquiose Yellow and Black. 

As I said, more listings are out there now, and a lot more will be posted in the next few days.  Etsy artists are a generous bunch!  Share in their generosity by purchasing some of these items!

Search for “Japan Relief” to find more items.

I’ve been feeling the call of my polymer clay for a while now.  There are some amazing polymer clay artists on Etsy and they have really inspired me.  And I don’t know why I love making buttons out of polymer clay, but I do.  I have some buttons in my Etsy store from, I think, last year about this time (proving that my crafting really is seasonal).  But it was time to make some new ones!  Here are some photos of work in progress.

I wanted to make a cane of these retro squares.  It’s a pretty easy cane, but I just love how it turns out.  I think I’m going to make another one (or two or five) using completely different colors.  These are in shades of denim blue.  The square ones are currently for sale.  Something went wrong with the round ones, and it’s something I haven’t seen before, so I’m not sure what happened.  When I pulled them out of the rock tumbler (which is how I sand them), they had small holes in the tops of them.  Kind of like there had been air bubbles there.  But they were tiny, and they aren’t in the square ones.  So I don’t know.  Maybe I’ll sell them as seconds.  They’d still be really cute in a scrapbook or on a card.

Here’s my next round:

That’s right after baking them, obviously.  I bake them on polyester batting to keep them from having “shiny spots”.  I’m not sure what else to call them.  Let’s just say baking the buttons on the batting let’s them bake evenly.

Now they’ll go into the rock tumbler for a few days, with ever increasing grit sandpaper, finished off with a tumble with some old sweats cut up into tiny pieces to give them a nice buffing! That way, they are naturally nice and shiny and smooth.  No coat of varnish needed.

If you are interested in the full details of how I make the buttons, leave me a comment and let me know!  Or if you have ideas for buttons, please share!