Surely you’ve heard of paper roses. Paper dolls. How about a paper wallet?
A couple weekends ago we participated in the Austin Art Alliance’s Art City Austin along Town Lake in downtown Austin. It was perfect weather for the event: blue skies, low 80s and mellow breezes too. Future Craft Collective was set up in the [...]

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It sounds super easy of course. And really it is. But it’s also super cool and a great way to get through the rest of winter time without spending some bucks on some new shirts. Even here in Texas we’re having an elongated long-sleeve season with temps a full 10-20 degrees below normal. Brrrrrrrr. We’re [...]

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In Texas it’s hard to keep a jack o’ lantern looking fresh for very long. About an hour after carving the flies arrive and the heat starts to melt the pumpkin into a slump. Within a couple of days it’s caving in on itself in a sort of gelatinous lump. It dawned on me that [...]

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All of us know how it goes when you write out a letter or a post and put it on your desk to await the locating of the proper address. You find it month’s later, buried under a pile of cast off detritus and it’s good for not much more than the recycling bin. What [...]

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From the Book of Sewing Revelations
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What’s a Scrap Ball you ask? We stumbled across this idea during class one afternoon in that sort of lightbulb-over-your-head kind of way. The ball itself is a classic kid project – straightforward, sweet, and super satisfying to play with at the end.  The lightbulb moment came, not from the [...]

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The traditional Tibetan prayer flag is a colorful panel or rectangle of thin cloth in many colors and strung together. Traditionally they are woodblock printed with prayers in the form of text and images. They are often found strung along mountain ridges in the Himalayas to bless the surrounding countryside. The thought is that the [...]

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Kathie and I have decided that in order to work peacefully and presently with the kids each Monday afternoon we need to set some intentions around how we want it to go. When we do, we find the whole afternoon to feel easier on us and more satisfying for the kids. When we don’t, things [...]

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1. Open up the bird seed bag and cut off the top and bottom.

2. Examine the graphics and images on the bag to determine which part speaks to you visually.

3. Cut off any images you’d like to add on as an appliqué/collage. It is amazing to watch an image transform when it goes from being [...]

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WHAT?: How to Throw a Back-to-School Clothes Swap (anytime of year)
INSPIRATION: Swap-o-rama-rama as seen at Austin ’s Maker Faire 2007
WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
* A big room; the school gym for example.
* Large tables (we had fourteen 6’x3’ tables)
* 10 or so large pieces of cardboard or heavy cloth approx. 8’ x 10’
* Sewing machines (we had [...]

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gratitude banner, originally uploaded by ramonster cowpoke swankwear.
today we made family gratitue banners in class. the banners have pockets for each family member, plus one for friends and extended family, and one for the universe. each time someone thinks of something they are grateful for, they can jot it down and stick it [...]

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