Just when you thought things couldn't get any cuter at Made With Love By Hannah's blog, Knick Knacks & Ric Rac, she comes up with this great new tutorial for making toadstool doorstops from fabric, ric-rac, and old yogurt containers filled with gravel.

Take a little video tour inside the new issue of CRAFT: 08, our Weaving issue where you'll learn the basics of weaving from using a paper loom to making your own! The summer issue celebrates the season by featuring fun projects from sewing a ruffle dress to making your own cold-brew coffee. View the complete table of contents.

Subscribe to CRAFT Magazine
Craftzine readers can now get $5 off a yearly subscription by entering the code MCRAFT. That's just $29.95 for 4 quarterly issues!

Related:

• CRAFT: 08 The Weaving Issue - On Newsstands Now!


• San Francisco CRAFT: 08 Release Party this Saturday!

Claire from Poopscape shows us how she made these offbeat placemats using the bleach stencil technique. Aside from just looking cool, I'm thinking these would make it easy to teach your kids how to set the table.

Related:
• HOW TO - Sew a Reversible Placemat
• Patchwork Placemat Tutorial
• @ MAKE: Freezer Paper Stencil with Bleach

Zakka Life shows us how to make these modern and fabulous chopstick rests made from decoupaged rocks. I like her suggestion of pairing a set with some chopsticks to give as a hostess gift.

I have a pair of Grado headphones with rapidly degrading foam earpieces. Sometimes this part wears out far before the headphones, making them uncomfortable to wear. Flickr user ofenjen made little crochet covers for hers using embroidery floss and a tiny crochet hook. Crafty and functional! Spotted in the CRAFT Flickr pool.

In-season fruit makes the best pie, and my friend Randy's been craving his mom's blueberry crumb pie, so he got the recipe and made it. And an instructable about it! Delicious.

Spotted in the CRAFT Flickr pool: this girl's dress is constructed from a pillowcase with fancy edging. Maya whipped up a couple and wrote a post on creating your own.

From the CRAFT Flickr pool: user Kinda Kinked made this fabulous crochet raygun. Pew pew!

Sew, Mama, Sew! shares a quick and easy tutorial for making this clever child's pool robe from an old towel.

Jen from Indie Fixx writes:

This contest also requires you to do something in order to win, not collect secret words, but CRAFT! Yes, I wrote craft! In order to win the Indie Fixx Craft-Off, you must create a crafty item of some sort and that craft must incorporate the number two in some way. I’m not picky about the type of craft and I will even accept creations that are more artsy or diy in nature, but whatever you decide to do, you must create it solely for the contest and you must incorporate the number two.

Manette Gallery in Portland will be hosting a group show opening tomorrow night called Face Melting Double Attack, featuring artists like Ryan Berkley, Tripper Dungan, and Arcane Arts.

I like the embroidered piece by Cathy Pitters, which was inspired by an illustration on a 1940s coming-of-age book.

Face Melting Double Attack
Opens Thursday, August 7, 6pm
@ Manette Gallery
820 NW 21st Ave.
Portland, OR
ph: 503-863-9347
www.manettefinearts.com

Spotted on Cupcakes Take the Cake: Debbie Chialtas, aka Soapylove, explains how to make these sugary-sweet melt and pour cupcake soaps using molds from Brambleberry.

It's high time felting and electronics come together. I got some knobs from Radioshack and felted over them with wool roving and added some embroidered detailing. They can be used for guitars, amplifiers, or any other electronics with knobs. They feel much fuzzier than their traditional counterparts.

Lunastara and her boyfriend recently created these jaw-dropping dragons from felted merino wool, which are wired and stuffed so they can pose for fun photos like the one seen above. More photos and details on the process here.

Cassie in Georgia has taken on a project: to knit a scarf featuring the entire map from Super Mario Bros. level 1. From the looks of the "not even a third" section, it's going to be about 30 feet long. Looks great, and I'd imagine would make an excellent wrap-around-the-room decoration. Via the CRAFT Flickr pool.

Craftster user Nylaskye stitched up this adorable denim-and-rainbow outfit for her daughter, inspired by her cheap-yet-cute sneakers from Kmart.

Amy Butler has a new line of fabrics out--this time around she's come up with a gorgeous array of sherbet-toned solid colors. They work beautifully with one another, or paired with her more graphic florals and prints as well. She's also offering two new free quilt patterns you can download.

From the pages of CRAFT: 03:

"101: Macrame," by Sherri Haab, pgs 134-139. Preview the article now in our Digital Edition.

We've also posted up the full macrame iPod cozy tutorial online here at Craftzine!

Subscribe to CRAFT Magazine
Craftzine readers can now get $5 off a yearly subscription by entering the code MCRAFT. That's just $29.95 for 4 quarterly issues!

Related:
Crayon Cookies

Matt L. writes in:

I'm sharing this refrigerator pickle recipe because it is so easy there is no excuse for anyone who loves pickles not to try making their own. It is very open in that you can throw a wide variety of of vegetables in the mix without having to worry about them turning out delicious. Slice it up, throw it in the pot and refrigerate. Tastey.

I love anything pickled, and they go great with summer cookouts, so pickle away!

Spotted in the CRAFT Flickr pool: A cute crocheted mushroom terrarium that never needs to be watered, by Pepperberry Crochet. The good news is, she's working on a pattern so she can offer it to others.

Craftster user KimsCozyKitchen created this hedgehog pincushion from a vintage pattern (which you can find online here). I love his candy-colored "needles".

If you've got a blank wall, some pretty papers (or fabrics), and some foam sheets, you can create these nice and simple wall tiles for brightening up a room. Linda Merrill from Massachusetts shows us how. (Thanks, Marc!)

Heidi Kenney (aka My Paper Crane) will be visiting Seattle this weekend for her first-ever solo show at Schmancy, entitled If You Lived Were Here You Would Be Home Now. The work she's been previewing online looks absolutely amazing, and the good news for non-Seatte folks is that Schmancy is already offering online pre-sales.

If you are in Seattle and headed to the show, be sure and show up early to snag a home-baked cupcake, complete with Heidi-crafted cupcake topper.

If You Lived Here You Would Be Home Now
all-new plush art by Heidi Kenney
Opening Reception: Friday, August 8, 6-9pm
@ Schmancy
1932 Second Ave.
Seattle, WA 98101
ph: (206) 728-8008
www.schmancytoys.com

From the pages of CRAFT: 08:

"Swing Shift," by Christine Haynes, pgs 90-97. Preview the article now in our Digital Edition.

Subscribe to CRAFT Magazine
Craftzine readers can now get $5 off a yearly subscription by entering the code MCRAFT. That's just $29.95 for 4 quarterly issues!

Label-Free helps us figure out how to trace, read, and sew from Japanese pattern books--something that can be super hard to decipher when you're not a native Japanese speaker.

Kathy Cano-Murillo, aka The Crafty Chica, is headed out on a fabulous mini-tour sponsored by La Quinta Inns, in support of her new line of craft products now available at Michael's stores. To find out where she'll be appearing, visit her blog.

The Harveyville Project in Kansas is hosting a couple of wonderful-sounding workshops in late September.

Enjoy a long weekend packed with lessons and supervised hands-on practice dyeing fiber and spinning yarn. A wonderful workshop for all skill levels. Novice yarnmakers can build fundamentals, while experienced students focus on improving and picking up new techniques. Everyone will go home with a huge spinning fiber stash they've dyed themselves, plus a sweet goodie bag!

For full details, dates, and venue information, visit the Harveyville Project.