Oh, and Don’t forget.. you can follow Dabbled on Facebook, Friend Dot on Flickr, or Friend Dot on Twitter… if you’re into those things! (PS, if you do (particularly on twitter) do leave me a comment here or email so I know who you are!)

• How to Throw a Robot Spaceman Party!
  A spiffy cool idea for your next kids party… All things Robot-Spaceman! Cakes, favors, invitations (free for download) and more!
• Cool Dabbled Craft/Food Roundup Some cool stuff you might have missed… check out these neat ideas: Pinatas, bracelets, cuban sandwiches, and recycled felt pins!
• Illustration Friday! This nifty little dragon is the theme for The Boy’s 4th birthday… want him for your own?
• Shop Preview Sale! And feedback requested..
• Tutorial – How to fuse plastic bags and make cool stuff!
  In this fabulous Guest Post by So She Sews, we learn a cool method of fusing plastic bags… too lazy to do this yourself? Check out her cool stuff in her etsy store!

  oh yeah, plus she has other nifty non-plastic stuff… like cool refashioned dresses.. check that out too!
  

• Stuff Dot Likes… (a super big Flickr roundup post)Need some inspiration or just want to see some cool stuff? Here’s some cool artists and crafters (and photographers) that Dot likes! Check it out!

1. Twinkie Chan Travel Case- I really like Soule’s work, check it all out at the link,
2. Crayons and Robots, what’s not to like?,
3. Loving all these stamps by Tresijas,
4. Cutest lil hamster pic by Nate … awwww…,
5. Omnomicon is cooking yummy cake! (www.omnomicon.com/ice-cream-cake ),
6. The always creative laserbread brings us a sign of the housing market times,
7. Go congratulate Creative Kismet on her Martha Stewart appearance! Love the eyeball shirt,
8. I so COVET Craftypod’s Yudu,
9. Love Jason Limon’s work–this is one of his Fragments pieces,
10. Interesting art by Allison Sommers,
11. The best Swine Flu pic ever :),
12. Summer Felt Food from Missie Zee

This is a cute party idea, that kids like, and is fun to do. You can seriously go retro with this, and decorate with Tin Robot toys. Or play up the spaceman side of it with stars and outer space decor. Think space, rockets, robots, stars… there are tons of possiblities!

First off, the invitations:
These cute little robots, hanging the stars, made a great invitation. I made this one available CC licensed for personal use, so if you’d like to snag it for your own party, just click through and download. (Or if you’d like the graphic personalized with your child’s name and party details, email me for pricing) There is also the matching thank you note graphic here. You can print these on card stock for your party use, or have them printed at your local copy shop for you!

For a simple idea for party favor ‘goodie bags’, I put some little treats in small paper bags, with another ‘robot spaceman graphic on the front. Inexpensive and easy. Some ideas for party favors are below — with the popularity of transformers and wall-e and such out there, finding some inexpensive robot themed items isn’t too hard, if you don’t have time to be creative and make goodies! Also, rather than juice boxes, I purchased inexpensive star themed cups (from Oriental Trading Co, I think) for drinks, which the kids could use at the party, and also take home.

Favor Bags (Robot Spaceman Cowboy!) (Click on the picture to download the graphic for your own use.)

Oh, I have a yard or so of the Robot Spaceman Fabric, if anyone would like to purchase it for their robot party… Email me.

The Cake:
The cake was my own creation and was a ton of fun to do. Also, we had a really large party, and this was big enough to feed a crowd. All the instructions are here, to make this yourself. You could also easily ‘cheat’ and add the rounded top to a store-bought round cake, then with either colored buttercream or fondant. Last year, Adrienne of Baby Toolkit took this idea, and did a great job of decorating a storebought cake.
And hey, maybe you should serve your cake with Astronaut Ice Cream !

Some other Robot Cake Ideas to inspire you:

Hopefully, this is a good start on some ideas for doing your own robot themed party. If you do one, be sure to drop back by and share what you did!

Oh, and here are some ideas for party favors…

Party Favor Ideas:

Good Morning… This friday I present to you a slightly cracked dragon. He’s a little silly isn’t he? Almost Suess-ian my husband thought. (PS- See him in CAKE FORM here!)

copyright nancy dorsner, 2009.
Pen, scanned into Illustrator (which I’m trying to learn!)

He’s going to be the graphic for The Boy’s dragon themed birthday invitation.
You’re welcome to snag him and use him (Creative Commons licensed, personal use) for a graphic for your own party invitations!

Remember last year’s Robot Party Invitations? They are CC licensed, so feel free to download and use!

If you missed it, check out the way cool tutorial from So She Sews on how to fuse plastic bags to make cool things!

Oh, and for a limited time, I’m testing out selling some postcard sets. Go here for details..

As you may have picked up, I’m planning to get the Dabbled/Art shop up and running, all new and spiffy. To give you my fabulous readers a little taste, I’m offering Dabbled readers-only special: a set of 8 postcards with the (reader favorite) “Talisman” piece (The flower sniffing robot shown here, without the copyright watermark of course).

Postcards are professionally printed, approx 4″x6″ with a glossy front–they’ll come packaged in pretty paper if you want to gift them. I have a limited number of these sets, and for you guys right now, they are $10, including shipping.

To Buy:
Hmm, Paypal button wasn’t working. So just email me nancy[at]dabbled[dot]org.

Also, although I got some great feedback from the recent survey, if you missed the survey or want to add more opinions, I’d love your thoughts on other pieces you’d like to see as cards (Poppiees is in the works). Also, I’m looking at T-shirts, and I’m trying to decide between the digital printing (like Cafepress) which is full color, or going for screen printing, which would only have 2 or 3 colors. I tend to like the look of screenprinting better, but what do you guys think?

By the way, I also have the big 5×8 Art Postcards available, at the current Artfire shop.

Hope you all enjoy it as much as I did… – Dot

How To Make Fused Plastic Sheets (from plastic bags)
…and then turn them into something neat!
1. Fusing Plastic Bags: Things you need, 2. Fusing Plastic Bags: The Bags!, 3. Fusing Plastic Bags: Step One, 4. Fusing Plastic Bags: Step Two, 5. Fusing Plastic Bags: Don’t forget the Earth!, 6. Fusing Plastic Bags: Step Three, 7. Fusing Plastic Bags: Step Four, 8. Fusing Plastic Bags: Step Five, 9. Fusing Plastic Bags: Step Six, 10. Fusing Plastic Bags: Step Seven, 11. Fusing Plastic Bags: The Motion in the Ocean, 12. Fusing Plastic Bags: Step Eight, 13. Fusing Plastic Bags: Turn up the Heat!, 14. Fusing Plastic Bags: Aaaaand we’re GOOD!, 15. Fusing Plastic Bags: Step Nine, 16. Final step!The description of each picture gives you the scoop on what’s going on, so click through the links above for directions, or you can see all the steps here.

So what to do with it now?

“Just behave as if this cool, fused plastic sheet were a regular piece of fabric! It sews right through on a regular machine (won’t get stuck or not feed feed properly… it will smoothly go through just like any piece of fabric would!).

When you are cutting shapes out of it, I recommend you draw your shapes on the backside of the fused plastic using a permanent marker (so that it won’t smear and get all over you), and then cut them out. Do this instead of pinning pattern pieces to it because wherever you put your pins is going to leave a tiny hole in the plastic.

Just use a regular or universal needle, no leather needles needed… this stuff is actually quite soft and easy for a regular sewing machine to pierce right through!

And if using a sewing machine isn’t your gig, try your “hand”… haha… at hand sewing through your fused plastic! I’ve made some wonderful little accessories by “whipstitching” or “blanket stitching” around the edge with colorful embroidery thread and even yarn!

There are so many possibilities for what to do with this new eco fabric… dream up something useful for your new recycled fused plastic!”

Thanks Brooke, This is really cool, green, and inspiring!

All About Brooke, of So She Sews

“Imagine a young Cindi Lauper with Bob Villa composure.
Haha! Ok, well you can already tell that I’m a bit of a jokester. What is life if you can’t have fun, am I right? Basically I’ve been amazingly blessed all my life to pursue having fun for a living. And having fun to me is at the very core of creativity. I adore things with color, difference, functionality and good design. I learned to sew when I was very young, thanks to my amazing Mother (who will appreciate the Bob Villa reference), and I’ve been cultivating it since. I’ve done everything from altering wedding gowns to cutting faux fur all day long as a professional fabric cutter in a mascot costume factory. My education was in Costume Design for Theatre but my passion for vintage fashion has just as much to do with my design style. I care deeply about my impact on the earth, and hope one day to have my own “eco-home” with a little veggie garden in the back, and solar panels to power my sewing machine!”

Buy her stuff (Pictured above): Owl Purses, Dresses, Wallets

Check her out at
http://soshesews.etsy.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/soshesews/

Yesterday was crafty stuff, today Part 3 is artists, and I found some with my type of subjects! Hopefully this will introduce you to some art, and give you some inspiration as well.. As usual, click through on the pics to see larger!

Another cool artist who also had a thing for my favorite subjects, robots & other creatures, was Rebecca Scott, of Robot Baby. Apparently my pic of her booth has disappeared, so I snagged this representative photo off her site. You can find her and her work at www.therebeccascott.com.

>>Look, even her postcards are adorable!

More cute art:
Check out these adorable animals at KMae Art Studio.

If you missed it, earlier today I posted the crafty roundup from Inman Park Festival. Go check it out!

So, for your enjoyment and inspiration, here we go! (Click through on the pics to see larger, as usual)

Lots of great crafty goods, and tons of inspiration could be seen at the Supercute booth. Aren’t these stuffies by Lorigami just too cute? The owls and bunnies are so clever! And you know how I love anything made from recycled sweaters… And isn’t that a sweater snake I see (I think that was by Lorigami as well)? ..Much better than my attempt, I think! Apparently I don’t have more pics from this booth, but also I met Becky from Glue & Glitter, and she had adorable lunch bags and aprons. All in all, a very cool booth!

Another fun booth was the one with Love Yu and Lil’ Sprout Knits. These lovely ladies had all kinds of cute. Knitted stuffies — are those pigs? Too cute! And baby knits like these adorable booties from Lil’ Sprout Knits. And more clever stuffies from Love Yu… a totally different take on owls and bunnies. And who couldn’t love a little cupcake?

Moving on from cute to pretty, we have some really neat work by Original Leigh. She does reverse painted pendants and other cool stuff on glass. Very cute designs–Check out the cool little birdie in pink!

And finally, I also liked these pendants by Wingo Designs. These metal pieces have a great simple graphic quality.