Today’s post is from the lovely Joanne of Ready, Set, Craft!. She was one of our prolific participants in Make Something Cool Every Day in April (MSCEApril), and when I saw this awesome pinata she did, I had to get a tutorial out of her! She graciously agreed, so without further ado, here she is! – Dot

How to Make a Flower Pinata (instructions below photo)

(photos correspond by row from left to right)

Materials:
One 10inch balloon
Newspaper
White liquid school glue
Pinch of Salt
¼ cup Warm water
Spray paint
Tissue paper
Brads
Hot glue gun

STEP ONE: Cut newspaper into strips. Mix ¾ cup of glue with one ¼ cup of…

I’m taking a computer break today, so here’s a tasty older post that you might have missed!

Dot’s Mom’s Blueberry Pie:

Ingredients
Pastry for top & bottom of 9 in pie *
4 c fresh or frozen blueberries (I used frozen ones from my parents haul this summer)
3/4 c sugar
3 Tbs flour
1/2 tsp grated lemon rind (doh! no fresh lemons on hand today, so I left out)
dash salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1-2 tsp lemon juice
1 Tbs butter
*Although it’s certainly not that hard to make your own piecrust pastry, I cheated here and used the all-ready type rolled pastry you can find in the…

A little break from the robots, today. I finished Series 1 of the Robot World, which are going to be on loan to the Museum of Science in Boston for a bit. Not sure of exactly when they’ll be on display, but I’ll let you guys know the details when I do, so if any of you are in the Boston area you can go visit them! So a little break before I start Series 2.

This doll dancer was a creation from a while back–she was a character in a book I was collaborating on–so I decided to reinterpret her in…

EDIT: Welcome THREADBANGERS! Do go check out the Anti-Valentine’s Day Contest!

I’m the guest artist for Sluggy Freelance today – check it out!

Please Welcome our guest blogger for today, the lovely Hello, I’m Sally from Pollywog’s Cakewalk! Today she brings us a really great tutorial on how to make a little gnome using needle felting. I’ve never tried this process, and it looks like a ton of fun… Thanks to Sally for sharing with us today! Dot

Wonderland… Is it real, or just pretend? Alice was requested in the comments last week, and there are so many great scenes one could illustrate from the stories, but I chose the Rose Garden to go with last week’s Poppieeees. (Be sure to read the In Other News below)

I’m not sure I’m thrilled with the colors – I tried taking some of the orangy-ness out here:
CLICK ME

In other news, I’m still collecting cool online shops for the holiday links page – if you have an etsy or other online shop, with cool stuff, click here for more info.

And I’m debating canceling…

More Dabbled Interviews, including Dave Gugel (Halloween), Naomi Henderson (Cupcakes), Cory Godbey (Author/Artist), Shannon Riffe (Silkscreening Entrepreneur), Diana Evans (Artist), & Diane Gilleland (Crafter Extraordinaire)

Today’s Dabbled Interview is with Jenifer Nakatsu Arntson, of JNA Designs – Handbuilt Vinyl Goods for your Beautiful Life. She does some fabulous work in vinyl, and I’ve asked her to share a little about her and her fun vinyl goods!

1. First the quickie background stuff: In three sentences or less.. who are you, what do you do, how long have you been doing it, and do you do it full time?

My name is Jenifer Nakatsu…

This is not inherently creepy (though with some creative labeling, it can be), like the other Halloween Food we’ve featured this month, but it is unusual and fun, and always a hit at the halloween party. I’ve posted about this before, but I’m finally writing real instructions. [Note, no fish were harmed in the making of this, it's all nicely vegetarian sweets!]

Dessert Sushi:

This is really simple to make, and has tons of creative opportunities.

You’ll need:
“Rice” The base is your basic rice krispy treat recipe.
“Fish” – various dried fruits (mango, papaya, & candied ginger all work well, but just go wild in the…

This week’s Dabbled interview is with the very talented Cory Godbey. Cory is an illustrator & author, and is part of Portland Studios. He just released “Ticket”, a story in pictures. Without further ado…

1. Let’s get the standard stuff out of the way first… In three sentences or less.. who are you, what do you do, how long have you been doing it, and do you do it full time?

I’m Cory. I draw things, I’ve been doing it for a while, and it do it all the time.

2. So, Portland Studios.. your profile says you’re in South Carolina! Are y’all…

–Don’t forget! The Summer Doldrums contest – Art or craft… It’s fun to share your stuff!–

Interview 1: Craftypod * Interview 2: Diana Evans, Artist * All Interviews

For the 3rd Interview in the Dabbled Series, our focus is craft and the business of craft. Today we have Shannon Riffe, who writes the blog Make It – a blog about building a craft business, and is the silkscreening designer/crafter behind Rifferaff. I’ve been enjoying Make It for a while, and Shannon has documented a great deal about her journey to making it in her own craft business. A lot of times we only hear someone…

Hope you all enjoyed the shrinky dinks test lab… I sure did!
A reminder, I want to see your creations. If you’re on Flickr, add your pictures to the new Dabbled pool, and/or put a comment here (with a link to your blog) or one of the other Test Lab posts. If we get enough fun stuff, i’ll do a spotlight on readers’ shrinkies

Also, be sure to check out the comments, because there are alot of talented people who posted their experiences, especially with sealing, and there is good info to be had.

Here are links to all the posts, for…