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.

• Somehow I had missed this cool Crafting Green contest from Dabbled buds, Chica & Jo! I’m going to enter… and so should you. Hurry, you just have til April 20!!
• Some good ideas on what to do with easter trash at Crafting in a Green World..
• Love these bunnies from old sweaters at Polywog’s Cakewalk
• Recycle Junk Mail into beads (via Whipup)
• Great recycling crafts at Craftypod. Love the VHS tape ideas!
• Love this little bird at Lorigami, and all of the lovely recycled items in her shop!

And finally, a flickr roundup to give you some inspiration for your green crafting… Think Green – Recycled Fashion from around Flickr. Click through the links below the picture for more information on each, and to see the other cool stuff these artists & crafters do with recycled materials!

1. piglinks, 2. Ad Bracelet, 3. Recycled Tunic, 4. RCA Record Comb, 5. a batch of studs – copyright amalia versaci 2009, 6. Madonna Wine tote, 7. Olive and Teal Sundress, 8. recycled plastic earrings, 9. around the world in 80 stamps upcycled vintage bag

Not directly related, but I’ve been meaning to post this:
Blog friend and artist Diana Evans has a new website, Bees For A Cause, where 50% of proceeds of the sale of her cute “Bee” print go to Heifer International to help struggling families earn income through the sale of honey, beeswax and pollen. Every $30 Raised purchases a package of bees, the box and hive, plus training in beekeeping. It’s a little thing, but it shows the direct impact that people can have on others.

Related: Free Download- Squid Valentine Cards.

So, in honor of Cephalopod week, here is another order of calamari in watercolor form.

And–since I think it’s the only cephalopod I’ve made craft-wise, I should re-introduce Henri the Hexapus… He’s a pupput and/or a stuffed toy made from recycled sweaters and lots of annoying to sew on buttons…. Go make one today (Tutorial here)!

When I tried this, I had just I picked up Sock and Glove -by Miyako Kanamoriafter reading about it on some of the craft blogs I like. The book is full of adorable and relatively easy projects that you can do with old socks and/or gloves. And I loved the idea of the glove animals, so I figured I’d try it. For this one, the process was fairly simple, just removing the middle fingers and thumbs to create the ears and the legs, then sewing back some of the fingers to create the arms and the tail. (Hmm, looking at it, I think the face was slightly more complicated — go check out the book) Having no faith in my sewing ability, I used these ‘lovely’ pink acrylic gloves I found in the Target $1 Spot. And with whatever leftover embroidery thread I had around the house, I hand-stitched this little bunny up — and presented it to the bunny-loving little girl next door. Yes, it’s not the most neatly done stitching or the most adorable bunny ever (I also think it would be tons cuter with button eyes), but the point is that I realized after doing it, that 1) it’s not that difficult and 2) I could do a lot more than just follow patterns and use socks/gloves as bases–which is where I started looking into recycling sweaters instead!

So my point is — and what has always been the point of this website — just try! Try something new and see what happens :)

Related:
See all recycled sweater project posts
Elephant Purse

We documented the process, so here it is. You’ll see both of the prototype ornaments we made in the steps. Tutorial below pictures.

(PS: We have some great guest blogger how-to’s coming over the next few days!!)

1. Felt and old wool sweater (shrink it!)., 2. Cut our your ornament shapes, 3. Cut a ‘window’ in one of your two halves, 4. Materials: sweater material, old plastic packaging, embroidery thread, ribbon or thread for hanging, 5. Cut a square out of your packagin slightly larger than the window., 6. sew the window on to your sweater, 7. Window sewn in, 8. Stitch the two pieces together,, 9. Leave a space large enough to stuff/insert picture., 10. Stich around the window to cover your thread, 11. Ready to stuff: insert picture, and stuff, and then stitch closed, 12. Hang on tree!

Materials:
Old wool sweaters, felted. I washed these in the washing machine with hot water and they shrunk nicely. Just google for felting sweaters if you need more info.
Flexible clear plastic – repurpose packaging from kids toys or similar. Mine was a bag from a diaper bag set.
Pictures
Embroidery thread
Ribbon (for hanging or embellishing)
Stuffing (polyfil or whatever you have on hand, even extra sweater scraps)

Cut out 2 matching ornament shapes from the body of the sweater.
Cut a ‘window’ in one of your two halves slightly smaller than your picture.
Cut a square out of your plastic slightly larger than the window.
Sew the window on to your sweater – I machine stitched this, but you can save a step and just sew on by hand with embroidery thread. (If your fabric has an obvious front and back, be sure to sew the ‘window’ plastic to the back of the fabric)
Stitch the two pieces together using a blanket stitch. Sew in a loop of ribbon when you get to the top, and leave an opening at the bottom for stuffing and to insert the picture (note, you can insert the picture, tacking it in with tape or glue, prior to this step if you like)
For extra interest, I stitched around the window to cover my thread. (I didn’t do the neatest job sewing it on the machine!)
Insert your picture in through the bottom hole. (I didn’t do anything to secure it, just stuffed behind it and it seemed secure enough)
Stuff and then stitch closed. I had a little extra ribbon, so I added a tassel on the bottom when I was closing up the bottom.
If you’re really good, embroider the year on the back.
All ready to wrap for a gift or hang on the tree!

The votes are in, and although I loved all our entrants, here are our top two vote getters in the Dabbled Upcycled Holiday Challenge.
1 – From She’s Crafty (shop here)
This cozy sweater bag… it even has pockets! What a great gift!
2 – From Chica & Jo: Make your Own Snowglobes! Such a fun little project with tons of possibilities! And a tutorial to make them yourself!
Since you can only win with one entry, third goes to Laurienrick‘s adorable Corduroy Trees.

Congrats to the winners… !

Check out all the entries – some really great stuff!
1. Mini Snow Globes (more, and tutorial, here),
2. Christmas Trees for a Mantle,
3. Purse from Sweaters,
4. Snowmen: Tink and Estelle (and The Colonel),
5. Retro Plaid Crossover Bag,
6. Wine Bucket Cozy, Coasters, and Table Topper,
7. Tree Skirt from Bridesmaid Dress (tutorial here),
8. Recycled Tree Stump Snowmen Ornaments (tutorial here),
9. Santa wooden centerpiece,
10. Forest Wool Hip Bag

The top 2 winners receive the following little nifty prize, a set of 4 art postcards. Please email me at Dot[at] dabbled (dot)org with your snail mail. All winners get an award button, below.

PS – I’m just trying out Artfire (linked above) – I like it thus far, no listing fees like Etsy (though the free monthly option is limited). If you’re thinking about getting your feet wet with a shop, but not wanting commitment, I think it’s a good option. If you sign up, you can go through this link and I’ll get credit for sending you! Register on ArtFire.com (Buy these as real big prints here)

Related:
Holiday Roundup – all the cool Dabbled stuff for the season in one place!

Watch this space… over the next few days we’ll have some great project how-to’s from some terrific guest bloggers!

Related: All Recycled Sweater projects

In other news:
If you missed it, Friday’s Holiday Inspiration Links

.. and
A few quick fun & silly Xmas links for you today:
–Chrismukkah Decoration Set at Superpunch
–Most unusual Christmas Trees at Neatorama
–Light up the Christmas Tree Puzzle
–Santa Don’t Miss or Else Game

The Holiday Contest entries are closed, and we have 10 lovely entries, consolidated here. Check ’em out! I’ll pick a winner, and we’ll also have a people’s choice award, so vote for your favorites below.. (Grab a nifty robot santa contest button below, too!)

You can see more views of the entries in the Dabbled Flickr Pool, and be sure to click through the links below for more information about the item creation, and for tutorials on some.

1. Mini Snow Globes (more, and tutorial, here),
2. Christmas Trees for a Mantle,
3. Purse from Sweaters,
4. Snowmen: Tink and Estelle (and The Colonel),
5. Retro Plaid Crossover Bag,
6. Wine Bucket Cozy, Coasters, and Table Topper,
7. Tree Skirt from Bridesmaid Dress (tutorial here),
8. Recycled Tree Stump Snowmen Ornaments (tutorial here),
9. Santa wooden centerpiece,
10. Forest Wool Hip Bag

Vote for your favorite 2 items in the poll, below!

How to make a cute little elephant purse by recycling old sweaters.. I did this as a Christmas gift last year. It’s simple to make, cheap, and was much loved by the recipients. This is my own design, and I encourage you to try it yourself and add your own spin!

Related posts:
Another version of the Ele-purse. (This one is sturdier and more colorful).
See all recycled sweater projects here.
A reader does her own take on the elepurse – Nifty!
July 08 – The Baby Elepurse

The Process:

In case anyone wants to try it, here’s how i did it. And please do, just give me credit ;). I’m sure someone with more skill could do a much better job, and this is a very creative project, in that you could vary the materials, face, or construction and come up with a very different outcome. Be warned, this was a no-pattern trial and error experiment, so the directions may not be the best I’ve ever written. If I do it again, and anyone is interested, I might make a pattern.

I picked a sweater from the ones I had bought. This one was a light green lambswool, either a ladies or girls size.
The original idea was a backpack, but I didn’t know how long to make the straps, so I decided to go with a bag instead.

The Sweater collection:

the “body”
I started by cutting a square out of the bottom, leaving one side seam intact. I reversed it, and sewed it into a pouch (if i’d done the backpack idea, this would have also been when i added the straps in). The bottom finished edge of the sweater serves as the open top. The size could vary dependant on the size of the sweater (and the desired end result), but i made the pouch just slightly wider than the top of the sleeve of the sweater. Stitch a ribbon or whatever you want to use as a handle on either side of the pouch. If I’d been feeling ambitious i might have tried making the strap out of the sweater material, but I wasn’t.

the trunk/head
I cut the sleeve off straight at the shoulder. Since this sweater had 3/4 length sleeves, I used the whole thing, but basically, you need it to be a few inches short of the length of the pouch. Turn the sleeve wrong side out, and center the seam in the back. Now to make the trunk skinnier: About half way down the length of the sleeve, mark with pins. Come in about 3/4 in (depending on the size of your sleeve) on either side of the finished sleeve end, and mark with pins. You want a couple of inches between the pins. Then one each side, sew diagonally from the end pin to the middle pin. Turn rightside out and see if it looks vaguely elephant head like!

Turn the pouch so that the front is showing. Turn the trunk so the back is showing, trunk pointing up.
Slide the top of the sleeve into the pouch about 1/2 in and sew in place to the back of the pouch. The head and trunk should form the flap of the purse now.

the face
I just guessed on the ears. Trial and error gave me a 45 degree triangle, with one side rounded off, and folded a bit to make them stand up. Hard to explain in writing :). I just tacked them on the sides of the head, and covered with buttons. Then added buttons for eyes, and that was about it! More embellishment might be fun too.

Finished project, and other versions:

Here’s the scoop on the Dabbled Holiday Contest.

The theme for this season is Holiday (whichever holidays you celebrate, or do them all!) decor and gifts, recycled from something else. So your bag from recycled sweaters or your wreath from plastic bags, or whatever! You can enter as many items as you like (but you can only win with one), and we love tutorials…

HOW TO ENTER: This one will be flickr based, so you’ll need a flickr account to participate (it’s free, and I love flickr!). (This will make it easy for everyone to see all the entries, and easy for me to post links to the entries here — ya know at holiday time, we need EASY!) Upload your pictures of your cool holiday craftiness, with a link back to your blog on the picture description if applicable (be sure to tag them “dabbledholiday” and add to the dabbled flickr pool.
I’ll be pulling stuff from there to share with your guys all month..
Questions? Comments? Post them in the comments here, or email me at holiday -at- dabbled.org. You’re also welcome to link here in the comments to show off your stuff :)

Due date is December 12, so you have one month from today! We’ll have buttons you can put on your site, and the winners will receive nifty buttons proclaiming their greatness to the internet, as usual. I’ll add prize details later.

We had great sponsors for the Halloween Contest, but I’m not sure whether we’ll do that this time or not, but if you want to be a sponsor, just email me.

Other Dabbled Holiday Stuff for you to know about:

Best of Crafty “Upcycling” for Christmas, Thanksgiving, or your holiday of choice – Show off your recycling skills by making gifts or decor out of ‘trash’. Submit your tutorials to be featured on Dabbled! (Here’s some previous Dabbled Upcycling Projects if you need some inspiration)

Holiday Art Card Show – Artsy? Create a holiday card for the dabbled contest, and show off your work! Not Artsy? Download a cool holiday card from the cool artsy folks! More to come on this, email me if you think you’ll wanna play!

Shopping Links – Do you sell your art or craft? There will be a special page with links to Dabbled approved cool sellers. And for everyone, a great opportunity to support your fellow indie artists and crafters when you’re buying those holiday gifts! More Info HERE