written by marieann

I have some cute fabrics in my stash, some of which, I am too scared to use!  Here’s some of my favorites:

These fabrics came from Urban Outfitters. They call them “bed covers” but they are really a giant piece of fabric (80 x 108) with a seamed edges. I have already made a lot of stuff out of the owl fabric including a quilt back.

These fabrics were part of my Christmas fabric shopping spree. Every now and then fabric.com has a 20% discount and then I can afford the designer fabrics I love. There’s some Alexender Hendry and Robert Kauffman prints in that stack.

My mom got these in a fat quarter pack from Joann’s for me. They are my perfect quilt asethic — a blend of traditional and modern in the prints and my favorite color scheme.

Finally, I got these fabrics when I swapped with my quilting friend, Rose. We both took the opportunity to trade away scraps from bigger projects and other pieces of fabric that were growing stale in our own stash. I used the zippers for a bunch of zip up pencil cases. I used the pink/greens in a fairy quilt, that turned out really cute.

written by marieann

I have a mad desire to make my own pop up books. I adored the stack of zoology ones my grandmother had in her home growing up and decided it was time that I made my own. I looked on Amazon and each of the pop up how to books was over $20 and I had no idea which to purchase. And then, I remembered, books are free at the library! Libraries have a very small town feel to me and I hadn’t even considered visiting the public library in NYC before. The local library branch didn’t have any of the books I particularly wanted on the shelves but they do share books via request. I found some other inspiring craft books and mixed up a cup of tea. It was a great afternoon!

written by marieann

I’ve been on a serious crafting binge. I graduate law school in May then it’s cramming for the bar exam then I start work at a law firm in the fall. That means that the next few months may be my last time to craft my heart out ever (grim, no?). I also have a four day weekend every week

This means I have been crafting constantly so I will be frequently adding content to DIYnamite! I am on a posting schedule of once every two days. I already have 18 tutorials/projects in the hopper to post over the next month … but of course, I will also be making more stuff so the posts will continue! So, check back frequently for all new content from me and Caro.

Also, Caro designed the new header. Woot!

written by diynamite

Yay! We’ve finally settled on a basic new site design but we’re working on some new header image(s).

We’re still hoping people take our survey to give us a little feedback (this expires on 2/9/08).

Click here!

written by marieann

I spent the last weekend working my crafty pants off! Here’s a sneak peak of things to come that I made (or started or finished) this last weekend (it was five days for me!).

• T-Shirt quilt
• Fleece baby quilt
• Draw string duffle bag
• Tea wallets (4!) — added here
• Pencil holder for journals (2) — added here
• Journals (homemade pages, cover and bound) — added here
• Scarf to match my owl coat — added here
• Modge podge covered heart box — added here
• T-Shirt recon dress
• Drafted, made a mock-up, and final version of a zippered pocket purse
• A watercolor gym inspiration date tracker poster
• Baby girl dress from a button-up shirt

written by admin

My friend is a great cook. Her mother owns a restaurant and she’s working writing and publishing a cookbook. She doesn’t cook like I cook (that is, strictly follow directions) because she actually understands the science behind cooking so she makes her own recipes and tweaks. She’s always my go-to for meal ideas and cooking hints. She’d love to eventually have her own cooking show but in the meantime she’s started a cooking blog, Food FascinNation.

She plans to answer all reader submitted questions … so ask her about the process of cooking, substitutes, recipes, anything (no question too easy or hard)! She’ll also post some of her favorite recipes (she’s also an amazing food photographer) and techniques. She just started the blog but I strongly recommend you add it to your RSS reader because I’m sure you’ll learn a lot about cooking as she posts more in the future.

written by admin

“Handmade Holidays: 30 Days of Gifts to Sew!”, a feature of Sew Mama Sew, is featuring a DIY-namite tutorial on Novemeber 16! It’s part of a daily series on sewing projects to make for the holidays (over 100 tutorial). It looks really awesome so everybody should bookmark it. It’ll make the Handmade Pledge easier.

written by marieann

Here’s what’s next on my Crafting To Dos: Either use these as your own inspiration or come back over the next few weeks since you know that there are new things to enjoy! This includes finished items that I haven’t posted yet either.

• Lots of quilts!: t-shirt quilt, teal and brown quilt; baby quilt added here
• Jewelry hanger:added here
• Sofa pincushion: added here
• Money wallet: added here
• Needle wallet: added here
• Dresses and skirts: I pretty much never wear pants. I bought some patterns for skirts and dresses and I’m ready to rock up fall with them and tights.
• Fabric napkins: Be good to the environment!
• Ziplock album: I made this great album for storing your loose stickers. You do have hundreds of stickers to store too?
• Starbooks:I saw this great tutorial on craftster for books made to look like stars.
• Scarf + Hoodies: Now you can have a hat and scarf combined into one thing. Perfect!
• Cat Tree: So they’ll stop clawing at our furniture.

written by admin

We’re proud to announce that we have now featured over 50 projects on DIYnamite! We’ve been some busy girls! In celebration we hosted a drawing of the readers who commented this week.

The winner, randomly chosen, was Judy! We’ll be in touch via email.

Thanks again to everyone else. If you follow our patterns or are inspired to make your own versions, please share your photos! We’ve love to see someone else trying out our ideas!

written by admin

Here at DIYnamite we like to keep the chatty posts to a minimum and only post about our crafts.  There’s a todo list every now and then but mostly we don’t share all the crafty things we’ve found.  But I do have to share swap-bot.com.

This is a great website that helps crafters all around the world organize swaps.  They range from supplies, goodies, crafts, ATCs, etc!  In fact, anybody can start a swap.  There’s a rating system to ensure (sort of) reliablity and generally it’s a lot of fun.

I just started a swap that I think is really cool and invite everyone to join.  It’s for a cd of images. The idea is that you scan all of your favorite artistic papers that you use for collaging/scapbooking/cards/anything and send copies of that to two partners.  Then you can either use the images digitally or else print them for all your projects.  I think it’s a great way to swap your best art images without actually swapping them away for good.  If that doesn’t interest you, check out the website anyway and find something that does. Apparently so far nobody likes my idea on swap-bot either but I still think it’s good