Steal of a Deal

Long time no post, I know. But I'm back. Maybe. While I haven't been posting, I've still been visiting the regular thrift stores... occasionally. Coolest find lately? SHRINKYDINKS!

You color an image on the plastic then bake it. It shrinks in the oven. What a way to spend time on Christmas break.

Here's my Where the Wild Things Are keychain. The top picture is what I traced onto the plastic. The mini ones are how they turned out after the bake:

Blurry close up:

I got the coloring/tracing pattern HERE. Free pattern. Wohoo!

Friday Freebie on Saturday Night

Happy Halloween! Here's a cool freebie HERE! There's a whole bunch of other free stuff other than Halloween too. See their homepage HERE!

Friday Freebie

Cute pillow, right? Tutorial is HERE.

Friday Freebie!

Crochet much? Me neither. I only do a straight line back and forth. None-the-less, this cute frog suit pattern is yours for free HERE.

Side note: The suit sort of looks like an alligator?

Friday Freebie

HERE's a cool tutorial from dana-made-it.com demonstrating the process of making shadow shirts. I'm thinking a Bob Ross shirt would be ideal. Who's Bob Ross you ask? See HERE. The below pictures give a glimpse of the idea behind the process and are from the tutorial, which goes more in depth HERE.

Friday Freebie

Click HERE for the freebie "Chipmunk Softie" directions.

Happy Friday Freebie!

Friday Freebie!

I'm pretty sure you've all been dying to find a good free crochet flower pattern. Be at peace. I found you two:

This first one comes from Attic 24. Visit the site HERE for an excellent tutorial and detailed photos. I'm thinkin they'd go quite nicely on a granny quilt.

This next flower pattern comes from Salihan. Visit HERE for a worthy step-by-step guide that will even satisfy a beginner.

Friday Freebie

Make It Do has a fabulous tutorial with pictures showing how to make one of these fabulous, floral beauties right HERE. You can make it into a bow, pin, or whatever. It doesn't look too hard to do at all. If I had a little girl, I'd definitely make one for her.

Friday Freebie

Visit Matsutake HERE and learn the art of transferring your own printed inkjet images onto wood blocks (or just onto wood in general)!

Friday Freebie!

Do you remember silver scratch cards from the perspective of childhood? I loved those things. Even if I knew I wouldn't be interested in the free car wash or 10% discount possibility that existed underneath. I was excited recently to find a recipe for such silver opportunities on ARTMIND. Visit HERE for surprisingly easy directions. Have fun!

Friday Freebie on a Tuesday

So, Valentine's Day is coming up. So, HERE's a free printable ruffledblog has to share.

Friday Freebie

Meet Betsy McCall (1960). There are ten years worth of her HERE. Holy smokes. That's a lot of paper dolls. I hope you guys have some use for them because I know I sure don't. Someday I might. I found Betsy from the website "Teri's Paper Doll Scans" found HERE. Aside from Betsy, there are a ton more different paper dolls from last century. The variety of options is impressive; however, I didn't check them all out because, well, I don't really have use for them... now. Who knows. Maybe I'll get caught playing with them in the near future. Once a little girl, always a little girl.

P.S. Lauren, Mishawn (if you ever read this), and all you other Funny Girl lovers out there need to check out these beauties HERE. What are the odds of that?

For One Smokin Dollar... Basically a Freebie!

This Where the Wild Things Are Moishe character crochet pattern is only $1! Better yet, the only crochet stitch you have to use is a single crochet, the easiest one ever! Even I can do it. Holy Smokes.

Purchase it on Etsy from GraceHKim right HERE.

WooHoo! Friday Freebie!

It's Friday Freebie Day! I know, I know. It's just a tad late to be posting calendars but we're still in the month of January so I feel o.k. about sharing it. Besides, I like it and it's free. This calendar comes from a clever website that I've been enjoying lately. The writers (husband and wife) are ever so clever and made the calendar with their own printmaking equipment. I would love, love, love to get into that hobby/art. Any way, with out further ado, I present to you from Something's Hiding In Here, your very own 2010 calendar.

Click this HERE link to obtain the full download. The below picture is just the first of twelve, obviously.

Friday Freebie!

It's been a while but here it is! Friday Freebie! I'd like to say that I strongly dislike when the things I love become trendy, so it is natural that I don't like that Where the Wild Things Are has become so; however, it is definitely a classic that I love and I can't help but participate in the trendiness and post the directions on how to make your very own Max Bag! I haven't made one yet so if you feel so inclined, you can whip an extra one up and send it on over to me. Visit "Meet Me At Mikes" for the directions HERE.

Friday Freebie!

It's time for another Friday Freebie! Woohoo! Visit Fonts For Peas to have your very own handwriting transformed into a downloadable font.... for free! There are also some free "cute" fonts available to download. Click HERE to visit the site!!!

Friday Freebie!

Today's Friday Freebie is book related, of course. Creature Comforts generously shares these three templates. One link is a library card pocket, another is the actual library card. The third link is a library style card that could be used as notepaper or something like that. Gotta love free printables. Enjoy!

Library Pocket

Library Card

Note Card

Also.....

For the weekend, I leave you with a speech. This was delivered before the Senior class of the Cambridge Divinity college by Ralph Waldo Emerson on July 15, 1838. It's been a while since I've read it, and I can't remember the whole premise, but I remember how poetic it was. I can't remember if I agreed with all is ideas, but he sure said it masterfully.

The discovery came when I viewed the new Joseph Smith first vision movie at the Mesa Temple visitor center. Before the movie began, a quote flashed on the screen making the statement that God has spoken to his children throughout all the ages and there was never a time that needed it more than now. That isn't the direct quote. The direct one is much more striking. I had to know where it came from. I wanted the meat of it. Anyway. I found it. The source is HERE. It's delicious to read, though it is a bit heavy for one sitting. I had to read it in two or three sittings. At any rate, I'm going to read it again this weekend. Care to join me?

Friday Freebie!

It's been quite awhile since I've posted. I've been finalizing projects and assignments. Oh yeah, I had to start doing an online class that's due Monday. I looked at it at the beginning of the semester then stressed about it for the rest of the semester then finally buckled down and got to work this week. Not smart. I know. That's not the point of the post though!

I have been amassing bookplates as of this year and would like to share some with you. I'd give you all that I have so far but I need to put it all together. So tonight you get a little sliver. The big collection will come another Friday Freebie day. Tonight's segment consists of vintage bookplates. Check them out HERE. Aside from the freebie ones, there are some nice detailed ones to look at too. I have some modern ones if that's what you're wanting, but those will come a little later. Oh the anticipation!

I'm signing off with the our elementary school staff newsletter slogan, "Read on! Lead on!"!

Friday Freebie!

So I bet there were a lot of good deals out there today, but not as good as the one I'm giving you. I found paper-toy website. I don't remember how I came upon it, but I did. That's all that matters. It's full of free kid stuff. It's for the child within you, or your own child, or some child you know. I haven't played with any, but I plan on making the spinners (linked below). Be sure to check out the whole website here. There's a ton of free stuff. Here are some of my favs...

Patrin's Frog (fold up frog box)

Goldilocks and the Three Bears 1 (finger puppets)

Goldilocks and the Three Bears 2 (finger puppets)

Paper Plane (put it together)

Animals (stand up alone)

Spinners (fun fun fun)

Paperdolls (and their clothes)

So happy Black Friday, though it's happy colorful-fun Friday at my blog.

Good times,

Slim Pikins

Fantastic Freebie Friday!

Doot ta doo! Today for Freebie Friday I share with you today some pop-up goodness! When I was in first grade, I was fascinated by pop-ups. They were so magical. Now, I'm in, uh, 16th or 17th grade. I'm still fascinated by them and yes, they are still so magical.

I present to you Robert Sabuda. I have a book he contributed to, Brava Streganona! A Heartwarming Pop-Up Book. Tender, I know. There are some photos of the innards on Amazon, but some of the best ones are left out. I doubt you can check it out at your local library and I doubt you want to drop a 20 spot for it. So here's the deal. Come visit at my house and you can read it as many times as you want.

Here are some Robert Sabuda creations:

Robert Sabuda has free pop-ups you can make. There are three levels of ease/difficulty being simple, intermediate, and advanced. I recommend checking out the whole gamut of choices here. Here are instant visuals/samples. Click on the picture and you'll be connected with the instructions and pattern.

Simple:

Intermediate:

Advanced:

So in summary, this week's Friday Freebie is a wealth of pop-up opportunities, by Robert Sabuda, located here. Enjoy!