If I didn’t already have a hand-me-down frog costume for Jack I would totally do one of these. The Shark would be my pick!

I saw this link over on Rookiemoms.com

Let’s start with the new Michael Miller Flower Garden line. What’s in a flower garden? GNOMES, of course! There are three new gnome fabrics and all of them are cracking me up.

More from Michael Miller: Doughnuts and tea. You can’t go wrong and I’m pretty sure my brain has decided to go get doughnuts tomorrow. I guess I’ll go along with it.

Robert Kaufman has some new fabrics designed by Robin Pickens called Deco Park. Her color choices are amazing and these remind me of stained glass windows.

The Apple line designed by Alice Kennedy for Timeless Treasures. Whoo! The Cream Orchard Owls fabric, Dotted Daisy and Fashion Apples all are great fabrics with a vintagey 70’s feel.

Jayme McGowan is the artist behind this original artwork, you can find her blog and other works of art here.

This Giclee print of a birdie tea party in a robins egg would look great in a kids room or kitchen. YumiYumi’s shop has quite a few other pretty bird prints.

Teeny tiny tea cup ring anyone?

“Festive Zebra” is a flat paper cutout puppet on a golden rod. Pull the decorative tabbed string and the Zebra takes a sip from his martini.

Norma V Toraya is the woman behind all these fantastic pop-up cards and paper puppets. Her images all have a watercolor-y textured weather feel to them bu also like they just might jump out of the paper and give you a slobbery kiss.

“Some things in life are slick, polished and blatantly obvious. But for Norma V. Toraya, who’s also known as Crankbunny, these are exactly the things she shies away from. Instead, she’s more inclined to explore timeless concepts like subtly, curiousity, texture and awkwardness. Her hand-drawn and computer-animated creations are often described as dark, sometimes noir and always magical.”

You can buy her cards from her website here and she also has a book called Paper Puppet Palooza in which she gives, templates and instruction on how to build your own paper puppet creations. Go here to click on her amazon link to buy the book.

Please to look at this outrageously cute cuckoo clock and donkey fabric panel hand printed in Australia by Kristin Doran of Cheeky Beaks. You can buy it and some other really beautiful designs in her shop.

Back in the day I remember being so so happy when I found some colored sticker paper that I could run through the copiers at Kinko’s to make stickers that said “F**K WORK” (except with out the astrics) or “OBEY your Television”. There was no internet, well, there was…but it didn’t offer jack as far as finding printers for stickers at affordable prices.

I’ve used two vendors – The Sticker Guy and Sticker Junkie an both are reasonably priced, timely and good quality.

Sticker Junkie actually ends up being more expensive but they have a handy dandy little flash sticker builder on their site – so if you just need text and can use one of their stock images then you may want to just go with them.

If you’re comfortable in Adobe Illustrator and want a fancier, cheaper sticker with more size and color options than Sticker Guy might be for you.

Now, I would love to hear about other vendors people have used.

The internet provides me with these possibilities:
Sticker Giant – This looks okay but frankly theiur site sucks and is kind of confusing.

Zazzle – I’ve used zazzle for business cards and I like them. They’re FAST.

123 Stickers – Could be okay but really? Email for prices? No, I crave instant gratification and do not want to have to actually have contact with another human being.

Sticker Robot – They look good! They’ll do a hole punch and a kiss cut (awesome if you’re using them for tags), plus they’ll die cut and give you an instant quote.

What else have y’all found?

In her artist statement she says,

At first glance, it is easy for someone to categorize my costumed animals as merely whimsical or gimmicky paintings with one-liner appeal. For me the animals go much deeper and I hope that as well as enjoy and be amused by my imagery, the viewer will spend a little more time studying them to figure out the internal and often personal viewpoint I am offering. My childhood is present in my works, influenced by the children’s book illustrations that I was most enchanted with, worlds I wished to belong to and creatures that were more appealing than the humans that ostracized me.

She goes on to say more and you can read the rest on her website here.

You can buy her greeting cads over at Hare Brain Press, her paintings are for sale on her website, and you can also commission a painting.

I have no idea how I will use them but they satisfied my cute requirement for the day.

Buttons, scissors, and string-oh my! Featuring colorful motifs from across the crafting world, these sweetly illustrated peel and stick labels and stickers are perfect for personalizing homemade gifts and projects, organizing around the home, or adding a sweet note to any correspondence. With over 200 labels and stickers in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors, you’re sure to find the perfect accent for any crafty occasion.

You can buy them at Amazon or Chronicle Books.

It’s brand new and was just announced at the CHA 2009 and I haven’t heard any reviews yet about it’s easy of use and print quality.

Product Features:

* Make your own homemade printed shirt
* Yudu ink – features the consistency to produce a gorgeous, crisp image; screw off top – for ink salvage; water-based ink easily washes out of screen when cleaned; allows screens to be saved for future
* Create and print your own designs, not only for t-shirts or other apparel, but also for home decor, art prints, posters, cards, schoolwork and much more
* Use with cotton, 50/50 polyester/cotton blend, wood, paper or porous fabrics
* UL listed
* Made in China
* Comes with a manufacturer’s 1-year limited warranty

The i needle u – needle man knitting needle gauge is on Ponoko and was designed by Olas in Trondheim, Norway.

I don’t knit but like, everyone else on the planet seems to. What better way to check the gauge of your needles than to stab a dude? There should be a girlie option too and maybe they could come as a pack so that you can stab the correct gender when you need to.

It measures 10 gauges:
2 mm, 2.5 mm, 3 mm, 3.5 mm, 4 mm, 4.5 mm, 5 mm, 5.5 mm, 6 mm, 6.5 mm

You can order him in pink or green acrylic. Only 10 bucks!

If you are not like me and haven’t stored up about 47 thousand boxes of polaroid film then you can just use this handy dandy tool that turns any digital photo into a polaroid replica!

Poladroid is a cute, fun, free tool you can download to make your digital pictures look like original polaroids. I like this because you can mess with the photo before hand, turning up the contrast or bumping the colors up.

Omg, it’s so fun. It makes the little noise and you have to watch it develop!

I can’t stop making them and now desktop is littered with Poloriods and I can’t figure out how to get rid of them. Ha.

I can’t wait for Queen Bee to start selling these! Check out these stylish bags that attach to the side of your bike. My only question would be, “how heavy are they”? Well, and also, “what do I do with them when I get to where I am going so that someone doesn’t steal them”?

I would just want one and I would want it to convert into a backpack

Well, it looks like they are selling these prototype one of kind pieces, you can contact them at:

hello@queenbee-creations.com or give them a call at 503.232.1755

Here are the specs:

- Waterproof materials: Cordura ripstop, faux leather, nylon pack cloth, and reflective polyester
- Large front pocket under flap and one patch pocket on inside back
- Adjustable velcro flap closure
- Extended side panels at top to protect contents from weather
- Snaps on sides at top to secure your load or cinch bag when carrying a lighter load
- Removable, adjustable shoulder strap included with each bag; stash it in your bag when not in use
- Rear-facing side panel entirely reflective for safety & visibility
- Hook & shock cord assembly with handle for easy on & off of rack
- Roomy inside lined with water-resistant nylon
- Cutaway at base of bag for heel clearance
- Back of bag reinforced with stiff plastic for hardware attachment & stability, and to keep bag from interfering with spokes
- Each flap detail stitched with unique & beautiful Queen Bee signature designs
- Hand made in Portland, Oregon

Queen Bee is on twitter, btw, and they seem to be giving discount codes to fellow twitters.

A while back a friend of mine (Hai MamaPajama!) sent me a link to these cute pillows by Joom. I really like these, the designs are original and the prices are perfectly reasonable. She has a website and an etsy shop.

Sometimes I see a beautiful pillow for 60 or 80 bucks and I think, “OH RLY?” or “WANT! please to make more affordable!”. There have been a lot of discussions about pricing of handmade items on the internet lately and I am a strong advocate of people making a living off creative handmade stuffs. But 80 dollars for a pillow is crazie, so I think those people should CUT A FEW CORNERS or STREAMLINE their process. End Rant.

The thing that just made me pee my pants a little in excitement was the link at the bottom of her shop announcement… a nice little link (everyone should link to a friend on their shop announcement!) encouragement to go visit her friend prettyrandomobjects’ etsy shop.

BEHOLD! The squirrel vase! This baby is designed and handmade by Ms. prettyrandomobjects herself, here is her description of the process:

the vase was slipcasted from molds made from my original designs, the tail was added after pulling the vase out of the mold. Handcarved details on the outside of the vase

This has made my day.

Heather Ross has given us a sneak peek on her blog at her new fabric coming out from Kokka of Japan.

I’m still not over how cute her mermaids and fish fabrics were and now UNICORNS?! Will we ever recover?

Here’s the kicker for me:

“Because my book, Weekend Sewing, has so many clothing patterns that demand more supple woven fabrics, I am having it printed on both a quilting weight cotton and a luxurious, drapey cotton double guaze, which will be perfect for dresses, skirts, and blouses.”

A. She’s got a book coming out which I shall immediately purchase.
and B. I am very into light breezy cottons and lawns right now and am planning several dresses for summer so hearing that her fabric will come in two weights is very exciting.

You can pre-order Weekend Sewing: More Than 40 Projects and Ideas for Inspired Stitching on Amazon already and it looks like it will have some fun projects that can be done in a weekend of less.