I made this Scrabble board art piece for a friend who likes Scrabble, but also loves leaving messages. It's actually not made with a board, but with scrapbooking papers that are Scrabble themed.



I used a sheet of stainless steel from the hardware store (cost: $6) (Chicago store, The Crafty Beaver! yay!) and some Scrabble scrapbooking pages from the JoAnn's (around $1/each). I put self-adhesive magnet sheets (about $12 total) on the back of the letters and cut them out.





Then I just double-sided taped the "board" sheet to the stainless steel and arranged the letters underneath. Luckily there are way more than "regulation" boards give you, so you can spell out lots of long messages.



I drilled a couple of holes in the top and strung some picture hanging wire through them for easy adjustment to get it level.



Now my friend (Craftymed) can write messages (she loves the red headed men hence the message in faux Scrabble style "I Love Red Men")



or just play a game of scrabble on the wall. Didn't even break the bank!

Hi, just got a note about this from Daily Candy.com. It's another young DIY-er named Katherine Shaughnessy who's out to revamp an old technique. She has a site at http://www.woolandhoop.com/index.html. Seems like the kits are $16 per design, and you don't get to reuse any patterns, but I can't tell. It's a little steep for a 3 x 3 inch design. I've never done crewel work before, but I remember seeing some around thrift stores and places like that and I remember it as scratchy. Any opinions?

I'm having trouble embroidering small circles and filling them in on a new project. Whatever I try doesn't look even, and my circles look more like slashings with some borders. Any resources you know about that teach a good technique?  They're small circles, but bigger than a french knot would be...

Hi folks, I'm big into embroidering dish towells for my new place, and I've been using Jenny Hart's fabulous patterns (www.sublimestitchin g.com), but I want to branch out a bit. I've been looking for a good picture or drawing of the very popular double blue bird or swallows tattoos that I've seen around, mostly on people's chests, just below the collar bones, or on backs, over the shoulder blades.  I'm looking for lots of colors, maybe  something that can be a big summer project for me. I'd love to do some towells for my place, or maybe some pillow cases with tattoo styles. I just love the tattoos! Can anyone point me toward some good resources?  I'm looking for a classic-style tattoo, not a re-vamped or cartoon-style. Oh, and I'm not planning on selling any of these, they're just for me.

Hey, I'm trying to find some cotton or cotton-blend yarns for summertime knitting and I'm having trouble finding affordable skeins with bright hues. Mainly I'm looking for reliable primary colors that won't be too hot and scratchy for summer things like purses, and other accessories.

Any ideas?

I've been knitting the S+B wrist cuffs and I'm finding that the cotton yarn reccommended doesn't have a lot of stretch to it, which leaves the cuffs (even when I cut down the size) rather loose. Does anyone have an idea of a good blended (cotton and acrylic) yarn to use that has a similar gauge?

I want the cuffs to be a little tighter, but not get all stretched out every time I put them on.

Does anyone know where I can buy a 1/2 inch circular hole punch? I can find 1/4" and 3/4" ones but not the one in between. It must exist somewhere with all the scrapbooking out there! Thanks!