Hello all.  I am new to this beauty product thing (see I haven't actually tried it yet)  But I want to try out soapmaking for my own personal use as well as gift giving....I have no aspirations of the responsibility of a business in it.  I was wondering if anyone would mind sharing with me what scents or scent combinations make for a masculine smell.  I want to share some wonderful soap with the great guys in my life, but I'm quite sure none of them will be too keen on the awesome sounding peach soap recipe I found on a site (I forget which one but it seemed like a simple recipe to start with)

I recently purchased a matching set of John Wayne statues at a garage sale with the plans of turning them into end table lamps for my father for Christmas (he is a HUGE John Wayne nut, I mean the man has a framed photo of the man in his bedroom!!)  They are ceramic (I think) and already painted but they look dirty....I've cleaned them off with a damp cloth but they almost look and feel as if they were rolled in dirt before they were painted.  I am wanting to clean them up really well and repaint them to look nicer but I don't know where to start, how do I get the paint off...and the funny texture so I have a smooth nice surface to work with?  Any help would be wonderful

Okay so I have the worst luck with all things sewing, yet I refuse to give up on it. My mom was amazing at all things crafty and she used to fix all of my mistakes and assure me I would get it some day.  I'm still not getting it.  I was sewing away just fine earlier this evening working on a quilt top for a very special christmas present I'm making and all of a sudden I start getting huge loops instead of neat pretty stitches on the back side of my fabric. Does anyone know what could have caused this? I have tried rewinding my bobbin and rethreading the machine, and adjusting the stitches and the back of my pieces still have huge loops of thread hanging off of them instead of the neat stitches that it was making not an hour ago.  Much thanks to anyone who has any idea how to solve my dilemma.

Hello all, I hope I am in the right place and this hasn't already been addressed somewhere else. (I looked but found nothing).  I really like making those pretty chandilear (sp?) earrings  but I can't wear them myself I have very picky ears that will only allow the titanium studs or that boring stuff they do body piercing with (which is also expensive for being so plain)  I was wondering if anyone knew if there was a place to get at least the earring hook pieces in titanium.  Thanks for helping 

This is only my second messanger bag, I made my first last week and quite a few of the girls at my work loved it and one girl requested that I make her a pink one.  Let me tell you, finding a pink print suitable for a teenager (as in not one that looks like grandma's couch) was difficult but I finally found this one.  Now I want to keep it

Anyway on to the pictures, tell me what you think.

The bag:
http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m79/Sweetchvygurl/100_0878.jpg

The strap:
]http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m79/Sweetchvygurl/100_0879.jpg

The cell phone pocket:
http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m79/Sweetchvygurl/100_0881.jpg

Front pockets (there are two side by side but its hard to tell):
]http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m79/Sweetchvygurl/100_0882.jpg

The inside of bag (no neato pockets, just plain flat insides)
http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m79/Sweetchvygurl/100_0883.jpg

Hello all.  This is the first bag/purse I have ever attempted.  I sort of followed the tutorial for the nintendo bag mentioned in the instructions for the bag challenge, and sort of did my own thing (which meant a lot of seam ripping and re-sewing things)  I entered it in the bag challenge but decided to post it here and get some feedback from you guys & gals (my boyfriend was impressed but he doesn't know a thing about sewing)  Please comment my bag, and if you feel so inclined then vote for it in the bag challenge.

Thanks

This is me modeling the bag
http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m79/Sweetchvygurl/Butterflybag-4.jpg

This is the front view of the bag (there is stuff stuck inside to keep it standing up nice, otherwise the flap does cover the whole front of the bag)
http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m79/Sweetchvygurl/Butterflybag-1.jpg

This is the front of the bag with the flap opened, there are two side-by-side pockets on the front
http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m79/Sweetchvygurl/Butterflybag-2.jpg

This is a close-up of the cell phone pocket on the side, it closes with a snap
http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m79/Sweetchvygurl/Butterflybag-3.jpg

Hello all, this is my first ever post here on crafster so comments are very much appreciated.

I bought this pattern a little over a year ago at a thrift shop for $0.25 (Yay for cheap patterns)

http://f3.yahoofs.com/users/42ed25cbzd88ea25c/2802re2/__sr_/986dre2.jpg?phYzN2EBeXtOQJ9C

I bought some gorgeous green print fabric at Hancocks and started it immediatly

http://f3.yahoofs.com/users/42ed25cbzd88ea25c/2802re2/__sr_/2b7ere2.jpg?phYzN2EBdqdOvs3x

Then I got sidetracked, and lazy, and put it away (a.k.a. misplaced it).  So I was doing some cleaning and came across the box it was in and I finally finished it yesterday.

http://f3.yahoofs.com/users/42ed25cbzd88ea25c/2802re2/__sr_/e4abre2.jpg?phYzN2EB2Vg8DWV0

http://f3.yahoofs.com/users/42ed25cbzd88ea25c/2802re2/__sr_/37e4re2.jpg?phYzN2EB6uCJ253I

http://f3.yahoofs.com/users/42ed25cbzd88ea25c/2802re2/__sr_/ced6re2.jpg?phYzN2EBA3d_c8x2