Thanks for all of your enthusiastic responses to Ed Roth’s post last week! It was so much fun to read about your Halloween costumes and plans. Halloween is always a pretty big deal here at Chronicle with a fierce competition taking place between all of the departments. We’ll be sure to post pictures from tomorrow’s festivities next week.

On to more important matters, the winner of Stencil 101 Décor and the box of Chocolate Bar chocolates is Lian:

I’ll be a folded piece of wallpaper - all tessellated into a cozy cocoon to guard against the SF chill - hopefully decorated with Ed’s fab pattern stencils!

Lian – we would love to see a picture!

Thanks for playing everyone and have a great Halloween!

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Christina Loff
Craft Publicist

Popularity: 2% [?]

Around here when we receive advance copies of books it’s a little like Christmas, here finally is the actual finished product after years of writing, editing, designing, and production. It’s always exciting, but sometimes we’re a little giddier than others, this is often the case with new formats we haven’t published before. And this was the case with Ed Roth’s Stencil 101 Decor, a beautiful over-sized portfolio which comes with ten plastic stencils, instructions, and photos that teach you how to customize every corner of your home including walls, furniture, and floors.

Author Ed Roth has been perfecting the stencil since 2005 when he founded his company Stencil 1. Check out this excellent video Ed created on how to use his wall stencils.

And be sure to look for the book which will be showing up in stores this November, we hope you love it as much we do.
For more on Stencil 1 head over here.
To read Ed’s blog click here.

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Christina Loff
Craft Publicist

Popularity: 3% [?]

Is it just me or are back to school supplies so much cooler than they used to be? I checked in with a few of our craft book authors and asked them what they would be buying if they were headed back to school this Fall…

Julie Jackson author of Subversive Cross Stitch and Glamourpuss (available this Fall)

“I would almost go back to school again if I had this bag to tote my books in… dang! I love it because there was nothing this artsy available when I was going to school unless it was something you made yourself. Even then, I never would have been able to find a cool pattern like this.”

“And since my cat Boone would be home alone a lot, I’d get him one of these cat beds from Etsy seller Like Kittysville.”

Derek Fagerstrom & Lauren Smith authors of Wallpaper Projects

Lauren would buy a dozen .38mm fine point pens from MUJI.
“It’s my favorite pen of all time, and they’re a bargain at 79¢ each! I stock up on these every time we visit a MUJI store in NY.”

Derek would buy a “Security Mail Bag” from KIOSK.
“I saw this bag last week at Kiosk, and it turned up again the other day in a friend’s hand. It would make the perfect laptop tote. So beautiful, simple, utilitarian…and hot dang! It’s from Minnesota!”

Theresa Gonzalez and Nicole Smith authors of Dorm Décor

“I always hated that I couldn’t paint the cinderblock walls in my dorm so I covered them in pretty bad poster art (kittens come to mind). But lately I’m into removable wall decals (since I rent now), like these nature-y ones from Urban Outfitters.” –Theresa

“I found this tote on Etsy this morning and I think it would make an adorable book bag.” – Nicole

Ed Roth author of Stencil 101 and Stencil 101 Décor (available this Fall)

“I would get a classic Marble notebook by Mead and MUJI stuff for sure, all plain cardboard and their rubber matt black pen!”

Meg Mateao Ilasco author of Craft Inc. and the Craft Inc. Business Planner (available this Fall)

“Even though I didn’t go to Catholic school, for me, nothing quite captures back-to-school like a cute plaid notebook.”

Djerba Goldfinger author of Reprodepot Flora and Folk Pattern Books and gift line (all available this Fall)

“A fab Reprodepot employee, Kate, makes these incredible “Fruit Cozies” under the moniker Stuffed Fruit. Not only are they really well made, they are fully functional and cute as heck! Anybody (kid or non-kid) who has one of these will be the envy of the lunchroom. Ashley (another Reprodepot employee and Reprodepot contributing blogger) and I came up with a great idea for a back to school project that any crafter will love, a Pencil Roll-Up!”

Check out more Chronicle Craft posts.

Christina Loff
Craft Publicist

Popularity: 2% [?]

As a publicist there is always that moment of nervous excitement and anticipation that comes before reading new reviews of the books you’ve helped send out into the world. Lucky for us a lot of people like our books so we rarely experience those cringe-worthy moments of reading a bad review. What’s been really fun is seeing how original people have become reviewing books with all of the new technologies available now. Twitter interviews, video reviews posted on You Tube, and of course giveaways and support from the many blogs we love. As a crafter and publicist I was thrilled to read the review of Change the World for Ten Bucks written by Michelle Traub for Etsy’s online magazine, The Storque. Michelle pulled ten of the simple actions from the book and provided links to different products sold on Etsy that could help you accomplish each action. It was so much fun to see the beautiful handmade goods paired with the easy tips, for ‘Plant Something’ Michelle found a lovely ceramic watering can from Etsy seller vesselsandwares and this quirky face flower pot from Etsy seller amyhuntpottery.

I started thinking about how much fun it would be to go through the entire book and find crafts on Etsy to pair with all of the actions, or to give gifts to people with the action written out and tied to the handmade present.

To see all of Michelle’s great finds you can read the article in full here. Do you make something that could be used to make the world a better place? Paste your website link below and tell us about it in the comments.

Christina Loff
Craft Publicist

Popularity: 2% [?]

Last week I accompanied our Destination Weddings author Alison Hotchkiss, to the set of View From the Bay, a great local show here on ABC. Alison was on to talk about throwing fun summer parties on a budget and set up tables for a Mexican Fiesta and Lobster Bake. Check out the adorable settings below, and note the lovely signage made by Chronicle authors Hello Lucky! Alison also included our Tequila book in the set-up!

Some behind-the-scenes shots.

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