Chronicle Books Blog

Love it or hate it Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. Will you be making your sweet something sweet or counting the days until February 15th? If you need some last minute inspiration check out Handmade Hellos, any of the card projects can easily be adapted for this saccharine holiday. And while we’re out of stock, Amazon still has our best selling The Valentine Kit available. But if you’re like us you may just not have the time (or energy) to whip something up for the big day. So here are our favorite crafty Valentines from Etsy!

The Love Cozy by Whimsie Dots

White Paper Bags from Twig & Thistle Shop from which you can make these adorable treat bags

Personalized Valentine Onesies from That’s Too Cute Boutique

Sweet Love Banner from Earmark

Love Bites Plates from Trixie Delicious

Caramel Pretzels from WordBanquet

Heart Locket Necklace from Pinking-Edge Designs

Check out more Chronicle Craft posts.

Christina Loff
Craft Publicist

Kate Prouty
Craft Editor

Thanksgiving Crafting

We can hardly believe the holidays are almost here. In an effort to avoid the inevitable chaos and stress that comes with holiday shopping, traveling, and family gatherings, we’ve rounded up some of our favorite Thanksgiving crafts. Maybe we won’t get around to actually making any of these but it’s calming our nerves just thinking about retreating to the craft room and putting together some of these lovely projects. As always feel free to leave any great thanksgiving craft ideas in the comments below.

Napkin Rings
Kayte Terry on Craft Stylish

ReadyMade

Leaf Printed Napkins
Kayte Terry on Craft Stylish
Instructions also in our Lotta Prints book

Oak Leave Bowl
Martha Stewart

Fall Leaf Votives
Design Sponge

Stenciled Centerpiece Pumpkins
Better Homes and Gardens

A Roundup of Placecard Project Inspiration
Polka Dot Bride

Wooden Centerpiece
Design Sponge

And if you’re in LA this Sunday don’t miss Felt Club! Get your holiday shopping done early with a great line up of 150 vendors, DJ’s, a classes taught by some of our very own including Jenny Hart and Kaari Meng.

Check out more Handbound posts.

Kate Woodrow
Craft Editor

Christina Loff
Craft Publicist

Summer Giveaway!

Lately I’ve seen so many inspiring craft ideas on the blogs I regularly read. My favorite of late is an idea based on the hoop.dee.do bulletin boards the husband and wife team dubbed Little Pretty Studio make and sell on etsy. I saw their nifty embroidery hoop bulletin boards on the blog PoppyTalk last week and have been thinking they would be the perfect accessory for my desk area. First of all, hoop.de.do? Great name. Love it. If their designs weren’t so darn cute, I’d make my own. Because it’s my favorite kind of project – super simple concept, short ingredients list, but high impact visual result and totally useful to boot. Hats off to Little Pretty Studio for this simple summer craft idea!
-Kate

hoop.dee.do embroidery hoop bulletin boards by Little Pretty Studio, available on etsy.

I don’t know if it’s something in the water or what but I’ve been going to an awful lot of baby showers lately. I always dream up great projects I want to make for new little ones in my life but of course I never actually sew them ahead of time. That’s why I love this sweet and simple bib from The Purl Bee. I’m a big fan of bias tape, it makes projects look finished and neat even when they may not be and I adore the dot variety Purl has for sale now. This bib looks like it could be made right before a baby shower or trip and I’m definitely bookmarking it for future reference.
-Christina

Feel like winning something? Leave a comment here telling us about your favorite quick summer projects. We’ll randomly pick one winner who will receive a copy of Lotta Prints – the ultimate in fast and fun crafting!

Amy Butler Sew Inspiring Contest

I’m so excited to tell you about the contest we’re doing with STC, Amy Butler, and Craft Magazine! We’ve created a flickr group for people to enter photos of Amy Butler inspired bags they’ve created. The grand prize winner will win a Janome Memory Craft 6600P Sewing Machine along with some fantastic prizes from all of the sponsors. There’s also some great prizes for 5 runner-ups! For more information and contest details head on over to the original post on Craft. It’s times like this I wish I was on the other end of things and could enter myself!

2008 Calendars Make for a Good Year

Coming back to a packed calendar after the holidays is never fun – unless that packed calendar of yours is a work of art. Arwen over at Craft posted a fantastic round-up of wall- and desk-worthy 2008 calendars.

We have some to add to the mix, too. This year, choose to gaze upon:

Epic rock poster art in The Art of Modern Rock (which comes with a sweet poster):

Sassy missives and vintage mugs in Anne Taintor’s And Best of All is the Matching Thong:

Classic comic book illustrations in The Amazing Spider-Man:

Ridiculously cute kitties in our Kittenwar wall and Stuff on My Cat daily desk calendar:

Mouth watering recipes in the Ultimate Bar daily desk calendar:

Check out our last post.

Christina Loff
Craft Publicist

Kate Prouty
Craft Editor

Crochet Contest Winners

I was so impressed with the entries I received when I asked for some crochet inspiration, thanks to all who emailed me. I’ve selected two winners, Andrea Tomlinson for her amazing Crocheted Burger and Manuela Tinocofor her beautiful Poppy Bracelet and sweet Flower Barrettes. Both ladies will win a copy of the Crochet to Go Deck by Alicia Bergin and a copy of Cozy Crochet by Melissa Leapman.

Thanks so much for all your awesome ideas and photos. Admittedly, I’m still just making scarves, but I’m honing my skills and will hopefully be able to whip up one of those amazing hamburgers some day ! !