Pack Rat has seen birds do it, bees do it, and even educated fleas do it. So let’s do it, let’s fall in love!

Yeah! another fun recycle craft (our favorite kind) coming at you. This one is courtsey of Elsie Marley. What to do with those large tin cans of soup/Juicy Juice/etc.? Why not turn them into handy around the home organizers? Just whip up a couple of minimalistic cozies with the tutorial that Marley provides. And she offers an assortment of embroidery patterns for both kitchen and art studio designs. You’ll clear your counters and workspace in no time!

Photo by Elsie Marley

Pack Rat is on a Mexican radio

You know we love all things graffiti here at Pack Rat. Public works of anonymous art? That’s right up our ally. Blogger Carina from Feeling Stitchy is branching out into the semi-nafarious realm of graffiti art by taking her embroidered messages out to the public. Not quite comfortable with the idea of leaving behind something permanent (and thereby potentially offensive) Carina “tags”with embroidery stitched on to removable, sticky sheets of paper. She seems to berate herself a bit for not having the courage to do something more permanent, but we here at Pack Rat believe that random acts of creativity are courageous enough in themselves. Stitch on, sister!

(photo courtsey of Carina)

Check out Issue #1 of Pack Rat Magazine!

An offshoot of a store named Purl, The Purl Bee is a lovely little web 2.0 community of people discussing knitting, crocheting, embroidery and all other facets of crafting.  Their online journal is full of useful tutorials about the nuts and bolts of these traditional crafts, and some non-traditional ideas on how to use them.  They also link to a bunch of other helpful sites and have an online shop to compliment their physical, real world one.  And these lovely ladies are based in the Big Apple, which means that they combine old school values like attention to detail with some sleek, sophisticated aesthetic.  Check it out below.
.

Check out the Premier Issue of Pack Rat Magazine!

Not all of us can be graphic art majors and design students. Thankfully, the people at Maryland Institute College of Art are aware of this and the faculty and graduate students have brought all of their creative talents to bear on D.I.Y.: Design It Yourself, a book that covers all things design related, especially those that deal with the written word. And, in true cutting edge fashion, the publishers have provided a website with some serious resources as a companion piece to the book. Totally free and chocked full of useful information, the DIY website gives you the basic run down of most of the books topics. Design guides for blogs, business cards, flyers, gifts, housewares, invitations, logos, newsletters, presentation, press kits, stationary, t-shirts, websites, ‘zines (whew!) are just the tip of the ice berg. Plus, the website has all sorts of fun downloads like the the tea party invites, or a bevy of images you can print on to iron-on paper (below). While the reading is a whincy bit dry, it’s totally worth powering through because there is a crap load of good information there. It’s like an introductory course in design…for free.

Me personally, my “embroidery” is a bastardized, fly by the seat of my pants version of the real thing.  But, if you are an old pro at needle work and are looking for something a little different, why not try your hand at traditional Indian embroidery?  Here’s some pictures to help inspire you.