Dabbled - Art/Craft/Food

Please update your RSS feed

2009-07-03T14:26:00.001-04:00

http://feeds.feedburner.com/Dabbled

Dabbled has moved - Please Update your feed!

2009-06-29T14:41:00.003-04:00

IMPORTANT!!
The new Dabbled.org is up, but, my apparently my Blogger Followers appear to have been left behind.. (and if you are seeing this, you are left behind!)

Please either go here to add the new Dabbled to your feedreader: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Dabbled

or... go to your blogger profile, scroll down to your "Reading List" section, and click the "add" button. If you add www.dabbled.org you'll get the feed working again!

No one should see this...

2009-06-29T10:10:00.002-04:00

If i've done everything right, no one should see this post.

If you do get this, you may be subscribed to an old feed, please update to http://feeds.feedburner.com/dabbled

And email me so I know something is still broken (dot (@) dabbled.org)

Come check out the new DABBLED.ORG!

Thanks, Dot

Today's the day...

2009-06-29T08:46:00.002-04:00

Hopefully this will be the last post on the old Blogger site. I've still got a ton of work to do on the new site, but I have a "classic view" Dabbled page set up so it will look pretty similar to what you're used to.

so, apologies for any construction related debris and hopefully I'll have the new site up shortly!

Inspiration sunday... from the Dabbled flickr pool

2009-06-28T11:18:00.002-04:00

Here are some love inspirations from the Dabbled flickr group. If you're on flickr, be sure to add your artsy-craftsy-foodsy goodness to the pool.

PS: Nope, haven't moved yet. Had a little glitch on friday and a busy weekend. So I'll try again on monday.

1. Happiness Mandala Pendant, 2. Veggie Basket, 3. hood08, 4. Save the TA-TAs!, 5. stephen, 6. Bird prototype

one of those random posts..

2009-06-25T22:24:00.003-04:00

So, today I took the dog to the groomer, and cleaned out my closet (no, I haven't finished yet). And didn't really touch the computer until now. So a triumph to not being a slave to technology, but no real progress to report on anything you guys might care about. I did start stitching up some (late) birthday and baby presents but that doesn't really count as craftiness.

Oh, and we are planning to hit Australia next month. Any readers from Down Under who want to share any travel tips?

Tomorrow I think i might actually try the port of Dabbled to Wordpress. My local installation that i've been playing with can't do everything I want, so I may just get it out there, and clean it up once it's out on the web. But be warned, it won't be perfect for a while. I expect that some links won't work, and some picture prettiness will not be quite there. But the big thing is, if you're reading this on a feed or through being a 'follower' and you don't see anything for the next few days, then do come directly over to Dabbled.org and make sure you're still subscribed. I'm trying to do this seamlessly, but i haven't ever done this, so I have no idea how bad it will be!

If you see things that don't work, do email me (dot at dabbled dot org) cuz I do want to know!

A preview of the new Dabbled header I'm working on

2009-06-23T12:06:00.004-04:00

As part of moving Dabbled, I designed a new header for the site.
What do you think?
Click through to see it full size.

You'll notice my 3 favorite things to draw are in appearance here: Robots, Cephalopods, and Monsters!

Illustration Friday - "Drifting"

2009-06-18T22:02:00.009-04:00

"Calgon, Take Me Away...!"
I just finished this up, and I thought it was a perfect fit for "Drifting"...
drift : 1. To be carried along by currents of air or water.
OK, I guess it would have to be a big bathtub to drift, but the feeling is there!

My friend Carissa asked me if I would design a graphic for a website she's working on for a friend's blog (Mommy is in the Bathroom), and this is the image I did... Cute, huh?

Stuff Dot Likes: Links to check out!

2009-06-18T09:34:00.002-04:00

Gotta get to work on designing a new Dabbled, but here's some fun links and inspiration that you need to be checking out!

A few blogs I'm currently digging that you should check out:

Dudecraft - Lots of cool ideas and inspirations... I tweet his stuff a lot!
Creative Kismet - A really fun craft blog with creative projects!
One Pretty Thing - Perennial favorite link-blog... She finds the best projects from around the web, and I love her layout.
SwissMiss - A design blog I found via twitter, she finds gorgeous & funky things to share
Go ogle at talented artists taking on Where the Wild Things Are at Cory Godbey's Terrible Yellow Eyes. (Dabbled interview with Cory here.)
Superpunch - always cool, always interesting links -- I don't know how he discovers all of the incredible stuff he finds! Like this artist. And severed fingers. And a Delorean Transformer. And Monster Love wallpaper.

And some fun projects and such you shouldn't miss...

Love this take on a tile table (made of catalogs!) http://www.craftster.org/blog/?p=2121
Painting with Kids at Ready, Set, Craft!
Upcycled Paper Flowers (and lots of other fun projects) at SomeArtTalk
Wire a button letter from the "oh my god is there nothing she CAN'T do" retro-craft lovin' Craftypod
Grown up Grilled Cheese at Brownie Points
Build your own really nice looking coloring books at a new discovery, Chez Beeper Bebe (via whipup.net)

See something cool I should post here? Email me!
Follow on Twitter for more cool links.
And help create the Dabbled community at Facebook by becoming a Fan now!
Don't forget, if you're a Flickr user, post your stuff to the Dabbled group!

Photos at top: 1. sewing/needle book - inside- Creative Kismet, 2. Jeppe Hein Loop Bench Outside Art Basel 09 - SwissMiss, 3. Upcycled Paper Flowers- Some Art Talk, 4. little alphabet coloring book - Chez Beeper Bebe

What to look for in Wordpress Templates and other helpful links

2009-06-17T16:48:00.010-04:00

More in the "Moooving Dabbled" series..
Wordpress Themes, part 1

One of the really great things about Wordpress is the cool templates available. You can build just about any type of website, not just a blog, with them. You can even build a website with a built in blog (how nifty!).

There are thousands of website templates (themes) out there available for Wordpress. Or you can of course build your own. For Dabbled 3.0, I figured I'd start with a base of an existing template and build from there. So I started researching, and through trial and error, here are some things to look for in choosing a template.

Free vs Pay - There are tons of free templates, so why pay for one? Well, sometimes designers may offer a basic version for free, but charge for one that is more powerful or has more features. If you don't want to code it yourself, sometimes your time is worth it to pay for exactly what you want. If you're paying for one, check on what support is offered, and how upgrades are handled. Also, check the licensing information on the free ones (or pay ones) and ensure you are using it according to its license--you may need to leave certain footers in place or not use for commercial purposes to be in compliance. There are a lot of good free or "link-ware" (ie free, but you need to link back to the developer) themes out there, so I'd start with free and see where you end up.

Smashing Magazine's list of 100 great Free Wordpress Themes 2009
A Compilation of other peoples lists of great free themes from Elite Freelancing

Widgetized - This makes it easy to drag and drop standard widgets or html into your site, without messing with the code. (Similar to how Gadgets work in Blogger). Look for templates with widgetized sidebars and footers. You can always add this feature yourself by getting your hands in the code, but it's nice to start with it.

Recent - Technology changes. And the most recently created templates will likely (though not always) be better.

Child Themes - You may or may not care about this (but I learned it in my research, so sharing!), but child themes are a way to build a new look and feel (and even functionality) on top of a base theme. This means a couple of things: 1) if you're modding a template, it may be a good idea to create your own child theme, rather than tweaking the original code. 2) If you have a child theme you (or someone else) has modified, you can get updates--new features/functions/bug fixes-- to the parent theme without breaking/losing your modifications. 3) Some template builders have created a good solid base theme (ex: Thematic), and have encouraged people to build children for it.

I'll get into more theme/template goodies, and maybe even plug-ins (one of the BEST things about Wordpress) tomorrow...

Fabulous Sushi Cakes from Hello Naomi!

2009-06-16T20:13:00.003-04:00

Loving these sushi small cakes, by the ever talented Hello Naomi. We did a Dabbled Interview with Naomi a while back, check it out!

Moving to Wordpress: Some First Steps

2009-06-15T10:52:00.005-04:00

Part 1 of the "Moving Dabbled" Series!

So, here's some of the stuff I've learned in my past few weeks research on how to move Dabbled off Blogger on to self hosted Wordpress.

If you want to move a Blogger blog to wordpress (NOT wordpress.com - there's no reason to do that), here are some good first steps:

1) Get your domain name if you don't have one. Shouldn't be more than $10/yr. I've used GoDaddy and Bluehost. If you're moving from Blogger, and go ahead and put your new domain on your blogger account (Settings>>Publishing), while you're doing your other steps. This will help things move more seamlessly.

2) Get a hosting account. Check out Wordpress.org to see which they recommend--since the automatic installation of Wordpress is a nice feature. (Again I like Bluehost - 6.95/mo, and includes 1 free domain name). Once you have a hosting account, follow their instructions to install Wordpress. On the hosts recommended by Wordpress, it's generally quite easy, just click a button and it's done for you pretty much. Yay! you have a website!

3) Look around for wordpress templates that suit your needs, or build your own if you're geeky enough. There are a ton of good ones out there. Google is your friend. I'll do another post on things to look for in templates (like widgetized sidebars, etc) later. It's really easy to change these templates at any point, so you're not tied to it, just find a nice starting point.

We'll get into making it pretty, tomorrow!

Fun with Importing Old Posts!

You don't necessarily want to import your posts yet, but it's a good idea to do a test run to make sure you're not going to have problems in this area.

Test your blog export functionality. If you're going to try to move your current posts, not just start new posting elsewhere, you'll need to get your blog off of Blogger. Try the Blogger export feature (you should do this anyway, so you have a backup just in case). This exports an xml file. Smaller blogs this appears to work fine, but on mine, the file truncated and I could never get a clean download.
Note, Wordpress also has an import feature that connects directly to Blogger, but I found it problematic as well. If the wordpress import feature works for you, you can skip the Blogger export.
For me, Blogger wouldn't export everything, and Wordpress failed on import (would look like it only imported one post), so this was the workaround I ended up having to do:
-Create a Wordpress.com (throwaway) blog (free)
-Use the Wordpress import option from that throwaway blog.
-Export the blog from Wordpress to XML.
-Import into new REAL Wordpress site.

Funky, I know. You'll want to wait til around your "go live" date to do all these steps, as Google doesn't like you having multiple copies of your posts out on the interwebs (will screw your PageRank and such, if you care about such things).. In fact, I think I screwed mine up (hopefully temporarily) while I was playing with getting all this stuff to actually work.

Dabbled's mooovin' on up...!

2009-06-15T10:33:00.004-04:00

I started Dabbled.org in November of 2007. And Blogger was just peachy for my needs. Free, easy to learn, and pretty powerful for what it is. I started out with a standard template, then modified it a bit for my needs. Then played around a bit more with all that you can do within the Blogger framework.

Well, 432 posts later, Dabbled has really pushed beyond the limits of what Blogger can do. I can't even backup the site using Blogger's export feature, I assume because of size.

And I'd really like to make this more of a website rather than just a blog format.

In my web design sideline, I've been building websites based on the Wordpress backend (need a website? Email me!), and loving all the cool possibilities, so I've decided to bite the bullet and move Dabbled over to a self hosted Wordpress site. It's not quite ready yet, but I'll post links for you guys to get a preview.

This week (and maybe next!) will be moving week..
I'll keep you updated on my progress and lessons learned here, so if you think you may want to move Blogger to Wordpress, you can learn from my mistakes!

Important: I'm going to try to do this seemlessly behind the scenes. The only thing I'm not sure will transfer correctly is my Blogger "Followers". So you may want to get the RSS feed to be sure.

So... wish me luck! If all goes well, we'll have a brand spanking new Dabbled.org, with great extra features!!

How to: Dragon Wings for party fun and favors

2009-06-12T08:45:00.000-04:00

For The Boy's "Dragon Party", we needed favors. I considered multiple ideas (see end of post) but decided to try to make some. The Boy wanted some sort of dress up thing, and these modified capes were very popular with the party-goers, and were perfect for a take home favor.

Now, it wasn't a small party (not only his friends from preschool, but our friends with kids were there), so I initially made 20 of these. Hence they are NOT high quality heirloom construction. You could easily modify these instructions (adding hems and what not) to make these more of a "finished" product. But for my purposes, I figured the quick and dirty version would do just fine. I also kept the design pretty cheap - I figure each one was about $1 in materials cost.

These would be great not only for favors, but for the "dress up box", or if done a little nicer, for a gift too!

I promised a tutorial for both this and the Dragon Cake (done!), so here it is... Instructions are after the mosaic picture, but if you need more info, just email me or post here.

Note, ignore the different colors, i made a variety and used the best shots for the tutorial. I figured a mix of orange, pink, blue, and green would work for a mix of kids, and any kids who didn't want "wings" could call it a prince or princess cape. Each square of fabric makes 4 capes.

1. Start with a piece of fabric at least 1 yd square. (larger for bigger kids) I did some at 36 in square (about the minimum for 4 year olds) and some a tad larger, which worked better. Measure against the wingspan of your sample child to figure out how much fabric to buy. I found that with 44 in broadcloth, 44 in square (about 1.25 yds) worked really well.
2. Trim fabric to a square. Save the excess. If you want to make the wrist straps more unubtrusive (for a cape look) use strips of the extra fabric for that.
3. Cut on the diagonal, to make 4 equal triangles., Start at each corner, and cut in a big X. that will make 4 capes.
4. 4 triangles, Yep, this will be 4 capes. The longest side of the triangle is the width of your step 2 square.
5. You end up with 4 triangles.,
6. Cut 4 lengths of ribbon about 15 inches each (measure around a child's neck to be sure of length),
7. Center the ribbon on the long side of the triangle, fold the ribbon over in two, sandwiching the cloth, and pin. Guessimating is fine, i didn't measure. Then pin about 2 inches from the center pin on either side to help you when you stitch.
8. Cut out Wrist Straps, either out of the same ribbon or from a strip of the excess cloth (i did both)
9. Pin the wrist straps in place, location depends on child size. Use your sample child to get an approximation. I found for the 36 in capes (for a 4 yr old) the straps should be almost at the end, where as the 44 in capes were about 6 inches in from the points.
10. Sew on the ribbon neckpiece, start sewing at the far pin, and sew to the near one. Again, quick and dirty, i wasn't going for looks here, just attaching.
11. Look at that incredibly straight seam! uh, yeah, moving on...,
12. Sew on Wrist straps, Not rocket science, just a straight or zig zag stitch back and forth so they stay on.
13. Sew velcro on each end of the Ribbon. You could of course skip this and do longer ribbon and just tie it (which I would have done with older kids), but I figured better safe than sorry. This was the biggest pain, but since i wasn't too worried about looks, not too bad.
14. dragonwings, Here they are in full view! This is one of the larger versions.
15. Back View

That's all there is to it! Hope you enjoy, and if anyone makes a "nicer" version of these, please share it here!

Related "Dragon Party" Posts:

How to Make the Dragon Cake! (the much anticipated tutorial)

2009-06-11T12:47:00.011-04:00

The Dragon Cake I made for my 4 year old's birthday was so popular, that I decided I'd better do a tutorial. Note, I am not a professional baker, and i'm sure there are things I've gotten 'wrong'.. but that's one reason i did this tutorial to show that you don't have to be a professional to attempt something cool!

PS: You guys better appreciate this! I actually didn't do the best job of documenting my process while making the Dragon Cake, so I took some of the leftovers and made a mini version just so I could get some good pics of the process. And since I did put a lot of work into this tutorial, I would be tickled pink if you'd link to it, stumble it, or share it around!

So, you have a couple of ways to see it...

I wrote the whole thing up as an instructable, here. If you're really going to try it (or want ALL the details) be sure to read the instructable, as it's much more thorough.

Or if you just want a quick and dirty version I documented the creation of the mini dragon as a photo-tutorial here and below.

Oh, I'll do an entire Dragon Party Wrap Up(cakes, invites, favors, etc)
this week, so stay tuned.

1. A possible skull material (the original dragon's skull was modeling chocolate), 2. "Skull" modeled out of Tootie Roll, 3. The guts! (cake ball material-but I do recommend a light color instead of red velvet), 4. kneading, 5. Rolled fondant for head., 6. a platform for holding the cake while draping, 7. molded dragon body, 8. Place cake on an upside down cup, and drape fondant., 9. Tuck the edges under, but leave the neck and tail ends untucked., 10. Layout, and place skull., 11. Cover skull in fondant., 12. Shape tail out of fondant., 13. Roll out a contrasting color, and cut into strips, 14. Cover joints with strips of fondant, 15. Cut out a wing shape., 16. Shape the wing, and Attach to toothpick, 17. jun09 240, 18. Use a large straw (or larger circle) to make dots., 19. To make the eyes, 20. The eyes!, 21. Cover a Ball with fondant, Mold Foot from Fondant., 22. Mold the Claw, 23. Place the Claw, 24. Finished Mini-Dragon

Get the whole thing here:

How to make a Dragon Cake - More DIY How To Projects

Related "Dragon Party" Posts:

Dragon Thank You Note (and Illustration Friday)

2009-06-09T12:23:00.006-04:00

So, for Illustration Friday, this Dragon is craving some Dragon Cake! I promise I'll get the tutorial up on making the Dragon Cake this week, but I figured I'd better get on those Thank You notes first. Just click through to Flickr to download him and use him for your own thank-you notes -- He's CC Licensed for personal use. He also matches the invitation graphic.

OR, you can snag both the invite and thank you notes, ready for printing, as a PDF!

nancy dorsner 2009 - some rights reserved (cc licensed personal use only please -- if you use him, do leave a comment, and I'd love you to share where you got him!)

Original sketch here.

Related "Dragon Party" Posts:

A successful party! and free shipping on prints!

2009-06-08T10:45:00.004-04:00

We survived the weekend of much fun and kid-partying. The Dragon Cake was a huge success, it tasted as good as it looked... and supplemented but 2 dozen red-velvet with sprinkles and chocolate "dragon's egg" cupcakes, it fed the crowd. The Dragon-Wings were well received, too!

FREE SHIPPING!
Right now (until 6/12), you can get free shipping on prints over $15. So if you've been wanting to order a print of your favorite Nancy Dorsner piece, now's the time. The code is DadsDay09. If you don't see the piece you want at my store, just email me. Click here to go to the Shop!

Party planning continues... and contest winner is announced!

2009-06-05T10:17:00.004-04:00

I'm coming down off the baking high from yesterday. Not only do we have the dragon cake (above) but a bunch of cupcakes too, because I tend to go overboard. So, along with the cakes, we have Dragon Wings for fun and favors, and the dragon invitation. I'm not sure that I'm doing any other dragon themed stuff, but I do have to run to Trader Joes today to pick up stuff for food. And plan the rest of the food.

Related:

But I did want to thank all of you guys who entered the giveaway we had from Online Poster Printing.

The lucky number was "2" and that means Joanne wins a 16x20 Gallery Wrapped Canvas Print! Thanks to everyone who entered, both here and on Smidgen.

If you didn't win, you can still order some prints: Poster Prints
or Canvas Prints.

Finished Dragon Cake...

2009-06-04T17:01:00.007-04:00

(Thanks Neatorama, Craftzine, and others for the link love! .. The Thank You notes and Invites are now available for download here. 6/11: Full blown Tutorial is on making the cake is Posted!! -Dot)

Here it is! Pretty darn close to my vision (he does look like the Party Invite, right?), and wow! LOVE it. The "How To" will be coming next week (edit: it's here!), when I have time to do a good writeup... Right now I'm just covered in cake batter and icing!

I 'live blogged' my baking day today at Twitter, so if you're interested in some of the interim stuff, and can't wait for the tutorial, you can see more there: Dot's Twitter

And I'll also have the tutorial for the Dragon Wings (quick and dirty capes for party favors) next week, too.

Cake Baking Day!

2009-06-04T09:25:00.011-04:00

Apparently I've bitten off more than I can chew by thinking I could do everything to get ready for The Boy's party this weekend, handle "Real Life", AND actually blog about it!

So, I think the tutorial on how to make the Dragon-Wings will have to wait until next week. I made 20(!!) of them, so needless to say, this is a REALLY quick and dirty design. :)

Today I bake cakes. The plan is a Dragon Cake for the party, plus extra chocolate 'dragon's egg' cupcakes (because The Boy wants chocolate).

I'll be experimenting with marshmallow fondant for covering the dragon, so I'll let you know how that goes!
I'll keep you guys updated with pics of the progress... And if you follow me on Twitter, you can see them there!

Enjoy!

PS: All done... I'll post better pics, but you can see the twitpics I uploaded from the twitter link!

Dragon Wings...

2009-06-02T17:57:00.001-04:00

More to come on this, including the tutorial, once I finish making a bunch of these for The Boy's Dragon themed birthday party!

Make Some Soup!

2009-06-01T15:03:00.003-04:00

But it's not soup weather you say!? Well, this is a vichyssoise, and it's perfectly delightful served cold!

Sorry for the re-run here, but I'm so behind in the real world right now. The Boy's 4th Birthday is this weekend, and I'd better get started! The rest of this week should be filled with Dragon Party related posts. Oh, and don't forget -- just a few more days to enter the latest Giveaway! And it's a good one!

But, here's a cool soup recipe for you -- check out the pics below, and go here for the full recipe! How to Make Carrot Vichyssoise.

How to Make Carrot Vichyssoise.

Friday Giveaway Fun - Win a Canvas Print!

2009-05-29T09:22:00.010-04:00

If you missed the last giveaway, here is a really cool one from Online Poster Printing...win a 16x20 Gallery Wrapped Canvas Print! There's so much you could do with this... With Father's Day coming up, what about using it to do a photo of all the kids for Daddy to hang on the wall? Or, how about a big canvas print of your favorite piece of artwork?

To Enter:
Sorry, this contest is over!! Congrats to Joanne, our winner!

Thursday Wrap-up...

2009-05-28T19:49:00.006-04:00

From kids party ideas to tutorials, here's what's been happening at Dabbled this week...

Oh, and Don't forget.. you can follow Dabbled on Facebook, Friend Dot on Flickr, or Friend Dot on Twitter... if you're into those things! (PS, if you do (particularly on twitter) do leave me a comment here or email so I know who you are!)

How to Throw a Robot Spaceman Party!
A spiffy cool idea for your next kids party... All things Robot-Spaceman! Cakes, favors, invitations (free for download) and more!

Cool Dabbled Craft/Food Roundup Some cool stuff you might have missed... check out these neat ideas: Pinatas, bracelets, cuban sandwiches, and recycled felt pins!
Illustration Friday! This nifty little dragon is the theme for The Boy's 4th birthday... want him for your own?
Shop Preview Sale! And feedback requested..
Tutorial - How to fuse plastic bags and make cool stuff!
In this fabulous Guest Post by So She Sews, we learn a cool method of fusing plastic bags... too lazy to do this yourself? Check out her cool stuff in her etsy store!

oh yeah, plus she has other nifty non-plastic stuff... like cool refashioned dresses.. check that out too!

Stuff Dot Likes... (a super big Flickr roundup post)Need some inspiration or just want to see some cool stuff? Here's some cool artists and crafters (and photographers) that Dot likes! Check it out!

Stuff Dot Likes... (a super big Flickr roundup post)

2009-05-27T10:01:00.003-04:00

This flickr roundup has no real theme, just stuff I liked from my flickr friends and the dabbled pool.
Pictures, Art, and Craft that caught my eye... check out the links and my commentary below the big pic.

1. Twinkie Chan Travel Case- I really like Soule's work, check it all out at the link,
2. Crayons and Robots, what's not to like?,
3. Loving all these stamps by Tresijas,
4. Cutest lil hamster pic by Nate ... awwww...,
5. Omnomicon is cooking yummy cake! (www.omnomicon.com/ice-cream-cake ),
6. The always creative laserbread brings us a sign of the housing market times,
7. Go congratulate Creative Kismet on her Martha Stewart appearance! Love the eyeball shirt,
8. I so COVET Craftypod's Yudu,
9. Love Jason Limon's work--this is one of his Fragments pieces,
10. Interesting art by Allison Sommers,
11. The best Swine Flu pic ever :),
12. Summer Felt Food from Missie Zee