Reference

The Big-Ass Book of Crafts

The Big-Ass Book of Crafts is packed with ideas for sprucing up your living space; concocting fabulous, all-natural body products; designing your own unique stationery; and creating countless other crafts that will convince your friends and loved ones that you're the secret love child of Martha Stewart (only much, much cooler).

Forget crocheted doilies and itchy knit sweaters -- TLC's While You Were Out top designer Mark Montano has created stylish and imaginative projects that range from a Warhol-esque Ultrasuede iPod case to photo-adorned boxer shorts to African mask patio chairs to wooden night-light boxes. Divided into sections that include Outdoorsy (ideas to enhance your backyard), Dishing It Out (decorating plates using different techniques), You've Been Framed (innovative picture framing ideas), and Can I Have a Light? (creating and decorating lamps, lanterns, and chandeliers), it's as entertaining to read as it is endlessly inspiring. With more than one hundred and fifty inventive and fun projects, The Big-Ass Book of Crafts is the perfect activity book for readers of every mood, budget, and skill level.

Build Your Own Electric Vehicle

Electric vehicles have many advantages over their gas-powered counterparts. They're ecologically sound, much cheaper to operate, and require almost no routine maintenance. Drivers can enjoy the clean-running convenience and economy of an electric vehicle for as much as it costs to buy a new car. This illustrated guide explains step by step how to build an inexpensive EV from a kit or convert an existing internal combustion engine. Build Your Own Electric Car begins with an informative history of electric vehicles, current international advances in EV technology, and a look ahead at the future of EV development. Then, author Bob Brant gives a building-block description of each EV component-motor, drive train, controllers, power supplies, chargers, and chassis-and how to put them all together to make a working vehicle. He also gives valuable advice on where to find affordable EV components and systems, how to get the most out of EV driving and ownership, and how to make the best buy, build, and conversion tradeoffs.

Craft, Inc.: Turn Your Creative Hobby into a Business

Craft, Inc. is the hipster business primer for entrepreneurial crafters to turn what they do for fun into what they do for money. Pro crafter Meg Mateo Ilasco offers a step-by-step guide to everything from developing products and naming the company to writing a business plan, applying for licenses, and paying taxes. Chapters on sales, marketing, trade shows, and publicity round out the mix. Plus, in-depth interviews with such craft luminaries as Jonathan Adler, Lotta Jansdotter, Denyse Schmidt, and Jill Bliss provide inspiration and practical advice. Accessible, informative, and more than a little spunky, Craft, Inc. paves the way for today's creative minds to become tomorrow's trendsetters.

Amy Butler's In Stitches: More Than 25 Simple and Stylish Sewing Projects

Celebrated designer Amy Butler brings her fresh, modern style to the timeless craft of sewing. In this lavishly illustrated collection of patterns, she presents more than 25 charming projects ranging from cushy floor cushions to smart aprons to stylish handbags. Our innovative packaging makes for easy use pattern sheets are neatly tucked into a folder on the inside cover of this full-color, lay-flat spiralbound book. Lush photographs inspire, while how-to illustrations and straightforward text (minus the confusing sewing lingo) make it a cinch to achieve beautifully finished projects. In addition, Amy offers thoughtful tips on finding and treating new or vintage fabrics, an easy-to-navigate techniques section, and a glossary and resource guide at back. Whether it's chic placemats and napkins for the kitchen, a luxurious kimono-style robe for the bath, or handy organizer baskets for the home office Amy Butler's In Stitches makes it easy to create beautiful accessories for every room and every mood.

Living the Creative Life: Ideas and Inspiration from Working Artists

How DO they do it?

If you could ask your favorite artist or crafter only one question, chances are you'd ask about creativity: Where do your ideas come from? How did you get started? What are your tricks for overcoming blocks?

In Living the Creative Life, author Rice Freeman-Zachery has compiled answers to these questions and more from 15 successful artists in a variety of mediums--from assemblage to fiber arts, beading to mixed-media collage. Creativity is different for everyone, and these artists share their insights on the muse (if you believe in her), keeping a sketchbook (or not), and prioritizing your art, whether you aspire to create solely for your own pleasure or to become a full-time artist.

* Try your hand at creative jumpstarts straight from the pros.
* Glimpse the artists' innermost thoughts and works in progress as you peruse pages from their journals and notebooks.
* Share textile artist Sas Colby's triumph over creative block during an exotic art retreat.
* Learn how internationally acclaimed artist James Michael Starr uses experience from his former "day job" to fuel his creation today.
* Explore the work of Michael deMeng, Claudine Hellmuth, Melissa Zink and the other artists right alongside their insights.

No crafter or artist should live the creative life without Living the Creative Life! The inspiration is contagious.

Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing: Patterns and How-To for 24 Fresh and Easy Projects

Internationally celebrated designer Lotta Jansdotter collects 24 of her most popular sewing patterns into one irresistible collection. Our innovative packaging makes for easy use reusable pattern sheets are neatly tucked into a folder inside this full-color, lay-flat spiral bound book. Lotta has included patterns for handy tote bags, smart aprons, chic bed linens, and much more. Each project is paired with step-by-step instructions, charming photographs, inspiring design ideas, and helpful, hand-drawn how-to illustrations everything you need to make whimsical pieces for the home and beyond. Best of all, there's nothing complicated about the projects. Never has simplicity looked so sophisticated.

The Unofficial LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Inventor's Guide

The LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT set includes a variety of powerful electronic parts (motors, sensors, and the programmable NXT microcomputer) and lots of building elements. With these parts you can create thousands of unique, intelligent robots. The Unofficial LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Inventor's Guide helps you to harness the capabilities of the NXT set and effectively plan, build, and program your own NXT robots.

The first part of the book contains a brief introduction to the NXT set. You'll then examine the pieces in the NXT set and the roles they play in construction. Next, you'll learn practical building techniques, like how to build sturdy structures and work with gears. Then it's time to learn how to program with the official NXT-G programming language (and learn a bit about several unofficial programming languages). You'll also learn what author David J. Perdue calls the MINDSTORMS method: a strategy for creating your own robots. Finally, you'll follow step-by-step instructions for building, programming, and testing six sample robots (all of which can be built using only the parts found in one NXT set). These six robots include:

• Zippy-Bot, a two-wheeled vehicle with a ball caster
• Bumper-Bot, a version of Zippy-Bot that explores your room and avoids objects
• Claw-Bot, a version of Zippy-Bot that searches for objects and pushes them away with its claw
• Tag-Bot, a four-wheeled steering vehicle that dashes around while you try to "tag" it with a flashlight
• Guard-Bot, a six-legged walking robot that launches a ball at intruders
• Golf-Bot, a stationary robot that finds a target and then hits a ball into the target

You'll also find an NXT-G Quick Reference, which provides information on the 30 types of standard programming blocks, and the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Piece Library, which features detailed information and images of the more than 80 types of LEGO pieces in the NXT set.

So go ahead. Grab your NXT set, fire up your creative mind, and see what you can invent with The Unofficial LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Inventor's Guide.

Handy Farm Devices: And How to Make Them

Originally published in 1909, "Handy Farm Devices" is more than an engaging trip down memory lane. For any small farmer or homesteader, the techniques and devices described in detail are just as useful, durable, and fully functional today as they were 75 years ago. You will learn to build a portable chicken coop, a stone boat (for moving stone), a lightweight orchard ladder, gates that don't sag, and a handy wood splitter, as well as rudimentary farm structures, well houses, bee hives, a baby's cradle, a cheese press and much more. The charming, turn-of-the-century language and useful and inspirational quotes from Shakespeare, the Bible, Bacon, Longfellow and many others make this book a delight to read. --Mark A. Hetts

The Quilter's Catalog: A Comprehensive Resource Guide

It’s not your grandmother’s quilt world anymore. Quilting today is a phenomenally popular hobby, artform, and business, often rolled into one, that attracts 21 million avid quilters who spend $2.27 billion annually on their passion. There are 2,500 quilt shops around the country, popular television series, guilds, Web sites, and national fairs—one in Houston draws 50,000 visitors each year.

Meg Cox, a former reporter for The Wall Street Journal, is one of the obsessive new quilters, and in The Quilter's Catalog, she draws on all her skills as a journalist to write the essential resource for contemporary quilters. Here’s the low-down on tools: computer-driven sewing machines, innovative rotary cutters, longarms. New and old techniques, from how to dye your own fabric to cutting-edge digital photo-transfer. Profiles of the twenty top quilting teachers— television’s Alex Anderson, Esterita Austin and her award-winning landscape quilts, Ruth McDowell, known for her bravura technique. Who makes the best fabrics and how to find them. A complete resource guide to the best Web sites, online groups, books, patterns, stores, shows, challenges. And a look at the new world of quiltaholics: its sense of community, its opportunities for business, its controversies (hand-sewn vs. machine-sewn), its attractions—quilting is easy, portable, friendly, therapeutic, often profitable, and the perfect way to mark a milestone.

The book includes 12 step-by-step projects from key teachers—a crib quilt, bed quilts, quilted ornaments—and instructions on how to hang, store, or ship a quilt.

Marketing and Selling Your Handmade Jewelry: The Complete Guide to Turning Your Passion into Profit