Today, we’re going to show you how to make your own mini koinobori! This template was created by a super creative crafter, artist, and Dal Frara enthusiast, Mini-toko.

Before we get started, you’ll need to download the free template (PDF).

Now that you’ve done that, let’s get to work!

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Today’s tutorial comes from Mitsy of Art Mind and it is one we’re very excited about. Art Mind offers some of the coolest felt creations we’ve seen, including jewelry, coasters, and tiny greetings. Here at craftershock, we love felt and even more, we love felted wool. Today, we’ll show you how to create your very own felted wool flower brooch. Here’s a shot of the finished product:

Let’s get started!

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Today’s tutorial is one we’ve been meaning to post for a while now, and are excited to finally share with you. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Print Gocco, we’ll start with a brief intro to what we refer to as The Little Machine That Could.

Print Gocco is a small, inexpensive, and easy to use screen printing tool that originated in Japan. Gocco uses flash bulbs similar to those found in old cameras to thermally imprint an original image onto a master screen. Prints are made by pressing the ink-applied master screen against a sheet of paper placed on a sponge pad. While Riso (the company to thank for Print Gocco) “officially” ceased production of the Gocco in 2005, you can still buy them online through a few different suppliers. We buy our Gocco goods from Northwood Studios.

The first step is to create your design. For simplicity’s sake, we’re going with a one color design for this tutorial. There are many ways to create your design — rubber stamps, drawing by hand, designing on a computer, etc. One thing to keep in mind when designing: unless your design is printed using a laser printer, you MUST use a photocopy of your original design. The reason for this is in the thermal imaging process Gocco uses to create the screen from your design. The flash bulbs reflect heat from the black carbon-based image on the original to “burn” the image into the master screen. Carbon is not present in all kinds of ink, therefore you must use a photocopy (which is carbon-based).

Once you have the photocopied original, you’re ready to Gocco! Let’s get started!

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Today’s tutorial is perfect for cleaning up those messy craft desks that some of you us have! Elsie Marley shares with us how to repurpose a tin can by dressing it up to hold pencils, scissors, paintbrushes, wisks — or anything else scattered across your work station. The end result will look like this:

Materials needed:

» 28 oz. tin can*
» linen, or other fabric
» lining fabric
» embroidery floss
» glue (Elsie used rubber cement, but plain white glue should do just fine)
» iron
» template for the embroidered design — CLICK HERE to download the template with 8 different designs to choose from, including the wisk pictured above [PDF]

*If you have a different size can, just measure the height and circumference, add seam allowances, and the rest is the same.

Let’s get started!

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We are very excited to bring you this tutorial in conjunction with Diana of Sämyii, a very creative crafter based in Italy. Diana puts her bright and fun spin on projects ranging from Panty Pouches (panty-shaped change purses) to adorable creature Moleskine covers. Today, Diana shares with us her tutorial for making a super cool lamp with hanging fruit charms. Diana notes that you can use any charm, but has chosen fruit for summer.
TIP: Change the hanging charms to match the season or your room decor!

If all goes as planned, your finished lamp will look like this:

Let’s get started!

Materials needed:
» Acrylic sheets
» Scissors
» Plastic fruits
» Invisible nylon thread/fishing line
» A cord light kit (available at your local hardware store for around $10)Step 1
Save this template to your computer. If you would like a bigger lamp, resize the image in a photo editing program. Print and cut out template.

Step 2
Using your template, cut 30 shapes out of the acrylic sheets.

Step 3
Start to assemble the pieces: the shapes have two pairs of matching corners, opposite diagonally (marked by the asterisks and arrows in the previous image). Fit together matching corners of the pieces, slowly “knotting” them together. There will be two different knots: the asterisk corners need 5 pieces to form the knot, and the arrow corners need 3 sheets to form the knot.

Step 4
Continue to assemble until you create a star, then fit in the remaining pieces in the same way.

Step 5
Continue until you create a sphere. Before completing the sphere, be sure to insert the light bulb end of the cord kit into the sphere.

Step 6
Cut as many lengths of nylon thread as pieces of fruit. The length of the thread can vary, depending on how high or low you want the fruit to hang. Tie a piece of nylon thread to the stalk of each piece of fruit.

Step 7
Make a slipknot at the other end of the thread.

Step 8
Hang the slipknot in a knot under the lamp. Continue to hang fruit in every knot of the lamp.

Voila!

We’d love to see your finished lamps! Photos of your completed projects can (and should!) be added to the craftershock Flickr photo pool!

Big thanks to Diana for sharing this tutorial with us! To see this and many more of her projects, check out her blog and Flickr photos. To purchase her goodies, head over to her Etsy shop.

Enjoy!