Just wanted to announce a super cool upcoming art-music fundraiser, the Buckman Bash, benefiting Buckman Elementary School here in Southeast Portland. I’m especially excited that my husband Andrew will be hosting the show… which will include performances by James Mercer of the Shins and Stephen Malkmus of the Jicks and a killer art auction featuring work from Storm Tharp, Joe Thurston, and a dozen other artists — plus there’s a gallery of student work!

I first heard about Buckman and their amazing art curriculum through my friend Cathy Pitters, whose son Levi is in fifth grade there. Cathy has volunteered tirelessly for the school the whole time Levi has been a student there, and she’s gotten the girls of PDX Super Crafty involved in the Art Show + Sell over the last few years as well. I’ll be a bit too preoccupied this April to be much of a presence there, so I’ve donated a signed copy of Bead Simple and a piece of my jewelry to the silent auction at the school. This is the first year of the Buckman Bash, and our friend Juli Wittenmeier is organizing the evening’s festivities, with lots of cool surprises (did I mention the dessert bar yet?). I’ll be helping Andrew out with the PowerPoint during his hosting duties — so please come say hi if you make it to the show, I’ll be the nine-months-pregnant girl with the laptop!

You can buy tickets online or at either Jackpot Records location (downtown or Hawthorne). All the proceeds for both the Bash and the Art Show + Sell go directly to the art programs!

p.s. Speaking of Cathy, she has just started a new craft blog, Stitch and Destroy — be sure to check it out!

I’m not sure how much Halloween stuff I’ll have time to get to do today (especially after the monkey costume marathon last week), and unfortunately our apartment is not too trick-or-treater-friendly (no doorbell!) so I thought I’d post my little Clothespin Bats from this month’s Crafty Wonderland DIY Table.

The full instructions and template are here on the Martha Stewart site, and they’re a fun, quick project to make if you have a few clothespins lying around the house!

And here are four of the bats my little DIY Table visitors made at Crafty Wonderland:

Have a happy Halloween!

ps: Speaking of Crafty Wonderland, there will be a mini-event with twenty vendors tomorrow night, November 1, at the Museum of Contemporary Craft for First Thursday, complete with a Day of the Dead DIY Table where you can make and decorate a clay skeleton! All the info is here.

The CRAFT magazine “Last-Minute Halloween Costumes for Kids” segment was on the CBS Early Show this morning, and here’s the monkey costume I made! Complete instructions for how to make it are here. It’s a very easy project — just grab a hoodie and pants that fit your child and embellish them with a little felt and fleece, and add a couple of felt bananas to a treat bag!

You can also make a pirate costume (designed by Nancy Flynn), a bee (designed by Cathy Callahan), a Lego, and a sushi roll (both designed by Diana Eng).

Thank you so much to Natalie and Jenny for inviting me to be part of this project!

…and I do mean early! I just got the okay to post about a Halloween project I’ve been working on this week for CRAFT magazine — one of five handmade costumes for kids that Natalie Zee Drieu will be presenting on the CBS Early Show on Saturday! CRAFT asked me, Nancy Flynn, Cathy Callahan, and Diana Eng to each make up a fun, easy costume project that viewers can create for their kids in time for Halloween!

You can see what time the Early Show airs in your city here, and set your tivo accordingly. Not only do I have I have rabbit ears and not much else for my five-channel TV, but I’ll be in San Francisco for the weekend, so I’ll be watching the dvr’ed show later at Nancy’s — thank you, Nancy!

I can’t wait to see the show — I’ll post on Saturday with an update! Photos, details, and how-tos will be on the CBS website first thing on Saturday morning, as well as on the front page of the CRAFT site.

update: I’m sad to report that my nephew Julian, who was going to wear my costume, is sick and can’t do the show. But superstar Natalie has already found a little girl to go on instead, thanks Natalie!!

…if you’re in Portland or Los Angeles, that is!

On Saturday, Jenny and Jessica are doing a special Felt Club craft demo at Whole Foods on Fairfax in LA, which sounds like a blast. Jenny says, “Potato-print Mother’s Day cards, macaroni ‘n’ bead necklaces and coffee filter floral brooches are just a few of the fun, kid-friendly activities we’ll be offering. We’ll be crafting our hearts out from 12 noon ’til 3pm (or whenever we run out of glitter glue). Hope to see you there!”

And up here in Portland, I’m helping out with the DIY table at Crafty Wonderland on Sunday, which I’m excited about. We’re making pretty tissue-paper flower corsages for Mother’s Day, and there will be 40 vendors selling cool handmade stuff as always! The sale runs from 11-4 and I’ll be running the crafty side of things for the second half or so, please come say hi if you’re out and about in the afternoon.

p.s. Happy Mother’s Day, Mom! I love you!

The post office has some awesome new Star Wars stamps out, and they’re running a contest where you can vote for your favorite stamp of the whole collection — the winner will get its very own sheet of stamps. You can vote once a day for the next month, so if you have divided loyalties, you don’t have to leave a close second out in the cold. (Warning: the voting page has plenty of sound effects, if you’re at work.)

Speaking of: I’m so excited that Bonnie of Star Wars Kids Crafts will be at Maker Faire next month! I can’t wait to get her new book, You Can Draw Star Wars, for my nephew Julian… he told me last week that Return of the Jedi is his new favorite movie. Aww!

I just got to spend some time making stuff with my five-and-a-half-year-old nephew Julian, and wow! is he ever crafty! He loves drawing, making books, collaging, and (be still my heart) making his own jewelry. Right now he does his own beadstringing, and for the more complicated pieces, like this good-luck charm we made, we collaborate: he designs, I wire-wrap (aka “do the trick”). I’m sure soon he’ll be the one showing me how to do stuff soon, though!

Owen and Julian drawing together, Julian’s good-luck charm, Julian is super crafty forever

If you’re looking for fun kid-friendly craft ideas, there are tons of projects, tutorials, and materials online. Here are a few of my favorites — I’ll be updating with lots more links this month, so please comment or e-mail me (susanstars at yahoo dot com) with your picks!

Cool Projects

crayon cookies from Kiddley, fimo “food” from One Hour Craft, chewie tissue box cozy from Star Wars Kids Crafts

Kiddley, created and run by Claire Robertson, has tons of projects and ideas for kids to try. Check out the arts and crafts category for fun how-tos like multi-colored crayon cookies, bird finger puppets, and snowglobes. Meanwhile, the sister Kiddley Links site spotlights cool toys, kits and games.

One Hour Craft has some lovely ideas for kid-friendly projects, like paper dolls from momomimi, tiny polymer clay “food”, soaps, and button flowers. And don’t miss Maria’s recent How to Teach a Child to Sew tutorial.

The always-wonderful Whip-up has a great children’s crafts section… try resist painting, mixing up kitchen craft clay, vegetable printing, or making your own doll house.

StarWars.com has a huge craft project archive, featuring tutorials for SW-related projects like Envelopes from the Dark Side, Revenge of the Sith Poetry Magnets, a Chewie Tissue Box Cozy, and my favorite: Make This Yoda Doll, You Must.

Inspiring Sites

•Aliens With Afros is the home of Levi’s amazing cards and artwork, which he sells regularly at Crafty Wonderland.

•Sarah blogs about all the fun craft projects she does with her three-year-old son (a lover of buttons!) at The Misadventures of Mama and Jack.

Offline Resources to Check Out

•Klutz has dozens of current titles for kids, including crafts and art and drawing, plus they sell extra supplies if you zip through your kit!

•Our very own Super Crafty has more than a dozen kid-friendly projects, like Tattoo-Flash Patches and a Sparkling Magic Wand. Don’t forget to check out the Shrink-O-Rama chapter, which is full of fun and easy shrink art how-tos!

•One of my favorite craft books is the Make and Do volume of the Childcraft encyclopedia — I have the groovy 1976 edition, including how-tos for molding a clay head, braiding a belt, sewing doll clothes or creating your own Halloween costumes.

•Powells.com has a killer Children’s Crafts section, with 1571 new and used books to browse!