Hobbies and hobbies

Discover online free crafts tutorials at 'Totally Tutorials'

youlki22@gmail.com (youlki22) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:21:00 +0000

World wide web offers links to many online directories, online forums/message boards or blogs dedicated to crafts only. These online tutorials are a good way of getting ideas, tips to adopt these projects or create new stuff or projects. Not only text sites but video sites like 'YouTube' has many videos relating to crafts, or do-it-yourself activities.

'Totally Tutorials' is a blog with a lot of craft tutorials, patterns, recipes and more. There are many how to and do-it-yourself projects, ideas and tips which are very useful for the people having a passion for art/craft activities.

Readers are encourages to submit their articles.

Related links:

* 'Craft site directory' a guide to arts and crafts links on the Internet.

Recycle your books into work of art

youlki22@gmail.com (youlki22) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:21:00 +0000

You have heard about recycling many products like paper, plastic, wood, clothes etc. But there is a creative way of recycling your existing or old books (which has a little resemblance with scrap booking) and it is called 'altered book'.

An altered book is an existing book that is awaiting your hands to glued, paint, collage, rubber stamp, cut and tear and transform into a piece or work of art. Yes! by using some techniques, idea and tips you can create crafts with easily available material around you own home. Let's get more information about 'altered book':

Definition from 'Wikipedia' is:
'An altered book is a form of mixed media artwork that changes a book from its original form into a different form, altering its appearance and/or meaning.

An altered book artist takes a book (old, new, recycled or multiple) and cuts, tears, glues, burns, folds, paints, adds to, collages, rebinds, gold-leafs, creates pop-ups, rubber-stamps, drills, bolts, and/or be-ribbons it. The artist may add pockets and niches to hold tags, rocks, ephemera, or other three-dimensional objects. Some change the shape of the book, or use multiple books in the creation of the finished piece of art.

Altered books may be as simple as adding a drawing or text to a page, or as complex as creating an intricate book sculpture.'

There is a very specific definition of making altered book at 'Kaboose.com'

An altered book, according to the International Society of Altered Book Artists, is "any book, old or new, that has been recycled by creative means into a work of art." Altered book artists change a book by cutting or rebinding; covering pages with collage, drawings, or photographs; stamping images on the pages, and highlighting particular words or images, while covering others. Different than a
scrapbook, altered books are preexisting books that are complete in and of themselves, not journals or blank bound volumes. Take, for instance, an old children's board book or a dusty garage-sale find and personalize it by adding your own thoughts, images, and art.

"Scrapbooking is using photos of your family and journaling a particular event" or time, says Aileen Roberts, a California-based mixed media artist.
"Altering books is not the same as scrapbooking. Most altered book artists are using the book as their canvas and altering it into an artistic statement just like you would a canvas or a sculpture."

Book Safe - Altered Book. You can turn an ordinary, hard-covered book into a safe to hide your valuables and little treasures. Not only are these books a useful addition to your own book shelf, it also makes a great gift!
'Book safe project'
'Altered book safe' is a great way to hide things on your book shelf Or in your school bag or locker.

Useful links:

* 'Getting Started with Altered Books and Other Altered Art' at 'Creativity Portal'

* Altered book: Craft, patterns and tutorials at 'Craftster.org' forum.

* Few article about 'Altered books' at 'Suite 101.com'

* 'Arts and Crafts : Techniques Used in Making Altered Books'

* 'Altered books ideas and tips'

* Few links at 'Craft Site Directory'

* 'Altered Books at 'Incredible art lessons' at 'Squidoo'

* 'Artful journey' wife, mother, teacher, writer, and artist trying to live a creative life. I make all kinds of altered books and collage art, and I write about the process as I go along.

* Making Altered Books :: Art in a Child's Hand

* 'Art ezine'

Useful Links for paper crafts and origami projects

youlki22@gmail.com (youlki22) — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 04:29:00 +0000

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From the very early age I have a fascination for paper. I love to use paper for writing, for correspondence or making paper models which is called paper craft or origami. You can make a lot of crafts using paper, which is a vary cheap medium for this purpose like cards, paper models of cars, houses, dolls, famous places etc. I have written before about the online useful resources and links in my previous posts and it helps me to find the relevant information quickly as I teach a lot of origami models to my nursery class kids.

I believe that origami or paper craft is one of the best creative art form which brings a lot of benefits along with having fun for hours either you do it as an adult or as a kid. I am happy to share the information with my blog readers and hope that I it would be helpful for you to get ideas and tips from these resources to learn and create paper crafts or origami projects for yourself, your students or your children.

* Paper crafty is a site dedicated to origami and crafts projects.

* PaperCraft Art Creative' is the free collection of paper crafts, paper models, paper dolls and origami.

* 'Paper craft models of things that fly'

* 'Card models for free download'

* Paper modelz

My previous posts about origami:

* 'Amazing paper craft blogs'
* 'Useful links and resources for paper crafts'
* 'Learn origami at the internet'

Note: As my 'A learners diary' is hosted at 'Blogger' you might not get the link to the original post. In this case just go to the 'A learners diary' homepage and at category link you can find the posts under origami and paper crafts.

Discover the extraordinary places and past with 'Curious Expeditions'

youlki22@gmail.com (youlki22) — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:26:00 +0000

'Curious expeditions' is for the people having interest in traveling/discovering wonderful and extraordinary places of past.

If you are interested in travel and like to discover amazing or strange places, museums and objects then this site is for you.

describes itself as being “devoted to unearthing and documenting the wondrous, the macabre, and the obscure from around the globe.” These two travel a lot, and bring things back — stories, objects, ideas, what have you. Michelle laughingly points out that she’d like to open her own natural history museum someday…which seems ridiculous until you remember that the first museum in England that was open to the public was a house full of curiosities called The Ark and created by Charles I’s gardener.

I picked up few titles of posts like:

- Museums of Lost Wonder and Mummy Madness
- Museé Mécanique: Where History Lives
- Museums of Lost Wonder and Mummy Madness

Related posts or links:

- 'Mapping the marvelous'

- Diary of a Mad Natural Historian

- 'Cabinet of Wonders'

- 'Extraordinary places' A blog about travel, history, word and phrase origins, curious customs, superstitions, and folklore.

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Floor cleaning tips

youlki22@gmail.com (youlki22) — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:29:00 +0000

Home improvement or home cleaning can be a fun job if you love to do-it-yourself. Nowaday you have lots of cleaning equipments and chemicals which can help you maintain and keep your home a clean and nice place. Floors are the main part of our home which we need to keep clean and fresh most of the time.

Why we need to keep our floors clean?

Few of the reasons are:

# To beautify the floor
# To remove stains, dirt, litter and obstructions
# To remove grit and sand which scratch and wear down the surface.
# To remove allergens, in particular dust
# To prevent wear to the surface e.g. by using a floor wax or protective sealant.
# To make the environment sanitary e.g. in kitchens
# To maintain an optimum traction e.g. for dance floors

Tips for floor cleaning:

The treatment needed for different types of floors is different.
For safety it is most important to ensure the floor is not left even slightly wet after cleaning or mopping up.

There are a lot of tips and ideas which are available online.

Few Floor cleaning tips' from "eHow" are:

Dirt from the street collects on feet and gets tracked into your house dozens of times a day. The little dumps, spills, and heel marks of daily living accumulate with startling speed.

And unless your home has only one kind of floor throughout, you will have to deal with cleaning different kinds of hard-surface floors. The first step toward efficient floor cleaning is to know what your floor is made of. The cleaning method that works for one surface may ruin another.

Sawdust is used on some floors to absorb any liquids that fall rather than trying to prevent them being spilt. The sawdust is swept up and replaced each day.
It used to be common to use tea leaves to collect dirt from carpets and remove odours.

Soap or wax used sparingly cleans and beautifies surfaces. If you use too much, you will have to spend time removing the buildup.

To clean a dust mop without making a mess, slip a large paper bag over the head of the mop, secure the top, and shake so the dust falls into the bag.

Remember that either you clean the floor for yourself or get help from professional agencies, you need to look for proper floor care equipment for the perfect job.

More tips at:
- How To Clean The Floor

- 'Floor cleaning tips'

Collectible and figurines for hobby or gift purposes

youlki22@gmail.com (youlki22) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 13:51:00 +0000

Collectibles or figurines are another form of products which we buy for keeping ourselves, decoration purposes, remember vacation or holiday trips or to give as a gift to our near and dear ones. Whatever the purpose may be these gift items are fun to check at gift shops. I browse through online gift shops for the gift ideas and most of the time I am successful to find suitable collectible or figurine for my own collection or as a gift for someone.

According to 'wikipedia' :A collectable or collectible is typically a manufactured item designed for people to collect. In this respect, they are distinguishable from other subjects of collections, which may also include natural objects (e.g., butterflies) and objects manufactured for purposes other than collecting (e.g., stamps). Some objects designed for other purposes, such as toys, become so popular among collectors that they are later marketed specifically to that audience.

Whenever going for shopping I specially look around gift shops and have fun searching for 'collectable gifts'. These gifts or figurines show your taste when you collect these items and decorate your homes with it.

Figurines or other collectible gift items can be expensive or cheap. It is your budget which helps you decide to go for cheap or expensive stuff.

What is figurine?

figurines is a statuette that represents a human, deity, or animal. Figurines may be realistic or iconic, depending on the skill and intention of the creator. The earliest were made of stone or clay. Modern versions are made of ceramic, metal, glass, wood and plastic.

These collectibles gifts can be kept as a personal collection or it can be a nice gift. Collectible gifts can be jewelry, decorative or hobby products which can be purchased from any gift shop or from an online mall as well. Online shopping is always time saving and within short time you can browse through many merchants with competing prices. Online shopping can save your money as well as you can compare prices with the click of your mouse.

There are many review sites which can help you make your selection easier for online shopping or to just get an idea for collectible items.

Related post:

* How to Choose a Forever Collectible?

Being a human being

youlki22@gmail.com (youlki22) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 18:09:00 +0000

God has gifted life to human beings for once a time but if we seriously think about ourselves or about life then many things would come into to the mind. During our whole life we learn from life itself, or other people's experiences. Learning never ends and life teaches us many lessons which are worth. 

I found this these ten rules for being human from one the sites and sharing it with the blog readers. 

I hope that it inspires you.

Ten Rules for Being Human

(by Cherie Carter-Scott)

1. You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it's yours to keep for the entire period.

2. You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called, "life."

3. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial, error, and experimentation. The "failed" experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that ultimately "work."

4. Lessons are repeated until they are learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can go on to the next lesson.

5. Learning lessons does not end. There's no part of life that doesn't contain its lessons. If you're alive, that means there are still lessons to be learned.

6. "There" is no better a place than "here." When your "there" has become a "here", you will simply obtain another "there" that will again look better than "here."

7. Other people are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself.

8. What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.

9. Your answers lie within you. The answers to life's questions lie within you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.

10. You will forget all this.

Paper craft making ideas and tips

youlki22@gmail.com (youlki22) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 04:11:00 +0000

Paper is probably the most versatile and universal material available. But do you know that we can use paper in many wasys to create different crafts or art projects?
There are lots of uses of paper in crafts which can easily transformed into gift or decorative products. There are many forms of paper craft which can keep you busy for hours like paper folding, origami, scrap-booking, collage etc. This post would help you learn paper craft making ideas and tips.

* Decoupage

The word “decoupage” has its origin from the French word “decouper” which simply means “to cut out”. The art of decoupage involves cutting out small paper objects and arranging them in a decorative way on another object such as wood. The final step is to glue them and seal them with numerous coats of varnish for a smooth result.

* Paper Maché

Paper Mache is a versatile craft technique and so fun for adults and kids alike. As it can get quite messy, it is recommended to cover your working area with an old plastic tablecloth and to wear old clothes.

All you will need are strips of newspaper, glue and your base object or form. You can create your glue by using 1 part flour to 1 part water and adding a spoonful of craft glue. When combined, this mixture then resembles a thick paste with the consistency of cream.

You can also mix wallpaper glue powder with water according to manufacture’s instructions. Wallpaper paste has an advantage that it keeps for days in an airtight container. If it thickens, add some water and mix well.

A typical base object to cover with the paper strips is a balloon. With this, animal bodies or even a Halloween masks can be created. Other items can also be taped to the balloonsuch as toilet paper or kitchen paper rolls. These in turn become arms and legs.

Ordinary plastic bowls are another source of base object. When wrapped with cling wrap, you can apply the strips of newspaper and once dry, the base bowl can be removed leaving the paper mache shell. Paper maché objects becomes firm and durable when dry and can be easily painted over.

* Collage

The word “collage” comes from the French language and means to “glue on”. To create a collage picture you need different elements or pieces such as photographs, drawings, letters, newspaper clippings or other objects and these get arranged and glued on an underground such as a canvas to create a completly new picture.

* Origami

Origami originates in China and is a very old technique of folding square shaped paper into small 3-D works of art such as animals or other figures.

* Lacé

Lacé is a paper cutting technique in which the cut pieces, for example in the shape of triangles, are folded back and then interlinked in each other, creating a new design which resembles fish bone or a braid. You can buy metal lacé templates or print out this example here >>> Lace Pattern

What are Artist Trading Cards???

Artist Trading Cards or otherwise known as ATC’s are created in the size of 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches or 64 x 89 millimeters. These are small and self-made miniature works of art. Other than the size, there are no particular rules to follow. Combine different materials and elements to create unique and one of a kind cards. Sign, number and date the backs of your cards. These cards are not meant to be sold but if you like, there are groups that trade and collect these cards. You can find them on the internet in different craft forums.

Tips to make paper projects from available materials:

* Save old cards, calender pages, pretty pictures found in magazines or catalogs, music sheets, old letters with pretty or interesting writing, maps, wrapping paper, stamps, stickers, labels, paper napkins with designs, seed packages, etc..... almost anything out of paper can be used and recycled again into something new and beautiful.

* Save cereal boxes, cardboard inlets from shirts or the grey cardboard backings from writing pads. These can be useful to make sturdy templates that can often be reused.

* Scrapbook paper is not just for scrapbooking! With so many lovely designs and colors, you can use it for many other paper crafts as well such as card making or other general paper craft projects needing paper or cardstock.

* Information and definitions provided with thanks by : 'Craft Ideas'

Discover weird facts and articles at 'Dark Roasted Blend'

youlki22@gmail.com (youlki22) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:16:00 +0000

What comes in your mind with 'dark roasted blend'? ---Yes! the first thing which could come in your mind is 'coffee'. So when you visualize the scene of having a nice coffee cup while browsing the net, it is a wonderful feeling. Isn't it?

I love to have tea or coffee while chatting with friends, writing posts for my blogs or reading other blogs. I love to browse the sites with strange, funny, odd and weird facts, pictures etc and 'Dark Roasted Blend' is one of those sites which make my tea/coffee time more joyful.

'Dark Roasted Blend' is the place with weird and wonderful things which you can enjoy while having your coffee cup.

It is among the top 500 sites on Technorati, has more than 25,000 subscribers and gets approx. 50,000 daily unique visitors.

The "Dark Roasted Blend" is also a part of "Thrilling Wonder" family of sites, dedicated to the on-going quest for wisdom and beauty, for all things cool and wonderful in our world.

DRB was also featured on USA Today, TIME Magazine, National Geographic Channel (in Top 10 Travel Blogs), Wired, Smashing Magazine, etc.

Learn to design your own house

youlki22@gmail.com (youlki22) — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 13:14:00 +0000

Do you believe that 'The basic elements of good home design can be learned and achieved by all?' I believe that you can make good changes in your home design yourself, and you just need some brain storming to do it. Internet can help you discover many sites which provide ideas, tips and home decor articles. These tips, and ideas can be easily adopted or re-designed according to your need or choice. Most of the DIY (do-it-yourself) sites offer easy to learn free tutorial or posts to design your home while saving money as well.

'Re-nest' offers “green” movement and the “home decor” ideas. It helps people to connect the resources they need to improve their homes, while saving money.

They believe that 'A calm, healthy, beautiful home is a necessary foundation for happiness and success in the world. Creating this home requires inspiration, connection to resources and motivation to do something about it.'

Mission: Helping people make their homes more beautiful, organized and healthy by connecting them to a wealth of resources, ideas and community online.

These are few (sample) article headlines:

• The Best Easy & Cheap DIY Home Tech Hacks
• 5 (More) Uses for Citrus Peels
• LA Go Green Expo: 10 Great Finds
• A Unique Use for Old Newspapers: Make Yarn
• Green Style: Daniel and Valeria's DIY Plywood Bedroom
• Soothing Paint Colors for a Relaxing Bedroom
• Urban Clothes Lines: One Stop Clothes Drying Shop
• Reusable Sandwich Bags: Lunch Skins

Get the fun and interesting stuff at 'brainz'

youlki22@gmail.com (youlki22) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 12:49:00 +0000

'brainz' offers interesting and funny stuff which you can estimate by going through these examples of some featured posts:

# 15 Completely Useless Cryptids
# 15 Cute Animals That Will Cause You Horrible Harm
# 15 Of The Worst Experimental Deaths Of All Time
# 15 Ways Science Will Kill Us All
# The 10 Greatest Fantasy Series Of All Time
# The 10 Biggest Auto Death Traps Ever Built

In their own words:

"We are all about engaging your brain from multiple angles and stimulating your mind with fun, unique, interesting, challenging, thought-provoking, and funny content.

Our goal is to provide you with all of the information you could possibly want, but to go as deep as possible, giving you lots of different ways to dig deeper and explore the topic. From games and quizzes to gadgets and software, Brainz has you covered."

It is not an article site as they are offering news, top 10 lists, quizzes and more about any topic.

Strange, funny facts and pictures around the net Part-2

youlki22@gmail.com (youlki22) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 02:59:00 +0000

I love to search and browse through the sites which offer strange, fun or funny facts, pictures or photos. Our world is full of amazing things and looking around these amazing and strange pictures can keep you entertained for hours.

During my search for strange, funny facts and pictures I could go through many useful links which I want to share with my blog readers. So have fun going directly to these useful links and sites!

* 'Makezine blog' offers fascinating images, pictures, and wall papers. 'Gallery of strange vehicles'

* Strange Houses, Weird Houses, Unusual Houses & Homes from Around the World

* 50 Strange Buildings of the World

* 'The 19 most complex and dangerous roads in the world'

Related post:

Discover interesting and fun facts around you at -'Uphaa'

Learn to draw following step by step instructions

youlki22@gmail.com (youlki22) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 11:54:00 +0000

Drawspace.com is one of those sites which offer online drawing lessons, and many of these lessons are free. It is now providing around 200 free lessons on drawing. From beginners to advance level there are drawing lessons for all type of learners. And as site presents these free lessons with easy and step by step instructions anybody can learn or get useful tips from it.

More about the site!

It is an online resource for fine art educators, home schooling programs, and educational facilities. Brenda Hoddinott is the author of this site and lessons.

More about the site owner:

Brenda Hoddinott is an Award winning artist, illustrator, art educator, curriculum designer, forensic artist (retired), and author of Drawing for Dummies, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Drawing People Illustrated, and Drawing Book 1: Getting Started. Brenda has developed art curricula, and taught drawing classes since 1980.

She says: "My philosophy on teaching art is to focus primarily on the enjoyment aspects while gently introducing the technical and academic. Hence, in creating a passion for the subject matter, the quest for knowledge also becomes enjoyable."

Educating art in classrooms- useful links

youlki22@gmail.com (youlki22) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:01:00 +0000

Art and crafts is an interesting subject to learn or teach as it is fun for teachers as well as students. I love to teach art or crafts to my nursery class kids, as they enjoy it and the whole class is full of noises with joy and enthusiasm. This post offers useful links which can help you learn more from other teachers or educators who are teaching art in classroom.

'Craig Roland' is an art educator, author, and edu tech consultant running the blog: "The art teacher's guide to the internet" offers ideas, tools, and resources for teaching art and design in a post-digital age. In simple words the blog provides the answer to this question, "How can we use the new tools and capabilities of the Web to enhance or transform art education practices in schools?" It also offers valuable online resources and tools that you can use in the classroom with your students.

Links to more relevant sites:

* 'Art is everywhere'

* Arts Learning Interactive*

* 'Art Education's Journal'

* 'Art Education using new technology in art classrooms'

* 'The Teaching Palette' is authored by art educators for art educators to provide a collaborative and resourceful forum where art specialists of all levels can explore professional topics that impact our subject area - from classroom management to tools and techniques to integrating music.

* 'The Fugleblog'

Create scrap blog and share with all

youlki22@gmail.com (youlki22) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:59:00 +0000

Scrap booking is a favorite hobby and digital scrap booking is an easier form of it. Digital scrap booking is also very time saving activity as you need to do it at your computer and need only few soft wares to help you create pretty and creative projects.

Now you can make your own scrap blog. How it is possible?

Yes it is possible and you can create your own blog, sharing it online with all.

'Scrap Blog' is the place where you don't need to do anything with your pictures as they provide all the tools or utilities to make your 'blog' attractive and awesome.

- The site provides step by step instruction which can help you learn to create your online scrap blog.
- 'Get Crafty' is another page which showcases designers, new features and crafty ideas for preserving your digital memories.

- Their 'blog' can be bookmarked for updated posts.

Benefits of hobbies and leisure activities for senior citizens

youlki22@gmail.com (youlki22) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 13:10:00 +0000

Hobbies and leisure activities are beneficial for all age humans as it helps us engage in the chores which are fun to do. Needless to say that having fun and enjoying what we do for pleasure can help you delay aging and help fight age related illness.

From a report from 'Aging Home Health Care' it is suggested that senior citizens should engage themselves in hobbies like crafts, painting, cake decorating, playing cards, swimming, walking, gardening,

The report says:

'Participating in regular physical activity can help prevent or maintain control in some chronic illnesses such as: heart disease, diabetes, arthritis and some types of cancer. Regular physical activity can also improve our overall quality of life by delaying disability and affecting how long we live.

Hobbies promote socialization, physical activity as well as using our minds. Using all of our muscles, including our brain is important to avoiding dementia and Alzheimer’s. It is also important to be aware of your emotions, your thoughts and your behaviors. Participating in hobbies helps us feel good about ourselves and have healthy relationships.'

Either you are going to engage you in some leisure activities or keep yourself busy with some kind of hobbies, and active lifestyle can keep your mind and body healthy for long time.

What benefits you can get from an active lifestyle?

It can help you to -----

- ability to focus,
- improve memory,
- reduce stress,
- enhance the immune system and
- improve self esteem.
Other benefits may be improved flexibility, balance, and better sleep.

Link to the article: 'Activities for Senior Citizens'

Discover interesting and fun facts around you at - 'Uphaa'

youlki22@gmail.com (youlki22) — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 16:42:00 +0000

Interesting and fun pictures or facts can be searched through any search engine, but there are few sites which provide really impressive stuff and 'Uphaa' is one of those sites.

More about 'Uphaa':

'Uphaa.com' is one of the top 50000 sites in the world and it gets more than 1 million readers each month. It provides the odd, funny and bizarre things around the world.

Origami - Creative and Really Impressive Collection

11 Awesome Toilet Paper Designs

Few recent post titles are:

- 16 Creative Motorcycle Helmet Designs
- 9 Creative Recycled Mailboxes
- 10 Creative Door Mat Designs

Related useful links:

* 'Oddee' is another entertainment blog on oddities, getting over two million unique visitors each month. Focused on the odd, bizarre and strange things of our world.

* 'toobizarre' A blog about funny, strange, interesting and odd pictures.

* '2 leep'

* 'Smile panic'

* 'Funlok'

Strange, funny facts and pictures around the net Part-1

youlki22@gmail.com (youlki22) — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 15:47:00 +0000

I love to bookmark the site which offer strange or funny stuff. Today I am here with some links to few sites which are fun to browse. There are many sites around the net offering strange and funny pictures, photos and facts which are interesting to go through and save to share with your friends or family members.

1- Have you heard about 'Toilet Restaurants'?

Yes, There are at least 20 restaurants on planet Earth where toilets, urinals and potty talk are the central attraction. Five of those have opened in 2008 alone and at least ten more are planned for 2009, most in either China or Taiwan. Go to the post showing overview of the world’s crappy dinning experiences in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Germany and Portugal.

The post is offered by 'Simple panic' with the banner saying 'Enough to make a dinosaur laugh':

Post link: '253 Toilet restaurants'

Recent posts are:

* 36 Funniest Pics Of December
* Amazing Laziness!
* Sport Can Be Funny Too. 60 Crazy Pics
* Funny Animals #9
* Proof of Crazy Weekend
* These Guys Are Totally Nuts!
* Best Gift For The Musician
* Cute Baby Animals
* Top 10 Fat Animals
* Top 10 Moments Caught on Google Street View

2- "2leep" offers many posts like:

- 10 Most Incredible Earth Scars

- Most Incredible Hotel Swimming Pools
- 50 Twist Endings in Movies
- 15 Coolest Pillows

- 15 Strangest Contact Lens

- 10 Most Unfortunate Store Names

Link: "2leep"

3- 'Manofest' offers many interesting and funny posts like '20 Mind-Blowing Back Boobs ', '30 Horrifying Comb Overs' and lots of more.

4- 'The chive' claims that it 'cures boredom, may cause dependency'

5- Find top news around the world at 'market gid'

6- 'Eat liver' is the source of funny, unusual and bizarre pictures. They have 5,184 pictures in the archive.

7- 'Ad goodness provides the best and the worst around the globe.

8- Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
Site link: 'Astronomy Picture of the Day'

9- 'Strange Houses, Weird Houses, Unusual Houses & Homes from Around the World'

10- 50 Strange Buildings of the World

Have fun searching funny pictures and videos at 'funny potato'

youlki22@gmail.com (youlki22) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:01:00 +0000

I love to read interesting facts, watching funny pictures, photos and images while surfing the net. It is easy to just type fun images or pictures at any search engine page and get the result within minutes but it is fun to have variety of pictures at one place. 'YouTube' is a good source for funny videos.

'Funny Potato' has a collection of many funny pictures and videos which can make you smile or laugh.

The blog has many posts with lots of more pictures.

What kind of pictures, photos or videos you can find at the site/blog?

The Funniest pictures, Funny Clothes!
Funny Family, Funny Health, Funny Games, Funny World Records, Funny Summer, Funny Sports, Funny Movies, Funny Valentine's Day, Funny Apple, Funny Food, restaurants, etc!
- Funny Work! Funny images and pictures about work, the workplace, office jobs, stress, employees, etc!
- Funny Money! Funny images and pictures about money, coins, dollars, expensive stuff, diamonds, gold, etc!
- Funny Christmas! Funny images, pictures and video about Christmas!
Funny Weddings, Funny Animals

Useful links:

* 'Funny junk'

* 'Photobucket'

* 'Funlol'

* 'Visual Jokes'

* Pyzam'

* 'Funny picture-funny photo'

* Damn funny pictures

* 'Great funny pictures'

Cet the crafts news at 'Craft gossip'

youlki22@gmail.com (youlki22) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 02:49:00 +0000

I have a good collection of books about crafts. Few of those books are gifts from my cousins who encourage my crafts activities. I also search at the net for more ideas, tips and projects which can be easily adopted to teach my reception years kids. Online communities and forums are a good place to share and get links to more ideas or tips to crafts or related topics. Crafts activities are the best time pass for me and I always enjoy doing it with my young students.

'Crafts gossip' offers news, reviews and projects covering various kind of crafts.

You get lots of craft ideas and projects and reviews at the site. Blog is dividied into many sub-blogs, covering topics ranging from knitting, crochet, bath and body, jewelry making, scrapbooking, sewing crafts, recycled crafts, needlework, edible crafts, indie crafts, stamping, lesson plans, glass art, quilting, polymer clay and felting.

I have searched for 'craft' links and found that you can get the links to 'Craft Competitions and Give Aways', 'Craft Competitons', 'Craft Events Craft Groups', Craft Chats & Craft Forums'. So you don't need to use search engine for related links.

Useful links for crafts and do-it-yourself lovers

youlki22@gmail.com (youlki22) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 03:06:00 +0000

This post is useful for crafts and do-it-yourself lovers who want to spend their time wisely doing some creative work. Parents or teachers who want to do these crafts activities for themselves or to teach to their younger ones can get lots of ideas, tips or simply follow the step by step instructions to make many crafts. Crafting and making things by hand is a fun and entertaining way to spend time and it helps you to be creative and innovative.

* 'All Free Crafts' offers crafts for kids, nature, bath and body crafts, easy homemade gift ideas, gardening tips and projects, Christmas, Valentine, Easter or Halloween crafts and candle making ideas.

* 'Craftbits' is a site with lots of ideas, tips and crafts projects. It is created by a mother and daughter having experience in crafts, teaching and selling it via their own gift store. Both launched it to provide resources for teachers, therapists, and craft enthusiasts in the year 1999.

* 'Amazing Moms' has many crafts which can be searched according to catagory starting from yound children to school going kids.

* 'Craft Place' online space for crafters to connect with other crafters, share projects, ideas, make suggestions, and find inspiration. Craftplace is owned and operated by the Craft & Hobby Association (CHA) which is an association of companies within the craft industry.
Through the Creators Exchange, the Craftplace social networking community, you can create your own crafty place on the web. also brings you the best crafting content, resources, ideas and inspiration from around the web. But this is your site, designed around your passion for all things craft with most pages providing you the opportunity make content suggestions and interact with the site.

* At 'Kabooze' you can find posts and ideas about crafts, holidays, family-fun, recipes, parenting, health, and lifestyle.

* 'Tipz Time' is a site offering Home and Garden Tips and Ideas.

What you can find at the site?

- Household tips, spring cleaning hints, organizing, and stain removal.

- You can search for holiday crafts, food tips, frugal money and timesavers.
Free printable calendars, and charts for parents, family, moms, teachers and homeschoolers.

- Tips for bathroom, kitchen, diningroom, livingroom, bedroom, babies, computer, crafts, food, sewing, kids, family, holiday, home, money, moving, pets, photography, travel, outdoor, bugs, health, cleaning stains, and more!

More sites with crafts ideas or projects:

* 'Craft idea' has hundreds of free craft ideas for the whole family. It is crafting with paper, wood, fabric or basic craft materials, you can find here over 80 step-by-step illustrated tutorials explaining basic techniques and showing you how a particular craft got created from the beginning to the end.

* 'Crafty tips' offers free crafty tips.

* 'All free crafts blog'

How to learn calligraphy?

youlki22@gmail.com (youlki22) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:05:00 +0000

I am in love for calligraphy from the very young age and being a calligrapher myself I was appreciated well when I joined the teaching profession. I still love to learn and teach about beautiful writing which is called 'calligraphy'. This post is for the people who want to learn it online or get some tips to start it as a hobby. There is a good variety of stuff online which can help you to learn or start it but the material or helping books can be purchased online or offline from your nearest crafts or stationary supply store.

* The best site without any ads is 'cmc gavren' which has been selected as one of the best educational resources on the Web by StudySphere, one of the Internet's fastest growing educational resources for students, teachers and parents. It provides step by step easy lessons to learn 'calligraphy'

* 'Calligraphy Centre' helps you learn how to start or begin this hobby. There are many helpful links, articles, and tips.

* 'Cynscribe' is a resource for calligraphers,lettering artists, typographers, graphic designers, paper decorators, scrapbookers, greeting card makers,book designers and artist bookmakers.

* 'Studio arts' is a very popular site which has been visitied over one million since 1997.

'Studio arts' says: 'Calligraphy means"beautiful writing." Calligraphy can be both a delight to the eye and an inspiration to the spirit. In our technological age, the appreciation for the art of calligraphy has grown incredibly. Calligraphy is a fun hobby, a great business, and a creative art.'

* 'The Calligraphy pen' is a blog where you can find calligraphy pen use, buying guide and maintenace tips.

* 'Scribblers blog'

* Calligraphy sites at 'The craft directory'

A directory to find out art and craft sites -'The Craft Directory'

youlki22@gmail.com (youlki22) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:50:00 +0000

Being a subject teacher for art and crafts in early years, I usually search the net for useful links and ideas for my lesson plan. I enjoy teaching crafts projects to young children and my learning journey continues as I learn new and exciting ideas from the internet. There are many educational sites which offer useful links, resources and ideas relating to drawing, art and crafts. But I prefer to start searching at specific places becasue it saves your time.

The Craft Directory is a place to search for art and crafts related sites. You can definately save your time by starting search from this directory as I found a long list of topics and there is a list of sites under each catagory. You need to click the link and a drop down list of sites would come with a short description of that site. I just checked if results are good or not and clicked for 'Calligraphy' link. As I had a saved file at my hard drive about calligraphy sites, I knew many of the sites in advance and I was happy to find more sites with useful information about the topic.

Have fun sharing your failure stories

youlki22@gmail.com (youlki22) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:00:00 +0000

Simply failed is created with the idea to share our thoughts about 'failure'. Because failure is a harsh reality of life which we can face with a smiling face by sharing our experiences and thoughts.

How to use the site?
You simply post what you think a Fail is. Now That should be very simple and if we think the fail is worth a mention on Simply Failed we will approve it. Then other users will get to vote for their favorite Fail’s by hitting the vote button.

Among top fails there are some interesting sharings:

- Fail is when you dress up as gangster and think you run the streets. The sad part is that you live in the suburbs in a nice house and your dads an engineer & mom’s a doctor.

- Fail is when you think your cool smoking.... Your mom some how ends up passing by and sees you smoking ends up getting out the car and slapping the hell out of you in front of the whole school. Many kids end up recording this Drama. I guess you ain't cool no more?

- Fail is when your friend thinks he is in love to a girl that he had never ever talked to her before and ends up listening to depressing music and becoming depressed...all for a girl who does not even know that he exists…. FAIL

Share your failure experience with all and have fun.

Chance to win an apple Iphone:

Write a fail story, become facebook fan, follow them on twitter and share your thoughts by commenting on the stories. The site will make the final decision and choose the winner. The person who has the best story will get an Iphone.
They are giving away 2 more iphones to random follower on twitter, a facebook fan or a random commenter.

This contest is worldwide and is opened to anyone . We will use FEDEX to send the Iphones and the contest ends on December 20th, 2009.

What impression your face makes on others?

youlki22@gmail.com (youlki22) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:57:00 +0000

Face is the reflection of our personality and people in media take extreme care of their looks and face because it is the first thing to notice.

Do you know what impression your face makes when you meet a new person? or when someone watches your picture what impression she/he takes?

Usually we get the comments or praise from the family, friends and community people living around us about our face. What about having some fun and getting the comments from many people around the net about your face?

Speaking faces provides an interesting opportunity for all internet users to submit their picture for free, create an account and get the comments from other users of this site.

It is really interesting to know what impression you make because they say "First Impression Counts"

Site link: Speaking faces

Note: You can win iPods (5 in number) from the site.
Details are:

All you need to do to win one of five iPods:

Add your picture to SpeakingFaces.com
Receive the highest number of opinions on the first impression you make until January 31st, 2010

- First prize, an iPod nano 16GB Silver, will go to the person who receives the highest number of votes.
- Second prize, an iPod shuffle 4GB Black, will go to the person who receives the second highest number of votes
- Third prize, an iPod shuffle 2GB Blue, will go to the person who receives the third highest number of votes
- Fourth prize, an iPod shuffle 2GB Green, will go to the person who will receives fourth highest number of votes
- Fifth prize, an iPod shuffle 2GB Pink, will go to the person who will receives the fifth highest number of votes

By signing up and activating your account you will automatically be entered into competition to win an iPod!
Promotion commences 1:00AM GMT on October 11, 2009.
Entries close 5:00PM GMT on January 31, 2010.