Make Your Own Picture Frames

OK. So you've cut a beautiful portrait that you're quite proud of. What's the next step? Frame it, of course! You can go to Wal-Mart and buy a $3 frame. The problem with that is it looks like a $3 frame. You can go to a frame shop and buy a $30 frame. It looks nice, but you're $30 poorer. What to do? Well, you can make your own frame!

The fine folks over at Woodworking Online has a video podcast episode about making your own picture frames. In this seminar demonstration, Cris Fitch of Woodsmith magazine shows his step-by-step techniques for building simple, but elegant picture frames. In this hour long video, he makes a one piece molded frame and how he uses contrasting woods to make beautiful frames. He also goes over the basics of matting and mounting your works of art.

Now that you are inspired to make your own frames, you'll want to know where to get plans for the miter sled he uses in the video. Its simple to build and you can find the plans here.

Stack Cutting Bookmarks

David at Scroll Saw Blog has put together a nice article on how he stack cuts bookmarks. It isn't a tutorial per se, but does offer really great insight on how he approaches bookmark cutting.

Give his techniques a try. I think these would make really great gifts. He does quite well with selling them at craft fairs, too. Check it out.

Billy The Kid

OK. Time for a little shameless self promotion. I started a blog a while back called Free Scroll Saw Patterns. The intention was to distribute patterns I that I have created. Unfortunately, life has gotten in the way of my pattern designing. But someday soon, when all of the craziness has subsided, I'll develop a few more patterns to add to the website. Until then, I only have the one pattern available.

This is my first attempt at a portrait. I used the only known photo of Billy The Kid. I think it turned out pretty good. Give it a try. And if you do, email me some pictures. I'd love to see how it worked out for you. Enjoy!

Workshop Tour

I'm always a sucker for looking at pictures of people's workshops. Its nice to know what tools the people I admire use. It's also fun to see how they work and how I can improve my own workshop. Steve Good over at Scroll Saw Workshop put together tour of his workshop in a 2 part video. He goes over the basic layout as well as the tools he uses to make his great projects. Maybe someday I'll get a workshop like that. ;) Anyway, check out Steve's Scroll Saw Workshop.

Do you have pictures of your workshop? Or how about a video? Don't hold out on us. Send them my way and I'll post them for all to see!

Absolutely Free Scroll Saw Patterns

In my last post, I mentioned Absolutely Free Scroll Saw Patterns. AFSSP is an online community with over 3200 members. Here, you can get advice from other members and exchange ideas and patterns. One really neat thing they do is have a monthly design competition. They choose a subject and members submit their designs. The winners receive a hardy pat on the back and a few bragging rites. But the true reward is seeing how different artists interpret the monthly theme.

But a community wouldn't be a community without discussion. And AFSSP has plenty of that. The website is broken into several different sections. The General area is for general discussion about scroll sawing. You'll often see people displaying their new cuttings, asking for advice, or sharing the latest happening at the recent craft show. Toolish Thoughts is a great place to get some advice and reviews for that next tool for your shop. Ever think about selling your work, but don't know where to start? They'll help you in the Business Side. Seasoned veterans of craft fairs, online sellers, and casual sellers offer their advice in this neat little section.

Sure, that's all well and good. But what about free patterns? Well, my friend, you hit the mother load. They have nearly 4,000 patterns developed by scrollers for scrollers. The most recent patterns are posted in Hot Off The Press with the older patterns categorized in the Archives. You can also request a custom pattern in the Request Pattern section. Thousands of patterns, right at your fingertips. There isn't enough time in the day...errr...week...errr...year to cut all of these patterns. So, what more can you ask?

AFSSP does require a membership to access all of their goodies. But the membership is free and easy to get! So what is there to lose? Join now and become apart of a really great community.

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving is right around the corner. So what better pattern than of a cornucopia?

This pattern was developed by Sylvia, a moderator and pattern developer for Absolutely Free Scroll Saw Patterns. AFSSP is a MSN community dedicated to creating and exchanging patterns with its members.

While Sylvia has numerous patterns available at AFSSP, she also runs Kerf Designs where she makes her patterns available to anybody who wants them. And you can't beat the price...Free! She has a great collection of designs, so check them all out. I'm sure you'll find a few that you'll want to try.

Toys For Tots

Christmas is around the corner. The stores have had their decorations up since September. And we all get caught up in the frenzy of Christmas. But its also the time of year when we step back and realize how lucky we truly are.

One of my favorite charities is Toys For Tots. It's a great charity and you can read about them here. It's a nice feeling to buying a toy for a child in need. It's amazing how many cool toys you can find for under $10. So little goes so far.

Since I have a small, but growing readership, I thought I'd try something new. I joined Amazon's affiliate program. For each referral that results in a sale, I receive 4% of that sale. I will use the money earned to purchase toys for children who wouldn't otherwise have a Christmas. 4% may not seem like much, but with even a $25 purchase, $1 will go toward the purchase of a toy. If 10 people does this, a child will have something to open on Christmas morning.

So, if you are going to purchase anything through Amazon this year, please use the Amazon links on this page. Help make a child's Christmas extra special this year. Spread the word to others too. The more who participate, the more toys we can buy.

Merry Christmas everybody!


OK. Here's The Fine Print:
I will keep these links up until Dec. 23rd, 2007. All proceeds that result from these links will go toward purchasing toys for Toys for Tots. They will be donated at my local Toys For Tots drop-off. I am not affiliated with Toys for Tots. I'm just a guy who wants to make Christmas special for some deserving kids. I will keep everyone up to date on the progress of our little fund raiser. Cheers!

Moose Tealight Candle Holder

Sheila Landry of Sheila Landry Designs is a painter and scroller from Nova Scotia, Canada. Her site has a nice collection of patterns, all at a pretty reasonable price!

She has a free pattern for a moose tealight candle holder. It really is a neat project and pretty easy to do. I'd imagine this would do really well at craft shows. Especially in my neck of the woods. Give this pattern a try. And while you're at her website, take a look around. I'm sure you'll find something you'll enjoy. I really liked her layered trinket boxes. Very cool!

Puzzle Tutorial

The last post, I talked about Carter Johnson's puzzles. He really creates unique and heirloom quality puzzles. He is an active member of the Scroll Saw Woodworking and Crafts message boards and the resident expert in puzzle making. His experience and advice is priceless. He was kind enough to share his knowledge in a tutorial on how to make wooden puzzles. You can find it here.

If you haven't had a chance to browse through his gallery, I encourage you to do so. He is a true puzzle craftsman.

CarterJ Puzzles

From time to time, I'd like to showcase galleries of scrollers. Its really neat to look at other's work and find inspiration.

Carter Johnson is a regular contributor on the Scroll Saw Woodworking and Crafts forum. He's the 'go to' guy when it comes to puzzles. If there is a question about puzzles making, he's right there to answer. He believes that puzzles should remain freehand and not cut with a pattern. Check out his gallery of the puzzles he has made. The are quite amazing!

Welcome Friends

"Welcome Friends." What a warm sentiment. Create this plaque for your front entryway to welcome your guests into your home. This is a free pattern from Sue Mey of Scrollsawartist. Sue is an artist from Pretoria, South Africa and has designed patterns for Creative Woodworks and Crafts, Scroll Saw Woodworking and Crafts, Craftwise and The Home Handyman. Her website offers a wide variety of her scroll saw patterns. Each one is categorized for easy browsing. She also has carving patterns available. Check out what she has to offer. These creative and artistic patterns would make stunning finished products.

Shop of Arpop

Looking for free scroll saw patterns? Well, Arpop from Shop of Arpop has a few. Actually he has quite a few. They really are beautiful patterns. I have my eye on a half a dozen patterns already, and I'm sure I'll try even more. His website is easy to navigate. The patterns are organized into sections that include portraits, animals, puzzles, word art and religious patterns. They are presented in JPG format so you can easily re size them to fit any project you have in mind. Definitely check out this website if you are looking for some quality patterns.

Japanese Puzzle Boxes

Who doesn't like puzzles and brain teasers? Bruce from Homemade Puzzles certainly does. He has accumulated 19 Japanese style puzzle boxes of his own design. He offers them all for free on his website. And what a website, too! Very easy to navigate with plenty of pictures, animations and descriptions so you can quickly find the plans you want. He provides PDFs with clear and detailed instructions on how to build these wonderful puzzle boxes. Each of these puzzles can be made with the scroll saw and simple woodworking tools. Give them a try. They'd make the perfect gift for someone who "has everything."

Red Skelton Portrait

I try not to post entries about the same website so close to each other, but this pattern from Steve Good is so wonderful, I couldn't pass it up. As stated in my last post, my favorite websites for patterns is Scrollsaw Workshop. He usually doesn't do portraits. In fact, this is the first one I've seen. Although Red Skelton is before my time, I really enjoy images of entertainers back in the day. Anyway, Steve's blog entry gives a little history of Red Skelton along with his pattern. I printed this one immediately. This portrait will be the next one to create some saw dust in my shop! Check out the pattern and give it a go. Thanks for the great work Steve!