Book Review and Giveaway Kitchen Lithography

Kitchen Lithography Hand Printing at Home by Laura Sofie Hantke , Lucas Grassmann $21.95

What is Lithography? For those who don’t know it is the process of printing from a flat surface treated so as to repel the ink except where it is required for printing. Remember back in Art class where you did those Lino prints? Well this is similar but lot’s more fun and way more artistic.

When printmakers Laura Sofie Hantke and Lucas Grassmann graduated from university, they found themselves without the luxury of a professional print studio. In their search for an easy technique they could implement in their own home, they came across French artist Amilie Aizier-Brouard’s ingenious Kitchen Lithography, which uses aluminum foil, cola, and oil-based crayons as its main materials, and quickly became ardent fans of and experts in the process, which is eco-friendly, inexpensive, and easy to do. In this book, the first on the subject, they share what they’ve learned through a process of trial and error in an easy-to-follow guide on turning your kitchen into a creative studio. Hand print your own buttons, bags, pillowcases, posters, cards, T-shirts, and labels using simple household ingredients with surprising and bold results. (source)

The best thing is your weird Art teacher isn’t going to grade you down for thinking outside the box this time. I really love when a Craft enables you to be creative from your own insides and not anyone else’s. This book is a must have for your Craft book shelf. We love it so much we are giving 3 copies away!!

Thanks to Princeton Architectural Press we are giving 3 lucky readers the chance to get their hands on this book. For your chance to win comment below and tell us what you are planning to print.

Open Worldwide and closes October 15th. Winners will be contacted via e-mail at the close of the giveaway.

Hanukkah is a great reason to pull out your cross stitch fabric and thread and stitch up some fun seasonal cross stitch patterns.

If you have trouble spelling Hanukkah (I know I do!) you’ll want to stitch up the How Do You Spell… project from SKB Cross Stitch Design. This one includes a bunch of different ways to spell the holiday, along with some symbols like a dreidel and menorah. (Technically I think all the ways to spell it are “correct.”) The pattern includes full, fractional and bask titches, and measures 8.5 by 7 inches, or 21.6 by 17.8 cm. It has the date for 2004/5785 but you can easily change the year or leave that part off.

Another project with some fun word play is the Words to Live By chart from Sam Brie Stitches. This one includes Hanukkah related symbols and word presented crossword puzzle style, which is fun to stitch and to display. The design uses 10 colors and measures 74 by 103 stitches. It’s shown worked on 18 count fabric.

I may have shared these before, but the Hanukkah patterns from the Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery are so cute they’re definitely worth sharing again. Happy Hanukkah features a menorah, dreidels, gelt, stars and candles, and it fits in a 6-inch hoop. At 75 by 75 stitches, it comes out to 5.4 inches/13.4 cm on 14 count Aida or 28 count linen. They also have this cute little dreidel stamp cross stitch pattern, which is 39 by 49 stitches, or 2.8 by 3.5 inches (about 7 by 9 cm) on 14 count Aida or 28 count linen.

Works By ABC has a lot of great patterns for Hanukkah, but here are just a couple to get you started. The Rules for Dreidel design is fun for kids and adults and shows the different sides of the dreidel and what it means when you land on them. The stitch count is 62 by 94 and its shown worked on 32 count linen. It calls for three colors. I also like this menorah one, which measures 44 by 49 stitches and uses two colors along with coordinating seed beads. On 32 count linen as shown (equivalent to 16 count Aida) it measures 2.75 by 3.1 inches, or almost 7 by 7.8 cm.

Have you read?