The Amphibious Red Couch is a “Bicycle-Pedal-Powered Paddlewheel Pontoon Couch” project created by Dawn Thomas and Robert Van de Walle that they will bring to aquatic events like Ephemerisle, Camp Tipsy, and the Rivertown Revival. It uses a fancy red velvet couch for seating. They recently started a small fundraising campaign on Kickstarter to finish its construction.

Harnessing the power of wing-nuts of unusual size The Red Couch shall become an aquatic conveyance of extraordinary utility and amusement!

Irene Kiss has created a transforming crocheted Fish to Sushi amigurumi and posted its pattern (pdf) on Ravelry.

via KnitHacker and Craft

images via Irene Kiss

Kate over at Mini-eco has posted instructions on how to make 8-bit graphics-inspired pop-up cards.

via CRAFT

San Francisco-based Twinkie Chan made her own scratcher tickets based on a tutorial by Kaylah of The Dainty Squid. Twinkie calls her scratch-off tickets: Twinkie Chan’s $cratch-alicio$. You may remember Twinkie’s cute fingerless cheeseburger mitts that we posted about recently.

images via Twinkie Chan

Alex George spent two years mechanizing and animating this wonderful Disneyland Main Street Electrical Parade using art miniatures created by Robert Olszewski. Here is a video of the tiny parade in motion and also George’s ‘making of’ video titled Mechanizing a Miniature Parade with Alex George.

via ImagineeringDisney.com

photos by Alex George for ImagineeringDisney.com

On May 19 and 20, 2012, Make Magazine and O’Reilly Media present the 7th annual Maker Faire Bay Area at the San Mateo County Event Center in San Mateo, California. Tickets are now on sale and a livestream will be available. There is also a Maker Faire app available to download for free.

A two-day, family-friendly festival of invention, creativity and resourcefulness, and a celebration of the Maker movement.

The Hardware Innovation Workshop presented by MAKE happens on May 15 and 16, 2012 at PARC in Palo Alto, California. Limor Fried and Phillip Torrone of Adafruit Industries will be the featured keynote speakers for this event. A complete list of workshop speakers, agenda and registration is available online.

Other featured keynotes include Massimo Banzi, co-founder of Arduino; Carl Bass, president and CEO of Autodesk; Jay Rogers, founder and CEO of Local Motors; Mark Hatch, co-founder and CEO of TechShop; Ted Hall, co-founder and president of ShopBot; and Brad Feld, co-founder of Foundry Group.

photos by Scott Beale

Paul Celentano of Etsy shop Celentano Woodworks handcrafts his maple-wood Atom Ukuleles. Each one of these beauties features the atomic symbol, are custom made-to-order by Celentano and available to purchase on Etsy.

via Boing Boing

Hero Fingers are finger-sized costumes for original superheroes designed by Tamara Maynes. The entire collection can be viewed at the website of photographer Julian Wolkenstein.

photos by Julian Wolkenstein

via The Mary Sue

Tel Aviv-based artist Shay Aaron sculpts super-detailed and very realistic polymer clay food miniatures in 1:12 scale and sells them at his Etsy shop, Shay Aaron Miniatures. Many of his pieces are wearable as jewelry but some are perfect for use in a dollhouse. Take a look at his non-wearable food miniatures image gallery on Flickr.

via Flavorwire and Colossal

photos by Shay Aaron

In 1973, British-born artist Ros Cross created Pancakes, Butter & Syrup Quilt with Bacon Rug, a full-sized soft sculpture art quilt as a “response to the onslaught of American food (huge proportions)” on his “arrival from the UK in 1973.”

via The World’s Best Ever and Bon Appetit

image via Art of the Quilt

Jessica Jones of How About Orange created Pantone Easter eggs by partially color-dyeing hardboiled eggs, matching them to her Pantone chip book and then adding the corresponding Pantone number to each egg using ink jet temporary tattoo paper.

via Chronicle Books

On Instructables, San Francisco-based designer Natalie Walsh gives instructions on how to make an awesome Disco Ball Helmet with glass mirror tiles and a vintage open face motorcycle helmet.

San Francisco-based Twinkie Chan handcrafts these adorable Fingerless Cheeseburger Mitts and sells them at her Etsy shop, Twinkie Chan.

via Roller Scraper

Apartment Therapy shows how to make a candle from a clementine in this video uploaded in 2011.

Hiné Mizushima created this wonderful Squid Hat costume for Halloween 2011 using a cheap knit hat, thick felt, an “Amu-amu Pokemon” toy and yarn. (Personally, I would like to see this one in green to match the Laughing Squid logo.) Also, check out her recent interview for Things To Do In LA.

Friends of redditor kelseypolo realized they had extra space next to their 9 year old daughter’s bedroom and created a wonderful secret Narnia-themed play room within a wooden wardrobe à la The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

via reddit

Shove Mink of Croshame has crocheted Carrie Bear, a bloodied art doll that is a cross between a teddy bear and Carrie from the 1976 horror movie of the same name. Carrie Bear is available to purchase at the Croshame Etsy shop and “comes with her own sash, rose bouquet, and bucket of spilled pig’s blood.” We have also posted about Croshame’s crocheted Krampus doll, crocheted Exorcist playset and crocheted Spock ears.

Besides “Don’t play ball in the house”, the one great piece of motherly advice Carrie Bear got was, “They’re all going to laugh at you!” And by God, was she right! Poor Carrie Bear got a very cruel prank played on her at the high school prom, and now she’s really steamed and ready for revenge. Will she use her awesome powers of Telekinesis to pull down the jokers’ pants? Or maybe put Saran Wrap over their toilet seats? So many choices… but I’m guessing she’ll probably just burn the whole school down instead.

This is a handmade crocheted figure, made from acrylic yarns and featuring plastic safety eyes and felt embellishments. Carrie Bear has a permanently attached sash reading “Prom Queen 1976″ on it, holds a removable bouquet of roses in her hand, and has a glitter foam crown on her head. “Blood drips” are created with an acrylic paint-gel medium mixture. She also comes with her small bucket of spilt pig’s blood.

The 1976 movie poster for Carrie:

movie poster via WonderfulWorldOfMovies

Oregon-based Danielle Pedersen of Etsy shop HandyMaiden has created cute clay and felt military-style medals of animals.

Military decorations and medals are awarded to our nation’s brave heroes for their extraordinary achievements. While HandyMaiden medals might not make you a national hero, they’re almost as impressive and a lot cuter. Unlike military medals, you can reward these to anyone for any reason, or to yourself for having the conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity to support handmade.

via Illuminations and Other Stuff and Dyna Moe

Isabelle Dansereau of Etsy shop Boutique ID makes beautiful wool felt iPad, MacBook and Kindle sleeves that look like various animals such as a cat, owl, elephant and more.

via Moderncat

To promote the winter launch of the new IKEA Norway iPad store catalog, Norwegian ad agency SMFB created IKEA Beröra: a conductive sewing kit for making gloves and mittens work with touchscreen devices. Twelve thousand kits were made for the promotion—they sold out in two weeks.

via psfk

photo by Børre Bratvold

Toronto-based Richard Smith of Etsy shop Finders&Keepers has made Computerwear, a line of repurposed shirts and sweaters made into outfits for laptops and iPads.

Richard was featured on Etsy in August 2011 where he talks about his inspiration:

I’m inspired by details and materials in vintage objects that might otherwise go unused and unappreciated if they weren’t being repurposed…but for the most part, the things I use would probably never be used in their original form anyway. I try to incorporate as much original detail into my designs as possible.

Recycled Vintage Macbook Sleeve – 15 Inch

Recycled Vintage iPad Outfit

images via Finders&Keepers and Etsy

Fashioned from 100% duct tape, these colorful and creative Duct Tape Rings are created by Etsy shop Quiet Mischief and Company. They also have a pdf tutorial available to purchase so you can make your own rings at home.

via Kelly Conley

Ribbonesia is an ongoing art project that started in 2008 by Japanese artist and illustrator ‘BAKU’ Maeda where he uses ribbons to create beautiful animal-shaped sculptures for display or gift packaging. Ribbonesia Adornments are his line of wearable ribbon accessories available from Japanese online retailer Sakumotto.

As an artist, ‘BAKU’ has been using brush and pen as extension of his hands and imagination.

Last couple of years, he found more interest in the way of expression in 3 dimensional and sculptural way by using ribbon and other fabric materials…

every animals are delicately made by hands. colors are carefully chosen. so, none of the animals are the same. They are all different and special.

Far from regular wrapping usage, ‘BAKU’ made his own world, “the world of Ribbonesia” with full of life and joy.

via Super Punch and the carrotbox

images via Ribbonesia and Spoon & Tomago

The Geometric Pencil Sculpture by makendo on Instructables is made using 72 pencils, super glue and rubber bands. Makendo was inspired by the geometric sculptures of George W. Hart and then hired geometric construction whiz Alejandro Erickson to show him how to re-create Hart’s 72 Pencils.

….It took a couple of leisurely hours to build and glue, and with supervision was surprisingly easy to make. It can be assembled inexpensively using wooden pencils ($5.74 for 72), a few rubber bands and a little superglue, in pretty much exactly the same way as Alejandro makes his Hexastix sculptures… The hexagonal cross-section of the pencils make them a very natural fit for this geometric form, as the holes in the lattice are themselves hexagonal. The erasers are arranged tetrahedrally with respect to one another; the volume enclosed by the pencils is a rhombic dodecahedron..

via Instructables

Make Magazine and O’Reilly Media present Maker Faire Bay Area 2012, scheduled for May 19 and 20, 2012 at the San Mateo County Event Center in San Mateo, California. Tickets are now on sale and a call for makers has been issued.

A two-day, family-friendly festival of invention, creativity and resourcefulness, and a celebration of the Maker movement.

Maker Faire is coming to other cities in 2012 too:

Maker Faire Kansas City: June 23 and 24, 2012
Maker Faire Detroit: July 28 and 29, 2012
World Maker Faire New York: Sept. 29 and 30, 2012

Here are some videos about selected makers from Maker Faire Bay Area 2011:

Maker Faire Bay Area 2011 photos by Scott Beale