During coming months, expect an onslaught of alternative crafting books and products. No fewer than 12 TV shows with a hipster edge are on the air or about to debut.

The makeover has spurred a $3.2 billion growth in craft sales since 2002. Fiber, textiles, beads and paper arts rang up $30.6 billion in 2005, more than video games and DVD sales combined. Three out of four American households have at least one crafter, according to the Craft and Hobby Association's 2005 Attitude and Usage Study.

"The younger approach has given the industry a shot in the arm," says Tim Holtz, a 35-year-old Prescott resident and craft superstar because of his line of innovative rubber-stamp inks he has developed and marketed worldwide.

The scene doesn't get more intense than the annual Craft and Hobby Convention and Trade Show. Held in Las Vegas in February, the convention showcased the newest underground crafts.

More than 20,000 crafters combed 319,000 square feet in search of trends. They found beaded, embroidered and digitized scrapbook pages, mixed-media yarn collages, fabric dyes for clothing designers and stained-glass accents for cardmaking.

Five years ago, decked out in Elmo-red baby bangs, stilettos and retro threads, she whipped up a leopard print diaper tote for her son. She was considered a renegade for making and selling such quirky accessories for moms and their kids online.

Now 31, she still has baby bangs. She also has a new online home (vickiehowell.com), two DIY Network shows, knitting books, a celebrity column for Vogue's knit.1 magazine and her own product line in the works.

"They are always looking for clever ideas, as well as entertainment. We don't want to show the same old baby booties. Instead, we'll show a version with silver metallic thread to give it a little bit of punky flair.

Howell hosts DIY's popular Knitty Gritty. Later this year, she'll join her craft group, the Austin Craft Mafia, in Stylelicious, a show about reconstructing clothing and other wearables.

Show creators Cathie Filian and Steve Piacenza, both of Los Angeles, worked in costumes and props for movies and were underwhelmed at the "how-to" offerings on cable TV. They've since ditched their day jobs.

"We thought we could bring something different to craft TV," says Filian, 35. "We make it about obtainable, interesting projects that are not about perfection but about creativity. We don't get into heavy tools or techniques. Most people want to just make something simple."

"We are living longer. Thirty is the new 20. Forty is the new 30. And with the advancement of the digital camera, home computers and beautiful printing paper, we can snap a picture and then give it a funky Warhol effect. We are more creative than ever."

Crafty books are getting such a makeover that even Virgin Records and Urban Outfitters stores are joining in. Both have displays of colorful and sassy paperbacks filled with inexpensive, funkified projects.

These titles - including Bizarre Bazaar: Not Your Granny's Crafts!; Super Crafty: Saving the World From Mass Production; Stitch 'N Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker; and Generation T: 108 Ways To Transform a T-shirt - are atop Amazon's Craft & Hobby Top 100 list.

"People, especially my generation, are tired of the same craft techniques," says Alyson Udell, 25, public relations specialist for California-based Duncan Crafts.

She uses market research and instinct for product development. She stresses that even crafty terms are receiving a face-lift. She uses words like "design," "fashion art" and "fiber artists."

At the craft convention, Duncan staged a fashion show with ensembles inspired by Vogue photo spreads and embellished with fabric paint, faux fur, dyes and iron-on crystals.

She sews flowy skirts and fabric collage handbags sold at local boutiques. She cites Project Runway, the highly rated fashion design reality show on Bravo, as her muse and thinks it is inspiring more people to sew. "Kids, and even adults who have never crafted, see that and say, 'I want to do that,' " she said. "I love that the whole stigma has turned cool."

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