Celebrate National Craft Month with Margot Potter & Donna Dewberry, and "MOORE"!

Hello, all of those in the Blogosphere!


Well, I can't believe it's March 2 and there's over a foot of *$&%^# snow (and it's still falling!) out my front door. Thus, I'm working from home. The usual 1 hour, 20 minute commute would have been of epic proportions if I tried it...thank goodness for the Internet!


Anyway, I wanted to pass on some awesome stuff going on at A.C. Moore in celebration of National Craft Month! There's Demonstrations or Make & Takes every Saturday!

• Saturday, March 7, 2009: Beadalon(r) Springy Swingy Earrings-these are fun Quick Link earrings designed by the mahvelous Ms. Margot Potter! They are fun and easy to make.


• Saturday, March 14, 2009: Thomas the Tank "Magical" Make & Take-I knew Thomas was popular, but I never knew HOW popular! The manufacturer of this licensed line, Learning Curve, donates plain wooden Thomas cars for the kids to decorate. They are going to do a resist with Crayola white crayons and ink...should be fun! See, even kids get to do neat inky techniques!


• Saturday, March 21, 2009: Crayola(r) Beginnings "Hands On" Demonstration: kids get to play with the neat and fun inky, stampy and painty things they have for toddlers, although any age would have fun with them. I can attest to that because they're in my office and everyone picks them up to try them out!


• Sunday, March 28, 2009: Plaid(r) FolkArt Chalkboard Paint Demonstration: Okay, demo came about due to my being nosy...I wanted to know if this paint really creates a chalkboard...well, it does! It also comes in bunches of fun colors. Stop by and check this out

Even more wonderful news, is the Grand Re-opening of the Moorestown store. It's really over the border in Mt. Laurel, NJ, but the first A.C. Moore was at the Moorestown store until the early 90's when there was a fire in that part of the mall. The store relocated to East Gate Shopping Plaza; the new store is now two doors down at 1190 Nixon Drive; it's now open(although in a freaking snow storm!)...but what is so great is that there will be so many people coming to demo and teach classes.

• Saturday, March 7, 2009: THE Margot Potter will actually be doing the Make & Take that she designed at the store! After the 1-3PM Make & Take, Margot will be teaching an awesome class from 3:30-5-Pop Art Poppy Necklace! It's only $25 and includes all but one supply that will be available at the store.


• Saturday, March 14, 2009: In addition to the Thomas the Tank Make & Take, there will be the beginning of our "Register to Win" prizes; many of the prizes will be at a total of 20 neighboring stores in the South Jersey/Phila. area, but many are unique to this store. Win a chance for 4-pack tickets to the Crayola Factory, Dutch Wonderland, featuring Thomas & Friends(r) live show and Day Out with Thomas at the Strasburg Railroad! There's also some great prizes from Crayola, Badger Airbrush, a Yudu Machine from Provo(!) and tons more! There will also be demos from Ranger, Sizzix and more that I probably can't remember.


• Sunday, March 15, 2009: this is the day of days...there will be demos from Provo with the Yudu machine as well as Generation T author Megan Nicolay and other demos through the store. This store will have a new Hobby Shop (Trains, models, etc.) and there's also a Digital Crafting Section where you can get stuff personalized with photos...I can't believe all you can get done! There will probably be 8-10 demos going on, mostly between 12-3, as well as all-day hourly Gift Card giveaways. My Lead Fiskateers buddy Rebecca Peck will also be in attendance! YAY!


• Saturday, March 21, 2009: More Demos!


• Sunday, March 22, 2009: Hello, Cupcake authors Karen Tack and Alan Richardson will be here as well as demos from Fun Fusion (Perler Beads), Dimensions Punch Needle, and again, more that I can't recall!

Last but not least, Donna Dewberry will be at the store for TWO DAYS! She is a doll and very funny. You've got to try and stop by and be sure to sign up for her classes. They're only $20 plus the cost of supplies....

• Friday, March 27, 2009 12-2pm She'll demo Studio(tm) by Sculpey(r) and from 2-4pm she's teaching a class!


• Saturday, March 28, 2009 12-2pm One Stroke Demo and 2-4pm a One Stroke Class.

I'm really excited about everyone that'll be at the store this coming month. It's worth the drive as so many manufacturers can answer questions and be there. I'll make sure to pull my most recent list of events and will try and post it this week.

I'm even going to demo, Friday, March 19, 2009 from 6-8...watch out!

Happy Snow Day, everyone!

Robin

A Gaggle of Bangles!

More techniques! I'm so glad you liked what I've shown so far. I've made bunches more, but also have been working with bangles from DIY Bangles. Thanks so much to Lovely Linda Crofton for initially hooking me up with some bangles. I've been having a blast.

Using the Streuter Glue Foil, I've made some wonderful takes on the metal embossing, using Tim's Grungeboard(tm). I've either glued on some of the Grungeboard mini letters or shapes or die cut plain Grungeboard through the Cuttlebug, then glue them on, using Glue Stick (if I use the Glue Film, it will reheat and come off of the bangle that I'm trying to get the foil onto!

I use a Craft Iron to heat the Glue Foil onto the bangle, then use my finger to make the basic shape visible to then outline with a burnisher. Then make lines or squiggles on the flattened areas and iron it down, which will heat the rest of the glue and attach it to the wooden bangle. I've found that the key to the edges of the foil not coming up is to sand the edges down. It seems to thin the metal and level out to the side of the bangles.
Then paint! You can either create a distressed effect by coating the entire metal area with paint, wait a little bit and wipe off the excess with a damp towel. Some of the paint will stay in the deeper grooves...I was so psyched how it looked when finished. Some I just painted and sanded a bit. The skinny bangle was made along the lines of the Cuttlebug embossed pendants that were shown in my previous blog post.

I know that this is just the tip of the iceberg of what else can be made with this Glue Foil...for those that will be at the show, I'll demoing at Streuter, Booth 933 Friday 10-12 and 3-4, Saturday 10-11 and 1-3 and Sunday 10-12; If you can't get to Streuter, check me out at Amate Studios, Booth 3051 on Friday 1-3 and Saturday 3-5. Otherwise, I hope to see you somewhere in between! I have had such a blast working with my buddy Inky (Miss Rebecca Peck); thank goodness for unlimited long distance!

Well, it's 3 days to go until Chicago...I'll report on how things go upon my return!

Inky Hugs, Robin

CHA Technique Sneak Peek!

Happy 4th of July weekend, everyone! I know, I've really really bad with my bloggin' habits. I've actually been busy! No excuse, though. I've got a bunch of things that I'm going to be posting soon. I want to thank everyone again for the wonderfully upbeat and supportive emails. I know that something's out there...!

I'm getting ready with samples for CHA. In addition to demonstrating for Streuter, I'm also scheduled to do some demos at Amate Studios with their pendants that I love soooo much! I've also been playing with DIY Bangles and making up some great looks using the Streuter Glue Foil and Glue Film. What's Glue Foil? Well, as Streuter describes, it's a "Glue Film Laminated Metal Foil"...what I think it is...COOL! Using dies, Grungeboard(tm), the Cuttlebug(tm) and Embossing Folders and Dies and the Glue Foil, I'm doing my take on Tim's Brayered Embossing and then some with the use of the Clover Craft Iron. Glue Film is just that, a sheet of glue that is malleable and easy to work with; you can glue an entire piece of paper down onto chipboard or another surface and not worry about corners peeling up, etc. I'm really having fun with this product.

I'm going to share a few tidbits of some of the pendants I'm working on. My goal is to do a small video or step by step down the line so you can make these awesome (at least I think so) jewelry, as well as other projects, such as custom journal or notebook covers with the Bind-it-all(tm), which is my other new, favorite toy! The first sample is in an Amate Pendant. The silver Glue Foil was heated to attach to the Grungeboard, which is a great thickness for the pendants; sometimes I use a second layer to make it flush with the pendant. I then ran it through the Cuttlebug with the Stylized Flowers folder, followed by painting it in with a Waterbrush and Tim's Adirondack(r) Alcohol Inks. Heat the pendant with a Heat Tool and place a piece of Glue Film into it; it will immediately liquefy, ready for the finished design to be glued in...and it's not going to come out!

This next sample is Rebecca's favorite, so I made this pendant for her (as an aside, Congrats to Inky for being one of the new lead Fiskateers...check it out!). So, I heated some silver Glue Foil onto Grungeboard and ran it through the Tiny Bubbles Cuttlebug Embossing Folder. I colored it with the Alcohol Inks, but then it was calling out to be made more "bubbly", so I added random dots of Glossy Accents(tm) to the embossed bubbles...one thing I found is not to add the Glossy Accents too close to one another...they seem to want to run to each other! You can't really tell until I show you a different view...like this one!

I then finished all of these pieces off with something new that I've not tried before...Liquitex High Gloss Varnish. I'm not sure how or why it works, all I know is that it has not taken any of the alcohol inks or paints off of any of the pieces I've made and it just gives it a "high end" look when done.

Here's one last sneak peek...how lucky was I that the large flower center of the Build-a-Flower Combo Die/Embossing set would fit perfectly in the circle pendant from Amate? Talk about karma! You can tell I added my own little lines and dots to the image to give it a little more depth.

Well, off to finish up some more pieces. I'm also finishing up my last few samples for the class I'm also teaching at CHA...see, I'm staying out of trouble! Clearsnap asked me to design and teach their class and I've been having fun doing that!

I hope everyone has an enjoyable rest of the weekend. In less than 2 weeks I hope to see many of you in Chi-town!

Embossed and Inky Hugs, Robin

Crazy Weather Weekend and Beady Bloggers!

I hope you all had a great weekend! I made it through the rain to Rubberbuggy in the lovely Lancaster, PA area with owner and friend, Kris and her niece, Evy and I had so much fun! I also got to spend some time with Kriss Cramer, who is also quite talented and a great teacher, with a surprise visit from Inky-Rebecca Peck. Unfortunately the rain only got worse, followed by some hellacious wind (I was looking for a small house or the Wicked Witch from Wizard of Oz to go flying by!) and then colder temperatures. Now we lost an hour with the "Spring Ahead" daylight savings, although I love it when it's light in the early evening! I'm getting ready for another busy week. In the meantime, enjoy the beady links from the talented group of ladies! Have a great week! (Photo Credit: Amish Buggy)

• About.com Thinking of diving into the Etsy pool? Then you may want to take some of this excellent advice first.
• Art Bead Scene Inspired ways to finish your designs - think of the claspossibilities!
• Jewelry & Beading Cyndi's stuck on V-pendants, and has decided to share another way to turn them into wonderful wearable necklaces!
• Naughty Secretary Club Think you have an amazing idea for a piece of laser cut acrylic or wood jewelry? Well Jen will be the judge of that, literally. Jen is the guest judge at the Ponoko 10 day jewelry challenge. Did we mention the $10,000 worth of prizes?
• PearlEsq. Check out where Robin's going to be this weekend and what comes back to you from the love of making jewelry.
• Savvy Crafter Candie shows a sweet little charm bracelet featuring, Tassels, Blossoms, and Beads, Oh Deer!
• Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done! This lovely cover is a good example of teamwork. Teamwork has been on Jean's mind lot lately. Check out the necklace Jean made for Simply Beads Magazine with a little help from her friends Lisa Kan and Green Girl Studios. Friends are truly gifts. Jean feels lucky every time she thinks about her wonderful, amazing friends!
• The Impatient Beader (is going to Paris) Madge shows a jaunty little necklace she's sporting on her trip to the City of Lights. Yes, she's going to Paris and she's rubbing it in. Thanks a lot, Madge.

A Flakey, Linky Friday

Happy Friday! What a week-only three days long, but it felt like 8. I'm looking forward to another weekend of creating. There's a few things that I keep wanting to share, but I forget until after I've posted...It's like always forgetting to add on the attachment that you referenced in an email...you know what I mean!?

Margot and our buddy Inky (Rebecca Peck) has the front web page projects with Adirondack(r) Color Wash-these are even more awesome in person. She has such a great eye for color and altered art...go Inky!

You'll also notice a link to a cool website that's apparently been around for a while, but I just found. It's quite addicting! There's another link from someone that only goes by "Mister X" that has made this into a science. For the papercrafter, it's actually a kind of neat exercise in making your brain think in a certain way to make specific "cuts" to get a special flake. or just zip the mouse around like crazy, and you may surprise yourself. Give it a try. If you want to see any of my "attempts", just do a search and enter "RDB" for the name and "Neptune" for the location.

I hope everyone's keeping warm and has a crafty, creative weekend. Check out these pics of real snowflakes as well as the beady links of last week and this week! My bad-the new year got away from me!

• About.com Jewelry Making New Year's Eve means it's time to put your big bling pieces on, and Tammy has lots of ideas to make you super sparklie.
• About.com Jewelry Making Along with a blog, Tammy's jewelry making web site has a pretty active forum. She gives you a peek inside at a few hot topics.
• Art Bead Scene The crew is on a short holiday break, but we hope you will come by the blog to celebrate with our special week's worth of the Best of Art Bead Scene posts from this past year.
• Art Bead Scene It's a new year, a new month, and thus a new challenge! Bundle up and break out your art beads for January's Ice Storm theme.
• Jewelry & Beading One of Cyndi's designs was chosen for a new book on the Art of Jewelry ~ Wood. Come and see her necklace, called "Measure Twice, Cut Once"!
• Jewelry & Beading Artist Irma Peredne is profiled on Jewelry & Beading this week. Irma has the most wonderful story about the origin of her business name, The Amber Box!
• Katie's Beading Blog Katie's getting ready for the next filming of Beads, Baubles and Jewels. This week, she shares a cool necklace idea using a chain bail and tassel.
• Katie's Beading Blog Katie's Dreams of Topaz necklace is featured in Beadalon's new ad campaign. Get the scoop and links to the instructions on Katie's blog this week.
• PearlEsq. Check out Robin's collaged and soldered Birdies! A fun way to start off the New Year!
• Savvy Crafter No clue what jewelry you’re wearing to the big New Year’s Eve bash? Hop on over to Candie’s blog for an easy and festive fix!
• Snap out of it , Jean! There's beading to be done! Jean just had to repost these sweet necklaces that she made for the childrens' teachers as holiday gifts! They are just too yummy looking snuggling up against the luxurious rose velvet pouches she packaged them in. Happy Holidays to the VIPs in our lives!
• Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done! Jean is excited to participate in the Art Bead Scene competition, as always!

Christmas Cookie Fun!

Hello and Happy Holidays, everybody! I'm sure everyone has been busy as can be, as I have, spending time with friends and family. Sorry I've not posted lately-but I've got a lot of fun to share today. Yesterday I had the pleasure of taking part in Miss Margot's 1st Annual Cookie Chaos! I got to spend the afternoon with "Beady" as she is monikered, as well as "Inky", the wonderful Rebecca Peck; I'm "Knotty", which, yeah, yeah, I know has a so "naughty" connotation..hee hee! Also in attendance was the wonderful jewelry product designer Wyatt, who I'd not seen since Margot's Luau birthday party, so it was really a blast. Of course I also hung out with Margot's husband, Drew and their wonderful daughter and Inky's kids, as I know them in Webkinz World, Doggie and Crystal...!

I used to always make cookies with my family and I made them to give away, but they were always the spoon and plop kind or the Peanut Butter Blossoms with the Hershey's Kisses on them. Not the cookie cutter kind. My cookie cutters are all for Melt Art(r)! So it was fun to decorate some cookies with all the appropriate accoutrement.

The first big of decorting was of the kids themselves; fun, faux "pearl" earrings and anything else that could be glued with icing to the kids' faces ala Wyatt's decorating acumen. Here's some of the fun cookies that we decorated. The few that I took home, well they found a new home in my tummy, they were GOOD!

Everyone enjoy their long weekend. Sweet and sugary hugs, Robin