A Brief Jewelry Making Survey 1. Tell me what is (or are) your biggest frustration(s) or stumbling block(s) with jewelry making?
2. Are there specific tools or components that you wish existed?
3. Are there techniques you find particularly difficult or challenging?
4. What fails most often in your work? Meaning what materials give you the most problems with breaking, being difficult to use as directed or not working as intended?
5. If you make or are intrigued by the idea of making 'mixed media' jewelry, what items would you like to see together on the shelves that you aren't currently seeing?
Yes, Madge is working on some ideas and she needs your input. I'm all about making it easy, fun and satisfying and I think there are better ways to do that. I need to know what you need and desire so that I can (hopefully) work to create products that serve you best.
Thank you in advance for taking a moment to answer my questions.
Crystal Wreath Ornament Copyright 2008 Margot Potter for Simply Beads (Click on image to view in extreme close up)
I'm going to start offering Free Projects for the Holidays here weekly. Let's face it, crafters all have a tendency to put far too much pressure on themselves this time of year. We have to make everyone the perfect gift and we must have the perfect decorations and we need to throw the perfect party. Perfect schmerfect. I'm here to help you make it all fast and fabulous so that you can enjoy more Hot Toddies and suffer far less anxiety.
Starting with the pdf for this free project available on the Simply Beads website. I had to chuckle when I saw my talented gal pal Katie Hacker and I had a similar concept for this design challenge. Great minds! She created a gorgeous necklace and I made a swingy ornament and our Savvy Crafter friend Candie Cooper made a wickedly cool business card holder. Can you believe she found fabric that matched that bead mix? Brilliant. The products were donated by Fusion Beads and the wire I used is from Beadalon. I can't wait to hang this one on our tree!
It's time once again to spread the Linky Love across the Galaxy with this week's sampling of TastyLinksTM:"All the good blogs wrapped up in one!"
I had an absolutely amazing time with the delightful Terri O on Terri O Radio this week. If you missed the live show, you can hear my two segments online here and here. We had a two part interview but I think Terri and I probably could have chatted for hours! We talked about carving out time for creativity, about finding inspiration and about why it's important to be willing to make glorious mistakes. It's a real craft dirt dishfest filled with snorts and hearty guffaws!
Jewelry Maven Ms Jennifer Perkins' Austin digs were featured on Apartment Therapy this week. Not only is she a gifted jewelry artist, she's a decorating diva as well! Wait until you see the kitschy wonderland that is her fantabulous home! We'd expect nothing less from such a design wunderkind. She's got some brilliant ideas for displaying your collections, finding inspiration and mining thrift shops, flea markets and yard sales to turn one woman's trash into another woman's treasure.
My good friend and Terrorific Tuesday Mastermind Alexa Westerfield won two costume contests this week! She's so crafty it hurts. She works with DecoArt paints and they kindly sent me samples of some kick booty new texture products I can't wait to explore. You have to go and see the videos for them right here.
I got an email heads up from Rachelle LaCroix with Scrapblog that they have a contest going on. Here's the 411: "Wanted to let you know Scrapblog is doing a challenge with Digital Scrapbooking magazine for Digital Scrapbooking Day on November 1. Full details here, check it out! www.scrapblog.com/dsd."
And now without further adieu...the gang from Crafty Bloggers has dished up a heapin' helpin' of tasty craft ideas for your perusal, so dig in!
Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery See how I cut out a cool part of a pattern from The Crochet Dude's hot new book to crochet a two colored headband.
Layers Upon Layers Artist Kerry Wilkinson plays with resin in a big way!
Cross Stitch at About.com Check out the latest additions to the Stitcher's Photo Album - We've reached a milestone. The first page is now devoted to submitted photos of the free patterns from About.com Cross Stitch.
Crafty Princess Diaries You can make any of these super quick jewelry projects just in time for Halloween, seriously, this Halloween! Otherwise, hit the bargain bins at your craft store for the after Halloween sales so you are prepared for next year!
Craftside- A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world Craftside has goulish wet felted eyeballs, a crocheted spider web sweater project, crafting with the Chrome Cowgirl, and announcing Quarry Publishing is sponsoring this year's Holiday Felt Club in Los Angeles with special appearances, signings and make & takes with authors, Angela Cartwright, The Crafty Chica, Lisa Sonora Beam and Stefanie Girard.
Cathie Filian Win a copy of Bow WOW WOW! and a $100 worth of craft supplies from Plaid - 1 grand prize and 24 other prizes!
Aileen's Musings Aileen has an autumn themed digital piece she's created along with a link to freebie images for you to create your own work of art. Enjoy!
About Family Crafts Sherri offers several ideas for creatively displaying your child's artwork.
The Impatient CrafterTM Join Madge for part two of her gothically delicious free Halloween project. The Invitation.
Copyright 2006 Margot Potter for Create Your Style with CRYSTALLIZED-Swarovski Elements
This is my final, final Halloween craft post. This one is pretty intense and seemed like the perfect ending to the Free Halloween Craft Projects for this year. I created this for Swarovski's International Brazil and Russia themed Create Your Style publication two years ago. My challenge was to make designs based on Russia. This is my Baba Yaga necklace. She is the crone/witch figure in Russian mythology. I really, really love this design. If you really want to see it, you need to click on it and view it in close up. You could surely modify it for a costume or make a smaller and less intense version for yourself. I wanted it to be feral, wild, magical and mysterious, like the Baba Yaga herself.
I created this necklace on a memory wire base with thin leather strips that cascade from the center and thick rubber tubing concealing the wire on the back. It's very heavy, so I added a clasp. It 's embellished with black crystal stars, clear crystal moons in two sizes and hand crafted Sculpey polymer clay bones. Each bone is wrapped with black ColourCraft wire and red, black and clear crystal rounds. The bones were tinted with Walnut Ink and sealed with Mod Podge after baking and I used pliers to tighten the wires around each bone. I used gun metal eye pins to create a bail on each bone, bending them before inserting them into the formed clay. Each item is attached using jump rings knotted into the leather. This is a very time consuming Haute Couture style piece, but the journey I took while making it was incredible.
Terrorific Tuesdays are over, but I've got a few more tricks up my sleeve. Here's a free project I made for Create Your Style with CRYSTALLIZEDTM-Swarovski Elements. It's super easy and affordable to re-create and you can opt out of the sew on stones if you want it to be even easier and more affordable! This is also available on the Create Your Style website along with lots and lots of other fabulous free patterns from a huge variety of designers.
Trick or Treat Tote Bag and Purse Margot Potter for Create Your Style with CRYSTALLIZEDTM-Swarovski Elements
This sizable tote has a retro flair and can double as a seasonal purse for Mom before the "big day." It will hold plenty of candy and a flashlight too! Vintage style grosgrain ribbon is threaded through the purse and the handles on both sides. A permission free Dover vintage image takes center stage. A judicious touch of gorgeous hot fix and sew-on crystals takes this design from every day to gorgeous. Materials Blumenthal Craft 17"x13"x4"x4" black canvas tote bag 1 Spool 4513310 3/8" Michaels grosgrain ribbon in orange with black stitched accents 1 ½" S23670 Sheer Creations Michaels wired black and white polka dot sheer ribbon Girl with cat on pumpkin image Dover Publications Halloween Illustrations and Clip Art 6 2028 SS8 black diamond hot fix crystals 11 2028 SS12 crystal ab hot fix crystals 6 2028 SS8 crystal ab hot fix crystals 42 2028 SS20 sun hot fix crystals 71 2228 SS16 jet hematite hot fix crystals (you can also substitute with 2028 jet hematite in the same size) 4 3240 16mm crystal sew on stones 6 3240 22mm jet sew on stones Sheet of Pabric Soft printable fabric Aleene's Fabri-Tac Glue
Tools Photo quality ink jet printer Computer Ruler White marking pen or chalk Black permanent fine tip pen Sharp scissors Hole punch or We R Memory Keepers Crop-A-Dile Kandi Kane hot fix crystal applicator tool
1. Use a ruler and marking pen or chalk to mark every inch from bottom of tote, around handle and back to bottom of tote on both sides. 2. Fold fabric to cut small slits (3/8") using sharp scissors on marks you made on the body of the tote bag. 3. Use hole punch to punch holes at marked spots on handle of tote bag. 4. Repeat on other side. 5. Thread a thrice knotted grosgrain ribbon from the inside bottom left side of your tote out and back into the next slit. (Use half of the length on the spool; you have exactly as much as you need in the 3 yard total length.) 6. Continue threading the ribbon through the slits and holes in handle working your way around to the other side. Try not to pull too hard on the ribbon, it shouldn't pucker the fabric. Knot three times when you reach inside of the final hole and cut ribbon. Repeat process on other side of bag. 7. Print image on Pabric using ink jet printer. Allow to dry. Carefully cut out image using sharp scissors. 8. Adhere image to tote using fabric friendly glue, be sparking as you don't want to get the image too wet. Allow to dry. 9. Arrange sun hot fix crystals down the ridges of pumpkin on image as in photo. Use hot fix applicator tool to carefully adhere each crystal to the image. Try not to get tool on image as it will damage it. 10. Arrange jet hot fix crystals around outside of image "connect the dots" style. Use hot fix applicator tool to carefully adhere each crystal so it straddles the edge of the image and also is attached to the tote, this will help the image to remain stationary on the bag. 11. Add hot fix crystal "stars" around upper background area surrounding image using hot fix crystal applicator tool changing tips to fit varied stone sizes. 12. Sew stones on tote between ribbon accents. 13. Finish with two polka dot bows tied around the bottom lace on each handle on the front of your tote. Use fingers to give the wired bows dimension.
