Taking a Wee Break

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Sunday Beading Links

I had a busy week on Resin Crafts blog!  See my link below!

A Bead A Day
Are you sharing your talents with others? Lisa shares her recent experience teaching a group of friends a simple, but rewarding project.   About.com Jewelry Making
Break into glass jewelry making with these tutorials and techniques.   Art Bead Scene
Heather helps us look ahead to the holiday season with some great inspiration for seasonal jewelry   Beading Arts
Polymer clay + greeting cards = a fun mixed media necklace!   Beads & Books
How long does it really take you to make a piece of jewelry? Michelle shares the long process behind a simple pair of earrings.   Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi has a cute fabric brooch idea for Halloween.   Cindy Gimbrone Beads
This week's Tuesday Tangle features handmade earrings of metal clay and wire.   Resin Crafts!
This week we have a nice series showing you how to use an ice tray to make fun skull and bone cast pieces.  

Snap out of it,Jean! There's beading to be done!
Wonderful, really exciting giveaway from Beaducation! Read all about it and sign up on Jean's blog!

Saturday Crafty Links

Aileen's Musings Hard to believe but Thanksgiving is just around the corner! Aileen is gearing up by offering you a freebie pumpkin biscotti recipe card and a pumpkin label for you to download and print for your own use.
Carmi's Art/Life World Carmi creates one special Christmas card using rubber stamps and paint.

Cindy Gimbrone Beads
Cindy and her blue fingers review The Handbook of Metal Clay.  

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at our crafty world
This week at Craftside there are tutorials on how to needle felt a bat and a pumpkin with a cute mouse, an early recycled sweater Christmas tree designed with the new Sizzix die, a chance to win a copy of How to Draw Steampunk, how to build garden row covers, a reportage video and a recipe for a fast fruity skillet cake. 

Crafty Princess Diaries
Combine some basic crochet skills with soap collecting for this charity donation idea.  

Eileen - The Artful Crafter
Rather than stashing your moma's jewelry away to tarnish and gather dust, combine some of your favorite pieces into a M.O.M.s (Memories of Mom) necklace.  

Mixed Media Artist
Cyndi's hand stitched silk top quilt is all finished! Whew!! 

Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery

See how to make a secret window in a glitter decoupaged book with a Fiskars Everywere Punch. 

Regrets for One of A Kind

Hello friends.

I have made a decision not to have a booth at this year's Christmas One of A Kind show.

Our household move and my studio move took longer than I had planned and I don't feel as prepared as I would like to be.  Regretfully I have canceled my booth.  I do plan to go to the show and shop though!It really is a "not to be missed" annual event.

Carmi

New Post For Crafters Companion Today!

 This is my post on the Crafter's Companion Blog featuring Sheena Paint Fusion Tree stamps.  This is a new set that Crafter's Companion is launching this month.

 The stamp set features branches, trees and pine cones.

 I wanted to paint one special tree.  I stamped the tree on thick watercolour paper with black ink.

 Using the inked lines as my starting point I then painted all the branches from top to bottom.  I was quite pleased with my tree.  Van Gogh I am not...but when you want to make a card for a special person hand-painting it shows that you care!

 I hand tore my edges and then sewed the tree painting to some Christmas paper.

Then, like all Christmas trees, I added a few decorations!  This will be a card for a special friend!

Halloween Pin Repost

 Somewhere in my closet is a Halloween sweater. When I used to head to an office everyday I would often purchase fun sweaters to wear around the holidays. 

If you wear a fun sweater at home and no one sees it, is it really fun?

Or are you spending too much time alone?

I do go trick or treating with my niece and nephew. I usually have to wear a coat, so this year I decided to make myself something cool that the kids would actually see.

I have had this fabulous Day of the Dead fabric in my stash since last October. Aren't the skeletons fantastic? I also came across this African themed fabric looking for the skeletons and decided to pull it out as well.
I cut out one of the skeletons and sewed it to some blue felt.

It still felt a little too light, so I sewed a second layer of black felt to give it a little more weight. I cut out the elephant and sewed it to some felt too!
I had planned to make some beaded arms and legs when I remembered the skeleton ornament I also bought last year. This metal skeleton was bigger than the fabric one I cut, but I decided to see if I could just use portions of the metal to add as my appendages.

The arms and legs looked perfect! At this point I flipped my elephant and skeleton over so I could sew on a pin back. Since the needle and thread were out.....I figured I should just sew on some beads now. Halloween is all about over embellishment!
Voila! One beaded fabric skeleton pin!

I love my little elephant too! He'll go on my jean jacket.

Sunday Beading Links

Art Bead Scene
Jennifer shares a free tutorial on making adorable bead zipper pulls, perfect to spruce up a fall jacket!

About.com Jewelry Making
You will fall in love with this new necklace tutorial, or at the very least follow your heart.

The Bead Dreamer
Charlene reviews the book Color, Texture and Casting for Jewelers

Beading Arts
Cyndi explains how to turn a cabochon into a simple bead embroidered pendant!

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
Melanie shows off her holiday packaging and questions photography in another Etsy Boot Camp post

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
Jean reviews the beautiful new book by Heather Powers, Jewelry Designs from Nature

Beads & Books
See the fun earrings Michelle made with sari ribbon and get inspired to work with this popular material.

Cindy Gimbrone Beads
Cindy's back from her class with Hadar Jacobson. Take a look at the mokume gane pieces she made from metal clay.

One of A Kind Time!

It is almost that time of the year and I have a coupon linked here! 

I have a booth for the first five days of the show:  November 24 - 28

Booth R-23

Working On Resin Crafts Blog

Hi everyone!  I didn't want you to miss this fun new project!

The Magazine Move

I have been moving my magazine collection.

I am too embarrrassed to admit how many I have...they weigh a ton.

Literally.

I think I have a ton of magazines.

I am carrying several bags of them a day from the old house to the new one.  I tried boxing them up....but the box was too heavy to lift off the floor....and now I have a wee bit of a sore back.

I didn't let the movers take them hoping that I would learn my lesson the hard way.  No more magazines unless they have something extra special in them.

Martha Stewart.

I hope you appreciate my loyalty.

Sunday Beading Links

I always wondered how 50's women packed for long trip

...who knew hoops could pack flat.

Hope you have time to enjoy my Sunday Bead Blogger links.

A Bead A Day
Have you ever made jewelry in the morning before work? Lisa's looking for your early morning 5 minute projects.

About.com Jewelry Making
October's jewelry designer interview includes some interesting ideas from Lorelei Eurto. 

Art Bead Scene
Heather shares a free project that tells a little story of her recent move back to Michigan 

Beading Arts
A bit of silver leaf, a bit of acrylic paint, and some polymer clay...beautiful results! 

Carmi's Art/Life World
A little Apoxie Clay goes a long way when you have time to play in the studio. 

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
Melanie shares another week of Etsy Boot Camp goals 

Resin Crafts!
This week Carmi demos several layers of resin in a small tin. 

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
Jean reminisces about the lovely book which she and Melanie of Earthenwood were in. She used Melanie's knockout components and they look just as fab today as they did then!  

The Bead Dreamer

Charlene shares how life seems to be crowding out jewelry making! Sometimes that's just how it is...

Me, The Antique Store and the Cat

I have driven by this antique store so many time that I decided to just stop and go in.  

I believe this cat is the store owner.

It is cold, windy and drizzly in my part of the world.  Bundle up and enjoy my Saturday beading links.

About Family Crafts
Lookinng for a fun Halloween gift for your neighbors? Check out these fun ideas that will have you ringing the door bell and running!

Aileen's Musings
Aileen shares a couple of holiday Artist Trading Block's she created for a swap. Don't know what an ATB is stop by and check them out. 

Carmi's Art/Life World
A sweet pop out card featuring a rubber stamp launch from the Crafter's Companion is this weeks special post. 

Craft Buds
Pick up some free Halloween printables at Craft Buds, including subway art and a cut-and-assemble Halloween banner for your mantle. While you're there, you can look for the easy fabric pumpkins tutorial, and get your home ready for fall! 

Craftside- A behind-the-scenes peek at our crafty world
This week at Craftside there is a chance to win a copy of the book The Art of Vintage Journaling and Collage with a tutorial on how to make a rock collage paperweight, a link to enter to win 12 design books along with quotes and eye-candy from Quilt Hall of Fame inductee Nancy Crow and the book Design Matters.  

Crafty Princess Diaries
Tammy shows the results of doubling up on yarn to make a loom hat using school colors.

Eileen - The Artful Crafter
Here is a quick and easy tutorial for making vintage-look bottle vases. 

Lindsay Sews
Modern quilters unite to host the 12 Days of Christmas Sample Quilt Along. Each block will be different, and with only two blocks per week for 6 weeks, it's easy to join in! Get your fabric ready, because it kicks off in two weeks. 

Mixed Media Artist
Piecing the top of a hand-painted silk quilt is like doing a giant puzzle!

Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery
Free crochet tiny ghost pattern.  

Pop Out Card For Crafters Companion Today

 Hello everyone!  This is my post demoing my favorite little elephants for the Crafter's Companion blog today.

 I made this pop out card to celebrate the launch of these new rubber stamps.

 The pop out card was easy to create using my Ultimate.  I scored two cards in order to make a front and inside for the card.

 The score lines make it so easy to create crisp professional folds.

 I also scored the half heart shape.

 After cutting out the heart line I had a heart pop out shape!

 I assembled the card and added some paper from the Fairyopolis paper pad.  The theme of October and the seasons changing was what I was hoping to showcase.

 After the card was assembled I also added this string in order to dangle my rubber stamped image.

 And isn't this rubber stamp set the cutest?

I have the "Hugs for you" set.  I stamped it on white card stock so it would dangle properly.

 The Crafters Companion Spectrum Noir markers are what I used to colour my image.  I hope they come to North America soon!  They are amazing to colour with.

Here are my elephants.  Happily snug as two bugs in this heart pop out.

Humphrey in The Studio

I am having a great time making cards from the Humphrey's Corner CD!

Tomorrow I'll show you a tutorial featuring the launch of a new Humphrey rubber stamp!

Getting Back To Normal!

 The studio move is almost done.  I have almost figured out where everything will go.  It will take me longer to make anything for a while as I start to remember where everything is placed.  This weekend I finished a necklace that was started at the old house, packed up, moved here and I remembered where it was!

 These clay faces were made with Apoxie Clay.  I made a lot of samples with this product over the summer in preparation for an appearance on Jewel School.  Whenever I had any left over clay I popped it into my face mold.

 I noticed the faces were almost an inch wide.  Perfect for the bezels I love.  I used a little more clay to set them into the bezel.

 There was still some bezel showing.  I decided to add a little to the edging to make the faces wider.

 Then I covered everything with Gilders Paste. 

 A few bits of bling seemed to be needed.

My finished necklace makes me smile.

Cricut Cartridge Give-A-Way Winner

Congratulations Jennifer!  Email me a mailing address and I'll get this right out to you!

carmimail@aol.com

Jennifer Pearson Vanier said...

Oh,my, this is wonderful!!! Do count me in. And thank you for such a wonderful giveaway for us Canadians. I see so many great giveaways but they rarely cross the border.

Sunday Beading Links

 

 One of my favorite Paris shop windows.
Enjoy my bead blogger links for this week! A Bead A Day
Day of the dead celebratory beads! Do you find these cute scary, scary cute or just plain cute?    Art Bead Scene
Erin at Art Bead Scene has compiled a gorgeous set of woodland themed Etsy treasuries to celebrate this month's art challenge   Beading Arts
Cyndi really enjoyed making her challenge piece for Michelle Mach's "Very Vintage Challenge"!   Beads & Books
Come see 30+ amazing fall-inspired designs made with the same kit materials!    Cindy Gimbrone Beads
Running a small business can sometimes be about the smallest words.    Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
Melanie offers a new bunny pendant for sale with proceeds going to help Nancy Schindler from Round Rabit, who lost her studio in a flood in September   Resin Crafts!
Carmi creates miniature water pitchers with new molds!  

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
Jean makes some adorable pendant and earring sets with the help of her friend Rose and help from Artbeads.com as well!

Happy To Be Part of The Trip!

I have a friend in Paris this week.

She popped over to get a copy of my book: Art Girl's Guide to Paris before she left, so I feel like I am along for the trip.

I hope she is enjoying a beautiful fall day in Paris!
I took this photo in April 2011.

Happy Long Weekend!

 There sure are alot of great things to eat Thanksgiving weekend!

Enjoy your day wherever you are!

Aileen's Musings

This week Aileen shows you how to make a frightful Halloween mail art tin.

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi has a cricut cartridge give-a-way this week! 

Craftside- A behind-the-scenes peek at our crafty world
This week at Craftside there is a crochet cone flower granny square pattern, how to make a mood board and chance to win a copy of the book One Drawing a Day that it's from and a recipe for slow cooker vegan pizza. 

Crafty Princess Diaries
Tammy takes a look at a crochet book that promises simple projects. 

Eileen - The Artful Crafter
Did you know that you can recycle greeting cards into cute little gift boxes?  

Mixed Media Artist
Cyndi messes around with the layout for a new quilt made from hand-painted silks. 

Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery

How to make a recycled plastic milk jug Halloween skeleton.

I LOVE THE FALL!

This is my favorite time of the year.  I see nature in action everywhere.

Cricut Cartridge Give-A-Way For North America

Hello friends,

I have another day scheduled on The Shopping Channel tomorrow.

It sure has been a busy fall.  I have some super specials with 3 Birds products.  The Shopping Channel does not ship to the USA so I thought I would offer a special treat this week.  This is a very special Cricut cartridge:  Straight from the Nest - designed by 3 Birds!  If you would like to win it, please leave me a comment and I'll do the draw for it this Monday (Canada's Thanksgiving.) 
This give-a-way is only open to North Americans.

Attention Magazine Lovers!

Greetings magazine lovers, philanthropists and benefactors -

It is open season for magazine sales. This year with two kids (my niece and nephew) competing for cash and prizes we really need your help. Stella and Henry have decided to work together, pooling sales with their eye on the Grand Prize: an iPod Touch.

The target: 75 subscriptions sold = iPod glory. And a pair of happy kids*

1. Order online on Monday and it counts as DOUBLE POINTS (up to a maximum of 10 orders), which effectively reduces the sales target from 75 to 55. But don’t quote my math.

2. Go to www.QSP.ca and quote group number 16452.
Student is STELLA CIMICATA
and the teacher is MISS SILLA, GRADE 3.

3. If you know anyone who might be interested in perusing the magazine selection please forward this email. If you know a Software Company, Doctor, Dentist, Dog Groomer, Vet, or Hair Salon who orders magazines for their wait room and might be interested in discount subscriptions please consider forwarding the QSP details.

With thanks,

Nicole, Stella, Henry

Our Lady Of Peace CS

*And a happy school as well. Last year’s proceeds ($35,000!) funded the installation of an outdoor classroom beneath the shady trees, new sports uniforms, and six classroom Smartboards. Worthy stuff.

Give-A-Way Kisses!

Win the new Sealed with a little Kiss stamp collection!

Crafter's Companion has an amazing giveaway on their news blog.  

They are giving away all six sets of their new Sealed with a Kiss collection.

You can check out how to win at http://crafterscompanion.blogspot.com/2011/09/swalk-copic-coloring-tutorial-and.html.

Humphrey Wedding Frame Card

 These cards could not be cuter!  I am having a wonderful time crafting them!

It is a working Saturday for me.

Enjoy my Crafty Blogger inks!

About Family Crafts
Do you have a fun and fabulous collage idea? Share it!

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi had new 3D rose cards to showcase this week. 

Craftside- A behind-the-scenes peek at our crafty world
This week at Craftside there is a chance to win a copy of Modern Calligraphy and Hand Lettering by Lisa Engelbrecht, two ways to position a patch pocket, a cool finger print poster, an eye dropper drawing tutorial and how to nalbind from the book Knitting Around the World. 

Crafty Princess Diaries
Don't be a wash out! Learn to make a simple crochet wash cloth with this free pattern you can download as a pdf file. 

Eileen - The Artful Crafter
Eileen had fun learning how to create fine art with Photoshop. 

Mixed Media Artist

Cyndi's got a rack full of freshly painted fabrics, and she knows how to use 'em! 

Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery

How to make a recycled #6 plastic shrunk skull necklace.