6.3.12

Tuesdays with Madge for Fiskars National Craft Month!

Three Ring Circus Jewelry Set Copyright Margot Potter for Fiskars 2012

The fine folks from Fiskars asked me to fabricate four projects featuring their fabulous tools for National Craft Month. Of course I jumped at the chance! The first project is the only jewelry design. I was so smitten with this circus font themed scrapbook paper, I simply had to turn it into jewelry.

And so I did.

And so can you if you follow this link to get the instructions on the Fiskars site!  Stay tuned, I have a new Fiskars project for every Tuesday this month!  Hooray! 

Love
Madge

5.3.12

iLoveToCreate Retrofabulous Crafts: Spring Fever Magnet Card and Necklace


Retrofabulous Crafts
Spring Fever Magnet Card with Butterfly Necklace Set
Margot Potter for iLoveToCreate
“These are your grandmother’s crafts, ya gotta problem with that?”


In my stacks of vintage craft magazines there are lots of ads for ‘liquid embroidery’ which have intrigued me endlessly. I thought perhaps you could get the same effect with Tulip and Scribbles paints, and you can! Talk about a time saver! The first project is a super easy to make necklace using pre-cut  felt shapes embellished with metallic Glam-it-Up studs and connected with jump rings and the second project is a card with a fridge magnet attached. I thought these would make a perfect spring cheer gift for a friend. Yes, this necklace is big and bold, which is totally my style, you can use smaller shapes to make something a little less over the top! Nothing says vintage to me more than felt and these cut felt shapes had my name all over them. You could easily use a die cutting machine to achieve the same effect.

Spring Fever Necklace Set

Materials

6 Genevieve Gail Boho Collection for Michaels felt butterflies (4 for necklace and two matching colors for earrings)
54 Tulip Glam-it-Up Iron-On Studs
Aleene’s Turbo Tacky Glue
5 14mm silver tone jump rings
2 10mm silver tone jump rings
Silver tone swivel lobster clasp
2 silver tone ear wires

Tools
2 pairs chain nose pliers
Plastic or cardboard for glue

1. Place a blob of glue on plastic or cardboard.



2. Use chain nose pliers to pick up studs, dip into glue and place on butterfly. Gently press down on the crystal to ensure it is adhered. I placed 12 on each butterfly in a coordinating color. See photo for placement.

3. Allow studs to dry completely.

4. Use two pairs of chain nose pliers to open and close your jump rings with tension. Here is a quick video tutorial on how to do this properly.

5. Add the smaller jump rings to the outer wings on the two end butterflies. Add the clasp to the jump ring on one end. Hang your earrings so you have a left and right earring, using larger jump rings connected to ear wires.


Card:
Materials
White pre-made card
Anna Griffen for K and Company Carmen Collection paper
Felt shapes in vibrant colors (Genevieve Gall Boho Collection) OR die cut your own out of felt sheets (2 butterflies, one cut out flower and one solid flower)
Tulip Slick 3-D Fashion Paint in deep turquoise
Tulip Beads in a Bottle in soft yellow
Scribbles 3-D Paint Pen in kelly green
Aleene’s Turbo Tacky Glue
Aleene’s Tacky Dot Runner
Aleene's Magnetic Tacky Dots

Tools
Fiskars paper cutter
Fiskars edge punch daisy

1. Cut patterned paper to fit front of card. Use paper edge punch to create daisy cut outs.

2. Adhere paper to front of card with glue dot runner.



3. Use paints to create dots and faux stitches on edges of felt shapes. Allow to dry!

4. Stack felt shapes and glue together. I glued the edges of the flowers back to back and glued the center of the butterflies together and to the card. The butterflies are slightly askew to show the color beneath. Place something heavy on top and allow to dry overnight.

5. Attach Tacky Glue magnet to back of felt.

6. Attach felt to front of card using glue dots.

4.3.12

Sneaking in on Sunday!

From Your Grandmother's Crafts! ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Happy Sunday!

I am just sneaking in to let you know that the lovely and talented Ms. Tammy Powley of About.com's Jewelry Making site has posted an interview with yours truly!  It's a great interview and worth a read if you have a moment.  I have shifted my focus a little since Tammy and I spoke and am putting my energies into Your Grandmother's Crafts with Craft. You. on the back burner, but my class on PR and Marketing will launch in the near future so stay tuned!

I am learning how to crochet and yesterday I spent the better part of the afternoon making a pillow cover.  It has to be stuffed and stitched, but when it's done I'll be sharing it next door.  I used the largest yarn and crochet hook I could find, and it still took forever...especially with taking it apart and redoing it a few times. Ergh. Today I am searching for a larger hook.  Have I mentioned that I am impatient? I will be sharing next door, stay tuned.

Don't forget the PAPER BEADS GIVEAWAY running until next Friday.  It's a great tool!  You need it, trust me! Check it out.

Cheers,
Madge

2.3.12

A Touch of Spring

Poppy Passion Copyright 2012 Margot Potter ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Crystal in Bloom Copyright 2012 Margot Potter ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Signs of spring are starting to appear in the Smokies. Daffodils, dandelions and other floral harbingers of warmer days to come have started blooming. From my studio window I can see the birds busily gathering bits and pieces to build nests. The spring peepers are in full voice in the ponds leading up to our mountain home. It's really quite exciting, this rebirth. I love this time of year, don't you?

I'm sharing a couple of designs I created for myself to wear. The things I make for me are a little larger than life and very whimsical. I've added some SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS to the mix with these vintage and vintage reproduction plastic flowers from The Beadin' Path. I am simply mad for the look of both of these. Adding the wired crystals to the edge of the filigrees reminds me of a very fancy cake and the red flowers dripping with giant crystals are divinely decadent. If I had a line of finished jewelry (and that might just happen one of these days), this is what I visualize. Big, bold, happy jewelry that makes the wearer and those whom they will meet along the way feel good.

Life is far too short to take it too seriously.

We are busily working on something new behind the scenes here at Casa de Potter! It's exciting stuff and much like spring, lots of things are happening beneath the soil preparing to peer through and unfurl. It's exciting and also just a little scary, which is the way of it when you take the leap, isn't it?

Storms are brewing in the Smokies, and the skies are changing minute to minute. It's fascinating living here. The other night a coyote howled right outside of our house, the dogs were none to happy about it. They're the only canines on this property, thank you very much. We snuggled on the couch together until that pesky coyote wandered away.

I will be back on Monday with a ''two for one" spring inspired project for iLoveToCreate Retrofabulous Crafts, so do stay tuned!

Until then, craft on with your bad selves.

Love
Madge

1.3.12

CONTEST WINNER and NEW CONTEST! YAY!

Fabulous Paper Beads from The Paper Bead Girl.  Copyright Vicki Dehne

Paging Elton John...this bitch is back! 

Okay only partially, but I'm getting there.  You can't keep Madge down for long, but I still have to take it easy lest I end up back on the couch again.  I have a penchant for developing Victorian Era health conditions, which fuses perfectly with my love of all things vintage.  Occasionally, my asthmatic lungs develop something called pleurisy.  People used to get it when they had consumption.  It's not totally uncommon, but surely not as common as it was back in the day.  I feel so Satine...except not as fabulously dressed because, quite frankly, I'm not feeling up to it, people.  Since you can't see me, let's all pretend I've got my titian hair swept up in a loose chignon with a rhinestone encrusted half moon clip and am wearing an impossibly fabulous sparkling red and black gown and a stunning black and red beaded fitted choker.  Mais oui! 

Enough about me, what about you?!  I know you've all been patiently waiting for the results of my Crochet Dude book giveaway and I'm thrilled to announce that Ms. Sharon P. of Sharon Knits Too is the winner of the books!  Huzzah!

PBG Pro Paper Bead Making Tool and Stencils from Paper Bead Girl

This week's giveaway starts today and ends next Friday.  The delightful Vicki Dehne of Paper Bead Girl sent some paper bead making tools recently and I have to say they are fab!  If you've ever wanted to make paper beads, but have been daunted by the task of rolling them on a wooden skewer and trying to remove them later without a craftastrophe, Ms. Dehne has come up with an ingenious solution!  The tool is fabulous and there's more at her website including her paper bead sealer, so do go check it out!  Paper Beads definitely fall into the Your Grandmother's Crafts category, I remember making them at summer camp WAY back in the day.  It's a great way to recycle paper and you can do so much with the beads, dip them into resin or UTEE and roll them in seed beads, paint them, ink them...and you can also use fabric to make them, you know...they've come a long way!

Leave a comment here telling me about why you'd love the Paper Bead Girl PBG Pro 1/8" medium paper bead tool with the tubular and triangle stencils and the squishy grip to make two different styles of beads! I'll announce the winner here next Friday!

Love
Madge

28.2.12

I am not super woman...surprise!

Madge is on bed rest for the next few days. Hang in there for the contest winners and the new contest, I am hoping to be back in the blog saddle on Thursday.

Sometimes I have to accept that I'm not Super Woman.

Love
Madge

27.2.12

Back tomorrow!

Image from Calsidyrose on FlickR

I'm feeling a little under the weather today, so I'm going to rest up.  I'll be back tomorrow to announce the winner of Drew Emborsky's crochet books, if you've not left a comment yet...this is the last day!  I'll also have a new giveaway for you with a really great tool.

I got a crochet lesson yesterday from the lovely and talented Ms. Erin Holloway, I'll be sharing the fruits of my efforts tomorrow.  I am afraid I may be smitten with the crochet bug, so of course now I need more yarn...

...eek!  Isn't that the problem with learning a new craft?  You have to buy more supplies!  Then you have to store more supplies.  And so it goes.

Until tomorrow, craft on with your bad selves!

Cheers,
Madge