More Tawdry Tales and Pleasing Pics from CHA Winter

Madge and Brini (in an original dress) for iLoveToCreate copyright Marisa Pawelko

Brini in her incredible dress she made from fiberglass vintage curtains!  Just don't hug her...

Kristal Wick, Madge, Lisa Pavelka and Lilian Chen all CRYSTALLIZED Ambassadors

Cathie Filian, Jenny Barnett Rohrs of Craft Test Dummies, Candie Cooper and Madge

Loved this gal with her vibrant orange hair, she asked to take a pic with me and how could I refuse?!

Hair and Make-up Check. 

The Crochet Dude Drew Emborsky had his own THRONE at the show!  Go Drew!

iLoveToCreate's graphics and viral marketing guru Alexa Westerfield

CHA Round Two!

I arrived in Anaheim on Saturday afternoon and had a wonderful dinner at Café Tu Tu Tango with the iLoveToCreate blog team and my pal Ben Sander. I felt like a total loser when everyone whipped out their iPhones to take a pic of dessert and all I had was my pink razor. Wah...wah. It was great to catch up with Vicki Howell, Crafty Chica, Patty Donham, Traci Bautista, Alexa Westerfield and the lovely ladies from the iLoveToCreate powerhouse team. I wish Jen Perkins could have been there for the fun, but hopefully next time! I met up with my pals from Fiskars Angela Daniels, Stephenie Hamen and Rebecca Peck at my hotel and had a blast getting caught up.

The morning of the first day at CHA I felt a little bit off of my game. Sometimes that happens. Can’t say why exactly, but I had to return to my hotel room and reboot. Maybe it was getting up the nerve to walk around in my acid green wig, or maybe it was hoping that everything would go so well that I was overfilled with expectation. Maybe it was that my outfit didn't fully capture the funkitude of my wig.  Or maybe it was just that old devil insecurity nagging at me, it happens to all of us sometimes. My first appearance was that afternoon. I had a demo with Brini at the iLoveToCreate booth. We had the most delightful folks stop by to play with us and everyone made absolutely adorable feather and glitter encrusted hair clips and pins. I went back to my hotel, coughed up a small cockatoo and Brini and I got ready for the ProvoCraft party.

ProvoCraft was celebrating their latest machine The Cricut Cake. It’s a Cricut for bakers. You insert thin sheets of fondant like icing and it die cuts them into shapes you can then apply to cakes, cookies and cupcakes. No more futzing with icing bags and tips. The dies are adorable. We were bowled over when we discovered they were giving each of us a machine and a set of dies! Can you believe it?! As soon as I get mine I’m making a video. Honey if I can decorate a cake with this machine, anybody can.

Monday morning I got a little time to walk the floor.  I had two successful book signings with make it/take its that afternoon and a lovely dinner with the gang from Beadalon that evening at Orange Hill.

Tuesday Brini and I were up early to demo for iLoveToCreate. We had a little slumber party the night before and couldn’t stop chattering...so perhaps we didn’t get as much beauty sleep as we might have liked! We had another great demo with lots of crafty ladies. The delightful Tiffany Windsor interviewed us for Inspired at Home first thing and lots of friends stopped by to say hello.

Tuesday afternoon I had a book signing with my fellow authors and Beadalon Design Team members Katie Hacker and Fernando DaSilva. We rarely have time to catch up with each other and it’s wonderful to hear that our book has been selling so well. Katie has a fabulous new line of components with Beadalon called KatieDids she debuted at CHA, you have to check them out.

The last thing on my agenda was a class for Beadalon. Though not everything went as I’d hoped, my students were ecstatic and they all left with completed projects. I had 31 novices to teach, so this impatient crafter had to be extremely patient. I was just so happy to see that everyone had fun and learned something. Big thank you to the folks from ProvoCraft and Coats and Clark for donating crochet hooks to the students, they made the class! Also thanks to Beadalon for sponsoring and to CRYSTALLIZED™-Swarovski Elements for donating lovely crystal beads.

I was kinda beat up by the end of that day and I had to go to my hotel room and have a good cry. The thing is that the more you put yourself out there, the more you risk people either misunderstanding you or being threatened by you or just plain not liking you and there’s not much one can do about that except have a good cry and get on with things. We all screw up sometimes.  No matter what we do, there will always be someone with their pretty little foot extended as we walk past taking great pleasure in watching us fall. The trick is to focus on those who are there to pick us up and cheer us on.

Here’s to those who wish us well, and those who don’t aren’t even worth rhyming about.

So...I dusted off my tiara, summoned up my Super Girlie Good Power™ and I went and had some fun with my pals Cathie Filian, Traci Bautista, Steve Piacenza, Drew Emborsky and Candie Cooper. It was just what I need to cheer me up. Also a pep talk from the indomitable Deb Quartermain and some bonding time with my pals Helen Bradley and Michelle Zimmerman helped. At the end of the evening I got to hang out with my BFF Rebecca Peck before crawling into bed and heading home.

There is never enough time at these shows to see everyone and get caught up. One feels the entire time like The White Rabbit. I’m already looking forward to the summer CHA show in Chicago. Brini and I are working on a big surprise for the Super Show, so stay tuned! I’m also energized with ideas for three big projects and hopeful I can sell at least one of them this year. This is my year my friends...I hope it’s yours too!

Until next time...

...craft on with your bad selves.

xoxo
Madge

Tawdry Tales and Pleasing Pics from CHA Winter 2010!

Brini and Madge for iLoveToCreate

 

I'm still decompressing. These shows are a huge amount of work. We have to be on like a 1000 watt light bulb from the time we wake up until the last call at the bar...okay well maybe we don't have to be at the last call at the hotel bar...but sometimes that's where we end up. There's no time for chatting and catching up with friends during the show, so after the show, the meetings, the dinners and the schmoozing...we get to cut loose a little.

Here's a plethora of pics from the show and I've got plenty more so I'll be posting them until I get through them all. I'm starting with the three big projects I did for the show floor. The jeans and sneakers were created for EK Success and they were delighted with the results, which is fabulous because I worked mighty hard on the designs. The rainbow is hand applied with a hot fix applicator tool and there are crystal transfers and sew on stones. The shoes use glue on flat backs and hot fix crystals. The canvas was a UTEE design challenge for Ranger. This is one of those projects that need deeper inspection to fully appreciate. I'm particularly excited about the way I made the UTEE look like water droplets on the smaller ticket. Also the layers of old and new magazines in wax that I reheated several times with my heat tool adding sprinkles of metallic Alcohol ink. I added layers of metallic UTEE to create the look of rusted metal and the dimensional elements are cast from vintage Spirograph elements and a vintage skeleton key with dry UTEE sprinkled in the molds to again give a rusted metal look. The image is from my private ephemera collection and I adore her, look for her in my project for the new book Steampunk Style I'll share next week. She was fused on the surface of the encaustic background, I hope to share these techniques in future classes...so stay tuned.  Finally there's the Carmen Miranda/Brazil themed design with the display I found to coordinate and the bracelet I made with wire coil accents.

Lots of pics of my crafty friends too...

...until next time...craft on with your bad selves.

xoxo,
Madge

CLICK ON IMAGES TO SEE DETAILS!

Project for EK Success CHA Winter 2010

EK Success Project Detail

Ranger UTEE Designer Challenge CHA Winter 2010

Carmen Miranda Project for CHA Winter 2010

Madge and Brini for iLoveToCreate

Brini, The Crochet Dude and Madge

Brini and Madge for iLoveToCreate

 

Brini for Streuter Technologies

FG3: Rebecca Peck, Robin Beam and Madge

Pretty Ladies: Candie Cooper, Madge, Cathie Filian and Traci Bautista
Madge and Suze

Crafty Rock Stars Mark Montano and Crafty Chica

Brini and Madge at CHA!

I made it home late last night and I'm exhausted.  I have a ton of great pics and stories to share, but I'm afraid that's going to have to wait until I catch up on my beauty sleep.  Until then...here's a little video clip filmed by my pal Alexa Westerfield for iLoveToCreate of Brini Maxwell and I making feather hair clips at our make it/take its for CHA.

Enjoy!

xoxo
Madge

iLoveToCreate: Graffiti Canvas

I Love To Create
Graffiti Canvas
Avalon and Margot Potter
Teen Crafts
“Kid crafted, Mom approved.”

I’ve spent the past few weeks preparing for a major trade show called CHA. It’s the big industry event for arts and crafts and all of the biggest companies will be there showing their new product lines, including the fine folks from iLoveToCreate. I asked Avalon if she’d like to do a ‘guest project’ for this week’s Teen Crafts post using the fab new Fashion Graffiti line from Tulip. She spent several hours making this awesome canvas for her BFF Emma. I think she did a terrific job.

I whipped up my own quick canvas using the headphones stencil, sea sponge dabbed pink paint tagger and the Tulip Fabric canon spray in black with the Tulip Fabric Paint Canon.

You can find these mini-canvases at arts and craft stores and there really great fun . Who doesn’t like a blank canvas?!

Materials
Blank canvas
Tulip Fashion Graffiti letter stencils
Tulip Fashion Graffiti city skyline stencil
Tulip Fashion Graffiti chain link fence stencil
Tulip Fashion Graffiti peace sign stencil

Tulip Fabric Paint Canon
Tulip Fabric Paint Canon paint neon green
Tulip Fashion Graffiti Big Phat markers black, purple, hot pink, blue
Tulip Fabric Spray Paint neon orange, hot pink

Tools
Heat tool


1. Being by spraying a layer of neon green with the paint canon. Allow to dry. Use heat tool to speed trying if the paint is too wet.

2. Use skyline stencil and purple phat marker to add a skyline to the bottom left corner and repeat having the stencil upside down on the top right corner of the canvas.

3. Use chain link fence stencil and black market on the top left and bottom right corners with the black phat market. (Angle stencil across edge.)

4. Use letter stencils to add words to the open areas of the canvas working to the right side.

5. Use peace sign stencil and orange fabric spray on bottom left corner of canvas.

6. Repeat on the top left with purple spray and on the bottom right with light

TastyLinks Saturday!

I am off to seek my fame and fortune in LA at 5am at the CHA Show.  I'll be back in the saddle again next Thursday or Friday...depending on how late I get in on Wednesday!  I will have a Tuesday teen craft project here for iLoveToCreate, so please stop by and check it out.  Have a fabulous weekend everyone!

Cheers,
Madge

The Artful Crafter
How to use waterslide decals for decoupage under glass. Put your original designs anywhere with inkjet or laserjet decals.

Jewelry & Beading
Check out Kathryn Lane Berkowitz's gorgeous seed bead work!

Farm Girl Roots, City Girl Style
Hey diddle diddle, the pig had a fiddle...This verse was printed on the fabric that Linda used as the inspiration for one of her favorite quilts.

Cross Stitch at About.com
Have you ever stitched on silk gauze? Vote in the poll and tell us about your experience or lack thereof by leaving a comment.

Crafty Princess Diaries
Get the 411 on a group of crafters who can help you help Haiti.

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
At Craftside there is the full low down on all the signings, classes, and make & takes with the authors for the big winter 2010 CHA show, some wonderful journal page art, how to make an Egyptian stick, a great tool for making stripes, turning a paper clip into a jazzy bookmark and some recycled zipper jewelry.

Cathie Filian
Check out this cute appliqued apron that Cathie whipped up for Better Homes and Gardens.

Aileen's Musings
Aileen's isn't quite up to full speed again after having pneumonia so she's reposting the link to her freebie's page full of how-to's, tutorials and freebie images. Peruse and have fun playing!

About Family Crafts
Sherri has gathered together a collection of projects that would make great St. Valentine's Day gifts. Nothing quite says 'I Love You' like a personalized gift, hand-made by you.

Margot Potter The Impatient Crafter
Happy UnValentine's Day from Madge with this tongue in cheek card for iLoveToCreate

The Unexpected Journey

Photo Copyright Margot Potter 2009

Last night I watched my daughter Avalon shine like a super nova as Annie.  She enchanted everyone in the audience.  To say that I'm proud of her is a vast understatement.   In fact I don't think I have words for the way I felt watching her.  She was that good. 

I didn't plan on getting married and becoming a Mom, but I can't imagine any other life now.  Having a child has taught me unconditional love. It has opened up my heart.  It has shifted absolutely everything for the better.  Sometimes the unexpected journey is the one most worth taking.

xoxo
Madge

Book Review: A Bead in Time by Lisa Crone

Book Review
A Bead in Time by Lisa Crone
North Light Books
Copyright 2010

Lisa Crone has written an absolutely charming book for the novice beader in search of inspiration.  With a decidedly clever window to design, she focuses on the personal and that's the perfect way to entice readers to move beyond the copycat phase of jewelry making into exploring their own design eye.  Through inspirational photographs and objects mined from the experiences of her daily life, she shows the reader how to explore color, texture, pattern and motif.  This approach to design is right up my alley, my second book explored a similar concept using a variety of inspiration images and objects to guide the new designer into new pathways of creativity.  What I love about Lisa's approach to the topic, is the personal, memory inspired, storytelling focus.  In fact, I think it really quite brilliant.

Even if you're a seasoned designer, this book will offer you a fresh set of ideas to explore in your work.  The designs are all pretty, wearable jewelry and not so artsy that they'll overwhelm the wearer.  This is jewelry you'll reach for over and over again.  It's the kind of jewelry that garners compliments because it compliments you so completely. 

The photographs do a wonderful job of illustrating the concept and you can really see the jewelry which is important if you're trying to figure out how to reproduce it.  The photo stylist and book designer did a wonderful job of letting Lisa's work shine.  There are a surprisingly wide variety of techniques explored in the book and a wonderful cross section of materials.  Lisa dabbles in a little bit of everything here from basic stringing, to wire work, to macrame, to bead weaving, to exposed wire concepts and even a little taste of mixed media.  It's fresh and cheerful and a wonderful addition to any jewelry designer's library and I guarantee you'll be inspired and delighted.

Visit Lisa's A Bead a Day Blog for her regular dose of beady inspiration.

Until next time...craft on with your bad selves!

xoxo
Madge

iLoveToCreate Teen: Un-Valentine's Day Card

Love can rock harder than a Nine Inch Nails CD...or it can quite frankly to paraphrase a popular 80s band...stink.  If you're in love, Valentine's Day is a wonderful cotton candy colored day of smoochy goodness.  If you've been dumped, it's a nightmare.  As a teen, I had more than my fair share of crappy Valentine's Days, and I'm sure I wasn't alone.  If you've got a BFF who has been unceremoniously dumped, why not give them a Happy Un-Valentine to cheer them up a little and let them know you've got their back?

iLoveToCreate's new Fashion Graffiti line gives you all of the cool tools you need to whip up a funky card in a flash.  Here's the 411:

Materials
Red Cardstock
Tulip Fashion Graffiti Chain Link Fence Stencil
Tulip Fashion Graffiti Love Stencil
Tulip Fashion Graffiti Drippy Text Stencil
Tulip Fashion Graffiti Dimensional Fabric Paint Taggers Black, White and Silver
Tulip Slick Dimensional Fabric Paint White
Aleene's Quick Dry Tacky Glue
Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me Font (dafont.com)


Tools
Bone Folder
Paper Cutter or Ruler and Scissors
Sea Sponge

1.  Cut cardstock on a paper cutter to a 5.75"x11.5" rectangle.

2.  Fold long section of paper on the center to form a card.  Use a bone folder to score the card edge.

3.  Place "LOVE" stencil across card from top right to bottom left.  Squeeze black paint tagger on a disposable surface.  Use sea sponge to dab paint on stencil.  Carefully remove and allow to dry.

4.  Use chain link stencil to cover entire front of card, you'll have to place it on each quadrant to get full coverage.  Repeat process with sea sponge using silver paint.  Allow to dry.

5.  Use letters to spell "S T I N K S" with white paint and sea sponge.  While still wet, add dimension and drips to the letters using a Tulip Slick Dimensional Fabric Paint in white.  Allow to dry.

6.  Use all three colors and sea sponge to stipple around the edges of the card.  Allow to dry.

7.  Use word processing software and the Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me font in 36pt to write:

Love may stink...
but friendship doesn't.
BFFs 4-ever.
xoxo,

Print it out and cut with a paper cutter to 5.5 wide by 4" tall.

8.  Place a thin layer of glue along the edges and adhere to the top center of the inside of your card.  Allow to dry.

9. Spread a thin layer of glue along the edge of your cut paper and adhere to top center of inside of card.

Busy!

It's show time, folks.  I'm not going to get a real post in today.  I'm planning outfits and accessories, solidifying my schedule and doing all of the last minute stuff I have to get done before I leave for CHA on Saturday.  E...gads...I'm overwhelmed!  It'll all come together as it always does.

I'll be here tomorrow with a new Valentine's themed project for iLoveToCreate!

Until then...craft on with your bad selves.

xoxo
Madge

Sunday TastyLinks!

From Dover Books 1419 Copyright Free Animal llustrations

It's a crazy week around here. I'm knee deep in final prep for CHA, my daughter is gearing up to star in the musical Annie and my hubby is heading out of town for two days. 

I am praying for good weather and low drama. Hahahahaha...

I posed a question on Facebook yesterday after an awkward moment.  Do you ever feel like the giant elephant in the room that everyone is trying to ignore?  You know as if you're just a little too loud, a little too obvious...a little too...large?!

I think when you boil it down, we all feel like the elephant or the black sheep or the odd man out at some point or another. I think a lot of people deal with that by making themselves smaller or softer or less obtrusive. It's crucial to be sensitive to the feelings of others, but it's also okay to be real. The more I live the more I see that dysfunction isn't just a family experience, it creeps into all of our personal experiences. Everyone views life through their own lenses that are colored by their own mythology. I tend to say the things that other people are afraid to say...because they're not comfortable...because they rock the boat...because it's easier to be the bunny in the corner that's cute and loveable than it is to be the big, loud elephant. I have never mastered the art of being the cute bunny in the corner.

I've lived long enough to realize I can't control how other people see me and that it's not my job to be small and cute. It's my job to be me, without fear, without filters and without apology. It's your job to be you. The more we become ourselves, the richer life becomes. A friend of mine on Facebook Jenny Bruce said something really smart and I'm going to repeat it like a mantra: "It's none of my business what other people think of me."

I am saying this to remind myself and to share that with you, gentle reader.  Everyone is not going to love you, whether you're the cute bunny in the corner or the big elephant dancing on the table top. Everyone is not going to throw their arms around you no matter what you do. So it's a losing proposition to try to make everyone happy. Whatever you are, be it fully and freely and without apology.

xoxo
Madge

Here's what the Crafty Blogger gang has for you this week!

The Crochet Dude
Drew reviews Arctic Lace by Donna Druchunas, and enter to win some lace weight qiviut!'

The Artful Crafter
Are you sometimes frazzled by all the demands for your time? Here’s Eileen’s plan to make more time for her art.

Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery
See how I use some fun Sweater Surgery and button flowers to dress up a clutch and check out my Craft Super Show and CHA Schedule so you can join me in Customizing a Greeting Card Album and making all sorts of goodies with recycled wool felted sweaters.

Mixed Media Artist
Cyndi's shibori fabric is finished...and it was easy to make!

Farm Girl Roots, City Girl Style
Learn to make Linda's favorite baby-quilt standby--Baby Blocks.

Cross Stitch at About.com
Cutesy Cross Stitch not your style? Seeking stitches for your sarcastic friends and family members? Check out Connie's snarky stitchery patterns for a refreshing change of pace that avoids an X rating.

Crafty Princess Diaries
Is it really possible to quit your day job and become a full-time crafter?

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
This week Craftside's got tutorials on how to make a paw print place mat, a tasty "bite" from the new book The Designer's Graphic Stew, how to sew a neckband into a neckline, all the CHA author details and how to make a scratching box for your cat.

Cathie Filian
Check out Cathie's CHA plans! Her new book 101 Snappy Fashions and her new product line will be unveiled.

Alexa Westerfield a.k.a. Swelldesigner
Get into the early Valentine spirit with these colorful and cute Valentine brooches!

About Family Crafts
Sherri shares a collection of craft projects, all made from fleece fleece fabric. You can make everything from Sleeved Blankets for yourself and your pet to simple hats and scarves.

Margot Potter The Impatient Crafter
It's Chipboard Week at The Impatient Crafter and Madge throws down an 80s inspired mixed media necklace for iLoveToCreate!

Paging Ms. Miranda!

I finished a bracelet to coordinate with yesterday's set, so now it's complete. I purchased some striking display items so the designs will hopefully have maximum visual impact. I have always loved creating displays. When we had our gallery our windows were often filmed by the QVC folks for background shots. Display is an intriguing art form.

Did you guess who my inspiration was?

It was Carmen Miranda and my inspiration county is Brazil. Carmen wasn't born in Brazil, but her family moved there when she was a young girl. She always dreamed of a career as a performer, but her father didn't approve. She studied hat making and opened a successful boutique, but showbiz called and she thankfully answered. That is why she was adept at creating those phenomenal headdresses for which she was known. So not only was she an incredible performer, but she was also a gifted designer.  I adore her and her many looks. She was much more than a bunch of sparkly fruit artfully arrayed on a head wrap, which you can see in the delightful montage of clips from her movies above. I love her!

I tried to capture her essence and style while creating connections to the Afro-Brazilian culture she helped bring to the world and of course elements of the amazing Carnaval costumes in the color and movement of the pieces.  Of course, I'm viewing a culture through a lens and not as a person who has fully experienced it, so I hope I managed to capture something of the spirit of Brazil and the wonder that was Carmen Miranda.

xoxo,
Madge

What the Heck is CHA Anyway?!

Design Copyright 2010 Margot Potter All Rights Reserved

You may have seen some buzz about CHA on the interwebs and if you don’t know what it is, perhaps you are scratching your head a little. What the heck is this CHA everyone’s blathering about? Can I go?

Well my little Smurflings, yes! This year they’ve added a consumer event at the show in Anaheim. It’s the CHA SuperShow! I can’t attend because my amazing daughter is starring in the musical Annie, but you can! The Super Show is totally focused on consumers and you can purchase products at retail and do a bunch of really fun make it/take its. Most of the bigger craft companies will be there along with some of your favorite craft industry celebs. If you’re crafty and you live in the area, you really should check it out.

If you’re a craft industry professional and you join CHA as a professional member, you can attend the regular CHA Show. This show is for the trade only and it’s where the biggest art, craft and hobby companies debut their newest products and product lines to the industry. This is the stuff that hasn’t even hit the shelves yet. It’s a little like Willy Wonka’s candy factory, only it’s a potpourri of glitter, glue, papers, paint, wire, yarn, tools and beads from all over the world and there aren’t any Oompa Loompas! You can’t actually buy anything at this show, but you can see what’s coming. Think of it as Fashion Week for the craft industry.

I’ll be attending the regular CHA Show and I’m sharing my schedule today. I am so excited to be introducing my friend Brini Maxwell to the CHA Show and to be doing demos together for iLoveToCreate!  In between the appearances I’ve got meetings and of course, we’ll be walking the show floor to check out what’s new and exciting. I’m bringing my new camera, so hopefully I’ll get some pics this time. If you are attending, please stop by and say hello or consider taking my class:


Sunday January 24th
3-6pm Brini Maxwell and Margot Potter make it/take its at the iLoveToCreate Booth 2827


Monday January 25th
1-2pm FW Media Booth 4228 Signing and Demos for Beyond the Bead

3-4pm R and M Booth 4212 Signing and Demos for The Impatient Beader and Beyond the Bead

Tuesday January 26th
9-12 Brini Maxwell and Margot Potter make it/take its at the iLoveToCreate Booth 2827

1-2 FW Media Booth 4228 with Fernando DaSilva and Katie Hacker Signing and Demos for Bead and Wire Jewelry Exposed

4-6pm Crocheted Wire and Crystal Necklace for Beadalon Room W1203
I’ll teach you a knifty little trick for adding beads to crocheted wire using Beadalon Artistic Wire, Crystallized™-Swarovski Elements and the fab ProvoCraft ergonomic crochet hook  We'll create a simply striking necklace in the two hour class.

Design Copyright Margot Potter 2010 All Rights Reserved

The wild design above is one I created yesterday for a special designer CHA Global Crafts display. If you look closely, you’ll notice that I used the Dimensional Fabric Paint circles from yesterday’s post decoupaged with Collage Pauge on to vintage wooden poker chips and a plethora of ginormous vintage lucite beads, vintage plastic fruit pendants and faux pearl hearts. I’m giving you a sneak peek, there’s more to come for this design and after the show I’ll share the entire thing. This is totally over the top and I’ll be surprised if anyone actually purchases it, but I don’t really care. I made this for me. I get tired of having to pull back; sometimes I just want to take it to the extreme. Really I wish I could design a line of jewelry for Jean Paul Gaultier and take it to the extreme all of the time. Hee. I thought perhaps I’d lost my mind after I added the feathers last night, but when I woke up this morning and looked at this again, I fell madly in love. I actually may have lost my mind.  This is an Haute Couture style design based on a famous woman whom I greatly admire. These designs for me are like mini-narratives.  Can you guess what woman and what country this represents?

Until next time...craft on with your bad selves.

xoxo,

Madge

More Fun with Dimensional Fabric Paint!

I have this thing where I can't make a necklace without making earrings that match.  Okay well sometimes I do, but mostly I feel incomplete if it's not a set.  If I'm feeling extra cheeky I'll make a bracelet.  Do you have that same thing...or is it just me?

Yesterday after I posted my Mod Girl project for iLoveToCreate I simply had to make some coordinating chipboard earrings.  Avalon came home from school and found the foam core board upon which I painted the necklace components and she loved the bits of paint left over.  She asked if she could have it to make a painting and of course I said yes.  She added some of the Tulip fabric sprays in neon colors and layer after layer of dimensional fabric paint and came up with this very cool Pollockesque painting.  I made earrings while she made her masterpiece.  

Then I decided to squish the paper on which I'd made the earrings after adding a little more paint and ended up with a cool Impressionist inspired background.  I punched out little circles with my Fiskars squeeze punches and I'll find a home for these in a design. 

You never know where inspiration will strike. What I love about kids is they don't have filters and they see things adults miss. Don't toss away those scrap papers...maybe there's something there!  

xoxo,

Madge

iLoveToCreate Mod Girl Chipboard Necklace

Mod Girl Chipboard Necklace
Margot Potter for iLoveToCreate Teen Crafts
“Mom crafted, kid approved.”

Yesterday I posted about my long time love affair with chipboard for jewelry making. This necklace combines a 60s vibe mixed with 80s details. I’ve used chipboard flowers painted with Tulip soft fabric paint and drizzled with Tulip dimensional fabric paint in vibrant pastels. It’s all connected into a simple bib style necklace. Just don’t wear this in the shower or the swimming pool...because it’s made of paper! Whip up some earrings to match!

Avalon is really into neon colors and 80s style, so this is right up her alley. Since I was in my twenties during the 80s, it kinda freaks me out that stuff from the 80s is vintage! Dang...how the heck did that happen?! Does that make me vintage? Egads!

Materials
5 Bazzill Basics Chipboard Hawaiin Flowers
Tulip Slick dimensional fabric paint Poppin’ Purple, Blazin’ Blue and Coral
Tulip Metallics dimensional fabric paint Yellow
Tulip Matte soft fabric paint Olive, Azalea, Turquoise
Traci Bautista’s Collage Pauge glossy
10mm SP jump rings
2 6mm SP jump rings
SP Beadalon rolo chain
SP Beadalon swivel lobster clasp

Tools
2 foam brushes
Crop-a-dile or other hole punch
2 pairs chain nose pliers

1. Paint a layer of turquoise blue fabric paint on two of your larger flowers, a layer of azalea on two larger flowers and the green on the two smaller flowers using a foam brush. Allow to dry.

2. Seal dried shapes with a layer of Collage Pauge on the front and the back. Allow to dry.

3. Drizzle dimensional paints across the shapes. I found if I started the paint and moved it over the shape I got the best results. Use the colors as you desire and add as much or as little as you like. Allow to dry.

4. Lay out the bib shape and mark areas for punched holes to connect shapes with jump rings. See picture for guide.  Punch holes.

5. Use 10mm jump rings to connect shapes. Add chain to the outer edge of each of the turquoise flowers using 10mm jump rings.

6. Attach a 6mm jump ring to the open end of each chain using two pairs of chain nose pliers.

7. Attach your lobster clasp to one end.

A Chip Off of the Old Board

Book review and project inspired by Beyond the Bead copyright 2010 Totally Creative E-Zine Ann Butler (click on images to view close up)

Way back in 2005 I began exploring a variety of paper crafting materials in my design work.  My book The Impatient Beader Gets Inspired has a lot of fun paper craft/scrapbook stuff repurposed into jewelry.  I really got excited about paper craft focused jewelry and developed those ideas further in Sparkletastic and Beyond the Bead.  I spent lots of time experimenting with chipboard and trying to fine tune techniques and materials that worked to embellish it without compromising its durability and strength.  I also found ways to seal it so it could be water resistant through a lot of trial and plenty of error.  It all started because I got bored with stringing and wire wrapping and wanted to expand my repertoire.  That and I love big scale jewelry that's light weight.  I just wandered the craft store aisles, the hardware stores and the thrift stores trying to see virtually everything as a possible jewelry material.  If you poke around my Free Mixed Media Jewelry RSS Feed, you'll find some fun paper craft focused ideas.

When Tim Holtz came out with Grungeboard I did a serious happy dance.  It was like chipboard on steroids. I could abuse it, stamp it, sand it, decoupage it, paint it, bend it, puncture it...and no matter what I did to it...it survived.  I'm a huge fan of that substrate and if you've not tried it...you should!  That being said, I still found myself coming back to chipboard.  There are so many really great shapes out there already in chipboard intended for use in paper crafts (Bazzill Basics has a really phenomenal selection.)  You can die cut chipboard on a Big Shot Pro or a Cuttlebug too, which opens a lot of doors.  I'm super fond of the chipboard circles that you can punch with your crop-a-dile (a tool every crafter needs) and make quick and easy pendants.  The project on the cover of my last book is made from these chipboard circles.

It's funny how merely shifting our perspective can result in new pathways for our work.  Try to expand your vision as you wander the aisles and don't be afraid to make glorious messes.  Even in those lie the seeds of something good.

Above is a great review and a fab project featuring the chipboard cover project from Beyond the Bead by the talented Ann Butler for Totally Creative E-Zine.  I love what she did with the idea! 

xoxo,

Madge

Saturday TastyLinks and more Blather and Nonsense!

What I Learned at my Grandmother's Funeral Shoes for Art is Wickedly Good Retreat Class Copyright 2009 Margot Potter (and for copyright infringement FYI the pictures are of my actual grandmother!)

I finished my big project, it looks fabulous...though my anal retentive side wishes I had more crystals to completely cover the toe caps on the tennies...but alas I did not. One must work with the materials one is given. After CHA I'll share pics of the project. There are no teeth marks, FYI. Har har.

I also finished edits on my new book Bead Chic which debuts in Summer of 2010. I still haven't seen the romance pics or a cover and of course I can't wait. Books are a labor of love and so much of it is hurry up and wait. This is my sixth title and I'm just as excited as I was six years ago when I published my first one.

My class proposals for Art is You's October retreat Art is Wickedly Good have been accepted. Yay! I'm teaching among some of the biggest names in mixed media, altered arts and assemblage and my classes are really going to be cool. My classes are part design, part Craft Therapy with plenty of irony and copious amounts of humor. We'll be making a pair of altered shoes and a black hat. The concepts are based on posts from my other blog: What I Learned at my Grandmother's Funeral and The Tao of the Black Hat. The projects will be physical explorations of personal narrative as it relates to the theme. The shoes are about personal empowerment and the hat is about embracing the moments in our lives when we become the bad guy in someone else's story. It is inevitable, no matter how well we try to live that somewhere along the way we'll find someone who sees us as the bad guy. We can see the power and the gift in that role, or not. We all have roles we play in our families, and the shoes are about rejecting those roles and becoming our true selves. We'll do some writing and then we'll dive into the projects and make glorious messes! I can not wait. Everyone's finished projects will be unique to them...so my shoes are just for inspiration.

Clover has a new flower loom that creates Hana-Ami flowers! Check out this video from When Creativity Knocks!

Here is this week's sampling from the craftacular crew of Crafty Bloggers:

Alexa Westerfield a.k.a. Swelldesigner
Alexa gets back into her crafty groove with a cool & modern statement ring!

Aileen's Musings
Aileen has a blogoversary coming up and she's offering a fun giveaway!

About Family Crafts
Have a sick kid at home? Check out this collection of crafts Sherri has compiled to help entertain them while they get better.

Cross Stitch at About.com
Connie has a "handy" motif you can adapt for multiple uses. Stitch her suggested saying or choose one of your own.

Crafty Princess Diaries
Even though this crafty princess is from the South, she still needs a warm crochet hat now and then.

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
The first week of 2010 at Craftside brings you ho-tos on crocheting broomstick lace and then framing it up to store your earrings, stringing up a ribbon and pearl zigzag necklace, and a call for entries for a new book-1000 Ideas for Decorating Cakes, Cupcakes & Cookies.

The Artful Crafter
Eileen went shopping in her closet and made a 20-something sweater new again. Here’s how to update a dated BIG sweater.

Mixed Media Artist
A new year, a new technique! Cyndi shares the first steps to making a shibori background fabric for a new quilt.

Margot Potter The Impatient Crafter
Madge opens up a rather sticky can of worms in this post about copyright infringement. Right click, save. Done.

True Craft Confessions

Tres Chic Mixed Media Purse featuring an altered image from an early 1930s European publication Copyright 2009 Margot Potter Published in Crafts 'n Things Magazine

If you watch my videos on YouTube you know I do a little feature called: "True Craft Confessions."

So for today's confession: I am working on some very important projects for a variety manufacturers for CHA. Yesterday I had a full craft meltdown after spending the better part of the day on a project. The first half...flawless. The second half...let's just say that I found myself using my teeth to remove some mistakes. I can just hear my mother-in-law saying, "Don't use your teeth for that!" Now in the midst of this drama I found myself fully grasping the absurdity of using my teeth to rectify my problem and how hilarious this would look were it on a video. Which it wasn't...which is a good thing. Trust me. It's been a long week...and I'm not quite there yet. Then at 5pm on the dot as I was preparing to go feed the piggies (we have two rescued pot bellied pigs that live in their own little cottage outside)...I remembered that my book edits were due...today.

Oops.

Ugh.

I have one more little thought to add to my posts of the past two days which is a sort of a True Craft Confession of its own. Hopefully a friend who is a copyright attorney of some note will be answering some of my questions in a guest post here on the blog in the very near future. You may be asking yourself, what's the biggie Madge? Why not draw your own images or take your own photos that look like vintage photos?

Well...here's the thing. I have been thrift shopping since I was 19 years old...which if you did the math would make that 27 years. Yup, I'm 46 and I'm not afraid to admit it. I had a huge collection of vintage clothing which I mostly sold when I moved back to the East Coast from the Bay Area back in the late 1980s.

I have been collecting ephemera for a number of years. My first find was a 1940s magazine tucked into a drawer in a house I rented. After that it was old tin types and faded Victorian photographs. My roommate and I had them on display and we'd tell guests that they were our ancestors and make up stories about them. Since then I have amassed a large and lovely collection of magazines, letters, post cards, advertising cards, calling cards, greeting cards, Halloween items, Christmas items, buttons, beads, bits and baubles.

The reason I find these things so infinitely intriguing is because they have a history. They've been places and seen things. They were held by hands that are no longer here. They have stories to tell. They are in a sense a bridge to the past. These beautiful things, these lovely people, these wonderful books and letters...they are fading slowly into oblivion as I type. When I use these images in my artwork, I don't just cut them out and plop them into a frame, I integrate them into collages and mixed media jewelry in layers with inks and paints and wax and embossing powders...I combine them with new items and create a new work of art. I am in my mind (and perhaps this is my flawed and egocentric rationalization) creating a bridge from the past to the present and into the future. I am participating in a dialog. If I were to draw similar images or take sort of Victorian photos, that would be me recreating something through a lens...but repurposing the actual images is me celebrating something from the past and giving it a new life.

I'd like to envision someone in 100 years finding one of my designs and repurposing it again...so there's a thread that keeps connecting us through the time/space continuum. We are creatively conversing. So I want to be certain that in using these images that appear to be out of copyright based on my interpretation and understanding of copyright rules...I am not breaking copyrights inadvertently.

So there you go. Yes, I can draw and take pictures. I do use my own pictures and drawings in my work. I also use what I believe to be public domain images I've manipulated and collaged in my work. I have recently cut up magazines and altered the pages considerably to create collages that contain both vintage and new paper. I want to know if that is okay or not.

So I'm exploring. I will keep you posted on what I discover. Until then, I'll be hoping not to have to use my teeth to fix a craftastrophe anytime in the near future!

Look for shorter and sweeter posts in the week to follow! Hee.

xoxo,
Madge

Right click, save. Done...Part Two

Did this design with a scanned and sized image from a Victorian era photograph violate a copyright...or not?

To quote my dear friend Tony Hayes: “Hey kettle, I’m pot and you’re black.” Copyright Tony Hayes

Or...call me guilty too...or not. According to one website, anything published before 1923 is in the public domain due to copyright expiration. So I'm more confused now than before!

Getting off of my soapbox today I’m here to admit that my assumption that cutting out paper images and repurposing or upcycling them in your artwork is okay is possibly incorrect. In fact if these images on the printed page may be protected and under copyright law it may be legally considered copyright infringement to cut them out and repurpose them. It’s a tricky thing and I spent a good few hours on the internet reading about collage artists and copyrights yesterday. There have been cases where a derivative work (a work that utilizes other artwork to create a distinctly new artwork) has been judged to be fair use, there’s a big one right now with Shepard Fairy and his Hope poster of Obama made from a manipulated and silk screened version of an AP protected image that should be of interest to all artists. I need to dig deeper and possibly reconfigure my work because I believe deeply in the rights of artists and I don’t like stealing.

So I may be guilty too, though I'm not sure. Even with due diligence many of us may be guilty without knowing it because a source that sold us ‘permission free images’ may be incorrect about that assumption. Copyright protection is 100 years in the and 70 in the UK, BUT those copyrights can be renewed and the other half of that is that if a work was unpublished the copyright protection extends for the entirety of the artist’s life plus 70 years. If a copyright protected work was published with notice between 1923 and 1963 and the copyright was not renewed, it's public domain or if a work was published between 1923 and 1977 without a copyright notice it's public domain. Can you see where this gets stickier and stickier? So for collage, mixed media and assemblage artists in particular, there is a lot to consider. This is such a key topic with the huge surge in altered arts and upcycling. I’d like to think that a lot of folks out there just don’t know they’re breaking the rules, it’s so complex and nuanced, but the flip side of that is that there are plenty of folks who do know and simply don’t care. I am going to effort to be sure I’m not breaking the law or infringing on the rights of my fellow artists.

I’ll keep this topic as an ongoing dialog here and when I discover new things, I’ll let you know and if you find things out or have insight into this topic, please let all of us know by leaving comments here at my blog. I’m hoping that we can, as a community of creative people, educate ourselves and others.

Now I have developed some new questions based on what I’ve discovered. I’m hoping to get answers from a copyright/trademark lawyer in the near future and I’ll share them here when I do.

What is upcycling trash? What is copyright infringement? What is permission free? How do we differentiate?

If it’s not okay to cut images out of copyright protected books or magazines and use them in collages or artwork, is it okay to use a soda can or a bottle cap or a box or package with logos or copyright protected images on it? If I’ve purchased this physical item, is it entirely mine to use as I see fit and resell if I should choose? Is it okay to use any section of say a Coke can that shows their registered logo? Can I repurpose these things or is it infringement? Is upcycling of any item with copyright protected logos or images actually copyright infringement?

How does a mixed media artist determine percentages of images they’re using compared to the finished design when creating a ‘derivative work’ if a certain percentage is in fact acceptable? (There is a percentage that is acceptable, but how do we determine that?) What exactly is ‘fair use? And how is it defined?

Can I physically cut a copyright protected image out of a magazine or book and use it in my art for personal use? Is there really a ‘personal use’ protection?

If I take a copyright protected toy or other physical item that I’ve purchased and I make jewelry from it for profit, am I infringing on a copyright?

Can I upcycle a tag from clothing I’ve purchased and resell it?

Can I stamp something on chipboard using a copyright protected rubber stamp and sell it?

Keep thinking on this and you start to realize it’s infinite, convoluted, complicated and difficult.

If Andy Warhol could sell a painting of a silkscreen of a picture of a Campbell’s soup can, what are the rules and how do you know you’re not breaking them?

My mind is reeling...is yours?

And to follow up with the seller on eBay who prompted my inquiries into copyrights, I visited her shop and discovered she’s also selling Marilyn Monroe images she’s cut into circles AND copyright protected images she’s made into bottle cap jewelry she sells online. She has a disclaimer on her auctions and here’s what it says: “With all of my images you are paying for my workmanship & time to format, edit & cut images. You are not paying for the actual image”

Uh, really? Huh. Then why not use images that aren’t under copyright?

The Monroe estate is diligent and she will be caught. What’s sad is how thoroughly she’s rationalized this activity and that she’s done this by dialoguing with other eBay sellers. So they’re all complicit in this kind of activity.

I’m soul searching and I hope to find further illumination and more than that I hope to open a dialog among artists so we can all become enlightened on these complicated issues.

Websites with info for collage, altered arts, assemblage and mixed media artists and a lot more food for thought:
Funny Strange

Wiki

Cornell University Copyright Information

Copyright Term and the Public Domain

Warmly,
Madge