The Impatient Crafter : April 2012

iLoveToCreate Teen Crafts: iLoveMom Glass Vial Necklace and Earrings

iLoveToCreate Teen Crafts: iLoveMom Glass Vial Necklace
Margot Potter for Avalon Potter
“Mom crafted, teen approved.”

I’ve used these glass vials in a variety of jewelry making projects over the years. They’re like miniature works of art. You can put all sorts of things inside of these, beads, glitter, printed messages...whatever makes you smile. This is the perfect way to tell Mom how much you love her with a one-of-a-kind, handcrafted wearable work of art! It’s so easy to make these with Tulip Fashion Glitter and Aleene’s glue; you’ll find yourself looking for reasons to make more! I made some matching earrings using some smaller glass vials using the same techniques for a fun, fast and fabulous jewelry set just for mom.

Materials
Miniature glass jar with cork top
Thin ribbon for accent
One large puffy and four small flat felt hearts in pink and white
Tulip Fashion Glitter in multi medium crystal
Screw eye
Ball chain necklace
2 ear wires
2 jump rings
Aleene’s Quick Dry Tacky Glue
Aleene’s Stop Fraying
Aleene's Collage Pauge Matte

Tools
2 small paintbrushes
Chain nose pliers
Scissors
Computer and printer

Pour a small amount of glitter into vial. Add felt hearts, use end of paintbrush to position them in vial. Add a small amount of glue around edge of cork stopper, insert into vial top. Use paintbrush to remove any excess glue.

Add a small amount of glue to screw eye, use chain nose pliers to screw into center top of cork stopper. Allow all glue to dry.

Take a small ribbon and tie in a bow around rim of jar. Use Aleene’s Stop Fraying on ends of ribbon. Allow to dry.

Use a typewriter font to print xoxo, x and o in 10pt. Cut out using scissors and decoupage to front of jars with Collage Pauge and a small paintbrush. Thread screw eye with ball chain necklace. Use smaller jars with glitter and ribbon to make matching earrings. Attach a jump ring and ear wire to top of stopper, repeat for second earring.

(Blogger was compensated for this post.)

Once Upon a Time...

About 3 or 4 years ago, I made some Video Blogs, or vlogs. It was just me, a Flip video camera on a tripod in my old studio in Pennsylvania. This was before we started making The Impatient Crafter videos.

The lighting is horrid, do forgive, but the video is fun and imparts the message I really want people to take away from my work. Inspiration is everywhere and we all have a creative voice. It's interesting that I stumbled on this since it uses the Georgia O'Keefe quote I posted last week. It also includes a little design prompt/challenge, which is totally optional.

I have a few more vlogs somewhere in my archives and I'll try to dig them up. If I can find the dang Flip video camera maybe I can make some more. Or perhaps my darling hubby can assist, this could benefit greatly from edits!

Hope this inspires and if you'd like to play, feel free to leave a comment and share! Or not. No pressure. Whatever rings your bell.

Have a craftacular day!

Love
Madge

iLoveToCreate Retrofabulous Crafts: Hana Ami Flower Scatter Pins!

Hana Ami Flower Scatter Pins by Margot Potter

Knit Wit Flower Loom Ad from the 1960s!

iLoveToCreate Retrofabulous Crafts
Hana Ami Flower Scatter Pins
Margot Potter

Some crafty days are smooth sailing and then...there are days like today. I was going to whip up some quick and easy yarn fabric flowers on my new Hani Ami loom and...well...virtually everything that could go wrong, went wrong. Ergh. I persevered, because I'm both impatient and stubborn, and eventually I got there. These yarn flowers were all the rage back in the day, there are countless ads in my vintage magazines for looms to make these. This was a new loom, I just wasn't used to the platform and the process and the instructions were confusing, as most instructions seem to be. I ended up making up my own way of finishing the flowers, removing them from the platform and sewing through the centers of the flower petals and around them until I made my way around each flower. It isn't the darning method recommended, but it's the one that worked for me!

Once I finally got three double layer petal flowers finished, Aleene's Tacky Glue made fast work of the rest. I added a button center with an acrylic 'gem' to each flower and a safety pin back to each one and...phew! I did it! You can too!

These are fabulous on hats, jackets, t-shirts, flip flops...you will never run out of places to pin or glue them...and you can attach them together to make a funky scarf or sew them into pillows or garments. Hooray!

Materials
Yarn
Buttons
Acrylic gemstones
Safety pins
Aleene's Turbo Tacky Glue

Tools
Clover Flower Making Loom (with darning needle)
Scissors

Attach yarn and begin winding following manufacturer's instructions. Take your time and keep yarn tight as you wind.

I went around each peg twice for fluffier flowers.

Use needle to sew through and around petals, going into the center of each pair and around into the center of the pair at the opposite side, working your way around flower until you reach the final pair of petals.

Finish flower, tie of ends at back and snip tails.

Attach buttons and crystals with glue.

Attach safety pins, add a dab of glue and allow to dry overnight.

The blogger was compensated for this post.

I Do Stuff. Yup.

Above are two designs using some delightfully simple and striking components from Beadalon called QuickLinks. These particular links are exclusive to Jewelry Television, you can find them here! I love these components because they're like a lovely little blank canvas for your creativity and they are absurdly easy to use. Each shape is connected by a small figure eight or peanut shaped metal connector you simply compress closed around the links using chain nose pliers. The links are then stationed in place and ready for your creativity. Wire wrap them, add beads, connect them to rosary style beaded segments...it's truly endless.

I like to add lots of kinetic movement to my pieces, jewelry that moves is sexy and playful. The first design features textured links and oxidized vintage rhinestone beads that were pulled from my bead stash. I love the simplicity of this piece, it has an Art Deco appeal, but still feels really modern. The second piece is asymmetrical with large faceted black onyx rectangles, hypersthene squares that have a lovely light play, black onyx teardrops that swing and sway inside of the links and one large turquoise bead for a pop of color. This piece is long and can be worn Opera length or doubled. These took hardly any time at all to construct and I think they're the kind of pieces you'd wear over and over again.

Fun...fast...fabulous!

And that's some of what I do here at Studio Madge. I do stuff. Yup.

Love
Madge

iLoveToCreate Teen Crafts: Mothers Give You Roots Mother's Day Planter and Plant Stake

iLoveToCreate Teen Crafts
‘Mothers Give You Roots’ Mother's Day Planter and Plant Stake
Margot Potter for Avalon Potter
“Mom crafted, teen approved.

Mothers Day is coming fast and it’s time to start thinking of ways to tell mom just how much you love her. Avalon was super busy this past week, so I stepped in to make this project. This is the perfect gift for a mom who loves to garden or one who aspires to having a green thumb. We are giving this to my mother-in-law, shhhh...

I started out with a more colorful plan, but this shade of green is my personal favorite and it just seemed perfect in this monochromatic scheme.

The saying is one of my favorites: “Mothers give you roots.” Which is followed by: “Fathers give you wings. You need both.”

I think that’s a truly lovely thought, don’t you?

I am so utterly smitten with this; I may have to make one for myself! A teen can easily handle all of the steps here and all of the accessories were found in the dollar bins, so it’s a very affordable project too!

Materials
Terra Cotta pot
Terra Cotta pot saucer
Dollar bin wooden heart ornament
Dollar bin gloves (green)
Dollar bin mini-shovel
Dollar bin mini-rake
Dollar store flower seeds
Green raffia ribbon
10 gauge tinned copper wire
30 mm silver tone jump ring
Tulip Fabric Marker (thick tip) neon green
Tulip Fabric Marker (thin tip) black
Aleene’s Quick Dry Tacky Glue
Traci Bautista’s Collage Pauge matte finish
Aleene’s Spray Sealer matte finish
Small vine or floral pattern rubber stamp
Crafty Chica little paints green and yellow

Tools
Tulip sponge brushes
Tulip sponge pouncer
Scissors
2 pairs chain nose pliers
Round nose pliers
Memory wire shears or other heavy duty wire cutters
Dowel

1. Make sure pot and saucer are clean and dry. Mix your paints to make a darker and lighter green. Add a small amount of yellow for the dark green and a larger amount for the lighter. You will need to mix up a fair amount of paint here so the colors remain the same, small plastic drink cups and popsicle sticks work well for this task!

2. Use a foam brush to paint the body and inside of the pot and inside and bottom half of the saucer lighter green. This will probably take 2-3 coats, allow to dry in between. Use another foam brush to paint the edge of the pot and saucer darker green, also using 2-3 coats and allowing to dry.

3. Paint heart ornament on both sides and edges in the light green, 2 coats, and allow to dry.

4. Use a paint pouncer to gently apply a layer of light green paint to top of rubber stamp. Rock the stamp from left to right around edge of pot and saucer, taking your time to avoid overlapping. This is meant to be organic, so no worries if it isn’t perfectly perfect. Allow this to dry. Use pouncer, rubber stamp and darker paint to stamp the surface of the heart ornament on front and back. Allow to dry.

6. Print out: ‘Mothers give you roots.’ Use a green ink and an easy to read font, mine is 18pt. and the font is Abyss.

7. Use green marker to write love around edge of pot working your way around, go over that with the black marker.

8. Working outside and allowing to dry between coats, spray 2 layers of Aleene’s matter sealer on pot and saucer.

9. Use decoupage medium to apply the cut out sentence to one side of your heart. Allow to dry. You can seal this with 1-2 coats of the spray sealer if it’s going to be outside.

10. Use raffia ribbon to tie a multi-loop bow around top of heart ornament. Wrap your gloves and garden tools in raffia making another multi-loop bow.

11. Use round nose pliers to bend a loop on one end of a 2” segment of 10 gauge craft wire. Create a hook by bending wire over a round dowel (I used a metal dowel; you can use a thread spool or whatever you have at hand.) If you want to 'work harden' the wire to make it more stiff, hammer on a bench block with the flat side of a ball peen hammer. Follow by adding texture with the round end. Use jump ring and two pairs of chain nose pliers to attach heart ornament to end of plant stake.

12. To assemble for gifting cut some Styrofoam to fit inside center of pot, cutting out a segment for the gloves and tools. Poke a small hole for plant stake. Add some coordinating tissue paper and insert tools, plant stake and add your seed packet.

(This blogger was compensated for this project and given materials for construction.)

Crafty Chica's DIY Floating Butterfly Earrings!

Nothing makes me happier than inspiring creativity. That's the fuel that keeps me motivated here at Studio Madge. So imagine my excitement when I saw this fabulous project on Crafty Chica's blog inspired by the Sparkletastic Styrofoam Easter Earrings! Love, love, love what she did here!

Get step by step instructions on Kathy's blog by following this link!

If you make something inspired by a project on this blog, I'd love to see it! In fact, I'll post it here and link up to your tutorial.

Tune in tomorrow for a new Teen Craft Project for iLoveToCreate!

Love
Madge

We Do Stuff: How To Rehab Old Furniture

We are launching a new video series called: We Do Stuff!

We'll be moving beyond crafts into cooking, gardening, home decor...lifestyle! Woot! I wrote a dorky theme song for the videos, which we will eventually do in a variety of musical styles. It's one of those kinds of tunes that just stick in your head, even my daughter's friend started singing it this weekend! In fact, my daughter would really, really like us to stop singing it. She said she's been humming it at school. I think we're on to something here...

So here's the scoop on We Do Stuff: How To Rehab Old Furniture video! It's embedded in this post below, and it's under four minutes, so take a moment to watch! Drew did a really nice job with edits. Plus there's a super funny cameo by our musically inclined terrier Sir Charles Barkly. We know the sound is not up to par, but we're lacking in funds for fancy microphones and doing the best with what we've got.

We have been staring at these two tired furniture pieces and this boring lampshade for several years. The table is a dumpster find from behind our old store (it's amazing what people throw away) and the cabinet is from an estate sale. They have nice bones, nothing spectacular, but interesting simple shapes just begging for a new finish or some paint. I have been meaning to paint them since we got them. Yet, time slips away and good intentions fade.

After painting our new home with vibrant colors all grounded by the plethora of pine on floors and ceilings, the time came to tackle these pieces. I wanted bright and saturated color, but not neon or pastel, and we found four lovely Krylon colors that worked perfectly. Yellow needed several more coats than the rest, keep that in mind if you decide to make something similar.

Begin by taking the furniture apart, remove hardware, knobs and lay pieces out for sanding and painting. Sand them...with a belt sander...and really take your time here. If you don't remove the old finish, the new finish will not adhere.This is the number one thing that happens with old furniture rehabs. The one piece had a big oily stain on top, we sanded it down thoroughly and then used a Kilz primer and stain blocker. This did the trick. We sealed the cabinet with Minwax water based polycrylic sealer with light sanding in between coats, the top was coated with 3-4 coats for a really high sheen, the rest 2 coats. We intend to seal the table too.We used Krylon Indoor/Outdoor in bright idea, ivy leaf and watermelon and Krylon Short Cuts in turquoise for the knobs.

I wouldn't paint really fine or antique furniture like this, but sturdy pieces you might find for a song at flea markets, yard sales, thrift stores or even discount stores like Ikea are great fun to paint and refinish. You can add stenciled or hand painted accents too. We went for high shine and bright color, but you could sand the edges lightly after painting, skip the sealer and have a more 'shabby' antiqued look if you prefer. I am a big fan of that look too.

The lamp was easy, just two coats of the yellow spray paint, acrylic paint in orange pounced with a round foam pouncer and Aleene's Fast Grab Tacky Glue to attach the yellow pom pon trim. I know they're a little ticky tacky, but they fit the folksy style we're going for here that I have dubbed Folk Art Chic.

We're slowly, but surely, decorating our rustic mountain home. As we progress, I'll share more projects and pics. We're thinking about tackling the porch with some flower boxes next!

Cheers,
Madge

iLoveToCreate Retrofabulous Crafts: Sparkletastic Easter Earrings!

Sparkletastic Easter Earrings
iLoveToCreate Retrofabulous Crafts
Copyright Margot Potter
“These ARE your grandmother’s crafts...ya gotta problem with that?”

From McCall's Needlework and Crafts 1968

I have been toying with making a pair of sparkly Styrofoam earbobs for a while now. There are endless variations on this idea in my stash of vintage craft magazines. They’re also made of cork and wood...I’ve even seen these made of crumpled aluminum foil. The idea is to suspend a round ball on a thin chain for a pair of swingy earrings. Remember that these are styrofoam, so they weigh almost nothing, but if you like a more delicate silhouette, feel free to use smaller balls. I like my jewelry big and bold. These would be perfect for a teacher, young mom or if you’re feeling cheeky, to sport to the family Easter dinner. I’d make a matching necklace and wear this out and about just for fun, but I’m not afraid to be noticed.

Take this idea wherever you like, add sequins, seed beads, rhinestones. A splash of glitter gives it a little sparkle and the sparkly rick rack trim immediately evokes Easter eggs. I’m of the mind that life is short, so have a little fun now and then. What could be more fun than pink sparkly Styrofoam earbobs?!

Materials
2 1.5” Styrofoam balls
Sparkly silver rick rack trim
2 2” head pins
2 matching beads to secure headpins
2 ear wires
2 1” segments of thin chain
Aleene’s Foamtastic Glue
Crafty Chica Little Paints in red and white
Crafty Chica glitter in pink
Craft wire for painting and drying balls
Styrofoam block for drying balls

Tools
Chain nose pliers
Round nose pliers
Flush cutters
Foam brush
Scissors

Insert a 5-6” segment of craft wire into each Styrofoam ball. Mix red and white paints to make hot pink. Use a foam brush to pounce pink paint on surface of ball. Sprinkle glitter on ball and shake off excess. You will probably have to go back in for a second coat to hit any spots that aren’t fully covered, if you repaint make sure to re-glitter. Allow to dry, inserting wire into Styrofoam block. Keep ball on wire. Run a bead of Aleene’s Foamtastic glue along rick rack trim. Wrap trim around center of ball. Insert back into block and allow to dry.

When glue is dry, GENTLY thread a beaded headpin into the center bottom of your ball and thread to the center top. Make sure pin is straight and take your time. Bend wire at a 90 degree angle using chain nose pliers. Cut to 1/4” with wire cutters. Grasp end of wire with round nose pliers and CAREFULLY turn into a loop. Open loop to add chains using chain nose pliers.