Glittered Tie Dye Necklace for iLoveToCreate

Learn how to make a glittered tie dye effect necklace today on the iLoveToCreate blog!  Tell 'em Madge sent ya.  And...just an FYI, I'm going to start blogging on DIY Doyenne part time and here part time.  It's a revamp and refocus after much considered thought.  All things crafty will live here and all things fashion, style and galcentric will live over there. We'll see how it goes!

xoxo

Madge

Washi Tape Gift Tag DIY

DIY Snow Globes or How Ideas Happen

I was so pleased with myself after designing my tiny snow globe necklace.  I've been making jewelry with these tiny glass vials for years.  Still, I'd never done this before and I thought it would be a quick and easy craft for virtually anyone to recreate.  It took me a while to figure out how to get the tree tiny enough to fit inside of the vial...yet someone else had the same idea and same solution.  Derp.  So much for my "original" idea!

DIY Decoupage Pot

I am over at the iLoveToCreate blog today with this DIY decoupaged terra cotta pot.  In person, it actually looks like it's been painted.  I'm pleased as punch with how this one turned out!  This could not be easier to make, it is literally four steps!  Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. I have a second one in the works and then they'll go out on our screened in porch for the spring and summer.

St. Patrick's Day Craft Idea!

Top of the Mornin' to ya!

Erin go bragh!

Manly, yes, but I like it too.

DIY Valentine's Jewelry

I am guest posting for iLoveToCreate today, you can get the tutorial for this pretty DIY Valentine's Gift Box over on their blog, I'm sharing the DIY for the Darling Decoupage DIY Valentine's Jewelry here!  I've been making decoupage jewelry for years now.  I'll decoupage on almost anything. It's amazing what a little paper and plastic can create when you put them together with decoupage medium.  I scored these Tim Holtz faceted acrylic charms at Michaels on clearance and used some paper doilies to make a pretty set of jewelry in a flash.  Miss Madge's Share the Love Initiative marches on!

Oh and...big HAPPY BIRTHDAY wishes to the lovely Miss Avalon Potter!  She's 15 today!  Good GRIEF?!  When did that happen?!

Free Victorian Calling Card and Valentine's Jewelry for Mom

Halloo!  Today's Madge's Share the Love Initiative offering is three fold.  Three is a magic number, after all.  Firstly, a lovely free Victorian Calling Card for you to download.  Victorian era women and men of a certain status would leave them with friends when calling (visiting) often in a small receiving tray or with a servant if the home owner was away.  The cards and the manner in which they were folded or embellished had a variety of meanings.  Here is a great site with detailed information about these fascinating cards.  I have a small collection of these cards in my coffers, this is one of my favorites.  I also sell a digital collage sheet of calling cards on the website for download (which means you buy the file and can use the image again and again in your work.)

How to Make Cupcake Wrapper Flowers Guest Posting!

I'm guest posting for iLoveToCreate today with some cheap and easy Valentine's Cupcake Wrapper Flowers you can whip up in a flash to make a whimsical bouquet for your sweetheart.  Who loves ya baby?  Well, I do.  Duh.

Cheap and Easy (Crafts): DIY Embellished Holiday Letters for iLoveToCreate and Book Trailer!

Yup, it's time for another Cheap and Easy (craft)!  I'm guest posting over at iLoveToCreate today and if you follow the link you can get the 411 on how I turned these FOOT TALL paper mache letters into sparkling holiday accents in a flash!  You may recognize these from our Consumer Crafts Haul Video.  Hooray!  Speaking of videos, my talented and endlessly patient hubby Drew just finished editing a fabulous trailer for the new book!  Check it out, it's only a little over one minute long and the intro he made is ADORABLE!

Do you have your copy of The Fine Art of Shameless Self Promotion yet?  You're gonna like it, I just know you will!  It's the perfect way to kick start your new year!

xoxo
Madge

Cheap and Easy Crafts: Silvered and Glittered Holiday Thrift Store Frames

YAY!  It's time for cheap and easy (crafts!) with a silvered and glittered frame DIY! This one is silly easy, you can do this with any plastic or wooden frame that has nooks and crannies and gold base paint.  Or start with raw wood for a pickled effect.  The images come from my personal ephemera collection...but you can get some of your own on my website!  Yes, I have packs of vintage Christmas cards for your crafty creations! 

I am guest blogging for iLoveToCreate today, so you can find the instructions to make your own silvered and glittered holiday thrift store frames next door.  It's so easy, you're going to be scouring your local thrift stores and flea markets for dreadful frames to repurpose!

Did you get your copy of my new book yet?  Here's what Shannon Ownby of Fabrics 'n Quilts has to say, This is awesome! Your writing style even makes homework fun!

What better way to kick start your new year than with a glittery kick in the ass and a clear cut plan of attack, you know, after the champagne and kisses!

xoxo Madge

Cheap and Easy Crafts: Feather Ornament DIY

It's a new feature on le blogge: Cheap and Easy (crafts).  These may not all really even be verifiable crafts per se, think of them more like cute ideas that are super easy to execute.  Yes, that's it.

How To Make Pretty Papers DIY Christmas Cards

These Pretty Papers DIY Christmas Cards are a breeze to make using cardstock, scrapbook papers and crafty bits and pieces!  I'm guest posting on the iLoveToCreate Blog today and you can get the instructions to make your own Pretty Papers DIY Christmas Cards there tout de suite.  Mais, oui!

I am kinda proud of myself for finally figuring out how to make a transparent layer in Photoshop.  Oh, I could have used the manual, but it hurts my head.  So instead, I have stubbornly stumbled around like an idiot for months now.  But let's face it, the internet is changing fast and galdangy there are a ton of bloggers who are super graphics savvy and Madge was falling behind the times.  My horse drawn cart was limping along while bullet trains sped past.  I will not go gently into that good night though, so I persevered.  I'm happy with all of the pictures I made for this tutorial, really more like tickled silly.  So heck, go see my Pretty Papers DIY Christmas Cards and check out my fancy little graphics too!

I am afraid, much like when I went from a manual typewriter to a computer (way back when the pages printed out with perforated edges)...I may go overboard with my fancy new tricks for a bit.  And you may feel much like my professors who were happy to see me leave White-Out behind, but equally annoyed at my new found love of FONTS!  Give me an F!  Give me an O!  Give me an N!  Give me a T!  Give me an S!

FONTS!

And here I am lo these many years later still geeking out over fonts.  

Ah well.  On another note, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...well, not so much at Casa de Potter...but SOON!

Have you gotten your copy of my new book yet?  I won't stop nagging you until you do!

xoxo
Madge

How to Make Paper Snowflakes Guest Blogging for iLoveToCreate!

I had completely forgotten how to make paper snowflakes, but I had this idea for some upcycled magazine embellished gift bags and I decided to give myself a refresher course.  I am guest posting over at the iLoveToCreate blog today and you can get the tutorial to make the snowflakes and the bags!  I'll be sharing this project on an upcoming episode of DIY on the FLY for WBIR Live at Five at Four here in Knoxville too!

There will be a blizzard of paper snowflakes before I'm finished! 
Meanwhile, back in the studio...every ding of my cell phone is another book sold!  We give a "WOOT!" each time where hear that sound here at Casa de Potter!  It's the most amazing feeling to go from idea to finished concept and to have people buy it!  WOOT! Even better news, so far people are loving the book.  I'm getting lots of rave reviews.  Check out this review from the divine Miss Jean Yates!  We're only offering the introductory price until the end of this week, so if you're thinking about getting the book, now is the time!

Retrofabulous Yarn Wrapped Tabletop Christmas Trees

I'm guest posting over at iLoveToCreate today.  I'm so excited for year two of Retrofabulous Christmas Craftabration at Studio Madge!  These Yarn Wrapped Tabletop Christmas Trees are vintage inspired, with a clean modern twist, which is the heart of all things retrofabulous. I am so smitten with these, I am going to have to create an entire forest! Huzzah!  And yes, it's obvious that my obsession with pom poms (or pom pons if you will) has not faded.  Ho ho ho!

Sailing, Sailing Decoupage Canvas

Sailing, Sailing Op Art Decoupage Canvas
Avalon Potter for iLoveToCreate Teen Crafts

Avalon made this simply chic op art style canvas using old book pages and cardstock on an inexpensive craft store canvas.  This is so easy to make and the variations on this theme are infinite.  Fiskars has some great shape cutters that make quick work of cutting squares that are easily halved into triangles.  Piece them together and adhere to your canvas with Aleene's decoupage medium in matte finish and you have a fabulous one of a kind work of art.  Best of all, you're the artist!

Kids Crafts 1-2-3 and Variations on a Theme

Last year I was bequeathed a lifetime supply of vintage craft magazines.  They're awesome, as you might imagine and I am still gleefully perusing them for techniques and ideas.  I found a set of cards made with simple tissue paper shapes on one holiday magazine that really struck me.  I re-worked the idea to create this set of cards above.

The instructions to make these are here.

"Giving Thanks" Thanksgiving Table Decor DIYs

iLoveToCreate
Giving Thanks Thanksgiving Table Decor DIY
Margot Potter

My new crafty gal pal Cheryl Burchett and I are co-hosting DIY segments for Gannett News here in Knoxville on WBIR Channel 10. We just filmed some fun Thanksgiving themed segments and the first one aired this week. I've embedded the video below AND here are the step by step instructions for some inexpensive and simple projects you can make to take your holiday table from drab to fab in seconds flat! You can make these projects as complex or as simple as you like, but whatever you do, Aleene's Tacky Glue dry adhesives make putting it all together a breeze!  

Free Digital Download for Halloween: Good Witch

"Are you a good witch, or a bad witch?"  Glinda from The Wizard of Oz

DIY Three Easy Halloween Pumpkins

Pumpkins, pumpkins, everywhere...and not a pie to eat!

I'm starting to worry that the proliferation of foam pumpkins may jeopardize the real pumpkin industry!  Egads, say it isn't so!

Hooty Owl Halloween Cards

Hooty Owl Hallowe'en Cards
Margot Potter for iLoveToCreate

Avalon has been busy as a little bee getting straight A's in her honors classes!  Can you say proud mama?  I can!  Go Avalon!  So I stepped in to whip up some fun and festive Hooty Owl Halloween cards today.