Craft Wars Inspired I Love Rock and Roll Necklace

Craft Wars Inspired I Love Rock and Roll Necklace 
Copyright Margot Potter 
All Rights Reserved 

I know, it's only rock and roll, but I like it, like it, yes I do. I could not believe last week's Craft Wars challenge wasn't mine! Rock and Roll? Uh, fronted several post punk era bands in the Bay Area back in the 80s. Jewelry? Uh, wrote seven books on jewelry making. Do I think I could have rocked that Pop Craft Challenge, uh, yeah. The Master Challenge on the other hand, dang. That was impressive. I kind of loved both of the projects, it must have been a tough call. I will not be torching duct tape at Studio Madge, because I'm thinking that may be a little, well, toxic. Though it was pretty bad ass! And how Stephen could have said there was too much glitter was beyond me. Rock and Roll is all about excess! 

I did not wish to take apart instruments or music equipment, egads! Sacrilege! Instead I spent one hour last night working with items I had at hand to make an edgy, glam rock necklace that I am LO-VING. Hammer, stamp, edge, drill and let 'er roll! I had some fun Blumenthal Lansing scissors buttons (runs with scissors, yes she does) and vintage metal wrench charms for the metal, some SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS for the glam and some ImpressArt blanks and stamps to get hammered for the heavy...add some r o c k with edged, crystallized and drilled Scrabble tiles and some 8 ball charm beads...well...it's a melange of crunchy fabulosity! Then the ribbon I found at Michaels on super clearance tied it all up nicely.

ROCK AND ROLL BABY!  

(DON'T FORGET TO VISIT YESTERDAY'S POST AND LEAVE A COMMENT THERE FOR A CHANCE TO WIN BLANKS AND A SET OF STAMPS!)

Materials
4 Scrabble tiles to spell r o c k
4 Elongated heart blanks from ImpressArt to spell r o l l
2 3mm crystal ab SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS flat back crystal
6 8mm red coral SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS rounds
6 10mm crystal SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS rounds
6 8mm Czech glass eight ball beads
4 Blumenthal Lansing scissors button charms
4 Silver tone wrench charms
Heavy duty silver tone chain
Red edged ribbons
30 6mm silver tone jump rings
4 10mm  silver tone jump rings
12 silver tone head pins
Krylon silver leafing pen
Ranger Alcohol Ink Cranberry
Ranger Alcohol Ink Pitch Black
Aleene's Glass and Bead Adhesive

Tools
2 pairs chain nose pliers (to attach charms with jump rings)
Round nose pliers
Ranger Pouncer with Felt Pad
Brass head stamping hammer
Steel head ball peen hammer
Steel bench block
2 hole punch
1/4" 6mm lower case letter stamps
Electric drill with 1/16" bit

(Beads are threaded with head pins and a loop is turned at the top with round nose pliers, then all charms are attached as in photo using a jump ring for each charm and working left to right at the bottom of each link. Click here for a video on how to make loops.)

Do you love rock and roll as much as I do?  Check out Craft Wars Vet Andrea Currie's FABULOUS mosaic guitar project she made for her hubby Cliff on their anniversary!  

And that's it, cuz I got a rock and roll heart! Here's a pic of me at the Keystone Palo Alto back in the day!

iLoveToCreate Retrofabulous Craft Wars Inspired Twister Lampshade

iLoveToCreate Retrofabulous: Craft Wars Inspired "Twister" Lampshade
Margot Potter
"These are your grandmother's crafts, ya gotta problem with that?"

Last week on Craft Wars the contestants had to DIY a lamp from an array of sun and safety glasses and craft closet schtuff for the Pop Craft challenge. I am on a mission these days to use up the vast and ridiculous amount of craft supplies that I already own. I could not justify buying new glasses and taking them apart to make a lamp. I also wasn't so excited about building a lamp. I'm impatient, have I mentioned that?

I put on the old thinking cap and began pondering lamps, iLoveToCreate adhesives and glasses...which morphed into a bag of glass pebbles, cardstock and a super cheap lamp from Target. I'm fond of repetition in design and I have a proclivity for circular shapes. I selected some colors from my pile of paper, punched out small circles and started mapping out a design. Mr. Potter joined the fun and we came up with this shade.
I couldn't figure out what was so familiar about these circles in these particular colors and then...it hit me! TWISTER! YAY!

And that's...how my mind works.  Scary, isn't it?!

(GLUE NOTES:  To attach the circles, we punched out Aleene's Fabric Fusion sheets, but it does make the punch sticky, so alternately you can try using *Aleene's Fabric Fusion tape cut with non-stick scissors in strips across back of circles.)

Follow the links at the bottom of this post to see what the other Craft Wars Vets made this week!

Materials
Small table top lamp with white shade
Cardstock in orange, blue, light yellow, dark yellow, green
Small clear glass flat back pebbles
Aleene's Fabric Fusion Sheets or *Tape
Aleene's Super Thick Tacky Glue

Tools
Fiskars 1" round circle punch
*Scissors

Cheryl whipped up a fabulous Day Bed Cover!
Andrea turned some zippers into a Perky Pillow!
Pattye shares lots of lovely DIY lamps!
Angela turns a skirt into an adorable upcycled lampshade!

iLoveToCreate: Craft Wars Inspired Ocean Dreams Birdhouse

Craft Wars Inspired (Junk Drawer) Ocean Dreams Birdhouse
Avalon Potter for iLoveToCreate
"Teen crafted, Mom approved."

My mom is going to be on an upcoming episode of TLCs new show Craft Wars and she's making projects every week with other contestants from the show inspired by the theme of the week before.  Last week's Pop Craft challenge was to make a junk drawer themed birdhouse.  We had two of these old birdhouses sitting in our yard, so we decided to both decorate one.  I used her paint scraping technique in colors that fit my style and added some things from our 'junk drawer', some sea shells from our last trip to the beach, old buttons and a seahorse metal charm.  Layers of mixed acrylic paint colors from Crafty Chica, Scribbles and Tulip are all sealed under Aleene's Spray Sealer so this can go outside.  I can't wait for a bird to move in!

Materials
Old wooden birdhouse
Seashells
Old buttons in colors to match
Seahorse or ocean themed metal accent
Number tape (7 gypsies)
Blue, black, copper, white and brown paints (Crafty Chica, Tulip and Scribbles brands)
Aleene's Turbo Tacky Glue
Aleene's Spray Acrylic Sealer (matte)

Tools
Scissors
Butter knife or palette knife

If you are using an old birdhouse, clean off any debris and lightly sand.  If a new birdhouse, sand lightly.

 

Mix up paints to make several shades of blue, grey and tan.  Use a butter knife to add paint to house door, roof and sides in layers, starting with the darker colors and continuing until you're happy with how it looks.  try not to smash the colors together, layer them on top of each other instead.

 

Use Tacky Glue to glue shells around your door frame.

 

 Glue buttons around opening using more Tacky Glue. 

 

Glue Seahorse to Door with more Tacky Glue. Yay, Tacky Glue!

 

Run tape along edge of roof on front and sides.  Cut to fit.

 

Spray with sealer, apply several coats allow them to dry in between each layer.