The Crafty Princess Diaries

Tammy Powley’s Crafty Weblog

May 3, 2010
by Tammy
1 Comment

Mother’s Day Gift, Plan B

Well, my photo bezel experiment did not turn out that well. As you can see from the photo, there are splotches on the image inside the resin. I’m not ready to give up yet. I think I know what went wrong; however, this is not a project that I’ll have done and ready to send off as a gift for mom by this Sunday.

So, I’ve moved onto plan B, which I think she will also like pretty well. I ended up ordering an Artbeads.com gift card for her. This way, it will go directly to her, and thus I don’t have to worry about racing to the post office in time to send a package. And, she can expand her jewelry supply buying experience from what she’s been doing so far, which is shopping at Michael’s and other craft stores. Not that they don’t have some okay supplies, but there really is a world of difference when you purchase supplies from a vendor who specializes in jewelry supplies, and from my own experience with Artbeads.com, the company has some high quality supplies.

At least now that she is into making jewelry, it will always be easy to think of a gift for her.

May 2, 2010
by Tammy
1 Comment

Craft Blogging Link Love Time

Margot Potter The Impatient Crafter
Madge shares a how to for teens in this quick and easy jewelry project for ILoveToCreate

Mixed Media Artist
Design a small mixed media quilted collage around your favorite poem or lyrics!

About Family Crafts
Find out how to make a May Day cone basket to hang on a neighbor’s door and several other related crafts.

Aileen’s Musings
Aileen offers a tasty recipe card for you to download and print along with other unique mother’s day gift ideas for the mothers in your life!

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
Craftside’s got a tutorial on how to crochet a picot cast-on, turn a catalog into a journal from the new book Creative Wildfire from L. K. Ludwig, a free pop up bird card template, a cool free bird image, and fun pictures from Unique LA with a “celebrity” sighting!

Cross Stitch at About.com
About.com Cross Stitch Forum members had a go at the free Day Complete Band sampler and now you can see their results and get the free pattern yourself. Not only does it have a stitching theme, you will also get a chance to learn lots of new stitches.

Stefanie Girard’s Sweater Surgery
Learn how to make beaded gift wrap from the lovely book The Art of Gift Wrapping by Wanda Wen.

The Artful Crafter
Make your own puzzles with these helpful tips.

April 29, 2010
by Tammy
2 Comments

Wire Lace CFE

BeadStyle Magazine has teamed up with AlaCarte Clasps & WireLace to issue a jewelry making challenge. Though you can get all the details as well as an entry form at the BeadStyle Magazine web site, the basic info on this challenge involves participants using wire lace to create a jewelry piece. The deadline is July 15, 2010. Some of the prizes include subscriptions to the magazine as well as gift certificates to get more wire lace. Plus, some winners will be featured in the magazine as well. The first place winner also receives $250 in cash.

April 28, 2010
by Tammy
3 Comments

Mother’s Day Pendant Idea

My plan for this weekend is to make a resin photo pendant to give to my mother of her mother for Mother’s Day. My mom has recently started to make jewelry, and my grandmother passed away a few weeks ago, so I thought this might be a nice present that she can really appreciate by incorporating it into a jewelry piece she designs herself.

Here’s what I plan to do (and hopefully, it will work): I printed the photo on regular paper, and I plan to cut it to fit into the round bezel (which came from Rings & Things, item #46-301-21-0). Then I will seal the paper in modge podge, and after it dries, I’ll put it in the bezel and pour 2-part epoxy resin in it. This project is very similar to a Resin Flower Pendant project I created recently, so I’m fairly confident that it will work.

I think this is a great Mother’s Day gift idea because you could also put in photos of her children or a flower like I did for my other resin pendant. Use a two loop bezel and create a kind of Y-necklace design, or use a one loop and just add a chain to it and you’re done.

April 26, 2010
by Tammy
1 Comment

Show Off Your Mother’s Day Crafting

Here is the gift I made for my mom last year; it includes a crocheted bath mitt, hand-made soap (which I bought), and card. I was pretty pleased with how it turned out, so I thought it was extra cool that I got to show it off not only here on my blog last year, but this year I am showing it off at the Lion Brand web site also.

They have a blog post asking readers to show off their Mother’s Day crochet projects. You can upload it directly to the site. The deadline is May 12th, and then they will select some favorite photos to publish in their newsletters, blog, and Facebook page.

April 25, 2010
by Tammy
1 Comment

Links of Lovely Craft Ideas

My crafting blog buddies have some great links this week. A few are even on the ball enough to start crafting for Mother’s Day already. I have an experiment in mind for that, which hopefully will work. If not, I need to think of a plan B for my mom’s day gift. What about you? Are your crafting for the big day yet?

The Artful Crafter
This week Eileen is offering some free striking vintage photos from the 30s and a chance to win the eBook “Altered Ancestors: 50 Techniques for Using Vintage Photos in Art”.

The Crochet Dude
Drew’s crochet purse designs are super cute, and now he’s got a crocheted Purse Pattern of the Month program? You’ve gotta check it out!!!

About Family Crafts
If you are looking for a special, home-made gift for Mother’s Day, check out Sherri’s collection of 100 gifts to make for mom.

Aileen’s Musings
Aileen has a wonderful Mother’s Day project to help make it a banner day for mom! Find out what Canvasette paper is while you check out her easy background technique.

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
This week at Craftside there is a sneak peek into the new book Mixed-Media Dollhouses, how to draw a Zombie Voodoo Doll, make 2 types of paper flowers from recycled book pages, and how to use white glue and tape as resists in fabric altering.

Cross Stitch at About.com
Connie made an oops with a stitching project when she laundered an item that wasn’t colorfast. Have you ever had an oops like that? Vote in the poll and let us know.

Farm Girl Roots, City Girl Style
Linda’s finally going to intentionally make a quilt for herself! She’s picked the pattern and is using fabrics she collected years ago.

Margot Potter The Impatient Crafter
A hot topic Facebook thread leads to a post about valuing your work. Madge ponders the problems of discounts and freebies.

Mixed Media Artist
When dumpster diving fails you, here are some great online sources for cool stuff!

Stefanie Girard’s Sweater Surgery
How to make recycled sweater tags inspired buy the one in: Hand-Me-Ups By Lorine Mason

April 24, 2010
by Tammy
1 Comment

Crochet Purse POM News

Do you love purses? Do you love crocheting purses even more? Then this new purse pattern of the month set up from The Crochet Dude is probably tailor-made for you.

He is offering members an original purse pattern each month that will not be published anywhere else. The patterns will come in the mail (like real mail, I know), and each will be signed and numbered. He is also limited the number of people who can join his purse pattern of the month club.

For more information and details about how to join, head over to his web site.

April 23, 2010
by Tammy
1 Comment

Beadwork Drawing

If you love buying beads and enjoy wonderful bead-related magazines like Beadwork, then make sure you head over to Andrew Thornton’s blog and spring cleaning sale. He has an assortment of beads, charms, and vintage jewelry that he’s clearing out.

Make a purchase and you are automatically entered in his Beadwork drawing. Those entered have a chance to win a year’s subscription to the magazine on him. You can get complete details on his weblog.

April 22, 2010
by Tammy
4 Comments

New Silver Mermaind Pendant

I just added another sterling silver pendant to my Sterling Charm Sale! page. Like the other charms and pendants you’ll find over there, all of these were cast by my husband and me when we used to take lost waxing classes. That means we had to clean and polish these puppies by hand afterward. It is a lot of work, but you get some amazing detail with this process, so I think it is well worth it.

If you would like to know more about the lost wax casting method, I have a tutorial on my About.com site.

April 21, 2010
by Tammy
1 Comment

Tips for Crafting a Business

Victoria Tillotson sent me a link to this interesting article on The Entreprenette Gazette, “The One Tip that Changed my Business.” (You will find Victoria listed there in tip number 6). The article includes 67 different tips from small business owners – many of them in craft related business such as making jewelry and other accessories. Participants were asked what one piece of advice they would give or have been given that when followed changed their business (for the better I’m sure). If you have been thinking about expanding your crafting business from your kitchen table to maybe a department store, you might find some of these tips helpful, or at least worth getting your wheels turning in the right direction.