The Crafty Princess Diaries

Tammy Powley’s Crafty Weblog

March 21, 2010
by Tammy
1 Comment

Craft Bloggers Unite 03/21/10

I know it doesn’t look all that appetizing at this point, but if you could only experience the yummy smells bubbling from this pot of corn beef, soon to be teamed with cabbage and carrots for our late St. Patrick’s Day meal this Sunday, wow! As I wait for what I hope will be an early lunch today, I’m looking around the web for some great craft ideas and inspiration. Come join me.

Farm Girl Roots, City Girl Style
Looking for an easy way to paint coloring-book art on the walls in a kid’s room? Linda walks you through how she did it.

Margot Potter The Impatient Crafter
Where do you find inspiration? Madge wants to know! Share her process from inspiration to design in this inspired post!

Mixed Media Artist
See how you can achieve the look of a hand-tinted print with Photoshop!

Stefanie Girard’s Sweater Surgery
How to make recycled plastic bunny ears inspired by the techniques in the book Upcycled Accessories

The Artful Crafter
Have you seen Xyron’s Creatopia? Prepare to be amazed by the baby booties going through a Creatopia in the video!

About Family Crafts
Celebrate spring with Sherri and these fun craft projects!

Cathie Filian
Check out Cathie’s silk screen projects for Better Homes and Gardens. She has something for everyone.

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
This week at Craftside there is a fun Steampunk style socket set bracelet, how to repurpose a canvas tote with applique and make faux patches, a peek into some cool art from the book Digital Illustration, a hot water bottle gets Re-Bound and a how to and tips on vampire drawing.

March 20, 2010
by Tammy
2 Comments

New Jewelry Book Reviews

Though the economy still isn’t doing that well and publishing, like so many industries, has been struggling, I’m happy to say that there are still a lot of great jewelry books coming out these days. Here are a few jewelry making book reviews I’ve published on my About.com Jewelry Making site over the past few months in case you missed any of them:


A Bead in Time by Lisa Crone includes 35 beading projects plus tips for designing jewelry using inspiration found all around us.


Seed Bead Fusion: 18 Projects to Stitch, Wire and String by Rachel Nelson-Smith brings together wire techniques and seed bead stitches to create some truly unique jewelry designs.


The Encyclopedia of Contemporary Jewelry Making Techniques: Plastic, rubber, metal and more are covered in this technique-heavy jewelry that examines contemporary jewelry making.


Enchanted Adornments is a mixed media book written by Cynthia Thornton covers a mixture of metal clay, wire, resin, and more.


Beyond the Bead: Making Jewelry with Unexpected Finds by Margot Potter is a mixed-media feast for jewelry makers who are ready to move their skills beyond bead stringing.


Totally Twisted: Innovative Wirework and Art Glass Jewelry by Kerry Bogert combines simply wire techniques with colorful lampwork beads.

March 17, 2010
by Tammy
0 comments

New Jewelry Tutorials

I usually publish at least one jewelry making tutorial every week on my About.com Jewelry Making site. If you haven’t been by there in awhile, then you may have missed some of them:

Midnight Pearl, Crystal, and Chain Necklace (pictured above)

Golden Link & Crystal Hoop Earrings

Textured Brass & Bamboo Earrings

How to Oxidize with Liver of Sulphur

Glass Flower Post Earrings

Green Fern Shell & Flower Silk Necklace

To make sure you don’t miss out any future jewelry tutorials, sign up for my free bi-weekly newsletter over there. I publish one newsletter on Sunday nights (eastern time) and usually another one goes out mid-week around Wednesdays or Thursdays. The newsletters include link updates to tutorials, blog posts, and other related jewelry articles posted on the site.

March 15, 2010
by Tammy
3 Comments

Crafty Princess House Cleaning

Now that the book is essentially put to bed, I’m looking around the house and realizing what a wreck it is! Funny how that happens when you spend your weekends writing and making jewelry instead of cleaning. Since September, I’ve basically done only “gotta do it” type cleaning around here. I am tad overwhelmed, really, but I finally decided to just take it a room or even corner at a time and work my way through the whole house. My boys, pictured above, has offered to help me out even, so it will get done slowly but surely.

I have also done a little house cleaning, so to speak, on this blog, now that I can give it a little more attention than usual. If you go to the main page, you’ll see my blog rolls have been divided up into more categories, so they are a little better organized. I also deleted some blogs that seemed to be DOA.

Now, I’m thinking of a new template as well, though that may have to wait until this summer. What do you think? Is it time for the Crafty Princess Diaries to get a make-over?

March 14, 2010
by Tammy
0 comments

Crafty Bloggers’ Link Love

Margot Potter The Impatient Crafter
Had your eyes checked lately? Madge did…and was she surprised to find out she needs glasses!

About Family Crafts
If you are planning a slumber party, check out this list of crafts projects that will help the time fly.

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
Craftside has a fun St. Patrick’s Day necklace with a tutorial on how to make a flat coil head pin, instructions on how to make an adjustable lace up shirt alteration, a free round topped box template download and some cool Collage Lab stuff.

Farm Girl Roots, City Girl Style
The cardmaking station is pulled together in Linda’s sewing and craft room. Now she’s looking forward to making some cards!

Mixed Media Artist
Cyndi wants to know: which of your new years resolutions are you actually going to keep?

Stefanie Girard’s Sweater Surgery
How to sew a recycled tank and t-shirt dress inspired by one of the projects from the book Twinkle Sews by Wenlan Chia.

The Artful Crafter
Looking for canning jar art ideas and supplies? Let Eileen help you out with resources and tips.

March 11, 2010
by Tammy
1 Comment

Blogger Moves to HGTV

Though I am a crafty person, I have to admit that one area of craftiness that I am challenged and not overly interested in either is interior design. As long as my house is semi-clean and comfortable (like our still-under-construction TV room pictured above), I’m good. In fact, I don’t like have an excess of nick-knacks to dust and arrange. Also because of my furry menagerie, I am limited to what we can have in our house any way. Sometimes I joke with my husband that we just should have everything made of cement like the Flintstones and have a big hose and drain so that I can just hose the place down now and then!

That said, I am still curious about a new home design show I’ve heard coming to HGTV called Design Happens. Though there seems to be a number of bloggers talking about this show over there, one person stands out, not necessarily due to her interior designing but due to her blogging, Heather Armstrong of Dooce.com.

I am not the avid reader of her blog that I once was due to lack of time, not interest, but when I was studying for my last degree, I actually worked her into my dissertation as a case study. Part of what I was writing about was how people (especially women) are creating on-line journals that resemble scrapbooks, and Dooce.com is a wonderful example of this trend.

Any way, I am eager to see how they might transform her web writing to the screen, and I find it interesting that we are seeing a blogger transition from the computer screen to the TV screen versus the other way around for a change.

March 9, 2010
by Tammy
1 Comment

Pretty Little Presents Book Review


Pretty Little Presents (Lark Books, $17.59 US, $23.50 CAN) is a compilation of 29 gift-related sewing projects created by 17 different designers. As the title indicates, each project is “little,” which for the most part means not overly time intensive or involved.

Many of the projects can be recreated using scraps such as the “I Heart You Coasters,” “All Buttoned Up” napkin rings, and the “Keep Your Place” book mark. Other projects use a minimal amount of fabric, so phat quarters are ideal if you are like me and enjoy collecting those for your fabric stash.

When I picked this title from the book club I joined, I anticipated that I would probably want to make most of the projects, but after looking it over, I can’t really say that. I could see myself maybe finding the desire to making about half of them, which isn’t too bad. Now, this is me. If you are the type of person that needs to make lots of small gifts (for the baby sitter, teacher, house keeper, third cousin once removed), you may have a different opinion.

The main appeal of this book for me were the simple projects that would probably not take much time, especially for anyone with some sewing skill. For those who haven’t sewn very much, the projects aren’t too difficult, though the instructions may not be enough for the total newbie.

If you were thinking of paying full price for this, my suggestion is to check it out in person at a book store first.

March 7, 2010
by Tammy
0 comments

Craft Bloggers Unite 03/07/10

Beading Arts
Cyndi is running a contest on Beading Arts, and the prize is an absolutely free advertisement!

About Family Crafts
Sherri shares some suggestions to help you celebrate National Craft Month.

Aileen’s Musings
Aileen’s altered a pair of old white tennis shoes and gave them a whole new look….they were pretty wild but she’s toned them down with some spray webbing. She’s even worn them out and about and received some great compliments on them!

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
Craftside’s got a post about working with grids in mixed media, a ribbon embellished quilt from The Quilt Bible, 3rd Edition, tips on outlining a photo and a bunch of journal pages from 1000 Artist Journals.

Farm Girl Roots, City Girl Style
Linda’s making progress in the sewing and craft room. Check out the closet!

Margot Potter The Impatient Crafter
Ever wondered what it takes to get a craft book published? Join Madge in this first installment in her How To Write and Publish a Craft Book series.

Stefanie Girard’s Sweater Surgery
How to make Egg Cup pincushions inspired by a wonderful project in I “Heart” Patchwork by Rashida Coleman-Hale.

The Artful Crafter
Take a spin with Eileen and Shaaron on the Craft-N-Spin crafting turntable.

March 6, 2010
by Tammy
1 Comment

Last of the Jewelry, Bye-Bye

I wish I could show you more than a box filled with bubble wrap, but that’s one of the downsides to doing a jewelry book. You can’t show off the finished goods until the book is published. This is the last of the jewelry for my next book, Complete Photo Guide to Making Jewelry.

This box has about 10 pieces for the gallery section as well as about 15 for three of the 10 how-to sections (bead stringing, wire work, chain making, fabrication, soldering, resin, fiber, metal clay, polymer clay, and mixed media). The total number of projects is 47, wow! Look for the book out in fall 2010, published by Creative Publishing International.