The Bead&Button Show

Are you headed to the Bead&Button Show? This annual bead extravaganza win Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is like a journey to the magic kingdom for so many beaders and crafters. There are days and days of classes with a dizzying array of techniques, and all the dream instructors you wish you could learn from. The big treat for many, however, is the vendor hall. It's a bazaar of beads, findings and parts; like the best flea market ever (if you are a beader!)

I've never been to this show. While I have a from-way-back friend who lives just an hour away, the timing of the show is always awkward for me. Here in the South, our schools get out a bit later than they do in the MidWest, so early June is the time of year when I'm writing thank you cards for teachers, and creating those end-of-year gifts. Don't get me wrong, I DO love a big bead extravaganza, and I'd love to someday teach a class there or just wander the halls, but for now, here, my first choice of a thing to do in early June is writing those thank-you's to the teachers that have made my daughter's lives better this year. 

Are you going? I'd love to have you visit our friends at Da Beads. They'll have a table with some pretty things you'll love, and you can even use this coupon to get in free:  

Just print it out using your 'print screen' button and fill it in...voila, free admission!

Have fun!

I'm holding the RDU Baton on Monday, June 9th

Do you know about the RDU Baton? This is a shared Instagram account that passes, daily, from person to person around the Triangle. The photos highlight different places and spaces in the area, and the person holding the baton each day writes a bit about their experience of living in the Triangle. This is one of my FAVORITE Instagram accounts to follow. Each day I seen something new, or see something in a new way. Each person has their own special take on the triangle; there have been runners, and dog-walkers, architects and real estate agents, school-teachers, craft beer nerds and tech workers. So far, I haven't seen a crafty day on the RDU Baton, so that's what I'm planning.

I'm so excited to say I will be holding the RDU Baton next Monday. I already have a list of some amazing crafty places I want to show off, but I'd love it if you have some more to suggest. Please leave your favorite crafty places in the comments below...maybe I'll be able visit them on Monday and photograph them for the RDU Baton!

You can visit the RDU Baton site here and be sure to follow both @rdubaton and @ornamentea (that's me!) on Instagram.

Gnomes!!!

Updated to include tutorial instructions and a kit purchase option!

This past weekend I decided to make something with my girls. It had been a while since we'd done a big, cover-the-kitchen-table crafty morning and I needed it. I think they needed it, too.

My girls and I make things all the time, but as they've gotten older, they are much more independent in their making. We may all be in the studio, or the kitchen, creating, but we are not often creating the same thing. It was fun to work through the steps together and have them each, independently, making their own versions of the gnomes. My seven-year-old decided the gnomes MUST have feet and arms. The wine cork bodies weren't enough. She got out 16 gauge wire and wire cutters, a bench block and hammer, and beads to make tiny feet wearing bead 'boots.'  My eleven-year-old grabbed colored yarn and made hers with stripey hair, to match a favorite Manga character. Then she added feet wearing roving-wrapped boots to hers. We shared scissors and a glue gun, passed the seed bead jar around and tried not to stick ourselves with the felting needles. 

My crafty momma-heart was in heaven. 

I could have made gnomes all day, snug around the table with my daughters. 

What we used:

Felt balls (these are all pretty, but any colors will do)

Wool roving (you can find it here)

Felting needles and a pad for working

Seed beads for the eyes, sewn on with these needles and this thread

Yarn and fabric and ribbon scraps for the scarves, we have ribbon mix bags here that would be perfect

Wine corks (we had those lying around, but if you don't, try asking a friend or checking with a local wine store, they will have them!)

Scissors, glue gun

I will publish a tutorial for these on Friday (12/20/13) and you can receive a free copy in our Newsletter (subscribe here.)

I'll also be teaching how to make this gnome at our shop, December 20-24th. We are having a Crammin' For Christmas make-a-thon and this is going to be one of the fun make-n-takes. Join me if you can!

UPDATE

click the picture for the full tutorial

Shop for kits, including paper hats and tiny paper instruments right here. 

Make a photo pendant with us this weekend!

Bring a 32x28mm photo to Ornamentea this weekend and you can make a sweet photo pendant necklace for just $5. We'll have the resin, and the assistance, you need to create a wonderful keepsake for Mom, Grandma or anyone.

Click here to download a photo template good for all our bezels.

Pendant necklace making will be available
Friday 12-8
Saturday 10-5
Sunday 12-5

Here's a video showing you how to make one of these pendants:

Dresser Redo Inspiration - How To Make A Plain Dresser Fabulous

My daughters have a dresser in their bedroom that is in sad need of a redo. It's a good, sturdy wooden dresser we picked up at a used furniture store for a very good price, mostly because the top and front were subjected to a bit of abuse over the years. I intended to paint it a solid bright tangerine orange when we purchased it last year but then both my girls objected to the color and they couldn't agree to any color. I vetoed their suggestion of pink with kelly green polka dots as too-too. Is is their room, so I do give them a vote but I get ultimate veto power!

This dresser from Bryoni Porter is so inspiring to me. I think I could do that very nicely with Decopatch papers and it would be appealing.  Their walls are very pale cocoa brown (they picked the color) and the wooden floor has a diagonal brown-and-white checkerboard pattern so a big pop of colors from bright Decopatch papers would be nice. I could do the top in a solid color or just one style of paper.

This chest is also from Bryoni Porter and I swear they are the butterflies from this Cavalini paper...

All her work is amazing. I love that big pattern-mixy thing and if I was in Britain I'd be sorely tempted to indulge...

To do this kind of a dresser re-do, I'd use a mix of Decopatch papers like this (their dresser would take three assortments, and below I'll tell you how to figure out how much paper you need for any dresser.)  I'd also use the Decopatch varnish, as that stuff is SUPER durable and very waterproof, which is perfect for a dresser that will take a lot of abuse!

I just want to take a second here to say why I would NOT recommend Mod-Podge for this kind of project. Good old M-P, as we call it in our house, is a fabulous thing BUT not where wear-and-tear are concerned. Mod Podge is basically a version of Elmer's white glue. Remember that fabulous glue from elementary school? It covers nicely, is cheap and WASHES OUT. Any glue that will wash out of clothing or a second-grader's hair cannot be considered permanent. If I spend $$$ on papers and time to cover a piece of furniture in my house, I really want it to be permanent.

So, what about you? Would you have a dresser like this in your home? Do you have an opinion on Mod-Podge? If you do, share it with me in the comments section below. I'd love to know!

How to determine how much paper you need for a dresser-

in  inches:
measure the top from front to back and then from side to side, then multiply these two numbers (T)
measure the front from side to side and then from top to bottom, then multiply these two numbers (F)
measure the side from top to bottom and then from front to back, then multiply these two numbers (S)

add up (T) + (F) + (S) + (S) = a big number
multiply that big number by 1.5

Your total number will be in square inches and will tell you how many square inches of paper you need to do your project.
Don't be discouraged but the huge number you have.
Divide your big number by 165, that will tell you how many sheets you need.
Decopatch papers are sold in 15x11 inch sheets. That's 165 square inches per sheet.

Note: My measurement does not include any drawer sides or the insides of the legs. The extra that you get by multiplying the whole number by 1.5 accounts for and trimming and edging.

Inspired By Nature Retreat

You know I love the idea of a craft retreat...getting away for a few days, or a week, to focus on your work and learn a few new techniques is endlessly appealing to me. I tend to get my work done in short, hours-long bursts of caffeine-and-wine-fueled fury. Sometimes I get a friend to help me (thank you, Stacy!) but often I'm all alone, working into the wee hours. The companionship and group growth of a retreat is something I look forward to enjoying a lot, someday. With my children still pretty young I don't get to head out on my  own as often as I might like...but a mom can dream!

The Inspired By Nature Retreat with Heather Powers and Erin Prais-Hinz looks like a fabulous way to spend a weekend. The leaves will be at their peak, the projects are naturally-themed and the teachers will be great...

Ahh, if you go, send me pictures, okay?

Check out the retreat registration page here...

Teacher Gift Ideas

Years and years ago I was a classroom teacher.

I loved my students (mostly) and the parents (generally) but I dreaded the end-of-the-year gifts. Sometimes, rarely, there would be the handwritten note from a parent or child. Those were my favorites and I still treasure them. Once I received a plant to tuck into my home garden. It was a pretty verigated sedum. That was really nice. I was often given home-baked goods (yummy!) and once even a hand-made bird house that I adored. Usually, though, I received Best Teacher Ever mugs filled with candy. Or Best Teacher Ever tote bags. There were countless Best Teacher Ever tee-shirt-clad teddy bears and stuffed cats and, once, a Best Teacher Ever throw pillow.

Now, perhaps all my students imagined me at home over the summer, sipping tea in a mug from from my Best Teacher Ever mug collection, casually reclining on my Best Teacher Ever throw pillow while I contemplated a wall of Best Teacher Ever tee-shirt-clad teddy bears. Perhaps they could see me, heading out the door for fun summer activities with my Best Teacher Ever tote bag casually slung over my arm, a second cup of tea in my Best Teacher Ever travel mug.

They were wrong.

While I did appreciate the sentiment, the pre-printed platitudes made me feel like the WORST teacher ever. Heck, I was an ART teacher. What about making me a drawing? Something out of paper mache? A note saying "Thank you for teaching me not to cut my hand off with the X-acto knife' would have been pretty cool.

Now, I'm on the other end of the gift-giving. My daughters both have had wonderful teachers at their Montessori school and we are about to jump up to a new room for both of them. For the last 3 years they have each been with these wonderful women who have taught them so much and had such a profound influence on their lives. Of course, I can't just give them mugs, or tote bags, unless they are some amazing locally-crafted goodness. I will write those notes, and so will my daughters, but I'll also give them jewelry. I'll make something myself, and hope they like it.

If you have teachers that need gifts soon then you may want to check out these projects. I promise all of them are way better than the World's Best Teacher tee-shirt you saw at Target last week.
Yes, I've written about this before. It's kind of a personal mission of mine to end junky teacher gifts!

brushes-painting on the porch...

Alter A Book - Alter Your Outlook

Are you thinking a lot about what you could do, what you'd like to do, what you should do in 2011? Sometimes working through your intentions with artwork can help you to focus and clarify what you want.  I think this on line class with artist Dawn Meisch looks perfect for you if you are trying to push yourself in a new, creative direction.

 

The class explores collage and surface treatments, embellishment and page design through the creation of an altered board book. The class includes videos, project ideas, techniques and a forum where class members can share their ideas and questions and post pictures of their work in progress. The class is only $30.

find out more about the class here

Image from Dawn Meisch

Stealing a few minutes...

Today our store is closed. No beadfreaks have questions, not a single vendor needs an authorization, no boxes will clear customs. The printer won't call. No orders will be packed. No products will be priced. No samples will be made. The UPS guy won't have a damaged box for me to inspect. No articles will be edited. We won't shoot a video tutorial. I won't help a fledgling artist with pricing, make a pot of coffee for a customer or take out the trash. I'll wear my jammies all day, cook a giant meal and spend the entire time with some of my favorite people in the whole wide world.

I love Christmas.

I hope you are having a great day.

Note: this was written in advance, and posted using top-secret technology. That picture? It was taken by Cleo a few weeks ago. Nora is cutting paper snowflakes for our window.

Note #2 We just might get SNOW in North Carolina today. On Christmas. I cannot describe the joy this brings me as a Midwesterner. Wow.

Something I should have ordered already...

Ahh, this has happened for the past few years.

We don't do a whole lot of crazy holiday decorating at my house. The girls made 1,000 snowflakes (I'm estimating) from scrap paper. We have a tiny tree that we decorate with little felt animals and handmade pictures of snow or friends or even, this year, a purple mouse (drawn by Nora.) We have a seasonal table with white and snowy items which is the scene for many tiny adventures involving teeny dolls. We clutter our mantle with holiday pictures and greeting cards and fill the fruit bowl with apples and pears. Voila!




Then, a few days before Christmas my family gets out all the tiny stocking gifts we've been making and hoarding for each other to wrap and I remember, d-oh! No stockings.

I want to have beautiful, handmade Christmas stockings for my family and I keep forgetting until, oh, about December 21st. Um, that's too late to make them and too late to order some. Yeah, I know we could just run out to the dollar store and get a few of those fluffy red-and-white imported ones but that wouldn't make me very happy. We do actually have ONE fluffy red stocking that we share between the whole family (we put the gifts inside and put names on them, plus have an overflow basket) but that's getting cumbersome. One year we used my husband's (clean) camping socks and they got stretched out. Not festive at all...


So, this year I am going to order six of these stockings from my old friend, Crispina Ffrench. Her super-fluffy pothholder rug greets my toes each day when I get out of bed. My daughters were both wrapped in and played on a soft-as-butter recycled cashmere sweater rug she made for us.  I think these stockings will be perfect for our gifts when we use them NEXT year. Wow, I'm planning ahead! what a concept.

By the way, the amazing and talented Crispina teaches workshops on sweater recycling at the Alchemy Initiative, a cooperative craft space in Pittsfield, MA.

If I was close enough, I'd attend her adult/child scarf workshop on December 29th. If you are close enough, you should go. Read more about Crispina here.

Santa's Laundry Felted Decoration Project Idea

This cute bit of decor is perfect for keeping your family busy after dinner on Thursday. What? no, really, why not hand them the wool, the directions and a few felting needles. You can go take a nap. Perfect.

Find the directions here, you may need to scroll down a bit!

Need some other ideas for the whole family after the big meal? Try this link.

Time for fall clothes, really...

Okay, tell the truth-did you drag your winter clothing boxes out this past weekend? I did. Out came sweaters, long-sleeved shirts and some dresses I forgot about but really like. I unpacked socks, scarves, and two sweaters. I packed away most of my sleeveless shirts and bright-colored linen skirts. I couldn't pack them all away because I AM GOING TO THE BEACH NEXT WEEK. Oh, sorry, did I shout that? Anyway, after I did my boxes I pulled down the girl's boxes and went through their clothes. Away went most of the lightweight sundresses, tee shirts and shorts. Our house is small and we (all four of us) share the one clothes closet* so we have to do a seasonal shift. I stand in the closet every morning, somehow without my family knowing where I am, looking over my clothes and figuring out what I will wear that day. It is peaceful.

So I pulled down the boxes and found some nice surprises. Shoes I forgot. Those dresses I love to wear. A pair of jeans and a scarf I forgot about. Even the girl's clothing was a pleasant joy. Somehow my 7 (almost 8!) year old can wear just about everything from last winter. I am jealous. She has a big wardrobe of dresses and leggings and jeans and tee shirts and sweaters. The 4 year old always has way too many clothes between big sister hand-me-downs, friend hand-me-downs, grandparent gifts and the inevitable purchases that I make to account for her slightly different taste than big sister or to fill in the gaps. My girls both have interesting styles of dressing; big sister is good at matching odd items and she comes up with new outfits that surprise me on a regular basis. Little sister wants sparkle and twirl and she does NOT mix-and-match. If a shirt 'goes with' a skirt they must be worn together. Every time. Since her wardrobe is 99% hand-me-down this means that the outfits usually are composed of items that didn't originally match each other. She decides that one shirt and one bottom are a set and they just are. And she remembers it.

I am much more like older daughter. I mix things up differently almost every time. I sometimes stand in my closet and think 'wait, what did I wear this skirt with the last time because I liked that combo...' I read once about a woman who would take a polaroid of herself in every outfit and put them on a bulletin board in her closet so she could remember what she liked to wear. Aside from the shock at having a closet big enough to hold a bulletin board, this idea seems to me like it would rob me of those five minutes of peace, standing in the closet and figuring out what I was going to wear.

So, did you pull out your warm clothes yet?

*honesty compels me to admit that we do have two walk-in closets in our house but the other one holds mostly craft materials. A family has to have priorities.

Join us for an Enameling Slumber Party on August 13th at Ornamentea. You'll explore enameling on copper with our newest product line-vitreous glass enamels from Thompson Enamels. You'll make five starry enameled charms with a rainbow of colors and we can help you turn them into earrings or add them to a chain for a necklace or bracelet. 

This is a great way to spend a night out being creative and learning something new. 

Please pre-register for this event by calling our store at 919-834-6260.  We expect this event to fill up, so don't delay.

What's a Slumber Party entail?

• delicious food and beverages
• a fun project
• we don't actually sleep at the store, but you could stay nearby at the Clarion if you want to
• and remember, pj's are optional!

furry friends

I know you've read all my chat about my chickens and they are my 'favorite' pets for many reasons but I am also a fan of furrier friends. I've loved dogs and cats and I know that some day my family will probably include another four-pawed member. Right now, with my girls young and a business to run the chickens are just perfect for us.

This doesn't mean that my daughters don't long for a dog. They do. They petition, beg, plead, supplicate and engage in every other form of persuasive discourse. When their pleas get very bad we visit the SPCA so they can pet some fur and enjoy the company of dogs. I know it seems like that would make our puppy-longing worse, but it actually helps.

On one of our recent visits a lovely volunteer recognized us and began telling me about the volunteer program. Well, actually what she did was hand me a pamphlet about the volunteer program and say (to my seven-year-old daughter) 'Our volunteer program is open to anyone seven or older, how old are you?' Sparkles. Fireworks. Joy.

That is how I found myself in a classroom at the SPCA last Saturday morning listening to the beginnings of the volunteer orientation. I learned about the incredibly important role of volunteers in the organization and about how they contribute to the daily life of the animals before they find their 'Forever Homes.' I learned about how volunteers work with the dogs and cats, bunnies and rats to keep them socialized, stimulated and stroked. I was really impressed with all that the organization does to put these homeless animals into good homes. No, I didn't leave with a dog but I did leave with a schedule of dates for my daughter and I to go scoop some litter, wash some windows, toss some balls and even fold some laundry. We can hardly wait to help!

For more information about the SPCA please visit their website.
Click the picture above to make a quick donation!

Felt Flower Hairbands

These easy decorated hair bands are keeping my girlies cool in hot weather. We sew them together by stitching right through the hair elastic with a needle and some thread. The sewing is pretty simple; my 7-year old can do one in about ten minutes. Her 4-year old sister has trouble getting the needle through the felt flower, but she picks out the color combinations.

Get some flowers of your own, right here.

Piano Hammer Necklaces

We'll be sponsoring a children's craft booth at the Crosscurrents Festival Music Day at Marbles on Saturday, July 3rd. The festival has hands-on music activities for children and adults and is a full day of fun. There are instruments to try, music-reading lessons and musicians galore. This is our project for the day; a necklace made out of a piano hammer. Did you know pianos even have hammers? Join us and learn all about it!

Are you a crafty mom? Enter this contest...

Parents Magazine is looking for a crafty mom...you can enter with your original crafty children's project and photos.

Visit this page for the full contest details.

Sweet Bird On The Nest necklace idea...

Click here for the full how-to and a free, downloadable PDF tutorial.
A great gift for Mother's Day!
Tweet-tweet!

Scrap Fabric Flower Project

Snow is here...just a few tiny flakes are falling. My hubby is in the kitchen stirring up some popcorn for us. We are going to sit in the dark living room and watch the snow fall while the girls are sleeping. Peaceful. Romantic even. When they wake in the morning it will be all squeals and squeaks and not peaceful or romantic.

I thought I'd find a few new crafty activities to keep them busy when they come in tomorrow afternoon, wet and cold from the snow. We'll have hot cocoa and then make things...ahh, a perfect snow day!

I fell in love with this fabric scrap flower idea from Cut-Out-And-Keep. I think I will make a few for me using some silk dupioni ribbons. More lux than scrappy!