Trick or Treat Goody Card - DIY Video featuring Judi Watanabe

This week's WCK All-Star Designers Holiday Series episode features Judi Watanabe from Judikins!  Judi shares this adorable trick or treat Halloween card with a pocket for a treat!  

etchall® Day of the Dead Decorative Mirror

Day of the Dead crafts are growing in popularity - this mirror combines a variety of mixed media for a finished piece which will make a colorful accent to you home.

Materials:

9" Darice Mirror 

etchall® - Etching Cream, Squeegee 

              - etchnet® stencil - Sugar Skull 

Painters tape 

Makin’s Clay® - Red, Yellow, Green 

                        - Leaves Push mold 

Smoothfoam™ Disc 

DecoArt® Americana® Multi-Surface Satin™ - Deep Turqouise 

Beacon® Adhesives Tacky Glue 

Toner Plastics™/The Beadery® Skull Beads  Paintbrush 

Instructions:

This was my first time working with the new etchnet® stencils with etchall® cream - and I’m happy to say that the results were absolutely fantastic - one of the cleanest, crispest etches I’ve ever achieved!

Apply etchnet® sugar skull stencil to left side of mirror.  Use painters tape to securely tape in place, ensuring there are no ripples in the stencil. 

Pour etchall® cream on the side of the stencil - NOT ON THE OPEN AREA - Use squeeegee to pull etching cream over onto open areas of stencil, pressing slightly to ensure the cream is evenly applied though the net of the stencil.  Once you are sure you have a good even application over the open areas of the stencil, apply an additional coat of etchall® over the stencil.  Let set 15 minutes.  Return etching cream to bottle, rinse to remove remaining cream and remove stencil.  Clean any remaining cream from stencil and set aside for later use (etchnet® stencils are re-usable). 

Create multiple roses approximately 1” in size from red and yellow Makin’s Clay®.  There are multiple tutorials online for making roses with polymer clay and/or fondant - it really is quite simple!   

Use leaves push mold and green Makin’s Clay® to create multiple leaves for the roses. 

Use Beacon® Tacky Glue to mount roses and leaves as desired on left edge of mirror, extending above and below the etched skull.   Leaves and flowers can be mounted when the clay is still fresh, or after dry (normally the clay will be dry in 24 hours). 

Use Tacky Glue to mount blue skull beads randomly amongst the flowers.  Let dry.

Paint sides of Smoothfoam™ disc with Turquoise Multi-Surface Satin™ paint.  Let dry. 

Apply liberal amount of Tacky Glue to top of Smoothfoam™ disc and mount mirror.  The disc will give added depth when the mirror is mounted to a wall. 

One Skull - Two Ways - Gothic/Day of the Dead Keychain

Today on the Makin's Clay® blog I'm sharing instructions on how to create this Gothic Skull/Day of the Dead Keychain with Makin's Clay® and DecoArt® products - whether you like it plain and creepy, or colorful and ready to celebrate - it's a super easy project that would make a fun pendant too.  Just in time for Halloween!

Haunted Mausoleum Birdhouse

This week for my Cindi's Simple Solutions project on When Creativity Knocks - I'm sharing this creepy fun project.....

Just in time for Halloween, add a little spooky glow to your mantle this season with this Haunted Mausoleum Birdhouse!  

Materials:

Plaid® - Wooden birdhouse 

            - FolkArt® Home Decor Chalk Paint - Maui Sand, Rich Black

            - FolkArt® Home Decor Antique Wax

Makin’s Clay® - Black

                - Cutting Mat 

                - Ultimate Clay Machine™

                - Professional® Clay tools 

                - Texture Sheet Set D - Woodgrain Sheet 

                        - Easter Clay Cutter - Cross Cutter

Beacon Adhesives® Tacky Glue 

Spellbinders® Grand Calibur™ Machine - Graveyard Scene & Shapes Die 

X-Acto craft knife 

Skull mold (special thanks to my Fairy Craftmother for mine!) 

Skull bead 

Paintbrush 

Paper towels 

Spanish Moss

Charcoal grey paper/card stock 

Battery operated votive 

Spiderwebbing 

Plastic wrap 

Instructions: 

1. Paint entire birdhouse with Plaid® FolkArt® Home Decor Maui Sand Chalk Paint.  Let dry. 

2. Roll black Makin’s Clay® with Ultimate Clay Machine™ to setting #7 (or hand roll very thin - about 1/16”).   Use Woodgrain texture sheet to gently impress texture onto rolled clay.  Using cutting mat as a guide, use cutter to cut 2 x 2cm squares.  Apply Beacon® Tacky Glue to surface of roof, then begin applying squares, overlapping some, to create look of shingles.  Let dry. 

3. Dry brush shingles with Maui Sand chalk paint.  

4. Use black clay in skull push mold to create skull. 

5. Flatten piece of black clay (I used my fingers, as I wanted an uneven appearance) to about 1/4”.  Place plastic wrap over clay, and cut cross using clay cutter. (Tip - Plastic wrap makes it easy to remove the clay from the clay cutter!) 

6.  Dry brush skull and cross with Maui Sand chalk paint.

7.  Use Tacky Glue to mount skull to front top of birdhouse, over opening, and cross to roof peak.

8. Flatten piece of black clay (I used my fingers, as I wanted an uneven appearance) to about 1/4”.  Use clay tool to write/etch desired word into clay.  Trim around word.  Dry brush with Maui Sand chalk paint.  Use Tacky Glue to mount to birdhouse beneath skull. 

9. Mix small amount of Rich Black and small amount of Maui Sand chalk paint to create darker grey.  Paint door onto front of birdhouse over hole on bottom.  Outline door in black, and paint center line to divide door.    

10. Use paper towel to apply small amount of Antique Wax to all surfaces except roof.  Wipe to remove excess.   

11.  Use Spellbinders® Grand Calibur™ and Graveyard Scene & Shapes die to cut 4 graveyards from charcoal paper.

12.  Apply Tacky Glue to top of bottom piece of birdhouse, mount Spanish moss.  

13.  Apply Tacky Glue to outside edge of bottom piece of birdhouse, mount graveyard scenes over edge around base, leaving a space for the “front step” of the mausoleum. 

14.  Add skull bead accent to front step. 

15.  Add spiderwebs as desired. 

16.  Optional:  To make your Haunted Mausoleum glow - use a sturdy craft knife to cut an opening in the bottom of the birdhouse.  The birdhouses are made from lightweight wood so this is possible if do with caution. (or else your mausoleum will come complete with blood stains!) 

Spoooooky Pumpkin Full of Fun and More! DCC Blog Hop time!

I LOVE Halloween!  I love Halloween decorations, costumes, the creepy and silly fun of it all.  No gifts required, no stress, no big meals to prepare and clean up.  Just family fun, not taking life too seriously.    I have created a lot of Halloween projects over the years, most of which you can find here on my blog.  My last 3 blog posts highlight some of them including fabric pumpkins, a witch's apothecary, and a bottle of "boo-s".   This month the Designer Craft Connection Blog Hop theme is Halloween Decorations. I've been out of town taping the latest series of When Creativity Knocks and didn't get my newest project finished in time but I knew exactly what I wanted to share with you all today!  This AMAZING pumpkin panorama is full of fun pieces created with Makin's Clay®!  It was designed by artist Patricia Krauchune.  Patricia is a fabulous polymer clay artist who specializes in Steampunk designs, at least I used to think so, but now that I've seen this, I think she specializes in SPOOKY FUN projects!  :0)     You can find a link to Patricia's original post with this project here on her blog. I encourage you to follow her blog as she is always sharing new projects to inspire you!

Be sure to follow the Designer Craft Connection link in the column to the right to see what other spooky fun decorations our participating designers are sharing with you today!  For an even quicker way to access our participating designers - check out the Designer Craft Connection blog here! 

 Happy Halloween!!!!!

The awesome coffin full of bones below is actually 3-D and has depth - which you can see better in this "in progress" photo - Pat hand made the pieces using a number of techniques including liquifying the clay! 

Hard Liquor and a Hammer Oughta Fix That!

Hard Liquor and a Hammer oughta fix that!  Every girl should have her own tool box..... for so many reasons lol!   Created this card with another fun Jimbo Lojik™ verse and Makin's Clay®!  

Materials: 

KellyCraft™ - Jimbo Lojik™ Set E

            - Get-it-Straight™ Laser Square

                    - Multi-Mat™

Makin’s Clay® - White, Tools Push Mold 

DecoArt® - Dazzling Metallics™ Shimmering Silver, Crafter’s Acrylic™ - Raw Umber 

Tool patterned paper, white crackled paint patterned paper

Gray card stock

Beacon Adhesives® Tacky Glue 

Clearsnap® ColorBox® Crafter’s Ink - Night 

Foam tape 

Westcott® Titanium Bonded Non-Stick Scissors, Trim-air Trimmer 

Instructions:

Open package of white Makin’s Clay®.   Press clay into tools push mold, remove and let dry.  Store unused clay in zip lock bag with damp paper towel or bay wipe.  When I am push molding pieces, I always make extra with remaining clay so I have a stash to go to for future projects…..

Paint hammer with Dazzling Metallics™ Shimmering Silver and Crafter’s Acrylic Raw Umber.  Let dry. 

Cut gray card stock to desired size and fold in half to form card. 

Cut piece of tool patterned paper and use Get-it-Straight™ Laser Square to align and mount to center of card front.

Ink Hard Liquor and a Hammer verse with black ink and use Get-it-Straight™ Laser Square to align and stamp onto white crackled paint patterned paper.  Trim around verse. 

Ink edges of verse with black ink. 

Cut grey card stock mat about 1/8” larger on all sides than verse.  Use Laser Square to mount to bottom front of card about 1/4” from bottom edge. 

Use Laser Square to align and mount verse centered onto mat.

Cut mat for clay hammer and mount hammer with Tacky Glue.  Use Get-it-Straight™ Laser Square to align and mount on top right front of card as shown.  

ADORNit® Blog Hop - Illuminated Spring Flower Blossoms

I'm excited to be a part of the ADORNit® Blog Hop!  I received an amazing box of product from AdornIt and the hardest part was to first decide WHAT I wanted to work with.  I decided for this first project I would focus on the Blender Basics paper pack.  But, I've also been working on several other projects with some of the fabric and other papers they sent - so stay tuned!

These Illuminated Spring Blossoms are a pretty way to usher in warmer spring days.  Display them near a sunny window for a little springtime cheer, and when the sun goes down and the day starts to darken - turn on the lights in the centers and watch the warm sunny glow illuminated from within the flowers themselves!

Be sure to follow through and see what the other participating designers are sharing.   The next person's blog to visit on your journey is Jennifer Priest.  ADORNit® is also offering a great prize package to a lucky winner who visits all the projects on this hop!  Your Give-Away Clue for this post is: "Y".

Materials:

ADORNit® Blender Basics Paper Pack
FloraCraft® Design It:® SimpleStyle® LED Lighted Branch
Sizzix® Big Shot™, Eileen Hull Bigz™ Flower 3-D Wrapped, Flourish & Leaf
Makin's Clay® - 120g White, Floral Push Mold
DecoArt® Americana® Decor™ Chalky Finish Paint - New Life
Clearsnap® ColorBox® Crafter's Ink Pad - Sweet Pea, Jungle
Earth Safe Finishes™ Ann Butler Designs™ Iridescents - Sunshine
Offray® Ribbon - 7/8" Glitter Pink
Westcott® Titanium-Bonded Non-Stick Scissors
Beacon® Tacky Glue
Vintage Blue Mason Jar
Paintbrush, craft sponge

Instructions:

Paint LED lighted branch with green Chalky Finish paint.  Let dry.

Use Big Shot™ Machine and Flower 3-D Wrapped die to cut multiple From pink patterned papers in ADORNit® Blender Basics pack.  Number of flowers cut will depend on number of finished flowers. For the 7 flowers I made, I cut 10 large size, and 11 small.

Use Big Shot™ Machine and Flourish & Leaf die to cut multiple leaves from assorted green patterned papers in ADORNit® Blender Basics pack.

Sponge edges of pink flowers with Sweet Pea ink, edges of leaves with Jungle ink.

Assemble flowers per instructions on die - for five I used 2 large flowers and one small for the centers; for two of the flowers I layered 3 of the small.

Mount flowers, using Tacky Glue, to the end of each branch with the light in the center of the flower.

Mount leaves randomly to each branch and to the stem.

Open 120g white Makin's Clay® and cut about 1/4" of package.  Place remaining clay in zip lock bag with damp paper towel for later use.  Use floral push mold to create 7 flowers for centers of paper flowers.  Carefully push end of paint brush through the center of each clay flower while wet to create hole for the light.

Paint flowers with Sunshine Iridescents paint.  Let dry.

Carefully insert each clay flower over the light, use Tacky Glue to hold in center of flowers.

Add batteries per instructions and insert floral branch into blue mason jar, add white tissue paper to cover the wire and battery pack.

Tie glitter pink ribbon around rim of jar and tie bow.

All-Star Designers Winter Series: Valentine Treat Mason Jars

This week in the WCK All-Star Designer Winter Series I'm sharing three versions of "Valentine Treat Mason Jars featuring products from Makin's Clay®, Etchall®, DecoArt®, Kunin Felt, Beacon Adhesives, JudiKins, The Buckle Boutique and more.

Love This! Valentine Heart Clay Earrings

This week the Designer Craft Connection's blog hop theme is "Love This!"  We were asked to share projects featuring something we love - a product, tool, technique, etc.   I'm sharing a project featuring several products I love, and a few techniques too!

Be sure to follow the Designer Craft Connection link in the column on the right to see what other creative projects the designers are sharing!









Materials (A few that I LOVE!):

Makin's Clay® - White & Red
                         - Clay roller, Heart Cutter Set
Connie Crystals - red and clear
Beacon® Adhesives 527
JudiKins French Script rubber stamp
Clearsnap® Ann Butler's Crafter's® Ink -
Silver French earring wires, silver flat head pins
Jewelry pliers

Instructions:

Mix small amount of white and red clay to swirl and create shades of pink.  Roll thin (approximately 1/8" thick.  I love blending clay and leaving it slightly swirled - I think the effect is so pretty and each piece is totally unique. 

Ink script stamp with red ink and stamp into rolled clay.   Use medium heart cutter to cut 4 hearts.  Let dry (should only take an hour or so since clay is rolled so thin).  I love to rubber stamp Makin's Clay® - you can stamp it when it's wet or dry - use the stamp to make impressions in wet clay, etc.  Endless creative options!   And this JudiKins French Script stamp is truly one of my must have stamps - I've used it on so many projects I've lost count! 

Cover back of 2 hearts with Beacon 527.  Place flat head pin with head at base of back of heart.  Place second heart on top to seal pin within.  Let dry.  Beacon's 527 is one of my "go-to" adhesives - it works on virtually anything, is super strong, and dries clear! 

Add clear crystal bead and then red crystal bead.  Create loop at top of pin.  Add to earring wires.  Connie Crystals are a great embellishment for many projects - I love having them in my creative stash to go to for not just jewelry, but paper crafts, mixed-media and more! 

Duck Commander® & Makin's Clay® Ornaments

Have friends or family that love to watch Duck Dynasty® or just love the Robertson family values? 

Make them a fun set of holiday ornaments to trim their tree with Makin's Clay® and Duck Commander® stamps from KellyCraft™.

Materials:

KellyCraft™- 
Duck Commander® Wood - Faith, Family, Ducks
Duck Commander® Wood - Duckaholics Anonymous        
Duck Commander® Clear Polymer Set 1
KellyCraft™- Get-it-Straight™ Laser Square
                     - Multi-Mat™
Makin's Clay® - White
Makin's Professional® Ultimate Clay Machine®
DecoArt® Metallic Lustre™ - Gold
Black Staz-On Inkpad
Westcott® Titanium Bonded Non-Stick scissors
Jute twine, ribbons or dyed fabric strips

Instructions:

1. Remove white clay from packaging and use Ultimate Clay Machine® to roll to approximately 1/8" thick.  Place on Multi-Mat™ (the non-stick, self-healing Multi-Mat™ is the perfect surface for working with the clay!).

2. Ink stamps with black Staz-On ink and stamp onto clay.

3. Use star cutters to cut around stamped images.

4. Use duck cutter to cut shape.

5. Ink "Faith Family Ducks" stamp with black ink.  Use Get-it-Straight™ Laser Square to align stamping and cover surface of duck shape.

6. Use straw to make holes for hanging ornaments.

7. Use fingertip to apply gold Metallic Lustre around outside edges of stars, allowing some to overlap onto ornament front, and apply sparingly over surface of duck ornament over stamped text.

8. Add jute twine, coordinating ribbons or dyed fabric strips (I dyed white cotton sheet fabric with Rit Dye to create these strips - I often use excess dye used for other projects to dye extra fabric to use for ribbon in future projects).

On the Set of When Creativity Knocks All-Star Designers' Summer Series

On Monday, June 30th, Ana Araujo, Scott Pfeiffer, Judi Watanabe, Marisa Pawelko, Elena Lai Etchevery and I taped the WCK All-Star Designers' Summer Series!  We had 11 sponsors this time - and it was a true challenge combining all of their creative product into our projects!  Thanks to Westcott, JudiKins, AdTech, Beacon Adhesives, Makin's Clay, Rowlux, The Buckle Boutique, Etchall, DecoArt, MercArt, and Sizzix!
You are going to be amazed at some of the projects these creative artists have in store for you - and I am amazed, as always, at how Scott Pfeiffer performs the magic of transforming 9 hours of taping into streamlined episodes of the show!   The first episode airs on July 8th so stay tuned!

Makin's Clay® Groovy Flowers Earrings

Find the how-to instructions to create your own pair of Groovy Flower Earrings on the Makin's Clay® blog - http://makinsclayblog.blogspot.com/2014/06/makins-clay-groovy-flower-earrings.html

Bluebird of Happiness Baby Shower Video

In this episode of the WCK All-Star Designers Spring Series, I share an idea for combining products from Makin's Clay®, Rit Dye®,  Smoothfoam™, Halcraft®, DecoArt®, JudiKins, Westcott® and AdTech to create a baby room banner - view the episode here:

http://whencreativityknocks.com/mycraftspace/m/videos/view/All-Star-Designers-Spring-Series-Bluebird-of-Happiness-Baby-Shower

Sunflower Topped Mason Jar

Find full instructions on how to create this sunflower topped mason jar with Makin's Clay® on their blog here - http://www.makinsclayblog.blogspot.com/2014/04/sunflower-topped-mason-jar.html

Faux Succulents & Tiered Plate Centerpiece with Jonathan Fong!

In this week's WCK All-Star Designers Spring Series amazing designer Jonathan Fong shows us how to create a great tiered plate centerpiece painted with DecoArt's Americana Decor Chalky Paint (LOVE it!) and clever faux succulent party favors with Makin's Clay® - you can view it here:

http://whencreativityknocks.com/mycraftspace/m/videos/view/All-Star-Designers-Spring-Series-Tiered-Plate-Centerpiece

Egg-Stravaganza!

http://whencreativityknocks.com/mycraftspace/m/videos/view/All-Star-Designers-Spring-Series-Egg-Stravaganza

The first episode of the WCK All-Star Designers' Spring series is now live!   Hop on over to WCK to see what creative projects Ana Araujo, Laura Bray, Jonathan Fong, Judi Watanabe, and I created featuring products from Westcott, Makin's Clay, Smoothfoam, JudiKins, AdTech, Halcraft, DecoArt, Etchall, and Rit Dye!   This week's episode is a "mash-up" - we've each created something and shared a quick how-to.  In the coming weeks, we'll be sharing individual project episodes with more in-depth instructions on how to create the projects.  We are also choosing a weekly winner from everyone registered on our site to receive our weekly newsletter to receive a prize box full of goodies from our sponsors so don't miss your chance to win some of these fun products!

Season of Green Earrings

Find out how I combined Makin's Clay®, Connie Crystal & EarthSafe Finishes to create these Season of Green earrings today on the Makin's Clay® blog - http://makinsclayblog.blogspot.com/2014/03/season-of-green-earrings.html

http://makinsclayblog.blogspot.com/2014/03/season-of-green-earrings.html

Trim the Tree with WCK's All-Star Designers' Holiday Series

Another episode of the WCK All-Star Designers' Holiday Series is now live and you'll discover 5 fun ways to add a hand-made touch to your holiday tree!  We start with Jonathan Fong and a clever garland, then Mark Montano shares his "armored" holiday ball, Judi Watanabe brings us a beautiful golden ornament, Ana Araujo makes a fun snow globe, and I create a stuffed cardinal ornament.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIdLiCy2R0s&feature=c4-overview&list=UU43BR4nhkkM43cM73d_X19w