Craft Test Dummies

Resin has always been on my list of intimidating crafts. I’m also incredibly lazy. Mix two bottles together? I ain’t got time for that! So I’ve avoided the stuff, even though I love the way resin jewelry looks. But I had a great first experience with Envirotex Jewelry Resin, and I’m no longer afraid (Cue [...]

I love making jewelry. And a good book really helps inspire the creative process! Such is the case with Necklaceology: How to Make Chokers, Lariats, Ropes & More by Candie Cooper.   The first think I need to disclose is that I know Candie personally and think she’s a great gal. But my personal relationship with her [...]

I spend a lot of time papercrafting, but you may not know that for a while (about 6 years ago) I really only made jewelry and worked with polymer clay. So I was excited to try Artistic Wire Mesh by Beadalon and get back to my jewelry-making roots! If you’ve never seen Artistic Wire Mesh before, [...]

    Jill Wiseman’s Beautiful Beaded Ropes – 24 Wearable Jewelry Projects in Multiple Stitches is to beaders what the newest, hottest Halo game is to gamers. It’s for serious beading geeks. Like me. Well, I’m only a little bit of a beading geek. But I’m working on it! I’m madly in love with stitching [...]

As I mentioned the other day when I did my “book reports” on Beaded Jewelry, I have certainly had an influx of amazing eye-candy in the form of books lately. Today I want to share two more books on the theme of “rings” : Ring a Day: 700 Photos from a 365 Day Jewelry Challenge and Showcase [...]

Lately, I’ve had a LOT of eye candy hit CTD WHQ- including an influx of beautiful books on beaded jewelry. A few of them are just inspirational, coffee-table style books, and one is SO FAR out of my league I couldn’t do it justice. So since we are in back-to-school mode here, I thought it [...]

I’ve wanted to try out a set of metal stamps from the first moment I saw what they could do. Luckily, the fine folks at ImpressArt shared my enthusiasm, and when I ran into them at CHA, they generously provided a full set of letters and numbers for me to review. In case you’re not [...]

  Diane Fitzgerald’s Favorite Beading Projects from Lark Jewelry and Beading A few things you might want to know about this book: Hard cover – lays flat for easy reference 126 pages Diane Fitzgerald’s Favorite Beading Projects includes 24 projects There is a project gallery at the end of the book for further inspiration The [...]

I’m a sucker for embossing resins. I love using them as topcoats, resists for watercolors, to fill bottlecap jewelry, and more. Glossy finishes make my heart go pitter-pat, what can I say? At CHA last winter I happened by the JudiKins booth, and there was a large pink bottle of Fluxe Enameling Resin. It called [...]

Since April is my “Go Green” month, I thought it was high time to revisit the marvelous art kits by ArtTerro. Previously I’d reviewed Painting with Wool, the Bubble Wand, and the Wire and Bead Sculpture Kits, so this time ’round we’re going to talk about the Garden Art Kit- apropos, right? The Garden Art [...]

I remember many years ago when bottle caps were all the rave in scrapbooking.  And then they went “out of style” for quite some time.  But guess what?  Sort of like skinny jeans and stirrup pants, THEY’RE BAA-AACK!  (Though I’m much more excited about the return of bottle caps than I am of stirrup pants, [...]

I enjoy using resin in some of my jewelry and mixed-media projects, but I know it’s intimidating to some. There’s mixing involved, and often the materials are considered “toxic.” Then there is the question of what resin is best for what applications. Today I’m reviewing SuperClear Resin: a non-toxic, 2-part casting resin for jewelry making [...]

This is a review I wrote for Craft Critique two years ago- but as the holiday season starts up, this might be one of those craft tools that you might want to have on your radar for holiday gift giving! The Beadalon Spin-N-Bead Junior is one of those little, low-tech gadgets that you see in [...]

ArtTerro is a brand-new company to me, and I’m so pleased that they reached out and offered to send some kits for my family to “craft test.” Their tag line is “Art of the Earth”- and with a slogan like that, who wouldn’t be interested? Here’s some of what they say about their mission: We [...]

So today I’ve got a review up, but it’s not here- it’s over at www.CraftCritique.com, and I’m talking about Mold-N-Pour by Ranger Industries. I was at CHA Summer last year, and I sat down and got to see some demos by the fabulous Suze Weinberg and she asked if I’d ever used Perfect Pearls…when I [...]

Since this is blog-hop week for Ice Resin, I though I’d put up a video made by ArtBeads.com on how to use Ice Resin. There are a few things in the video that conflict with that I’ve been told by ObjectsandElements.com, but the basic measuring-mixing-pouring stuff is accurate. Take a look: Couple of facts about [...]

  Ok, only a few of you will actually get the Vanilla Ice reference in the title- but I couldn’t resist! Today I’m talking about Ice Resin, a 2-part epoxy resin that is jewelry grade. The beautiful people at Objects and Elements told me it will never yellow, and the best part is that it’s [...]

As some of you know, I write for Craft Critique, and have been doing some CHA coverage for them. I got a chance to write a post about Ice Resin, a product I’m really excited to try out. It’s a non-toxic 2-part resin (most 2-part epoxy resins are HIGHLY toxic) and is touted as being [...]

Heya! Click on over to www.CraftCritique.com to read my full review of the Sakura Gem Craft Kit I picked up at CHA Summer. The kit includes a two-step UV curing resin (and you all know how much I love my Magic-Glos just read the review!) so I HAD to try it out and see how [...]

Technically, “Super Glue” isn’t a craft product….unless you’re crafty. If you are, you know how important it is to have a variety of adhesives/glues that you can depend on to keep your crafts held together &  lookin’ good.  And one of my faves is Loctite brand super-glue. First of all, the reason I bought it [...]

It goes without saying that I like a little bling in my world.  Last year I was at the Sewing and Quilting Expo and pick up one of these cute hot-fix crystal-setters, made by Kandi Corp and sold as the Victoria Lynne Crystal Crafter. I finally broke it out of the box and kicked the [...]

You know how crazy I am for UV curing resins- I practically keep Lisa Pavelka in business just with my consumption of Magic Glos. (read my reviews HERE and HERE).  BUT, I digress. While at CHA Summer 2009 in Orlando, Florida, I came across the Sakura booth. I’ve heard of them as they produce the [...]

I decided to try out Lisa Pavelka’s Magic Glos today on a polymer clay pendant I’m working on. I spread out the material, being careful to use enough product so that the edges wouldn’t pull back. Happy with my progress, I set it under the UV lamp that I bought from her. I clicked on [...]

I’ve been playing around with my bottle cap jewelry, and the question of what to put on top has perplexed me. I like Diamond Glaze, but it’s really only good for a thin layer. I wanted something more dimensional and shiny, something more glass like. I played around with using melted UTEE, but at the [...]

I was surfing through some Etsy Polymer Clay artists’ sites, and I ran across a jewelry maker who goes by the name of Naftali. In addition to some lovely polymer clay beads and jewelry, she also sells these EZ Bead Changer necklaces. I bought one on Monday, and I was delighted to receive it on [...]