And the Winner Is...........

Congratulations, Linn! You are the lucky winner of our first candy blog giveaway. Please send your real name and mailing address to our Ben Franklin Craft Club e-mail address: (contact@bfcraftclub.com) If I don't hear from you within a week I will award the prize to another person who entered the contest. I assure you it was a random drawing even though the winner had the same name (different spelling) as the blog LOL. In the future if we decide to have more lucky drawings we will try to let craft club members know about it via e-mail. Our stat counter shows that our blog has many readers but that a good portion of them are not island residents so the gift card may not have been a desirable prize. Hope your Halloween is sweet and spooky!

Last Day to Enter and WIN a BFC Gift Card

At midnight Oct. 29, 2009 the contest to win a $25 gift card (from Ben Franklin Crafts) and some blog candy, will end. Look at my Oct. 23rd post (scroll down) to find out how to enter the lucky drawing. The photo shows a gratitude journal I made for this season of thanks. I've seen so many cute Hello Kitty notebooks on other blog sites and I thought I should give it a try. However, I was reorganizing my paper trays and was drawn to a 12x12 Brenda Walton (K and Co.) purchased years ago that just begged to be used for a journal cover. I guess the color, aged look and New England Pilgrim feel of the design made the paper a good choice for an autumn project. Anyway, the thing I learned from this project was that Fabri-Tac glue is the perfect adhesive for gluing down the paper. I guess the quick drying property of the glue keeps it from wetting the paper and causing puckering. Initially, I was just going to use the glue for attaching the ribbon to the tablet spine. Isn't the ribbon a perfect match for the paper? It wasn't planned; I bought the ribbon for another project. I was very pleased with the end product of this serendipitous project. Happy Autumn Crafting!

Books, Bookmarks and Blog Candy

I just finished reading Dan Brown's new book, The Lost Symbol. Like his other books, it was intriguing, exciting, and informative. While reading it I kept wishing I had a longer, better book mark so I crafted one. The long velvet ribbon (Martha Stewart Christmas 2008) was topped with a cluster of artificial berries and leaves glued on with Fabri-Tac. The bottom of the ribbon was folded into a point and a charm was sewn on. So simple to make and a necessity for a big hardcover book. Why not make holiday bookmarks to give with gift books? Two craft books that I think would make great gifts are The Cute Book by Aranzi Aronzo and Girligami by Cindy Ng. The Cute Book is filled with instructions for making the sweetest tiny felt animals. Girligami contains the directions for making fun, simple origami cupcakes, shoes, pandas, strawberries, etc. and the paper comes with the book!

Yes, there is still time to enter my blog candy giveaway. Look at my Oct. 23rd post for information about it. Someone lucky is going to win that Ben Franklin Crafts gift card!

Halloween Blog Candy Giveaway + Easy Halloween Bracelet

Don't worry there's still time to enter my blog candy giveaway, just leave a comment on the Oct. 23rd blog posting. (Scroll down to the last post.) Hurry and tell your friends to enter too. You have until Wednesday when the contest ends at midnight.

Why not pass out non-edible treats to your Halloween party guests? This bracelet is super simple to make, using beading wire and a magnetic clasp. (All supplies are from Ben Franklin Crafts.) Just string two 7" lengths of fire polished beads (one orange and one black with skull beads) and attach them to the clasp with crimps. Wrap the finished bracelet with gauzy ribbon to give it a spooky shrouded mummy look. Placed in a halloween treat bag, this bracelet will surely please young and old trick o' treaters alike. I plan to wear this bracelet on the 31st as my costume...... just this bracelet! Oh my! That would be a horrible trick to play and certainly no treat for anyone. Heh-heh-heh!

Starting Blog Candy Giveaway

As promised, today begins the Ben Franklin Crafts blog candy giveaway! I'm so excited to see the response. So how does it work? It's easy. All you do is leave me a comment on THIS blog post telling me what made you initially start visiting Lynn's Craft Blog (a friend told you about it, you saw it listed on another blog, you heard about the blog candy, etc.). On Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009 at midnight, the contest will end and all the comments will be placed in a box. One will be selected and the winner of the blog candy will be announced on Halloween. If there are too many entries, I will use a random number generator to select the winner. The winner will have a week to send me an e-mail telling me their name and address so I can send them their prize. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that besides the embellishments, blank note card set, and clear stamps, the blog candy includes a $25 gift card to Ben Franklin Crafts. Okay, enter now and tell your friends too. If we get a fantastic response, we'll do more blog candy giveaways.

Creating Your Own Brads

From this photo you can tell that my blog title is not referring to making a child (although I do have a terrific nephew named Brad). Yes, Imaginisce has actually made a tool for the home crafter that enables you to make brads (in three sizes) from paper, fabric, and other not-too-thick-thick materials. This tool works somewhat like the fabric covered button makers that a seamstress uses. I have found that scrapbook paper works better than cardstock because of the thickness. Washi paper also works but the fiborous ones may get stuck in the punches so it would be better to use the templates and a scissors. Actually, any soft paper or fabric is best cut first by hand and then put in the brad maker. I do like the speed in which you can make brads using the punches and the satisfaction of using up my pretty scrap paper. As you may be able to see from the second photo, I made brads from ribbons (the ladybug and MS seafoam with glittered edge), leftover Christmas wrapping paper (holographic ones in Hero Arts felt snowflakes), and assorted origami and scrapbook paper. My favorite brad is the large white one that doesn't show well in the photo but is made from an embossed wrapping paper. The paper came off a gift my sister gave me......won't she be surprised to get it back as a brad! Oh, the brads are stuck in a styrofoam block because I coated some of the plain paper brads with liquid glaze and they are drying. One last hint, it's best to use paper with small all over prints because it is a bit difficult (but not impossible) to center a design. Okay, I hope this post wasn't too boring. On Friday I will post the details of how to enter and show the blog candy I'm giving away.

Blog Candy Coming Soon

I've been thinking about having a Ben Franklin Craft Club 'blog candy' lucky drawing for awhile. With Halloween on the way I thought it would be the perfect time to have my first blog candy giveaway. It will start in a few days and the winner will be announced on Halloween. Sometime during the week I will give the specifics and show you the blog candy. The photo you see here shows the gift card holder (the BFC gift card will be part of the candy) and a treat bag with some of the blog candy in it. I had fun making the shaker gift card holder. It was easy to do because I used the Sizzix ornate frame to cut a frame of black foam and one of black cardstock. A piece of acetate was sandwiched and glued between the two frames. The confetti bones (MS) were placed on top of the holder before the windowed frame was glued down. I was able to locate and purchase only the web corner punch (MS)( I guess the side web punch sold out.) so I punched the boo design (MS) on each side of the cobweb. I think it was a happy improvised solution. One thing that I liked about the boo paper punch is that it is designed to punch a long strip but has hinged side wings that fold in making it compact unlike the other Martha Stewart strip punches. If time permits I will write up the instructions for the gift card holder. Oh, the topper for the bag is actually a MS cupcake liner. There were also cute owl Halloween cupcake liners in the same package with the witch ones. Okay, please visit this blog again some time this week so you can find out how to enter the Halloween blog candy lucky drawing.

Secret Candy Box

I designed this project to hide secret Halloween candy stashes. Click on the photo to see the details. It looks like a Post-it holder with a pen, but it is really a box for candy so no one will find and eat your personal office supply. I had to back the American Crafts Halloween design cardstock with another plain cardstock sheet so that it would support the Post-it pad. If you glue the two cardstocks together before cutting, you won't have to struggle to position them later. I will try to post the pattern for the box and the instructions for the project onto our website (http://www.bfcraftclub.com/) at least before Halloween. This same project can be adapted to other occasions simply by changing the cardstock and using different Dress It Up buttons. Delight a favorite teacher with one of these treat boxes. For a party favor/place card, you can place extra Post-it pads in the box instead of candy and write a guest's name on the first sheet. Happy Halloween Crafting!

Trick o' Treat?

These simple treat containers are definitely no trick to make. The purchased orange take-out container was decorated in a snap by simply using Fabri-Tac to adhere the Martha Stewart felt cobweb ribbon to the box. Spiders were punched out of black paper and glittered before gluing them down. The graveyard treat bag started with a Heiko frosted bag that was decorated with a punched (Martha Stewart picket fence) strip of black paper and tombstones cut from American Craft 12x12 paper. The skull tag was punched from white glitter paper using Martha Stewart's terrific new paper puncher. Wired ribbon was used on both projects so that it could be shaped. These treat containers are so simple to make that you can easily make dozens for your child's classmates or as party favors for your spooky Halloween party. Give them a try and I'm sure that you and the recipients will be delighted.

More Halloween Shopping at BFC

Although I thought that I had exhausted my Halloween creative urges, I took a look at the new Martha Stewart punches and I could not keep them out of my shopping basket. The new larger more realistic spider will be good with the web punch and the large skull punch I plan to use with the confetti bones. The Martha Stewart spider web felt ribbon roll and cupcake liners quickly went into my shopping basket because I can think of so many ways to use them. (Maybe the liners will actually be used for cupcakes or muffins but I like the graffic look of the design and the translucency of the paper so I will probably incorporate them into cards or treat bags. Hero Arts now has cute single clear Halloween (Christmas and all occasion stamps, too) that come with rhinestones so I had to buy a few of those. Oh, as I do every year, I picked up a several packages of Dress It Up decorative Halloween buttons because they are a great way to embellish my crafts with minimal expense. (The shanks can easily be cut off the buttons if you want to glue them down. The 12 x12 paper in the background is from American Crafts. At first I thought they were odd colored but now I like the subdued look because they will allow the embellishments to stand out. I still have a couple of weeks to make treat bags in time for Halloween, but I better get going. Hope you'll get going, too.....to Ben Franklin Crafts for all your Halloween craft supplies.

Happy Birthday Traci!

I know the birthday gifts we mailed (today) to the sweet Ms. Traci won't get there on time for her special day, so I thought I'd show one of them to her on this blog. She is a Hello Kitty fan, too so I made her this local looking card (she is temporarily transplanted in Calif.) to match the photo of her eating shave ice. Actually seeing the cute photo of her on our computer screen (we have one of those screens with random pictures generated from our photo files) inspired my creation of the photo frame. The photo is not really blurry but I put a piece of frosted vellum over it just in case Traci would rather not be on my blog in her swim suit. The frame (the only part of the gift that I made besides the card) started with a basic acrylic stand up frame. I glued on a 'SWEET' DCWV chipboard which I decorated with shave ice cones (actually ice cream cones with Mizuhiki cords for straws) from Jesse James Beads. The ribbon around the frame is from Martha Stewart and the flowers are from Prima. The shave ice cone on the card was made from a Rubber Stamp Plantation design that was colored and embellished with Christmas snow (iridescent pieces of cellophane). I used a Sizzix die for Hello Kitty and Allure vellum paper for the background of the card. Traci, I hope you like your gifts and that you have a great birthday tomorrow!

Owl-ween Bag Photo Frame

For some students, October is the month when school photos get distributed. Because it is also the month for Halloween fun, I wanted to make a project to combine the two events. The new Hero Arts clear stamp set with an Owl-ween theme was a too-cute-to-pass-up item I purchased at Ben Franklin Crafts. Not feeling like coloring, I stamped the pirate design on a printed paper. I couldn't find a brad that matched the ribbon so I copper glittered some orange brads. You can either hang the frame up or put a magnet behind it to display on a refrigerator. I think the torn opening for the photo is the best part of the project. Complete directions for this Owl-ween photo frame will be posted at (http://www.bfcraftclub.com/) . Thank you for visiting this blog site. Please stop by again for more crafting ideas.

Hello Kitty Halloween Cupcake Box

I wanted to make something cute for Halloween and so I looked in my Hello Kitty Sizzix drawer. I thought about making a sweet costume for Mimi, maybe a pumpkin. (My son actually went trick-o-treating as a pumpkin when he was two......I've got the blackmail photos to prove it.....so-o-o cute!) Then I thought about cupcakes (I'm still thinking about them) and looked for my Sizzlet sweet treats die cutter. The cupcake image was just the right size for the Hello Kitty Sizzlet image. I think that the sweet Hello Kitty in a cupcake costume on a take-out box made from wonky Imaginisce Halloween cardstock is rather humorous because it is an unlikely pairing. The finishing touch was finding the right ribbon to stamp on with 'Happy Halloween Cupcake' (which can be interpreted two different ways). Of course, a treat box like this must be filled with a deliciously decorated cupcake! The full instructions for this project will appear on our Ben Franklin Craft Club website (http://www.bfcraftclub.com/) . Sending you sweet treat thoughts for stopping by and reading this blog.

A Simple Sympathy Card

I'm never quite sure whether it is appropriate to make a sympathy card. Although it may show heartfelt feelings, I worry that it may look too homemade and possibly tacky. The recent death of a dear aunty (who was a relative in my heart but not by blood), prompted me to design a quiet, elegant sympathy card which would match her spirit. I tried many Asian papers and blank cards together and finally settled on a Hero Arts crepe blank card and Kodomo leaf print vellum paper. By simply embossing the 'sympathy' symbol (Dreamweaver brass stencil) on the lower right side of the card and taping (use vellum tape) a punched out square of leaf print vellum, the card was made in 10 minutes! Finding the right elements for the card took the most time, but I think I achieved the look I was after. I made two extra cards since I had my supplies out. Click on the photo to enlarge it and see the embossed symbol. Thank you for reading my blog and I hope you gained something from it.