May's Second Joy of Crafting Show

On this second show for May, we are continuing our lei making and more!

 Our first lei is the Blooming Pikake from our latest Handcrafted Lei and Flowers book. Colleen from our Mapunapuna store shows us how to make this beautiful lei.

Then,  we have Dean Anthony, our Relay for Life Captain. Dean  makes a personalized luminaria and tells us how you can get involved in Relay for Life. Our Oahu stores will also have luminaria making workshops in June, see the stores for details.

Lastly, Gloria from Pearl City shows us how to make the Dragon Lei from our latest lei book. It's a great lei for all kinds of occasions.

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you've enjoyed your weekend!

Tim Holtz Burlap Panels

In January, I was really lucky to get to take Tim Holtz' class at CHA. It's always fun to see what he comes up with!

In the class, he introduced his new burlap covered panels. The cool thing about his panels is that underneath, they are solid wood. Which means you can screw things into it and attach stuff without the panel getting all floppy on you. These panels are now in our stores.

Here's the project we made. We used the pair of two smaller panels and covered them with LOTS of his embellishments and new Sizzix dies. As you can see, we did screw things in and let them dangle, like the key and metal tag.

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you all have a great weekend!

Keep on truckin' with Art!

One of the 10 finalists' Truck Designs by Kristie Kam, winner of the Live Facebook Voting.

Ben Franklin Crafts co-sponsored Diamond Bakery's Truck Design Contest and the winner will be announced at a reception this Saturday at Mark's Garage.

I will be there as part of the judging panel. Ten finalists have been chosen and the talented winner will receive $2000 cash for their design. But the best part is that their design will be on Diamond Bakery's brand new truck, for everyone to see as it drives around the island making deliveries. I think that is so Cool!

If I was the winner, I would start an Instagram account and have people send me pics whenever they spot it.

You can view all of the ten finalists' designs here and you are also welcome to join us at the reception honoring these creative individuals. The event is from 4:30 - 5:30 pm at Mark's garage in downtown Honolulu.

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope to see you on Saturday!

Put a leash on it!

So, our company has a pedometer step challenge going on between the stores and offices. Together, we hope to walk enough steps to total walking to the moon and back, promoting healthy living. All employees received a pedometer to track their steps.

In our Honolulu office, we have a monthly challenge going on between the upstairs and downstairs groups. Everyone is trying hard to do their part. The problem is, sometimes the pedometers unclip and fall off. If you lose your pedometer, there's a huge step penalty deducted from your total. I've had a few scares, thinking I lost my pedometer, only to find it on my car seat or somewhere else. Afterall,  I don't want to let my team down!

So, I made a leash for my pedometer. I used a swivel badge clip, some inexpensive chain, split rings and a cute beaded charm gift.

I cut the chain to about 8" long. Attached one end to the badge clip with a split ring. I thought using a split ring would be more secure than using a jump ring.

I used another split ring to attach the other end of the chain to this cute beaded charm I received from @handmadecute (you really need to check out her blog!)

Slipped the charm holder around the pedometer clip.

Done! Now, I have extra security so I won't lose my pedometer. Before cell phones, I remember I had something similar for my pager.

BTW, our downstairs team won the first month's challenge by over 300,000 steps! So, today, my teammates and I will enjoy lunch served by the upstairs office. Whoo Hoo!

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you're having a great week, too! Keep on Crafting, Keep on Stepping!

Mom's Day Card

My Mom likes simple things, so this is the card I made for her for Mother's Day. Layout is inspiration from @joscie.

Floral paper is from Echo Park's Sweet Girl line. Flowers and leaves were made with a Sizzix Thinlit die.

I couldn't find my stash of bling, so I used the Amercian Crafts Glitter tape that I used on the card to punch out centers with my 1/4" hole punch. It worked,they matched! Sweet and Simple!

Thanks for stoping by today and I hope you have a great week!

May's First Joy of Crafting Show

May is a month to celebrate! On this first show for May, we help you get ready with some lei making and a great Mother's day idea!

 First, we have Gloria A.from our Pearl City store show us how to make one of the beautiful ribbon lei from our newest Handcrafted Lei and Flowers Book, volume 11!

Gloria shows us how to make the Himawari Musume Lei.

 

 Next, we have a really special guest for Mother's day. We have Esme Infante-Nii from Moms in Hawaii. While Esme explains what her group does to support and empower Moms, she also puts together a simple and cute flower pot photo holder. (Dads, I know you watch the show! This would easy for you and the kids to make for Mom!)

 

Then, we cap off the show with more lei making! Cheri Ann L. from Market City Ben Franklin Crafts shows us how to make the 3-straw and 4-straw round leis. Great for those upcoming graduations!

 

Thank You for stopping by, I know it's been awhile so I thank you for your patience and support! Have a great weekend and Happy Mother's Day to all of the Moms and Moms-at Heart!

 

***See my earlier post of why I've been MIA

 

 

hello...i'm back!

Yes, it's been a while since I've posted so let me tell you what's been happening. This blog was getting bombed with lots of "robot" comments that had links to other business sites. It was getting ridiculous! Whenever I did a new post, I would get a whole bunch. Then, even when I didn't post, I was still getting some. I get alerts on my phone and my computer so there were a lot of emails I had to delete throughout the day. And then, I would go back and look for the posts and delete them only to have more robot comments posted.UGHH!

I really debated about adding the comment modification and the captcha requirement. I know that sometimes that discourages people from posting comments because, let's face it, it's humbug! But I figured it had to be done in order for me to get back to this blog.

Well, I finally decided to do it and it's been over a week that I haven't had any robot hits.

I feel like I finally caught that B-52 roach, Wham! went the slippah!

So, I'll be back posting, see you soon! Have a great weekend and Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms!