Decorables Greeting Cards and Art: Introducing "Silly Saturday"

By Robi Cohen
Welcome to the weekly adventures of my Draw-test Dummy.
Stay tuned for MANY exciting adventures ahead!!
Today we are featuring: "Black Swan Dummy"...
Introducing "Silly Saturday", Starring the Draw Test Dummy!

The Mad Scientist Strikes Again... Texture Magic

By Amanda Marks
I am pretty sure I have established I am "frugal" when it comes to my craft supplies purchases.  Texture Magic is no exception.  I really wanted to buy some Texture Magic but at $12 a tube it is a little too steep for my taste.  I was working on my Reece's Rainbow tiles and really wanted a raised look.

Check out my latest blog post for the recipe:
http://www.ajsartsanddesigns.com/2011/04/homemade-texture-magic.html

Decorables Greeting Cards and Art: Toilet Paper Roll Birthday Book!

By Robi Cohen



 "BEST. BIRTHDAY BOOK. EVER!!!

I know that Cyn Gagen will be doing a wonderful 'How To' blog about the making of this beautiful book, bu..."

Decorables Greeting Cards and Art: Toilet Paper Roll Birthday Book!:

Wonder Where the Yellow Went

By Robi Cohen

Catchy Blog Titles

A little exercise in being creative with your words.
To read the article please click on the following link:
Wonder Where the Yellow Went

In The Zone - Tonight's Demo for 'Knock on Wood'

By Robi Cohen
What a great time we had tonight! Thank you to everyone who came to the show!  Cyn made a wonderful totem from a wood tongue depressor.  I made a bookmark from Friendly Plastic and Wood twigs. For more info, click here: In The Zone - Tonight's Demo for 'Knock on Wood'

Come2Crop | National Scrapbook Day 5/7/11

Reece's Rainbow Tiles

By Robi Cohen
I unveiled my 4 tiles tonight on In the Zone. Here they are and I will be following with a 'how to' for these four tiles.
Please continue on to this link:
Reece's Rainbow Tiles

In the Zone: Knock on Wood

by Cyn Gagen

Our theme on tonight’s In the Zone was Knock on Wood.  Robi demo’d the prettiest bookmark (and I’m sure she’ll be blogging about it soon) and I made this little totem doll.

I made this doll with my mom in mind.  She just found out she needs to have surgery and with her other health concerns, this is of course, something that makes me a bit nervous.  She would never show it but she probably is a bit scared too.  So I made her a totem doll of strength.  The main part is a large craft stick (tongue depressor).  To see the rest of the details of what Roberta and I made, check out the playback link:  http://www.linqto.com/PlaybackRoom.aspx?roomname=creativeedventures&name=SingleExplicit_2011_04_25_20_00_48_278

Tonight on In the Zone: Knock on Wood

On tonight’s In the Zone with Robi Cohen and Cyn Gagen, our theme is Knock on Wood.

Come see what we make! 9 pm Eastern, http://linqto.com/rooms/creativeedventures

Easter Goodies

by Cyn Gagen

aka what you should have seen on In the Kitchen with Cyn

Due to a severe migraine that landed me in the Emergency Room, I was unable to do my In the Kitchen with Cyn show the other night.  I was really disappointed because I had some great goodies to share with you!  Here are some of the recipes I had planned to demo on the show:

Flickr, Aussiegal

Homemade Chocolate Easter Eggs

I love to make these homemade chocolate Easter eggs for my family.  They are quick, easy, and delicious.  I use two kinds of chocolate (semi-sweet and white) for dipping so that I have two different types of eggs.

Ingredients:

1 pkg. (the size that makes 4 servings) of instant chocolate pudding

1/3 c. boiling water

1/3 c. softened margarine

3 c. icing sugar (best if sifted)

6 squares semi sweet chocolate (like the bakers’ kind)

6 squares white chocolate (bakers’ type)

You may also want some sprinkles or icing to decorate the eggs.

Instructions:  Mix together the pudding mix, water, and margarine until smooth.  Stir in the icing sugar, 1 cup at a time until you can form this “dough” into a ball.  Pinch off pieces of the dough and form them into egg shapes.  Put these into the refrigerator until firm.  Partly melt the chocolate squares – I do this in separate bowls over a hot water bath.  Stir frequently.  Once it’s about 2/3 melted, remove it from the heat.  Keep stirring until all the chocolate has melted.  Dip the eggs into the chocolate and if you would like, decorate them with the sprinkles or icing.  If you would like different colours or flavours for your eggs, you can make more than one filling using different pudding flavours.  Then create a small egg from one of the flavours and wrap a second flavour around it before dipping in chocolate.

Empty Tomb Cookies

This is a great cookie to make with children beginning the night before Easter.  It helps to tell the story of Easter as you create the cookies.

Ingredients:

1 c. whole pecans

1 tsp. vinegar

3 egg whites

Optional: 1 tsp. vanilla to represent the sweet smelling spices used to prepare Jesus’ body for burial

pinch salt

1 c. sugar

You’ll also need a ziploc baggie, a wooden spoon or mallett, and some duct or packing tape.

Instructions:  The first thing you need to do is start heating the oven to 300 degrees F.  Put the pecans in the baggie and have the children pound them with the spoon or mallett.  Tell them about how Jesus was arrested and beaten by Roman soldiers.  (You may want to read John 19:1-3.)

Give the children the opportunity to have a sniff of the vinegar and even a tiny taste if they’re willing.  Put the vinegar into your mixing bowl and discuss how, when Jesus was on the cross and he became thirsty, he was cruelly offered vinegar to drink.  (John 19:28-30)

Add the egg whites to the bowl containing the vinegar.  Eggs symbolize life and Jesus gave His life so that we could have eternal life.  (John 10:10-11) Give each child a tiny taste of the salt.  Add a pinch of salt to the bowl.  The salt represents the saltiness of the tears that Jesus’ followers cried when he was being crucified.  They represent our tears too when we sin.  (Luke 23:27)

The story and the mixture are not terribly sweet so far but now we add the sugar to the bowl.  The sugar represents the fact that the sweetest, most wonderful thing in this story is that Jesus died because He loved us so much.  (Psalms 34:8, John 3:16).

Beat the mixture in the bowl for 10-15 minutes on high until it forms stiff peaks.  The mixture is white symbolizing the purity of God and the purity we can have because of Jesus’ sacrifice.  (Isaiah 1:18, John 3:1-3)  Gently fold in the pecans.

Drop this cookie “dough” (because they’re meringue cookies, it’s not a traditional dough) onto cookie sheets that have been lined with waxed paper.  The mounds on the cookie sheets that will become cookies symbolize the tomb where Jesus was buried.  (Matthew 27:57-60)

Place the cookie sheet(s) in the heated oven and turn the oven off.  Give each child a piece of tape to place on the oven door to seal it just as Jesus’ tomb was sealed with a stone.  (Matthew 27:65-66).  Leave the cookies in the oven overnight to set.  If the children protest over having to wait until the next day for their cookies, remind them that Jesus’ followers were also sad when Jesus died and was placed in the tomb.  (John 16:20 and 22)

The next day, let each person have a cookie.  When you bite into them, you will find that the cookies are hollow, just as when Jesus’ followers came to his tomb, they found that it was also empty.  (Matthew 28:1-9)

Resurrection Rolls

This is another treat that’s representative of the Easter story.  They make a lovely sweet treat for Easter and can be used as part of a brunch menu or even as your dessert for Easter dinner.

The basis for these rolls are the packaged tubes of refrigerated crescent roll dough such as what Pillsbury makes.  Separate out the dough but before you roll them out, place a large marshmallow on each one of the rolls.  The marshmallow symbolizes Jesus – being white to signify his pureness.  Sprinkle some cinnamon on each marshmallow to represent the burial spices used.  Now you can roll up the dough as usual to symbolize the shroud that Jesus was wrapped in and the tomb he was buried in.  Bake according to the package directions.  When you eat these sweet treats, you’ll find that just as with the tomb cookies above, these rolls will be hollow inside because “the tomb is now empty”.

Here are some more Easter recipes I shared on my cooking blog last year:

http://islandtearoom.wordpress.com/2010/04/03/italian-easter-egg-bread/

http://islandtearoom.wordpress.com/2010/04/01/hot-cross-buns/

http://islandtearoom.wordpress.com/2010/03/30/kulich-and-pascha/

Cyn’s Tiles for Reece’s Rainbow

By Cyn Gagen

Last time I was at Come2Chat, I was working on my tiles for Reece’s Rainbow and this is the result of what I’ve done so far. How are yours coming along?

PS – for those of you wondering, due to this past week being Holy Week I was unable to make it to any of the chats but I’ll see you there again next week on Monday and Wednesday at noon Eastern. I’ll be away on Friday though because it’s time to bring my daughter home for the summer. YAY!

Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In

By Cyn Gagen

This past Monday on In the Zone, our show theme was once again the #1 Billboard Hit for this week in 1969, Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In.  I decided to create a craft that would be great to do with kids.  I can see it being done at camps, Vacation Bible School, Scouts, or at school.

This fun mobile was also my first project from the Dollar Store Crafts Stashbusting Challenge.  The sun is made from yellow and orange craft foam from my own stash.  I used one of the SmArt Foam Markers from Creative Hands (also from the Dollar Store Crafts package) to draw the face on the sun, and then outlined it with yellow pompoms that I had on hand and outlined the rays with orange chenille stems (or as they call them, “Fuzzy Sticks” from Creative Hands, also in my package).  By the way, I was SUPER impressed with these products from Creative Hands.  The “Fuzzy Sticks” are the nicest quality chenille stems I’ve ever worked with – some are sparsely covered but these are thick and soft and lush.  The markers work so beautifully on craft foam (as promised).  They give good coverage and don’t smudge.

The cloud is made from white craft foam that was in the Dollar Store Crafts package.  I added some texture and dimension with white pompoms from my own stash.  Then I dangled some pieces of ribbon onto which I had strung some pony beads in each of the colours of the rainbow down from the cloud.  The ribbon and pony beads were items that I had on hand.

If you missed the live show and would like to watch the replay, just follow the link:  http://www.linqto.com/PlaybackRoom.aspx?roomname=creativeedventures&name=SingleExplicit_2011_04_18_19_59_38_627

Earth Day

By Robi Cohen
Earth Day

SCAL - Sure Cuts a Lot! - Did you know about Version 3?

By Robi Cohen

Lots of changes are happening with the SCAL software:You can now use it with so many more machines..
SCAL - Sure Cuts a Lot! - Did you know about Version 3?

Everything Easter on In the Paint Box!

Today on the Paint Box with Amanda Marks, we (I have special guests!) are going to make a Happy Easter Banner (out of hand silhouettes shape like bunnies) and we are also going to make paperclay Easter Eggs (because my mom bought me another pack of Paperclay)!  My other reason for using the Paperclay is to see how easy it is for my daughter to use.  I am also going to show how to dry the Paperclay with a hair dyer or a heat tool (I am not sure which one yet).


Come join us today in the Creative Edventures Linqto Room at NOON EST for In the Paint Box.

UPDATE:  Here is the Playback for today's show

My First Story Book

 By Robi Cohen

My First Story Book
 I shared my first story book on tonight's In the Zone.  You can watch the playback at your leisure.  The link is provided:)

Creative Inspiration

Are you enjoying Come2Chat ?

by Fabrizio Martellucci

My first post giving thanks to talented people

Well this is my first post on Creative Edventures and I'm thrilled to bits to be part of this group of outrageously talented ladies. If anyone would have told me a few months ago that I would be participating on a regular basis in a live webcast, I would have told them they were nuts.

I have to thank first and foremost Cynthia Gagen who's been a mentor and a total inspiration and   helped me come out of my shell, little by little. She found my inner broadcaster persona and coaxed it, gently nudging me to do that little extra. So thanks Cyn you're really helped me.

I want also to thank Robi (Roberta Birnbaum) for her continuous support when I thought I couldn't do it, Amanda Marks to allow my geekiness to come forward and leslie-rahye for being there for me pushing me out of my comfort zone when I was down in the dumps.

Totally aware that I'm sounding like I'm at a Oscar ceremony receiving an award but I needed to give my heartfelt appreciation to these ladies who are so supportive. So thank you gals ! :)

Something about Come2Chat !

Now, since I've mentioned Come2Chat I need to get on with it, this is an informal show under the Creative Edventures umbrella and it's broadcast three time a week at Noon ( Easter Time ) Monday - Wednesday - Friday. It lasts usually one hour and Cynthia, Amanda or myself will either host and co-host.

It's a hanging out place for crafters where you're more than welcome to 'come in' for a chat in the chat room or with your own webcam show everyone what you've created. Before I forget the virtual room where you can see the live video webcast is at this following link (so bookmark it so you can come back it) :

Creative Edventure Live Craft Webcast on Linqto

See me creating greeting cards live


I'm on at Come2Chat on Monday and Wednesday.

Monday I will demo how to use some specific 'tools of the paper craft trade' such as templates, die-cutting, hand stitching etc...

I share my tips I gathered and learnt from other crafters, as well as great shortcuts to make your cardmaking quicker ! ;)

Wednesday It's the 'Card Under an Hour' challenge where I use the very inspirational Claudine Hellmuth book 'The Scrapbooker's Creativity Kit' and make a handmade greeting card. Hopefully I manage to follow the cards which have been picked from the kit: one for color and one for theme.

Cover via Amazon

You can see the last two attempts at my card making where I show my thinking behind picking craft supplies elements and putting them together.

So I hope to see you soon at Noon Eastern Daylight Time, 11am Central Daylight Time, 10am Mountain Daylight Time, 9am Pacific Daylight Time; 5pm British Summer Time, 6pm Central European Time.

Crabshell Butterflies are Free

By Robi Cohen
Crabshell Butterflies are Free

The beautiful butterflies that came from the sea!

Heat Gun meet Robi...

Robi Discovers Friendly Plastic --- Will the world ever again be the same??
Could a demo be in her future?

New Home; My First Official Post!

By Robi Cohen

I am thrilled with our new blog and that I am part of such a wonderful group of people who I admire and happen to like very much.

The changes Cyn and I have witnessed since the beginning of January are nothing short of incredible. The concept of Creative EdVentures is all-inclusive and really focuses on the sharing of ideas and coming together as an artisan community.

I have been travelling for 5 weeks and have so much to catch up on. I will be posting again on a regular basis- sharing my experiences, new products I found, fascinating people I have met...  

I have many tax returns yet to complete by the end of April, 2 children to help move within 4 days of each other, a trip to London.... yikes!!!

Anyway, it is SO good to be back home in Richmond Hill, and also 'back home' at Creative EdVentures!

Curious About Homemade Alcohol Inks

Amanda Marks wrote a great blog post about making Homemade Alcohol Inks this morning:
http://www.ajsartsanddesigns.com/2011/04/homemade-alcohol-inks.html

The post includes tips and a recipe to save a ton of money.  Did you know if you make your own alcohol you are only paying $0.04 a tsp opposed to $1.11 a tsp spoon?  Savings anyone can appreciate!

7000 Bracelets Of Hope

Last week during Come2Chat, I played around with some scraps of Lutradur and explained that I was going to make them into beads to use on the bracelet I was making for a 7000 Bracelets of Hope Blog Hop I was taking part in this weekend.  The bracelets will be sent to families who have children with rare diseases as a sign of love, hope, and support.

For all the details and more pictures, check out my blog at http://cynchronicity.wordpress.com/2011/04/16/7000-bracelets-of-hope-blog-hop/

Reece's Rainbow Challenge

Art Tile Leslie-Rahye completed at Special Event

If you were at Tuesday's Special 2 Hour Event in the Creative EdVentures Room, you learned all about our Charity Challenge for Reece's Rainbow and you learned a few techniques to get you started making your own art tiles.
Paula at cutnpastememories.com, has generously pre-cut some chipboard for us to the 4×4" size and is selling it for 4/$1 + $3 shipping. You can get up to 8 tiles with the $3 shipping so for a total of $5 you could get 8 tiles. This is a reduced shipping rate that she is offering just for us to help get tiles out to everyone! If you are in another country she will ship you tiles, the shipping rate will of course be adjusted to cover international shipping.
Details on the requirements to participate in the Challenge are here. According to Marion's original broadcast on this challenge, the due date was the first part of May--since we were sending them to me first so that we could send one Creative EdVentures Package, we have set a 25 April deadline. I am in contact with Marion currently trying to find out if we can push that deadline out a bit more to get more tiles. I will keep you posted.
For more information on these projects that I created, hop on over to my blog. Thank you for looking! I can't wait to see what you create!!!

example of an art-tile for Reece's Rainbow

In the Zone Project | Butterfly

Good Evening! I am so sorry I missed the opportunity to share with you all my funny little butterfly fingerpuppet on In the Zone with Cynthia Gagen and Robi Cohen!

Be sure to flutter on by my blog and pick up the instructions on how to make your own little finger puppet!

Thank you for looking!

Leslie-Rahye

http://leslierahye.blogspot.com

Special Charity Event Tonight on Creative EdVentures

We're having a special show tonight on the Creative EdVentures network to help reach out to a charity in need. Marion Smith is collecting chipboard "tiles" to put together into a sort of collage quilt and then will be auctioning those off in order to raise funds for Reece's Rainbow. Reece's Rainbow is an organization dedicated to raising the money needed to fund adoptions for special needs orphans and we at Creative EdVentures were so touched by this, that we have decided to help.

What we're hoping for is that we can collect enough of these tiles to be able to submit them as a group and have at least one full "quilt" sold that is entirely made by Creative EdVentures participants. The hosts of Creative EdVentures, Leslie Rahye, Roberta Birnbaum Cohen, Fabrizio Martellucci, Amanda Marks, and Cyn Gagen have already pledged a minimum of 4 tiles each; so they'll be able to complete one quilt all on their own. Wouldn't it be great, though, if we could send in at least one more? Because we're wanting to submit ours as a group, instead of sending to the Prima office address in the video, we're asking that they be sent to Leslie Rahye and then she will forward them all together to Marion Smith for us.

So, tonight on Creative EdVentures in place of our usual show at 9 pm Eastern, we'll be having one dedicated to this cause. We'll explain all the details to you (the specifications for each tile and so on), answer any of your questions, and we'll have some demo's to share ideas for background and embellishment techniques for creating the tiles. We sure hope you'll join us. As usual, this show will be recorded so if you're unable to be there LIVE, please take the time to watch the playback and learn more about this amazing project. Connect to our show here: http://linqto.com/rooms/creativeedventures

Come 2 Chat Disc-o Party Challenge

Our challenge last week was to take a CD/DVD, the case from either one of them, or a floppy disk and create something for a party from them. Here’s what we came up with:

This adorable clock is from Lisa Fulmer. I’ll be making at least one of these for my daughter’s birthday party this summer. The theme is Alice in Wonderland and this makes me think of the white rabbit and the whole “It’s late, it’s late,” thing!

Amanda Marks made a really sweet picture frame. Check out her blog post on how to make it: http://www.ajsartsanddesigns.com/2011/04/come-2-chat-challenge-3-disc-o-party.html

This is one of the things I made. Of course it’s in an Alice in Wonderland theme so that I can use it for my daughter’s party. This is the front and back of a suncatcher that I made to hang up in some of the trees in our backyard.

Then while chatting with a friend about what I had made for this challenge, I suddenly came up with another idea and so I made this as well. The cup portion is made from the domed lid to a slushie cup and the base is the CD. It can hold candies or nuts or even flowers!

I have some other ideas but haven’t completed them yet so I’ll be sharing those with you in the coming weeks! Instead of our typical challenge, for this week, we’re hoping you will all become involved in our charity project, creating tiles for special needs orphans. For more details, check out our show on Tuesday, April 5th at 9 pm Eastern.

Giveaway on In the Zone Tonight!

Tonight on In the Zone hosted by Roberta Birnbaum Cohen and Cyn Gagen, our theme is Butterfly, based on the #1 Billboard hit for this week in 1957 sung by Andy Williams.  We’ll have, as always, some great crafting demo’s by Robi and Cyn as well as by our special guests Leslie and Fab!  In addition, Jujubelle Jewellery is sponsoring $100 worth of giveaways on tonight’s show! You have to be present to win so be sure to come on by and join us for all the fun! 9 pm Eastern, 8 Central, 7 Mountain, 6 Pacific http://linqto.com/rooms/creativeedventures

Check out the post I did a while back about butterfly crafts featuring the two projects I have pictured here:  http://cynchronicity.wordpress.com/2009/12/01/butterflies/

Angel Collage Art

On The Creative EdVentures Network, the March 31st  episode of robi@nite featured 2 fun demos -  to read more, click the link to take you to Robi's blog
Angel Collage art.