Showing posts with label cathie filian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cathie filian. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Product Review: Hot Glue Gun Helpers


I was so excited when my crafty pal Cathie Filian from HGTV's Creative Juice first showed me the new line of glue gun tools she and Steve Piacenza developed for Plaid. If you've ever been burned by a hot glue gun, you'll be blown away by this super smart set of tools to prevent that from ever happening again!

The set includes a craft mat, which is a great surface to work on because the glue will not stick to it and it protects the surface underneath from getting burned. You also get finger caps made of the same non-stick and heat resistant material, so now you can press down into the hot glue safely. You also get a kicky little pair of tweezers to help you pick up smaller elements and place them into hot glue and on items you're decorating. There's a little paddle for soft pressing and a thicker press wand for heavy duty pressing and smearing the glue. Five simply fabulous tools all in a perfectly perky shade of pink.

Do I love these tools? Does a bear like honey?

This is an absolute 'must have' for any serious crafter. You can find out more about them here and you can buy them here!
Link
Cheers,
Madge

I was sent a sample of this product for review, but I was not compensated. The opinions in this post are entirely my own. I don't review it if I don't love it. Period.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

CRESCENDOh Day Four and Madge's Thursday Musings...

Featured on CRESCENDOh.com

Yup, it's day four on CRESCENDOh and my featured artists today are the craftylicious Cathie Filian and Kathy Peterson's inspiring Craft for Health blog. Please follow the link to visit these wonderful artists!

Madge muses...

The funny thing about life is that things are often not what they seem. We build up these grand expectations about them and then we realize that the shiny toy is maybe not so shiny at all. Expectation is a slippery slope. It can make us ignore our intuition and get caught up in our personal mythology. People can't actually know what we want from them if we don't speak it out loud. Things can't always unfold the way we'd like them to because we aren't the only ones in charge of reality.

I hear people often say that they have no regrets. I think that's pretty impressive, really. I surely have regrets. I think a life worth living almost always results in at least a few regrets. Living out loud means making choices that might not always end up the way we'd like them to. I think we all sometimes say something we didn't mean or forget to say something we did or opt for that shiny thing even when something in our gut tells us it might not be wise.

It's part of the deal. We will, if we march boldly ahead, make a few unfortunate turns and we will, if we live passionately, make a mistake or two. Yes, it's a dichotomy. There are no mistakes, but there are choices and consequences and some of the consequences are rather unpleasant. So perhaps we might call them mistakes, for lack of a better word? Those mistakes or consequences are opportunities and we can grow from them, learn from them and most importantly use them as a way to fine tune the practice of unconditional love. Practicing love for ourselves and love for those we encounter, especially those whom we don't much like.

We just keep making our way here through the wilderness and if we use our heart as our compass and our intellect to tender some of the intensity of the heart, we will at the very least end up having a most interesting journey.

I'm feeling introspective today. It is fall and this is what happens to me as winter starts lurking around the edges of my reality. I'm making huge changes and they're not going to make everyone happy. I'm probably going to step on a few toes without meaning to and I'm not quite sure how to prevent that. My entire reality and the entire fabric of my family's reality is shifting, and it is a huge thing. I have to hold on to the power of serendipity and the knowledge that no matter what choices I make, no matter where we end up, as long as I maintain the compassionate heart, all will be fine.

"My religion is kindness." The 14th Dalai Lama

"There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. We seek problems because we need their gifts." Richard Bach Illusions

“There are no mistakes. The events we bring upon ourselves, no matter how unpleasant, are necessary in order to learn what we need to learn; whatever steps we take, they're necessary to reach the places we've chosen to go.” Richard Bach The Bridge Across Forever

Love
Madge

Friday, January 29, 2010

Tawdry Tales and Pleasing Pics from CHA Winter 2010!

Brini and Madge for iLoveToCreate
 

I'm still decompressing. These shows are a huge amount of work. We have to be on like a 1000 watt light bulb from the time we wake up until the last call at the bar...okay well maybe we don't have to be at the last call at the hotel bar...but sometimes that's where we end up. There's no time for chatting and catching up with friends during the show, so after the show, the meetings, the dinners and the schmoozing...we get to cut loose a little.

Here's a plethora of pics from the show and I've got plenty more so I'll be posting them until I get through them all. I'm starting with the three big projects I did for the show floor. The jeans and sneakers were created for EK Success and they were delighted with the results, which is fabulous because I worked mighty hard on the designs. The rainbow is hand applied with a hot fix applicator tool and there are crystal transfers and sew on stones. The shoes use glue on flat backs and hot fix crystals. The canvas was a UTEE design challenge for Ranger. This is one of those projects that need deeper inspection to fully appreciate. I'm particularly excited about the way I made the UTEE look like water droplets on the smaller ticket. Also the layers of old and new magazines in wax that I reheated several times with my heat tool adding sprinkles of metallic Alcohol ink. I added layers of metallic UTEE to create the look of rusted metal and the dimensional elements are cast from vintage Spirograph elements and a vintage skeleton key with dry UTEE sprinkled in the molds to again give a rusted metal look. The image is from my private ephemera collection and I adore her, look for her in my project for the new book Steampunk Style I'll share next week. She was fused on the surface of the encaustic background, I hope to share these techniques in future classes...so stay tuned.  Finally there's the Carmen Miranda/Brazil themed design with the display I found to coordinate and the bracelet I made with wire coil accents.

Lots of pics of my crafty friends too...

...until next time...craft on with your bad selves.

xoxo,
Madge

CLICK ON IMAGES TO SEE DETAILS!

Project for EK Success CHA Winter 2010
EK Success Project Detail
Ranger UTEE Designer Challenge CHA Winter 2010
Carmen Miranda Project for CHA Winter 2010
Madge and Brini for iLoveToCreate
Brini, The Crochet Dude and Madge
Brini and Madge for iLoveToCreate
 
Brini for Streuter Technologies
FG3: Rebecca Peck, Robin Beam and Madge

Pretty Ladies: Candie Cooper, Madge, Cathie Filian and Traci Bautista
Madge and Suze

Crafty Rock Stars Mark Montano and Crafty Chica

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Cathie Filian Charity eBay Auction!



My gal pal Cathie Filian from Creative Juice is having a charity auction for United Hope for Animals. She's got 13 ab fab dog costumes and 13 signed copies of her book Bow Wow Wow up on eBay until September 5th. If you've got a furry friend who loves to play dress up, hurry up and go check it out! It's for a great cause and Cathie's costumes are adorable.

You can click on the image above to
follow the link to the auction! Happy Bidding!

xoxo
Madge