Sunday TastyLinks and our retooled Crafty Cabaret Cruise!

Yet another week has flown by and suddenly Christmas is approaching at a frightening pace! Where does the time go? I simpy do not know!

Because many of you asked, we've retooled the Crafty Cabaret Cruise! It's shorter and less expensive but still jam packed with crafty goodness! Please join Brini Maxwell and me for a fun filled festive cruise to the Bahamas with a Crafty Cabaret stage show, crafty classes, a 24 hour craft room, cocktail parties and tons of fabulous prizes and swag! Check it out!

The fine folks from When Creativity Knocks have a new video for your edification and entertainment they shot at Maker Faire! This week they're sharing some adorable paper crafter Robots!

Here's what the cool kids from the crafty blogger gang have dished up this week:

About Family Crafts Sign up for Sherri's 12 Days of Christmas... Crafts email newsletter and you will receive a variety of Christmas related craft ideas delivered top your email box every day for 12 days - everything from advent calendars to Santa Claus crafts!

Cathie Filian It is apple craft time! Cathie is stamping up napkins and a simple apron. She also has a delicious recipe for apple crisp.

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world Over at Craftside there is a free Japanese wave print and a how-to make pocket ATC with it, Latte Art, a sneak peek into Pam Sussman's studio from Lynne Perrella's new book, a call for entries for a cake decorating book, and good questions to ask yourself to help for a business/design plan.

Crafty Princess Diaries Tammy is super busy and "somethings gotta give!"

Farm Girl Roots, City Girl Style Two very different quilts from the same pattern and Linda shares the story of them both along with a story on getting one of the quilts published in McCall's Quick Quilts.

Mixed Media Artist Have you ever wanted to learn how to weave? Cyndi's got a book giveaway going on that could help you out!

Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery Two fun necklace designs featuring charms made with a Faux Scrimshaw polymer clay technique from the book Enchanted Adornments by Cynthia Thornton

The Artful Crafter Make some sweet, goofy, felt and feather Tom Turkey Place Card holders for your Thanksgiving table.

The Impatient Crafter Madge shares a sneak peek of the ad campaign she shot with her lovely daughter AND the instructions to the Cupcake Glitter Shirt Avalon is wearing in the ad in this post for iLoveToCreate!

Extra Linky Love Shower!

I’m throwing in an extra Linky Love Shower this week. Grab your slickers and your Wellies, unless you live in the Southeast because you’ve probably already got them on. I’ve got some errands to run this morning so this is a quick post. Here’s hoping you have a craftacular day!

My friend Christopher Nejman made even more fab videos for me you can see at his website http://www.christophernejmantv.com/ Thanks Christopher, you are awesome! If you live in the Tampa area Christopher is auditioning people to appear on his website in filmed dynamic craft segments produced and edited with the same flair he used for mine. Whatever your crafty focus, he wants to see if you’ve got the skills to be on Christopher Nejman TV! Here is the contact info at the hair salon where Chrisopher works to set up an appointment, call between Wednesday and Saturday. The number is 813-818-1088. The website is http://www.hairmatrixtampa.com/

Amy of Mod Podge Rocks blog is having a big giveaway. It’s already garnered a ton of interest, but go ahead and throw your name in the hat. If you love Mod Podge like I do, you’ll want to check it out!

My friend Ana Araujo and her daughter Megan have a great crafty website called When Creativity Knocks. If you haven’t already, you may want to go see their huge library of crafty videos.

Big shout out to the fab Tammy Powley of The Crafty Princess Diaries for posting our new The Impatient Crafter™ video. If you want to post our video too, let me know when you do and I’ll post a link back to you here.

If you crochet and you're looking for some inspiration my friend Drew Emborsky has some really wonderful new pattern books out with Leisure Arts. He's got a knack for making crochet look fresh. Also if you want more crochet fun, Vickie Howell's book Pop Goes Crochet is super clever and the projects are amazing!

The folks from Friendly Plastic are having a design contest! Go here to read all about it!

My pal Andrew Thornton of the Green Girl Studios gang is destashing. He's got impeccable taste, so don't miss out on this opportunity!

TastyLinks Saturday and What I did with the Core Necklace!

Ingognito Copyright 2009 Margot Potter

It's positively gloomy around these parts this week, which always sends Madge into a funkity funk. It would help immensely if that damn raven would take a hike from my windowsill. It's positively Poe-esque.

I need the sun, I'm a Leo. As much as I love the night life...I love blue skies with fluffy clouds. Yes, it's true, I'm a girl of many needs.

If you read yesterday's post, you saw my design disaster turned around and above is the other half of what I did with the mismatched parts. I started with the beaded core strand and moved from there. You could easily attach these strands to the clasp so they were tangled in one another for a more au currant effect, but I love the vintage Coco Chanel inspired vibe here. Use a multi channeled bead board to make strands that nestle in one another and as you're working, try the design on your body and on a neck form to make sure it falls right when worn. I actually switched up the woven wire strand a little after I shot this, so now it's three strands into one in a repetitive pattern, it's more consistent and works better with the rest of the piece.

Linky Love Shout Outs to:

The divine Ms. Dawno for her fab review of Beyond the Bead! Thanks, Dawno! You ROCK!

When Creativity Knocks has a super new video with artist Cindi Bisson sharing a recycled beach themed keepsake project. Check it out!

Without further ado here's what the talented folks from the Crafty Bloggers Gang have for your entertainment and edification this week:

Vickie Howell-Craft.Rock.Love Join Vickie & Lands' End for a Twitter Party to celebrate the FeelGood campaign to benefit the homeless!

The Crochet Dude Check out Drew's super cool Crochet Word Search that he has as a free download on his blog! I wonder how quick I can finish it!

The Artful Crafter Do you know how to make a secret box book? It’s not hard – well – except on your fingers. Eileen shows you how. She took lots of photos since she won’t be able to type for a while. LOL.

Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery How to make a Cone Candy Holder Candelabra inspired by a pretty project from Paperie for Inspired Living by Karen Bartolomei

Naughty Secretary Club Jen is in the midst of wrapping paper week with clever how-to idea, uses for wrapping paper that have nothing to do with gifts & a Wrapagami book giveaway.

Mixed Media Artist Cyndi has a copy of "The Art of Fabric Collage" to give away!

Farm Girl Roots, City Girl Style I may have to tackle a t-shirt quilt---I'm getting ideas from all directions.

Cross Stitch at About.com Do you find solace in your stitching? Vote in the poll, read the comments, and share your own experiences.

CraftyPod Check out Sister Diane's newest ebook - Creating a Blog Audience: An Unconventional Marketing Guide

Crafty Princess Diaries Tammy shows the beginnings of a baby blanket in progress, a super easy crochet project to consider for those who make charity items.

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world Craftside's got a fun skull quilt tutorial inspired by a quilt in the new book Quilting Art, how-to's on painting rocks like skulls, eyes and more for Halloween, tips for re-purposing in the studio and the correct terms for the parts of a book.

Cathie Filian Melt up some soy wax and make some easy candles with Cathie.

Alexa Westerfield a.k.a. Swelldesigner It's the return "Terrorific Tuesdays" on Swelldesigner's blog! Learn about how you can participate in all the fun, spooky Halloween action!

Aileen's Musings Have you heard the term Altered Art or Altered Artist and wondered what exactly that means? Aileen has given her explanation of what Altered art is and how YOU too can become an Altered Artist!

About Family Crafts September is National Sewing Month! Why not celebrating by making one or more of these easy sewing projects.

The Impatient Crafter Get your teens ready for Back to School with these recycled denim book covers from The Impatient Crafter for I Love to Create!

We Have a Winner!

I have been utterly remiss in announcing the winner of the two signed books! Egads! Yes, time slipped away with the travel and the sinus infection and some last minute deadlines that hit me fast and hard and suddenly it’s foreverandaday and I’ve still not spilled the proverbial beans. Please, please forgive!

The winner is...

Sandy of Auntie Sandy’s Art!

Congratulations! My daughter and I just got the same haircut Sandy!

Please email me at theimpatientcrafter@gmail.com to claim your prize.

News!

Dazzle copyright 2009 Margot Potter courtesy of FW Media/North Light Books from Bead and Wire Jewelry Exposed

The ink is dry and I can share some good news! I sold my sixth book yesterday. It's official! I'll be working with the folks from North Light Books/FW Media again. We've got a good thing going so we're going to keep it up! I'm not spilling the beans on the book title or topic until we get closer to pub date. A gal has to have a few tricks up her sleeves...besides a little mystery is a good thing.

Later today you can watch a video I shot at CHA Winter with the delightful duo of Ana and Megan Araujo of When Creativity Knocks. I share the Dazzle necklace (see image above) from the new book Bead and Wire Jewelry Exposed with Katie Hacker and Fernando DaSilva. It's a pretty cool idea using Beadalon Memory Wire, so check it out! While you're there read up on their WCK Cruise this Fall...I'm teaching along with the fabulous folks from Diva Craft Lounge and Ana Araujo! Come play with us!

I've got a very quick turn around on this book so I'm afraid my blogging is going to be shorter, sweeter and more to the point until the August deadline. Think of it as The Impatient Crafter Lite! I did want to mention that we've decided to move the Beads and the City trip to Spring of 2010. It gives us more time to fine tune things and let's face it...NYC in August is misery. I'll keep you posted on the details as we get them nailed down.

I also wanted to say how proud I am of my amazing daughter Avalon. She was a Student Ambassador last night at a program for the entering students. She had to give an extemporaneous speech to the parents about the various classes offered in her grade. I wasn't the least bit surprised to hear she loves public speaking because she's a natural. She's also been invited to next week's award ceremony and I'm excited to see what award she receives. What a great kid! I'm the luckiest Mom ever!

xoxo
Madge