Guest Designer - Christy Tomlinson!

WINNER!!

Congratulations Donna!! I sent your email to Christy to get you registered. Can't wait to see you in class, and I hope to see more Roberts faces in there as well! It's going to be SO much fun. :)

Thanks for entering, everyone! See you all back here next week. ;)




For this week's Freebie Friday we're doing something a little different. I am SOOO excited to have Christy Tomlinson as our guest designer, and even more excited about the giveaway she has for you! Mixed media art has always been an interest of mine, but I've always been so overwhelmed by it, because you can seriously use ANYTHING and EVERYTHING to create a work of art. I can't wait to do Christy's workshop, and learn the techniques she uses! :) I hope you all enjoy! -Brie

Hello! I am so excited to be a guest here on the Roberts Crafts blog! I love that there is a place we can all gather as crafters and artists to be inspired! Thanks for inviting me!

A little bit about me:

I have been in the art/papercrafting industry for over 12 years. I first started in painting and mixed media and published a book and 100's of patterns before getting introduced to papercrafting in 2000. 

 In 2003, I was offered a job at Chatterbox, a scrapbooking manufacturer, to come on as their creative director. To help with product designs, books, marketing and advertising. I was so blessed to meet so many wonderful people during my time with Chatterbox and got to know Melody Ross, the owner of Chatterbox,  who is now of my dearest friends. One of my best friends!  After I left Chatterbox in 2006, to stay at home with my 6 kids, I took a job with Better Homes and Gardens: Scrapbook Etc, Magazine as a contributing editor and helped them also launch their first online class event.  In 2007 I started my own company called, Scarlet Lime, a monthly kit club, which soon grew and allowed both me and my husband to work full time at home together on this new adventure. In 2009, we opened up a sister store called Scarlet Lime BeadArt, where I designed jewelry and sold them as kits, for consumers to put together themselves. This past year I started blogging and creating art again both on canvas and other mixed media formats and decided to add a full online mixed media shop to our Scarlet Lime website! It launched just this past week and carries all of my favorite mixed media, papercrafting and fine art supplies! I also launched in registration for my latest mixed media class:

The She Art Workshop, which begins on Monday, February 28th!!!  It's an online 3 week course, where I show you how to create backgrounds, and textures and layers on canvases, as well as She Art "girls" as I like to call them.  So excited for this class to start and teach papecrafters how to use their products for canvas art!  

That is just a little bit about me.. I was so thrilled when I was asked to Guest Design on the Roberts blog, but I also told them I really wanted to do a fun mixed media canvas piece instead of a layout or card. I was thrilled when they said yes!  They sent me a box full of papers, ink pads, Tombow pens, American Craft Thickers, brads and some chipboard pieces and this is what I came up with!

I normally don't limit myself when creating my art but I REALLY wanted to stick with what I was sent, to show you that you can create art with just about anything! I didn't use any paint, or rubons, or stamps like I normally do on my canvases. This was all done with only paper, ink pads, markers , stickers and brads and my doodle pen!  Oh I did print off some words from my computer.. hehe.. but you always have to tell a story right?

I actually created this art piece for my friend. I was up late the night I was creating this, talking to her about a recent decision she made  in her life. She was offered an unbelievable opportunity with a great company to work as an art director. It meant moving her son and her husband to another state and would require her to be gone a lot. It was an awesome opportunity both as a creative person, but also financially. It was her DREAM job.  After much thought and consideration.. she finally knew what she had to do. She knew that the move would not be good for her son, who has aspbergers and also knew that her being gone so much would not be great for him either. She decided to not accept her dream job and stay where she was and do what she felt was right. It was a hard decision for her, but she did it anyway. So I created this canvas for her

It reads:

She put her dreams on hold for them

 I put the number "three" on the house to symbolize her family of three and the house symbolizes her family as a unit.  I can't wait to send this to her as  I know it will be a gentle reminder that she made the best decision for her.

Thanks for letting me share!

I would also love to offer a giveaway to my upcoming e-course, the She Art Workshop! It starts MONDAY! Registration is still going on and ends Sunday night! This is a 3 week course, hours and hours of instructional videos, pdf's, templates and downloads. OODLES of content in this e-course!  You can read all about this e-course and what you will learn in this class Here.

As my way of saying thanks to Roberts Crafts for letting me come play on the blog, I would love to give away a spot into this class! All you have to do is post on today's blog post to win! 

 Leave your email address so we can contact you and get you registered for the course. :)

Additional entries can be earned by:

• "Like" Roberts Crafts Facebook page

• Be a follower of the Roberts blog

• Follow Christy Tomlinson's blog

Total entries per person: 4

Good luck everyone!!! We'll announce the winner Saturday afternoon. Be sure to check back!

Too Much Fun!

Our 6,000 fan winner is. . . .

Yay for Angie!! Email me at bpinales@robertscrafts.com and we'll get this amazing prize pack sent out to you!

Thanks, everyone, for entering and sharing!! We're almost to 6,250 so I'll get that giveaway posted soon. We got there a lot faster than I even thought! THANKS to our AMAZING, CREATIVE and INSPIRATIONAL fans!!!



It's been a great week here at Roberts! We passed 6,000 fans on Facebook!! Here in the office, we are SO excited about this! And to help us get to 7,000 fans, we'll be doing random giveaways when we hit 6,250, 6,500 and a BIG giveaway at 7,000 fans! Help us reach our goal by sharing our page, our giveaways and our blog posts. My goal is to hit this by the time Brooke, our marketing coordinator, comes back from maternity leave in 11.5 weeks. Think we can make it?

As for today's Freebie Friday giveaway, I promised a good one for passing 6,000 fans and I think I've come up with a pretty amazing one!

 

It includes:

• 12x12 Classic Leather Album from We R Memory Keepers 

• 8x8  Linen Album from We R Memory Keepers

• (1) 10 pack of 12x12 Photo Sleeves

• (1) 25 pack of 12x12 Photo Sleeves

• (2) 25 packs of 8x8 Photo Sleeves

• "Animal Crackers" Line from Imaginisce

  - 6 sheets of 12x12 patterned paper

  - Chipboard stickers

  - 2 Sticker stackers

  - Adhesive border strips

  - 2 Die cuts packs

  - 6 clear stamps

• 4 packs of Thickers alphabet stickers from American Crafts

• American Crafts Phrase Stickers

• American Crafts Mini Marks rub on transers

• American Crafts "One and Only" 10 clear stamps set

• American Crafts "Details" layered embellishments

• American Crafts "Elements" buttons

• DCWV 3.875"x3.875" mat stack (Neutrals)

WHEW!! Did you get all that? ;) Good luck, everyone!! Don't forget, I'll be announcing what the specific prizes will be for each milestone we hit on our road to hitting 7,000 fans soon, so check back and share our page!! :)

To Enter:

* Leave us a comment on this post and let us know how long you've been a fan and how you found our page. :) 

* Please give your e-mail address with your comment, and any additional entry comments you post.

* Only one comment per person, unless you choose extra entries.

* Giveaway open to residents of the United States.

For Extra Entries:(leave your email address with each comment)

• Be a follower of our blog and leave us a comment on this post letting us know that you are a follower.

• Be a follower of our facebook page and leave us a comment on this post letting us know that you are a follower.

• Become a follower of our twitter page and leave us a comment on this post letting us know that you are a new follower.

• Subscribe to our youtube channel and leave us a comment on this post letting us know that you subscribed.

• Post a link to this giveaway on your blog, then leave us a comment on this post with a link to your post.

• Link to this giveaway on your twitter page, then leave us a comment on this post with a link to your twitter page.

• Share the link to this giveaway on your facebook page, then leave us a comment on this post letting us know that you did, with a link to your post.
• Share our facebook page with all your friends! :)Under our profile picture, there will be a thing that says "suggest to friends". Suggest away!

• Register to receive our emails

* All links will be verified.

(Total of 10 entries per person, please leave an separate comment for each entry and give your e-mail address with each comment).

All entries that will be considered must be submitted by 8:00am (MST) on Monday, February 21, 2011.

A random winner will be chosen on Tuesday, February 22, 2011 by 2:00 pm (MST) and will be announced at the top of this blog post. GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!!! Check back every Friday for Freebie Fridays on the Roberts blog!

Did you know? Well now you do. :)

For today's Spot the Product, I'm going to focus on something that many people don't know we have. Toys! Yes, that's right, we have toys. Robert's Crafts carries a good assortment of toys but the specific brand I would like to focus on is from Melissa and Doug.

I'm going to review some pretend food toys, and some build your own puppets.

 The first one that I played around with is the Wedding Cake.

The wedding cake has all removing slices of the cake. Everything is held together with Velcro. If you look up close at the cake you will see the flowers that have Velcro on the back of them letting you be able to decorate your cake.

This is a close up of the flowers.

I love the fact that this cake can either be a wedding cake with the wedding topper or just a fancy cake. One thing that I love about Melissa and Doug toys is the nice detail, and the craftsmanship of the toys. They are bright and made out of wood. The paint that they use is lead free. I really enjoy playing with them! They are a rather popular item at Robert's Crafts.

The next toy that I would like to review is the cupcakes.

I thought this was one of the best sets that I have ever played with. Let me tell you some of the super fun things that comes with it.

The cupcakes come with frosting that you slide on top of the cupcakes. Then to top it off, you can put candles on the cupcakes. Don't forget to put them in the paper cupcake liners.

Another thing that I thought was so much fun, was the icing that comes with the set. They are actually dry erase markers that you draw your design on top of the cupcake icing and then you wipe off with a paper towel when you want a clean surface. So stinkin' cute!

I love how everything comes in the muffin tins and you have enough stuff to make 4 cupcakes. When your child gets their hands on this set, they won't want to put it down!

The last play food set that I would like to review is the cookie set.

With this set, the cookies all have Velcro on the back of them so you put the icing onto the cookie and put the cookie onto the cookie sheet. You can also put all the cookies together and use the knife to "slice" them and divide them up

When you are done, you can stack them together and put them into the can.

This set, combined with the cupcake set gives your child a lot of creativity for them to play around with and really use their imaginations. I love the fact that everything is Velcro so you can put them together and take them apart.

The other toys that I would like to review is the "Make Your Own Princess/Monster Puppet."

The first one is the monster puppet. Start with a monster base.

Then add arms, horns or ears.

Add eyes, nose, and teeth.

Add some fuzz or whatever else you want. Then your done! Don't like it, tear all the pieces off and put on different ones to create a completely different puppet.

For the princess puppet, there are some similarities.

You will start with a puppet base.

 Then add one of the two dresses.

Pick from one of the wigs, either brown or yellow.

Then to finish the princess up, add your choice of jewelry, the crown, and bling.

So as you can see, Robert's Crafts carries a great selection of high quality toys that are great to given as gifts. The toys from the Melissa and Doug collection are an excellent choice of toys for your children.

Until next time, Happy Crafting!

.

Simple Love Gifts on Studio 5

We have a winner!

Congratulations aa harrison!! :) Email me at bpinales@robertscrafts.com and we'll get your new cartridge to you!

Thanks for entering everyone! Be sure to check out this week's Freebie Friday giveaway, if you haven't already seen it, and the giveaway we're sponsoring at the Crafting Chicks blog! Both are pretty incredible prizes, I'm wishing I could enter myself! lol!

The love you share in Valentines day doesn't have to end on Feb. 14th. Today on Studio 5, I showed you some simple gifts that you can put in your husbands briefcase, or your kids lunchboxes that are so simple you will want to make them all. That way you can celebrate and show your love for those important people on more than just one day.

Also, because it's our "Create with Cricut Tuesday," we will be giving away the Spring Holiday Cards Limited edition seasonal cartridge!!!


Here are the supplies::

Spring Holiday Cards Cricut cartridge
All paper is from Doodlebug Design
Red Colorbox cats eye ink 
Pop dots 
Pretzel bags 
Wooden skewers 
1” x 8” clear bags (Link) 
Pink ribbon 
Assorted colors of Sharpie markers 
3/16” hole punch 
Classic Scalloped Heart &Classic Diamonds dies from Spellbinders 
Basic Gray Notch and Die set 

Instructions:

Sucker holder

1.      Cut a piece of cardstock to 6 ½” x 3”.

2.      Score it at 2 ¾” and 3 ¼”.

3.      Fold the piece of paper on the score lines.

4.      In the middle of the piece of paper, find the center and punch a hole. This is where the sucker  will pull through the holder.

5.      Cut paper to put on the cover. I cut a piece of paper 2 ¾” x 2 ½”.

6.      Glue the paper to the front cover.

7.      Fold over the cover and punch a notch in the top where the flap ends. This will create a small flap where the paper can poke under it.

8.      Cut “Queen of my heart” at 2 ¾”.

9.      Glue a piece of red paper to the back of the “Queen of my heart”.

10.   Ink the edges of the paper.

11.   Glue the “Queen of my Heart” on the front cover with pop dots.

12.   Stick the sucker in the center and tuck the flap under the notch.,

Wrapped Gum Holder

The instructions are for the Eclipse Gum

1.    Cut a piece of paper 6 ½” x 4”.

2.    Score on 2”, 2 5/16”, 4 14/16” , 5 ¼”

3.    Score all the lines.

4.    Using double stick tape, stick the paper onto the cover, overlapping the paper.

5.    If you want you can put another piece of paper on the front and on the back of the gum.

6.    Cut out “You’re a Fungi” size 3 ¾”,

7.    Mat it onto a piece of paper.

8.    Attach glue dots to the back and glue to the front of the gum.

9.    Using various pinks, and red sharpies, color hearts on the gum wrapper on the inside, being careful not to poke through the gum.

Sliding Conversation Hearts.

1.    Cut a piece of cardstock 7 ½” by 4”.

2.    Score at 2”, 2 ¾”, 5 1/8”, 5 7/8”

3.    Apply double stick tape to the end of both flaps taping them together. Don’t tape the wrapper to the box, or it won’t move.

4.    Punch a 3/16” hole on both sides of the wrapper towards the top.

5.    Cut a piece of ribbon 20.”

6.    Thread the ribbon through both of the holes, then slide the conversation hearts into the box.

7.    Tie a bow on the top of the box with the ribbon. Make sure the ribbon is tight.

8.    Push the box from the bottom and the box slides with the ribbon.

9.    Cut out “You are Foxy” in 3 ½”.

10. Mat in another color.

11. Ink the edges of the “You are Foxy.”

12. Glue onto the front of the box with pop dots.

Candy Kabobs

1.      Get assorted red and white candy from the bulk foods section.

2.      Take a piece of candy and thread it onto the skewer.

3.      Keep adding candy until you get the look you want.

4.      Put the skewer into a pretzel bag. Set aside.

5.      Cut out the “Cute as a Bug” phrase 4 ½”.

6.      Cut out the card base at 4 ½” and cut out another one at 4 ¾”. This will make the mat.

7.      Glue everything together.

8.      Punch a hole with the 3/16 hole punch.

9.      Tie ribbon around the base of the candy skewer, threading the card onto the ribbon.

Cupids Arrow

1.      Cut out of red glitter paper a scalloped heart.

2.      Take a piece of gold glitter paper, and fold it in half.

3.      Take a diamond and place it on the folded edge. Cut using the Cuddlebug.

4.      Unfold, and cut the fringe from the diamond.

5.      In the 1” x 8” clear bags, put the candy in them.

6.      Seal the top.

7.      Using double stick tape, glue the fringe to one end of the candy stick, and the heart to the other end.

8.      Cut out the “Love you to Death” phrase 4 ½”.

9.      Cut out the card base at 4 ½” and cut out another one at 4 ¾”. This will make the mat.

10.   Glue everything together.

11.   Punch a hole with the 3/16 hole punch.

12.   Tie ribbon around the middle of the candy arrow, threading the card onto the ribbon.
 

To Enter the cartridge giveaway:

* Leave us a comment on this post.

* Please give your e-mail address with your comment, and any additional entry comments you post.

* Only one comment per person, unless you choose extra entries.

* Giveaway open to residents of the United States.

For Extra Entries:(leave your email address with each comment)

• Be a follower of our blog and leave us a comment on this post letting us know that you are a follower.

• Be a follower of our facebook page and leave us a comment on this post letting us know that you are a follower.

• Become a follower of our twitter page and leave us a comment on this post letting us know that you are a new follower.

• Subscribe to our youtube channel and leave us a comment on this post letting us know that you subscribed.

• Post a link to this giveaway on your blog, then leave us a comment on this post with a link to your post.

• Link to this giveaway on your twitter page, then leave us a comment on this post with a link to your twitter page.

• Share the link to this giveaway on your facebook page, then leave us a comment on this post letting us know that you did, with a link to your post.

• Register to receive our emails

* All links will be verified.

(Total of 9 entries per person, please leave an separate comment for each entry and give your e-mail address with each comment).

All entries that will be considered must be submitted by 8:00am (MST) on Friday, February 18, 2011.

A random winner will be chosen on Friday, February 18, 2011 by 2:00 pm (MST) and will be announced at the top of this blog post. GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!!

Fun Packaging Ideas

Robert's Crafts is now carrying a new line from The Paper Studio (TPS). It is a complete line of boxes and frames that are completely white. In this post I'm going to show you how to make the really cute "take out" boxes.

These take out boxes are just dying to be altered or painted. They are completly white and they are not completely assembled. That way you are able to cover them with paper or even if you wanted to, you could stamp directly on them.

These are the templates that you can buy to trace out the boxes so your paper is the correct shape. But as you will find with me, I don't have the patience to trace and cut and then glue. So I didn't use them.

This are the boxes that we are going to decorate. For the pictures and for this tutorial, I will be doing the small one, but the instructions are the same for decorating any of the boxes.

First of all, pull the wire out of the sides. and un-fold the box.

Next I put double stick tape all over the box. Don't be skimpy on this part because if you do the paper will look warped. So use a lot.

Take your box and stick it to the back of the paper. Now remember you will be gluing the paper to the front side of your box.

Now cut out the box. When that's done, I used the Cropadile 2 from We R Memory Keepers to punch the holes. I needed the extra long reach to get some of the holes.

Once everything is cut out, start to fold it and re-shape the box. Once the box is completely re-shaped, put the hanger back in the sides, and bend down the wire so the hanger can't come out of the holes.

Once the box is completely put back together, embellish to your heart's desire! For these two boxes I used the Doodlebug Design paper and embellishments.

And that's it! Super easy, but super cute. (Not to mention super quick. ;)

Remember, you can find all the supplies for this project at your local Robert's Crafts stores.
Until then, Happy Crafting!

You guessed it. . .

WINNER!!!

Congratulations!! Email me at bpinales@robertscrafts.com so we can get your prize to you. :)


Thanks again everyone!

Freebie friday is back again!

For this week's giveaway, we've thrown in (4) 12x12 paper stacks from DCWV™.

• The Glitter Stack

• The High School Stack

• The Pets Stack

• Safari Chic

Raise your hand if you love DCWV™!! :D

To Enter:

* Leave us a comment on this post.

* Please give your e-mail address with your comment, and any additional entry comments you post.

* Only one comment per person, unless you choose extra entries.

* Giveaway open to residents of the United States.

For Extra Entries:(leave your email address with each comment)

• Be a follower of our blog and leave us a comment on this post letting us know that you are a follower.

• Be a follower of our facebook page and leave us a comment on this post letting us know that you are a follower.

• Become a follower of our twitter page and leave us a comment on this post letting us know that you are a new follower.

• Subscribe to our youtube channel and leave us a comment on this post letting us know that you subscribed.

• Post a link to this giveaway on your blog, then leave us a comment on this post with a link to your post.

• Link to this giveaway on your twitter page, then leave us a comment on this post with a link to your twitter page.

• Share the link to this giveaway on your facebook page, then leave us a comment on this post letting us know that you did, with a link to your post.

• Register to receive our emails

* All links will be verified.

(Total of 8 entries per person, please leave an separate comment for each entry and give your e-mail address with each comment).

All entries that will be considered must be submitted by 8:00am (MST) on Monday, February 14, 2011.

A random winner will be chosen on Tuesday, February 15, 2011 by 2:00 pm (MST) and will be announced at the top of this blog post. GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!!! Check back every Friday for Freebie Fridays on the Roberts blog!