Michaels has these awesome, colorful and most important - sturdy totes for $1.99 by the front registers. Buy one and fold it up in your suitcase! It is big and roomy and will hold a lot of your items for your return trip home!
If you are a craftaholic weirdo like me, you can even decorate it!
DIYBangles.com was kind enough to offer up bracelets and wreath blanks for us again! Last year we had a lot of fun coloring them with the Crafty Chica Markers. But you can also use them to make small shadow boxes or frames!
Here are some projects to make with them.
(We'll have embossing tools and metals on the cruise!)
Whatever you do, cruisers - don't bring scissors! Fiskars has equipped each of us with...oh about 3-4 pairs each! Each set is for a different use. Fiskars has been a long-standing sponsor of the cruise and I am so grateful!
Robert Bitto from Sueños Latin American Imports heard about our cruise and stepped up and created these spectacular secret pouches for each of us. Yes, we peeked inside, but it will be a surprise for the cruisers. You will LOVE them!!
These are the shrine bases we'll be using for the Decoden mixed media project. I'll have everything you need, but if you want to bring any personal objects to incorporate, please do! Think of the centerpiece for your shrine, etc...
Please watch the video below to get the idea of what we'll be doing...
I had these made locally here in Arizona by our longtime wood worker!
Our Smashbooks arrived for the cruise! We've all made books like these on our own, but these books are a creative way to carry on the tradition! Special thanks to EK Success for the generous donation!
In case you are wondering what Smashbooks are, watch the video!
TIP: Check out your local craft store for the fun add-ons!
If this is a cruise stop, I wouldn't pay for an "official" tour, but just take a taxi ride to it on your own. (It's down a back alleyway and I got nervous when the taxi turned down that street, but don't worry, they are not taking you back there to kill you.)
The tour is free and self-guided. You get to walk in the back and watch them make something and one lucky person will get to blow some glass. The only cost is leaving a tip if you want. They have racks and racks of really cool blown glass items. We came back with some pretty shot glasses.
A fun restaurant/bar where if you are brave (like my husband), you can pay for them to hang you upside down like a fish and feed you a shot. Fun to watch if you don't want to participate and great photo opportunity.
Good food, fun to see, but definitely pricey. Worth the visit to say you've been there and you can walk around and not buy anything. (Note from Kathy: Get the nachos!!)
Playa del Amor (Lover's Beach)
You can take a water taxi (some are glass bottomed) out to Lover's Beach, which is where the famous arch is located. The experience includes the trip there and back in addition to your time on the beach. The water taxi driver goes around the arch for some great photo ops. (Ironically, on the other side of Lover's Beach is Divorce Beach.) We witnessed a proposal on Lover's Beach when we were there. There's nothing to do there but enjoy the view. We got lucky and during our visit the Arch was accessible and we were able to stand under the archway and get a picture. Though it was a little scary reaching it…we had to time it to avoid large crashing waves into the rocks. But we lived to tell about it. There are some vendors there selling cold drinks, which was definitely appreciated!
This week I was in Fresno at iLovetoCreate, and the marketing team pulled together a massive amount of supplies for us. I was able to snap a picture before this box was sealed shut and shipped off!
What you can see are the tops of the bottle of Collage Pauge -one of my all-time favorite art mediums!
It was developed by my friend, Traci Bautista! (Pssst, buy her new book...)
Here are some videos showing inspiration techniques (we'll be doing a DIY silkscreen technique with CP on the cruise):
See her next segments on March 20th at 10 a.m. and 6 pm.m ET
But she thinks us cruisers are extra special and she mentioned it to the powers that be over at Plaid and they agreed to donate one set to each of us!
I remember a couple years ago when Cathie told me she had this amazing idea that she was trying to get manufactured. It was TOP SECRET. Finally, one day we were chatting on the telly and she goes, "Oh heck, I'll tell you what it is!" And I gasped. Only a true crafter would know to come up with something like that - silicone finger protectors!
Here she is explaining what comes with the set and how it works:
Some of our supplies and prizes from Ranger Ink! Special thanks to Tim Holtz and the team for making it happen for us! Here's a video on the Claudine Hellmuth Studio Paints (we each get a set!). We also get sample set of all of Claudine's mediums.
This is such a cool project - The Photo Book Creator from Unibind! We'll be making pages and decorating the cover throughout the cruise and at the end we'll bind it all together.
These are our supplies from Unibind! Hard cover linen books, glossy paper and a binding machine. Thank you, Ken Oliver! He came to me at CHA last summer in Chicago and told me about this project, excitement ensued - and he ordered our supplies! I'll have to make a sample so you can see what we'll be doing with these. Hint: All that is missing is COLOR!
NOTE: We can bind any kind of paper, so if you have any paper you want to b ring from home toadd to your book, please do!
My good friend, Cyndi Coon of LovelyLula donated her adorable T-shirt Yarn Kits that were produced by Such Designs. These will be going in our Crafty Chica Cruise tote bags!
Cyndi Coon's T-Shirt Yarn!
How many ways can you slice and dice a T-shirt? Too many to count! But this version is one of my favorites. Cyndi Coon of Lovely Lula shows how to snip, snip, snip your way through jersey knit so clean that you'll be able to crochet, knit, sew and wrap the fabric any way you'd like.
Cyndi says: "Making tee-shirt yarn is such a great way to recycle dingy tees from your own collection or take advantage of dollar days at your local thrift store. I personally super deluxe love to thrift shop. On those days when I don’t have anything in particular in mind to hunt for I’ll often just pick up mens’ extra large tees and cut them into yarn when I return to my studio." CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL TUTORIAL MAKE A T-SHIRT YARN RING MAKE A T-SHIRT YARN BRACELET
I'm excited to announce the ever shiny Lizzy "La Chillona" Hernandez as this year's cruise supply coordinator and all-around go-to chica! Since she has signed on to help me facilitate the cruise last year, my life has been so much easier!
All the supplies are being sent to Lizzy's secret location, and I've asked her to snap a picture of each one as they arrive. The first box arrived today!
These are pens from Sakura of America! We have a illustration journal project this year and these pens will help everyone get rolling! They were kind enough to send each of us our very own set and pouch to store them.
Let me tell you about Glaze 3D Ink Pens - they are divine! They are creamy in consistency and dry to a raised texture, making them perfect for drawing on top of flat ink. If you love to "doodle" these pens are great because they create an embossed look and feel of whatever you draw!
We are getting ready for the 6th Annual Crafty Chica Cruise!
One of the best aspects is the crafty swag tote! If you are a designer, artist, store owner, manufacturer, business owner, etc and want your product on our cruise, send me a note! I'll get you the info to be included!
Not only will your item go in the tote, but I'll promote it here on my blog, as well as give a few totes away here as well.I also give you a shout out on the microphone to all the cruisers!
After bouncing back and forth between the Yahoo group and the Facebook page, I thought I'd create a home base to post all the info that you'll need for our trip!
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