C&T Publishing Blog

Painted Geisha Box

January 5th, 2009 in Papercrafts, Projects
By Lisa Fulmer Bruce

This is a Christmas gift I made for my sisterish - that’s the nickname my brother-in-law’s girlfriend and I have for each other. It’s one of my many favorite products…the Ready-To-Go!® Indie File Box. I never cease to be amazed at how incredibly well our blank board products hold up under a wide variety of mediums. I wanted this box to look like a real japanese lacquered wood box, so there are 4 coats on there - 2 of the black acrylic paint, 1 mod podge and 1 pale gold wash. Plus there are two coats of modpodge on the inside where I lined it with fabric paper. It turned out beautifully and I can’t wait to make more!!

Detail of lid

Inside is lined with fabric paper

In memory of Beverley Todd

December 29th, 2008 in Industry & News
By Lisa Fulmer Bruce

Such sad news to share….one of our Design Team members in the UK, Beverley Todd, passed away suddenly over the Christmas holiday. She was a mother to 4 lovely children and was an active scrapbooker, papercrafter, teacher and blogger. She gave wonderful encouragement and support to so many other artists and crafters all over the world. Beverley created this wonderful journal for us - for the launch of one of our new products this past spring - about all the women in her life who inspire her.

"...dedicated to the women in my life who inspire, support & encourage me to be the best that I can be." Beverley Todd

Beverley will indeed be missed by her many friends in the online crafting communities. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family at this time.

More tributes from her online friends can be found on these posts:
• Christmas Cards All Year Round
• Arty Girlz

Fantastique “Thank You” cards

December 11th, 2008 in Behind the Scenes, Papercrafts, Projects, Staff Pick
By Lisa Fulmer Bruce

“We need 20 handmade thank-you cards to send to a group of sales reps for one of our distributors please” was management’s request. Now that’s the kind of assignment we love to take on—and it showcases one of our favorite papercrafting products - Fantastiques!

Robot's Best Friend

Popcorn For Two

Trice Boerens designed these beautiful watercolor illustrations of whimsical characters and creatures. You just pop out their heads and limbs from the book, and attach them to one of the photographic torsos from the back pages, or create your own torsos with found objects…or try needlefelting one, like I did for the little doggie shown here (here’s a great book on needlefelting dogs, by the way)

With Fantastiques, your greeting cards practically design themselves…the characters’ expressive faces do all the work—it’s really fun to imagine what they might be thinking and then match it to the sentiment of your card. In order to make 20 cards quickly, we created a simple background design using velvet paper, inked edges and ribbons for a textural contrast. Then comes the popping-out party! Mixing and matching body parts with cute little brads was such a kick! We adhered them to the background with just a few raised glue dots, so the arms and legs can move around.

So our heartfelt thanks was written inside each card, and they have been sent to a group of new reps who will be working very hard to sell our books and products. You can see all 20 cards in the Fantastiques Flickr group…I’m totally addicted to these little guys….once you get some for yourself, you’ll know what I mean! :-)

A New Monthly Papercraft Challenge!

December 10th, 2008 in Challenges
By Lisa Fulmer Bruce

Any of you who have your own blog to showcase your cardmaking, scrapbooking, altered arts or mixed media work probably know about “challenge blogs.” Challenge blogs can be hosted by anyone, from large craft manufacturers to individual artists. I have found online challenges to be so much fun, not to mention incredibly inspiring and motivating. Whenever I want to make something but I’m stumped, a challenge is just the ticket. Sometimes I’ll hit several challenges in one week, just to stock up on my stash of handmade cards or gifts. I also love the worldwide online community of artists and crafters that I am now a part of…I’ve made so many new friends who love to create stuff as much as I do! A long list of my favorite challenge blogs is on my own personal crafting blog.

For those of you who are not familiar with challenge blogs, here’s how it works.

So here it is…..announcing C&T’s very own MONTHLY PAPERCRAFT DESIGN CHALLENGE!

This is so exciting!

Each month we will post a new design challenge that features one of our fabulous papercraft products. Our Design Team will provide inspirational ideas on each theme to get you thinking. And the best part is the PRIZE DRAWING - we’ll give away a valuable product package each month - everyone who enters the challenge will be eligible for the drawing!

Design Challenge #1: Happy 2009!

So many options!!

Create something to celebrate the New Year using any of our Ready-To-Go!® Blank Board Products, available at your local craft or scrapbook store, and many online retailers. Just a few ideas to consider….a festive centerpiece, a photo cube of your holiday party pictures, or a journal of your New Year’s resolutions. Visit our Flickr Design Gallery for more inspiration!

Post your comment here with a link (or just type the URL address) to a picture of your entry by January 5th, 2009. Be sure to check back between now and then to see the other entries and make new online friends….nothing makes a artsy-craftsy blogger happier than visitors who leave COMMENTS!

We’ll post a Sampler Showcase and announce our first prize winner shortly after January 5th. Thanks for playing along - we look forward to visiting you and seeing your creations!

From paper to fabric—what an eTicket!

November 21st, 2008 in Inspiration
By Lisa Fulmer Bruce

I am new to the quilting world, but I have been a paper crafter for many years. I love working with paper, punches and glue… but fabric, needles and thread have always intimidated me.

A couple years ago, I went on my first Shop Hop here in Northern California—and I was blown away! I visited four shops, each unique in their ambiance and service. The common thread between them was, of course, the stunning array of fabrics. I had never seen such beautiful colors and patterns, both coordinated and contrasting. The communal feeling of the shops was warm and inviting too, I could tell it was exactly where those folks wanted to be.

I suddenly “got it”—the unconditional, unadulterated, and undeniable love of fabric that so many quilters have. I became an impulse fabric buyer on the spot. And the fat quarters! Another thing I had never heard of… but how great is it to pick up little bits of every single fabric that appeals to you, all cute and adorable, for only a few bucks each? They’re just like candy!

I especially love fat quarters for covering my blank board books, like this project I did for Color Your World with Princess Mirah Batiks. The theme was “tweens” so I designed a 5×7 board book with pockets that a young teenager might like for holding pictures and notes from her friends. I used texting acronyms for themes on each page, like “omg” and “bff.”

I finally decided to change my guest room into a craft room, because I have accumulated so much fabric now (not to mention all the scrapbooking, papercrafting, needlefelting, beading, and embroidery stuff). So if you come to my house to visit, you’re sleeping on the couch, babe.

I am still afraid of the complexity of quilting though. So far I have made just one small sampler quilt in a 4-day beginner’s class that Laura Nownes taught. I learned so much from her, but my points were soooo not on point. I had to add some beads and embroidery to cover all my wonky points!

But I will try, try again… and I will try, try to make a more respectable dent in my fabric stash. In fact, I’m really excited about making some projects from our Super Simple Quilts series of books, I think those are totally my speed!

The Thrifty Seamstress

November 19th, 2008 in Interestingness
By Lisa Fulmer Bruce

My grandmother was a wonderful seamstress; she made lots of clothes for my Barbie and me. I was the envy of all my friends on my sixth birthday when I opened her gift to find dozens of new outfits for Barbie—sleepwear, play clothes, work dresses, and a ball gown.

She left me her beautiful wicker sewing basket when she died, which was mostly bursting with thread. Grammy used to save every single piece of thread that was longer than 6 inches; she had dozens of wooden spools in that basket, each with several colors of thread carefully wound by hand next to each other without overlapping. She probably wouldn’t have been too happy if she knew I just UNwound all those cool vintage spools and tossed out all the bits of thread. I’m designing a flip-picture puzzle (sort of like an abacus) using Ready-To-Go! Blank Board Blocks with the spools in between…I’ll post the project here as soon as I’m done!

I spent too much at PIQF

October 21st, 2008 in Events, Inspiration
By Lisa Fulmer Bruce

The Pacific International Quilt Festival in Santa Clara, CA was this past weekend. I tried to be good; I really did. I even convinced my friend that if we brought just a small amount of cash and NO credit cards, and if we treated the show like a museum exhibit instead of a shopping mall….that we’d be good. My friend’s willpower held strong—mine, not so much. I bought beautiful Burmese silk, bone celtic knot buttons, traditional japanese heavy woven cottons, and hand-dyed wool roving. We laughed about the question that nobody should ever ask a quilt show attendee…”what are you going to make with that?” I was very impressed by the number of vendors who had C&T books and products on display. Our mother ship, The Cotton Patch, was enjoying brisk traffic in their booth.

Carolie Hensley - The Cotton Patch, Lafayette CA

Batiks were everywhere, and there were several makers of gorgeous hand-dyed fabrics and trims. Besides the vendors, the show itself was full of incredible work. I was particularly pleased to see so many different art quilts that incorporated photography, poetry, ribbons, beads, netting, felt, paint, found objects, and even organic elements like tree bark. The more traditional quilts were amazing as well, the amount of work that went into some of these pieces was astounding. I took lots of pictures to add to my personal inspiration gallery, and I snapped some of our authors’ entries. All in all, it was a great day and well worth every dollar I spent. Now I’m faced with the rather daunting task of having to stop THINKING about how to become a fabric artist, and just start DOING it.

Heart Necklace Project

October 6th, 2008 in Projects
By Lisa Fulmer Bruce

This heartfelt little necklace makes the perfect Valentine’s Day gift or party favor.

SUPPLIES

1 Ready-to-Go!® 1 1/2″ Blank Board Block
3 different red and/or pink specialty papers (such as a pink metallic, red metallic, and red velvet)
Screwpunch or other sharp, pointed tool
Straight pin
5 or 6 decorative beads
3″ beading headpin
Rounded beading pliers
Wire cutter
Assorted embellishments and/or small photos
Your favorite paper adhesive
Red or pink glitter
24″ length of cord or ribbon

C&T Publishing is a group of quilters and crafters dedicated to publishing products tailored to our audience. This blog is where we break away from book schedules and marketing campaigns to focus on what drives us to be creative and how this creativity manifests itself in our every day lives.