What Is Creativebug?

I did not know that Joann's had acquired Creativebug in 2017 but, I did not learn about Creativebug until around 2021. Creativebug is a great place to learn to live the creative life. If you don't know what Creativebug is, here's what they say:

We pride ourselves on bringing the latest in art and craft education to our members, and we work with renowned artists to do just that. ...you'll enjoy unlimited access to thousands of online art and craft classes. Watch our classes anytime, anywhere. Since our classes never expire, you can start and stop projects at your own pace.

While Creativebug requires a subscription (the Unlimited Plan is $7.95/mo or $5.95/mo if billed annually, Unlimited Plus plan is $9.95/mo.), there is a trial subscription available that will last around 60 days.

Your local public library may offer a free subscription to Creativebug. That is how I was able to join. I didn't even have to go to the library to obtain a library card. I was able to sign up online. Through my library's email newsletter, I learned about the free membership that they offer to Creativebug.

Craftsy is similar but I like Creativebug better. You may have seen the succession of Craftsy membership invites around social media. They offered a 1-year trial membership for $2.95. I joined and it was ok, but I was disappointed that it is only a library of videos. There are no lives or interaction among members, though comments can be made. There were only crickets when I tried it. Creativebug hosts lives and is a much more active creative website.

I found this review by Aly Marie at Sewing Machine Fun to be very informative. She shares all of the cons and the mostly pros of joining. You can start your free trial now through this link that I copied from Aly's post, Creativebug 60 Days Free.

I like Creativebug's Daily Practice Series and Mixtape Series. Just today, I got an email introducing me to their new series called Learning Journeys. I'm excited about the Crochet 101 Journey. I know how to crochet but I need more structure and I have never learned how to properly read crochet patterns.

Of course, you don't have to take any series. You can watch any of the 1,000s of videos that you want. According to Aly, with the Unlimited Plus subscription, you can download 1 lesson a month to keep forever.

Have a Happy Creative Day! 

Learn creative skills, Learn to create, You can create, Living the creative life, I want to make things

Happy Creative Weekend!

 

What will you create this weekend? It's time to try something new. Use a different medium or try a different technique. Step forward and do what you've been planning to do! You can create. 

Maybe you have already but have been dragging your feet on new projects. Maybe you've always wanted to create but have never thought that you could. Well, you can. All it takes is being determined to start.

Creativity adds fun, light and excitement to life and it is fulfilling.

HAVE A WONDERFUL CREATIVE WEEKEND! Step out and do!

nomoreprocrastination nomorecouchpotato nomoreslacking createyourworld

Simple Wedding Planner

My first Forever Romantic Wedding Plan Printable Pkgs design called Two Exotics are available in my Etsy shop to help you plan a simple wedding.

They are for the bride who wants a casual marriage that she plans herself and where her and her groom foot the cost. She wants something simple, easy and uncomplicated that will help her to plan the marriage event of her dreams. 

 

She doesn't need a 150-page planner or any of the other massive pkgs that are being offered. She will do just fine with my under-32-page simple wedding planning checklists and planning pages. She has her choice of pkg sizes. The micro planner is only 17 pages!

It took a lot of effort and days of work to create these easy wedding planning guides. I am proud that I stuck with it and saw them through to completion.

I designed them in Modest (31 pg), Mini (22 pg) and Micro (17 pg) planner pkgs. I wanted to offer something more simple and easy than the 50, 100 and 150-pg pkgs that are being sold. 

Two Exotics is my first theme, created with my floral blossoms designs using Affinity Designer & Publisher. This pkg is the template for more themes that I'll be creating.

 

The themes are not how the wedding needs to be styled. They are just colorful, inspiring designs for the bride to look at as she plans her wedding. The pkgs are guide sheets for her to use as she designs the wedding style that she prefers.

See more details about my 3 printable pkgs here:

 

Forever Romantic Wedding Pkgs at Printaphoria

My casual wedding planning pkgs are just what you, the DIY bride, needs to plan a low-keyed, laid-back event. Forever Romantic Wedding Plan Printables will assist you in organizing your thoughts to pull off your marvelous event exactly as you desire.

I will be adding other romantic-themed printables to motivate, inspire and celebrate romance and love before and after marriage. 

Upcoming pkg design: White Country Church.

printaphoria.etsy.com

Modest Wedding Planning Printable, Exotic Wedding Planner, Printaphoria Shop, How To Plan Your Own Wedding 

How Is Blogging Useful For Promoting My Business?

I've had my two blogs at Google's Blogger since 2006. They used to call the blogs Blogspots. I bought my own domains for each a few years ago. I pay $12 per year each. I was following 126 blogs over the years. I found recently that most had stopped blogging around 2015, with a handful blogging up to 2017. 

I unfollowed those, ending up with 6 blogs and 2 of those are mine. So, it does seem that blogging is virtually dead in the handmades and creative community. There are, however, still creatives who have tossed around the idea of blogging. They are wondering today if they should start blogging. I will share my thoughts on this valuable marketing tool.

Blogging is work, especially if you care about the format of the posts and adding images. If you're blogging for joy, you'll keep at it. Being able to see statistics of who's visiting your blog may inspire you to continue. It can also discourage you if you only see a few people visiting every few months. The same with blogging for interaction from readers or to make money through monetizing. 

I don't care for most of the affiliate advertising that is available. I tried Amazon Affiliate Marketing for a short time but I did not have enough traffic so it didn't work out. I tried affiliate marketing through a couple of book sites like Abe Books, Alibris and Thrift Books. 

I just didn't take to it and I'm not a trendy, popular online influencer. I can't remember exactly which book affiliate I used, because it was so long ago. It's not easy generating comments and an income through blogging. I think that's why many who have those goals give up on blogging but a blog can be used in other ways. 

A blog can be useful for a number of reasons other than affiliate marketing. If you discover ways to use it to further your interests or brand, you'll keep blogging. I appreciate blogging because it's a place where you can say whatever you want, how you want and as often as you want. You can market yourself as often as you want and in whatever way you want. 

Unlike marketing on social media and other marketing platforms, no one will tell you what you can't do when you do it from your blog. You can use the SEO that you want to use. When blogging to market your products and services, you can share as many images as you want. Your product descriptions can be as long or as detailed as you want them to be. 

Most of all, you can add as many links in your blogs posts as you see fit. There are no annoying restrictions or constrictions. As long as you follow the TOS of the blogging platform that you are using, you are free to market yourself through the blog however you see fit. 

Though my creative friends and many others have fallen by the wayside in their blogging, I am so glad that I have not. I can't think of a single creative whose blog I enjoyed and was inspired by who is still blogging. Writing your own blog is a fun way to promote yourself and your brands! It can be very effective if you stick with it and learn how to use it to your benefit. At this writing, you can still do it for free at some sites and even still buy low-cost domains.

Substack (Substack helps anyone set up a blog and email newsletter. No tech knowledge is required. It’s free to get started on Substack.)

Blogger (recently sold their Blogger platform to Squarespace and I'm still here waiting to see what changes Squarespace makes over time)

Yola (2 websites with 2 pages each for free plan, have to design your own website through their templates and drag and drop)

Wix (unfortunately, only a 14-day free trial, have to design your own website through their templates and drag and drop)

Weebly (have to design your own website through their templates and drag and drop)

Patchwork Bottles: A Dramatic Decor Craft

 

I had thrown so many bottles away that I put my foot down and declared I'm going to find a quick, decorative technique so that I can salvage these bottles!

 

I like working with glass because of its sparkling transparency. Even when covered up, as I've done with these bottles, it's still exciting to feel the heftiness of the glass in my hands.

Ways to decorate a bottle.

I decided on a freeform, patchwork design. Before I chose my papers, I decided on color schemes of:

• whites/creams/silvers for the 1st bottle,
• pinks/mauves/fuchsias for the 2nd,
• and golds/silvers/cremes/whites for the 3rd.

I tore up a supply of various papers, keeping them close to similar sizes by layering them before tearing. It was easy to apply glue to each piece and stick it to the bottle. The challenge was choosing each piece so that the same designs and colors were not bunched up together.

Since paper crafting is my first love, I have a huge stock of scrap papers that makes it easy to arrange color schemes. I loved using foils/metallics. Some of them, especially the fuchsias, are actually salvaged candy/gum wrappers! I scavenge papers from anywhere and anything. Metallic papers can be pulled from the envelope liners of greeting cards that we receive.


Deciding in what design to place the papers can be challenging and a reason for procrastination. I decided that for every 5 papers that I glued down I would place one of the darkest colors.

Another thing that helps with your pattern design is that you don’t have to glue in a certain direction. Each piece of paper can be glued up, down, left or right in line with what was placed last. This gives a lot of leeway in balancing the colors and sizes in the placement of the paper pieces.


I started at the bottom gluing papers and worked my way around and up to the top of each bottle. Once finished, I painted each bottle with a matte sealer. You can use a matte or gloss medium, one of the Modge Podge or Decorart brands of sealers or white PVC glue. It depends on how durable you want your bottles to be and where you plan to display them. Outside or in moist areas will require a sealer that can protect against that.


I decided to add another fav medium, craft wire, to the largest bottle. It’s really easy. Most important is not to cut a length of wire first. Just wrap and twist with a pliers, wrap and twist while unwinding the wire from the roll.

You then won’t end up with a too short piece or extra that you have to clip off and store. If you precut a piece and it runs short, you could easily join another piece and twist carefully to hide the join.

I chose a golden wire and twisted a design with wire pliers, making sure to add a twist each time the wire passed each side of the bottle. When I finished, I crimped each end of the wire back onto itself, hiding the ends and securing them.

I painted and embellished a wooden ball for the top of one bottle, attaching it securely with tacky glue.

I kept the black, plastic, twist-on cap on the silvery bottle, decoupaging it with silver paper. I then formed a sculptural design on top of that cap with another piece of the silver paper drenched in glue.

I really like my design of the cork stopper for the gold and silver bottle. I painted it white and added a spiral design with a metallic gold paint pen.

I securely glued it into the top of the bottle with tacky glue. I had decoupaged gold metallic, textured paper around and into the bottle opening. This helped to secure the cork inside.

 

I created a sculptural topper for the bottle cork out of reclaimed metal, wire and beads. The metal disk had a metal post on it (it was part of an old pierced earring), which I stuck into a glue-filled hole in the cork.

Paper patchwork.

I like my work to be finished on all surfaces, so I cut and glued coordinated craft felt to the bottom of each bottle. It helps keep them from sliding off of shelves and protects surfaces.

Bottle decoration ideas.

The most time-consuming part of this technique is, of course, designing the paper patchwork design. Once you get started it goes very quickly.


I like looking at these bottles. They dress up any table or shelf with a pretty flash of creativity. Get busy!

Make your creative flash today!

Happy Creative Monday: Trading Changes For Freedom

I've been making changes in my creative life right and left. Once you get started, the burdens just keep rolling off and away. We never know how much something was a burden until it's gone. We're always convincing ourselves that life must go on as is.

It's easier to stay burdened than to make changes towards a freedom that we can't or won't see that we need. It doesn't take much convincing for us to believe that we need everything that we have in our lives.

Monday is a good day to evaluate what burdens we may have that need to be shaken off, what new freedoms we need to embrace. HAPPY MONDAY!

 

Happy Creative Friday: You Can Create!

 

Embrace your creativity! Enjoy creative living! It's a breath of fresh air everyday! You can create. You have the ability within. It's not like what anyone else does. It's your special vision, you way of seeing things. It is a gift that you have to enhance and brighten your life.

See this inspiring post: You Are Creative!

Small Envelopes For Seeds

Almost time for harvest and seed-saving! These small envelopes for seeds will help you to organize your heirloom seeds. Separate your hybrids into mini envelopes that you print, cut out and fold yourself. 

Flowering, vegetable, fruit or herbs seeds can be salvaged into these easy to file pockets. These Roses Design Seed Catchers provide a way for you to prepare to grow a new garden or crop of your precious botanicals for the next growing season.

You receive:

 ♦ 3 (three) printable envelopes, 1 3/4 x 2 3/4" approx.

♦ 300 dpi for crisp printing on 8 1/2 x 11" paper or card stock.

♦ Print, cut out, fold and glue or tape 3 flaps on each.

♦ Print as often as needed. Remember that your equipment may display and print the colors differently. Save your ink and print in black and white if it will work for your project.

These printable envelopes can also be used for craft storage of  beads, buttons, scrap fabrics and other crafting supplies. Also, use them for office supplies storage. 

 

 

 

Buy Roses Design Seed Catchers at 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

© Printaphoria & Graphics To Beautify, Organize & Simplify Your Life Are The Property Of Artsy Craftery Design Studio

Happy Creative Wednesday & Easy Nature Crafts

Creativity is a part of everyday life for those who love making, designing, writing and photography. See my tissue paper leaves glued to natural twigs? That's easy creativity that you can do. 

Fold several layers of tissue paper and cut out oval/marquis/cat eye shapes. Fold them over twigs and glue. Liquid glue works best. Glue sticks may tear the tissue paper. Place your leafy stems in a vase and decorate your environment with this lovely, nature crafts floral design.  

So many possibilities with color schemes and twigs formations! Easy weekend crafts projects for you! Easy crafts for kids!

Happy Creative Wednesday!

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Thrown Together Banana & Applesauce Muffins

I don’t even know how they got that way in the fridge without me noticing. It was overnight, I think. My bananas were so ugly! They were so yucky that I didn’t want to touch them but I couldn’t bring myself to throw them out. They weren’t terribly ugly on the inside though, just mushy. 

I knew I had the basics in the pantry to whip up some small muffins. Anyone who has cooked for a few years knows the basic ingredients for bread products. I keep self-rising flour too, so it’s easy peasy! I guesstimated all measures. 

For 6 muffins, I mashed the 2 bananas in a bowl. I added 2 eggs, about 3/4 cups of sugar and a tsp of vanilla. I stirred it up well by hand. I then added self-rising flour, applesauce to thicken them and add more flavor, and a little milk. I gently stirred it, again by hand, until it was just moistened and still lumpy.

*****

I closely watched the consistency because I didn’t want them to bake out overly dry or too soft and crumbly. I could always have added more flour if the mix became too wet but that would possibly mean having to add more sugar, vanilla, etc. Sometimes adding more flour and other ingredients at the late stage of mixing can toughen and coarsen the end product.

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Spooned the mix into the greased muffin tin. I chopped up some nuts that I had on hand and sprinkled them over the tops with a little sugar. I pressed the nuts down a little with the back of a spoon so that they would not fall off during the rising.

I baked them on 400 and watched them after about 20 min. When they began to brown, I tested them with a knife until they were done to my liking.

They came out REALLY well! With butter spread over the tops and coffee, they were delish! As you can see, two were quickly gone!

TIPS:

• Using milk browns better than water, though water will do in a pinch for some recipes.

• Adding applesauce will add moisture so reduce the amount of milk/liquid.

• When guesstimating, it’s better to add a little liquid at a time rather than having to add more flour/dry products because the mix has become too wet. Over-compensating and over-stirring can make the baked good coarse and tough. 

Lettuce Craft Forum featured this post.

See other Kitchen Minute posts.

 

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