Spring Forward with our WaterColor Batik Jewelry DIY Project

Spring is bursting out all over! (at least in our zip code!) Get in the mood for Spring with all things flowers. We have a huge selection of beads with a floral theme ~ click here to see some of them. Our friend and co-worker Cheryl used three colors of our Batik Print Shell Beads to make matching pendant necklaces and bracelets. Paired with our suede necklace cords, this is a fast and easy project that will impress your friends.  Above, Our Pink Floral shells are combined with glass pearls and Tropicana seed bead mix for a fresh fun look.
Here's some more fun variations in Purple and Red. Sparkle beads and bead caps add an elegant touch to the Purple Floral batik beads.
For a dramatic look, the Red Leaf batik beads are surrounded by Red Chinese Porcelain coins. Add our findings and the fun begins.
Check out some of our other floral glass and floral porcelain beads such as encased floral lampwork, appliqué floral lampwork, Chinese porcelain, and our great variety of millefiori (thousand flowers) beads.

You can find more spring florals here: See our SKUs:
1000 A-G Batik Printed shells
Encased roses

626.5 – 626.7 Porcelain floral rounds1712.1- 1713.26 Millefiori strands520-533 Just the Fancies strands640 Pewter Lily pendant

Quick Crafts with Kids for Parties, Teachers

With Mothers Day, Fathers Day and Teacher Appreciation Week approaching, we wanted to remind you of some kid-friendly crafts we stock - as simple as peel n stick with rewarding results!


DIY Scrabble Tile Fridge Magnets

Quick craft with kids, perfect, adorable, affordable, as personalized teacher gifts in tins with a pretty ribbon, or perform a family fridge upgrade and magnetic game board in one! Just peel n stick these squares to the back of any scrabble tile, you can also instantly seal the tops with our scrabble tile dome lenses - again, just peel and stick - my kind of craft! 


DIY Bottle Cap Pendants
Quick craft with kids, craft night, slumber party Instant bottle cap pendant kits. Trim, stick, done, fun!

DIY Bottle Cap Magnets
Quick craft with kids, craft night, slumber party Instant bottle cap pendant kits. Trim, stick, done, fun!

April DIY Projects: Button Jewelry, Terra Cotta Pot Windchimes

Our inspiration for March/April is Spring Cleaning ~ make recycled jewelry and art!

 

Here's two quick projects using a mix of new and old ~ We created this button jewelry trio using our vintage button mix in white/pearls, and e6000'd them onto our glue on ring, bracelet and pendant forms to make a whimsical, breezy jewelry trio. Click here for closeup.

 

Our second idea came from Anne and her sister - who sat around one morning dreaming up ways to use their little terra cotta pots left over from an herb garden kit. They painted the pots, wrapped them in hardware wire, and used an assortment of our bamboo tiles,Fearless Crafter's Metals Mix, and many different styles of our glass and shell beads secured with our crimp beads and crimp covers to tiger tail cording to make these incredibly cute windchimes! Click here for closeup.

 

Substitute, replace one idea or material for another - the main idea is to experiment with some found objects around your house and add some whimsy. Have fun experimenting!

 

We have some really FUN new items for April including

NEW photo charm kits (each kit comes complete with 2 metal bases and 2 adhesive domed covers), NEW memory frames in exciting new shapes!, new mini bottles in assorted shapes and a new color- amber, NEW bamboo art beads including a larger 1" size perfect for windchimes! cigar box purse handles, leather cord jewelry, etc. NEW bottle cap pendants and ready-made bottle cap magnets - wonderful projects for kids to make with the family.

 

Save 20% on your order thru April by using your newsletter subscriber code APR2011 on your PAYMENT page, in the promo code box on left hand side of your screen. You need to SIGN IN in order for the promo code box to appear.

 

OK! No more excuses! Get to it - there's plenty in your hardware or scrap booking drawer to get you started in your own creative reuse jewelry or home decor project! Happy creating from all of us at Rubber Nation Crafts and soon, eCrafty.com!

 

3 Easy Scrabble, Domino Tile and Bottle Cap Jewelry Ideas to Try

This month's inspiration comes in the form of mixed media – wood and metal. You can make any of these more fabulous with some extra charms or beaded dangles. I made this bracelet in under 5 minutes. Just put a dab of e6000 adhesive on our oval bracelet form. Peel and stick our scrabble tile covers to each pad. You're done!

Click on this image for a detailed DIY view.

Our new extra large 4mm hole glue-on bails have arrived. Very easy to work with ~ fits all of our standard neck cords 3mm including clasp ends. I used e6000 to attach one of our new rectangle bails to either a scrabble tile or a bamboo tile, then strung through one or our 2mm leather cords. The end result is a ready-made custom initial charm or a beautiful blank jewelry palette to inspire you.

Click on these images to see our new glue-on rectangular backed large-holed bails strung on our finished leather cords.

We used our scrabble tiles and bamboo domino tiles here. Super easy! 

 You could also use pebbles, beach glass, dominoes, glass tiles, microscope slides, mosaic mirrors, cabochons, bottle caps or shrinky dinks. Click on the pendant image to the left for a closeup view of a finished bamboo domino tile pendant made very simply with our cord, tile, bail, e6000 and a calendar page scrap. Pretty much, with a little e6000, nearly any flat-backed item can become a pendant or charm.

We're very excited to introduce our fun, family friendly instant zipper pull kits – each flattened bottle cap charm comes with it's own adhesive dome – ready for your art, photos, more. Just clip to your backpack, jacket, button hole, purse, charm bracelet, necklace or key ring. Finish your image with a 1" circle punch or exacto knife on a cutting mat.

How cool is this? (They are still drying as I type.) I used our flat round glass tiles with our downloadable typewriter key art sheet and just ONE sampler tube of our 3D Crystal Lacquer and made these beautiful 3D glass typewriter key tiles - they are about 1" across each and will work great as pendants, fridge magnets (what a FUN gift idea! Somebody make me some!) :-)  I just printed them out from my laser writer on plain recycled copy paper. We'll have a full project sheet shortly.

Click here to see what's NEW for March. We are busy preparing our new web home, eCrafty.com, for a very well-deserved grand re-opening party.  It's getting very close! In the meantime, please use your exclusive newsletter reader's March code MAR2011 to save 20% off every non-bulk/non-wholesale item in your cart at RubberNation.com. Your promo code box appears on the payment page (last page of checkout) after you SIGN IN.

About the designer: I'm Kim Noland, founder of Rubber Nation Crafts, soon to be eCrafty. I love to see your ideas and hear your comments!

I am really lucky to have such an enthusiastic, talented bunch of crafty folks that work here and help make sure your orders go out with LOTS of care and freebies. We are very much an extended family business now ~ Besides my own kids, Kelly and NIck, we have an array of talented teens that help us part-time after school including Molly, Robin, Christian and Shenoa. They are backed up daily by moms Helen, Anne (mom of 2 of them) and Cheryl (grandmom to one of them!).

We put aside some of our profits annually to benefit our local schools as well as charities involved in giving families a helping hand.

We will soon have our new web site (eCrafty.com) completed ~ including a project gallery - we'd love to see what you do with all the goodies we pack up! Send us a picture of your completed project, along with a few sentences about your inspiration. Don't be shy! We love to see what you create! If we include it in our new project gallery - we'll send you a $50 store credit to spend with us on more goodies!

Tell a friend, come find us soon on Facebook as eCrafty, and thanks always for making our 12th year in business our best and most fun ever!

Happy creating from all of us at Rubber Nation Crafts and soon...eCrafty.com!

11 DIY Beaded LOVE Projects for Valentines, Mother's Day, Graduations and June Brides

With Valentines, Mother's Day and Wedding Season just around the corner, we present Made with Love ~ an assortment of 11 inspired projects from our very talented friends and coworkers ~ Shenoa and Cheryl Satterlee (a grandaughter/grandmother team!) and the ever-crafty Anne Strasser.  (Step aside! She's armed with Weldbond again!)  Love is surely in the air with all the inspiration our crafty friends found to share with you this month!  Enjoy!

#1 Sweethearts

You will love this darling choker made by Shenoa.  We just love these red Millefiori hearts (our SKU 1712.25) that were the inspiration for her work.  Pairing the hearts with some of our crystals and seeds beads, she added a focal heart from our #405 special heart bead strand.  You too can make a sweet heart necklace. (Items used are 1712.25, 378, 417 and 405)

 

 #2 The Case of the Missing Chocolates

Anne came across an empty box of Valentines chocolates the other day - imagine her surprise - and decided to fluff it up a little. She got out her Weldbond and/or e6000 craft adhesives and went to town - smothering the top in our Tropicana Seed Bead mix 417, and adorning the sides with our Berry Red glass pearls 446D. Now it's way too pretty for the recycling bin - she can use it year round for jewelry, beads, findings, small office or even small hardware items.. Pretty cool, eh?

 

#3 I Love Pink

Another great creation from Shenoa.  We love pink just as much as she does.  This new creation features our rondelle beads with pink appliqué roses and black dots.  A very modern color combination is off set with our pink glass pearls.  I’m sure you will find lots of outfits that need this accessory.  Shenoa used our 1261, 444AA, 417 along with our findings. 

#4 Pink Pearl Perfection Classic glass pearls in a brand new twist makes for a stylish necklace of chains and pearls.  Shenoa made pearl drops with our headpins and pink glass pearls.  Then she attached them to multiple chains for a sophisticated necklace to that will never go out of style.  And look at the earrings that she made to go with it.  See all of our glass pearls in 4mm, 6mm, and 8mm sizes in a rainbow of color choices.

 

#5 Framed with Love

There is no end to the possibilities for a framed art necklace.  And so easy!  Shenoa created the floral artwork in her charm frame.  But you can add a photo or decorative paper in your creation.  With a simple charm and one of our organza neck cords, you will have a memorable one-of-a-kind piece for yourself or others.  Our neck cords come in a assortment of colors for every project.  Check out our photo frames 103 A-E and our cords 368-369.

#6 Beach DreamsAnne also recently came across an empty Altoid Mints tin and promptly ran for the Weldbond, again! She used a laser print out of a balmy beach scene, a strand of strung shells from the thrift store, some sand, some scrapbookking tape from the dollar store and some of our Tumbled Aqua Glass Beads 545, our Flip Flop pewter charms 1226, and our Wander Message/Word Token 1213V. The results are almost too inspiring to continue writing this article!  How exactly does this fit into our current theme of love, mothers and weddings? Well, every mom would LOVE to get to the beach about now, AND it's blue (as in something borrowed.....something.....!) Any further questions?

#7 Spring Garden Butterfly

Get ready for Spring!  We have the beads for all your Spring crafting needs.  Get inspired by Shenoa and the fancy Lampwork beads she used in this beautiful necklace.  Shenoa chose to feature our “Just the Fancies” pink collection along with our Green and Pink Bumpy Dot beads.  But you can choose any of the other “Just the Fancies” colors.  We have red, blue, green, yellow, aqua and even a black and purple variety.  (Items used 1264, 550, 378 and 417)

#8 Color Riot

You will just bubble over with joy and laughter when you see the new necklace using our “Just the Fancies” red and yellow beads.  Shenoa has again created an original design that has gone crazy with color.  She used three strands of beading wire for this necklace.  First she treated seed beads on each strand and then put all three strands through a fancy lampwork bead.  She continued on in this pattern throughout the necklace using both red and yellow beads.  The variety of beads in our “Just the Fancies” is amazing and such fun.  Check out the Lady Bug earring Shenoa made from beads in the mix.  (Items 554, 556, 417)

#9 Your Heart Shines Through

Red heart Millefiori beads and Lustre beads made a darling bracelet just in time for Valentines Day.  Shenoa combined these two items into a sweet simple bracelet will inspire you to get creating.  She used our 1712.25 Millefiori beads and our 1348 Lustre Bead Mix.  How Beautiful!

#10 Crystal Heart

Here is an easy quick necklace that is sure to be a hit. Cheryl used one of our pink 3-strand organza cords as a base and attached a variety of hearts on headpins and jump rings.  The star of the creation is our Ice Crystal Faceted Glass Heart (433.13).  Surrounded by beads from our 1348 lustre mix, the crystal heart really shines.  You might like to make a pair of earrings to co-ordinate too.  Check out all our bead mixes and findings to get inspired.

#11 Frosted Heart Valentine

A new creation by Shenoa is a beautiful necklace with a heart theme.  Using our Pink Sherbet Frost bead mix along with our pink glass pearls and our Tropicana seed bead mix, she gave us a stunning necklace to wear at Valentines and many months after.  Check out the beads she used = 378, 417, 444AA and all our findings.

 

 

Find it! Buy it! Craft it!  Type any of the SKU numbers mentioned in the articles above into our search box at www.RubberNation.com and www.eCrafty.com.  Click here to save 20% monthly on your entire order just by joining our e-newsletter list - we'll send a fresh code to your inbox every month good for 20% savings on all non-bulk/non-wholesale items.

 

Current newsletter subscribers, simply type in JAN2011 in the promo code box on your payment page - your 20% discount will be applied to all non-bulk items.

 

About the designers: Cheryl and Shenoa Satterlee are our dynamite grandmother and grandaughter jewelry design team. Cheryl wears many hats here - packer, designer, copywriter and inventory tracker. When she's not here, she switches to her most favorite hats of all as mom and grandmom! Shenoa is a multi-tasking 7th grader who has a real gift for creative jewelry making. How lucky we are!

 

Anne Strasser just keeps getting craftier, if that's even possible. Spring is in the air and we'd better get her winter projects published before we lose her to the great outdoors ~  the e6000 is headed outdoors as we type! Anne wears many hats too, of course, mom, aunt, crafter, gardener, editor, baker, let's face it, she's our Martha. It's a good thing.

 

 

Crafting a Family Tree

This month's crafting inspiration comes to us from our wonderful reader and inspired crafter, Sharon Sullivan. She writes, "I thought you might enjoy seeing what I did with your wonderful bamboo tile beads and beading cord." Click on the images for full-size views.

"Family is everything to us, and I came up with this idea one night while working on ancestry.com! 'Our Family Tree.' " Her whole family is on the left, and her immediate family is on the right. "As you can see, there are a couple empty branches for future growth of the family."

Well, we just love this idea, and Sharon was kind enough to share her photos and inspiration with us all. In addition to our bamboo domino tiles and cord, Sharon used an arty branch from www.save-on-crafts.com. Thank you Sharon! We are sending you a super duper goody bag for your inspirational project idea, as well as a $50 store credit good towards your next visit! Keep on crafting ~ we can't wait to see what's next!

This is Sharon's OTHER creation! She writes, "Oh, I'm attaching another picture to show you what I did with one of the freebies you sent. It was truly one of my daughter-in-law's favorite gifts! I put pictures of our grandbabies on a black background and affixed them to the bamboo tile. The holes were a bit too small for the cord on my freebie necklace, but a bit of careful drilling bored it out just enough that the necklace slipped right through. A couple of silver beads and voila! A beautiful way to show off her kiddos!  Again, thanks."

Do you have a favorite creation made with our supplies? Care to share with us? Just e-mail us, rubbernation@comcast.net. If we use your finished project on our site or in our newsletter, we'll send along a $50 store credit for you to use as you please on your next order!

A small plug - check out our Dollar Beads and End of Year 50-80% off Clearance sections ~ you'll be glad you did.

Happy Crafty New Year to All - wishing you a happy and healthy 2011 with time to spend with family, craft, and to share your stories with us!

Thank you all for an absolutely wonderful year here, from Kim, Cheryl, Anne, Helen, Kelly, Molly, Robin and Nick! Hope to see you soon! Watch for us in the New Year as we begin the transition from www.rubbernation.com to our zippy new home on the web, www.eCrafty.com!

Check out our family friendly crafts: Try our fridge magnets, scrabble tile crafts, or flattened bottle caps pendants, add clear self-stick epoxy domes - all are extremely easy projects for kids to finish on their own!

Dichroic Glass Bracelet on a Shoestring Budget, Crafting Simply for the Holidays

December's inspiration is all about keeping it simple.  I was inspired by a dichroic bracelet I saw in an artists gallery this summer and asked my 11-year old son Nick for his help.Look at the gorgeous results- this took him 5 minutes - (granted, he does everything fast) it couldn't be simpler - he picked 12 of our flat-backed dichroic glass cabs and e-6000'dthem onto one of our bracelet forms. Done! Literally, 5 minutes or less. Coordinates beautifully with ourready-to-wear dichroic glass earrings.

Take it Easy! Shop in your PJs! My favorite tip for a stress-free holiday is to relax, stay home, and shop in your pajamas!  Put on a fire and get out the cocoa - We've got a ton of fun little gifting ideas to keep you in your jammies and out of the malls - here's just a few!

PS ~ Stress less ~ Save 20% instantly ~ use your payment page savings code NEWS1210.

Our Top "Keep it Simple" Gift Ideas (by Technique)

1. Peel n Stick!

Scrabble Tile Magnets

Bottle Cap Pendants

Adhesive Magnets (circles or rounds)

Beadalon Peel/Stick 1" squares

Photo Charm/Pendant Forms with Epoxy Dome Lenses

DIY Typewriter Letter Charm Kits

Bottle Cap Pendants with Epoxy Dome Lenses

2. Just Glue It!

Glue On Bracelet Forms

Glue On Ring Forms

e6000 Adhesive

Dichroic Cab 10 packs or Scrabble Tiles

DIY Scrabble Tile Pendant Kit Makes 10

3. Just Hang it!

Ice Crystals

Photo Charms as Ornaments

Memory Frames as Ornaments

4. Just Click It! (Already assembled, boxed or bagged, ready to give)

 Photo Bracelets with Gift Box (6 new styles for December!)

 Dichroic or Swarovski,Glass Earrings with Organza Bag

 Holiday Sayings Bracelets 2 for $1

Boxed or Organza-Bagged Gifts Ready to Give

Jewelry Sets with Gift Box

Jingle Bell Earrings with Gift Box

Jumbo Jingle Bell Necklaces

 Typewriter Bead Charms, Necklaces

 Instant Photo Charm Pendants (Square or Round)

4. Gussie it Up!

Organza Bags for Gifting, Goodie Wrapping, Bath Salt Making

Organza Ribbon Neck Cords

Velvet Neck Cords

About our lead story - that is one cool bracelet - I think I'm getting it for Christmas! Woo hoo!

About the artist: My son Nick is an 11-year creative force of nature who loves to dabble in many many things in his spare time. Watch out world!