Aleene's Tacky Glue Queen, Tiffany and Heidi on the iLoveToCreate home page!

Aleene and Tiffany and Heidi from Aleene's Creative Living, are on the iLoveToCreate home page all this month!... It is so cool to see the queen of Aleene's Tacky Glue right there on our website.

For me, it brings back a lot of memories from when I was filming for Hobby Lobby as their spokesperson, and then to become one of the Hosts on the show back in the day.

I'll be posting some old photos later on as a little memory book to share with everyone.

Ladies, you're looking amazing, and you're still crafting.

What's not to love!!

DIY Christmas Crochet/Knitting Tote Bag

I loved making this tote bag for the crochet or knitting enthusiast.  When I was sketching the design I wanted to make a spot to keep scissors handy and not so easy to lose in the bag with all your yarn and felt, and book and pattern. 
The instructions and details are at iLoveToCreate.com and there are tons more DIY gift ideas that you can still make in time for Christmas!

DIY Painted T-Shirts

I got so excited last night watching The Antonio Treatment, that I started yelling for Scott to come check it out. They were spraying t-shirts with our Tulip Fashion Spray for the kids to wear as smocks at the Hollywood Boys & Girls Club. They looked amazing as you can see here.



The renovation was unbelievable as the crew transformed the art room into a fabulously functional and fun place for kids to come to.

Awesome!

Oh, and I grabbed my iPhone and took lots of pictures so you can see how cool the room looked when they were finished.











Come see me at Pattiewack.com!

I Can't Believe It's Tacky Glue & Bread!

I know, you're thinking I grabbed some polymer clay and made this darling little leaf bowl, but NO. It is just bread and glue! I had some left-over dough in the frig from a segment we did for the local news station, and you know crafters, we NEVER throw anything away. So, I decided to make a sweet little nut bowl with matchy-matchy wine glass tags for Thanksgiving.

I love how the leaves turned out for the wine glasses. They actually look like fine porcelain in real life. My pics are not the best, but I hope you can see how pretty they turned out.

The leaf bowl is perfect for filling with pistachios or other little snacks to go with the wine while the guests are waiting on that darn turkey to cook!

So, to make your own Tacky Glue Dough, all you need are 3 pieces of white bread with the crusts pulled off, and 3 big spoonfuls of Aleene's Tacky Glue. Pinch up the bread into a disposable cup and add your glue. Mix it with a plastic spoon until it starts to turn into a big lump, and then roll it in your hands until you have a nice ball of dough. Next, pat or roll it out to the size of a pancake.

For the complete steps for Tacky Glue Dough, go to the iLoveToCreate website for the pics and how-tos.

Then grab your scissors and cut a leaf shape about the size of your palm,

Use a spoon to help shape the leaf into a bowl and the press veins into it.

I pinched the edges and softened them with my fingers.

The little leaves are about an inch and a half wide, cut out with scissors, and then a straw was pushed through so I could hang them on the stem of the wine glasses.

To speed up the drying process, I set my toaster oven to 200 degrees, let it warm up and then turned it off. Then I placed the leaves in the oven for about 3 hours to cure. I noticed that the leaves were puffing up with air, so I pressed them with my fingers and placed them back in the oven until they were totally dry. If you can wait until the next day to paint them it will be great.

Autumn leaf colors were what I used to transform the leaves with color. I used paint from my stash. After they were completely dry, they were ready for Scott and I to toast to all of our many blessings.

Happy Thanksgiving!
& Blessings
to everyone!
Pattiewack

Bread Dough Jewelry

I've been sitting on the couch, kneading Aleene's® Tacky Glue and white bread together so I can make bread dough jewelry today. Tomorrow morning I am going to be on the KMPH Fox 26 Morning Show here in Fresno, along with Cheryl Ball and Allee Marderosian. We will be on from 6 til 10 a.m. and be demonstrating 10 fun summer crafts.

So, I thought it would be a great time to remind everyone about the easy dough that you can make with glue and bread. The necklace and bracelet in these pics are from my book, The Crafter's Guide to Glue. I made the classic roses and pressed them into fancy shaped paper clips. Then I assembled them with jump rings. The colors came from little drops of acrylic paint. Today I experimented with puffy paint and food coloring. Fun!


Here's the scoop on how to make your...


Aleene's® Tacky Glue & Bread Dough

1. The basic bread dough formula is one slice of bread to one tablespoon of glue.
2. Remove all of the crusts from the number of slices you'll need for your project and tear into small pieces.
3. Put the bread in a plastic bag and pour the appropriate number of tablespoons of glue into the bag (1 piece bread to 1 tablespoon glue). Knead the dough for 10 minutes or until it becomes smooth and workable.
4. At first it will be sticky, but keep kneading. Due to differences in climate and moisture in the area, you may need to adjust the ratio of bread to glue.
5. If after 10 minutes the mixture is still too sticky, add more small pieces of bread. If it is too dry or stiff add a few more drops of glue.
6. You can color the dough by adding a few drops of paint to the dough.
7. Roll the dough out on a smooth and clean surface as you would with cookie dough. Use your fingers or cookies cutters to mold and cut shapes.
8. Small projects will take hours to dry, while larger ones could take days.
9. You can store the dough in a sealed plastic bag in the refrigerator for several months.

Treads and Threads

Supplies:
Bicycle Tire (auto tire, or tennis shoe)
Prewashed Cotton Tee Shirt
Tulip® 3D Fashion Paint (Black Slick)
Newspaper
Clothes Pins
Disposable Brush
Paper Plate

Steps:

1. Place newspaper inside shirt. Hold in place with clothespins.
2. Generously apply paint to the tread of a bicycle tire, the width of the tee shirt, using a disposable brush.
3. Roll the paint covered tire over the tee shirt to stamp with the tread.

Pattie's Pointer:
Boys and girls will both love this funky technique for stamping their tee shirts with tire tread. You can use anything with a tread, such as an automobile tire, or tennis shoes or hiking boots. For a tread-theme decorating idea, you can stamp a lampshade, window shade, and pillows for the teen or tween who loves motocross, cycling, or just loves dirt!

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!

Woohoo! I’m ready for my big announcement, and I hope you’re as excited as I am. Are you ready? Is your seatbelt fastened? Okay, here goes….

Scott and I have both accepted positions for dream jobs at one of the most respected, highly motivated and successful companies in the crafts and hobbies industries…

Duncan Enterprises!

My new position is Lead Craft Designer/Spokesperson and Scott is their new Photographer/Videographer. Yeah!! What we bring to them is a media team that produces dynamic craft/textile project designs, photography and videos for marketing Duncan products.

If you have followed my career through the years, you know that I have been associated with Duncan and their products for over 15 years. Their Tulip 3-D Fashion Paints were the beginnings of my history as a fashion art designer. In the early 90’s I had my own cottage industry selling "Glad Rags" appliqué patterns I designed and sold to Hobby Lobby Stores, which consumers painted around the edges with 3-D paint. I don’t know just how may sweatshirt models I painted for the Hobby Lobby Stores, but my partner Lisa Selvey and I filled up our trunks over and over again to deliver them.

My big adventure with Duncan and their products really took my life by storm when my friend Darsee called and said that a producer from the Aleene’s Creative Living television show had called the Hobby Lobby corporate offices and wanted someone to come be a guest on the show, and the projects had to feature Duncan/Aleene’s products. So, off we went to Buellton, California to show how to paint on shirts, glue everything in sight, and decoupage anything that wasn’t moving! Soon, Darsee and I were on the show twice a week and co-authored over a dozen books featuring Duncan products for several years. We had a ball!

Before I knew what was happening, I had an offer from Tiffany Windsor to be one of the Hosts of Aleene’s Creative Living, and I took the challenge, moved to California and became part of the family. Being with Aleene Jackson as a mentor was a life-changing experience.

That’s where I met Scott, as he was a free-lance camera operator on the show periodically. Yeah, yea, this is an old photo from way back then when Scott had more than a soul patch. (tee hee! He's gonna hate this.) After the show was canceled, Scott and I continued to produce instructional videos for the crafts and hobbies industry and we have done several projects for Duncan through design work, magazine ads, and videos.

And my love for glue products has not waned through the years. As you can tell by one of my latest books, “The Crafter’s Guide to Glue,” I reeeeally LOVE GLUE!

It has been so refreshing to work with a company that has a soul as great as their reputation. It’s amazing to be greeted with hugs and genuine smiles and kind hearts every time we are with the Duncan family, including Larry. We appreciate the hard work this company has put into the over 60 years of dedication to the consumers and employees and stockholders of this dynamic company. We are very proud to represent them. That's me with my new partner in all things crafts at the top of the blog; Alyson Dias, who is our Director of Marketing Communications.

And yes! They DO know how wild and crazy I am…(giggle) I just hope they know what they’re getting into by me being a spokesperson for them. (more giggles) Plus, just think about this…they’ve got crazy crafty chicks like Cheryl Ball, Kathy Murillo, Traci Bautista and other fabulous Designers on their team, so they can handle ME! (even more giggles)

So! It just feels like homecoming for us! We are thrilled and happy to be joining the Duncan Enterprise team for the next chapter in this crazy crafty ride for our next big adventure!

Now, the packing begins…. Stay tuned!

Call or Listen on Sunday!

Guests on Sunday include me and Phyllis Dobbs, so listen in, call in, or chat with us live. Just go to the Inspired at Home Radio page and follow the easy instructions to join this creative mix of crafty gals!

Happy 85th Birthday, Aleene!

It's hard to believe that the Queen of Tacky Glue, Aleene Jackson, is 85!

Happy Birthday to a veteran of the Crafts & Hobbies Association. This is one courageous business woman who has stuck with her ambitions and pioneered the crafts industry as we know it today. Her determination and promotional skills led to regular local TV segments in the late 1940s, when TV was in its infancy. You probably have a bottle in your house right now, of the famous craft glue with her name on it. The inventor sold her the rights to the formula, and with her marketing savvy, the famous gold bottle became a big seller, and Aleene's Tacky Glue still sells all over the world.

Her Craftmaker's Caravan, which toured several major cities throughout the U.S. was important for widely promoting crafts to consumers. There had been no craft industry before, since crafts were thought to be part of the hobby industry. It is quite fascinating to me, as I can't imagine not having do-it-yourself show on television, and trade shows to promote crafts as a business.

Here I am on the set of Aleene's Creative Living, with Aleene during a shoot for the taping of the daily show which aired on TNN back in the day before DIY and HGTV. As one of the hosts, I enjoyed learning the business of how-to segments from the queen herself.

The Aleene's Creative Living show became a huge part of my life as a host. And as you can see here, we attended charity events in Santa Barbara and enjoyed each other's company. This is a pic of Aleene with me and Tiffany, Heidi, Star, Jen and Katherine.

Heidi Borchers followed in her mother's crafty footsteps, and designed hundreds of projects for one of the first monthly craft clubs for Leisure Arts. She has a fab website that showcases her talent for things creative.

Tiffany Windsor is pictured here with her mom Aleene, and is still much admired by her fans and all of us who worked with her on the show. Everyone in the family has gone on to other adventures and are doing well. Aleene's three daughters including Candace, have a nice website where you can contact them at Inspired At Home.com.

You can find out more about Aleene in her biography; Aleene: A Tacky Lady by Aleene Jackson.

Happy Birthday Aleene!

Blue Agave Goodbye

Since we are moving soon, we simply had to get together with some old friends that some of you know from being guests or working on the set at the Aleene's Creative Living show, which was on the TNN Network about 10 years ago. Yeppers, that's my gal pal Jen Fullerton who used to be the Director. She's the one whom I used to have talking in my earpiece when I was hosting the show. (Can you say, "I hear voices in my head...?")

And that's Kat Shannon who used to be the Audio Engineer. (Yeah, the long-hair, sexy-voice dude that used to put the microphone on ya...remember?) Kat is now a talk radio personality on KZSB 1290-AM in Santa Barbara, and you probably hear him every day if you live there.

We've all changed in looks a lot since then. Scott had long curly red hair, and I had short hair and braces! But, the friendships have not changed one bit. We all still stay in touch.

We met at the Blue Agave in Santa Barbara and had a spectacular dinner in one of the cozy handmade booths that our friend Joseph built for the restaurant. (He used to run camera at Aleene's, so you might remember him, too.) Anyway, the night was warm and wonderful, and we swapped stories about what's new with each other, and remembered all the crazy stuff that used to happen on the set.

We're gonna miss you guys!