Crafts : New Products : Editor's Picks 2004: General Crafts and Jewelry : Home & Garden Television

Treasure It "instant embellishment" techniques combine "amazingly strong" double-sided Wacky Tacky tape, Beadlets and other embellishments with everyday objects, allowing crafters to turn any ol' thing into something special--without glue or paint and without waiting for projects to dry. From light switch covers to lampshades, from pens to purses and pendants, the tape adheres the beads, adding a sparkling new dimension to just about anything. Check out their website for ordering info and a gallery of great projects. Combine Treasure It tape and Beadlets with Kreinik iron-on threads for an even more detailed, customized look, like the lampshade and box shown here. (Photos by Jerry Zimmerman.)

Website: Treasure It

DecoArt introduced two great new craft products at HIA: Liquid Beadz and Paper Perfect. Liquid Beadz are self-adhesive beads that you can apply to just about anything--glass, fabric, metal, paper, even craft foam. The beads, which come in various mixes of microbeads and seed/bugle bead combinations and more than 20 colors, are suspended in a gel of adhesive. Apply them with a craft stick/knife, or even your fingers. The adhesive is built right into the mix and the beads won't roll away.

Website: DecoArt

Brilliant idea #2 from DecoArt is Paper Perfect, described as "a paint that creates the look of handmade paper." Well, when I read that, I thought it was just that--a paint that you apply to paper to make it look like handmade papers. But when I actually tried it out, I realized that it's really more like a jar of paper pulp and paint together that you can apply to other surfaces or onto a nonstick sheet, and when it hardens, it becomes handmade paper. It tears beautifully, but it's very sturdy, too. Mix it with one of the nine Paper Perfect Accents (glitter, fibers, flowers, etc.) to create unique textures and designs. Paper Perfect comes in eight colors. It's very fun to play with.

Website: DecoArt

Scrap Metal is a line of self-adhesive metal letters and numbers from Pressed Petals. Available in both aluminum and copper, in a fun, funky font, the little letters are perfect for a variety of projects--but the large, nearly 5-inch-tall letters were my favorites. Great for decorating projects using words and names, which is all the rage these days.

Website: Pressed Petals' Scrap Metal

There's a million things you can do with these simple floral and craft rings from 3 Ring Circles. The 1/4-inch-thick, high-density fiberboard rings come in five sizes: 6, 9, 12, 16 and 18 inches. You can glue things to them, paint them, hang things from them, cut them, cover them in fabric and ribbon. Create frames, candle rings, mobiles and more...the possibilities are endless! Check out their web site for dozens of project ideas and instructions for making a mobile.

Website: 3 Ring Circles

Fabric, magnets, metal and flowers--just about everything comes in self-adhesive versions nowadays. The most amazing new self-adhesive material I've seen yet is Ocean Shell laminate. Some very inventive folks in New Zealand have found a way to make very thin, smooth, self-adhesive sheets of Paua shell, Mother of Pearl and Abalone that you can use in beach craft projects. It's safe for scrapbooks and can be cut with regular scissors or a craft knife. Laser-cut designs are also available. The Paua is available in eight tinted shades plus the natural multicolored; Mother of Pearl is available in both black and white. Visit their web site to see their incredible gallery of ways to use the shell laminates in jewelry, crafts, decorating, home design and more.

Website: Ocean Shell

Award-winning bead jewelry artist Jill Atkins offers a simple kit complete with a vintage and seed-bead mix, needles, thread, cord, and illustrated instructions that allow even beginners to make her beautiful Eclectic Bracelets (or combine two kits to make a necklace!). Each kit makes two easy and one more challenging bracelet--usually with some supplies leftover. The designs look so intricate and involved, you won't believe that you don't have to be a professional jeweler or bead artist to make them. The unique design and special cord creates flexible pieces that are as comfortable to wear as they are beautiful.

Website: Jill Atkins Designs

I've been looking for containers like Maya Road's journey tins for a long time--I was thrilled to see them at HIA. The pretty little square tins have clear tops. Bonus: All of their other products, like ribbon slides, watch faces and metal charms, come in larger, round tins.

Website: Maya Road

Barb Trombley's Art Glitter Vintage Glass Glitter Kits feature real glass ground into dozens of magnificent colors of glitter, available in both fine (with a subtle sparkle) and shards, sparkling shards of glass that reflect like a mirror. The kits come with six jars of glitter, adhesive, an ultrafine metal tip and tools. She also introduced the butterfly lace glitter kit, transparency glitter kit, and the glitter tracer kit at the show, which can be used to create beautiful cards and art.

Website: Art Glitter

If you're one of those people who wear your heart on your sleeve, you're going to love this! Memory Maker photo bracelets allow you to shrink your favorite photos (precise shrinking instructions are included) and make a one-of-a-kind bracelet with them. Now you can wear your heart--and the people in it--near your sleeve for everyone to see!

Website: Memory Maker Photo Bracelet

From Magenta is a line of self-adhesive pewter embellishments in three finishes--silver, antique and copper--that can be adhered to just about anything.

Magenta also featured ChicCharms, metal embellishments similar to other small metal plaques but unique in that these have pre-drilled holes--some at top, some at the bottom and some with holes in both places--which makes them perfect for creating jewelry or for sewingonto various crafts.

Website: Magenta Style

While I've always loved wax seals, somehow I was never very successful trying to maneuver the drips of a flaming candle in one hand and a brass stamp in the other, and the faux versions don't have the same special feeling of romance. Finally, a simple solution: Kirk & Matz, Ltd. offers sealing wax in the form of sticks, like glue sticks that can be melted in any low-temp glue gun. Now just squeeze out a few drops of the melted wax and press the seal into it--much easier to control the drips when there's no open flame to worry about! Plus, the resulting seals are more flexible than before and they are safe for scrapbooks.

Website: Kirk-Matz Ltd.

The beautiful sculptures in the Paverpol booth looked like one-of-a-kind artworks made by experienced artists. The fun part was discovering that they were one-of-a-kind artworks, but you don't have to have years of art experience to make them. The secret lies in the Paverpol coating that the materials were soaked in. Paverpol allows you to turn any fabric into a statue. It makes all sorts of materials hard and stiff, like fabric, paper, chamois leather and all kinds of natural materials. It adheres to wood, ceramics, plaster, concrete, stone, plastic foam and more. It dries quickly, allowing you to finish a project in one day. It also dries transparent, allowing the original colors or patterns in fabrics to remain bright, or it can be tinted by adding colored Pavercolor powder to it, in one of 27 colors. Once hardened, it's safe from frost and watertight, making it perfect for garden sculptures. See their website for an amazing gallery of sculptures made with Paverpol.

Website: Paverpol

Say goodbye to traditional green and white floral and craft foam. Smithers-Oasis' new Rainbow Foam comes in six bright colors (lime green, sunny yellow, baby pink, fuchsia, blue and ivory) and two styles--powder or traditional bricks. For floral projects or other crafts, you can "slice it, dice it, cut it, cube it, layer it, or scoop it" into just about anything--the only difference is that you have great new colors to work with. Have you ever tried to paint craft foam? Enough said!

Website: Smithers-Oasis

Duncan's great new alternative to gel candles is Crème de la Candle, a pourable clean-burning soy wax cream product available in 11 colors and scents (plus wicks and five different fragrance oils you can add to the fragrance free cream to create your own: lavender, cinnamon stix, mulled cider, vanilla smoothy and chocolate raspberry). It looks like pudding but, when poured into a container, looks like a real candle. It's so easy--just place a wick in a container and pour the cream around it. Great for kids, easy to make for gifts.

Website: Duncan Crafts

Also in this Episode

Special Presentation : Episode HHOB1-S04
•	HIA 2004: Sensational Scrapbooking
•	HIA 2004: Metal Mania
•	HIA 2004: Nifty Needle Arts
•	HIA 2004: Quick and Easy Crafts
•	HIA 2004: Paper's Possibilities
•	HIA 2004: Creative Crafting and Contest Winners
•	HIA 2004: Play with Polymer Clay
•	Editor's Picks 2004: Scrapbooking and Paper Crafts
•	Editor's Picks 2004: Painting and Rubber Stamping
•	Editor's Picks 2004: General Crafts and Jewelry
•	Editor's Picks 2004: Sewing, Fabric and Needle Crafts

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Editor's Picks 2004: General Crafts and Jewelry

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Editor's Picks 2004: General Crafts and Jewelry

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