CAFAM CRAFT NIGHT with yours truly!

CAFAM Craft Night in beautiful Los Angeles!

What an amazing night at the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles.
Thank you to CREATE FOR LESS (you MUST check out CREATEFORLESS.COM) for donating felt, beads, wire, card stock and everything else we needed for such an amazing night.  Everyone had a wonderful time making pine cone and paper ball ornaments.

 The AMAZING Possum Pine Cone

Professional crafter for sure. This little guy is at every CAFAM craft night showing us how it's done!

The pine cone characters made with felt and googly eyes made everyone feel like a kid again.

This one got drunk and trampy!

These two made out all night and later got married.

 This guy met several gorgeous creative ladies. Take note single guys, there are MANY beautiful, single women at these events!

These two knocked my socks off and mastered the paper ornament in no time.

Yay!  Createforless.com!

My friends Julie and Matt.  Julie is an amazing crafter and really fun to shop with.
Please join me the first Thursday in January for my next Craft Night at CAFAM!

Jaime AKA MaBuglet won the last contest!

CONGRATULATIONS JAIME!  Thank you for entering, joining my blog, and telling people about 

THE BIG ASS BOOK OF CRAFTS 2.  Make sure to get in touch with me.........Oh, and EVERYONE, stay tuned for another contest very soon. I am giving away a book almost every week until I run out!

Silly and Fun: Cardboard Art Head (for hats)

Have I mentioned before the Fiskars.com rocks my world?  Because they do.  Seriously, if I had a nickel for every time I used my Fiskars scissors I'd be a millionaire.

This cardboard art head was one of those projects I made just for the fun of it. Why?  I have no idea.  I have too many hats, but it does look very cool on my dresser!

BTW, this is from THE BIG ASS BOOK OF CRAFTS 2!

CARDBOARD ART-HEAD HAT STAND

YOU’LL NEED

4 copies of a face to fill a standard 8 1/2” X 11” sheet of office paper

Scissors

Cardboard

Elmer’s Spray Adhesive

An X-Acto knife is perfect for this project

Hot glue and glue sticks.

HERE’S HOW

HINT: one side of your image will be perfect and the other side will be a little off.  It’s FINE!!!!!

Cut out one of your copied images.

Lay your cut out face up so that the faces are back to back, and trace around your copied image.

Cut out the shape that you just traced.

Spray Elmer’s spray adhesive on the back of one of the images you just cut out, and glue it to a piece of cardboard.

Carefully cut out the cardboard backed head with a cutting knife.

Spray the second image with adhesive and glue it to the back of your cardboard head.

Repeat steps 2 through 6 using cardboard head as the pattern to trace.

Cut one of your cardboard heads in half.

Apply hot glue to the center edges of your split face and glue one to each side of the full cardboard head.

THIS PROJECT AND OVER 150 MORE

in The Big Ass Book of Crafts 2

Wednesday Contest! Win THE BIG ASS BOOK OF CRAFTS 2

CONTEST!

Adriana Mora won the last contest but no worries, I'm having another one and the rules of entry are pretty simple.

1. Please share to let everyone know about the contest.

2. Join my blog if you haven't:http://markmontanoblogs.blogspot.com/

3. LIKE my Big Ass Book of Crafts 2 Page on Amazon.comhttp://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1451627807/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_d0_g14_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0F5AGRF76AJ53PHPZ1TF&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846

4.  Join my FB page if you haven't

http://www.facebook.com/MarkMontanoNYC?ref=ts

5. Comment here that you've done it all.  Make sure to check on the blog for the winner!

I'll announce the winner on FB and on my blog.

Melted Bracelet from THE BIG ASS BOOK OF CRAFTS 2

Did I mention that FISKARS.COM rocks? They have featured another one of my projects from 

THE BIG ASS BOOK OF CRAFTS 2 and it's a good one!  Actually, one of my favorites.

Stop tossing bottles in the trash people and make something with them.

YOU’LL NEED

Heavy Duty Scissors

Needle nose pliers

Candle

Gold enamel paint

Small paint brush

1 thick plastic bottle (like Ocean Spray 64 oz. bottles)

Minwax Polycrylic Clear Coat and brush

Black faceted beads (bugle beads would work, too)

HERE’S HOW TO MAKE THE BRACELET

1. Cut a 1 1/2”- to 2”-wide ring of plastic from your bottle.

2. Cut an opening in the ring so you can slide your wrist into the cuff later.

3. Holding the plastic ring with some pliers over the candle flame, melt a little bit of the center section of the ring, observing how it reacts to the heat.

4. Continue melting and shaping the ring to form your bracelet.

5. Cut off the excess plastic at your cuff’s opening and melt the ends so they have a smooth edge and don’t scratch you when you put on your bracelet later.

6. Clean your cuff with soap and water to remove any soot, then dry it completely.

7. Paint the edges of your cuff with the gold paint.

8. When the paint is dry,  coat the outside of your cuff with the Minwax Polycrylic Clear Coat, and then dip it in a pile of loose beads, rolling it to get beads all over.

9. Let the first coat dry, then apply several additional layers of Minwax Polycrylic.  Be generous!

There are TONS of other jewelry projects in 

The Big Ass Book of Crafts 2!  Pick up your copy today.

Saturday Contest!

 I've had over 40 winners since the book hit shelves and you could be one of them! Most of you have done everything already. Here are the rules to win a copy of my new book.
1. Press SHARE on your FB page to let everyone know about the contest.
2. Join my blog if you haven't:
http://markmontanoblogs.blogspot.com/
3. LIKE my Big Ass Book of Crafts 2 Page on Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1451627807/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_d0_g14_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0F5AGRF76AJ53PHPZ1TF&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846
4. Comment here that you've done it all.
GOOD LUCK and Happy Saturday P'awesome's!

WIGGING OUT from THE BIG ASS BOOK OF CRAFTS 2!

WIGGING OUT!

Just the word WIG makes me laugh.  Every Halloween I try to work out what I’m going to wear on my head.  It’s always a dilemma.  Last year I finally decided that if I can sew an entire costume from scratch then I can make a wig.  I got just a few supplies and rocked it! Pick colors that match your outfit and you’ll master this wig making technique in no time. Pretty soon Dolly Parton herself will be calling you for help!

This project and 150 more are from 

THE BIG ASS BOOK OF CRAFTS 2!

YOU’LL NEED

2 large spools of curling ribbon

1 knit hat that fits snugly on your head (match the colors of ribbon if you can)

Hot glue gun and glue sticks

Scissors

Wig head or ball up some newspaper to make a head shape.

HERE’S HOW

1.    Cut about 30 strands of curling ribbon that are 15” long.

2.    Glue about 1 1/2 inches of each end of the ribbon across the cap so it makes very long bangs.  Put one strand next to the other across the forehead.

3.    Cut about 3 more strands of curling ribbon that are 20” long.

4.    Fold them in 1/2 and at the fold dot a bit of hot glue and stick them to the top of the row of bangs.

5.    Cut 15 strands of curling ribbon about 45” long and tie these strands in a knot in the middle.

6.    Curl the ends of them a little with the scissors

7.    Glue the knot on to the knit cap.

8.    Repeat this process until you get the desired fullness of the wig.

9.    Add more folded strands in different lengths to add even more fullness.

10. Curl it with the scissors or leave it straight!

FROM 

The Big Ass Book of Crafts 2

FISKARS.COM and THE BIG ASS BOOK OF CRAFTS 2......

I've been a guest designer for Fiskars.com these past few weeks and I'm loving it!

Stencilicious Note Cards and Envelope Liners are featured today on 

Fiskars.com.  Head over there and check out how to make your box of simple envelopes and some plain note cards into something amazing...

 Envelope liners are such a great surprise when you open a letter, don't you think?

Krylon spray paint, some simple alphabet stencils and you're half way there!

From THE BIG ASS BOOK OF CRAFTS 2!

CASASUGAR.COM and Yours Truly!

It's Monday and the start of another amazing week!  The awesome website CASASUGAR.COM interviewed me and is sharing some photos from my house and I thought I'd share a few of them here and then give you the link so you can head over and take a little tour yourself.  

LINK: Mark Montano's House Tour 

 Main living room

 Reading alcove

My Eagle Lady from THE BIG ASS BOOK OF HOME DECOR 

A view inside of my craft house

The reason my house looks this way!

CHECK OUT THE BIG ASS BOOK OF CRAFTS 2