Book Review: "CraftFail: When Homemade Goes Horribly Wrong" by Heather Mann

Have you ever seen a project online that made you think, "I can make that"? Found a recipe on Pinterest for a cute cake or yummy looking entree? 

But then, you try it. And it goes horribly wrong. The craft project ends up looking like something that cat dragged in and the cake that was so cute in the picture looks like some sad gloopy pile of icing, and you thought, "It wasn't supposed to look like that!"

We've all been there, but we often won't admit it. But now, there's a book to show us that we failed crafters aren't alone. It's called CraftFail: When Homemade Goes Horribly Wrong!

Heather Mann, the founder of CraftFail.com and DollarStoreCrafts.com, has put together an amazingly funny array of  crafts gone wrong in her new book. These craft attempts are ridiculously funny and the hilarious captions and backstories that go along with the pictures make them even more funny!

My personal favorite in the book? The crafter who BURNED UP HER PROJECT! I swear, I laughed for at least 10 minutes about that one... mostly because I can completely relate.

So if you have ever had a craft fail (and I'll bet you have), you need to get this book. It's so gratifying to know that you aren't alone in your failures! 

Get your copy here!

Disclosure: A copy of this book was provided to us for free for the purpose of a review. All opinions are 100% my own.

Beados Review and Giveaway! (sponsored)

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Beados. The Craft Mom was provided these products for free; however, the opinions are 100% our own and authentic.

There's a fun new crafty toy out there -- get ready for Beados!

What are "Beados"?  They are the magic beads that join together with just a spray of water. Beados allows kids to create their own designs with beads that stick together using just the spray of water. 

The line features several activity kits that include the tools that kids need to create their Beados creations, like beads, design templates, spray bottles, display stands and more. Plus, this activity requires no heat or glue, which is always a plus!

We thought these sounded awesome, so we tested them out.

This is my little friend Annslee.  She's 4 1/2 and she likes to craft. She was pretty excited to try out the Beados kits so as soon as we opened the Quick Dry Design Station, she was ready to get started... and she was quite excited that the dryer and the template trays were purple.

Here she is using the "tweezers" to pick up the beads and place them on the tray. The trays are neat because you place the templates under them then place the beads on top to make the design!

Once the design was finished, Annslee sprayed it with water to make the magic beads stick together.

We then put the bunny under the drying station. The Quick Dry Design Station is a battery-operated fan that helps to dry your creations. However, it is not necessary to have in order to use Beados; you can let them air-dry!

She liked the first one so much that she wanted to make another while the bunny dried!

 And here's the finished Beados! Aren't they cute? They were very easy to make, even for a 4 1/2 year old.

And Annslee gives two enthusiastic thumbs up to Beados!

Product Pros:

• lots of fun!
• great quiet activity
• will appeal to a wide range of ages
• easy to use
• no mess
• variety of sets to choose from
• kids can design their own templates (via the Beados website)

Product cons:

• won't stick well if too much water is used (practice makes perfect!)
• took longer to dry than advertised (but that may be because of the crazy humidity here in Georgia)
• pastel colors and "girl" themed playsets won't appeal to boys 

We really liked Beados and we are glad that we got to try them out. And now we want you to try them out too!

To celebrate Beados now being available in stores here in the U.S. (including Target,  Walmart, and Toys R Us), we are giving away a Beados mega pack! It includes two sets of Beados and mats that are sure to provide hours of fun.

To enter, just use the Rafflecopter entry form below!

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New "Warm and Inviting" Home Collection from Walmart (Sponsored)

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Walmart.com. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase items through these links, The Craft Mom will receive a small percentage of sales.

I wish you could see my living room. No wait -- I'm glad you can't. You see, my living room is in desperate need of a makeover. We have furniture that's almost 20 years old. We have curtains that have served as a trapeze for our cats, pillows that have lost their "oomph", and a rug that I don't even want to talk about. 

However, our budget just doesn't allow for a pricey room makeover. I see so many cute home decor items online, but then I see the prices -- YIKES! So how can I get a fresh, high-end designer look without breaking the bank? All I have to do now is go to Walmart.com!

Walmart.com is proud to offer a new home decor collection from interior designer Libby Langdon. Langdon has been featured on TV shows such as The Rachel Ray Show, The View, and HGTV's Small Space, Big Style. She has also written a book called Libby Langdon's Small Space Solutions. Now she has brought her fun, fresh look exclusively to Walmart.com!

Langdon's new "warm&inviting" collection features stylish decor solutions that actually fit your budget. These rugs, throws, pillows, and poufs in great colors, textures, and patterns that will coordinate beautifully with pieces you already have and will give your rooms a whole new look. 

I personally love the orange and navy look seen here. Orange is my absolute favorite color, but I never would have thought about using it in a living room. However, Libby shows how to anchor it with neutrals like navy and beige to make it look chic and fun!

I also love how this collection takes the guesswork out of home decor. You don't have to worry about deciding if pieces match -- this collection has done it all for you!

The best part of the "warm&inviting" collection has to be the price. Pillows and throws start under $20 and rugs start under $40! At those prices, almost anyone can afford to have a designer look in their home.

If you need a new look in your home, check out the "warm&inviting" collection. I know I will!

"100 Days of Summertime" eBook Review and Special Offer

100 Days of Summertime (which has been updated for 2014) begins around Memorial Day, and leads you day-by-day through the best parts of summer right up to Labor Day.  Every day offers a task, activity, or reminder to help inspire and motivate throughout the summer. There are activities for kids as well as the entire family, including crafts, to-do lists, holiday-specific fun, and more. It also includes calendars and a workbook of 34 lists from ListPlanIt.com for end-of-school planning, summer camp, family vacations, party planning/entertaining, back to school and more! I absolutely adore lists; I have to make a list for everything or else I am hopelessly lost. So when I read about this book, I was excited to get a copy. I am absolutely amazed at all of the "stuff" in this book! It's worth $8 to me just for the printable lists, including vacation packing lists, cookout planning lists, and calendars.  For those of you with kids, the price is worth it just so you won't have to hear the kids saying, "I'm bored!" I love the holiday-specific activities like Father's Day crafts and the fun ways to learn about things like the Tour de France, Ramadan, and community-supported agriculture.  And one of the coolest things is that when you purchase the ebook, you are able to try a 60-day membership to ListPlanIt for FREE! This ebook is an amazing resource, so take advantage of this special offer: Today is the first day that this book is available, so for today only get the 100 Days of Summertime 2014 eBook for just $5 (regular price $8) -- no coupon code necessary! This offer is good May 6, 2014 only so hurry!

FTC Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase an ebook through these links, The Craft Mom will receive a small commission. Also a copy of the "100 Days of Summertime" ebook was provided for free by ListPlanIt for the purpose of a review. All opinions, however, are strictly my own.

Maya Road Card Kit Review and Giveaway!

We here at The Craft Mom simply love Maya Road products. MR always has just the right fun little embellishment to make any project pop. So when they introduced their classic card kits, we couldn't wait to get our hands on one!

This month, the card kit is called "Hello Actually" and it comes absolutely chock-full of fun stuff like an exclusive Maya Road stamp kit, 6 exclusive digital cutting files, Thermoweb mini tape runner and photo corners, and a paper pad from Lily Bee Design.

There are 6 card bases and envelopes in the kit, but there's way more than enough stuff included to do 6 cards. You could do 6 cards and still have enough goodies to add to a scrapbook page (or two) and a mixed-media project! Plus the stamps and cutting files can be used over and over and over...

Materials used:
Lily Bee Designs paper
Maya Road kraft paper ticket, burlap flower, red flower pin, and cherry twine cording
Thermoweb and Elmer's adhesives

Materials used:
Lily Bee Designs paper
Maya Road "ocean peppy stripes" ribbon and chipboard piece
Thermoweb and Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L adhesive
Ranger ink

I made these two cards using just a fraction of the items in the kit. I have a very simple style so I design by the adage "less is more". When the embellishments are as cute as the ones in the kit, you don't need a lot to make a card or any other project look great. 

These kits are only $30.99 ($25.49 + $5.50 flat rate shipping in the U.S.) which is a great deal considering all of the cute goodies you get. Just a Maya Road stamp set retails for $14 so this kit price is good!

But since we love our readers so much, we are giving away one of these kits! Just use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter!

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We R Memory Keepers "Albums Made Easy" Review and Giveaway!

Are you one of the tons of people who is doing Project Life? Have you seen it and want to get started? Are you just looking for a simple way to get all those pictures off your computer and in an album? No matter your situation, this giveaway is for you!

This winter at CHA, We R Memory Keepers introduced the Albums Made Easy System. And when they say easy, they mean it!  The Albums Made Easy System allows scrapbookers to quickly design beautiful layouts in minutes, instead of hours. Just choose an album, chose your photo sleeves (We R calls these "hot pockets"!) and your journaling/accent cards, and add your photos. That's it!

There are several reasons why this system is the best that I've seen. The first is the quality. We R's albums are gorgeous and come in faux leather or linen. They are acid-free, 3-ring (so they hold a lot of pages), and come with a complete set of 12X12 page protectors. The "hot pockets" are amazingly clear (not cloudy like a lot of the other page protectors I've seen) and won't rip along the seams when you put your pictures in. And the cards are nice and thick with gorgeous color choices.

Another reason this system is awesome? The price! As you know, we here at The Craft Mom are all about saving crafters time and money. The components of this system are some of the most affordable that I've seen out there in the sea of Project Life-type systems. For example, each package of cards includes 275 double sided designer cards (200 - 3" x 4" cards and 75 - 4" x 6" cards) and only costs $9.99!

To learn more about the system, click here for a video from We R Memory Keepers.

Click here to see various layouts using the Albums Made Easy System.

We love this product so much that we want to share it with you -- we are giving away a full Albums Made Easy System!

The giveaway includes 1 red faux leather 12X12 3-ring album, a set of photo sleeves, and a set of "Bloom" journaling cards.

The giveaway ends July 11 so enter today!

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"Fashionably Fast" Ebook Review and Giveaway!

Two-time author and popular scrapbooker May Flaum is back with an awesome new ebook called "Fashionably Fast: 10 Strategies for Stylish, Speedy Scrapbook Pages". In it, May shares her top tips for creating stylish pages in no time flat. 

Whether you are a new scrapbooker or a seasoned veteran, May has advice that is sure to help your scrapbooking. If you are anything like me, sometimes you are plagued by "scrap paralysis"... you know, that feeling when you sit down at your craft table and you can't come up with a single idea? By using May's tips, you can overcome that feeling quickly with easy tips like using a kit or arranging your photos down the middle of the page. My favorite tip has to be to start with a cardstock base. I sometimes get overwhelmed by the choices in patterned papers, so by going back to basics, I can finish a page much more quickly!

In addition to the great tips, this ebook also includes 30 minutes of exclusive video instruction (at Big Picture Classes) by May that shows these strategies in action!

The Craft Mom highly recommends this book: it will definitely become a staple in your crafting arsenal! And we want to share this book with one lucky winner... just enter our giveaway using the Rafflecopter widget below for your chance to win a copy of "Fashionably Fast"!

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Disclosure: A copy of "Fashionably Fast" was provided free of charge to The Craft Mom for the purposes of review.

Mabel's Labels Giveaway!

Was "getting organized" one of your New Year's resolutions? It seems like that's one of mine every year! But this year, I have found a company that is going to help with that goal. The company is called Mabel's Labels and they have some fantastic products.

Mabel's Labels was started in 2003 by 4 moms who were tired of their children losing everything! They decided to create the very best personalized, waterproof name labels and tags possible. Since they began in 2003, Mabel's Labels continued to build on this commitment to excellence and their growing line now features child safety products, household labels and seasonal items.

Their newest products are their household labels. This line includes spice jar labels, canister labels, plastic bin labels, Date Mates (so you can keep track of the age of leftovers or baby formula in your fridge!)  and Curbsides (labels for your garbage cans and recycling bins... you know, for when the wind carries them off down the street!).

 I decided to try the new spice jar labels.  This is why:

These were my spice jars. Messy, handwritten labeling just didn't look great, especially when they are on display in my spice rack on my countertop. And these were some of the better looking ones. I was too embarrassed to post pictures of the ones that have been written on and crossed out several times!

But here's the result after Mabel's Labels stepped in!

So much better! The labels are great: they are pre-printed and easy to wipe clean (they're waterproof!). They come in several colors/designs that are sure to match almost any kitchen.

So how would you like your own set? We are giving away a set of labels of your choice! The winner can choose from spice labels, bin labels, canister labels, Curbsides or Date Mates.

Just use this Rafflecopter widget to enter! Contest ends Friday, February 15!

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Craftsy Class Review

I like to call myself a knitter, but let's be honest, I barely qualify as one. I can make a pretty mean scarf, but that's about it. Reading patterns, increasing, decreasing... yeah, not so much. So when Craftsy extended the opportunity to take one of their online classes, I jumped at the chance to improve my knitting knowledge. 
I chose to take a class called "Knit Lab". Taught by Stephanie Japel, this class is perfect for beginners. It teaches the very basics, such as casting on and basic knit and purl stitches, so it's ideal for someone who has never picked up a pair of needles before. However, it also goes beyond that; the class also teaches increasing, decreasing, buttonholes, seaming, and more. This is great for someone like me who has basic knitting skills but wants to know more. 
The class is taught in a video format, divided into 16 lessons. Some lessons are fairly short, such as the casting on lesson, while other lessons can take over an hour. However, because it's a video, you can stop and playback as many times as you like. There's even a nifty "30 second playback" feature that rewinds the last 30 seconds of the video; this is great when you have a pair of needles and yarn in your hands and you don't want to scroll back through the video to catch that last little bit!
There were lots of things that I really enjoyed about taking this class. The instructor, Stephanie Japel, is fantastic. She has a fun and easygoing personality that really comes through in the lessons. She is very knowledgeable and gives lots of great tips. The videos themselves are super-clear and the close-ups of the work are outstanding. You can really watch how Stephanie makes her stitches. For a visual learner like me, this is key.
Another thing I liked is the opportunity for interaction. You can type in your own notes about the video. You can ask questions about the video and the instructor and other people who take the class can reply. You can also upload pictures of your finished projects to the class gallery!   My only problem with the class is that it's almost too much information! It is a little intimidating at first, especially when you see that some of the lessons are an hour long. However, I just had to keep reminding myself that I could start and stop at any time. I will definitely have to watch some of the lessons several times to get it all to sink in.    I would definitely recommend this or any of the Craftsy classes. There are so many to choose from, including paper crafts, food crafting, sewing, and quilting, that there's bound to be one that you are interested in!

Click here for Craftsy's extensive catalog of classes! Happy learning!

 

Disclosure: This class was provided free of charge by Craftsy for the purposes of a review.

NeuYear Calendar Review and Giveaway!

Disclosure: This post is a review of NeuYear Calendars. We were given free calendars as a part of this review and promotion.

Craft Mom Lorrie here with a confession: I love calendars. Big calendars, little calendars, pocket calendars, wall calendars... I love them all. There is no greater joy for me than to get a new planner refill or wall calendar so that I can start writing down all of the things I have to do. And yes, I know that I could do all that online, but I love the good old paper and ink!

So, when the good folks at NeuYear asked us to review their products, I jumped at the chance. And boy, am I glad I did.

The NeuYear calendars are big wall calendars. They measure a whopping 27" X 39" which is awesome because it gives you tons of room to write in. It also allows you to see the whole year at a glance rather than flipping pages. They come in both a regular yearly calendar and an academic year calendar, which is perfect for students and teachers.

A peek at my dry-erase NeuYear calendar. Got to remember the important days... right, Mom?

The NeuYear calendars have two features that I really love. The first is that they come in both uncoated paper (so you can write on it with pencil or pen) and coated paper (to be used with dry-erase markers). The other feature that rocks my world is that the calendars are printed on both side, one horizontally and the other vertically! This makes it possible to hang it anywhere, including the back of a door (where mine is hanging vertically) or over a desk. 

Another fun feature: a key at the bottom so you can color code your calendar however you want!

We love these calendars so much that we want to share them with you! We are doing a giveaway in which two lucky readers will get the NeuYear calendar of their choice. To enter, just follow the directions below for the giveaway through PunchTab.

And the people at NeuYear are so awesome that they are giving us an exclusive discount, just for The Craft Mom readers. Right now, you can get 50% off your order at NeuYear with the coupon code TheCraftMom. These calendars would make great gifts for teachers, business-people, busy moms, or anyone who needs a really nice calendar!

Click here to shop NewYear!