Hi. Lauren Murphy here, assistant to the crafts merchandising department at Martha Stewart. As many of you know, we recently launched the Martha Stewart Crafts Studio at Beaches Resorts. The crafts studio consists of five classes exclusively developed by the crafts geniuses at Martha Stewart for Beaches Resorts. Back in November Hannah Milman, Jodi Levine (two of the crafts geniuses behind the crafts studio), and I headed down to the Beaches Turks & Caicos Resort Villages & Spa and took some very enthusiastic bloggers with us. We were there to experience the crafts studio firsthand and introduce the bloggers to everything the program has to offer.

After all the introductions on the night we arrived, we headed to a beach welcome luau. The luau is a weekly feature at the resort and was a great way to kick off the trip. There were Caribbean dancers and performers, a dozen food stations featuring some local favorites, and great company. The next day we introduced the bloggers to the craft studio with a little behind-the-scenes information on how the classes came to be and where we find our inspiration. Before we jumped into the classes the bloggers got a guided tour of the Beaches Resort grounds so they could see all the resort's exciting programs and amenities. The next few days were all about crafting! The bloggers, as well as their children, attended private crafts studio classes, which Hannah, Jodi, and I personally taught. They got to experience the glitter class, punch and stencil fashion, fashion stencil, postcard making, and scrapbooking classes firsthand.  Check out the pictures of us all crafting!

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3 Craft Studio at Beaches Turks and Caicos

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6 Stacy Debroff from Mom Central working on her punch and stencil tote.

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8 Sarah Moore and Dana Vitek from Craft Critique showing off their work

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12 Melissa Gerstein from Moms and the City made an adorable glittered cupcake tee shirt.

13 Griffin Miller from NY Metro getting a little help from one of our beaches instructors.

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18 Hannah sharing a few tricks of the trade.

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21 Simone Collins, from Craft Critique, is excited to start crafting.

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25 Christine Fox from Everyday Mama made a beach inspired scrapbook page.

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31 glittered shells

32 We learned a great tip from Barbara Lynn, one of our Turks and Caicos teachers, that hairspray makes a great sealer for glitter.

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Even with all the crafting, there was still time to explore the resort. Jodi brought her two kids, and they made sure they got to see all the Sesame Street characters. Sesame Street is also a partner at Beaches Resort, and we were so excited to see how the characters have been integrated into our classes. Check out these awesome character shells that were created by the talented teachers at Beaches.

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3 Barbara Lynn came up with this great technique using masking tape to create Sesame Street inspired glittered shells.

One of Hannah's favorite parts of the trip would have to be the excursion to the conch farm just minutes from the resort. The Turks and Caicos conch farm is the only one in the world of its kind.  You will experience firsthand the life cycle of the Queen Conch and see how they are bred and grown.  An interesting thing I learned about the Queen Conch is that it produces a pearl. I never knew that.  After you tour the farm and see the two million conch that are raised there, don't forget to drop by Da Conch Shack for lunch.

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When we weren't crafting, you could find me by one of the resort's six pools. The resort also has 16 restaurants, including beach-side dining with your feet in the sand, a character breakfast for kids, and an adults-only French restaurant. There is surely something for everyone at Beaches Resort.

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To see more from our Turks and Caicos trip, check out a few of the bloggers posts.

Craft Critique

Mom Central

Mom's and the City

We all had such a great time and can't wait to go back.

Posted by Guest on January 24, 2011 in Behind the Scenes