The Crafts Dept. » Morgan Levine

Scrapbooking Giveaway

Morgan Levine — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 13:00:32 +0000

It feels like summer just arrived, but autumn's nearly here already. Now's a great time to start memory-keeping projects, especially if you're recording summer vacations. We have plenty of ideas to get you started. Take a look at our scrapbooking and memorykeeping projects.

This week we're giving away a selection of embellishments, labels, and an adhesive tab & roll, perfect for scrapbooking.

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For a chance to win, leave us a comment including a link to your favorite memorykeeping craft on our site, along with your name and a valid e-mail address. All comments must be received by 6 PM Monday, 8/16. We’ll choose one commenter at random to win an assortment of Martha Stewart Crafts™ scrapbooking accessories..

See official rules here. Please be aware, comments may take time to show up on our site.

Bloggers Night Out

Morgan Levine — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 15:40:52 +0000

Last Thursday we hosted an event for a couple hundred of our favorite bloggers. It was a great chance for all of the blogs under Martha Stewart to get together and meet the people behind the blogs we love. We'd planned a rooftop party, overlooking the Hudson River, but the threat of rain moved us inside into one of our photo studios. There was plenty of great food & drink, straight from the pages of our magazines, and activities like ping pong & paper crafting. All of the blogs under This is Living, from the editors here at Martha Stewart Living, were present, stamping passports with out top NYC craft, garden, food, decorating, and family destinations. I had a great time, and it looked like everyone else did too. Were you there? What did you think?

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1 Steph, Athena, and I stand by the Crafts Dept. booth, ready to stamp some passports. Those boxes are from last August's Dipping story.

2 That's our last blog header and some of Martha's aditors' passports to NYC.

3 This passport is stamped with our top ten NYC craft destinantions.

4 Editors from Graden stamping their top ten NYC Garden Destinations.

5 Hannah crafted with our guests.

6 There was a lot of paper punching happening.

10 Tom from Garden and Charlotte from the Food Department chatting with guests.

11 Whole Livingbrought in a bicycle powered blender to make smoothies.

12 Lucinda and sons Calder and Miles with some delicious redipes from Mad Hungry.

13 Leslie from Everyday Food serving up s'mores and sliders. Delicious!

14 Sharkey & Francesca couldn't make it, but The Daily Wag was there without them.

15 Martha gave a speech. Everyone listened.

16 The Whatever Girls stopped by.

17 The Bride's Guide brought in delicious treats.

18 Pretty tablesetting ideas from Sandals Weddings by Martha Stewart.

19 Tome gave a painting demonstration.

20 Living's Sarah Carey chatting with EDF's Anna Last

21 There were a lot of giveaways.

Bloggers’ Night Out Twitter Giveaway

Morgan Levine — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 21:00:32 +0000

Tonight we’re hosting Bloggers’ Night Out—a cocktail party where we’ll be meeting and greeting some of our favorite bloggers.

Don’t worry if you can’t make the event, you can still join in on the party by following us (@CraftDept) as well as the #marthablogger Twitter feeds. We’ll be live tweeting, uploading pictures, and giving away a ton of crafty prizes throughout the night.

At 5 p.m. look out for a tweet about the event. We’ll be giving away the following to 6 of our Twitter followers:

3 Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts

1 Deep Edge Punch Daisy

1 Iridescent Glitter Pack with Glittering Glue

1 Paper Pad Brights

See the official rules: http://www.marthastewart.com/article/bloggers-night-out-crafts-twitter-sweepstakes

Want to win even more? Make sure you’re also following @MS_Living tonight. They’ll be giving away 5 subscriptions to Martha Stewart Living! Check out the rules: http://www.marthastewart.com/article/mslo-bloggers-night-out-ms-living-twitter-sweepstakes

Circle Cutter Giveaway

Morgan Levine — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 13:00:23 +0000

We've just launched a new circle cutter. It cuts up to 12" circles and doesn't leave a hole in the center. We've been using it a lot recently here in the Crafts Dept., and it's certainly a time-saver. Take a look at these simple projects below. They add serious color and impact to any setting, and are quick to put together with a little paper, string, tape, and, of course, a circle cutter.

Want your own? Leave us a comment in 50 words or less explaining how you'll use your circle cutter, along with your name and a valid e-mail address. All comments must be received by 6 P.M. Friday, 7/30. We’ll choose one commenter at random to win a Large Circle Cutter.

See official rules here. Please be aware, comments may take time to show up on our site.

Stitching for Pink

Morgan Levine — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 21:19:00 +0000

We work closely with SVP Worldwide, source of the SINGER®, HUSQVARNA VIKING® and PFAFF® sewing machines. We heard about their involvement in Stitching for Pink, a global online campaign to raise breast cancer awareness and help fund a cure through embroidery, and want to pass the information on to you. They'll give you exclusive embroidery designs for a $5 donation which goes directly to the National Breast Cancer Foundation. The campaign lasts through October 30. Please visit stitchingforpink.org for additional information.

SVP Worldwide has created an embroidery project called “Making a Difference” which is available on MyEmbroideries.com throughout July.

Cricut Cake Giveaway (CONTEST EXPIRED)

Morgan Levine — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:00:39 +0000

Did you get a chance to see Martha live on HSN yesterday? She was selling her new Cricut Cake® Martha Stewart Crafts™ Edition. It's an amazing little machine that precisely cuts all sorts of edible materials, including gum paste, cookie dough, and frosting sheets. Martha's Cricut Cake comes with design cartridges created by our own crafts merchandise team, but it's compatible with other Cricut Cake design cartridges as well.

You'll recognize some of the motifs from Martha's other crafts products. Take a look at some projects made using Martha's new Cricut.

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1 cutest cupcake toppers

2 so precise and clean!

3 perfect for summer time

6 pretty and professional looking

7 the sweetest sweets for Valentine's Day

If you want your own Cricut Cake® Martha Stewart Crafts™ Edition to create professional looking desserts for all sorts of occasions, you can either pick one up at HSN.com, or leave us a comment in 50 words or less explaining the first dessert you'll make with it if you win, along with your name and a valid e-mail address. All comments must be received by 6 PM Monday, 7/26. We’ll choose one commenter at random to win a new Cricut Cake® Martha Stewart Crafts™ Edition.

See official rules here. Please be aware, comments may take time to show up on our site.

Jell-O Mold Competition

Morgan Levine — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 11:00:48 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, I participated in a Jell-O Mold competition hosted by the Gowanus Studio Space. They asked designers to, "take Jell-O out of the cafeteria and break the mold, as it were, on Jell-O molds." I teamed up with Lauren Tempera from the food department, and we developed Twisted Citrus...three jello flavors that combine to create one perfect cocktail.

Lauren infused vodka with thyme and bay leaf to create the flavor for our jello reamer. We actually used a vintage reamer as our mold. We filled lemon rinds with a sweet & creamy jello pith, and a tart Meyer Lemon jello center. It was looking good for a couple of hours, until it melted in Brooklyn's unforgiving summer heat.

We had a lot of fun developing our jello project, and the event itself was a blast. You can take a look at Emilie Baltz's photographs of all of the jello entries, but here are a few of my favorites.

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1 These glasses are actually made of jello...a very green disposable cup.

2 This jello sushi was beautifully executed and fruit flavored.

3 This is just one pie slice from a collection of gelatin desserts.

4 Cute jello cake

5 This was a meat flavored jello. I loved that they created a sense of setting using patterned papers.

6 These jello bouncy balls don't really bounce, but they were delicious.

8 I loved this piece's color palette.

10 The awards!

This year, after our piece melted, we learned to use A LOT of gelatin, and bring duplicates of everything. Any other tips or ideas for our project next year?

TV Craft Segments

Morgan Levine — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 11:00:47 +0000

Ever wonder how a project makes it from the Craft Room onto the Martha Show? TV Crafter Kristin St. Clair explains...

Patriotic Votives

Morgan Levine — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 11:00:55 +0000

I came across this patriotic clip-art from Martha Stewart Living's July 2006 issue. It's designed to be wrapped around can and used as a vase or serving vessel...

...but I made these festive votive holders. I printed the clip-art onto vellum, trimmed it down to fit my clear cylindrical votive holder, and attached the vellum to the glass at its seam using double sided tape.

Place on a white table cloth and sprinkle with red and blue confetti for a perfectly patriotic Independence Day table. Are you planning any July 4th get-togethers? How do you decorate?

Have an amazing 4th of July!!!

Introducing our summer interns!

Morgan Levine — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 15:32:17 +0000

Hi, we’re Renée and Tracy, the newest crafts interns here at Martha Stewart Living! We'll be contributing to thecraftsdept.com throughout the summer, so we thought an introduction was in order. Renée is a rising senior studying Graphic Design at Rhode Island School of Design, and Tracy is a recent graduate from Northwestern University with a degree in Art Theory and Practice.

The ever-evolving crafts department has us elbow deep in glitter, fabric, ornaments, and a variety of tasks for the magazine. We've just started, and we're already sewing, rubber stamping, making invitations, blogging, and discovering the city.

We love the crafts room. There are so many tools we have yet to try out, and the view doesn't hurt! But mostly, we’re excited to be here for the summer and to be part of such an incredible team.