Eclips Calendar

I've got good news for all those people who want a chance to try out the Eclips machine before they buy it. Coming up in September, our Enchanted Lake store is going to be offering an Eclips workshop. For just $25 you'll can make a 2012 calendar and get a chance to use the Eclips machine. The workshops are taking place on the 10th and the 24th of September from 3pm to 5:30pm. Here's a sneak peak at the calendar. What do you think? Pretty cute huh? All the mats in the calendar are cut for 3x5 inch photos so if you sign up for the workshop you can even bring in some pictures to put in your new calendar.

Hope to see you there!

Puna @ Ben Franklin

HOUSE PARTY @ PEARL CITY BEN FRANKLIN

Join us on Saturday, August 27th for a fun-filled day of crafting! Our HOUSE PARTY begins at 10am with some of your favorite crafters, make-n-takes and demonstrations! There will be music, balloons and prizes! Stamping, Painting and Card Making! Beaded Charms, Nylon Flowers, Feather Hair Extensions, and Kumihimo! Sample a cake-pop! Featuring the Big Shot, Cinch and our newest addition, the EClips! Sponsors include the Rubber Stamp Plantation, Sizzix, Dandelion, and Hero Arts! SEE YOU THERE!
Gloria @ Pearl City BFC

It's a Kawaii Halloween!!

I LOVE Halloween and I LOVE Kawaii things so here's what resulted from combining two of my favorite things! I went with a classic monster theme but gave it a cute spin. These can be done with shape cutters and or paper punches depending on what size you want the end result to be. I had a lot of fun trying to come up with the different faces by using very basic shapes but if I was able to do it, I know you can too! Need a little help trying to put a name to the face? Well here are the answers:


At our Mapunapuna store we have everything you need all set up on an end cap for your shopping convenience so stop by to check out all the awesome Halloween goodies we have!

I'll see ya at the store!
Lynn @ Mapunapuna BFC

Clearly it's Halloween

I've been on a bit of a clear trend lately. I had so much fun creating last week's clear favor that I decided to do another clear project. Today I'm doing a card using our clear acetate sheets and my newest favorite toy, the Eclips machine.

If you've never heard of the Eclips before you're in for a special treat. It's the newest, most high tech, electronic cutter brought out by Sizzix, the same people who did the Big Shot and Big Shot Pro. Right now at our Ben Franklin stores the Eclips machine is on sale for a limited time for only $260 rather than it's usual price of $400. Even the cartridges are marked down $10 off the original price. I've got to get one of these! The thing I like the best about this cutter is that it's so intuitive it's almost like it already knows what I want to do. I don't have to think at all, I can just cut, cut, cut!

Anyway, back to my card. I used the "Holiday" cartridge for all the shapes. This cartridge has a bunch of great seasonal stuff on it from Easter to New Years. The Halloween section of shapes is chock full of great designs. I cut out a black tree and haunted house, then on white paper, a fence, some windows, a door, the moon, and "boo" just for fun.

After putting it all together on a clear 6 inch square card, this is what my design looks like. Pretty neat huh?

If you want to learn more about the Eclips machine, we'll be doing some demos in our store and later a workshop for people who want a more hands-on approach. Check in with us for more info.

Now, I wonder what other kinds of clear stuff we have hanging around...

Puna @ Enchanted Lake

Christmas Is Coming!

Yes, I realize that it's only August, but the holidays are quickly on their way! (Plus, a friend of mine said that crafters are like fashion photographers...always in the wrong season. Does this mean Christmas ornaments in August = bathing suits in December? Hmmm...)

One of the Christmas craft items that we've gotten in recently are wooden boxes, ornaments, and other cute little things. They're fun to decorate and super affordable, ranging around $2 - $10. Come stock up on little boxes and containers to decorate and use when the holidays finally do arrive. They make great gifts or packaging for gifts! You can find decorated samples of many of the wood items in our store.

Here's a little sneak peek at the other Christmas goodies we've been getting in. You'll see some of the staples you always need, like gift boxes and bags, and also ornaments, Hello Kitty, and a couple of new friends, Kai-Lan and her buddy Rintoo! Stop by to see all the new things we've been adding to our shelves and get a head start on your Christmas decorating!

See you soon!

~Jen at Hilo Ben Franklin

Mapunapuna Bead Shop Demos!

Here are our bead shop demos for the next 2 weekends! On Saturday August 20th and 27th we'll show you how to make the Camelot Bracelet! It's using leather woven through chain with some crystals in between. I get a lot of customers asking me how to attach a clasp to leather cords and in this demo I'll show you how to do just that by using wire!





On Sunday August 21st and 28th I'll show you how to make these dragon fly & lotus earrings!
Come in to see just how easy it is to bend Vintaj Brass Embellishments to create beautiful jewelry! Since these earrings won't take very long to make, I'll also show you how to make the Mehndi Ring!




This has been a very popular demo for us and we've gotten in some beautiful beads that will make the perfect focal for this ring! Our Bead shop demos are always between 2 and 3 PM so I hope you can make it!!

I'll see you at the store!

Lynn @ Mapunapuna Bead Shop

Favor-ite Halloween Container

Did you know you only have two months to get your spooky on? That's right, just two short months until that frightfully fun holiday, Halloween. Don't worry, our Ben Franklin stores are already getting geared up to help you with all your ghoulish needs. Check out this cute and fast favor project:

All you need to put one of these favors together is some Halloween scrapbooking paper, stickers, stamps, a white paint pen, and a StazOn stamp pad. I used some great paper and sticker embellishments from K&Company for both of my favors.

Using the StazOn ink and your choice of stamps, stamp your images onto the lid of the favor. You usually have to be pretty careful stamping on such a smooth surface, but because this favor was for Halloween, I didn't care if my images came out a little blurred or messy. I think it gave them an eerie quality. Then, use the white paint pen (for this project I used a Decocolor pen) to color under your stamped images on the inside of the lid.

Next, to finish up the favor, I used a circle cutter to cut a 4.5 inch circle from my scrapbooking paper and lined the inside of my lid with it. Then, I added some sticker embellishments to the sides and the top of the favor and a little bit of punky-cute tulle.

There are so many things that can be done with these awesome clear containers, and for under two dollars you can put together a lot of trendy gifts or favors like the ones I just made.

Thanks for reading!

Puna @ Enchanted Lake

Something Spooky Just Flew In!

Can you believe it's August already? School's started for most kids and the university students will be flocking in soon too. Before we know it, the little ghosts and goblins will be on their hunt for candy in our neighborhoods.

Halloween has arrived early at many of the Ben Franklin stores. Fall items, along with Halloween-themed items have been put out and are ready to be picked up to decorate your homes! Come in and see our variety of decorative pumpkins, skeletons, spiders, and other creepy things. We also have treat bags and buckets, perfect for trick or treating!

Christmas is also arriving at all the stores. Slowly but surely the winter decorations and goodies will make their way onto our shelves!

So come by and check out our fall items and keep checking back for the winter additions! We'll see you soon!!

~Jen at Hilo Ben Franklin

Glass Tile Pendants

Glass tile pendants are very popular right now and we've started selling them in a variety of shapes and sizes. It's a fun way to make personalized jewelry and being that I'm able to use some of the cute paper that I bought, I'm one happy camper!
I used Glossy Accents to adhere the paper to the back of the tiles and then trimmed down the paper edges so that they didn't protrude beyond the edges of the tiles. I did another thicker layer of Glossy Accents behind that and once that was dry, I used Devcon 5 Minute Epoxy to attach glue on bales. By attaching glue on bales to both sides of each glass tile, I was able to make a bracelet by connecting the pieces with jump rings. For my pendant I used my Kumihimo disk to make a neck cord with S-lon nylon thread.
We've got glue on bales and glue on stretchy rings at all of our Ben Franklin Craft store with expanded Bead Shops (Mapunapuna, Maui, and Hilo)! I think these glass tiles would also be cute as a purse charm!
Don't forget that our Kumihimo disks are on sale until Friday August 12 so if you want to make a Kumihimo cord for your pendant, now would be a great time to pick one up and we can easily show you how to Kumihimo!

Thanks for stopping by and I'll catch ya later!

Lynn @ Mapunapuna Bead Shop

Mini Canvas Contest

Hi Everyone!!!

How is everything? Market City has begun the Mini Canvas Contest! Usually the displays and crafty inspirations you see in our store are made by our team members who spend their lives crafting! We rarely get a chance to see what our customers make with the things they buy from the store. We would love to be inspired by you all and we are offering you a chance to show us your craft!

The deadline for submission is August 22, 2011. Entries will be displayed in our store from Aug. 27- Sept. 5th and the winner will be announced Sept. 2!

We hosted an in-store mini contest for employees prior to the customer contest to help jumpstart your project!

I hope to see you enter, and can't wait to see your inspiration for ARTs and CRAFTs!

Tanya

Don't forget to checkout below for our other blogs...

Island Family Magazine Project

Hi Everyone!

Last month's keiki project was this cute l'il pin made out of pompoms, paper flower petals, moving eyes, and flower middles for antennas! Team member Coby, helped customer Cissy from Jersey build the pin! The three of us had a great time talkin' story and picking out the perfect color scheme for our pins!

This month's projects are magnetic clothes pins that have been embellished to fit your style! These ones are done with ribbon! Like the 10 for $10 premium ribbons by American Crafts. Or perhaps you had leftovers from the crazy lei making during graduation season! This could be an awesome idea for Christmas gifts too! Maybe you are inspired to make each clothes pin in a different season, one for of those seasonal recipes that need to be attempted! Come Join us at Market City every Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday for the demos happening during the month of August!

Anyways, Can't wait to share with you!

Tanya

Hello fellow craft enthusiasts! I wanted to mention some of the projects that we have going on in our store during August. If you want more information for any of these demos, you can always check out our craft calendars at bfcraftclub.com under craft club and then craft calendar.

This first picture is something that I put together for our Watermelon party earlier this month. It's a watermelon potholder and scrubbie. Come and find me at our store if you want to learn how to crochet these cute kitchen accessories.



Next is our friendship card specially made for friendship day. The inside of the card says, "You don't always see them, but you know they're always there." You have a choice of making one of these for your friend or a friendship bracelet. We gotta let our friends know how much we appreciate them right?

This is our super-duper easy menu board. You can get your eggs (or is that ducks?) all in a row and organize your dinner schedule. I was getting hungry just making up this sample and thinking about all the good food I wanna cook. Mmmm...chicken hekka is definitely next.

Last but not least, this is a project that you may have seen previously on our blog. These cute candy sticks were quite the hit this weekend during the make-n-take. We've also got free projects sheets for this favor at our stores. I wanted to post our picture so that everyone can see how

easy it is to change-up the look of these awesome favors.

So don't forget, we've always got fun stuff going on at all of our Ben Franklin stores. Coming up for Enchanted Lake is Cupcake Day on August 18th. We're going to have some cupcake themed demonstrations and make-n-takes, and cupcake tasting provided by our very own "Brandon Cakes," while they last. We hope to see you there.

Puna @ Enchanted Lake

Make 'n Takes at Market City

Hi Everyone!!!!!

At Market City we had a "Make 'n Take" project yesterday Saturday. We made the Candy Stick Bags! Made ones using the Scallop Circle punch and Circle punch from Marvy Uchida.
We are getting ready for Halloween, but you can make them for whatever season or party you want. For example one idea was to fill the bag with m&m's and putting either a pumkin, skull, or other scary character on the top as a gift for all your trick or treaters! Also, my fiance and I are planning our wedding for September and special ordered m&m's with our picture on them along with the date! This would be a great way to share them with our guests! Maybe a touch of ribbon and of course a glittered tag?! Did you know that you can buy m&m's by a single color? (at the different Ben Franklin stores). Maybe you're like Jennifer and Mathew in the Wedding Planner and only like the BROWN ones... Endless possiblities... Watch for additional demo times and ideas around the store. We are always inspired by our customers and sometimes through group effort we can make simple or extravagent dreams come true! Please come ready to play and be inspired!

Until then, I can't wait to share with you all!

Tanya

You've Been Framed!

Hi Everyone!!

Have you taken a look at the new ad that started on Friday? A few pages in, you'll find a lovely little gem for those of you who are looking to get something framed. There on page 6, you'll find a coupon for 25% your total incoming custom frame order at a Ben Franklin Frame Shop! The coupon is good from Friday, August 05, 2011 to Friday, August 12, 2011 so you still have some time left to make it in to the Frame Shop nearest you!

Hilo Ben Franklin's smiling framers Jon and Paul

Hilo customers can come to our Frame Shop to see Paul and Jon, our two amazing framers. They asked me to remind customers of a few things when coming in to use your coupon:

* The coupon does not apply to orders being picked up...only to orders being placed during the time the coupon is valid.

* The coupon can only be used on custom framing orders. You need to be ordering a custom frame for the coupon to be valid. It does not work on glass and matting only. You are also not able to get the discount if you are purchasing a ready-made frame.

* The discount is taken off at the Frame Shop and not at the registers. You should be able to see your savings at the bottom of your order invoice.

The Hilo Ben Franklin Frame Shop is open Tuesday through Saturday from 9a.m. - 5p.m. (But please remember that the coupon is only valid until Friday, August 12.)

If you have any questions about something you'd like to frame, please give Jon or Paul a call or stop in to see them in person.

Hope you're having a great week! We'll see you soon!

~Jen at Hilo Ben Franklin

Whatcha doing this weekend?

Looking for something fun to do or just want to learn something new? Spend your weekend with us at BFC! Here's a list of events going on at our stores:

Join us at ALL HAWAII BFC LOCATIONS for the following:
Saturday, August 6
10:30am-11am - Free demo on how to use the Cinch Bindery Tool
11am-12noon - Make 'n Take creating the Candy Stick Bag Favor (Fee 50¢)
Samples pictured below:

12-12:30pm - Free demo on how to create your own Menu Board

Sunday, August 7
11-11:30am: Free demo on Soy Paint
12-12:30pm: Free demo on new items by Wilton - Shape Punches!

at PEARL CITY BFC: Feather Hair Extensions
Saturday, August 6 from 1:30-3:30pm
 

It's the latest fashion trend - Express your own style and learn how to add colored feather hair extensions to your hair! (Fee: $4 + supplies)

at MAPUNAPUNA BFC Bead Shoppe:
Saturday, August 6 from 2-3pm: Cupcake Charm with Packaging Demo

Sunday, August 7 from 2-2:30pm: Beading Box Demo

And don't forget to watch a new episode of Joy of Crafting on Sunday, 6:30pm on OC16. Visit our website www.benfranklinhawaii.com for a listing of more events or to download our store calendars. Have a good weekend everyone and hope to see you at BFC!

Mini Masterpiece Contest

Create your own work of art on a 4" x 4" canvas! We are having a contest at all Hawaii BFC stores. Enter and you can win a special art supply prize! Each entry must use at least one (1) 4" x 4" mini canvas in the design, along with supplies bought at BFC. You can also use recycled and natural materials. Turn in your entry by Monday, August 22nd at any Hawaii BFC store. Here are a few samples:

More contest details are available at www.benfranklinhawaii.com or stop by any of our stores. Winners will be announced on Saturday, September 3. The canvas may be small…but your creativity is limitless! We can't wait to see what you create!