Welcome!
Welcome to "Carolyn's Creative Connections". This issue contains a contest to win the new Pearl Ex chromatic colors, news of my first craft class at Hobby Lobby and lots of creative ideas. I hope you enjoy it!
Contents:
Win the New Pearl Ex Chromatic Colors!
In December Jacquard Products launched 8 new Pearl Ex colors. Jacquard Products asked me to try the new chromatic colors before their release and share my results with them. Pearl Ex Powdered Pigments are very versatile. You can mix them with paint, varnish, polymer clay, dimensional paste, fabric paint, handmade paper, inks and almost any artist medium I can think of. If you like to work with metallic or pearlized colors, it's useful to have Pearl Ex on hand to add a metallic sheen to many materials you already have. I was very pleased with the coverage and intensity I got out of this product - a little goes a long way! The texture is much finer than glitter and yields a rich, high quality luster.
If you would like to try out these colors, I'm giving you the opportunity to win one of five sets of sample packs in plastic baggies of all eight new colors - Citrine, Scarlet, Magenta, Shimmer Violet, Sapphire Blue, Apple Green, Emerald and Dark Brown. The deadline is FEBRUARY 28, 2014 so don't miss out! CLICK HERE to enter!
Class: Polymer Clay Beads with Pearl Ex Pigments
March 15, 2014 In this three hour class, I will teach participants how to make gorgeous jewel-tone beads with Polymer clay and Pearl Ex powdered pigments. This class is suitable for polymer clay beginners. No children under 14, children under 18 must be accompanied by responsible adult. Class participants will be responsible for bringing some supplies - detailed supply list will be provided after registration. Printed copy of tutorial will be provided to take home so that participants can continue to work on their own.
Participants will need to purchase or bring (all available at Hobby Lobby):
Class Fee: $35 
How to Make an Event Promotion ChecklistI've been working hard lately promoting my upcoming class, "Polymer Clay Beads with Pearl Ex Pigments". It's the first in a series, so I'm figuring out some new processes and making several new promotion pieces. The next one should take a lot less time to promote, but only if I remember what I did and can find all the parts - there are quite a lot as you will see! First I'll make an action list of all the tasks to perform in a logical order.
I recommend you use my list above as a starting point and use it to make your own promotion checklist, adding and subtracting action items as needed. Then make some kind of master document that includes notes, links or whatever information you will need to carry out the tasks and remember what you did so you don't have to figure everything out again the next time you have an event to promote. It's useful to make this document in some kind of format that supports tables such as a private web page, Word document or Excel spreadsheet. Then you can put appropriate links and info in the row next to each action item to make everything easy to find and remember. If you are part of an organization share this document with others involved in the project so you can all benefit from the knowledge you'll gain during the promotion. 
The Importance of Consistent Branding Across ChannelsWhen creating an identity for your company, it's important to present a unified look and feel across all channels. A few examples of channels are emails, web sites, print ads and mobile apps. Common elements that help identify your brand can be logos, colors or fonts. Sounds, type of paper or photography styles are examples of other choices that can play a role in forming your brand identity. Few would argue that this concept is wrong, but believe it or not at one of my former jobs I had to persuade some people to make the branding more consistent. Today I had an experience that illustrates why consistent branding is important. I was working on one of my mailing lists, and needed to find a first and last name for a contact in my database. I did a search online for the email address, and found a web site with a logo and color scheme that made me remember a business card that I collected about three years ago. I looked in my business card folio, and voila! There was the information I needed. I never would have remembered where I made this contact if I had not remembered the logo and color scheme. If your potential customers want something that you have, making yourself as memorable as possible with consistent branding can help! 
Decorate a Celtic Gift Bag
Just in time for St. Patrick's Day celebrations, here is an idea for decorating a drawstring muslin bag with Celtic designs. Fill with St. Patrick's Day treats or a gift for someone who would enjoy Celtic designs at any time of year. Click here for Decorate a Celtic Gift Bag.
Carolyn Hasenfratz
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Thank you for reading Carolyn's Creative Connections! Until next time,
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