Facebook Etsy page, new Flickr group, new listing

Happy New Year's Eve! :)

A fellow members posted this awesome tutorial on the Facebook Etsy Sellers group yesterday. Thanks to that tutorial, I now have my own Facebook Page for my Etsy shop! You can check it out by CLICKING HERE . If any of you have facebook, I encourage you to make your own page. Please let me know if you do! The link for my page is also on my sidebar under a new section for my non-Etsy links like my flickr photostream.

One of the group admins from the Flickr group Alternative Material Jewelry invited me to include two of my button bracelets in the group pool. This is the first time I've been invited to add photos to a Flickr group so I was pretty excited about that. I'll be adding more pictures of button bracelets there in the future.

My new listing for today is an idea that I've been tossing around for quite a while. I had an all black cat for 14 years growing up that I named Sky because she reminded me of the Night Sky. I have always had a soft spot for all things having to do with the night sky since then. I made a simple strung beads bracelet similar to this listing back in college. I like the current listing so much that I made one for myself, too. I hope you enjoy it. :)

new treasury, couple of web sites

I had the chance tonight to create my EBW treasury that I mentioned in my last post. You can visit it live by CLICKING HERE until Thursday, January 1 at 10:54PM EST. Thank you so much to everyone who has already left wonderful comments about it on the page!

I joined yet another site today - We Love Etsy. Like mycraft, it's still pretty small, but growing. Hopefully it won't be a waste of time. I also want to encourage all of you who are on Facebook to join the Etsy Sellers group.

Here is today's new listing - the last one from my yellow kick:

I forgot to mention in my last post that my in-laws got me a set of jewelry boxes from ULINE for Christmas! I am so excited to have them for packaging my items now.

I put together another treasury today. This one featured work from fellow EBW members. I ended up missing the Treasury West opening, though. :( I was really bummed. At least it's saved so I can try for another spot over the break.

I joined craftster.org and mycraft.com this week. Craftster is a cool site, although it is incredibly slow. Mycraft is still pretty small and not particularly well laid out. I don't plan to use either one as regularly as the sites that I already use, but I am desperate for any extra exposure that I can get for my shop. If any of you are on either of these sites, please let me know.

Today's new listing:

first treasury ever

I just created my first treasury ever! You can visit it by CLICKING HERE . It will be available until Monday, December 29 at 2:56PM EST. :) I picked some of my favorite turquoise and red items from my favorite sellers because those are two of my favorite colors. Enjoy!

I sold this bracelet to one of my sister-in-laws yesterday:
I still have the beads to make another one so I just changed the listing on Etsy to "made to order." I haven't sold enough bracelets to have a lot of use for the "made to order" option yet haha, but it is something I will continue to do when I can in the future.

One of my good friends from college e-mailed me yesterday about buying one or two of my bracelets as a little Christmas present to herself. One of the charm bracelets she expressed an interest in a while back actually sold so I offered to do a custom one for her. We'll see what happens. I'm excited to have something else in the works!

Here is today's new listing - another bracelet from my recent yellow kick:

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! I hope that everyone is having a wonderful holiday. Jake and I went to midnight mass at St. Mary's last night and exchanged presents when we got back. We're spending tomorrow with his family and Sunday with my family. The rest of the break we are HERE in the Iowa City area relaxing together.

I'm working my way toward 100 listings on Etsy. When I get there, I'm going to slow down a bit and alternate jewelry making with cross-stitching. I finished this cross-stitch piece over the summer:


I started another one, but by then I got into jewelry making and was burning out on cross-stitch anyway so I haven't done much since. I'm getting back to the point that I want to again, though.

Here are my most recent listings. The first one is another one from my yellow kick.

Best of Artists Exposed

The lovely VickiDianeDesigns featured me in one of her Best of Artists Exposed treasuries! You can visit it live until 11:20PM EST Thursday, December 25 by CLICKING HERE . I am so excited to be in my first treasury! :)

I am officially on Christmas break now! That means lot of hanging out with my husband who is also on break (he's in medical school) and of course lots of making jewelry, plus the usual Christmas festivities - seeing family, exchanging presents, and baking.

My blog special will be offered until Christmas Day at midnight. All who are interested please take advantage!

blog feature, blog special

The feature about me is up. Thanks again so much, Linda! Please check it out here: http://linorstorecom.blogspot.com/ .

Here is my blog readers offer that I was talking about earlier. I have made six Christmas bracelets this season. Four of them have been listed on Etsy since mid-late November. I just made the other two this past weekend. I know that's kind of crazy because we're way past time to list Christmas items on Etsy for this year. But now that Christmas is so close, I'm pretty excited about it and I couldn't resist haha. The deal is: I'm offering 20% off on any of the Christmas items to my blog readers only. ALSO, if you buy a Christmas bracelet and any other item from my Etsy shop, I will give the same 20% off for the Christmas item and free shipping on the entire order.

Here are pictures of all of the items available. I have listed the adjusted prices. I have linked all of the posted items to their Etsy pages. If you are interested in one of the non-posted items, please send me a message and I will list it as a reserved item for you.

Christmas right angle bangle - $25.60

Christmas button charm bracelet - $16.00

Christmas right angle bracelet - $32.00

Christmas button bracelet - $12.00

another Christmas right angle bangle - $25.60

skinny Christmas right angle bracelet - $12.80

Please let me know if you have any questions! :)

I added the followers application to my blog. If you enjoy reading it, please consider following it, too!

I just listed the other piece that I've made thus far with Linda B.'s beads so she can mention it in her feature if she wants. This is also one of my new button clasp pieces. The button came from Kelli. For those of you who also use a lot of buttons, I highly recommend her shop.

I am going to be offering a special for my Etsy shop for blog readers sometime between now and Christmas. Keep watching for it! :)

trying to stay warm

I know that those of you who are also in the midwest can sympathize - it is COLD right now! I think that part of what inspired all of the red, orange, and yellow pieces that I made last week is doing what I can to keep thinking warm thoughts. I posted my first red/orange/yellow piece tonight:


I got some of these beads via destash from lindab142. I shared my bracelet with her earlier tonight, and she offered to do a feature about me on her blog! I will let you know when it's up. :)

slow sales, purple and yellow

I finally wrapped up all of my sales. Unfortunately there haven't been any new ones. I'm trying not let it get me down. Hopefully there will be more soon, right?

I tried the button clasp idea that I was talking about a couple posts ago. Listings are going up soon! I also got on a purple kick and then a yellow kick this past week - so unlike me! I love pretty much all colors, but normally I favor turquoise, green, and red. I have my purple pieces listed:




Purple is so hard to photograph so the colors come out looking as rich as they do in person. The first picture shows the colors nicely, the second two don't really do the pieces justice. Hopefully they still give you a pretty good idea what they're like, though!

Yellow pieces and button clasp pieces will be coming soon. :)

new links list

I created a links list last night with some of my favorite sites for Etsy users. Scroll down and look on the right side of my blog to see it. Please let me know if there are other sites that you think I should add!

I am really proud of the piece that I listed today:
This is the first piece that I've listed with lampworked beads. Let me know what you think! :)

new listing, blog feature

Here's the new listing that I put up today:
It's called Abstract Watermelon. :)

Anna (http://stunningannak.etsy.com) offered to interview me on her blog. We did the interview this evening, and she posted it just a little bit ago. Go check it out: http://stunningannak.blogspot.com/2008/12/featuring-randomcreative.html . Go check out her Etsy shop as well. She has a lot of neat items like these Cat Eye Bobby Pins:
Thanks again, Anna!

trade

I received my button cuff from KreatedbyKelly today! She received her button bracelet in the mail earlier this week and left me wonderful feedback about it. Here's the cuff that I got. (This is one of the pictures from the listing. My wrist is smaller than that haha.)


I sewed an extra clasp button on it because it was a little big on me and now it fits perfectly. I love it! I also really like this cuff from her shop:


Kelly very generously included a small Ziplock in my package that is packed full of beautiful yellow, green, blue, and purple buttons! What a wonderful surprise! I know that they will be a great addition to my collection for the making of some beautiful button charm bracelets. I would also like to try using some bigger buttons as bracelet clasps, too. I have a number of bigger buttons from Kelly, as well as from my button order from kellwood and my vintage collection from my mom's stash (which includes buttons from one of my grandmas and one of my great-grandmas). I have seen some beautiful bracelets with button clasps like this one, but have not attempted it yet myself. I will be sure to post the results when I do. :)

new listing, revamping, snow day

My newest lovely listing:

Also, after I'd taken pictures of this bracelet twice (the lighting was not working out the first time), I realized that I should use the sheet music from Defying Gravity for the pictures. I know I already posted a picture of this once, but here it is again because this so much cooler now.

There was an ice storm, followed by snow, in the Iowa City area late Monday night, which resulted in a snow day for me on Tuesday. (I teach K-4 special education.) The day off was MUCH needed! Among other things, I made a couple new pieces that I'm really proud of. I'm going to take pictures after this so something will be up here in the near future. :)

EBW December Challenge

The EBW December Challenge entries are up. The theme for the month is "Snow Queen." I did not enter this challenge, but many of my very talented fellow members did.


You can see bigger versions of all of them and cast your vote for your favorite one at the blog: http://www.etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com . :)

Scarfmonsters decided to do a promo of a few other Etsy stores in her blog. I'm one of the shops featured! Go check out her Etsy shop and her blog. :)

I just posted this item in my shop today:

When I showed it to my mom over Thanksgiving break, she had the idea that you could also wear it twisted up.

Sarah finally bought her custom button necklace today. She decided to pay by check so I will send it out as soon as I get the check in the mail. My mom's thank you present button charm bracelet is going out in the mail tomorrow.

I am also sending out one of my button bracelets for a trade that I just did with KreatedbyKelly today. I actually found her shop through Scarfmonster's blog promo, and we decided to trade one of her button cuffs for one of my button bracelets. I can't wait to see the cuff in person! :)

I'm now part of the Etsy Mini blog. I'm under the Jewelry: Seed Bead, Woven section. Everyone should check it out, and those of you who are fellow crafters/artists should add yourselves, too, if you're not already on there.

I finally got around to following Eye Pop Art's instructions for making envelope gift bags last night. I made bags for the jewelry that I'm giving to my mom, one sister-in-law, and mother-in-law for Christmas. I used oil pastels to decorate them and ribbon for the handles. This is a perfect example why I use the name random creative because I love little random projects like this. Here they are all packed and ready to go:



And here is a picture of the resolved frustration bracelet that I was talking about in my last post. This is part of my personal collection but if you're interested in something similar for yourself, please let me know!


I hope that everyone is enjoying Saturday. :)

chain links, another Christmas bracelet, and a resolved frustration

I made one more Christmas bracelet over the Thanksgiving weekend. I think that this will be the last one for this Christmas season although that could always change.

I finished another chain links bracelet actually right before Thanksgiving. This is the third one I've made. I haven't posted pictures of any of them yet so here they all are. The first and third ones are listed on Etsy. The second one is one that I made for myself, but would be more than willing to make someone similar to for others. I thought that these bracelets might feel bulky and awkward, but after wearing mine for over a month now, I have to say that it's really not. It's extremely light and if it fits right, you will barely notice that it's there.



I made a peyote stitch bracelet with detail work earlier this fall. I loved the color combination, but it was too heavy. The loop and toggle kept pulling even after I'd reworked them a couple times. I let it sit for a while because I didn't know what I wanted to do with it and couldn't bare to scrap the idea altogether. This past week I finally figured out what I wanted to do and put it together over the last couple days. I am SO HAPPY with the result. It has the same color effect that I was originally going for and fits me perfectly. It's a right angle weave bangle now and is honestly the first one I've made that really fits me well. I will post a picture of it as soon as I've gotten around to taking one.

Also, in other good news, my mom bought one of my button charm bracelets to give to someone as a thank you present. I'm going to ship it off to her on Monday. :)

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that you are enjoying the rest of the long weekend. I have been having a good time with family thus far. I've had the opportunity to share a lot of my jewelry pieces in person, which has been nice. People are great about giving me feedback through my pictures online, but it's different in person. It's been nice seeing the reactions in person. I'm also planning to give bracelets to my mom, mother-in-law, and little sister-in-law, and I have a much better idea what I will be giving now and what sizes I will need to make everything.

I was accepted into the Etsybeadweavers' Street Team (EBW) today! I have been admiring their work ever since I found out about Etsy back in July, and am very excited to be a member now. You can check out the EBW on blogspot: http://www.etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com/ (my name is not under the members list there yet...hopefully it will be soon) and on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/groups/etsybeadweavers/ . You can also find EBW pieces on Etsy by searching for "ebw" or "ebw team" under the handmade items section.

I already posted about my Christmas charm bracelet. Here are pictures of the other Christmas bracelets that I have made thus far:

This one does not have to be worn at Christmas time, but I think the colors are fitting for the holiday:

As promised, here is the picture of me wearing my new pendant:

I have everything ready to send to the boutique and will mail it tomorrow after work. I am really proud of how many pieces I finished this past week - 9 different pieces, several of which I made two of so I can list one on Etsy and send one off to the boutique. I will be listing the over the next week or so. I'm going to post pictures of my three favorites (which was hard because I love them all):



This is my husband's favorite. He helped me pick out the colors. I'm calling it Defying Gravity peyote cuff as a tribute to Wicked (same colors):

I finally got the boutique consignment agreement in the mail at the very end of this week. I have business cards and jewelry tags now, and I put together a flier about myself. I'm just finishing up the pieces I'm going to send. I'm sending five - a button bracelet, a button charm bracelet, a right angle bangle, another right angle weave piece, and a peyote cuff. My goal is to have everything ready to send before Thanksgiving so I can get it in the mail before we head out of town for the holiday.

I finished Sarah's button necklace. She's waiting until her next pay check to purchase it. In the mean time, if anyone else is interested in a necklace, I'm happy to take more custom requests. I will most likely relist the item as such after she does purchase it.

I received my pendant from yjja123 this week. It is gorgeous! I strung it on a silver chain. I took a picture of myself wearing it a few days ago. I'm going to do a big picture upload later this weekend and will post it after that.

I'm featuring my button charm bracelets in this post:




And I'm posting two pictures of my newest button charm bracelet posting - a Christmas one:

buttons and other randomness

No word yet about the boutique unfortunately. I am working on a custom order for a friend, though. I've done button bracelets thus far, and she wants a button necklace. Exciting! We finally settled on the button and jump ring/toggle colors tonight. I'm going to start on it tomorrow. I also traded with someone on Etsy this week. I'm getting this pendant from yjja123 exchange for this bangle. We mailed our items yesterday so they are still in transit. I can't wait to see the pendant in person. I'm still debating whether I want to simply string it on a silver chain or if I want to make a beaded chain for it. Any thoughts? Please check out her shop. She has lots of other beautiful pendants as well as necklaces and other fun things. Also, to other Etsy sellers: I am always interested in discussing trades like this one. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you're interested. :)

Going back to the subject of buttons, I haven't posted any pictures of my button bracelets yet. I've made both button bracelets and button charm bracelets. I'll post pictures of the button bracelets and save the charm bracelets for another post. I'll also have to post a picture of the necklace when it's finished.

I made this one for myself. I've since shortened it a little bit:
There isn't one in this color scheme in my shop but if you'd like one with it, let me know!


I'm a sucker for the black and pink color combination. I also made a peyote cuff with this color scheme.


My school district's colors are purple and turquoise. I got inspired haha. Again, if you want one like this for yourself, let me know.

I made one very similar to this for my friend Linsday who originally introduced me to Etsy this past summer as a small way to say thank you. I liked it so much that I went ahead and made another one for my shop.

And finally: