reworked bangle

I hope that everyone is enjoying their long weekend and taking time to remember those who have served for our country.  We haven't done anything too exciting with our time off, but it's been very nice relaxing.

I am not planning to list any new items on Etsy before the Arts Festival unless I have another sale, but I did update the listing for my subtle colors right angle bangle today.

This is the third version that I've made of this piece and definitely the best set of pictures for it so far.

I finished another pair of leaf earrings today.  Otherwise not too much going on.  This is the last day to take advantage of my May 2010 special: take 15% off with $1.00 shipping on any item tagged "turquoise" in my Etsy shop.  A new special starts tomorrow!

turquoise and red treasury

I curated a turquoise and red treasury this afternoon.
You can view it live by CLICKING HERE until Wednesday June 2 3:53PM EST.

Keeping it short for tonight...more tomorrow.

test run

My mom came to visit this weekend. She brought the tablecloth that she'd made me for my craft fair tables! She also helped me set up the majority of my test run for the Arts Festival. When she left today, I finished tagging all of my items and completed the set up.

This is the best shot that I could get of the whole setup in this room. I'm sure that I'll be able to get better shots at the festival.

I have more $20 items than anything else. There are about 10 bracelets that I didn't even put out here. You can see lots of Edi's awesome earring cards in this shot.

I haven't been taking pictures of individual magnets or groups of magnets so far. This is everything that I've finished as of this morning. I'll have at least a dozen more at the festival.

Here are almost all of the $30 items that aren't bangles.

Close up shot of the right side of the table.

And another wider shot of the middle.

All of my non-jewelry items (mirrors, mailing list form, etc.) are at the ends of the table. I did not set up my non-price signs and matted pictures with it, but my mom and I brainstormed how I can set them up, so I'm feeling pretty good about that. Pretty much everything else that will be on the tables is out here.

I'm hoping that these pictures will help the set up process go smoothly. Setting up all of the jewelry here also assisted me in the sorting process. For the few of you reading this who have seen all of my jewelry in person, you know that it's stored securely but not in a terribly organized fashion. I still have everything set up, but when I put it away, I can sort everything by price.

In case I didn't have enough going on with the festival prep this week, I decided to make a few thank you cards while I was making my two custom cards. All of the flowers and leaves are cut from recycled magazine pages.

continuation from yesterday apparently: yet another treasury feature and more Arts Festival progress

Karen (KRDesigns11) included my Champagne Party peyote cuff in her Fantasy World treasury. Thanks Karen!

You can view this treasury live by CLICKING HERE until Sunday May 30 5:27AM EST.

I tagged another handful of items tonight. I'm more than halfway now. I made progress with my button magnets last night. I was going to get back that tonight, but I ended up working on some cards. I need to finish up everything that I have in progress before I head to bed, which is 2 custom cards and 7 mini thank you notes for Etsy/craft fair sales. I will post pictures of the custom cards at some point, but the people who will be receiving them may read this so I'm not posting any more details right now.

Also, I should have done this a long time ago, but I finally created a user name for my Facebook fan page. You can now find me there at: http://www.facebook.com/randomcreative28.

another treasury feature, Arts Festival progress

Paige (plenox) featured my turquoise and red fringed peyote cuff in her Lenox Knit's Blog Buddies Southwest Theme treasury. Paige has been one of my blog buddies for quite a while now. You can check out her awesome blog here. :)


You can view this treasury live by CLICKING HERE.

My biggest project for the Arts Festival this week has been to tag (or re-tag with rounded prices) all of my items. I'm slowly making progress. My other project that I have not started yet is to continue working on my button magnets. I'm hoping to get a fair amount of work done over the long weekend.

treasury feature

This treasury has been up for at least a week, but I just found it tonight. Festotu included my She Smiles and It's a Rainbow bracelet in her Colorful treasuries collection in Treasury East. Thank you!

You can view this treasury live by CLICKING HERE.

the newest leafy design

I'm posting my spring Art Beads piece later than most people have been, but it's here! I've been wanting to make another spring version of my leafy design, and this was the perfect opportunity to do that. I have had a couple components for this bracelet for quite a while and pulled them together with some pressed Czech glass beads, specifically the leaf beads. It's no secret that I love Czech glass. These beads did not disappoint! Although I did not use any other Czech glass from Art Beads in this piece, in the past I have used Czech glass from their Limited Edition Glass Beads section. Some of the corner drilled cubes from the leafy series - modern that I posted yesterday are from one of the glass mixes in that section.

The other really neat thing about this piece is that I used one of Lisa Peters's ceramic leaf beads for the clasp. I still have one more leaf like this. I think it would be neat to use the other leaf as the clasp for a peyote cuff. I've been pondering what embellishment would work for a cuff like that all weekend.

I don't have my new leafy piece listed on Etsy yet, but here are the pictures of it. Enjoy! If anyone wants to reserve it now, please let me know. The original sale version of the leafy series - spring (the original not for sale version is mine) is also still available on Etsy here.




Disclosure - I received my ArtBead's products free of charge through their blogging program. I am honestly reviewing their products and have not been paid for my endorsement as it pertains to the products I received.

treasury feature, remake, wedding

As predicted, we've been really busy the last few days with all of the wedding events for one of Jake's best friend. It's been so much fun. :) Now I'm playing catch up with everything else.

My fellow EBW member Paula (PFordCustomJewelry) included my multicolored diagonal stripe peyote cuff in her Peyote cuffs! treasury in Treasury East. Thanks Paula!
You can view this treasury live by CLICKING HERE.

I edited and updated the listing for the leafy series - modern today for my newest version of it. I'm actually still in the process of tweaking the original version for the customer, but there is a new version for others now.


I took almost 175 pictures during throughout the weekend of the rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, wedding, reception, and the other events surrounding everything. I still haven't gone through all of the pictures from my sister-in-law's confirmation weekend a couple weeks ago so I obviously haven't gotten to all of these yet either. I edited a couple of my favorites, though.

treasury feature

My fellow EtsyBlogger member ebogie included my color explosion II peyote cuff in her 3 Cheers 4 the Red, White, Blue treasury in honor of Memorial Day coming up. Thank you!

You can support me and my fellow EtsyBloggers by viewing this treasury live HERE until Saturday May 22 3:40PM.

Although I haven't sold anything on Etsy this month, I've been listing tons of books, including grad school textbooks, on Amazon. I've had 9 sales this month, 6 of which came in today! As I'm sure you know, the textbooks were not cheap, and it's really nice to have some of that money coming back. :)

treasury feature, the newest beaded leaf earrings

I was planning getting my new listing up and posting about both of these things yesterday, but it ended up happening today instead. That's how life is sometimes!

My fellow EBW member Lorraine (trinitydj) included my green rock garden bracelet in her Sunday Morning Side Walk treasury. Thanks Lorraine!
You can view this treasury live by CLICKING HERE. You can also view Lorraine's other Treasury East collections by clicking here. She's been creating lots of stunning Treasury Easts featuring the EBW members lately!

I listed my newest pair of beaded leaf earrings tonight. Please click on the pictures to view the listing.

These earrings are 15% off with $1.00 shipping for my May 2010 special! As I mentioned in my post for my cream leaf earrings, I still have pink and lime green leaf earrings lined up next. As always, I'm open to other suggestions, too!

I finished my newest peyote triangle earrings tonight. I'm focusing on my next spring leafy bracelet now so I can continue to qualify for the Art Beads blogging program. We have a wedding for a good friend this weekend (in town, yay!) so I don't know how quickly I'm going to get it done, but I'd like to have pictures of it up here within the next week and a half.

Monday? Really?

I'm way too tired for a Monday. Jake already headed in for the night, and I will be following him shortly. Is this school year almost over?! Good thing it is. :) 11 more days!

Here's a random picture of Angel from a week and a half ago when she was helping me take pictures (before I vacuumed!).

Back to your regularly scheduled programing tomorrow...

wrapping up the weekend

Overall it was another productive weekend. I photographed all of my finished bead woven projects and a handful of button stud earrings. It was pretty cloudy most of the weekend, but I was able to get some decent photographs in the natural daylight. I finished a couple dozen button magnets. If I complete all the magnets currently in process, I'll have just over 50 for the Arts Festival. I will probably work to get at least a dozen more, but if not, I'm still pretty happy with I have. I made progress tagging my items. I'll finish that up sometime next week when I finalize my inventory.

I also got my cash apron in the mail yesterday. I ended up getting the RTG - A HENRY PICNIC vendor - craft apron from PoppysGardenGate. Poppy and Cinders have a couple really cute Hello Kitty aprons in their shop. It took all of my self restraint not to get one. Hello Kitty has been one of my favorite things ever since I was little. I'm 27, and a lot of people think that I look younger than that. I don't want to do anything to encourage that notion so I resisted. I'm still pretty happy with the Henry Picnic print. I was a little worried that the apron would be long (I'm 5'2 and skinny), but it's just right. I will be 100% honest here: It's not the finest craftsmanship that I've ever seen, but for something that I'll wear/use pretty infrequently, that's okay.

I almost finished a pair of peyote triangle earrings to match my new fall embellished cuff. I have a few more small projects that I've lined up for this week as well. I spent the majority of the rest of the weekend cleaning and doing laundry. I have spared you from the full washing machine drama here, but we do have a new washer (this is new #2) that is working so we are caught up again. I cannot tell you how good it feels to say that!

I hope that everyone has a good week. :)

RED on Treasury East

I've been wanting to do another color themed Treasury East for the EtsyBloggers, and I finally did tonight. I had so much fun with the red that I decided to make a red one for EBW, too. Enjoy!

EtsyBloggers: Red

Bead Woven in Red

inspiring art

One of the EtsyBlogger Blog Carnival topics for this month is: Show me your all time favorite piece of art and why you find it inspiring. I don't have a single favorite piece of art, but one of my favorites is one of the classics: Starry Night by Van Gogh.

I did a cross-stitch version of it a few years ago.

I've completed 5 counted cross-stitch kits in my life, and this one was definitely the most difficult. It was well worth it, though!

I saw this neat Starry Night bench in the fine arts building on my undergrad campus when I was visiting it last summer.

I can contribute a lot of the appeal of this painting for me to one of my first cats who was all black and named Sky, short for Night Sky. I've always had a soft spot for things related to the night sky because of her. I also enjoy clouds a lot so I'm generally drawn to sky imagery.

I made a dark blue stars and moons bracelet a couple years ago that I traded to someone back in September.

I have one like it in my personal collection, too. The bracelet above inspired the random bracelet below - silver links celestial bracelet - that is currently available in my shop.

I don't have any other specific plans for starry night/celestial themed jewelry right now, but I'm sure that it's a theme that I'll continue to revisit in the future.

triangle pendants

I remade two of my pendants in one of my favorite beading color combinations. I haven't sold any on Etsy yet, but I've sold a handful in person so I want to have a nice variety for the Arts Festival. I also have much better pictures for my Etsy listings now.

tri-color with pearl pink border triangle pendant

turquoise with multicolored border triangle pendant

I used the same colors in my original color explosion peyote cuff. I have a pair of coordinating earrings as well that I'll be listing in the near future.

summer plans, random feature

Going through my scrapbook paper for my craft fair signs the other day inspired me to consider a couple new creative endeavors for this summer. I have probably already mentioned this, but this is the first summer since 2007 that I will not have any graduate courses! I still have some work to finish for my degree during the 10-11 school year, but I am done with my classes. I'm very excited for all of the free time (and lack of graduate tuition) that I'll have this summer. I already have a substantial list of jewelry designs or remakes that I'd like to work on, plus I'd REALLY like to get back into cross-stitching. I went through a huge cross-stitching phase from sometime in 2003 through the summer of 2008, but I haven't touched my current project in almost a year.

So I already have ideas in mind, but there a couple other things I'd like to work on, too. Getting back to the scrapbook paper, I would like to more with making cards again. I used to make cards for everything: birthdays, weddings, etc., and I'd like to pick that up again. I'd also like to design some of my own "thank you" cards for my Etsy sale packages.

I've been regularly browsing the new non-fiction section of the library for the better part of this school year. I love to check out new cook books and beading books. I've also started checking out other crafting books to get ideas for color combinations and what not. Jake and I are planning to have a party this time next year when he graduates from med school and I graduate from my master's program. I'd like to make some sort of party favor for it. I saw an idea in one of my newest craft books for cork board coasters that I thought would work well for that. As I'm sure you know by now, I take A LOT of digital pictures. Many of them are of my jewelry, but I have a sizable collection of other photographs as well since I got my first digital camera in 2004. It would be neat to do more with some of my better shots, and the coasters would be a perfect opportunity for this. Making enough coasters so that everyone could take one with them after our party would be a sizable project but not terribly expensive or very overwhelming with a whole year to work on it. They would also be a neat option for wedding presents and extended family Christmas presents.

So while I was finishing what I hope is the last of my craft fair supply shopping and final random work supply shopping for this school year, I picked up what I'll need for both of these projects. I have spent more on crafty stuff this week than I have in a long time, but a lot of my craft fair supplies will be for future shows as well, and my new projects will literally keep me busy for the better part of the summer when you consider all of the jewelry making and hopefully cross-stitching that I'll be doing, too.

Here's today's random feature. Enjoy!
Kelly's magazine flower embellishments also played a part in my renewed interest in card making. These are so much fun!
Paper Button Flowers. Magazine Magnolias Pink Orange Mix by KBKExtras

Monster's Inc is still my favorite Pixar movie.
Mike the One-Eyed Monster - Zady(R)Creature - bright green by Zadyball

Shades of Turquoise, Glass, and Silk Long Necklace or Wrap Bracelet by WillOaksStudio

Marbled - Pinks (handmade buttons OOAK set of 6) by TessaAnn

Cranberry Juice Cocktail - Lush Fringed Caterpillar Bracelet (2193) by time2cre8

No Place Like Home charm by jjbackman

Poker Card Suit Bracelet PEYOTE by ChezChani

3D in black

It turns out that the Arts Festival does NOT provide anything for our booths. I was hoping that they at least provided some sort of tent, but they don't. In the less than 2 hours that I saw Jake today (we're working opposite schedules this week), he okayed it for me to buy a tent. So I did tonight. I was certainly not planning to do this, but I'm glad that I did. Jake is an Eagle scout and has a lot of great camping equipment, but we've only been camping ONCE in the 8+ years that we've been together. Maybe the new equipment (I got an instant shelter and the screen walls that go with it) will motivate us to go again once the festival is over. Even if we can't go right away, the tent is something that we'll be able to use for years for both camping and future craft fairs.

I was also very excited to find picnic table clips in the camping section of Target! As I've mentioned before, I've been looking for them ever since I found out that I got into the festival. I also got a pack of large ("quilting size") safety pins tonight. Between the screen walls, the picnic clips, the safety pins, and my paper weight pen holders, I'm feeling pretty good about things not blowing away. As I'm sure some of you know, Iowa can be VERY windy, but I think I've done about everything that I can to prepare for it.

I mailed, e-mailed, or hand delivered my fliers for Eastern Iowa family and friends this week, minus the ones that I'll give out to my co-workers the week before the event. I think that my next little project will be sorting and tagging all of my jewelry. I have already tagged the majority of my items because I do sell a fair amount in person, but I need to make sure that everything has the rounded prices that I'll be using for the festival.

I've been keeping busy with all of the booth prep stuff and haven't done a lot of creating, but I did list a new pair of earrings tonight. These are the first pair of 3D triangle earrings that I have for sale! I am really excited about them.


I would wear a pair of earrings in this design a regular basis if I had pierced ears. Because I don't, I'm trying to figure out how I can incorporate a 3D triangle into a bracelet/cuff. I have 3D triangle earrings in both spring green and a blue mix that I'll be listing shortly, too. I'm thinking about doing a version in red next.

more details for my craft fair booth

I got my official information e-mail from the Iowa Arts Festival today! I still had a few questions so I e-mailed back (still waiting for a response). Actually I have more questions than that, but there are a couple specific issues that I need to know before I get that weekend. Everything else can wait. Now that I know all of the set up times and what not, I can try to recruit at least one or two people to help me. Normally I would be able to recruit my husband or my mom, but unfortunately they're both working that weekend so I need to ask other family and friends. If any Eastern Iowa family/friends are reading this, be forewarned that I will be contacting you soon haha.

I worked on a few more booth projects tonight. The Arts Festival booths are outdoors so I put together paper weights/pen holders. While Jake and I were living in Chicago a few years ago, I stored some of my stuff at my in-laws' house because my parents had just downsized and we had no extra space in our apartment. When we were there a couple weekends ago, I took the last of my stuff, which included a box of art supplies. I'd totally forgotten that I had a TON of these mosaic rocks leftover from a project that my mom and I worked on 5-6 years ago (what you see below is about a third of the collection). I bought some glass cups from Wal-Mart's floral decorating aisle ($1.00 each) for them.


I finished the major work on my large sign. A quick tutorial on this: I printed the letters from Word and cut them out. I glued them with rubber cement to red and blue scrapbooking paper (left over from when I used to make most of my own cards) and covered the front side with contact paper. (I buy large rolls of contact paper from Office Depot for work.) I cut the letters out again, leaving red/blue borders and glued them, again with rubber cement, to a piece of poster board. I'm going to put some jewelry pictures around the edges with Velcro dots (again, purchased in bulk for work) so I can update them in the future as needed.
I'm still not sure how I'm going to hang it. It depends on how long my table fabric cover ends up being and how the festival booths are constructed. I'm thinking either large safety pins or Velcro. If anyone has any advice, please let me know!

Those were the two major projects for tonight. I also finished the last couple table signs and photographed them. The process for these was pretty similar to the large sign. I printed the signs (again from Word), cut them out, and glued them with rubber cement to the red scrapbook paper (these are all edged in red). I cut them out with borders and glued them to a large piece of posterboard, allowing room under each one for tab. I measured out the full length and drew outlines before I cut. I covered the front of each sign with contact paper. Each one has tabs on the bottom so I can tape or pin them down as needed (which I'm pretty much counting on for this event anyway).

The other biggest project I have for this week is to finalize my PR materials for family, friends, and co-workers and start getting the word out.