metallic bangle and some treasury love

I listed a new bangle this week.

It's available here.  I'm not making a lot of bangles these days, but this has been a popular design so I made another version.  I love this kind of jewelry because it's simple and classic.  You can wear it for just about any occasion.

I was very fortunate to be included in several new treasuries this week.  Check them out!

(Is anyone else frustrated by how the treasury format keeps getting bigger and bigger?  I think Etsy's trying to discourage these screen shots or something.)

Kelly (MadeWithButtons) included my Beaded Cuff Bracelet - Skinny - Sunshine Gold Accented in her Gimme Some Sunshine Baby treasury.  Kelly just opened up her new button shop this month.  I'm so glad that she's creating again!

CatchSomeRaes included my Button Charm Bracelet - Yellow in her think Happy thoughts treasury.

Christina (AnnasAdornments) included my Beaded Bracelet - Button Embellished - Rainbow (which now has 17 hearts!) in her Button-Crazy! treasury.  Thank you, Christina, for another fabulous collection.  And thank you, Lisa (Alterity) for the comments on my blog and on the treasury page about how we're in this awesome collection together!  Lisa also has amazing button jewelry.

Stay tuned tomorrow for my monthly Top Droppers and commenters appreciation post as well as my May sale information!

Friday feature: spring green

I thought that it would be fun to do a green feature for the last Friday in April.  Enjoy!

Black and Green Geometric Table Runner by PatchworkMountain

Stripey two tone sage and bright green hand knitted booties three sizes with matching gift bag by fabiusmaximus

Flock Ceramic Wall Arts - Set of three flying ducks - New colour Lime Zest by PrinceDesignUK

Olive branch crinkle silk ribbons by dfer7666

Crystallized Green Donut Pendant by buttonalia

Large Green Raku Leaf Buttons...set of 2 by uniquebuttons

Bead Set - 008 (Barcelona Mosaic Beads) by golemstudio

finished photo display and a classic combination

I finished the photo display that I first blogged about last week here.  I seriously overestimated how many photos I would need for one display board.  So I ended up making two displays.  I had to buy another display and then wait for a day that wasn't rainy or super windy so I could safely bring it into work.  Yes, normally I would work on this at home, but we're showing our condo so I'm not leaving any projects out.  Anyway, things got a little delayed, but I still got it finished with plenty of time to spare.

I apologize that this photo is a little cluttered with the full shelves underneath.  This was the clearest spot I could get on a raised surface in my room.  I'm really happy with the way that they turned out.  Hopefully others will enjoy them, too.

Also, I'm finally bringing back my black and white button charm bracelet design.

(almost) Wordless Wednesday

I thought I'd follow up on my moving theme from last week with another peak at my boxes.  Almost all of my empty space in my classroom has quickly filled up with boxes!  This is probably a third of our entire stash.

giveaway and some new goodies

I don't promote a lot of giveaways here, but I had to mention that my EtsyBlogger teammate Edi (memoriesforlifesb), one of my favorite people on Etsy, is having a giveaway on her blog right now.  You can enter it by clicking here.  In honor of her 28th birthday this month, she's giving away a $28 gift certificate for her shop.

You can use the gift certificate for anything in her shop.  Even if you don't need an album or other custom item for yourself, many of her items make wonderful gifts.  So please go enter if you haven't already.

I've been going through lots of jump rings lately with all of the button charm bracelets that I've been making.  So I've made a couple trips to Michael's in the past few weeks.  And of course I can never walk away with just the items that I intended to pick up when I went there.

Michael's has great coupons on their web site.  Between the two trips, I saved over $7.00 on about $35 worth of merchandise.  The pink and pale blue shells were on sale, which is why I splurged on those.  All of the other beads were either 50% off or ended up being 20-30% off with the coupons.  I've sold two rock garden bracelets this summer and wanted a few more components for my next pieces in that series.  The green and purple components on the far left will work perfectly for those.

another garden for 2011

I sold the new red and white flower cuff that I just listed last week to Christina of AnnasAdornments over the weekend.  So I had to list my other new garden bracelet for this season.

I sold one with a button like this last summer before I could even get it on Etsy.  Now it's available for all of you right here.  The button is of course from Lisa Peters (LisaPetersArt).  I don't have any more of them now, but they were so much fun to use.  A bunch of the leaves are from Shannon (beadsandbabble).  My green leaf supply is finally dwindling.  Czech leaf beads are HARD to find, especially in bulk/wholesale, even from the best sellers/web sites.  I'm always on the lookout for new ones.  Right now I'm trying to collect enough to make another leafy modern piece, which is a slow process.  I'm also looking for small green and purple leaves for new items in my rock garden series.  I did find a string of lovely green tear drop shaped leaves over the weekend that I'll share tomorrow.

why I love my customers

Happy Easter!  I've been working on a custom order this week.  The woman loved my Beaded Bracelet - Double Linked - Chocolate and Cream and wanted coordinating earrings and pendant to go with it.  She had a pretty clear idea what she wanted.  Together we finalized the details.  The bracelet was made to order so she got a brand new version of it in a custom length.

The customer also wanted me to take a picture of the whole set together.

I love my customers because I never would have conceptualized the earrings and pendant on my own.  I have made lots of shell earrings, but I wouldn't have thought to use two shell beads and to use the beads that I used in the bracelet.  And I've never made a shell pendant before.  I love the final result, though!

The design for this bracelet is something that came about with a little idea that I had to rework several times to create this final result.  It drove me up the wall the first and the second time that I made it.  This third time went so much more smoothly.  Third time's the charm, right?  I felt like I finally got into the rhythm of this pattern and didn't have to spend much time going back and adding or redoing anything.

So...I might make a couple more sets of these in other colors.  I love having the earrings and pendant that coordinate now.  I love the idea of doing a set in turquoise.  I haven't thought much past that yet.  Any thoughts, let me know.

600 Hearts and some sneak peaks

I reached a new milestone in my Etsy shop yesterday.

I am really excited about this because it took me 6 months to get to 400 and another 6 months to get to 500.  I reached 600 in just 4 months.  Even though hearts don't necessarily equal sales, my views and item hearts have been way up the last couple months.  I've also had consistent sales in my shop for 11 straight months now.  Thank you so much to everyone who has helped me get this far!

I finished working with purple this week and put together a few new charm bracelet mixes yesterday.

I got these shell beads back at Christmas.  I've known for quite a while that I wanted to use some of them to make a charm bracelet, but I'm finally getting around to putting that together.  I want to layer some of the beads like I did here.

I also have a new green mix, which is what I'll actually be making before the shell bracelet.  I never get tired of these colors!

While I was sifting through my greens, I found enough light sea green and spring/lime green to make button charm bracelets with each of these colors, too.

leafy feature: April random edition

Here are my random leafy picks for April.  Enjoy!


Oak Leaf Brooch. Earthtones by MeadowWren

Maple Leaf Fine Silver by hemlockhollow

Leather Cup or Mug Cozy - Merlot and White Bloom with Double Leaves by TheFigLeaf

Red Oak Open Rubber Stamp by norajane

Stained Glass Leaf Filigree Pendant (SGL-pg) by colorshoppestudio

Grecian Goddess Silver Leaf Crown Headband by RoseoftheMire

Bright Leaves Coptic Stitched Journal, Notebook, Sketchbook by SushiPapercraft

a new garden for spring 2011

I'm not the best about making and listing pieces in the right season, but I had to list this piece while it's still spring.

It's available here.  This is the third flower embellished cuff that I've made now.  The second one is still available in my shop here.  This new one is more like that second one than like my first one.  It would be fun to do another bright cuff like that.  But I love all of the red in this new cuff, too.  And I have not gotten tired of the dark green base.  I would make another flower cuff just for that.  The disc beads are from Art Beads mixes.  I've been collecting the flowers over the past year, mostly from local bead shops.  And the button clasp is another Lisa Peters creations (LisaPetersArt).  She's been listing lots of new goodies lately so go check out her shop if you haven't been over there in a while.

As I've mentioned recently, I'm slowing down on the peyote cuffs for a while.  But I still have a decent number of flower beads left so there will probably be another one of these cuffs at some point.

(almost) Wordless Wednesday

The cooks at my school have been awesome about saving boxes for me this past month for our upcoming move.  I got this one at the end of last week and thought it was funny.  I posted it on Facebook where it got a very positive reaction so I thought I'd share it here, too.  Happy Wednesday!

DIY party invitations and photo display

It's hard to believe, but Jake and I are hosting his med school graduation party in less than a month!  Even though we had Match Day and have listed our condo for sale, it still hasn't sunk in that we're really moving in a couple months.  So I've been a little slow on this party stuff.  We don't want to spend a lot of money on it so I've been making a couple things myself.

I designed, printed, and cut my own postcard invitations.  I posted a short tutorial hub about it over here: DIY: Postcard Party Invitations with Microsoft Publisher.  If you want any more information about that, let me know.

I've also been working on a photo display.  I've been dragging my feet on this.  I really have no idea why because I love photos and doing pretty much anything involving photos.  I think it's just part of my general burnout.  But I finally printed and matted the photos over the weekend.

I used colored card stock, a glue stick, and a scrapbook paper cutter for the mattes.  Colored card stock is readily available at most craft stores like Michael's.  If you watch for their sales or coupons, you can get a very good deal on it.

I'm going to glue them to a tri-fold poster board display.  I need to make a title for it, too.  I will do my best to remember to post a picture of it when it's all finished.

the other black shell earrings and more buttons in the works

I listed black shell earrings last night that coordinate with this black shell bead bracelet.

These earrings are available here, and you can check out all of the black/white shell bracelets and coordinating earrings here.  I love these sets.  The larger shell bracelet has done really well.  Hopefully these will continue to sell.  Pale blue, turquoise, and sea green are all coming up on Etsy over the next couple months.

I'm also continuing to work on my button charm bracelets.  I finished blue over the weekend and started purple.

I made my first purple button charm bracelet a couple years ago.  I'm really looking forward to working with this color palette again.

One of my goals after I finish this school year is to start gifting more jewelry.  I'm making extras of all of my new button charm bracelets.  If you have a favorite color or color combination, don't be shy about letting me know what it is.  One of these new pieces just might show up your mailbox for your next birthday or at Christmas.

Also, I put up another crafty-related hub this past week that I didn't post here yet.  If you haven't checked this out already, here's the link:  Tips for Taking Stunning Jewelry and Other Small Product Item Photos.

treasury love

I was very fortunate to be included in a handful of new treasuries this past week.

crphotographicimages included my Beaded Bracelet - Button Embellished - Rainbow in her Over the Rainbow treasury.  (Interesting fact: This is the third treasury I've been in with this title.  Each treasury has featured a different bracelet.)

I absolutely love this print from cr's shop: Waterwheel - Fine Art Photography Print.  It would make an amazing cross-stitch kit.

Kim (ThePeachMartini) included my Beaded Dangle Earrings - Cream Leaves in her Peaches and Cream treasury.

Angela (AngelaDesign) included my Beaded Pendant - Peyote Triangle - Red Striped in her Cherry Red treasury.  I really love this one!

Patti (peacoxcreations) included my Beaded Bracelet - The Leafy Series - Spring in her April Showers treasury.  I love her inspiration for this collection.

Check out this awesome new dish set in Patti's shop: Apple Dishcloth and Potholder Kitchen Set

newest shell bead earrings and button bracelets in the works

I promised quite a while back that I would make earrings to coordinate with my black shell bead bracelets.  I finally listed one of the pairs of earrings this week.

These earrings are available here.  I'll list the smaller version of these earrings soon.  The vote for the coordinating earrings was black so that's what I decided to make.  But if you prefer white, just let me know.  I still have some white shells.

I have sea green and pale blue bracelet and earring sets ready to photograph, too.

I sold five button charm bracelets on Etsy last month.  I've started restocking my stash.  I know that my shop is still plenty full, but my button bracelet supply has diminished.  It's been one of my few designs that has sold consistently on Etsy so I'm not going to stop making them any time soon.  I have blue in the works right now.

All of my new button charm bracelets will have beads like this recently sold button charm bracelet has.  They have been popular and are something that sets my button charm bracelets apart from others that are available on Etsy.  The turquoise/red combination will be back as well as green and purple.