in the works and Christmas designs

I am in holiday listing mode on Etsy now.  I'm not listing any other items until I get my remaining 2011 holiday items up.  I already got a few up this past week.

While I was making one of my recent sets of Christmas button earrings, I had a sudden inspiration that it would be neat to sell little sets of earrings.  I may offer more sets like this in the future, especially for shows.  I thought that it would be fun to start with a holiday set on Etsy, though.  It's available here.  I can customize this option with any colors.

I sold a bracelet very similar to this one earlier this year.  I wasn't inspired to make a new one right away, but I wanted to get it in my shop again for the holidays.  It's available here.  As long as this bracelet style keeps selling, I'll keep making more of them.

I'm bringing back both of my Christmas button charm bracelet designs and will be introducing two brand new Christmas bracelet designs as well.  Look for all of those later this month.

As for what else I've been working on lately, here are the last sets of buttons pins that I put together for my second fall show.  Both shots show the buttons glued, waiting for their pin backs.  I also made some more Christmas button earrings.  I have had handful of sales this month (all jewelry purchases in my shop through Christmas get a FREE pair) and want to have more earrings on hand for the show, too.

As you can see, I did decide to use a few of the large shape buttons for the final set.  My goal was to have 2 dozen pins for this second show, which I have exceeded, so I'm probably done making these for now.  We'll see if I get inspired to do a few more this week.

I've also been working on my December EBW challenge piece.

Now that I've finished making Christmas designs (for now...if the button charm bracelets sell, I'll keep making more), I'm putting most of my beading focus on getting this finished before Thanksgiving.  I want to make at least one bracelet Christmas present this year, which means that I need to stay ahead on some of these other things.

Also, for those of you who are planning ahead, this is my newest hub: 10 Free Christmas Stocking Pattern Tutorials.  (Looking for older hubs?  Click on the Crafty Articles tab!)

I linked this post for Michelle's Delicately Constructed Friday 11/11 and Erika's It's a Wrap - Link Part 11/14.

button magnets in the works

I decided to follow up on my in the works post from last week and show you some of the progress that I've made with my button magnets.

This is my first new batch of magnets for the 2011 holiday shopping season.  Generally the larger magnets and the magnets with shaped buttons do well so I mostly focused on that.  This is the first time that I used sequins for the magnets.  I have a bunch of the stars left over from my Christmas tree project.

I got out a cookie sheet that I hadn't used for gluing so I could organize everything.  No, I don't use these cookie sheets in the kitchen.  I got a couple very cheap packs from Wal-Mart a couple years ago with the intention of using them for these types of projects.

Here's what I have left over from last year's shows.  As you can see, most of the simple and smaller buttons don't move as quickly.  Generally people pick up one or two of them to coordinate with some of their larger button picks.

I'm also trying some button pins for the first time this year.  I've been wanting to do this for a long time but just haven't because I've always focused on the magnets for shows.  I'm attempted to do both this year, though, as well as button tacks, which I have more about below.

 These are the last two batches that I did this past week.  I took both pictures before I'd started gluing. All of the narrow heart buttons with two small buttons stacked on top are going to be tacks, which is another project that I've wanted to do for a long time.  I'm planning to use a bulletin board to display some of my earrings at the fall shows this year and can put the tacks around the edges and sell them, too.

As always, if anyone is interested in anything that you see here, please let me know.  I'm not planning to list magnets, pins, or tacks on Etsy any time soon but they are always available.  Just contact me for pricing and close up shots of specific items.  Custom colors/styles are welcome.

I used this post for a link party over at Artful Rising.