a new collaboration

Do you remember how I featured summer buttons on my blog last month? One of the artists that I featured also lives in the Milwaukee area. (She actually lives literally blocks away from me. It's a small world sometimes.) When she replied to my convo about the feature, she asked if I'd ever be interested in collaborating. If you've been following my blog and/or shop for a while, you know that I love to use handmade components in my jewelry.

When I have the opportunity to collaborate with a talented artist and receive free items in exchange for promotion via blogging, social media, and Etsy, I'm not going to say no.

In no time at all, I received this lovely package. I was blown away. This was way more than I was expecting. That's a good problem.

There are so many possibilities for these lovely ceramic buttons. I've taken something of a jewelry making hiatus this summer, which has been a refreshing change of pace. I've been putting a lot of energy into keeping best sellers stocked this year, which was one of my goals for 2013, and it's been going well. I'm really ready for mix things up, though, and these new buttons will be the perfect excuse to do a little bit of that.

This batch of buttons has so many great colors. I feel drawn to start with one of the blue ones, largely because I have such a large stash of blue delicas on hand already. I haven't gotten a close up of that large red button yet, but it has the shape of Wisconsin etched into it (pretty cool, right?). The University of Wisconsin-Madison colors are red and white, and I'll most likely make a red and white cuff for the button. I've wanted to make some Wisconsin sports team color themed items ever since we moved here, and this will be an excuse to finally do a little bit of that, too.

This artist has very generously provided a 20% off total purchase coupon for me to share with my readers for her Etsy shop. Enter code FaithAnnOriginals20 when you check out. Thanks, Faith Ann! I'll keep everyone updated on my new pieces with her lovely buttons.

Have you been doing any collaborations lately?

newest goodies

I caved last week and purchased a few sets of buttons from Lisa Peters (one from her regular store and one from her destash store).  I've done an awesome job the last few months of only purchasing small things here and there to complete already planned projects.  So I didn't feel too bad about making a tiny splurge.  And I'm sure you can see why I wanted to.

The light colored leaf is actually a freebie cabochon that she included with my order.  And the green Christmas tree is a little charm, not a button.  Honestly I will most likely keep it for myself and string it on a simple chain.  I'm really excited to use some of the brown leaves as clasps for future autumn leafy bracelets.  I'm not sure what I'll do with the red buttons yet.  As always, I'm open to suggestions.

I only have two bracelets in my shop right now with a Lisa button because the pieces I've made with them keep selling!

This one is available here.

 And this one is available here.

Here are some past creations with Lisa's buttons.

packages

We awoke this morning to a blanket of fresh SNOW. Predicted, yes. Still upsetting.


Thankfully, as you can see in the photo, the roads were not frozen so the driving conditions were good today. Also, I took that picture a little over five hours ago, and most of it has melted since then. It's still a little depressing in mid/late March. Hopefully the weather forecast will stay true and it will warm right up again. It was 60 on Thursday!

I received several packages in the mail this week. The first was my latest set of beads from ArtBeads through their blogging program. We were allowed to pick anything from their site this time with the intention of making at least one spring piece from it. With this current order, I now have way more than enough beads to put together another leafy spring piece like my original version.


Besides the leaves, my newest stash includes delicas and Tohos. When I lined up my delicas, I realized how much I love the opaque espresso pearls with lime. The color possibilities never end!

I also got my newest selection of ceramic buttons from Lisa (LisaPetersArt) (all paid for through jewelry sales!). I purchased several from her Etsy site, and then she was kind of enough to photograph some of her smaller unlisted pieces and let me choose what I wanted.

I love all of them, but I think that the triangles are especially cool. So unique!

Finally, in unrelated jewelry topics, I got my first shipment of Proactiv.
I just started it today so nothing yet, but I'll let you know how it goes. I'm hopeful. I haven't been to a derm in over 3 years, but if this doesn't do the trick, I will look for one out here this summer.

I hope that everyone's having a good weekend! :)

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.

new book recommendations, Etsy shop to check out, and a sneak peak

I found two new crafty books at the library last week that caught my interest. They are The Button Maker: 30 Great Techniques and 35 Stylish Projects by Sarah Beaman and Beader's Stash: Designs from America's Favorite Bead Shops by Laura Leavaas. My major complaint about both books is that there are not enough pictures of the steps for the projects. The finished project pictures are great, but for those of who are beginners at either skill, that's really not enough. There are a lot of good ideas in both books, though. I think that with some trial and error, I could attempt at least a few projects from each book.

There is one project from Beader's Stash from the owner of Bead in Hand, which is the bead store that I grew up going to (when I did much less complex projects than I do now) and still frequent on occasion when I'm back in the Chicago area. I thought that was pretty neat!

I came across a new Etsy shop through someone else's blog this weekend that I think everyone should check out: macaroll (another special education teacher!). She sells homemade ceramic beads, buttons, and pendants for very reasonable prices. These are just two of my favorites items from her shop

Wrap it Up...

Feelin' Blue

Finally, here's a sneak peak of my newest embellished square stitch cuff that I finished this weekend. :)

And here's a little bonus: a picture of Angel that I took after I'd finished my latest round of jewelry pictures. We rearranged the living room a little last week because we got a few new pieces of furniture from IKEA. We moved one lamp next to the couch, and Angel decided that would be a good place to hang out today. :) I may post pictures of the living room rearrangement sometime, too.

snow day, some Etsy goodies

I had another snow day today (4th one so far this winter). You can't see it this picture but the wind really picked up today and is blowing 20-30 MPH when I took the picture. It's still snowing off and on, and I'm a little worried for tomorrow. I don't think that the roads are going to be very good.


I completely forgot to mention that I won the giveaway on vermilionstarpress's blog back in December. I won a lovely set of coasters like the ones that you can find in their Etsy shop here.



They also included a couple free blank cards with envelopes. Thanks vermilionstarpress!

I got a couple new Lisa Peters Art ceramic buttons in the mail today that I'd ordered through Etsy. Lisa has been listing tons of new items in the past couple months. It's amazing that I've managed to restrain myself from buying more than just these two items.

I think that I'm going to keep the white and green one for myself and use it with a green cuff design that I have in mind. I'm thinking about using the yellow button for a remake of one of my autumn leafy designs. :)