why I love Etsy

One of the things that has kept me motivated to stay on Etsy through some really slow months of sales over the years is the people. I have had the privilege of meeting some of the most amazing talented ladies during the past 5 years, many of whom I am honored to call my friends.

One of these ladies, Edi of memoriesforlifesb, surprised me with a birthday package last week. She sent me a photo album with the Milwaukee skyline laser engraved on the front and a couple sets of laser cut wooden buttons. Does she know me well or what?

Most people check out my photography online, but we all know that sometimes it's nice to have a way to show off our work in person, too. This new album is a perfect place to store my clothespin display photos when I'm ready to swap them out for new prints.

Edi knows that I love to use large buttons as clasps for many of my bracelet designs. You can see an example of that here. How awesome to have some buttons with my shop address on them! It's also so neat to have wooden buttons in my collection. Typically I work with plastic buttons because they're readily available. I love mixing up the routine sometimes.

I also use tiny buttons for a number of jewelry designs, such as my button embellished right angle weave designs. I've been working to collect enough metal buttons to make more of this design for quite some time. I still don't have enough to make an all metal piece, but I have enough that I could make a mixed metal and wooden design now. I'm pretty excited about that possibility.

Thanks again, Edi!

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continued adventures with Mod Podge: a DIY wedding gift

Some of you may remember that I attended a bridal shower and bachelorette party earlier this month.  I was originally planning to give the couple one of Edi's custom engraved frames at the shower and make something later this spring for the wedding.  But I got inspired to get something made for the shower and will save the frame for the wedding.

Here we are with the couple back at our wedding.  Maks was in our wedding party, and Amanda was a huge help at the reception.  We've been friends with them for a long time now and felt like we needed give them some special wedding presents.

A few insights about this project:

• I completed this before I made my coasters and had not yet learned how to keep the words from smearing.  The effect is pretty minimal and if you aren't a perfectionist like me, you won't even notice.
• It's important to layer your paper and buttons in stages so that you can make touch ups as needed before adding more.
• The buttons on the wreath added a lot.  I love having this dimensional effect.
• It is really hard to apply Mod Podge evenly over the buttons.  It definitely requires some patience.
• I have no idea why the canvas warped so much in the middle.  That is really my biggest frustration with this piece.  I glued the word mattes with scrapbook glue and applied thin layers of Mod Podge to adhere and seal them as you normally would.  Any insights on this would be appeciated.
• I have made several projects with Mod Podge this month.  I know so many people who rave about it endlessly.  I am still not entirely sure that I'm convinced.  Am I the only one?  Maybe I just need more practice.
• Aside from the basic wreath shape, I had no idea how I was going to put the words and buttons together for this until I had glued most of the wreath and am really happy how the final result came together.
• Amanda was really pleased with it so that made me feel even better about the result.

I have not put together any more button wall art pieces yet, but I bought a bulk set of these 12x12 canvases.  I would like to add a few more similar pieces to my show inventory.  I love to make jewelry and don't have any problem getting sales at shows because my work is unique.  However, there is still the reality that there are simply more jewelry vendors than spots at most shows.  The more I can do to set myself apart, the better.  The button theme will obviously still tie in very well with my current inventory.

What designs, quotes, color combinations, etc. would you like to see for these kind of pieces?

I am happy to create custom work like this one, but I'd like to have some general ones people can purchase and take with them, too.