Friday Feature: pink / green

This week I'm featuring items in one of my favorite color combinations - pink and green - because I think that it's a particularly great combination for spring. Enjoy!

Shower Curtain Bathroom Wall Art Artwork Nautical Wash Brush Girl Ocean Sea Pink Green Fish Turtle Cute Set of 4 Prints Child Decor by trmdesign

Green White Pink Stripe Lumbar Pillow Cover Choose Your Size by PillowMio

Pink Wedding Hair Comb Bridal Head Piece Bridesmaid Gift Blush Pink Green Spring Apple Lime Green Flower Floral Soft Dreamy Pastel Color by Jewelsalem

Pink Green Spring Wreath, Spring Trends, Hydrangea Door Wreath, Hydrangea Spring Wreath by WreathsByRebeccaB

 Landscape tree photography, spring orchard, green, pink flowers, dreamy nursery room decor 8x10 - Wonder by LupenGrainne

Bridal Shower Invitation by InvitingDesignStudio

Cute Adorable Colorful Ceramic Soap Dish Pink Green Spring Flowers by YsFactory

 What are your favorite colors and/or color combinations for spring?

Friday Feature: purple / pink

In honor of a couple of my newest jewelry shop listings, I've rounded up some purple and pink items on Etsy today. Enjoy!

Beaded Bracelet - Silver Links - Celestial Stars Moons Purple Pink by randomcreative

Beaded Dangle Earrings - Celestial Purple Pink Star Charms by randomcreative

Unique Hand made Rug. Wool Felt Pebbles. Multicolor. Purple, Pink, Violet, Gray colors. Size 55 x 25 inches. by DMpics

Lavender Purple Pink Cross Wall Hanging by 2GirlsForever

Purple pink Baby headband, vintage shabby chic roses by SAVANIboutique

Silky Chiffon Scarf - Gorgeous Purple / Pink Multi Watercolor Print by liacatherinestyle

Starry Galaxy, space and stars purple, pink, red necklace pendant by DevilsJewel

Are you a fan of the purple and pink color combination, too?

Friday Feature: pink and green leaf photography

This month for my leaf feature, I'm featuring leaf photography in pink and green. Enjoy!

Dreamy nature photography - pink buds, branches with green leaf, blue 8x10 print wall decor - And Buds Thrive by MyMonography

Pink peony photograph summer flower vintage inspired textured pink petals green leaves pink flower - P is for Peony 8x8 by bomobob

Flower Photography - retro garden floral pattern leaves pink green pale sky tropical - Fine Art 8x10 Plumeria Stars by LupenGrainne

below, Overland Park, KS, pink, flowers, leaves, nature, outdoors, fine art print by shannerty

Azaleas: a floral macro fine art photograph print of magenta pink flower blooms and mint green leaves (outdoor spring nature bokeh) by UninventedColors

apple tree flower photography, 8x10 print, nature photography, spring flowers art, pink, green, blue, pastel, soft vibrant, wall decor by bialakura

Nature photography Garden photography Crying Leaves by WildFeatherStudio

another edition of why I love my customers

If you've been following my blog for at least a few months, you most likely know that one of my favorite parts about running my randomcreative business is custom orders. I love so many of the suggestions that I get from customers and enjoy sharing them here.

One of my recent custom orders was for my long time Etsy friend and teammate Linda.

Linda wanted a custom button charm bracelet with the charms of her choosing. She ordered the charms that she wanted and sent them to me.

I put together a custom color palette with plastic buttons and glass seed beads to coordinate with her charms. I kept most of the pink palette lighter with a few darker / magenta picks in the mix.

I don't work with pink nearly as much as most other colors so this was a good push for me to explore this color combination. And of course the best news is that Linda loves her new piece.

I also recently got a request to re-make a design that I last sold nearly two years ago. It's one of those designs that I couldn't re-make at the time and kind of forgot about until now.

It was so refreshing working with this color palette in February. While I had this bead mix in my beading bowl, I went ahead and made a second one so I can add it to my shop again.

One of the most interesting things about posting these final pictures elsewhere this week is that I got as many comments about the photography job as I did about the piece itself. Honestly I'm not sure which I'm more proud of at this point.

If you ever want a custom order, don't hesitate to contact me!

Have you been working on any custom orders lately?

almost WW: Girly

the bead mix

the finished product, in two sizes

Favorite Inspiration: the May BBA Challenge

Sharla of BeadedTail came up with our May Challenge: Inspirations.  She writes, "Your challenge is to incorporate your favorite inspiration into a project of your choice."  I'm sure it's not a surprise that I'm frequently inspired my color.  I'll see neat color combinations anywhere...in a clothing store, in nature, etc., and I'll immediately start thinking about how I can incorporate them into art.

Most of you already know how much I love turquoise and red.  I also really love pink and green.  Pink is not one of my favorite colors, but I love it paired with green.  Here are a few ways that I've used this color combination in my jewelry making in the past.

For the most part, when I write craft articles, I pull ideas from lots of different sources.  I do use my own photos as I can, but I often use photos from others, too.  After I wrote my junk mail crafts article, I started thinking about other recycled papers to use for crafting.  I was in the middle of doing a big magazine purge and decided it was well time to create my own art for an article and to use my own photos exclusively in the article.  The pink and green color combination seemed like a good fit for graduation, Mother's Day, and spring cards.

Recycled Magazine Craft Project: Greeting Cards

I'm really happy with how both the cards and the article.  My recycled craft articles have done well so far.  Hopefully this one will, too.

Do you ever use the green and pink color combination in your crafting?  What are some of your favorite color combinations?

Newest article:

Father's Day Free Printables: Cards, Coupons, Coloring Pages, Cupcake Toppers, and More

Looking for older articles? Click here!

I included this post in Michelle's Delicately Constructed Friday - 5/18/2012 and Erika's It's a Wrap Link Party - 5/21/2012.

Great offer from SocialSpark!  Take advantage of it while you can.

December EBW Challenge Piece

If I had known how busy this Christmas season was going to be, I might not have attempted this challenge.  But I got far enough into it before the craziness hit that I was determined to finish in the midst of everything else.  I did so I'm really proud of that.

The theme for the December challenge is Arabesque Style.  Honestly there aren't a lot of great articles online about Arabesque style, but many pieces in an Arabesque style include interwoven leaves and/or flowers.  If you do a Google search for Arabesque art, you can see some examples.  My piece isn't designed to mimic any specific color combinations or other features of Arabesque style pieces, but it does have two interwoven strands of leaves.  Perhaps people who have taken online art classes know about the Arabesque Style.

Like my Twisted challenge entry last month, this piece can be worn as a wrap bracelet OR a necklace.  It's long enough to be wrapped three times for a 7 1/2" wrist or smaller.  I am pretty picky about my bracelet fit (which is one reason that I like to design jewelry for myself).  I have tested a few triple wrap pieces as I've designed this new line of jewelry and can honestly say that they do fit a range of wrist sizes.  I have not designed any wrap pieces specifically for myself and have found several lengths to be very comfortable.

Like all of my new herringbone pieces, the charm has a lobster clasp so that it can be detached.  This particular charm is part of my new bead stash from Erika.  Thanks Erika!  Thanks to all of your feedback about the charms for this new line, I have been finalizing my details for the new charm listings.  I've started making a list of possible charm sets.  More on that soon.  If there's something you'd love to see, feel free to let me know now.

I love that this piece is part of my new herringbone line AND incorporates my love of leaf beads.  My new found love of leaves these past few years has really come from my love of Czech glass leaf beads.  I have pulled the leaves for this piece from at least four different sources.

I also love the pink/green color combination.  I'm really pleased with how it came together for this piece.  I'm planning to make separate green and pink herringbone pieces from the seed bead selections I pulled for this piece, but I know that I'm not done with the pink/green combination either.

Yep, I did go a little crazy with the leaf embellishment and also made this piece in tubular herringbone, so like Twisted, this piece will be at the higher end of my new line.  A lot of the pieces in it will be in the $25-$45 range.

You can purchase this new piece here.  Voting will take place December 9-15 on the EBW blog.  I'll post more information about that when it gets closer.

I used this post for Erika's It's a Wrap Link Party 12/5/11.

pink triangles are back, a new fall design, and in the works this week

Thanks to Lisa of beadznstoneszsupplies who bought the first pair of my pink triangle earrings last week during one of the Etsy Angels' BNRs!  Sharla invited me to join the group this month so I could get more exposure for my Think Pink promotion and help them with their promotions so I joined up with them for October.  It has certainly been great exposure, and the month isn't even half over yet!

These earrings have been well received, and I had one more pair of triangle beads.  So I went ahead and made a second pair and renewed the listing.

They're available here.  Get them or anything else in my Think Pink section this month, and I'll donate 15% of the proceeds to the American Cancer Society.

As for what's in the works right now, I remade one of my bangle designs that desperately needed some new pictures on Etsy.

Here it is finished.  Click on the photo to go to the listing.

As I mentioned last week, I've been pulling buttons to make a few more this button design.  The design has done well on Etsy so I'm making some more.

I got the fall bracelet that I laid out in the first picture finished and listed early this week.

It's available here.  I love how this color combination came together.

As always, if there are any other button designs that you'd like to see with different colors, etc., let me know.

I included this post in Erika's Link Part 10/17 and on Make Yourself Monday at ForLoveofCupcakes.

September Top Droppers and October news

It's a new month that means that once again, it's time to thank my Top Droppers.  I really stepped up my own dropping this month and have been surprised by how many new droppers I got in return.  I especially appreciate the new bloggers I've met through Entrecard who are taking the time to comment or reply to my comments.  And as always, I appreciate anyone who visits my blog regularly, especially those of you who comment.  These monthly posts are for all of you.  I wouldn't still be here without all of your support.

Here is the Top 10 for September.
1) Confessions of a Psychotic Housewife
2) Sparkle
3) Funky Town Disco Music
4) BeadedTail
5) The Pond
6) toys4dogsncats.com
7) The Soap Seduction
8) Digital Rebel 350
9) Everyday Game Plan
10) Melissa's Homeschool

Please check out some of the newest Etsy items from my top commenters, too.  I have to give shout outs to Grace of Dragon's Alley, Mandy of Beads For Brains: 365, and Catherine of Living the Gourmet who have also left me a lot of comments this month.  Thanks ladies!
Real Wood Birthday Card - Have a Tweet Birthday - Laser Engraved Cut by memoriesforlifesb

Kitty Cat Face Beaded Sterling Silver Earrings - Olive by BeadedTail

Art journal, watercolor fall fashion by storybeader

Peyote Swirl Green Peridot Purple Sterling Silver Necklace by PrettyPrettySwicy

Knit Coin Purse in Grey and Purple by nfall2rt

Laundry Bag.  Lingerie Bag.  Storage.  Roses and green polka dots by PeriDotByDuni

Sleepy horse artwork - print of my original watercolor painting - 5 x 7 by tapestry316

Sugar Scrub Sample - Mango Sorbet by thesoapseducation

Beaded Snowflake Ornament in Crystal, Silver, and White by AsteropeBC

For October, I've created a Think Pink section of my shop for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which includes these new earrings.  Remember when I previewed them here back in August?  They were so well received that I decided to list them.

All of my older pink items are in that section, too.  I'm donated 15% off all sales from there this month to the American Cancer Society.  Here are a few of the eligible items.  Check out the section for the others.