Halloween is Almost Here!

As always, I'm a little behind on promoting my holiday items, but FINALLY, I have all my Halloween stuff listed in my shop. New items this year include glass tile pendants and bottle cap pendants. I'll present you with a few of my oldies-but-goodies too.

The EtsyBlogger Team Leader, JoeyAndAleethea bought one of my Halloween glass tile pendants, but I still have a couple left including a Mummy and a Monster. They would make a cute gift for youself, a mother of young ones, a teacher, or anybody into celebrating Halloween! A complimentary silver ball chain necklace comes with the purchase of either of these pendants.

Thanks Joey!


Click on Either Pendant for Details

I also have a not-so-scary scarecrow pendant made using scrapbook paper and a square wooden tile. Similar to a scrabble tile pendant, but a little larger at 1.25 inches on each side. With the purchase of this pendant comes a free silver ball chain necklace.

Scarecrow Pendant

I have a few bottle cap pendants can be for Halloween, or autumn in general. Both were made using foliage tree scrapbook paper and beer bottle caps. Click on the pictures below to see what beer *had* to be consumed to create the pendants.

Foliage Beer Bottle Cap Pendants
Click on either picture for details

And some returning favorites from last year include pumpkin earrings, a decoupage spiderweb necklace, and a really cool choker. One of my year round favorites is the Black Widow's Web necklace made with agate. A close look at the pendant resembles a spider web.

Click on any image for details

More Holiday Items

I'm trying to get the rest of my holiday inventory online before it's too late. My problem is mostly weather and schedule related. My pictures come out best in natural sunlight, but there was only one day this week that the sun was still up and shining while I was home.

I've added two more decoupage pieces, a snowman and a two cent postage stamp of Santa. The snowman piece comes on a ball chain necklace. The Santa stamp necklace comes on a gold plated choker necklace wire.



My Garden Gnome necklace isn't exclusively a Christmas piece, but will go nicely with a red shirt. I got inspiration from the pendant which reminds me of a garden gnome hat for some reason. It was made using turquoise howlite beads and coral chips. Sterling silver wire was used to make the bail, and the clasp is a sterling silver hook and eye clasp.


Search my Etsy shop for the keyword Christmas for all my Christmas pieces, and some things that would go nicely with red or green.

The leaves are changing colors...

...and your jewelry can too!

I got my inspiration for this piece from a leaf shaped piece of wood and a sheet of scrapbook paper. I thought the leaf would make a nice fall pendant and went in search of something to decorate it with. In the scrapbook paper aisle, I found a single sheet that had both a red-orange pattern and a beige and tan pattern. Instantly, the thought "REVERSIBLE PENDANT" came to mind.

I used decoupage technique to glue and laminate the paper on both sides. I drilled a hole through the top and wrapped around gold plated wire to create a bail. It is on a simple brown leather cord and fastened with gold plated ends and a clasp. I gave it the title Reversible Maple Leaf Pendant. Feeling red-hot and bold today? Wear it on the flashy side. Feeling mellow? Go beige and tan. Or switch it up in the middle of the day... The leaves are changing, why can't you?

Modified Project of the Month: February

Neither amethyst nor silver, discuss!

My BeadStyle Beading 2008 a project a month Calendar uses a pattern for two amethyst and silver necklaces and matching earrings set for February's project. Since amethyst is the birthstone for February, it made sense.

In my search for amethyst beads, I could only find amethyst chip beads, which I'm not particularly fond of. My search for a pretty silver pendant came up empty as well. I had, however, been holding onto this amazing copper pendant since my trip to Manhattan to visit some college friends for over a month now, and it's been burning a hole in my bead box. Instead of the sterling silver blossom pendant thats recommended by the calendar, I decided to incorporate my copper one instead. I was off on a search for beads to go well with copper. I love the colors teal/blue-green/aqua with copper, so turquoise beads would be most ideal. I had already used up my turquoise stone beads on my Turquoise Head Turner necklace. In my search for turquoise, I could only find ginormous turquoise stones, turquoise chips, and turquoise howlite chips, bringing me back to another stone chip predicament. I then remembered that I had aqua and copper E beads from my Toola Roola's Mane necklace, and some other random beads (some even copper in color) in my bead stash already.

The circular copper pendant was purchased with pre-drilled holes along the bottom. I strung seven copper head pin wires with E beads and Czech glass copper metallic beads and attached them through the holes along the bottom so that they could dangle. I then created a necklace with the same beads, as well as some burnt red/copper colored glass crow beads.



The earrings are basically the same design as the ones in the calendar, except without amethyst. They were made with all the same beads that are in the necklace. I also extended them in length by having the two head pin wires hang from a 3rd wire with the same large glass crow beads that are in the necklace.


Apparently all of my creativity was used up in creating the matching set because naming them was unusually difficult for me. I turned to fellow Etsians for help. There were many spectacular suggestions, however, CreationsByRobin's suggestion was my favorite: Lake Havasu Falls.

Lake Havasu is in the Grand Canyon. She said the copper color reminded her of the Grand Canyon, and the aqua and blue colors dangling from the pendant reminded her of waterfalls. I agree.


If its not really at all like the one in the project a month calendar, why is it my project of the month? Because it took me a month to find everything to make the set come together of course! I am offering a discount for if these two items are purchased as a set, see my shop for details.

*** This inspired me to make a Grand Canyon themed treasury*** Check it out before it expires on Monday 2/25/08 at 09:42!

Shameless Self Promotion, Or Selfishness?

Nothing is better than free advertising. Of course, hardly anything in life comes at you for free.

My best form of advertising is wearing the stuff that I keep for myself. That way, when someone says, "I like your necklace," I can respond, "Really? I made it" as I shove a business card in their face. I keep my duds, or I give them away, but I never really make something specifically for myself.

I work in a hospital laboratory, and I can wear anything I want except jammies, sweats, or jeans. I wear scrubs 99% of the time, as I hate everything about waking up in the morning, including getting dressed, and scrubs are the easiest thing in the world. However, if I have big plans after work I'll wear real clothes. For me, that's when I get most of my advertising in. I don't tend to wear jewelry with my scrubs because, it just doesn't look right.

I've had this metal pendant around for so long, I don't even remember where I got it. I got a good deal on some black and white bone beads and decided its about time I treat myself to a custom made for me piece. I'm just waiting for an excuse to wear clothes to work so I can sport it around. It's about the cheapest form of advertising, and I'll certainly get personal use out of it too!

Adventures With Polymer Clay: What I Learned from the Polymer Clay Experiment

Making polymer clay beads is like toasting marshmallows. In the picture on the right, see how nice and white the beads are? Like marshmallows, they are very white as you push the skewer through them. Upon toasting, however, they turn a golden brownish yellow in color. White polymer clay behaves the same way. Yes, I went in thinking I'd have nice white polymer clay beads. They came out looking like bone chips. Oh well, round one was a complete let down. The final product picture is too hideous to share. The metal rack in the picture is a tool I highly recommend. It comes with metal pins that serve the purpose of putting holes through the center of your beads, but it also keeps the beads from flattening during the baking process. I placed the rack on a cookie sheet for ease of putting the baking rack in and taking it out of the oven.

Round two: Sparkling red and green clay swirled together to make round and long tube beads, as well as a Christmas tree pendant. I used my clay plunger tube to make square and round shapes with the silvery gray clay. Turns out Christmas trees are a really good first timer's pendant to make. The mistakes end up looking like pine needles. I recommend investing in some bead rollers, because there was great variation in the sizes of the beads I made. I recently purchased a bead roller (AMACO Professional System, Set 1) . Don't let the picture on the box fool you, it only makes two sizes of oblong beads, 1/2" and 5/8". The picture implies about 4 different shapes of beads, but I guess that's what the other sets are for! Nonetheless, I can't wait to use my new toy. The plunger makes different shapes with your clay, and it is great for creating uniformly shaped beads or shapes to decorate pendants with, however, it requires a great deal of hand muscle power, which I lack.

The final product:

I used the tree polymer clay pendant and beads to create this braided green wire Christmas necklace. You can see the full item description and price in my Etsy shop here:

Polymer Clay Christmas Tree Necklace

Like all of my other holiday items, it's on sale, buy one get one half off!

My Masterpiece

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=7829013

I don't know why, but this is my favorite. Two strands of gray, black, and white ceramic beads alternating with black beads. A wire wrapped mmmmm donut hanging from the outer strand. Classy, dressy, formal. Goes well with turtlenecks and V-necks. Wear it, be a head turner. Originally listed at $59.00, relisted at a discount $52.00 The materials themselves were more expensive than those of anything else I've made before.

My Mini Etsy

Below on my blog is my Mini Etsy. Clicking any item will bring you directly to it on my Etsy store. Once in my store, shop around!

http://akeepersjackpot.etsy.com

I created my online store at Etsy on October 22, 2007. For now I am only designing beaded items, but home to expand in the future.

Currently I sell jewelry, lanyards, and bookmarks - all beaded.