Creating

Yesterday, a friend and I got together and made jewelry togther for several hours. It was fun and relaxing and I came home with so many new designs! I finally was able to update Jeweled Ambrosia a little... but there are still so many more things to photograph!

I would like to highlight a new Etsy seller, vusova that has some of the cutest artwork I have seen in a long time. She uses watercolor and collage in her work, and that is a combination that I think is quite original. Her Foxy Fox is one of my favorites.



It would have easily fit in with today's wonderful front page treasury!!

Monster Finger Puppets Craft How To

These little guys are so cute, and for the size, they have a lot of character. Here is your chance to learn about making my monster finger puppets, so pay attention :)

Here is what you will need:

1. Body material (felt, fleece or fur) If you use fur, the selvage edge is perfect for the bottom as it's hard to hem up fur so it doesn't pull out.

2. Felt circles and half moons for eyes, and felt or fleece cutouts for horns.

3. A bit of stuffing for horns. About 5-6 peasized balls per horn is perfect.

4. Embroidery floss and thread.



First, make the horns. Fold them in half and use a blanket stitch to close it. I took the embroidery floss in half, because the whole floss is too thick for these little horns. Start sewing at the bottom of the horn, and when you get to the top, tighten the last stitch and thread it through back to the bottom, to tie it with the bottom thread. Lightly stuff each horn with about 6 peasized balls of fiberfill, using the ball tip of a pin to stuff it down. Lightly bend the horn to make it more of a curved horn shape.



Next, sew on your eyes and a goofy smile with your black embroidery floss. Sew the horns to the top of the face like the picture. For the hair, sew a couple of loops and tie in the back. When you sew the puppet shut, it will make the loops not able to be pulled out.



Now that your little guy is mostly done, pin his backside to the front (inside out of course), and sew shut, making sure to sew the horns and hair into the top seam. Leave the bottom open and trim excess fur so you will have a clean interior for a comfortable finger fit.

Turn your little finger puppet inside out and give him or her a name. They remind me a bit of the 70's show Sigmund the Seamonster.

*Post is linked to seven thirty three's What are Boys Made Of linky party.

Alchemy and A Future Surprise!

So, Etsy has a new feature, Alchemy, where buyers can post requests for custom made items, and sellers bid on the chance to make them. Well, it's been there before, but is has been brought back. Although it is being abused (sellers asking for buyers and for custom items that are already available through searches)... it has opened a doorway for other awesome creations! I have been accepted to make two alchemy custom requests so far, and I'm super excited.

One is a set of paper dolls using actual photographs, and the other is a pair of monster finger puppets... (hmmm, perhaps these will make a good tutorial segment later this week, maybe even a permanent fixture in my shop!)



But, what REALLY excited me today when I checked my Etsy was KarmaRox's treasury. It made the front page. There is an item on the treasury that has to do with a new line (I know, another one!) that I am coming out with. If you can guess what that new thing is by looking at the treasury, I just may have to give away a little prize.

Also, I have to give a special thanks to a wonderful Etsy seller, Simply Metal. She has been a true help and inspiration to me and I beg everyone to go and check out her wonderful shop! I can't wait to start working with the wonderful jewelry pieces I recieved from her.

Easter!!

Winterberry Creek

Our little community had a little egg hunt for the youth this weekend. Last year, my son was a bit too young to have much fun, but this year, he had a blast! There was even a little petting zoo.

I have such mixed feelings about these things. I think it's important to let kids (and grown-ups) experiance the little animals, but no one can be sure how humane these little critters are treated, and how much stress these animals go through. I can't even tell you how many times I saw kids (even older ones) mistreat the animals. One boy, about 10 years old, even ripped a nursing kid from the momma goat and proceeded to "milk" her with his hand, while the baby goat cried. The baby goat was waaay too young to be there, it cried the whole time. :(



For example, aren't these little chicks so adorable!? But, at the same time, knowing they have been dyed puts an icky feeling in my stomach.



I think places like this put people (grown-ups) on edge. I was next in line to go in the petting zoo, and of course about 10 kids rushed in front of me (the parents allowed it) when another mom asked, "Are you in line?" I told her I was, but people had cut in front... and then she smartly replied "Well, I'm not an idiot."

blank stare... umm okay, I had no clue why she said that to me. And a minute later, when I was going into the place (very tight squeeze), my stroller wheel got caught on a haybale edge. I was backing it up a bit to straighten it out, when another woman, pushed me away GRABBED my stroller from me, and started to push it. I said "Woah!"... and took back the handles again. At my reaction, the woman, her friend and the previous "idiot" woman, started yelling at me saying "Hey lady, no need to be rude!"



Oh my gosh, that woman who grabbed my stroller is lucky my black belt instincts didn't react, otherwise I just might have punched her in the face. I mean, who takes another woman's children away, and expect the mom to be fine with it? I, obviously, said nothing to these insane people (of course I heavily rolled my eyes and huffed).

What would you have done? I think I reacted rather mildly. Anyways, there will be more Easter talk later. For now, I shall leave you with more Easter crafty goodness!


Studio Pink


Sophie Rose Designs

So Cute !!! ... & My Blog Banner Revealed

Look at what the lovely Madelaine made for me!! Once I muster up some funds, I should really purchase these from her. She is a wonderful artist and photographer that is trying her hand at something new, see her blog for more info. You absolutely must check out her lovely shop.

Here is a little teaser of her work! She has been featured in my blog before, here.



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BLOG BANNER

Also, I get soooo many compliments on my blog banner. I wish I had the skills and creativy to do such a lovely thing. I purchased it from SweetFaerieDesigns and I am very happy with it. Go check out her blog for even more inspiration.

The apple green and rose cameo necklace from my Jeweled Ambrosia shop was featured in this sweet treasury, thanks to the wonderful The Peach Tree !

Crazy and Tiring Week

For some odd reason, we have been staying up waaay too late, and paying for it in the morning all week.

We watch Conan O'Brian... my husband and I attempt his monologue "jump" (it's a lot harder than it looks) and his crazy faces.


I wake up every morning to a massive blowout in my 2 year old's room. I mean... poo, vomit, it's all over the place ... but he acts perfectly fine, it's just in the morning. Maybe it's because he keeps sneaking yogurt, grapes and bannanas? I don't know, but it's becoming very exhausting. Not to mention the constant messes he makes all day... you know, smearing hair pomade and gel, make-up (see here) and food into the couches, dumping water everywhere, knocking heavy furniture over all day long (yes, we have heavily babyproofed, he just is figuring everything out). And of course the joy of spit-up and poo explosions from my 4 month old just tops it all off. My crazy dog running and barking all day long at the neighbors sure adds a delightful touch as well. To spare the grossness in the form of pics, here is a super cute necklace from Guileless.

I came across a neat opportunity to *maybe* be a school portait photographer and I would sooo love to do it! But the dear husband can't understand why I would want to leave my children with someone else during the day, and has instead left me with feelings of guilt. Hmmmm....

I also got my first consignment order. I really would rather do wholesale, but I'll give it a shot for once to see how it all works out. It is exciting though knowing my little lovables will be on a shelf somewhere! I'm so new at this and trying to figure out exaclty what I need to have by way of wholesale/consignment terms and yada yada yada. But I am doing a lot of reading, so I think I will get it right! We shall see what will become of all this. I am hoping this to be the first of many. :)

Lightbox WITHOUT a box!!!

I was planning on making a light box last night to retake my jewelry pictures and so we went to the store (also to buy groceries for our completely bare refridgerator).

I got 2 GE Halogen 100 floodlights in the lightbulb section at Walmart for $8.00

A couple rows down in the auto section, I got 2 Bayco Super Grip Clamp lights for $11 a piece. So, that's around $30....

I got home, and was planning on making a lightbox using THIS tutorial. But, I forgot the white board and really wanted to try out my lights right away.

So I went ahead and set up a little "studio". I had the background papers under the lights and to the left, my jewelry laid out and props for the photos.



I clamped one light to a lamp stand facing my paper display (I took off the shade to make it easier to work around), and clamped the other light to a chair rail so that it would be directly overhead the jewelry piece. For the background, I stacked up some bead boxes and layed my cardstock on it for a seamless look.

I layered several colors and designs of paper on top of each other so that I could easily pull one out from under the jewelry to experiment with a new background.



For this particular picture, I held the necklace with my hand under the light (caution VERY hot) so it would dangle... next time, I will wrap the chain around a stick or pencil or something, because I really would rather not burn my hand. But for the other necklaces, I just draped the clasp of the necklace behind the paper so that it would lay right in a semi upward position, like in the below picture. If the necklace slides, either tape the chain to the back of the paper, or cut 2 slits in the top of the paper to insert the chain in.



Some of the pictures still have circular shadows, since I didn't use a light box, but I just moved the paper around so that the pendant part would be directly under the light. I only used 2 lights, but I think adding a third toward the back would make even less shadows, it may also blind you! It's very neat how just tilting the lights just an inch or so can affect the lighting so drastically. I don't have photoshop or anything, just a simple editing tool that I really only used to crop. But there are plenty out there you can either purchase or download for free. See this blog post to learn more about those programs and other great photography tips.

Don't forget to have fun with props!!



I was using open books as surface props, but I ran into problems such as cropping a corner may reveal a table top, the pages didn't always lay flat for me and I think under these lights, it may be harder to set the display up.

I plan on just using plain colored and lightly decorated cardstock and scrapbook paper in the future. Or maybe a smaller book for a pendant or earring closeup, but not for one with a chain shot.

Oh, I also turned off the camera's flash, used the macro setting (looks like a flower),and I fiddled with the camera settings so it would be around F 6 and 0 (not sure what that means... but those are the settings that worked best). I also used a simple tripod... I could not have done this without it, even though I do have a pretty steady hand.

Word of caution, the jewelry gets extremely hot, so use pliers or a stick or something to pick them up afterwards.

So, the lesson, is for about $30... you can achieve better pictures than what you ever imagined in a single night!

For an excellent and simple video tutorial, watch this:



Here is a link to making the milk gallon lightbox as someone asked in my comments. Thanks Lars Photography!