Summer Sunshine

Day 7 of 'Blogtoberfest14 - it's soooo cold here today and it hasn't stopped raining.  Like many others I don't like the cold damp weather.  I did rebel a little bit and wore a light summer top but I think it will be the last time - unless of course the weather decides to give us a few more days of sunshine.

Anyway as a little reminder of sunny days I'm going to share one of my favourite pieces of jewellery.  This was custom made for someone who follows me on facebook.  I love the chain as it's so pretty and even though it's silver plated it doesn't lose it's shine if looked after properly.  I've used a mix red/orange and green glass beads.  Doesn't it remind you of summer?

This is a picture from it's new home and owner.

Till tomorrow

Anita

Simple Yet Elegant Bracelets....#AEDM

It's been a while since I made any other than commission based pieces.  I had a couple of spare packs of mixed beads in my vast collection and which I hadn't had time to do anything with.  They lend themselves to making memory wire bracelets very well and every bracelet looks different due to the mix of beads even when using the same colour scheme.  Here I have 2 different shades one which has a copper tone and one which would look great worn with blue tones or even to dress up a denim outfit.

Memory wire bracelets - 

Art Every Day Month day 12 a different kind of creative today.

Anita

Handmade Monday & Art Every Day Month

Oooopppps I lapsed with the #AEDM the last couple of days but in my defense I have been busy making for Emerge 3Rs Pop Up Shop where I'll be selling some of my handmade cards and jewellery.  I've also been making cards for the Handmade Harbour Design Team so it's all go this week.

Here are some of the cards I've made for Emerge 3R.  The trees and abstract pieces are made from air-dry clay.  The design is made with a rubber stamp painted and with black and silver acrylic paint.

This cute robin has also made his way into the shop.  He's a digi stamp from Handmade Harbour and you can find him here #235 Robin with Stocking.  I like the way you can customise the design to make it look different every time you use it as you can see from the 2 cards above.

Pop over to Handmade Monday  Art Every Day Month and Creative Monday to see what other artists have been making.

Anita

Look What I Woke Up To Today

These earrings now live in the USA.  This morning I woke up to find this lovely message waiting for me.  I LOVE it when my creations bring so much pleasure to their new owners.

This was the message -

 I just wanted you to know that these lovely little drops have been my go-to baubles 

the entire holiday season. They mix nicely with everything from pearls to silver to diamonds,

 dressing up jeans and leather or velvet and lace. 

I just LOVE them -  Lorien Shaw

Jewellery Party

Last week has been pretty busy as I prepare for a jewellery party this Thursday.   I've made some sparkly earrings with fuchsia pink Swarovski Elements Crystals and a lovely pair with White Opal Crystal Briolettes.


I've also been busy making some more greetings cards which can be adapted to suit any occasion.  I like to let the customer choose the card and message.  Sometimes you can find the card that you like but the message isn't the one that you want.  


I'm pleased to say that the snow has disappeared but it seems to have gone really cold again.   

Here are the earrings

This one is a rubber stamped image which has been painted using Pro-Markers. They are more on the pastel side than my normal brights.  I've stamped the ribbon with a small flower stamp.  I've added glitter and glossy accents to the card to give it some texture.

 This is a single rose stamp.  I have cut out 2 of the images and raised them with foam pads to give a 3D effect.  I made one a few weeks ago with yellow roses.  I thought these would make great Mothers Day cards.

I'd not added the glitter and glossy accents to these when I took the photograph.

If you would like to see more creative work by some very talented artist then pop on over to Wendy's blog at 1stUniqueGifts for her Handmade Monday post.  

I would love to hear your thoughts on my work so please leave a message in the comments box.

Have a great week 

Anita

If You Wear Red Today

These necklaces are for a raffle at a Forward Ladies event – “If You Wear Red Today” as part of National Red Dress Day on Friday 3rd February – raising awareness of heart disease in women.  Money raised from the raffle will go to the Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital.  For more information and to book your place pop over to the events page on the Forward Ladies website

These beautiful red Swarovski hearts are embraced within a silver wire (non-tarnish silver plated) frame that has been hand-formed.  Each heart is individual and unique the only similarity being the swirls that finish of the loose ends.  Both necklaces will be attached to a faux suede 18 inch cord.

I also made these to list on my Etsy shop but I am letting my facebook, twitter and blog followers first refusal before I list them and add postage and Etsy charges to the price listed.  Full description of each necklace can be found on my facebook page.

£25.00

£30.00

I know it's rather late but I'm sure Wendy won't mind me linking to her Handmade Monday post as it is still Monday.

Oh, what do you think of the new look?

Another Piece of Wearable Art

Oh dear I'm late posting this today.  I was going to do it yesterday but woke up with a niggling headache - which didn't turn into a headache but you could feel it might do - yeah weird I know but there you go.  Anyway here we are at the start of another week and getting closer to Christmas.  It's quite frightening when you see someone post on twitter that there are only XXX amount of days left.  

I've been busy with a few craft fairs not many and I'm glad as I've had an absolutely amazing response to the Shrink art bracelet I posted last week.  I've already had people ordering and paying up front for them - which is great.  I've also been making quite a few Christmas cards for customers.


This week I made a necklace with some polyshrink that was left over from another project.  These bits make for unusual shapes which in turn makes the necklace impossible to recreate and totally unique.  I've used the same design on the pieces just because I like it and it was already out.  I've used doubled up lilac satin ribbon instead of using beads because I like the idea that you can adjust the length of the necklace to suit the outfit and neckline of your clothing.  

Lilac Shrink Art Necklace with Czech beads

Here is one of the cards I've been commissioned to make - 

So there you have it. Now that you've seen what I've made why not pop on over to Wendy's blog to see what all my fellow crafter's have been making. 

Anita

All Made Up

Last week I posted this picture showing you the start of my new collection.

If you follow me on twitter or have subscribed to my facebook page then you will already have seen the pieces made into a bracelet.  If you haven't then here it is all made up and ready to be sold.  

I've had some amazing feedback from people about the bracelet.  At a recent Christmas Market held by a ladies networking group I had the bracelet on display and everyone of the ladies who showed interest in it held out their wrists to try it on.  Normally I have to ask if they want to try anything on - but not with this one nope they all wanted to try it on.  Which I think is a good response.


The first sample piece that I made was made in lime green and that colour seems to be the most popular even though I offer to make the bracelets in the customers choice of colour.


I'll leave you with a photograph of the original piece. 

Why not pop over to Wendy's blog to see what my fellow designers/crafters have been up to.  We have an array of talented ladies and gents and if you are a fellow designer/crafter why not share your makes - we always like to see what others have been up to.

Please do leave a comment of what you think - it's always nice to know that I've had visitors.  There's always tea & cake on offer :)

Anita

Cut, Paint, Shrink, File & Seal

Another week over and it's getting colder each day - there was frost on the cars and rooftops this morning.  I don't like the cold in fact if I had my way I would quite happily go and live in India or any hot country until it warmed up here in the UK.  But for now I will have to make do with the warm company of my on-line friends and blog readers :).

So what do I have to offer you today?  Well sometime back I posted a picture of some new jewellery I had been working on and to date I have had some pretty amazing feedback and a couple of requests for purchase.  So with that in mind on today's "To Do" list was pricing up the new design starting with the bracelet.  

Here are some of the pieces I have made today in readiness to be made up into a bracelet. I will be adding some Czech crystals in coordinating colours along with some wire-work.  Excuse the poor quality photograph I took it while they were still drying and had the desk lamp shining down on them.  The true colour is more on the red side than orange.  I'll take another picture when I've made them all up.

I also painted this papier mache heart box.  I bought a few different shaped ones months ago but never got around to doing anything with them.  So today while I had the paints out it gave me the opportunity to get one made up.  I've used acrylic paint used straight from the tube (my favourite way). There are several layers on the lid to give it lots of texture.  The design is the same background stamp I have used for the above bracelet pieces and for the Christmas Card Trees I made in a previous post.  The base of the box is half red and half black again the pictures were taken at my work desk with the light shining over the top but the colours are more or less correct.

I hope you've enjoyed reading today's post.  If you would like to see what other crafter's/designers have been making why not pop on over to Wendy's blog and check out the links in her Handmade Monday post.

Women In Business & Networking

Starting your own business is daunting in itself but to be a woman starting out can be even more frightening especially if you work from home and don’t have a “office/work place” to go to.  It can be very lonely and isolating.  

When I started my business I had no idea the amount of support and networking events that are out there.  Some are specifically catered to women,  others are more corporate businesses, business clubs etc.  There are too many to name.  

In my first few weeks of setting up I received a lot of help and advice from The Tameside Business Family run by the local council in Tameside.  This was great in getting to know the practical side of things like tax, book-keeping etc but didn’t really help with connecting to other people in business.

Too read the full article please pop over to my website blog

This is a photograph of some of the group members