My pendants on your wrist...courtesy of an etsy seller

Before I left on vacation I had made a trade with Bamabelle over at etsy.

I made her 13 pendants from images she had sent to me. She has listed 2 of her AWESOME cuffs using these pendants so far. I think they look GREAT and I was really pleased with the way the pendants turned out. I really loved some of the images she sent me.

Bamabelle is awesome. Here is a snippet from her shop announcement:"At Bamabelle, we are dedicated to providing quality vintage clothing, accessories ,dishes, and jewelry. "

This first one is her Lizzie Borden Cuff. Here is the listing description: A wild and crazy Lizzie Borden adorns this cuff made from the deep red velvet of a damaged vintage evening gown. I topped it with more scavenged vintage fabric, this time drak charcoal gray netting with glass beads. White lace was sewn to all edges.the cuff closes with 2 elastic loops and vintage glass buttons.

The second one she has up so far is her Emotional Miranda Cuff "Miranda, from The Tempest, stands on the rocky shore with her blue dress blowing in the gale, lovely red hair streaming. Miranda sits on a wide base of blue velvet, recycled from a damaged evening gown.The ruffling is vlue lace, hand sewn.I used the pale lavender acetate lining of the dress as a contrast band, then sewed vintage beige lace to that. Miranda is attached to the top, and adorned with a vintage recycled rhinestone earring that is missing one teeny stone. 2 strips of the acetate lining form a tattered bow under the jewel.the cuff closes with an elastic loop and a vintage blue glass button."

She also has a plain cuff for you to put your own brooch or custom pendant. Imagine your own customized pendant on this cuff.

Check out bamabelle and tell her Blueboygifts sent you!!

Vintage filigree

I just wanted to shout out to one of my favorite etsy shops, VINTAGE FILIGREE.

I do not know VF i am not in any way affiliated with VF or VF's shop. I am just a huge fan and feature them in like every treasury, and they ususally have a spot on my favorites list on a weekly basis. i think everything in that shop has a heart from me practically.

i LOVE this:

Most of the treasures at VintageFiligree are limited editions or one of a kind.

Each piece is hand made. You cant find anything like this at a department store, thats for sure.

Check out VintageFiligree. they are amazing.

ETSY, It's all about YOU!

1. I was sad to learn about the closing of etsytools.
There is always one idiot who has to ruin it for someone.
So whoever sent the death threat because you couldnt get your way on a FREE site, you are an asshat and I hope you get hit by a bus.


2. I am listing some of my photocards on Blueboygifts. I have one listed but will be listing more.
They are a 5x7 card with envelope. They can be framed or used as a card in general.
they sell for $4
Blank on the inside they are a wonderful all occasion card.

3. Why is it so darn hard to snag a treasury?



4.I found this little number from momscott over at etsy. Isn't it FABU?!?!?!? I put it on my fave's and am watching it with an eagle eye. It is Hill Tribe silver. I can see this on my wrist for casual, dress up and every day. I LOVE this bracelet. You can see the listing here.


5. Please buy 68$ worth of products from me so I can buy said bracelet. HAH!




6. Sew Gracious has done it again. I am sitting here having purse lust. I LOVE the purse I bought from here back in February. I take it everywere, I get compliments on it every day. I want one of each. So beware Sewgracious, you have a customer for life. Listing for this little beauty is here.


7. Now go buy $40 worth of products from me so I can buy said purse.




8. Check out The Storque. Their Etsy Success Stories are very inspiring. Makes us realize we can ALL be etsy success stories. They featured Moop, and I am ready to go gung ho!



9. No go buy all my stuff so I can be an etsy success story!

P.S. On a personal Note, HAPPY 40th BIRTHDAY to my brother Patrick (sunshine)

ETSY and Martha Stewart

WOW! Another GREAT promotion for ETSY!!

On Leap Day, Rob(founder of etsy), was on the Martha Stewart Show, talking about etsy and what a great showcase it is for artisans around the world.

With him he had brought a large number of items from various shops and stores, and helped show the world exactly what etsy is and what we stand for as a whole.

ETSY: a worldwide marketplace for sellers to sell their HANDMADE goods of every kind. Of course there are the vintage and supplies categories, but generally everything on etsy is made and crafted by hand. There are over 100,000 sellers on etsy, and over 750,000 members total. They sell an average of 15,000 products A DAY.

I will say I have done both ebay and etsy, and I vote ETSY all the way. ebay is overfiltrated with junk and mass produced crap and people are only trying to score a deal. They may charge you 99 cents for the item and then 30$ for shipping to avoid paying fees. It is ludicrous. But on etsy, everything is handmade. shipping fees are generally actual shipping costs. You may pay a little more, but you know you are getting quality and something handmade, not mass produced. Many times when you buy an etsy item you are getting a one of a kind, not to be found anywhere else item.

Here are 2 things I have recently gotten from etsy:

This awesome totebag/purse from sewgracious

I LOVE this bag. I had a whole post devoted to this bag awhile back. I get compliments on it wherever I go, and I DEFINATELY could not have found it in a department store.

This boro lampwork glass pendant called "daisy".

Thanks to flamekist for this AWESOME pendant. Sterling silver bail fused onto a a gorgeous daisy pattern lampwork glass pendant.

the packaging it came in was almost as pretty as the pendant itself!!

I am in love with this pendant, and am off to the jewelry store today to find a silver chain on which to hang it.

Watching Martha, and seeing all the talent on her stage, I was really proud to be a member of etsy.

I am Blueboygifts, where I mainly sell polymer clay pendants, jewelry, greeting cards and crochet items. It took me a full month to get my first sale, I felt really bad about myself and my crafts. I didnt realize that I needed to promote my items and my shop and that posting does not equal sales. So I started participating in the forums more, offering free shipping in promotions on certain items, relisting and renewing regularly and the sales started coming. Then I responded to a forum thread posted by Matt from admin. He liked my story and asked me to be a featured seller. It was a huge blessing to be featured , (September 2006) which really helped me gain exposure. To date I have sold almost 500 items as blueboy.

Then in January of 2008, I decided to open my SECOND shop Thebalmshoppe.

Granted I have to get my name out there(AGAIN) but it is totally worth it. I have bath and body products, balms, salts and more. I currently have several batches of soap curing that I cant WAIT to list!!

So thank you to Martha Stewart, for helping get the name of etsy out into the public. Thank you for showing america that they can buy quality, beautiful and unique items from artists and crafters all over the world and not mass produced junkyard crap you find on OTHER sites.

It was funny to me as I was watching: As the camera's panned over the items I was telling my husband "Oh Look, thats Black Apple!", "Oh there's Littleput!" or "I recognize Janine King Designs anywhere!" and "Don't you LOVE those popsicle soaps by LoveLee??" I have come to recognize many etsyans by their products and by their style and flair.

Thank you to etsy as well. Being a member has given me the chance to step outside my comfort zone and succeed where I didnt think I had a chance. It has given me focus and a goal. It has helped me define who I am as a crafter and what i want to be as a businessperson.

It has shown me that I can achieve anything I want, if I put the work into it.

star wars...nothing but star wars...

Every time I see this video, I cringe. This POOR WOMAN! But thats the life of a pageant girl. You do what you gotta do to get remembered. And now she is immortalized forever! BUT she made a great topc for my blog this morning. So I thank you Miss Douglas, Stacey Hedger.



Now here are some talented folks who REALLY know how to do star wars.

Get out your knitting needles ladies! This pattern will help you create the hairstyle of the millenium!
AnsleyBleu over at etsy has this cinnamon bun-a-riffic Princess Leia hair pattern. You will be the hit of any Convention!http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=9745749
Now all I need is a Gold Bikini and my husband can be Jabba the Hutt!


I am totally buying these for my husband who is a HUGE Star Wars Geek(I mean fan). These cufflinks are from the etsy shop of, you guessed it, Cufflinks.
These storm troopers would look great in the cuff of any Star Wars geek on your list! http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=9764108




This is a stained glass portrait of my favorite character from Star Wars, Yoda.
This beauty was done by FishInTheC.
hang it as a picture. I personally would put it in a window and let Yoda fill the room on a sunny day. Clever, you are.
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6453657





These Light Saber earrings rock my world. They are lego earrings by Heavenandthehell.
available in yellow too!
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6000292
pair them with that leia pattern from ansley bleu and you re good to go!


My sentiments exactly LizStaley.
great little badge to show your true feelings about Young Skywalker.
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=8021388





A very clever take on Starry Night by Van Gogh, this Star Wars night by Newbpainter is a winner. I love it. Very clever and different. This print would be perfect for any geek room.
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=9718431

Enjoy!!

TGFR (Thank goodness for remnants)

I have been wanting to get some decorative throw pillows for my couch to kind of add some color to my drab family room. The walls are white, the carpet(the only carpet in this hardwood floored house) is kind of an off white/beige. We have a red brick fireplace with a white mantle and some brown wooden bookshelves. Our couch is kind of a tan leather, and other than that it is very neutral, beige and boring. I tried to make it spiffy by artistically arranging the bookshelves and adding a few knicknacks...but they were browns. So really I felt colorless. I am not planning on painting down there at least for 6 more months, so I just needed something to spice it up.

Well I went to all my favorite stores and looked at throw pillows. Hand to God , some of them wanted more than 25$ PER PILLOW(Pottery Barn)(Pier One)(World market). HECK NO! I am NOT going to buy a 32 dollar pillow that my kids will slobber on, the dog will lay on or try and bury in the backyard and that wont last a long time before needing to be replaced. I even tried the cheapo stores, and even THEY wanted $14 PER PILLOW. Plus their pillows just werent what I had in mind. Have you ever had that? You have something in mind and just cant express it when someone asks what you are looking for. You cant describe it, but you will know it when you see it. Well I wasnt seeing it. I even looked on etsy and came close, but just wasnt right.

So at last resort I went to the fabric store. They have a very large selection of home decorator fabrics that happened to be on sale for 9.99 a yard. I figured I only needed 1/2 yard of each, and there were 3 pillows for less than 1/2 the price of ONE pricey PB pillow.

But as I was looking around I didnt really see anything that caught my eye. So the farther back I went through the store, the more slim the pickings became. Then I saw the remnants tables.

All the remnants of the decorator fabrics. Not only were they 6$ a yard, they were an additional 30% off! PLUS I happened to have a special coupon, for an additional 20% off!!

so I looked through the tables and stumbled across these:

I took them up to the cutting table and measured out how much was left of each one. Most of them were 54" wide and averaged between 1 and 2 yards. So for 3.36 PER YARD I got 14 to 19 dollar a yard fabric. They were exactly what I was looking for. It was as if my mind was opened up and the table provided. Now I was thinking about just using stuffing, but lo and behold the Gods were smiling down on me that day and the pillowforms were on sale too. 3$ each. So I grabbed 3. (2 of them are 16x16 and the other is 12 x 16. I wanted a little variety.)I went home, called my mom and drafted her help (I was dealing with prints and stripes. It was really a disaster of epic proportions waiting to happen had I tried to attempt this on my own)

90 minutes later, VOILA!

(ignore the 12 year old leather couch that is in desperate need to conditioning and cleaning).

I have material left over, so I think I may go back and buy more pillow forms and make some more. I am in LOVE with these pillows. Now I feel like my room as a little color, I didnt break my budget PLUS I ended up with extra fabric to use towards more, or something else. (especially the toile print. I have a TON left over. Any ideas??

Life is good.

Etsy Favorite finds for the week Jan 26

As many of you know I LOVE the color pink. I do not tolerate pink, I do not like pink nor would I say that I love pink. I would say that I LOVE pink. I adore everything and anything that is made from this color. (heck I even accidentally dyed my hair pink once!)
I believe that all Little girls should be forced to wear pink. Any other color is not acceptable.
I will buy anything breast cancer related and promote breast cancer awareness, because they picked such an awesome color! (just kidding, my mother is a breast cancer survivor, I was just being flippant. No hate comments please)
So this week, in honor of my pink obsession, everything on this list is PINK.