How to Make A Unique Custom Photo Glass Cabochon

As I told you in my last blog post, I want to share how to take any picture you have and edit it to make a photo glass cabochon.

Choose Your Photo

First you need a digital photograph that you would like to use for this project.  For the purposes of this tutorial I will use the picture below.  I chose this one that was sent to me by a customer because it is way too big and contains more in it than we would want to include in the photo glass cabochon.

We will select the face of the kitty, whose name is Kernel, for this photo glass cabochon.

How to Make a Photo Badge Reel

Photo Glass Cabochons 

Badge Reels made with photos supplied by my customer

Many of the id badge reels that I sell in my shop are made with photo glass cabochons.  These are very popular.  A photo glass cabochon  is made by placing a photo or graphic design under a glass disc.  These are used by many jewelry artisans to make photo glass pendants and earrings.  I use them to decorate the top of id badge holders.

Valentine Project Printables

Valentine Project Printables

Valentine's Day always brings forth great ideas for children's handmade decorations.  This year I spent some time with Maggie, my five year old granddaughter, making some paper crafts for Valentine projects for Mom, Dad, brother and PaPa.  I found these ideas at The Benson Street.  This is a blog that features craft tutorials, printables, recipes and other fun information.  I found these free printables on her site along with a tutorial for using them.  This was a perfect Valentine project for grandma and granddaughter.

I went to Walmart and purchased some cute washi tape and a package of Valentine's pencils.  I have card stock at home, and used it to print the hearts.

Then I also printed the printables for the chewing gum Valentine gift.  While at Walmart I purchased packages of gum for us to decorate.  Again I used the washi tape and the card stock.

These Valentine projects went quickly and allowed Maggie to practice printing.  We used a red Sharpie marker and a black one to do the handwriting.  Here is Maggie very seriously working on cutting out a printable.

We had lots of fun working on this Valentine project.  Unfortunately grandma gets so involved in interacting with Maggie, that she forgets taking all the photos that would add to this post.

We packaged these little gifts into cute party bags with hearts on them.  Maggie took them home and hid them until Valentine's Day.

Another Valentine Project Using Washi Tape

A few days later I saw this post from Kim Layton at Everything Etsy   about hearts punched from washi tape that decorate the front of notebooks.  I ordered the heart punch that Kim recommended from Amazon, and just received it today.  I am going to take the washi tape I have left from Maggie's projects and use it to create punched out washi tape hearts to decorate the front of sweet little notebooks I found at the Dollar Store.  I will give one of these to Maggie and some other cute Valentine things on Valentine's day. I am also making more for my other two granddaughters.

What projects do you do with the little ones in your life?

Greeley Arts Picnic - a Fun Sunday

Do you like to attend arts and crafts fairs?

I do!  This weekend the city of Greeley, Colorado hosted their annual Arts Picnic.

This is always in late July, and I have gone to it for the last four years.  Usually it is blistering hot, and it totally poops me out.  The weather this weekend has been unseasonably cool.  Bill and I went there today, and the temperature was around 75.  So perfect!

A little history

Greeley is the county seat for Weld County Coloarado.  My town of Severance is in Weld County.  It is about a 25 minute drive to Greeley from my house.  By the way, the town was named for Horace Greeley, and their newspaper is the Greeley Tribune.  Horace Greeley founded the New York Tribune, and Nathan C. Meeker who was a writer for Horace Greeley on the New York Tribune founded the Greeley Tribune in 1870.  OK- I certainly have digressed from my purpose of sharing the Greeley Arts Picnic with you.

Events at the Greeley Arts Picnic

When we got to the park, Bill took a seat in the audience of one of the three stages at the park.  The first group he saw perform were some belly dancers.  Not traditional fare at this type of festival, but it was very enjoyable.

I made my way around the arts and crafts area while he watched the entertainment.  There were over 150 artists there today.  There was a man on stilts, and a man making fun balloon creations.  There were food vendors.

I only made one purchase from a wonderful jewelry artist I found there.  Her business is Marvel Rouge, and she has a shop on Etsy.  This artist uses vintage pieces of jewelry along with new findings to create beautiful new jewelry.  I find her work to be refreshing and delicate.

Here are the earrings I purchased from her.

In addition, her packaging and her business card are unique.

It was a fun day at the Greeley Arts Picnic.  Tell us about a favorite festival you attend.

Constraints Ignite Your Creativity

 Why Constraints?

Why would you want to be constrained in what you do?  Don't you want unlimited freedom?

Graphic from Lorenzo Perrone on Creative Commons on Flickr

How Can the Use of Constraints Help You?

I have created artificial constraints on myself quite often over the years as a way to trick myself into being more productive and creative.

For example, I long ago read somewhere about the 5 minute blitz for accomplishing daily clean-up chores.  At that time my children were young, I worked a full time job outside the home, and I had trouble keeping the house neat and clean.  So I implemented the 5 minute blitz methodology to attack the clutter with the sometimes cooperation from my family. I would go to the kitchen, yell GO, and set the kitchen timer on the microwave oven for 5 minutes.  Then I would race through the house picking up everything I could find and putting it away.  The children would tackle their rooms.  My husband joined in when he could.  I learned how productive this was.  I had a sense of accomplishment when the 5 minutes was done, and what is really cool is that I became more creative in the way I did the clean up.  I quickly learned to get a basket and rag and carry it with me so I could throw things in the basket, and wipe up any areas in dire need of that.  Then I ran around with the basket to put things away.

Graphic from Kristian Bjornard on Flickr Creative Commons

Ignite Your Productivity and Creativity with Constraints

So seriously, how do these self imposed constraints ignite creativity within us? I have found that if my mind is blank for a new design for my beaded badge lanyards or other jewelry, it helps if I go to my stash of beads and choose one. 

It can be any bead.  If I am truly without any ideas, I close my eyes, wave my hands around in front of my shelves of beads, and grab a box.   Then I open it and either consciously select my favorite, or once again close my eyes and choose one.

In this case, I landed on a box of Czech flower beads and narrowed it down to these yellow tulip beads.

My rule  or constraint is that I must use that bead in my design.  It does not need to be the focal bead.  It could have a supporting role, but I must use that bead.  From there I play with that bead holding it up to others that I can coordinate into a design and usually my creative juices kick in.  I then work to create the design.

Scientific Evidence for Use of Constraints

I started thinking about the need for constraints in our creative business lives when I read this article publish by Buffer titled "The Psychology of Limitations: How and Why Constraints Can Make You More Creative".

The author points out that we can become paralyzed by unlimited choices.  Constraints take away some of these choices and force us to focus on those few choices available within the limitations imposed.  I hope you will read the article and watch the video there about an artist named Phil Hansen.  His injuries to his hand placed limitations on his art, but he found new ways to create his art.

To use this psychology for productivity, many suggest using what is called the Pomodoro Technique.  This is a way for us to focus on a task in a productive manner for 25 minutes after which we stop and take a 5 minute break.  It has been suggested as well to do this for tasks that involve sitting so that we get up for 5 minutes every half hour and move, something that is necessary for our health.

There are so many ways to apply this concept.  Do you have any favorite methods of imposing constraints to ignite your creativity and productivity?  Please share them here.  It would be a fun discussion.

Seed Bead Bonanza - Awesome Garage Sale Find

A Seed Bead Bonanza

Wow, look what I found on my garage sale expedition Saturday morning!  It's a seed bead bonanza.

A subdivision down the road from us with very nice homes holds a neighborhood garage sale once a year in July.  I have always found things I like there, so I showed up at 8:00 in the morning to go to all the houses that had a sale.

I found a few things I liked at the first sales I visited, and then I stepped into a garage and saw all these boxes of beads plus more.  If you are a beader, you will understand when I say my heart went pitter-patter a little faster than usual.  I purchased 12 boxes of beads for $2.00 each.  I did not have the heart to try to negotiate the price down because I was so aware of the value I was receiving at this point.

In addition, this lady had many more beads, wire,and other things.  She told me that she used to work in a bead shop in Wisconsin, and had accumulated all this there.  So essentially, everything she had for sale was new.  Plus all of the items were of the quality sold in a bead store.  This is usually better than what can be purchased at a big box craft store.

This nice lady said she does not bead anymore because she can't see well enough to do this type of work.  I really feel for her.  That is one thing that I hope never happens to me. I do need my "peepers" to do the detail work, and they work great for me. (I call reading glasses from Walgreens, peepers.)

I decided what I had selected already was really more than enough for me.  You need to understand that I already own thousands of beads.  Keeping them organized is a major project already.

If you look at my beaded items in my shop, you will see that I use seed beads extensively in my lanyards and eyeglass chains.

My New Stash of Beads

So what beads did I get in these lovely Craft Mates bead boxes?  Here is the run down.  But before I go over that, I would like to share with you that the Craft Mates boxes with 14 compartments retail for $8-$10 depending on where you buy them.  So for $2.00 each I got eight of them filled with beads.  What a deal!

Take a look at the wonderful seed beads.  Also, this lady had organized them by color.  How good can it get?

Aqua and Turquoise Blue Seed Beads

This photo is just part of a box filled with aqua blue seed beads of different shades, shapes and sizes.

Pretty Pink Seed Beads

These are my new pretty pinks.  All compartments have pink seed beads.

Luscious Lime and Other Greens

Let's not forget about greens.  What luscious green seed beads!

Spicy Orange

And we need to jazz it up a bit with orange.

Cool and Regal Purples and Blues

Not to mention purples and cool blues.

Beading Staples

Any good beader knows we need lots of neutrals.  How about all the white and other neutral seed beads?

In addition to seed beads, I got lots of pearls.

Then just for good measure, I purchased the boxes with head pins, silver-plated clasps and findings, chains, some lamp work beads, and other beads.  I already put the lamp work beads and some of the other beads away in my other bead boxes by color before I thought of writing this blog post.

Once I got these home, I had to figure out where to put them, but I was able to carve out an area on my shelves.  These all have a new home.  How I will ever use them all is beyond me.  The good thing is that when you come to me for a custom order and tell me you need something in pink with a dash of purple, I can look through these and the rest of my inventory (stash) and find the perfect thing just for you.

What have you found at garage sales that makes your heart go pitter-patter?

Polyvore - A Website for Fashion and Home Collages

Have you heard of Polyvore?

I have seen that word in different places on the internet, and silly me, I thought Polyvore was some sort of fabric or material like polyester.  I was so wrong about that.  Polyvore is a site on the internet that allows its viewers to create fabulous collages of items they like and want to share with the world.

Is this another Pinterest?

Polyvore reminds me of Pinterest, but it really is quite different.  I found the collage photo below on a board on Pinterest today.  When I saw it, it was in a board called Polyvore, I decided to find out what Polyvore is.

How can I use Polyvore?

I signed up for a Polyvore account today.  I now have the ability to create a collage.  A member of Polyvore can select items from Polyvore's vast selection of products that include fashion and home goods to create a collage.  You can share things from Polyvore on Pinterest.

The other exciting feature I found is the opportunity to add whatever item I would like from the internet to a collage that I make on Polyvore.  So I gave it a whirl and created the collage below that includes one of my magnetic id badge reels.  It is not as rich with things as the one pictured above, but I am pretty pleased for my first attempt.  You should try it on Polyvore.

Etsy Sellers - What an Opportunity

I am always trying to think of ways to promote my products.  I see wonderful possibilities with using Polyvore.  You can link your collages to Facebook as soon as you make them.  They have a button you can use to do that. Also, when you are looking at the collage on Polyvore, you can click on an item.  That item then appears on the screen with the price and a link to the website for a person to buy it.  Here is how my badge reel displays when I do that.

Have you ever used Polyvore?  I would love to hear what experience you have with it and any tips you might have to use it. Please add to the comments to tell us more about it.

New Do for Me - Styling My Hair

New Do for Me

I am not a big fan of getting my hair done. Many times it doesn't come out the way I want it.  I find it difficult to describe to my beautician what I want "my do" to look like.  Actually, I am not even sure what that is myself, so how can she know what I am talking about?

I got a new do several months ago where I had my beautician, Tina, chop it off real short.  I thought it would help me to style it better, and embarrassingly enough, cover what I am thinking may be a bald spot developing at the back of my head.  Don't tell anyone!

Well that new do was a bit of a nightmare for me.  I do not want to look boyish.  It is not the real me.  Also, it would stick out at all sorts of angles.  There I was spending more time trying to tame these little hairs than I ever spent styling my hair before that.

So I started growing out my hair.  I went for eight weeks between trims instead of my normal six weeks.  We went through several rounds of that.  Yesterday my hair was longer and a bit unruly.  I went to see Tina, and she trimmed it and did a phenomenal styling job.

So on my way home from the beautician's I was thinking, I need to update my photo on my website and elsewhere on the web.  As soon as I got home, while my hair was looking good, I asked Bill to snap some photos of me.  Uh, head shots of course!  Don't need the whole body out here for everyone to see. Anyhow, he took about 15 photos and I found several I really like.  The one on this post is one of them, and the one on my home page is another. I am happy with my new do!

Bead Show - Treasure Trove of Goodies

Bead shows are a treasure trove

For those of us who create handmade beaded jewelry, we look forward to bead shows with great anticipation.  I use beads for all my beaded lanyards and chain lanyards, so I am always on the lookout for new beads of good quality at an economical price.

Rings & Things Bead shows

Did you know that Rings & Things travels all over the United States to display their wares?  They offer wholesale prices minus an additional 15% off to those who have a valid sales tax number.  Last week they were in Denver.  It was a 60+ mile drive for me, and one that I willingly made.  After all my dear husband, Bill, served as the chauffeur to and from the event, and he also sat in a chair in the lobby and waited for me to do all my shopping.

Shopping took me two plus hours at this show.  Am I spoiled or what?  They have their full schedule of all cities for 2014 at their website.

Rings & Things has all kinds of beads.  Most of those strands at the show were semi-precious stones in all shapes and sizes.  Many of the strands were $25.00 or less retail, which means they were about $10.63 or less per strand at the final mark down price.

They also had Austrian glass pearls at the same type of discount.  I am partial to these fine glass pearls.

In addition to the semi-precious stones and Austrian pearls, there was a wide variety of pearls from very inexpensive to the pricier variations.  Towards the back of the bead show were the bargain tables where you could find Chinese crystals, Czech glass beads, and some other things of which I don't remember the names because they did not interest me.  I purchased about 20 short strands of Czech glass beads, but did not get any Chinese crystals.  I have lots of those, and the ones there did not grab my attention.

My final stash from the bead show had lots of goodies.

I already pulled out the crazy lace dyed purple puff oval beads, the faceted opalite round beads, some of the small Austrian pearls to make a beaded lanyard.  It is available for sale in my shop.

If you like to go to bead shows, please share your favorites in the comments section.  There are many all over the country.

What is Creativity?

Garage Sale Find - Crystals and Pearls

One of my favorite pass times is to go to garage sales on Saturday mornings.  Among other things I am always on the lookout for jewelry that I can remake into something fun and interesting.  This Saturday I only found one piece, but what a treasure!

This necklace has lots of graduated beautiful blue crystals plus lots of large soft green pearls.  They look like Swarovski crystals and pearls, but I am not sure.  I think the combination of these pearls and crystals is not very attractive.  But, it is geat for me to use in other jewelry.


Now for the really good part.  This necklace cost me a grand total of fifty cents.  YIPPEE!

Here are some close-up pictures of the pearls and crystals.  If anyone has some advice on how to determine what kind of crystals and pearls these are, I would love to hear it.

Do you make new  jewelry from rescued treasures?

New Crimping Tool

I picked up a new crimping tool for myself.  Do you ever have trouble getting your crimps even and tight on the wire?  I do.  The traditional crimper is a two step process that requires you to apply pressure on the crimp, and then to turn the wire on its side and apply pressure at a 90 degree angle to what you did in the first place.  Ideally this causes the crimp to fold tight onto the wire and to look very even and nice.

Along comes the Bead Buddy crimper.  This tool is a little intimidating to look at, but it works like a charm.  The Bead Buddy crimper allows you to crimp in  a one-step process.  There is a small groove into which you place the crimp bead or tube.  You then press the handles together.  In one step the crimper pushes the crimp down in the middle creating a small crease in the metal.  Then two small arms come together the opposite way and complete the crimp.  OK - if you are scratching your head with my attempt to describe this mechanical process, take a look at this video from Bead Buddy.

I had to practice on this to get the crimp centered on the tool, so I wasted about 5 crimp tubes.  Use inexpensive ones for practice.  Then I tried it on one of my lanyards.  I am still not perfect, but it is a good solid crimp done very quickly.

I purchased my  Bead Buddy crimper at Joann's Fabric and Craft Store, and used a 50% off coupon.  Joann's has lots of coupons for 40% and 50% off right now.  Some are good this week, and some are good later.  This brought the price down to make it reasonable to give it a try.

Let me know how you like using this tool.  I'm pretty happy with it.

Mistakes Can Be Your Friend

"The man who makes no mistakes does not normally make anything."

   - Edward John Phelps - January 24,1899

Oh gee! How many mistakes have I made?  Countless mistakes.

One of the biggest deterrents to taking up a new hobby or activity is the fear of failure.  Years ago I thought I had no artistic ability.  Why did I think that?

My father could draw very well.  He had been a commercial artist for awhile when he was a young man.  When I  was a child, he would entertain me by taking a blank piece of paper and with a pencil, he would quickly sketch a picture of a puppy or Mickey Mouse or any number of delightful pictures.

This was wonderful. Unfortunately, when I picked up a pencil to try to do the same thing, I was slow, clumsy, and really not very good.  I gave up and decided I had "no talent".

It was many years later that I started painting.  I learned that it takes practice and patience.  I really think that "talent" plays the least important part.

Early attempt at jewelery and photographing it

I don't paint much now, but I started creating jewelry about 7 years ago.  Again my first inclination was that beading wire and working with pliers, crimpers, and cutters was definitely not my cup of tea.  Yet I was drawn to the beautiful beads and the endless possibilities to create unique jewelry.  Once again I found that practice and persistence paid off.  Now I am not so clumsy when I wrap the wire or attach a clasp.  It is fun to do these things, and it brings me hours of enjoyment.

More recent piece I made and photographed

Did I goof and make mistakes to start with?  Absolutely!  Many many mistakes. I had to cut wire off the piece and throw lots of it away, and then start again.

Do I still make mistakes?  - Oh, YES! Not as many, and not the same ones, but every time I try something new, I go through a learning curve and make new mistakes.

Never fear making mistakes!  It is part of the path to success!

Have you had similar experiences with learning from mistakes?  We would love to hear your story. Comment below. 

"Though he stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand."

                                                                              Psalm 37:24 -NIV