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?

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.

Ergonomics and Beading

I never gave much thought to the ergonomics of beading,wire wrapping, and other detail work.  That all changed when I took a bad fall almost four weeks ago and severely sprained my left wrist and injured my forearm.  I have been going to occupational therapy, doing exercises at home, and wearing a brace on my left arm.

I am improving, but it takes so long.  My grip is still weak. I have been making jewelry, but not as much in the last four weeks.  I am trying to pay attention to how I hold my hands and fingers, and taking care to stop after awhile to rest and stretch.   

Here is one of the lanyards I made recently while I have been babying my left wrist. Sold right away.  YAY!

Summer Like Weather in the Rockies

It is like a warm summer's day here today in Northern Colorado.  I have the window's open and the ceiling fans on.  A warm delightful breeze feels delicious.  It's a lazy Sunday afternoon.

When peeking at my Etsy shop, I discovered that one of my favorite necklaces is included in a treasury called Summer Mood. It was curated by Ina Spiro, and is refreshing to look at.  Ina is from Jerusalem, Israel and has an Etsy shop called Leris.  She makes scarves, felted items, handpainted shirts and jewelry.

'Summer mood' by Leris

Please join!

Yellow covered medium handma... Buntmal $35.00	Felted Cube Bead Necklace fo... FeltStory $35.00	Good Morning fine art photog... IrinaPhotograp... $20.00
Easter / Passover pink baby ... bonbonLand $19.50	Girl Neckwarmer, Childs Scar... daisiescrochet $29.00	RESERVED for Michelle Wool ... manonknits $165.00
Floral Colors, Beige, Pink, ... renklitasariml... $55.00	Cocktail Shaker - Dragon Pet... woodeyeglass $25.00	Necklace - Red Yellow Orange... Plumbeadacious $23.00
OOAK Hand-Guided Machine Emb... BelleCoccinell... $19.00	Yellow Orange and Ivory fea... MillieICARO $59.00	Set of 2-Bridal Lace Weddi... WeddingForYou $18.00
Felt flowers hair clip - yel... urBunny $12.00	Handmade European Charm Bead... susansheehan $8.00	Fall Golden Yellow and Orang... AbsintheCustom... $4.00
Pretty BUTTERFLY Monarch YEL... CedarCreekPatc... $4.55

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

Featured on ArtFire Daily Collection

I am so excited.  My Aqua Necklace was featured prominently today on the Artfire Daily Collection.  This is an email collection that is sent to subscribers each day.  I feel very honored.

Have you ever been featured when you did not know it was going to happen?  How did you feel?  Did it help your business?

I welcome your comments.

LeAllyson

Vintage Inspired Lanyard

Yippee!  My new Vintage Inspired Lanyard is featured on an Artfire collection!  I am so thrilled with this new lanyard I made over the weekend.  I have taken the vintage inspired theme that I so like, and created a functional beaded lanyard with antiqued brass, a lucite flower, and lots of yummy crystals, freshwater pearls and even some Epidot, a sweet little gemstone.

This collection is fabulous.  It has so many gorgeous pieces displayed that are for sale by many talented artisans. Enjoy!

Just Peachy

  Curated By: luvncrafts

ArtFire.com

Handmade Gifts

Contemporary and Lightweight Jewelry for Your Ears

Look what I discovered!  Sleek, modern, contemporary and very lightweight earrings that I can easily change to any color or bead design that appeals.  If you look closely at the picture below, you will see that the bead sits between the two curved pieces of silver plated metal.  There are small pins that come out from the bottom of the earring.  The bead fits on each pin on either side and the pressure of the earring holds the bead.  If you want a different color bead, you can pop out the one that is there and replace it with a different one.

The earrings in the picture above are shorter than the ones below.  Both earrings are made the same way, but the ones below are longer and slimmer, so they have a different feel to them.  Notice how I used oval crystals in these.  These sparkle and shimmer in the light, and swing as you move.

You can use rondelles with these type of earrings also.  Here are some deep purple/blue crystals in the long slender earrings.

Each of these modern earrings simply attach to the earwires by using a needlenose pliers and gently opening the ring at the bottom of the earwires and attaching the earrings.  Then a gentle nudge to close the opened ring on the earwires completes the process.

I purchased my earring supplies from Bead Supplies in Hong Kong.  They are very dependable, but it does take about two weeks for those in the US to get supplies from them.  They communicate so well, and almost always send along a little coupon to use on your next order.  Here are the earwires I like for this.

Here are the slender long earrings before they are put together with beads and earwires.

If you don't want to try your hand at making these, consider purchasing a pair.  I have a variety available in my Etsy shop.

Pink and Green Treasury Challenge

I enjoy making beaded id badge lanyards, and sometimes I make them in colors that are a little different for everyday work situations. One of my newest lanyards "In the Pink" features large soft pink beads.  Smafactory is an Etsy seller who decided to put it into her treasure below.  I was happy with the lanyard when I made it, but it certainly looks fabulous with all the lovely complementary soft pinks and greens in this treasury.

I also learned about the Treasury Challenge that occurs each week.  If you have an Etsy shop, you may wish to participate in this challenge.  You do not need to be part of a team.  You see what the theme is for the challenge, and then you create and submit a treasury based on that theme.  The theme that inspired the treasury below was a spring textile art piece.

'The Lovely Things...' by smafactory

This treasury is an entry in the NonTeam Treasury Challenge! Feel free to join in!http://treasurychallengenonteam.blogspot.com/

Mardi -limited edi... jenskelley $19.00	Spring Clean Framed... Emilyparkesart $20.00	Bridesmaid Jewelry ... taylorseclecti... $100.00
Earrings. Jewelry, ... laurenblythede... $21.00	Floating in Light -... DovieMoon $14.99	Flower leather broo... julishland $25.00
Peridot Hammered St... jorgensenstudi... $38.00	Big Thoughts in a W... ClothandPatina $12.00	Vintage inspired fl... MEimCRAZY $95.00
15 Assorted Multi-c... simplychiclily $15.00	Choose your Color P... cindycolumbia1... $30.00	Antique Brass Key E... gardenmis $15.00
Agate Sea Urchin Te... seaandasters $32.00	Pocket full of Flow... ChloeandOliveD... $44.00	In the Pink Beaded ... Plumbeadacious $23.00
Dusty Rose.....Embr... JANNYSGIRL $18.00

Treasury tool is sponsored by Lazzia.com A/B image testing.