Friday, February 22, 2008

No shoveling this week! Hooray for that. I'm more than happy to put away the snow shovel.

I did get quite a lot of beadweaving done this week. I go through phases where I want to mess around with beads all the time (similar to the phases where I want to draw, knit, make cards, and all the other things I do), and this was one of those weeks. I finished the Tropical Storm freeform bracelet I posted about earlier, but I haven't figured out yet what I want for the closure. I'm debating between using a beaded bead or a button, and I'm leaning heavily toward button... but it has to be just the right one.

I finally finished this other freeform cuff, which I named Gold Rush. It was a similar exercise in decision making... and I finally found just the right button to complement the cuff.

I also came up with an idea for a simple little pendant, and I'm absolutely thrilled with the way this Totally Tubular pendant turned out!

I have a few Etsy sellers to thank this week, so on with choosing my favorite items from their shops!

First is Katy (aka KisforCalligraphy), who does... surprise surprise... calligraphy! She also has some great little envelope seals in her shop, but because of her shop name and her art form I just had to choose this Say Cheese birthday card. Katy does the old-fashioned kind of calligraphy with a dip pen, and that requires (in my humble opinion) a whole lot more skill than the kind done with the felt-tipped calligraphy pens.
I was actually excited when this next seller, Amy of societysedso, visited my shop for some custom-made hang tags. I've been ogling Amy's polymer clay creations for awhile because she makes the cutest octopus (octopi?) you've ever seen! She also has pendants that are just a single tentacle, but how can you possibly resist an octopus named Chirp?!

Karen (aka LemachiDesigns) is another polymer clay artist, but her work is so different from Amy's that it looks like a completely different medium. It just goes to prove just how versatile polymer clay can be. Karen creates pendants with her polymer clay, and she adds her own artwork to them. I really love the way she leaves the edges kind of rough and unfinished -- it gives these such an organic look. Isn't this Dreamy Sprite beautiful?

Sydnei (aka SimplySentimental) has visited my shop quite a few times in the past. This time she came back for some mini prints of my ACEOs, and I've given her special permission to use them on cards. I know they're going to look wonderful because Sydnei makes such cute and whimsical cards and paper piecings. I took a stroll through Sydnei's shop and found these cute little Smiling Sun paper piecings. Aren't they great?! I think I like these so much because I use smiley faces all the time. Smiling is a good thing!

Last, but certainly not least among this week's sellers, is Karen (aka
schOOLLOcker). I have long been an admirer of Karen's shop, which is filled with some of the best supplies I've ever seen. She does a great job of photographing them to make them even more appealing, and if I didn't have a houseful of supplies already I'd be spending lots of $$$ in her shop! It was tough for me to choose a favorite something from her shop because I'm like a kid in a candy store around supplies, but I finally settled on these Alpha Chipboard Stickers. These would sure spiff up a scrapbooking project!

So once again, a great big THANK YOU to the Etsy sellers who visited me during the week! Go check out their shops, 'cuz these are some nice people with some great stuff!!
:-) (see? a smiley face)

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