My Etsy Store is on Vacation

I have decided to put my Etsy store on vacation.  I haven't been getting many sales and I felt like it was a waste of time and money.  So if you really want to buy something you have seen on this blog or if you want to order a custom item just contact me through this blog.

Pinterest projects part 1- Christmas Glitter Ornaments

I have a bit of a Pinterest addiction.  I love pinning different DIY project ideas but I actually haven't tried many.

So here is the first one and I think it worked fairly well.  This project involved making glitter ornaments with clear glass ornaments, fine glitter, and Mop and Glo.  

I couldn't find Mop and Glo, so I used Pledge with Future Shine for Tile and Vinyl (blue cap).  It works just as good.  I used Martha Stewart fine glitter because it was one sale at Michaels for one day (50% off).  Trust me, if it wasn't 50% off, I wouldn't have purchased the Martha Stewart Brand.

I didn't take any pictures of the project while it was in progress, but the process is very simple.

1. Take the top of your glass ornament off gently.

2. Pour in some Mop and Glo or Pledge.  You don't need much.  Cover the opening of the ornament with your finger (I recommend wearing gloves).  Shake so the entire inside is coated, then dump out any excess. 

3. Dump in your glitter, preferably with a funnel if you have one (You will need to put a fair amount in). Shake until the entire inside is coated, add more glitter if you have to, but don't add more Pledge.  If you look in the picture below you will see the purple ornament (top right) looks kind of clumpy.  That is what happens when you add more Pledge after you add the glitter.

I deem this Pinterest project a success.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday

I decided to have a sale on my Etsy store for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
All jewellery in my store is being offered at a discounted price until midnight on Cyber Monday (or more likely Tuesday morning when I eventually get around to changing the prices back).
When ordering let me know that you read about the sale here on my blog and I will throw in a surprise bonus item.
The link is on the right hand side of the blog, but if you are too lazy to look just click here .

Coupon code for my etsy store.

The holiday season is approaching and hopefully many of you loyal readers are looking to buy handmade items for your loved ones this year.  If you are I am offering 20% off everything in my store until the end of December.  The code is "christmas".
I will also be offering some Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals on some selected merchandise.  You will have to check out my store on Friday to see what items.

Oh and just a reminder that the link to my etsy shop is to the right under "Links"

Felted Purses

I'm trying to get back into the habit of posting more often.  So here are two of the felted purses I made.
The first one was knitted with two yarns the first is 100% wool  and the other is acrylic.
After the purse was finished and sewn together I felted it by washing it in hot water for 10 minutes.
Here it is modeled by my best friend:

A close up:

And here is what it looked like while it was still a work in progress (this was featured in a previous post):

The second purse was knitted with two yarns, both 100% wool.  One was green the other black.
I really like how this purse turned out.  Because both yarns are wool it felted really nicely.  The texture of it is awesome.
Once again modeled by my best friend:

And a close up:

I definately plan on making more felted purses.

Polymer clay elephant

I'd like to start this off by apologizing for my lack of updating lately.  I admit I suck.

Last year I made a polymer clay cake topper for my husband's cousin.  It turned out pretty awesome and I got the idea that I would start a custom cake topper business.  So every time I went to the craft store I would buy polymer clay if it was on sale and I ended up with a crap load of polymer clay and nothing to do with it.

Fast foward to more recently and I decided that I would start making random things just to use up the excess clay.

I don't recall why but I decided to make a baby elephant a couple months ago and I think it turned out pretty good.  My polymer clay stuff still has a, for a lack of a better term, rough look to it and that is something I need to work on.  Now on to the pictures:

And as a bonus here is a picture of the shark and 'monster" keychain I made the same day.

Until next time :)

I've said it before and I'll say it again...

I am a crappy blogger.  I swear I have lots of stuff to post about, I just haven't had a chance to take pictures of the majority of my projects.
Maybe this weekend I will update.

So much for that idea

Well my contest was a big fat fail.  I hope its just because it was a very last minute thing. 

READERS I NEED YOUR HELP (contest)

I am going to do another craft show in the middle of November, hopefully its more sucessful than my last.
In order to be added to the Vendor list on their website, I need a business description.  I suck at writing business descriptions so I am asking for your help.
I am calling my business Crafty Joani Designs (like my Etsy store), and I will be selling my knitting and crocheting, some painted wooden boxes, and possibly some small polymer clay items.  I'm not allowed to sell my jewelry because they have too many jewelry vendors.

So write me a short business description in the comments.  The winner will get a ladybug magnet set  (pictured below).

Contest closes Saturday September 3rd.  I know that isn't very long, but I need the description ASAP.

Crocheted felted bear

Here is a crocheted bear I made.
The pattern is essentially the same as Hipster Bunny.  This 100% wool (Patons Brand). After I sewed him together, but before I stuffed him, I felted him. 

To felt a knitted or crocheted item made from wool, you simply put the item in a pillow case (tie it shut with a hair elastic) and wash it for 5-10 minutes in hot water with just a tiny bit of laundry detergent.  I also throw a couple pairs of jeans into the load, just so there is a little more friction.
This little guy didn't felt as nicely as I was hoping.  As you can see, the stitches are still clearly visible.  If the felting had worked properly they wouldn't be.  It did at least tighten the stitches up, and I think he turned out pretty good.  Although if you look carefully you will see that one of his arms is higher than the other, oops.

My favorite necklace ever and miscellaneous jewelry

I hate coming up with post titles... just thought you should know.
I finally took some pictures of the jewelry I finished recently, and by recently I mean a couple months ago.

Several months ago I purchased this pendant off of Esty.   I love it and the seller was great to work with.

This is the necklace I made with the pendant.

Just look at how awesome that pendant is.  In case you are wondering that is a picture of Sherlock Holmes from the story The Speckled Band

I recommend this seller, she was very easy to work with.  Here is a link to her Etsy store:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/MsMarchHare

After I made the necklace, I had some leftover beads so I decided to make some earrings.

Then I decided to make some more jewelry with my leftover beads from other projects.

Here is a necklace and earring set I made.

These items are all for sale in my etsy store.  Except my Sherlock Holmes necklace.  You can have that when you pry it out of my cold dead hands.

A new addition to my craft room

I bought a used tv on Friday for my craft room.  It is a small tv with a built in VCR.  Yes I said VCR.  I have several old vhs movies that I like to watch (mostly old kids movies).  I am the kind of person who needs background noise when I am crafting so I often drag my craft stuff out to the living room, work on it, then drag it back to the craft room.  Which kind of defeats the purpose of a craft room.  So now that I have my tv.  I can craft in my craft room instead of driving my husband crazy.  Best $15.00 I ever spent.

Speaking of used items.  I recently purchased a Singer model631 sewing machine for $20.00.  It works great.  I am so glad I got it, I used to sew a lot in high school, I am looking forward to sewing up a storm.  I realize I may have already mentioned the sewing machine in a previous post, but I honestly don't remember.

I swear I haven't abandoned this blog.

I know I haven't posted in awhile.  I actual have been busy working on several projects.  I just need to take the time to take pictures and post them.

First craft show today

I am doing my first craft show today, and so far it has been a bust.  I've sold one knitted change purse so far.

A crappy cell phone pic of me modeling the scarf I made.

This is my darling husband after we finished setting up the table. For some reason its posted the picture twice and I can't fix it on my phone.

See that little beige change purse.  That is the only thing I sold.  It was extremely slow, not just for me but the other vendors as well.

The return of Hipster Bunny

As I mentioned in my previous post I was submitting Hipster Bunny to a charity sale on Etsy.  I added some polymer clay wide rim glasses to him so he looks much more hipster like.

You can find Hipster Bunny and many other items (mostly Regretsy inspired) on the April's Army Etsy shop.  http://www.etsy.com/shop/AprilsArmy.

UPDATE:  Hipster Bunny has sold.  I am very excited, this is the first item I have ever sold on Etsy.  Hopefully stuff from my own store will start selling soon.

Knitted bears and crocheted bunny- very long post

In one of my first posts I showed you a teddy bear I made for my nephew.

When I made this bear I miss read the pattern, and ended up with a bear that my nephew calls his "skinny baby"

I adapted the pattern and made this little bear.  D thinks it looks like a cat

I decided to adapt the pattern one more time, this time I decided to turn the pattern into a crochet pattern

I single crocheted 44 stitches and once I got the body the length I wanted I started the legs for the first leg I started the row as normal but once I had done 22 stitches I turned my work instead of finishing the row and singled crocheted away till the leg was the length I wanted.  You should probably count your rows, but I rarely do.  I started the next leg by making one chain on my hook and then starting where I had left off on the body.  I will admit I did consider making him a one leg bunny.

 Once your body and legs are finished fold in half so the seam will be along the back (see above picture) Sew together and stuff (leaving the top open for now.

The make your arms and ears.  To make the bunny ears I single crocheted 15 or twenty rows (like I said I don't count) then I began decreasing with every subsequent row till I had a point.

To make the arms just crochet two rectangles of the same size fold each in half and sew shut (leaving one opening for the fluff. and then sew on to the body

Sew your ears on and then sew the top of the head shut

The finished product I call him Hipster bunny.  That's why his ears are in his face and he has a nice skinny scarf :)

Hipster bunny will actually be for sale for charity.

Regretsy  and it's fans (April's Army) have started a monthly charity project.  Each month members of the Etsy group "April's Army" donate items for the charity shop and April Winchell (the creator of Regretsy) picks a recipient for the funds raised in that month's shop.

You can find more information here

This is my contribution for the month of May, although it may not make it in because I submitted it a day late.  However if it isn't in this month's charity shop it will be in next month's.

Many crafters don't like the fact that Regretsy makes fun of people's hard work, but somethings deserve to be made fun of.  I know that I have made some pretty tacky crafts in my time and if somebody gets a good laugh about it then so be it.  

Like this purse for example

It's really tacky looking, I know it.  I was experimenting with some yarn from the dollar store.  But because I know it is tacky I am only selling it for $2.00.  People who try to sell tacky/crappy shit for $50 deserve to be made fun of in my humble opinion

My point is that Regretsy has a history of helping out Etsy sellers who are facing hard times.   So I am asking all you readers of my tiny little blog to please if you can purchase something from the April's Army store when it is posted in the next few days. 

Flower girl basket.

I really suck at blogging lately.  Have been busy trying to finish everything for my wedding, as well as getting things ready for a craft fair I am doing in July.

Anyhoodle, here is the flower girl basket I made for my wedding.  It was super simple.  I bought the basket at Michael's and just wrapedthe ribbon around the handle.  The bow on top was from my cousin's cake topper. She was getting rid of all her wedding stuff, so I guess the bow is upcycled.

update coming soon.

I promise I will be updating soon.  I have been having laptop troubles and I don't have any photos on my phone.  I am hoping to post tomorrow.  But if you are craving a post from me you can always check out my other blog (link on the side wink wink nudge nudge)

Paying attention to instructions is important

So as I mentioned in a previous post, I am trying to teach myself to crochet.  I started by watching some videos on youtube.  I practiced a couple times, then started my first crocheted blanket.  I thought everything was going good, but I noticed that once again my blanket was getting smaller with each row. 
So I watched the video tutorials on Lionbrand.com.  It turns out I was forgetting to do one chain at the end of every row.  Not only that I was doing the single crochet wrong.  I should have been hooking it underneath both parts of each stitch, but I was only hooking it under one.  Does that make any sense?
I don't feel like tearing out all the work I had done on my blanket, I will just continue on but now I will do it the right way. 
I wish I had watched the tutorial on Lionbrand first, it was much more helpful than the ones on youtube.  Oh well, lesson learned.

I started another blog

I decided to start another blog that focuses more on my personal life.  So if you are interested, check it out (it is in My Links section)