I forgot how much I love making jewelry

Phew, I've been so busy! Sick and busy. Our wedding planning is in full swing, in fact our amazing cake topper arrived today and just sort of sealed my level of excitement! I've got a few projects done and several more underway so look forward to a DIY wedding post soon!


Through working on designs for my Bridal party's jewelry I have seriously rediscovered my love for jewelry making. I'm on a bit of a kick right now with it so I'm making new things for the etsy shop. I'm thinking of offering jewelry pretty consistently. I just finished the two pieces above, what do you guys think? They're currently listed on etsy for any interested parties.


I'm still doing a ton of swapping on Swap-Bot. These are a few recent swaps and projects but you can often find more things that I'm working on and projects that I don't post here at my flickr.

This blog desperately needs a new layout, rainbow winter is over. I'm working on that! I've also had a lot of encouragement about my painting lately, I've been doing watercolor nearly every day. I'm planning to test out the idea of selling prints soon, I'll have a big art post coming. I'm working on designs for my Zazzle shop featuring my watercolor work, so that information is coming.

Really, I'm just surrounding myself with all manner of arts and crafts. I constantly want to improve every crafting skill, making things is what I am passionate about. It is my life, hopefully it will a real sustaining career soon. I'll be hitting a few craft fairs this spring, the first will be an experimental/indie festival here in Athens in April, info coming soon =)

At last!

Announcing, The Mermaid's Apothecary!

I have spent the past couple months making batch after batch of scrubs, soaps, and salts trying to perfect recipes. I've always loved brewing up beauty products, and after working in the beauty industry I developed a passion for healthy skin. I am so happy to be able to share my products at last!

I have lots more coming soon, I'll be expanding constantly so look for great new things coming soon!

Eek! So sorry about my lack of posting, guys. I've been working more hours at my non-craft job and trying to do some wedding planning for my nuptials next year.

A shop update: M&M on Etsy is now offering FREE SHIPPING for the Holidays! I just wanted to do a little something to say thank you to all my great customers.

Keep checking back in the shop for great holiday gift ideas, I have lots of journals and altered books coming very soon! The shop has also began selling vintage items, at the moment we have some housewares (a great set of teak bowls!) as well as accessories (vintage scarves, ooh la la). I plan on expanding the vintage department asap. And the last great shop news before I get on with something fun, I've finally gotten a good printer/scanner/copier so I'll soon be offering original art, prints, invitations, and other similar printed items with my art work featured. Very excited about this!

I thought I would share a few recent photos that I've taken. I love to explore with my camera, particularly on dark and mysterious evenings.

I recently had a very "Wonderland" experience. A friend and I went walking at night through a field with just my camera and a flashlight. Instead of using flash, we shone the light on what I wanted to catch and came out with some very interesting results. I swear we saw a mome rath arrow! Here are a few shots from that evening, they have had some editing done but the majority of the affects are natural. I'd love some opinions on the shooting style.



Note to all the great swap partners I've had lately- I'm working on compiling photos for a post to show off all the amazing things I've gotten in the mail lately!

ATCs

ATCs are so fun. I really enjoy themed ATC swaps because I love how many possibilities there are despite the restricted space. I like to work with paints, inks, markers, pastels, colored pencils, beads, and various papers on my ATCS. They're little mini works of altered art.

Here are a few of my recent creations :


My creations for the Pink Owl and Blue Boy Owl ATC swap for Swap bot on the left and my Disney Letter "W" swaps (I chose Wonderland, of course!) on the right.

I'm also having fun playing around with clay, I'm hoping I get a chance to do more of these soon. Behold, cookie magnets and earrings.

I want to try my hand at little sushi rolls and other baked treats like cakes and donuts.

I've had a few bridal customs orders lately which have been really fun for me as I'm in the process of planning my own wedding. To the right is a flower hair piece for a maid of honor that I created.

Lots of new products up in the shop and I've started a new special promotion. Beginning October 10th every purchase from Mermaids & Monkeys over $5 will receive a free gift from my inventory of handmade items! The promotion will run until I run out of gifts =)

I've made an addictive return to Swapbot.

I'm participating in a Swapbot swap where you gift someone with a little box of goodies made especially for them from the info on their profile. So the lady I got is very religious and enjoys cross motifs & whatnot. Granted, that's not my thing but I like a good motif and I found this wooden cross for cheap... so I did some altered art. It was photographed on the same paper that I decoupaged on. I used lavender, a sparkly apple green, and varied gold paints in layers, sanding them to show color through. It was a fun little project.

I've also been on a paper making spree lately. It was one of my favorite hobbies as a kid and I'm really rediscovering it. These are 100% recycled paper. The three colors pictured from left to right are Oatmeal Tea, Mauve Sparkle, and Mint. The Oatmeal Tea are made with organic black apple tea in the mix, it gives it a pretty speckled look (sadly the smell fades quickly). It has also been splatter dyed with the same tea. The Mauve is dried flower petals and glitter with a mixture of newspaper and colored art paper for pulp. The Mint, my personal favorite, was made with the help of my fiance and has chopped fresh leaves as well as leaves pressed into it. A few sets of paper are available in the shop if you're interested, and I'll be glad to do customs for people.

And lastly, I have some new designs up in the shop. A few silk flower clips and some barrette sets.

Artfire users, share your opinion!

SHOP UPDATE: A couple new items up in the shop... I'm really fond of the seashell comb. The cute little crocheted flowers were made by You'll Bee Hooked on Etsy. I've also listed a bunch of jewelry that I made years ago, all never worn, for $2-5/per piece. They're Etsy exclusive!

I'm curious to hear from other Artfire users- do you still use Etsy as well? And secondly, if you have a paid membership, do you feel that it has made a substantial difference in the business coming into your Artfire shop?

If you like free music then check out my future brother in law's band, Suburban Soul. They're really fantastic and offering a free song on their website right now to celebrate its launch- check it out! My fiance is featured on their new album so even more reason to check them out =)

Candle holders, bird's nest, and a keyboard journal...

I've been making lots of new things!

I had a journal commission last week, I'm quite happy with how it turned out. I used prismacolor markers instead of an ink pad to get the distressed look of the stamped images. I didn't want anything thick, it's meant to be a place to record songs and musical thoughts so overpowering images would have been a bit annoying. I mixed in quotes relating to music with more images throughout the pages.

I've also made some candle holders that are listed at my etsy shop:

I'll be posting a tutorial and more of the flower candle holders soon. I'm going to be making sets of them for the tables at my wedding reception- the way the light shines through is really lovely.

Lastly... my newest obsession is with wire bird's nests. I've seen them as embellishments on altered object art, lots of jewelry... etc... but I decided I really wanted to make some bird's nest fascinators... so here is the first of what I hope will be many...

It's up for sale on mah etsy. I'll post a tute soon if anyone is interested!

xo- Tam

New Items!

New items listed at MERMAIDS & MONKEYS!

I've finally had some time to work on a few new items and listed them for sale at m&m... here are a few...

Mermaids & Monkeys on ArtFire!

Mermaids & Monkeys on Etsy!

I've got some other fun projects in the works, hopefully expanding the type of items listed in my shop a bit, as well as tutorials and inspiration that I've been collecting. So stay tuned!

At last!

At long last, my wares are on the web again! After taking a rather lengthy break from the business of selling crafts I have finally gotten my shop up and running.

May I present.... Mermaids & Monkeys!

My newest creation obsession is hair accessories, particularly fascinators. Be sure to check the shop for my latest creations.

I will gladly take requests for custom designed pieces. Pricing varies based on the materials used, please contact me for details if you're interested.

I have big plans, so stay tuned!