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 =)

I've been doing tons of swaps...

Swap fever has hit me again, hard. I'm spending my days making things for the shop, swapping, and planning the wedding- it's nice to have so much creative freedom right now!

I've really gotten into making stuffies and plushies out of felt... it all started with a felt donut swap. I made four and then sort of couldn't stop. I'm actually working on embroidered felt flowers for my wedding bouquets, I'll post pictures and most likely a tute for that soon.

A stuffie sent... and a stuffie received. I got that fantastic cupcake package from kickasspeanut on Swapbot.

I'm really getting into the swing of wedding planning now. I'll start doing a lot more wedding blogs shortly as I begin to piece together my plans and make them reality. I'm heading to my first bridal show this weekend, which should be a lot of fun despite the fact that we're doing this hella DIY style!

And be sure to check my etsy shop for some great new soaps! I've added Strawberry Fields Forever and Cup of Cocoa!

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.