School's Out for the Summer!

Now, I have no excuses for not cranking out some great stuff for my little shop. Hope to some day be able to say making some things for my shop without feeling I have to qualify the description! It is growing a little bit...Have had some outside sales other than my family, haha. Also have 30 followers now, which isn't a lot. Still learning how to promote the shop and draw traffic and "tag" my creations so people can find them. Think I'll go looking for books, like e-books to help me understand Etsy better. One thing I do like about Etsy, is that people are very friendly and willing to share tips on building sales. One thing I do NOT like about Etsy, is people email me quite often asking HOW do I do certain things, without ever making a purchase, so I'm sure they are thinking about making something very similar to what I have. Phooey! 

I like working with memory wire...It's a lot quicker than making wrapped beaded leather bracelets, so I've decided to branch out into memory wire bracelets and some earrings. Here is my second memory wire bracelet, a 5X wrap....with a little bronze charm attached. I put it in my shop. (Of course!) http://etsy.com/shop/JeanBeanGifts

I used some sea green picasso beads...Picasso is a style of finish on Czech glass beads...The finish adds elements of brown or green to the surface of the bead in an irregular pattern. I understand them to be made in small batches by hand. I think they are absolutely beautiful and there are some incredible colors out there. Here are just a few in my bead stash....

And here a few photos from the web of some more gorgeous picasso beads...These are blue and topaz...

Opaque pink and fuchsia...wow! 

While I've been collecting beads for earrings lately, I've been trying to design some cute packaging for anybody who buys something from my shop. I might do it this way for my bracelets and earrings...a handmade little pillow box out of scrapbook paper, I got the pattern on the web. Here's the link...http://www.homemade-gifts-made-easy.com/gift-box-templates.html#pillow

Or I might do a little kraft box with scrapbook paper trim with a complementary color tag. I will tie the tag on with a complementary color baker's twine, in this case, red and white. 

Going to try my hand at some earrings this week....Until next time...keep on crafting! Or whatever it is you are doing!

Jeannie