Presenting Pretties - Mama's Little Monkeys

Hey, look, a giveaway! My friend Ruthie runs weekly interview/giveaways over on her blog and this week Amy of Mama's Little Monkeys is featured. Amy is one of my awesome plurk friends, so I definitely wanted to spread word about this!

Stop by this blog post to read the interview and see how you can win a business card holder or a $10 gift certificate to her shop. Basically just reply to this blog post with your favorite item and/or spread word. :)

Here's my favorite of her business card holders:

Business Card Holder--Moda-Wrap Button Closure

And I LOVE the Mario Bros hats in her shop! She has Mario, Luigi, Wario and Waluigi, but since I've always liked Luigi best, his hat's my favorite:

Luigi Fleece Hat--Super Mario Bros/Mario Kart--Child Size

And since I'm apparently promoting geekiness, check out this Green and Black Space Invaders Fabric Button Badge Reel ID Holder:


So what are you waiting for? Go enter the giveaway! ;)

You can find Amy's shops on Artfire as badgereels, mamaslittlemonkeys, destashcity and micromops.

Yay for a weekend with friends! (Unfortunately the craft show wasn't too successful.)

Had another craft show that ran all weekend. The good news is that I got to spend the weekend with friends. The bad news is that the show didn't go all that well. More on that below.

Photo time! I took some pictures of my tables, which is probably a boring subject, but hey, lots of colors! If there's one thing I do, it's make things that are colorful. ;)

Here was my setup on Saturday:

Had the scarves and blanket and bags together, the jewelry on one table, then everything else on my other two tables. There's my fiancé Josh and my friend Mary- say hi to them! (Mary and I tag-team craft shows, which is great because we can watch each other's stuff. And it's nice having lots of friends around to keep you company! We even got a game of Munchkin in on Sunday.)

Here are my miscellaneous tables:

Whoops, just realized that my goddess doll is floating in the middle of my dreadfalls. Guess that was when I was moving things around, lol.

Here's a closeup of the first table:


And here's the table with the rest of my crochet and my keychains/charms:



Sunday I changed things around. I didn't put out the elf ears (only the pair the mannequin wore) because that's really just a waste of space as they're a good online item, but not for shows. (Am planning on making animal ears, though, for shows.) Also moved the keychains over in front of the ear cuffs, scooted the dolls to the end of the third table and moved the hemp jewelry over to the second table (those were hiding my ear cuffs Saturday).

Unfortunately my camera was acting stupid so only managed to get one picture, and that one isn't particularly clear:

Josh and my friend Jason are caught unawares in this photo. Oh! And I wanted to mention my amusement that my mannequin head was scaring small children all weekend. Mwahaha!


Now to ramble about the weekend:
The mall it was held at isn't very great- at least half of the stores are now closed, so there just aren't that many visitors. :( I did a show there last fall and did a lot better, but there were a lot more crafters/artists selling then and more stores were open, too. But the good thing about stores closing- I managed to snag a mannequin torso for free! So I'll be using that for shows, as well as to photograph my necklaces on.

Luckily I had two incredibly awesome customers this weekend. On Saturday a really cool girl came by with her mom and we talked about fantasy; she's really into it and is coming up with her own races and stuff. It was neat! I love to see creativity and fantasy-loving in kids. :D She bought me out of dragons, too, which means that they're now in a good home. If you look closely at the one photo above, you can see two dragon scarves on the rack- a green and a black. The black dragon now lives with this girl (who my friends and I have affectionately been referring to as "Dragon Girl"- trust me, that's a compliment!), as does my just-finished red dragon embroidery.

...which I just realized I haven't shared yet! Finished framing all of these on Friday:

I painted each of the hoops they're framed in (yellow for the dragon and black for the other two) then varnished them. The dragon is hanging from a red ribbon and the others from black. The backs are all nicely finished- the backs look much like how I did this one.

The dragon and kitty are just embroidered, but the fox I melted wax (okay, crayon) to color it in. I think the cat is in a 4" hoop, the dragon in a 5" and the fox is in a 6". I'll be listing the fox and cat in my shop at some point, so you'll see better pictures of those soon. :)

Anyway, rambling about customers. Also had a girl about my age stop by on Saturday to chat; she's into industrial and conventions and stuff, and- get this- not only was she the only person EVER at a show to know what my dreadfalls were, she makes them, too! I got some tips from her that I'm going to see if I can get to work at some point. I love meeting awesome people like this!

On Sunday I had a really nice lady stop by who then proceeded to buy me out of celtic knots. LOL! She was really sweet, too, and talked with her for a while. Yay, friendly people! But then I had someone looking for stuff with trees- can you believe that I only had one tree? Yeah, I was confused, too! I ran out of tree charms recently and that's why, but any other time I could probably point out a dozen things with trees on them.

Oh, and have to give a shout-out to Amanda of The Heart Room- I met her at this show last year and it was cool getting to chat with her again. :) I think we were the only ones there from last year- guess we're gluttons for punishment, or possibly were the only ones optimistic enough to sign up again. LOL!

Art Update- Chainmaille jewelry and ear cuffs

Er... I kinda sorta wrote this post up over a week ago and then kinda sorta forgot all about it. Hi, yes, I do have the memory of a goldfish. Who are you again? Jewelry? Oh, right, wanted to share that. But where's my castle and little scuba-diving man? Who set up this fish bowl, anyway? Ooo, shiny thing!

Custom Set:
This was a set I made for a custom order- she wanted two different styles of cartilage chain earrings, a chainmaille handflower, and a stretchy maille bracelet all in pink and black and with butterflies as a theme.

First, the regular cartilage chain earrings:

A double chain with a cartilage cuff for the one ear and a plain lobe dangle for the other, with cute butterflies.

Here are the other earrings:

These are definitely different and the first time I used large chainmaille jump rings for earrings. She wanted these with long chains, so they're even longer than the other ones, and I used bigger butterfly beads. I'm not sure if I'll make more like this in the future or not, but I think they came out pretty neat. Large rings work for pink and black- very 80s.

Here is the stretchy chainmaille bracelet:

The pink rings are the same as on that last earring and the black ones are rubber.

And here's the handflower/slave bracelet:

I really liked this one- it's cute!

Cartilage Ear Cuffs
Have some new ear cuffs in my shops, like always. What can I say, I have a thing for earrings. ;)

Flight of the Pegasus - Blue and Silver Ear Cuff on Etsy and Artfire
(Here I tried to use beads in colors that represent the sky and clouds, the domain of the Pegasus.)


Jolly Roger - Red and Black Pirate Ear Cuff on Etsy and Artfire
(I always associate red and black with pirates, although that's probably because my pirate renfaire costume is those colors. ... actually, I should probably make one of these to go with that, huh?)


Water Goddess - Blue and Green Ear Cuff on Etsy and Artfire
(I think I may make an ear cuff with a goddess representing each of the elements, but I'm running low on goddess charms so that'll have to wait a bit.)

Art in Progress
Also kinda sorta forgot to share these stretchy bracelets in my last art update- made these for my craft show this weekend, too. :)

I love that my arms are small enough that normal people-sized bracelets can go all the way up my arm to make a sleeve. I'm not really hobbit-sized, I swear! ;)

I'm running really low on pink jump rings (as in I have about ten left) so I have to reorder those soon. Can't do much with ten jump rings; even my earrings needed more than that, I think. Just about all I can do with ten jump rings is lose them under my desk. Every time I go to vacuum I find about a dozen stray jump rings that I've shot across the room that week. So far I haven't hit the cat, but I'm sure she'll become an inadvertent target at some point. She'll get tummy rubs, though, so don't worry about her. ;)

Trove... er... Saturday: The faeries are ready for spring!

Yeah, I forgot to do a Trove Thursday post this week, so putting it on Saturday instead. Hey, Saturday has a "t" in it, so it's almost alliterative. Right? Right?

'The faeries are ready for spring!' by merigreenleaf

It sure doesn't feel like spring here yet, so I made this treasury to hopefully remind mother nature what season it should be. ;)These are all lovely items by members of the faeteam, otherwise known as the Fantasy Artists of Etsy. To find more fantastical items, search "faeteam" on Etsy.

Miniature Fairy Dol... fairiesnest $40.00	Spring Fairy Headdr... VimaSunrider $40.00	Fairy Flower Neckla... brandylinn18 $10.00	Spring Greenwoman F... LizasWhimsical... $60.00
Silver Faerie Earri... ErtheFae $20.00	Springtime Easter P... BunnyKissd $17.00	Easter Egg Flower F... faeryspellcrea... $10.00	Amethyst Spring Fai... Thyme2dream $45.00
Leaf, Green Leather... faerywhere $45.00	Ashley . fairy art ... aquariann $3.00	Faerie Star of May ... FaerieKat $95.00	Silk Leaf Earrings ... AncientGrove $15.00
Willow Spirit Godde... threadsofmagiq... $35.00	Woodland Silver Nes... mermaidencreat... $12.00	Spring Fairy Fantas... lithiascreatio... $25.00	Aurora Faerie Neckl... tangocatgems $45.00

Treasury tool is sponsored by Lazzia.com A/B image testing.

Yup, another treasury/trove post featuring the awesome Fantasy Artists of Etsy. Can you tell I'm impatient for warmer weather? And so are the faeries, of course!

Just click the pretty pictures to go to the listings for the items. :) You can visit this treasury on Etsy by clicking the title above the blurb or click here.

For a quick summary of who's who since the tiny font is hard to read, I featured:
fairiesnest, VimaSunrider, brandylinn18, LizasWhimsicalArt, ErtheFae, BunnyKissd, faeryspellcreations, Thyme2dream, faerywhere, aquariann, FaerieKat, AncientGrove, threadsofmagique, mermaidencreations, lithiascreations and tangocatgems

Art Update - Getting ready for a craft show this weekend with lots of color!

This week I've been getting ready for my first craft show of the year, braving blisters on my hands from crocheting hemp cord and headaches from new glasses. But I've prevailed! Or at least I now have lots of random things made, which is what counts, right? ;)

First, craft show info: I'll be at the Granite Run Mall in Media, PA on the 26th and 27th. It runs the entire mall hours, so if you'd like to check out awesome handmade stuff and you live near Delaware County, Pennsylvania (suburb of Philadelphia), stop by! I did this show last fall and there were great, talented artists there. :)

Not going to ramble too much today as my eyes still haven't adjusted, but I'd like to share pictures of the art I made this week in preparation for the show and to restock my online shops. The photos aren't too great as I took them quickly and at night. Sorry about that!

First, lots of cartilage chain earrings and ear cuffs:

These fall under "restocking" since I don't generally sell cartilage earrings at craft shows and needed to remake sold ones for my shops (a few of those are new designs, though). This year I'm making lots of simple cuffs, however, so we'll see if those work at shows.

(Pssst! And speaking of cartilage earrings and ear cuffs, don't forget that I'm giving one away this week!)



And look, ear cuffs. ;) Those are my newest ones, as well as a bunch of cell phone charms and keychains. These have double purpose: whatever charms/keychains I'm left with after this weekend will be turned into ear cuffs. Some are too long for that, but most will work.

I really love those spiky beads! They're like funky slugs or something.



And this pile is why I've had blisters on my fingertips; I haven't crocheted hemp cord in a while, so my fingers were quite unhappy that I demanded they make this many things. The top row are bracelets and the bottom are necklaces. Some of these are remakes of things I'd done before, but about half are new. Really tempted to commandeer the green and blue dice bracelet.



And here's the last group of jewelry from the week: lots of chainmaille (a necklace, an anklet and a bunch of handflowers/slave bracelets) and one lone hemp necklace. (That one was finished a day later than the rest of the hemp and I felt bad not including it in a photo. Poor lonely necklace just wanted to be loved.) Anyway, some of the handflowers I'd made months ago but only put the beaded parts on now.

So I think I might have enough for my show now- yay! Today's to-do list involves putting ear cuffs onto some of my chain earrings, putting earrings onto cards and tagging everything. My fiancé is coming over tonight, so you can bet I'll make him help me with this. Poor Josh always gets stuck with the tedious work. Mwahahaha.


...looking back on this post, it's like a color explosion. Looks like my art muse has finally let me work in colors besides her preferred green. Awesome!

Time for another ear cuff giveaway!

Yup, giving something else away- fun, huh? ;) This time it's an ear cuff or cartilage chain earring of your choice. You can check out all the options in the earring section of my shop.

To enter, check out this blog post over on my elf-sister's blog; she's the one hosting the giveaway. It's free and easy, I promise! All you have to do is basically reply to her blog post and if you want extra entries, spread word of the giveaway. :)

Here are some examples of what the winner could pick:




For the chain ones, I can replace the pierced post with a slip-on cuff on the top, so don't worry if you don't have your cartilage pierced. I can even make the bottom post a clip-on if you have no piercings, or you can just go with a simple ear cuff earring- anyone can wear those.

You have until Saturday the 26th to enter. This elf-girl will love you greatly if you do! ;)

Art Update - Geocaching in Middle Earth? Why not. ;)

My dad's birthday was Wednesday and my fiancé and I were rather baffled about what to give him. We're both broke, but we're also both artists, so generally we make things for gifts, but after having made dad both a drawing and a sculpture of Smaug, the Greatest of Calamities, we were baffled as to what to make him this year. Obviously it had to be something LotR, since my dad is as obsessed with that as we are, but what?

Then Josh had the idea to burn cds of the comedic LotR parody by Martin Pearson- I'm not entirely sure where he found this online, so as soon as I find the link, I'll let you know. This is absolutely hilarious, so it's worth checking out!

Josh took it a step further, though- he decided to draw cover art for the cds. I've been trying to get him to draw stuff for ages, so I'm really glad he did this! He based it off an Aerosmith album cover, which is about normal for Josh. ;) Here's what he came up with:

He did a color reversal for the second disc (so it's white on black). How cool is that?


He even doodled one of his goblins (from his neglected webcomic) on the wrapping paper. This is Blarf, hence "Happy Blarfday".


I was on card duty- I always make dad a geeky card for holidays and this time decided to combine his love of LotR with his love of geocaching. This is what I did for the front of the card; I also saved the file so if he wants it printed out or whatnot again, I can. :)

I'm not sure if that's his exact GPS, but it's close. This took me quite a while to edit, but I think it came out neat. I know I'd geocache in Middle Earth. (Aptly enough, we're talking about placing some LotR-themed geocaches, but are still trying to come up with ideas.)

I realized I probably should have edited the direction when I edited out the coordinates into saying "The Shire" since I guess this means dad would be just north of Rohan and heading towards the Shire (placing that NW and not NE). But I'm directionally challenged, so no wonder I forgot. (That and I didn't bother changing the distance for much the same reason, lol.) As soon as dad saw it he went, "Hey, I know where that is!" so it worked. ;) He loved what we made for him, so that was a relief! I hope he likes the cds- I image he'll probably play them in the car while he's driving to geocaches, so this all ties together, huh?