International Charm Day (Night)

Yikes, I was supposed to post this in the AM. May I be forgiven, my oldest celebrated his bday today :) Go visit the International Charm Day blog to see everyone participating. Thanks to our hostess Amber Dawn.

I bought a whole bunch of keys not having a real plan. I purchased a metal stamping alphabet & the lights went off. I stamped "Queen" on the key, inked it with Staz on ink & embellished with a sassy girl cabochon. Available here in my lollishop.

I just love how everything just came together with this piece. This piece went to a friend of mine.

This bracelet is on memory wire. I made this as a Christmas present for my son's teacher.

Make sure you click on this picture to see the detail. I have another picture of it here. The bird is hand patinaed by Patina Queen, a fellow jewelry artist here in Virginia. I picked up quite a few of her hand patinaed components. This necklace is also available in my store.

This necklace also went to the same friend as the cameo necklace above. Hi Wendy! It's a vintage clip on earring that was missing a stone & I took it upon myself to add a pink rhinestone. It is layered on top of a brass setting. On top is a layered flower charm with a Bali headpin.

This is another altered key. It is on a vintage rhinestone necklace. I love the bling & I love the pink.

I made this charm necklace for my mom this past Christmas. I turned the flower filgree into a charm by adding flat back crystals, a jump ring & a Swarovski crystal. This starfish is another piece I bought from Patina Queen.

I have more to post & I'll add a new one tomorrow.

Pink Saturday ~ I Need Your Help Please

Hi everyone! Happy Pink Saturday :) I'm running a little late today. I am planning to enter a contest & can't decide what picture to use. I need your help selecting what view works best. Thanks a bunch!

Make sure you visit Beverly & the other Pink Saturday participants!

It's My Birthday It's My Birthday...

Has anyone seen my uhu glue stick?

Pink Saturday ~ April 17

Where is this month going & where have I been? Well, the mini men & I went to NY to visit my sister & her family. We took a trip into NYC where Brandon declared "I love the city!" I got my wish & went to the 2 places I wanted to go: Kinokuniya book store (the linky is all in Japanese - here's another one with more English info) & Tinsel Trading. I bought this darling bird there, in pink of course.

I'll do a post with the rest of my pictures from Tinsel. They were so gracious in letting me snap away taking photos. The funny thing was my 5 year old & my not yet 2 year old niece wanted to buy birds of their own there. My sister & I told them they could have their very own from JoAnn's or Michaels. I even offered to bling them out. I just was not buying them a $10 bird.

I've also been preparing for the Art & Soul retreat in May. It's my first art retreat & I couldn't be more excited. I love making mini composition books & have been slowly amassing them for trades. Here are a few with pink.

Please make sure to visit Beverly. There is always a fantastic list of Pink Saturday participants.

Here it is!

Thank you to everyone for your warm words regarding my article in the Marie Antoinette magazine.
Well, here's the beginning of the collection. Right now it's a bit of a mini-collection. I am so inspired by Marie, some of the new supplies I've bought the last few months & of course the magazine. I hope to add quite a few more pieces to the collection. I got the crazy idea to debute the collection in time to coincide with the release of the Stampington magazine just a few weeks ago. My timing is a little off as we are going on a family vacation for spring break, but such is life. I'm looking forward to seeing my sister & her family. I'm also ready for some serious shopping :)

If you go over to the lollishop home page. You can see all these great creations. Sadie was so sweet to include my Steely Grey Marie Necklace. You can also check out the collage above on flickr. If you can't find the Marie magazine locally, check out this new seller, Petite Bookstore, on Lollishops.

Marie Antoinette Publication

Yea! Here it is! This has been a dream come true. I am actually published in full color. This sweet issue is Stampington & Company's Marie Antoinette publication. I was completely blown away when they sent me the article to proof. I was even a little crazier as I checked the mailbox. The entire family was home as I ran around showing my magazine.
I am in this publication with some jewelry royalty: Amy Hanna, Deryn Mentock, & Diana Frey. All I could think of was, "Are you kidding me?"

This issue is not to be missed. It is absolutely stunning. I couldn't put it down. (Yep, it hung out in bed with me for a few nights) The top 3 images are from the magazine.

Thank you Stampington for including me in this impressive first issue. It is an honor to be a part of it.
My laptop is still being repaired, so I'm still on this slow poke of a computer. I hope to get a couple more pieces from my Ooh La La collection inspired by Ms Marie into the store. It's been a slow go of getting my pictures taken, edited, & listed.

Pink Saturday ~ March 28

For Pink Saturday, I thought I'd show the necklace & packaging I donated to my son's school. I had the funnest time participating. The necklace is made of apple green dyed turquoise, Czech rounds in a peachy coral color, ivory coral branches & a silver & coral pendant. To the right is the box I decorated for the necklace.

I also had the opportunity to make some special planters with each of the kids classes. The kids did finger prints & I made little pictures with them. Lots of garden critters & flowers. I had such a blast with all of them. The cutest thing is that my little one asks me if I'm coming to paint with him & his friends again :)

Thanks to Beverly for hosting Pink Saturday. Make sure you visit her blog to see all the participants.

Fun Stuff Going on Over at Lollishops

Lots of good things going on over at Lollishops! First, there's a new look to the home page. Super Cute! There's 12 handpicked items that normally follow a fun theme, a featured seller, recently listed items & covers of the magazines where our ads are featured. Run over & take a look, Marie Antoinette is the featured theme. If you have a specific theme, let Sadie know. She's taking suggestions!

The next project is the Creative Cottage Shopper. It will be a fun publication with coupons for exclusive discounts or freebies. In addition to that, "It will also have blog tips, decorating ideas, craft recipes and tutorials by various Cottage Style artisans.This shopper is not just exclusive to vendors at LolliShops.com. It will be open for Cottage Style artists from different venues to advertise too." The talented Heather of Bluhm Studios did the mock ups below & I can't wait to see it. It's going to be affordable (under $5) & chock full of cottage goodness!

Here's my little sneak peek. I'm participating & have some cuties to share! These were so fun to make & shoot. I even made my own ad. We'll see if I did all the technical specs correctly!