I'm the Featured Crafter on the Crafty Hands Club

I was tickled to no end (and a bit intimidated) when Carriece of The Crafty Hands Club Magazine contacted me several weeks ago about doing an interview for an article on her site. And, today, that article goes live! 

In the feature, you'll get to learn a little more about me as a crafter as well as about my journey to where I am today. 

Make sure you head over to The Crafty Hands Club to read all about me!

Big thanks go to Carriece for this honor and pleasure!

Peek at My Week (August 2-8)

 This week was a struggle for me to find any personal motivation and inspiration. I did try...

I started it off pretty strong with a batch of homemade Banana Nut Muffins (LOADED with pecans!) to give us some energy for the yard work we had planned. Pat did the mowing while I worked on picking up any debris in the yard that might get in his way. His work was cut short when he ran over a yellow jacket nest and was chased inside with a couple of stings on his hand.

Since the lawnmower was abandoned in the front yard, Pat was done for the day, but I was able to resume my stick-collecting as I had already covered the front yard. It was so hot outside, I did don my swimsuit so I could jump in the pool to cool off.

Out there, I discovered this pretty little mushroom.

Between yardwork and the jump in the pool, I worked up an appetite and needed a good snack before dinner.

I was tickled with my little charcuterie plate. 

Before long, we were back out by the pool to grill up dinner.

I was up bright and early on Monday to get the day started with what's become my usual routine- Doodling and planning my day from the porch swing!

I spent most of the morning on household chores and errands and found myself struggling to focus on anything in the afternoon. But, I did have two Etsy sales!

As we watched TV that evening, I got a little silly.

I'm hoping to get a little video of this with her tail wagging. It's hilarious!

On Tuesday, I was up before the sun.

While returning from the mailbox to send out the sales from the day before, I spotted these air potato leaves across the street.

I was glad to see that something likes to eat these invasive plants and really dug the lacy texture that remained. Despite all that, I had trouble getting inspired to create. I did cross off most of the tasks on my to-do list and TRIED working on re-stocking my Bead Box - but didn't get very far. 

My notes say that Wednesday was mostly spent in the craft room, working on jewelry. But, I don't remember making much of anything. I know I worked on stocking my bead box and sorted jewelry for the booth at SAA, but I'm not sure anything really got made. Thursday was similar except that I actually stocked the booth in preparation for Super Second Saturday.

Friday is usually my big cleaning day, but I just wasn't feeling it. I did get to a few of the necessities but spent the afternoon breaking down tin and watching YouTube videos. 

At least it was something!

Saturday morning was fairly lazy as I continued the tin-cutting and video-watching in the morning. Then, we had some pool and grilling time in the afternoon.

I even did something I NEVER do - took a selfie.

I felt like I needed to document just how long my hair is getting. It hasn't been this long in something like 12 years!

Throughout the week, I made sure I took five minutes each day to participate in #SouthernGals5Min on Instagram. It's a five-minute challenge from Tiffany of @SouthernGals_Designs that encourages you to create for just five minutes. Since my inspiration was waning all week, it was the perfect challenge to make sure something happened on my desk!

I forgot to mention it last week, but I'm just using old UNO cards that I prepped with a layer of some kind of scrap paper. Here are my results for each day this week. 

I'll admit that I've totally gone over the five minutes on a few of these to finish them, but not by much. This challenge is a great jumping-off point to have a creative warm-up and get in the mood. 

If you're looking for some inspiration for the week, here's what I found:

• Here are three styles of Origami Earrings that you can make. 
• Speaking of earrings, how about another Earring Tutorial from Moois Van Me? 
• Rena of Jewelry Making Journal shared a DIY for making an adjustable beaded ring. 
• Over at Rings and Things, I discovered this tutorial for making leather bracelets with two finishing methods. 
• I'm a sucker for almost anything in the "Farmhouse Style" so these DIY Fabric Roses in that style caught my attention. 
• Check out these photos of Abandoned Churches. They are stunning. 
• This assemblage Flower Art is so fun.
• My Modern Met also shared Five Tips to help you organize your art studio. 

And, that's it for the week. I'm hoping I find my mojo and make something amazing. What awesome are you adding to the world? Please share!

Addendum to Introduction for Swap N Hop

In the next day or two, I should be receiving my partner assignment for the Bead Peeps Swap N Hop. Linda, who runs the group, asks that we do an introduction so our partners have some idea of our style and what materials we enjoy working with. The Introduction that I did last year was pretty concise. But, I figured I could add a little to it.

I've been collecting tins for years, but only recently really began using them in my designs.

Red Tin Heart Earrings from my Etsy shop

And, the tin doesn't even have to be that old. The metal used in the earrings above was from a fairly new gingersnap container from World Market. But, to add my own spin, I love to distress items so they feel like they have a history.

Delicate Key Necklace

Keys also have quite the prominence in my designs. I acquired quite the stash of them some time ago and am constantly turning to them as a quick focal. They make great bases to embellish.

I do love to alter and embellish pieces with assemblage, though do recognize that some things are best left simple.

In my previous introduction, I failed to mention anything I don't like to work with. In general, I have a hard time with very bright colors, too large items, or plastic. Though, I do love a challenge.

I'm looking forward to the opportunity to meet another artist and see what they send me. As well, it's always so much fun to gather materials and see what someone else does with them. Y'all stay tuned to see what happens next!

Introduction for Bead Peeps Swap n Hop

I'm participating in the Bead Peeps Swap n Hop this year. While this is the third year of the challenge, It's my first time participating. Basically, you are paired up with another jewelry artist and the two of you swap a focal, beads, and a clasp. One of those elements need to be artist-made, and you have to send at least two of those three elements. From there, you make jewelry from the pieces received! Fun stuff!!

Bead Peeps is a Facebook group administered by Linda Anderson. We were supposed to get an intro post up before she made the partner assignments. However, I was so busy with the ball (Mardi Gras) and family obligations that I completely missed that somehow. Despite missing the deadline, I still want to make this post for future reference. I'm tossing in some examples of my jewelry designs throughout this post to give examples of my work. Here we go!

A scrapbooking keyhole is the focal with a small Gaea flower connector. Vintaj wire was used to wrap glass pearls and glass beads to make the chain.

The arc on these is from some old earrings I took apart. The beads are a combination of glass, stone, and metal beads that worked well together.

I've been making jewelry for over 15 years. In that time, I've experimented and played with many techniques: decoupage, polymer clay, precious metal clay, metal etching, resin, etc. I started with stringing, but really love to use wire in my work. Though, stringing and knotting do come into play occasionally.

The color palette for this was a little out of my comfort zone, but I do love it. It incorporates a vintage button and vintage glass beads, freshwater pearls, stone beads, and seed beads into a really cute bracelet.

This was made for ZnetShows' Creative Spark publication and includes their cultured sea glass and tiny Chinese crystals. I really like the layering of this necklace.

Beads are indeed a staple in my work, but my favorite is designing with the unusual. This includes recycling old jewelry from thrift and antique stores, using hardware, upcycling items found on the street, etc. However, I'm not completely consistent with those methods. It just depends on the materials. In addition, I enjoy altering materials (both typical and the unusual) to suit my needs.

The dangly parts of this necklace are almost all found objects! A scrapbook brad and a wired resin piece I made are also included. I wear this necklace often.

Playing with wire, I came up with these earrings. I love how the Czech glass beads slide side to side on their bar.

For years I've had a hard time defining my style. I now feel as though my focus is beginning to narrow. Most of the pieces I make and like tend to have a romantic and boho feel to them. However, a bit of tribal does get thrown in from time to time.

These feel both romantic and tribal to me. The softness of the Lucite flower and pink beads are contrasted with the dark wood and shiny metal.

All of the charms in this bracelet came from old jewelry. Most of them are post earrings I wasn't sure how else to use. I incorporated a variety of jump rings in order to give it a slightly less fancy feel.

I often use glass and stone beads and antiqued metals. Though, that's not consistently the case - I will use a shiny gold or silver tone depending on how I'm inspired. And, I don't always use beads - buttons are a real favorite of mine and seem to worm their way into my pieces.

I made the stacked button focal before the necklace came together. The collar style of necklace is just so cute. I think it pairs well with the buttons.

I found the Webb Co. tag in an antique store and knew it would be a great addition to a long necklace. To add to the found object feel, the mother of pearl buttons were included in the chain.

I veer toward anything rustic, old, vintage-y. I love most colors, but do have a hard time incorporating anything too bright into my jewelry. Blues, greens, and neutrals tend to be my go-tos.

That's a guitar volume knob as the focal to this necklace. I kept a simple palette with an array of beads to accent the knob. 

I bought the altered copper charms from Bandana Girl and simply added some coordinating beads.

I'd like to say that I'm inspired by nature, but in reality I think it's the materials themselves that spark my imagination and creativity.

I had these holey bone beads for ages before I felt inspired to cage them in with some darkened annealed wire.

This is one of the most recent listing in my etsy shop. Again, I used a scrapbooking keyhole in antiqued brass. The green beads and bead caps are from ZnetShows.com. It all seemed to just fall together perfectly.

That about sums me up. There's probably something I've left out of this. Please don't hesitate to ask in the comments.

Oh, and let me introduce my partner - Kari Asbury. She's using her Instagram to post about this swap, but she also has a blog on her KariAsbury.com website that she uses from time to time as well. Go check out her stuff. It looks like we have similar styles!