Lets get to 50....GIVEAWAY!

Okay so I've set a goal, I want to get 50 followers on my blog and 50 likes on my ETSY shop. So to do this I come up with an idea...a giveaway!!! These lovely teal drop earrings on silver plated ear hooks. Just follow my blog and leave a comment or Add me to your Circle on ETSY and favourite me. Once I reach 50 I will randomly generate the winner and let you know.

Hope to hear from you guys soon!

 

Decoupage papers

I'm still thinking about my jewellery display stands that I need to make  and have been looking for some paper to decoupage the stands with. I found these lovely backgrounds from MemoriesPictures that I thought would be perfect to use. Now all I need to do is buy the paper and the card and start making them. (Adding that to my never ending job list!)

I also found some really cute bird charms while I was perusing etsy aren't they lovely! I need these in my life!

These brass little bird charms are from wesweetlife. They have loads of different charms to choose from that are all really cute.

Also, these little charms with the birds in their cages are adorable! They are from CarissasSilverLining

Hope you like these charms and the shops you can get them from, let me know what you think.....

Beaded flower and kanzashi tutorial

Recently I was asked to make some more beaded hair pieces for two little girls to match their dresses, so I thought I would share with you the piece that I made for them.

One piece is like the red poppy I already blog a picture of. And the other hair piece is to go with a bright summer dress.

I really enjoy making flowers out of beads, it is time consuming and a little fiddly but the end results are always great.

Hope you like them, I'm always trying to think of other flowers that I could bead. (I made a really delicate vintage style rose beaded hair clip, but very bad of me I didn't take any pictures!) What other flowers do you think would be nice to bead? Have you made any yourself, I'd love to see some piccies if you have.

Something else I love doing and really appreciate is Kanzashi flowers. This blog called bitty bits & pieces shows you how to make some lovely kanzashi flowers, I followed the tutorial and found it really simple. I made some flowers and put them on headbands for my little one.

Also on etsy they have some lovely shops that make amazing kanzashi hair pieces. I put together this treasury list of some of my favourite. Have a look and let me know what you think....

Hope you like!

Making my own jewellery display stands

So I told you about doing a jewellery party well I now realise that I will need quite a few jewellery stands to display my work, however I have brought a few already to use in the shops that I sell my piece in and I have to tell you jewellery stands aren't that cheap. So I had an ingenious idea to make my own stands. I also thought it would be really nice as I can decoupage them and make them look really nice and unique to me.

I found this great link and thought I would share it in case anyone also would like to have a go at making their own stands.

                                                 How to make your own display stands.

As I was looking for stands I found some really nice ones on etsy, check these out....

This is a lovely little shop called wildabouttags they sell loads of beautiful labels and tags the the graphics are great. I liked these earrings display tents because they have a retro funky style.

I like this piece from DrommeLund because I made one before and I really liked it, makes a great ornamental piece as-well-as a jewellery stand

And how cute are these stands from NancysTeaShop really vintage beautiful pieces that are unique and functional.

Well when I have finished making my stands I will blog you the end results. Let me know what you think of these shops and if you have any ideas on what to do to make jewellery displays.

Jewellery Party

So I've decided that a jewellery party would be a good idea to self promote and es also make some money (providing people like my jewellery and want to buy it! ...small detail) so a friend has offered to host a party for me. This now means there is no going back and I must work like a trojan to plough out enough items to have a good enough stock to show off and offer a wide enough choice.

Honestly I'm not sure what people do for jewellery parties (so if you have any ideas I'm all ears!!!) I was thinking of putting pictures of the pieces I've made onto a USB and if they have a TV I can plug it into then I could have a little slide show off pieces I have designed for commissions past and present etc in the background and then display all my pieces I brought with me on a table in front.

I thought I should separate my pieces into costume jewellery and gemstone/semiprecious jewellery, what do you think?

I also thought I could make jewellery party invites to give to the host to give out and on the invites I could say "if you have any broken jewellery that you made like to be fixed please bring it along for me to mend." I thought that would be a nice idea, as everyone has a special piece of jewellery that has got broken at some time and they want fixing.

Also I thought I should advertise the fact that I design and craft bespoke piece and if anyone wants to sit down with me to discuss producing a handcrafted one off piece then I could also offer that. (And make an order form???)

So these were some of my ideas, do you think I'm on the right track? Comment and let me know. Perhaps you do jewellery parties and you could give me some ideas or maybe you have been to one and have an idea of what works....

Great to here from you. By the way I've added a couple of new items to my etsy shop so be sure to check them out.

Where was I....

Where was I? Ah yes I was saying that I never have enough time for everything let alone starting my own business. At the beginning of my maternity leave my return to work date seemed so far away, but now as it looms ever closer I realise that if I was serious about making some money (Not just pocket money) that instead of daydreaming about how good it would be to work for myself and make jewellery alday long, I should have put some workable goals in place and tried to establish my etsy shop a little more.

I'm not a complete failure at self promotions and producing business. Word of mouth has probably been the best, and I've managed to produce allot of commissions, which I love doing. I also sell my jewellery at a hairdressers, beauticians, library and bead shop, and soon I'm going to be doing my first jewellery party.

What I find difficult is the computer side of things and trying to create traffic to my etsy shop. Sooooo, here I am making it my goal to get this blog working just maybe someone will take pity on me and follow my site.... (please....)

In the mean time I need to start thinking of ways to make my etsy shop better and produce business. If you have any ideas how I can do this please comment and let me know I would be very greatful!

It been a while....

So it's been a while since I've posted anything as I've been busy making commissions and keeping my stocks up in the shops I sell at. (There never seems to be enough time to do everything, and when my maternity leave is up I'll have even less time.)

I go back to work in a couple of months, but what I would really love to be able to do is make a business out of my hobby and work from home. I know that is allot of peoples ideal, and you see other blogs and sites where people have made it happen and it looks possible, but.... really I don't know where to start! (Ideas...) I've decided to make it my goal to get blogging more and put more items onto my etsy shop. I've also thought maybe I should start a Folksy shop (among other things)... the list goes on and I should just try one thing at a time, I know! (Even now as I write this my little one has woken up and the spare 5 minutes I had has disappeared.) I'll continue this later...