Ready For Spring

Most of the winter I have been crocheting for my shop, Morning Sky Creations, using deep, dark and neutral colors.  Enough!  We've been having a long winter here in the Northeastern US and I'm tired of it.

Last week I was in the store yarn shopping and these colors caught my eye. I couldn't decide which I liked best so I ended up with all three.

This was the end result and I love it.  So happy to see some bright, fresh colors in my shop.

Leather Key Chains

I've added something new to my jewelry shop.  While I love making my jewelry, I was looking for something that was a little less time consuming to make that I could offer at a lower price point.

I had some leather left over from some leather bracelets I had been making so I made a few basic key chains like the one shown below. It is made from a nice sturdy vegetable dyed leather with a nickel plated clasp.

Soon after I came across a silver plated swivel clasp and split ring when I was out shopping for supplies. That resulted in this key chain with clip. It is perfect for clipping to a belt loop or purse.

                                       

Next to be added was a key ring attached to a leather wristlet strap. This is great when you are running errands and don't want to lose your keys in the bottom of your purse. Just slip this over your hand and your keys are easily accessible.

The latest key chain added was the double ring. I work in retail and I notice a lot of people searching for reward card key tags among their keys. With my double key ring you can keep all your tags on one ring and your keys on the other. Or, you can keep house or office keys on on side and car keys on the other.

Clicking on any of the photos will take you to that item in my shop.

A New Crochet Technique

I had tried crocheting with wire some time ago, but I didn't like the results. When my local craft store started carrying silver plated Artistic Wire I thought I would give it another try. This time I was much happier with the results. 

These bracelets are made by first string on the beads then crocheting chains. When I have the number of chains that I need I braid them together to form a fun, contemporary bracelet.

The bracelets in the first 2 photos are made with non tarnish silver plated wire and the bottom one is made from black coated wire.

August Featured Etsy Blogger

This month's featured Etsy blogger is Edi from memoriesforlifesb.
Edi has been papercrafting for over 12 years and has some truly awesome things in her shop.

This wedding guest book made from real flip flops is one of my favorite things for her shop.



Equally beautiful is this hand cut Baby album which can be customized with any name.



This is a very fun and extremely creative shop. Why not go and have a look?

Wonderful Wednesday

I live in New Jersey and lately it has been feeling more like winter then fall. It has been way below freezing the past couple of nights and I can't seem to get warm. This week I am featuring these great coasters from Elle Quilts. They have marshmallows wearing earmuffs on one side and the other side has pretty dots. Couldn't you just imagine these with a steaming hot cup of hot chocolate on them?

Wonderful Wednesday

This Wednesday I was feeling a little nostalgic. I was thinking about the holidays when I was a child and that led me to thinking about the dog I had as a child. I was petrified of dogs when I was very young. It seems that a relative’s dog jumped into my playpen when I was an infant. Fast forward a few years. I adored my grandfather and he got a dachshund named Fred. He assured me that Fred wouldn’t hurt me and because he was Grandpa I knew that it must be true. So for my 5th birthday I asked for and received a dachshund of my very own. I asked for a brown one since my grandfather had a black one. I named him Peanut and he was my pal for over 16 years.





This leads me to this Wednesday’s wonderful find – a polymer clay Doxie pin made by Kritter Krazed. Dachshunds aren’t the only dogs she has available. There are also Labs, Boston Terriers, Pugs and more. Wouldn't this be a great Christmas gift for the dog lover on your list?

Fingerless Gloves

I've just completed my second crocheting project, sort of. I decided to make fingerless glove and went in search of a pattern. Most of the patterns were out of my understanding and with my crocheting friend away for the weekend I was on my own. After looking at many I realized that crocheting a rectangle and sewing up the side, leaving a space for the thumb, would work just fine. And it did as you can see from the photos below. Now that my friend is back I might have her show me how to add some rows by the thumb hole.

I Love Etsy

I listed this new bookmark on my Morning Sky Creations Etsy shop yesterday. It's made from decoupaging onto a painted 1 inch square wooden tile and then adding a cotton cord and glass beads. Both sides of the tile are the same.

I thought of using patterned papers like I use for my Bible verse bookmarks, but I was afraid that the heart would get lost in a pattern.

I have it priced at $7.50 since the decoupaging takes time. I wait 2 hours between each coat and I do both sides, so even though it's only a few minutes of work, it actually takes all day.

I would love to hear any opinions about paper choice and my price. Thanks for any input.

New Etsy Store

I decided to open a second Etsy shop. There are other crafts that I enjoy doing in addition to making jewelry. After a lot of thought and reading the opinions of others on the forums I decided that a second store was the only way to go. Since the name of my first store is Morning Sky Jewelry I thought that is was only logical to keep that store solely jewelry. I didn’t want it to look cluttered and a buyer probably wouldn’t come to a store with jewelry in the name if they were looking for something else. So I would like to introduce Morning Sky Creations.

Morning Sky Creations is the home of other crafts I enjoy and ideas that I want to try out. I had learned to make reversible drawstring pouches out of bandanas years ago and wanted to give them a try on Etsy, so this is where you will find them. They are a lot of fun, especially since there are so many interesting bandanas to choose from as compared to years ago.






I have moved my beaded bookmarks from my jewelry store to the new one and have also added Bible Verse Bookmarks. If the response from these is good, perhaps I will make some into pendants.






I’m excited about my new shop, but also a bit nervous. Okay, maybe more then a bit. It’s scary starting from scratch again, but now I know that it takes patience and for the right type of buyer to find my shop.

If you have a minute, please stop in and browse and leave a comment. I welcome any suggestions you may have.

Designing Swanky Moms

I just joined a group on the ning network called Designing Swanky Moms. It is a group for moms (obviously) who design things, be it jewelry, clothing, cards, soaps, candles, etc. You get the idea. If you would like to join us, please go to http://www.swankymoms.ning.com/. You don't have to belong to Etsy to join or even have a website, just a love of creating.

Visit SwankyMoms


When shopping on Etsy if you would like to see some of the beautiful work that the Swanky Moms do, just type DSM into your search.

The Swanky Moms were featured in an Etsy treasury as you can see below. Please forgive me, but it is the first time I have done a screenshot and had to cut and paste to get the whole thing in there.