Venez découvrir les créations de Fanny en Point de croix, couture, scrapbooking et déco...

Our Christmas market this year took place over the weekend of November 23 + 24. With a host of talented designer makers and workshops to take part in, this was our biggest event to date and it didn’t disappoint. We had an absolutely brilliant couple of days with 4000 shoppers turning up to support t

I wanted to do these for a while now and I'm pretty excited at how this pinecone winter owls craft turned out! They are adorable! We made a few crafts with pinecones already, like these

I’ve been cleaning out and purging my craft supplies and I came across these Jenga pieces that I had been using to make keychains. I thought, what if I glued them together and made an phone or IPad stand. I got glued mine and it seems very sturdy however you could use wood glue as well. I think I may paint it black in the future.

BoothPic.JPG Here is a picture of my new booth display, thank you all for the suggestions and pictures and now I hope you will be able to see this and leave a comment, have a great year! Jackie Black Creek Pottery

"Embroidery is the handicraft of decorating fabric or other materials with needle and thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as, p

All you need are a few paper bags and a foam round for making this pretty Fall wreath that will look great on your front door. Adorn with a few acorns or an

I know a lot of my readers are artisans in a variety of art and craft styles and this time, I'm asking for your help and expertise. How do you get the maximum of space in a 10x10 indoor area? What are your table layouts? What tips and tricks do you have? Lights? What kind? Photos? Could you post links. This is where I am hoping you can teach this old dog, new tricks. Now I will have products that are all sizes as well, so I'm not just talking glass beads. So let me know what you know, that you are willing to share. Got a great resource for a banner, or signage? I'd love to know. What about display racks or stands...I know there are a lot of creative ones out there... I'm looking forward to hearing from you. I know your experience and thoughts will be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much!!

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The 5th Annual RCF San Francisco

This is a Angel Ornament that I have created from paper. The image you see on this Angel is from the Fred She Said Winter Bird Series Digital Collection that can be found here. The Chickadee image was used for this Angel, but any of the birds would look absolutely lovely on this ornament. This is a lovely gift or hostess thank you item for all those special people in your life. Why not make up a bunch of these for your Christmas tree or display on a stand as a table centerpiece. So many uses for these beautiful Angels. NO TEMPLATE NEEDED: The base is half of a 7-3/4 inch circle and the arms are half of a 4 inch circle. The half circles are curled into a cone shape and glued. That's it-easy peasy. Here is another Angel in a different configuration. This is actually the first one I made. I cut out my pieces, ran it through the cuttlebug with the swiss dot folder. I punched the border with the Martha Stewart Corner Gothic Arches punch. Stickles were applied to the bottom of the skirt and the bottom of the sleeves. I glued on a small Christmas bulb for the head, used a pipe cleaner for the halo, and tied a bow and attached at the neck. This is the snowflake Angel. The spellbinders snowflake die was used for the wings and the Martha Stewart Arctic snowflake punch was for the decoration. I sprayed glimmer mist on the snowflake embossed angel. I glittered all the snowflakes with Martha Stewart glitter. This one was my attempt at making an Angel that would look antique or vintage. After cutting out my pieces, I used my decorative scissors to cut a fancy edge (yes, those scissors still come in handy even after all the punches and die cuts!), I ran it through the cuttlebug with the Textile Texture embossing folder then sponged on some Rangers Tea Dye ink. I used mica flakes for the glitter around the borders. Martha Stewart Branch and Snowflake punches were used for the decorative treatment at the neck. This angel is called my "Woodland" Angel-Supplies for this are Martha Stewart Branch Punch and Sizzx Leaves die, Cuttlebug Leafy Branch embossing folder. This was sponged with Rangers tea dye distress ink. The leaves and branches were sponged with Vintage Photo distress ink and diamond stickles applied. For this Angel, I cut out my pieces, punched the edges with the Martha Stewart Corner Gothic Arches Punch. I used white feathers on my wings and stickles and pearls for the borders. Challenges Entered Allsorts - Monochrome Craft Your Days Away - Texture (On White and Antique Angel) CES Challenges - Vintage Mark's Finest Papers - Add a Bow One Stop Craft Challenge - Christmas Cuties Our Daily Bread Designs - Snowflakes Alphabet Challenge - E is for Embossing The Character Cafe - Neutral Color with Glitter/Sparkle Christmas Stampin' - Anything Goes Crafty Catz - Christmas Fairy Tale - White Mami Doodles - Gift Items Crafty Sentiments - Christmas Hodge Podge - Anything Goes Stampinsanity - Challenge Yourself Crafty Creations - Christmas Freshly Brewed - Winter/Christmas Inktegrity - Anything Goes Creative Belli - R's (Ribbon) Fab 'n' Funky - Go with the Flow Gingersnap Creations - Vintage Hue Anything Goes - Animals Tuesday Taggers - A decoration Bunny Zoe's Crafts - Christmas Not a Card Stamps R Us - Sparkle and Scallops Die Cut Dreams - Anything But a Card Flutter By Wednesday - Thank You (Can be a Thank you Gift)

Last week my theme for Storytime was sheep! Here is my handout: Sheep Storytime Handout And here is the craft we did. It turned out SO cute. I bet you all are wondering how this cute little guy i…

I’m absolutely LOVING designing a new Christmas theme in our home this year! Leaving the color scheme to mostly neutrals has made it a little difficult in some ways, but the overall look is s…

Craft show booth display seems like a science and therefore I am going to be chatting about this all week. Today some beautiful inspiration I could go on and on with inspiration photos of displays,…

I've been super busy this week getting ready for my upcoming craft fairs with Kim Apel. Take a look to the left for our upcoming shows in Memonomee Falls, Cedarburg, and West Bend. Buy your own on etsy :) Here's a look at some of the goodies I made: Three peppermint patties used to make a cute snowman. These are my favorite :) Snowman Soup (aka Hot Coco) Whoppers and a red jawbreaker Oatmeal and some glitter Hershey's kisses Marshmallows

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I spotted woven newspaper stars on Pinterest and thought how cool they would be piled on top of one another forming a tree. Trying it out, I discovered that it…

by Staci L. Smith My most joyful times are spent creating. I am an artist. I love to be coming up with new ideas, and creating them in my studio. Give me plain old clay, or a torch and some metal, and a day to myself, and I am in my happy place. photo by Tammy Snyder But I need to make a living at this too. So I am forced to sell my products. I am forced to find the right shows, price things, keep records, do taxes, have a website, and most of all, promote my business. picture from a few years back, when I still did a lot of sea glass jewelry For the longest time, this was really a struggle for me. I felt like this was only a hobby, that, people were just being nice. I felt almost guilty taking money for something I loved doing so much. What could I do though? I couldn't continue to do what I love without money coming in. And now, 10 years later, this is my job. And marketing my art, myself, is mandatory. I have three kids, and this has to make money, or I go back to an office job part time. See? Don't they look hungry? They eat sooooo much food! lol So, I have learned to market myself. I did not teach myself, I learned tips and tricks from many many many other artists and friends. I listened, I watched what they did. I learned, slowly. You know, point of marketing, is so that customers can find you. There is a HUGE world of beads and jewelry out there. How in the world, do you get people to find YOU online? Hold that thought.....Let me get a little sidetracked for a moment......... This blog post stemmed from a question someone asked on Facebook the other day. You see, this year, for the first year, I entered some jewelry in the Bead Dreams competition. It is a competition held at the Bead and Button show in Milwaukee. It is a pretty big competition. I have wanted to enter for a few years now, but have always been intimidated, and never had given myself time to create some really crazy art pieces for it. Well, I finally did it. I entered two pieces of jewelry into the polymer clay category and one in the metal clay category. I learned a lot about big wig competition too. It's been a great experience. The two polymer clay pieces got in! Just to be accepted as finalists in this competition is huge honor. They took 6 polymer clay entries as finalists, and two were mine. I was floored! To see all the winners listed click this link http://cs.jewelrymakingmagazines.com/bnb/b/beadandbutton/archive/2014/06/02/announcing-the-ribbon-winners-of-the-2014-bead-dreams-competition.aspx Just the other day I found out that I won First and Second place in the Polymer Clay category. BOTH of my pieces got ribbons. photo by Kristin Oppold Photo by Anne of Gardanne Beads Needless to say, the range of emotions is really hard to describe. Mostly, I am overjoyed, to be at this place in my career. I went between happy, and disbelief at first. I think as artists we sometimes have trouble REALLY being confident in ourselves. I have moved onto the sheer happiness of this honor though. I am thrilled. So of course, I posted this on Facebook. My friends all knew I entered, they had supported me, given me advice on my entries, and been routing for me since I entered. And, not to mention, I am proud of it! And I shouldn't be scared to say that. I am proud, because my work, my art, has grown, evolved, and gotten better and better over time. Of course, there were tons of congratulations, and well wishing. I will not lie, it sure felt good. But then, there was one, who asked, "How does this benefit her?" I will be honest, this was not asked in a nice way. They were persistent and not very kind. But after I thought about it for awhile, I thought, well, there really are people who may wonder that. Who wonder why someone would go through all the trouble to create competition pieces, to pay entry fees, ship their items and displays.....there may be people who really don't understand why someone would do that. (so thank you to the person who tried to bring me down- you inspired this post. I hope it helps others to market their business, and not be afraid to say, "this is mine, I worked hard, and its awesome!" So, here are some tips, things I have learned, things that have helped me to go from hobby to business over the last 5 years. Before you read the list though, first and foremost, you must be confident in your work. If you are not, why should your customers be? So with that in mind..................here's my list. Network with other artists. This is HUGE. I have made so many fellow artist friends online, and we market for each other. If you love someones work, share it. Help them market. And others will do the same for you. Blog, make a business page for Facebook. This is what really did it for me. This is what helped me to find that network of artists (now friends) online. It was really hard at first, but over the last few year, it has become quite natural to talk about the business, my life and what I am working on. I have discovered that I LOVE to share what I learn, because, it is how I myself have learned. The kindness and openness of other artists is how I have learned what I know. So I try to pay it forward. Join in group sales, enter contests, blog hops- anything that gets you into the community more. Blog hops are especially a wonderful way to broaden your reader base, and welcome new customers. Write for magazines. This is a wonderful way to advertise your business, as well as show off the fact that your work is indeed handmade. People feel more comfortable buying from someone who knows what they are doing. When you write for magazines, you get to show that side of you. Check out the post I did on how to get started with that here. http://www.lovemyartjewelry.blogspot.com/2014/05/getting-published.html Writing for magazines not only gives you credibility as an artist, it advertises your business, AND you get paid for it. Let me share where some of these things have lead me, to encourage you. By entering contests and such on blogs- I got featured by them now and again (blogs like Art Bead Scene and Love my Art jewelry). Love my Art Jewelry used to have a contest, and entering that consistently is how I landed writing for this blog. They would have never know who I was, and I would have never known I could write for a blog like this. Friends and networking has given me a life in the arts I never thought possible 10 years ago when I was stuck in the corner of my family room, home with the kids, stringing beads. The encouragement, collaborations, friendships and cross marketing has been an amazing journey, and helped me to reach new customer bases at the same time. There are many groups on facebook, but Creative Bead Chat is my favorite place to meet new artists and get valuable information and tips from others. https://www.facebook.com/groups/CREATIVEBEADCHAT/ And Bead Dreams. Well, there is a cash prize, but mostly, its just a plain old honor to be juried by Kalmbach judges and picked as winner. I am hoping that my work being at Bead and Button will introduce it to new people, who I would never reach sitting in my PA studio. It will be seen by hundreds, thousands of people. And that surely can't hurt. My next venture, is yet again, friend / artist recommended. It has been recommended to me from the start. TEACH. So this year, I am teaching at Bead Fest in Philly. I have always loved being with people, talking (and talking and talking), and sharing what I know freely. So, I think I am going to like teaching. I will let you know how it goes! (link goes to my class information) So, to wrap this up, everyone who you may see online, that has "made it" in your eyes, started out just like you. They learned all they could about business (and are always looking to learn more), and they tried. And they tried. And at times they failed, and got rejected and felt like they were never going to make it. But they didn't give up. When I started out, I remember seeing these awesome artists, big names, like Lisa Peters and Marsha Neal......and now I know them, and they are just amazing ladies, and artists, that put themselves out there. We know their names because they were not afraid to say, "Here it is, my work, my art". So go and pimp yourself out today. Show off your stuff. Be proud of what you make. And lets encourage each other, lets share each others work, because we are a community. We are all artists at different places in our journeys and careers. But we are all the same, and we all need to stick together. PS- That is one of ideas of our Boot Camp blog hops. It is an opportunity for you to show off, and market to an audience that you may not have reached on your own blog. Take advantage of it! Show it off. We here at LMAJ want you to succeed.