Sale! Yay!

I've put everything in my DesignsByDebi shop on sale! 15% off through Cyber Monday! Prices have already been marked down :)

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I'm headed out of town to see my family! Yay!

Happy Thanksgiving to all! May God bless you and yours to have a wonderful holiday together :)

~Debi :)

The Crickets In My Head

Hard of hearing

Three retirees, each with a hearing loss, were taking a walk one fine March day.

One remarked to the other, "Windy, ain't it?"

"No," the second man replied, "It's Thursday."

And the third man chimed in, "So am I. Let's have a coke.

I have had tinnitus for as long as I can remember. My tinnitus sounds like crickets at night. It doesn't come and go, its constant, 24/7. I can't understand people when they speak unless they are looking at me so that I can see their mouth. I miss out on a lot of what I watch on tv, cause I have no clue what they are saying. My family gets a kick out of what I "think" they say. My hearing has gotten worse over the last few years. So today I went to an ENT center to see what's going on with my ears. The doc said I have pretty bad hearing loss for a woman my age. (43) Basically, I need hearing aids. Uggh. Really sucks to have no insurance, no savings, no credit cards and a bunch of shops that sell nuttin.  Maybe in a few years I can save up enough to get what I need.

Inspiration Bracelet

Here I told you about the newest challenge from My Life Under The Bus. Well lemme tell you. I had a terrible time with this challenge. It wasn't because the palette wasn't inspiring; I LOVE the colors! It wasn't from a lack of materials. I have tons. It was because this week I have been stuck in a rut. Everything I have tried working on has ended with me getting tired of sitting at my work bench and getting up frustrated. My creative streak is G O N E. I even wrote out a whole post about how depressed I was over not being able to create, about how I could not get a thing done. It sounded so depressing that I never did post it for fear of running off my few readers. lol.

So this was reallllllllllly a challenge for me. I probably put together and took apart my piece a dozen times. It started as a bracelet, then changed to a necklace, then a half a dozen arrangements as a necklace and another half as a bracelet again. I finally settled for what you see here. So without further ado, here ya go. My LABOR of love. lol.

I know it is pretty simple, but it took a lot of tries just to get something I didn't hate with a passion. I chose the darkest of the red-ish colors and gray from the palette.




 I literally just finished it, took the pic with the camera on my phone and made this post. Talk about last minute! I should have lightened the photo a bit, but I just wanted to get it up on my blog so I can go to bed! lol

Btw, as usual, there are recycled components. The large silver rings and the curved beads are from old jewelry :) 

I can't wait to find out what everyone else has created and I hope it was not such a challenge for the rest of the participants. :)

New Techniques- Ice Resin

I bought some Ice Resin a couple of months ago, but I have been afraid to play with it. I tend to do that- buy new things but not get around to them for a while.

I bought some old rusty lids which I showed here and thought this would be something fun to use with the resin. 

Here are the results:

For the left one, I left the lid the way it came. I added a dried flower and some text. For the one on the right, I first used a patina on it to make it almost black. Then I added a flatter dried flower and text.

I mixed the minimum amount of ice resin suggested, (1/4 oz each of part A and part B) let it sit for 5 minutes, then drizzled it over the lids. I had a LOT of resin left, so I half filled some frames which I sell in my bead shop. I still had a lot left so I grabbed a piece of ephemera paper and coated that too! Note to self and others trying resin for the first time: Always have plenty of things prepared to use resin on. You won't believe how far that stuff goes!

I am very pleased at how the pieces came out. Of course you have to allow it to cure for 3 days, but you can work with the pieces (carefully) after 6 hours.  Although things went pretty much faultless, there are a few things I learned in my first experience with Ice Resin.

1. Always have plenty of things ready to coat/fill with resin. I would rather have too many things prepared than to waste unused resin.

2. Always stick loose pieces down. I thought that pouring the resin on the flowers and text would hold them down. Wrong. They tried numerous times to float up on me and I had to use toothpicks to keep pushing them back down.

3. Watch for bugs. Wait, what? Yeah. I had put my Ott lamps over the pieces for a little while after I poured them so that it would help with raising bubbles to the top. I went out of the room for a few minutes and when I came back, a skeeter hawk (dunno if that is their real name but that's what we call them in the South) had landed on the piece of paper. (Guess he was attracted to the light and the paper was like 9 inches below it.) He had gotten into the house earlier last night but was in my living room which has a vaulted ceiling, so I could not get him out. I didn't even know he had made it to my studio/office.  Man that was NOT fun, pulling him out of the resin. I am terrified of bugs. My hubby said I should have just left him there but I don't care to sell resin coated bugs. lol

4. If you do add pressed real flowers as I did, you may want to coat them with mod podge or something before using them. I knew that the resin would make the paper more transparent, but it also really made the flatter flower very transparent. I wish I had coated it. The thicker flower turned out great!

5. Watch videos and read tips online. There are a lot of resin videos out there on the web. After watching a few, I felt confident that I too could use resin! It really is easy and fun!

I can't wait to make some cool jewelry out of the pieces I made :D

Ship My Stuff! -and talk to me about it!

I normally only bring to light wonderful sellers and supplies but today I am ranting a little bit. I placed orders on November 4th with 3 Etsy sellers. I received 2 of my orders promptly. (although there was a bit of a goof on one of them) As of Monday, the 15th, I still had not received one of my orders. So I convoed the seller. Nothing, nada, no response. Today I finally received my order. It was shipped on the 15th, the day I convoed them. Eleven days before they shipped it!?!?!? Hello!

The seller only has 25 feedbacks, so I really hate to leave them a bad one. I'm not sure what to do. Eleven days to ship. No response to convoes. Not shipping until I asked about my order. Pleeeeease! Top that off with the fact that they live in Tennessee... I live in Georgia. I should have received that order first, not last. Very dissatisfied and will never shop with there again! Of course the seller has not left feedback for me yet, so there is the risk of bad feedback retaliation if I leave a bad one. Uggh

/rantover

Hey Hey Crafty Peeps! A new Life on the Bus Challenge!

Yesterday Patty over at My Life Under The Bus gave us our weekly inspiration and color palette! Check out the cool inspiration!

 Lovely lovely! Be sure to go HERE to check out the challenge. No matter what type of craft medium you use, you are welcome to join in!

Today's Flea Market Finds!

Today hubby and I went to Smiley's flea market and I got some goodies. Not a ton, but some cool stuffs.

Some love-ely junky jewelry

An awesome cookie tin which I intend on cutting up and making charms from :D

 This sweet old guy was selling old silverware. I was looking at it and he told me that he had done really well with it today and that if I wanted what was left, he would make a good deal with me. He certainly did and I came out with a ton of it.

I mean seriously!! You cannot get this lovely patina from a bottle or from liver of sulfur. My little heart is just going pitter patter over the verdigris and blackened pieces :D *love*

Riding The Inspiration Bus Reveal

Another Saturday, another reveal day for the My Life Under the Bus Inspiration Challenge! If you have not read about it before, Patty gives us an inspiration picture, which our color palette comes from.

I started out with this piece.(of course I always have to recycle something) It was originally a beaded brooch. I removed part of the back and the center section of beads and then added the yellow/orange rose to the center.


 I then searched my bead boxes and found an array of amber, glass and ceramic beads to match the  brooch. Check out how the green beads in the brooch match the green ceramic beads perfectly! Old and new- perfectly matched!

The completed piece 

 I created a clasp from brass and hammered it. The "ring" it hooks into was part of the middle of the brooch that I removed to add the flower. It turned out to be the perfect ring!

 So there ya go, my piece for this week. Old and new :)

Mail Call!

 I got some new goodies in the mail today and wanted to share!

Check out these cool rusty curved bits. 

These are so cute! I have no clue what they are and neither did the seller. lol. They are solid and have some weight.  Love them!

Some abused bottle caps. There are two of the "USDA ORGANIC" ones. Awesomeness!

Some little strips of rusty metal.

All of these items came from pvcatalina on Etsy. She sells nothing but rusty bits and bobs she finds during her walks out in New Mexico. I love to recycle/upcycle/reuse old junk! Oh and her prices are AWESOME. Each batch you see here was $2. Yes, just two bucks each. She also refunds overages in shipping. This lady is obviously just out to clean up the world and not make money. I hope she lists some more goodies soon. I need more! lol

Newly Posted Today

The Descent of the Muses

 This purdy thang was created with a broken pendant from one necklace and beaded chain rescued from another. Lovely lovely :)








This bracelet was created with new and rescued components. The pretty porcelain rose charm actually  has a few chips on it, but I used it anyway, cause that's how I roll! :P I know it's Winter and this is pink, but I don't care about that either! So THERE! lolol

Oh My Heart

On Creativity

 I recently read a quote on someone's blog that was very inspiring. I have looked though all the blogs on my list and can't find it! So I did  a search on quotes and came up with these. I wanted to share them with my readers in hopes that maybe they will inspire you :)




“There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns.” — Edward de Bono

“When we engage in what we are naturally suited to do, our work takes on the quality of play and it is play that stimulates creativity.” –  Linda Naiman

“The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover is yourself.” — Alan Alda

“Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.” — Mary Lou Cook

 “You can’t wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club.” — Jack London

“The most potent muse of all is our own inner child.”

  “Everyone who’s ever taken a shower has had an idea. It’s the person who gets out of the shower, dries off and does something about it who makes a difference.” — Nolan Bushnell

“Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we’re curious… and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” — Walt Disney

“A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

“Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.” — John Steinbeck


“If you hear a voice within you say, ‘You cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.” — Vincent van Gogh

“Because of their courage, their lack of fear, they (creative people) are willing to make silly mistakes. The truly creative person is one who can think crazy; such a person knows full well that many of his great ideas will prove to be worthless. The creative person is flexible; he is able to change as the situation changes, to break habits, to face indecision and changes in conditions without undue stress. He is not threatened by the unexpected as rigid, inflexible people are.” — Frank Goble

There is no use trying,” said Alice. “One can’t believe impossible things.” “I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” — Lewis Carroll

“To be creative means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty, you want to bring a little more music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it.” –Osho

“We will discover the nature of our particular genius when we stop trying to conform to our own and other’s people’s models, learn to be ourselves and allow our natural channel to open.” — Shakti Gawain

“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” — Maya Angelou

 BTW, the photos in this post are my own that I captured. :)


 I hope that some of the quotes or even my photos inspire you today!

Weekend Work So Far

My daughter and her kids are out of town for the weekend, so I've been trying to get some work done. I babysit for my daughter when she works nights.

I've been having fun making grungy looking stuff. It really is what I love. I have made a lot of "pretty things" for my Designs By Debi shop, (the pearly earrings in the pic are prolly going in that shop) but for myself, I love grunge. When I opened Prolific Adornments, I told myself that this shop would be where I could do whatever I pleased. And grunge pleases me! lol

I used to only grunge up copper or brass or sterling, since liver of sulfur works great on those metals.Since most of my junk stash is old costume jewelry, most of it is plated. I've been experimenting with different methods of grunging it up. Normal patina methods don't work on those items and what works on one type of finish doesn't work on another.  I also wanted to get a texture to the pieces, not just a color change.

I would love to be a fly on the wall in Fanciful Devices' studio. She has it all down pat. She creates the most awesome grungy items! But that's ok, I am slowly figuring things out on my own. It's nice to have your own methods anyway. Makes you feel accomplished or some crap like that.

I'm working on some more glass slide pendants also. Honestly, the insect one in my shop now is my first! Previously, my soldering was always with metals and a torch. I'm new to this whole solder iron thing. It is fun! It's also nice to solder without bringing out the bottles of fuel and oxygen, solder bricks, torch parts, fire extinguisher, etc, etc,... and the big flames. lol

These pendants haven't been soldered yet, just copper tape wrapped. I have a lot of ephemera type papers in my scrapbooking stash, so it's nice to finally use them since I haven't been scrappin' in such a long time.  A lot of the things I previously bought when I was living and breathing scrap booking almost 24/7 are things I can use in jewelry! (now that I am living and breathing it almost 24/7)  Yay!

Under The Bus Again

It's Saturday and time for the next Inspiration Challenge from My Life Under The Bus!

Here is the inspiration photo and color palette Patty gave us to work with. 











Ok, we have reds, grays, blues.....

Drum-roll.... Here's my inspiration piece.

I started with the beads. Red, blue and gray. The red and gray beads are from old necklaces that I have taken apart. The gold spacer beads are from my "gently used" stash also.

The blue beads are lovely detailed acrylic beads that I sell in my supply shop, Sweet Georgia Beads.

 

The compass pendant is from my up-cycling stash also. It looks like the gold part is all one piece, with the colors filled in. It's very cool and unique. The loop had broken off, so I drilled holes in the top to hang it from.

I added a pretty peanut shaped chain. (again, used)

I really do love up-cycling and reworking old parts and broken jewelery.  It's the best way to get truly unique pieces.

So that's that! Please do leave a comment and if you would like, follow me :D

New Stuffs

I got in a little pack of stuff today. Looks like fun! I got it from this seller on Etsy. He mainly sells photographs, but has a few junk items too.

There are sooooo many things I want to order, but I need some sales first!

Speaking of things I want, here are a few goodies on Etsy that are actually NOT supplies.

I love this laptop bag! I play the guitar and its just such coolness! It can be found at kavelzrd's shop.

A lovely brass tea set! It is available at thetinyteapot.

I wanted this tea set, but it sold. :(
It was at PrettyDarnCute's shop.

And check this out! It's cool, but I don't have $12K.

It's available here. Anyone want to buy it for me? *Grin*

So in case you haven't noticed the theme here, I love guitars and tiny tea sets. I try to play guitar but I am not so good at it. Right now my fingers are sore because I went for a while without playing so now I have to work on my calluses once again. Uggh. Sure wish I would not go for so long. I would be able to play  better AND my calluses would not peel off and cause pain when I play.


So what do you like to collect and/or do besides your crafting?

A Few Weekend Things

This past weekend was pretty productive. I managed to create 4 necklaces and work on a few more things.
The Dragon Pendant and the chain in this necklace were both from my stuff stash- previously loved stuff.  I added the freshwater pearls. I thought of cleaning the chain before adding it, but I just love the look of vintage-y grungy stuff!

 This necklace was also made of all previously loved components. Bits and bobs of old jewelry, random beads and the lovely rose.

I have never really made wedding type jewelry.  When I completed it, I thought, hey, this would be perfect for a wedding! When my daughter came over later she said the same thing before I said anything. I had gardenias in my wedding and she was like "Oh, that would have been perfect for you to have worn at your wedding!" Coool :D

This necklace was a good bit of work. I started with the cool charm. It was a silvery color, so I bronzed it and then coated it in Renaissance wax to seal it. I used carnelian rounds, wood ovals and gorgeous black quartz. I decided to make the back from Recycled Sari Silk. I hand stitched around the edge and made a clasp for it, which hooks into a loop I made in the silk. It was still missing something. I thought about what the pendant meant, then remembered I had just purchased some word charms. I was sure hoping to see courage when I found the pack and YES! One that said courageous.

The 4th necklace I created I can't show just yet. It is for the  My Life Under The Bus Inspiration Challenge this week. Last week I waited too long and got busy and didn't get my inspiration piece made. :( This week I wanted to make sure I got it completed, so I went ahead and did it last night :D Yay! These challenges are really fun! Basically she gives us a picture and color palette to work with and we create from there. Here is this weeks inspiration pics:

I'll be posting the piece I created on Saturday for the "reveal."