So long Twilight Etsy Banner... I'll miss you.

*sigh*... It was a great month and a half doing an Etsy shop tribute to the opening of Twilight Saga:Eclipse for June 30th. I loved this banner. Mostly because it was so Craft Loco-y but had some of my fave obsession based characters on it. I wish there was a way to keep the Twilight train rolling but until the Eclipse DVD release, I think it's going to be a bit of a dry spell. *sigh again* Even though the world isn't anxiously awaiting a red (or in Eclipse's case, a black) carpet opening anytime soon, I know I will still be making Twilight inspired items... I can't escape it. It makes me happy and from what people have told me, my Twilight crafting makes them happy too. So it's win win. Even though the banner is changing, you know that there will still be Twilight 'goodness aplenty'.

So clearly I needed a new Etsy banner and here it is! It's similar to ones of the past but while I was working on it, I was looking at the main page of Etsy and they happened to be featuring the colors cherry and turquoise. I figured if the colors are trendy enough to be on the main page of Etsy then maybe it would be fun to borrow the colors for the rest of the summer. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! ;)

Along with a new banner, I do have some new ideas for things I want to make and share in my Etsy shop. I also have some back projects that I want to share at this space as well. It's all good and hopefully the end of summer and the start of a new school year will allow for me to keep up with this fun stuff.

Obligations Met!

It has been a great day from a crafting/Twilight stand point... I finally have made good on all my promises to people who run blogs that asked me for a Twilight themed donation. The biggest undertaking was making the goodies for a blog called Gracious Rain. They are based out of Utah and seem to be really nice folks that LOVE Twilight. They have reserved a theater for a 100 person midnight showing of Eclipse on June 29th. How could I resist when I was asked to donate an item and then I was allowed to create a 'postcard advertisement' that would be included in all 100 guests' goodie bags. I am going to a midnight showing and I know I'm really proud of that fact so I thought of a craft (Better At Midnight Pin) that would show off that you dragged your bones to a theater at midnight to see some of our fave actors in action. So I figured, why not share the wealth... All of the 100 movie goers in Utah will get a pin with my etsy shop info a my blog info on it. I'm always hoping to make new friends so I thought this was perfect. :)

In addition to the pins, I sent off two of these Dream Happy Dreams Pendant Necklaces that I created in the last couple of days... Of course one has also showed up at my Etsy shop too.

They were fun because of course they are Twilight inspired but also because I was dabbling with PMC3 again. It was good to get my hands dirty using some old silversmithing techniques. Believe it or not the circle pendants are only about 3/4 of an inch so it's really small scale to work with. And of course whenever I create something using text, my spelling always seems to fail me. I can tell you I had a couple of mess ups with letter simply because I was trying to do perfect work the first time. Why does that happen? try to perfect it and the mistakes will come! Anywho, they came out great and the folks at Gracious Rain and the ladies who are a division of TwilightMoms (southern Cali chapter, I believe) who are trying to raise money for Alex's Lemonade will both be getting one to give away in gift baskets or otherwise.

I just feel good that I was able to use my skills to make some people happy. espcially if they are Twlight people. ;)

Because I am Twilight Loco too!

It's next to impossible to ignore all that is going on in the world of Twilight right now... What can I say other than it's been inspiring me recently...

I just added two new items to my Etsy shop which of course features my Twilight craziness. The "Better at Midnight" Pins are actually a donation to a group of 100 people who are going to a midnight showing of Eclipse in Utah. I figured if it's good enough to donate than it's good enough to share in the shop. The stylized Pop art Edward pins are just fun... And because we just finished our Pop art unit in my classroom.

Here's a thought... Going to a midnight showing of Eclipse on June 29th/30th? Want a free "Better at Midnight Pin"? Post a comment to this entry and on June 23rd, I'll pick a winner at random!... This works well because my feature date for the Truth Be Told Eclipse Event is on June 17th... We'll see if anyone stops by to check me out. ;)

PS- Amanda, Mel and/or Dee, in case you're lurking about here... You don't count for the giveaway!! ;) You're already getting one as a 'surprise' when we go to our midnight showing!

Very Cool!

Well it has happened... I have made my blog universe debut! I am happy and flattered to be involved in a Eclipse based blog event over at truthbetoldblog.com.

Val, who authors the site, is an awesome person and she takes that awesomeness to a new level because, YES, she's a Twilight fan. ;) The blog regularly features reviews about different products that are eco-friendly/green and she constantly is doing give-aways for her readers. From her profile info, she is also a single Mom and a full-time college student so my hats off to her... Put those life items with running a popular blog and it is safe to say, she works HARD and she does it with grace and professionalism.

From June 14th to June 28th truthbetoldblog.com is running an 'Eclipse Blog Bash' where folks who create Twilight inspired items will be featured daily... I personally can't wait to see what other crazy Twilight fans out there have been makin'! Should be a great couple of weeks and again I thank Val for including me in this fun event. Check there (and here) frequently to see when I make my appearance. June is going to be a FAB month for soooooo many different reasons!

Great Day!!

I love it when things go my way in the world of craft... Today alone I finished designing the give away pins I'm making for Twihards in Utah (I'll explain later!), worked on a graphic style image of His Holy Hotness (it now graces the wallpaper on my phone) and I did some successful tests with little ceramic houses I'm working on. Psh... Who needs glaze! This is my first phone upload to blogger so I promise to back track and explain soon. I'll leave you with the artsy eye candy that now greets me everytime I check my phone.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Renegade Craft Fair

So I stumbled across this while surfing... I know all about Renegade Craft Fairs but have never been... Maybe this is the year!

Catchin' Up

OK... So what happened with the last Etsy Showcases? Nuttin' really. That's Ok though. It's still worth the $15.00 a pop to see the Google Analytics buzz. I feel like that's kind of old news since I haven't posted in a while.

Things were very busy for me on a professional level during the last month as I'm trying to get my National Boards for teaching. Luckily the work that I had to gather for that is over (for the moment) and hopefully it will be what they were looking for to be able to wave me on to the stages. We shall see...

Most recently I have been working on just a couple of things... I'm going to try to show them through a slide show, so let's give it a whirl...

Cool! I think it may have worked... The pictures are of recent work that I have made. The Hoop Embroidered piece was for Amanda for her BIG 30th birthday. She seemed to like it and hopefully it will bring happiness to their home. :) The Felt Sketchbook is an 'original' idea of mine. I kinda quote the word original because I know that there have been books made like this before. But this one is of my own design. It's a prototype so there are some minor flaws. Overall I'm very happy with it. It uses cast off paper from a project that I do at school so it's nice to see that paper that would normally get trashed, go to good use. The sketchbook could be made with fabric but the felt cut out a couple of steps and that's always a great thing! I'm hoping to try this one again and get closer to the perfection the I invision. Also my first time using the little eyelets and the pearl snap.

More stuff coming on the horizon and I have some news about '30 Days of Edward Cullen' that has given me not only the Craft Nod of Approval but also the Twilight Fan Nod of Approval! This one is developing so you'll have to stay tuned. ;)

I'm Ready!! Promotion!!

Sponge Bob said it best so we reinvent what's happening for me tomorrow... I'm ready for my promotion spot on Etsy's Main Showcase page! And this time in more way than one. Last time I didn't have Web Analytics set up so I'm prepared to see the board light up.

I've made some additions to the shop which hopefully will be fun...

Above is a wire wrapped ring... My new fun and easy thing to do. I made the bead out of clay, glazed it and then added the wire. I have more ideas that could work around this theme too.

This is another version of the blue ring except I used a different color and shaped bead.

Twilight mania continues and as promised, the favors I made for The Twilight Game Night Party are now in my Etsy shop. We'll see how it goes. Above is a one inch button. Just fun and iconic. I love them. Hopefully others will too.

Ahhhh! The bookmark! I'm particularly proud of this one because I came up with the tag line. The silhouette is recognizable as Edward's life sized cut out from the Twilight movie but the rest of it is mine. It makes me chuckle and it is soooo true! I keep praying for Midnight Sun to be published. I got my wish that Bella's Bedspread came back into production from Target sooooooo maybe...... One can hope anyways!

Here's the other part of the poop scoop... I want to add more info to the blog today but sometimes I can't stand using Blogger! And today is one of those days!! I'm not stupid... I'm pretty good with technology but for whatever reason Blogger consistently adds more spacing between images and text and when you add more photos they always go to the top which throws all the spacing off again.. It's very frustrating!

I think I may end up doing Flickr slideshows and then do a long text explanation or something because it's just too much work to blog here and I want a better experience.

I promise to rise from the ashes here and report about tomorrow's and Sat.'s (?) showcases but for now I am tired and off to put pics on Flickr. Thanks for listening!!!

Woot! Woot! Edward has left the building! (Little Edward anyways..)

Hooray! Just when I least expect it, a SALE through my Etsy shop!! Love ya, love ya!! And LOVE your choice of what to pick up!

I started calling this wristlet 'Little Edward'. This little guy's Papa is of course '30 Days of Edward Cullen' which I have yet to find a home for but it will happen! Little Edward is going to live in Kentucky with a lovely woman who I am sure will take great care of him. Enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it! I've already got another sibling to this wristlet in the works so you can look for him soon. I kinda want to strike while the iron is hot with 'Twilight Saga: Eclipse' coming out this summer... Oh yeah... And did I mention I have a raging Twilight addiction so it's never a problem to keep these in good supply. :)

A good day and a nice surprise indeed!

On the horizon, I've been thinking about a Spring handbag (saw great Amy Butler fabric at a local shop) and of course I need to make my 'Pay It Forward Handmade' items that I signed up to create via Facebook. Lots of people around me are buzzing about that one so it should be a lot of fun... Hmmmm. Maybe after this one cools off I could persuade some of the players to do a themed art swap? Waaaayyyyy of on the horizon though.

Good Productive Day

It was a pretty good day in the crafting/other world universe... I mananged to book two spots on Etsy's showcase area. One will be for the Main Showcase and the other will be for the Spring Showcase. The second one I bought on an impulse as I couldn't stand to know that in about two minutes time there would be no spots left... I'll admit it... I was on a little bit of a high because of the competitive nature of getting the spots!
These are good things bc it will force me keep making items, coming up with new ideas and trying to improve my etsy shop. I really do enjoy it all.
I also had time to do some clay work this afternoon which was great. No pics right now but I'm sure some will find their way here soon.
Finally, to make my Curriculum layout/review/planning/pain in the butt, (whatever you want to call it) more bearable I went ahead and created some planning sheets so maybe when I work on this stuff (which at times can get kinda heavy) at least I'll get to look at pretty paper. How can that not be inspiring!

I have 36 days that I need to plan for and then I also created an 'Ideas' page that is the same layout. Again, anything to make this process more exciting. :)

Twilight Game Night

So Twilight Game Night came and went last week... What a great time! I spent a lot of time and effort to make decorations, favors and other extras but it was a TOTAL blast and well worth it to make it memorable. Here are some pics of what went down and how I set it up...

Some table decorations above...

And of course we had cupcakes... And are there any other cupcakes to have at Twilight Game Night other than Red Velvet? No way... The batter was amazingly red. It really did look like blood. (Ew.) They retained the color well even after baking. Here's the easy recipe I used (click here). The toppers were fun to make. Lots of Twilight images to be found on the internet and then I used my portable Slice machine to cut out elegant shapes to adhere the circle photos to. Yes, I'm Craft Loco... There are image on the back too. It's all in the details! Also, please note the Edward super-intense menu cards!

Had to add text to this one... This is Mel rocking her Bella inspired hand knit mittens. She's a yarn goddess!

These are pics of us playing the Scene It Deluxe Twilight Game... Very fancy and highly recommended! After we figured out all the rules we got things rolling and our competitive stripes started to show.

Here is what we were all doing battle to possess! This is a crown that I made out of black flexible foam and I almost passed out when I found the sparkle foam at the craft store. Does it get more perfect?! The sparkle foam had and adhesive backing so it was super easy and fun to use. Add glitter glue, acrylic gems and Twilight images a plent and viola! A crown that any Twi-Hard would be proud to wear. :)

Another view of the crown and the bookmark that I gave as ONE of the favors. I'll get more images of this later as I plan to sell them on Etsy. There are fun and perfect for ladies on Team Edward... You'll see.

Here we are! Everyone of us middle aged and loving teenage romance with vampires! Love the series... If you need to escape I would highly recommend reading the Twilight Saga books.
A special thank you to Amanda (one of the redheads!) for taking all the photos since I was so occupied. You can check out her and her husband's photography business at:

http://mrdrewphotography.com/

Ho-Hum... Etsy ride is over but other stuff is brewing!

So the etsy ride is officially over... :( Edward and other items have stalled out and no one else has checked in on them... All this and just in time for my Google Analytics account to kick in. So I can actually watch the sad little 2 or 3 people look at Craft Loco and then take off. *sigh*

I'm just bummed bc I'm coming off the high of watching my shop be visited like 675 times. Oh, I'll be back for more Etsy Main Showcase. Storque Showcase was better than expected too but stil didn't pack the same punch... Alas, 50 views is 50 views. And as stated earlier I have other ideas about how I can handle Edward. (And get more exposure to Craft Loco) I will not give up hope!

In the meantime I have other fun and crafty goodness flowing... The first is I have decided to take part in Undercover Kindness' 'A Week of Kindness', with today being the last day. Not that I won't continue until I set all my cute little cards free. It's been a lot of fun and I've even gotten Lil involved. She enjoys the sneakiness of leaving notes for people to find later. Although the secret part needs some work... Many times in a store I would hear in a loud whisper, "Mom... What about over here?!". Loads of fun!

That's me with a fun card I got off the Undercover Kindness site. I think I'm going to be preachy and make it my Facebook Profile Pic since it's such a good message... Also one I could stand to exercise more often!

Coming up next... Twilight Game Night on Friday evening! Of course I have managed to make this little party a crafting and event planning extravaganza! Should be fun combining my two loves though. :)

He's Baaaaccccckkkk!

So it's Day 2 of the great Etsy Showcase experiment. As of this moment '30 Days of Edward Cullen' ha been viewed 638 times! Best money I ever spent to get more views. Again no sales for Eddie but I did manage to pick up another cheapie sale of some tiny envelopes. Honestly, it's still thrilling that someone liked my work enough to spend money, even if she didn't buy my pet project. Plus it's another rating point which I think only looks more impressive to people stopping by the shop.

Clearly the real view maker has been the Main Showcase. Worth every penny especially bc AdWords has cost as much ($15.00) to date but has only generated like 40 views. I will anxiously be waiting in line on March 3 to purchase another Main Showcase spot.

Today, as you can see from the above image, Edward is on the Storque Showcase. Not even close to getting the views as the Main Showcase but it's still nice to see him out there.

Here's another shot of him on the actual Storque Blog page. I really do love this site! It's fantastic for ideas, getting out there and feeling like you are part of a community of similar thinkers. It's all good. :)

I Am Worse Than A Proud Parent...

Yep... It's pretty bad... I am worse than a proud parent sending their kid off to the first day of school. It would go something like "Awwww... Doesn't he look cute with all his friends?!" In case you hadn't figured it out he's the dark, handsome one in the crowd.

And of course I wouldn't be a good parent if I didn't have a detailed close-up... His little brother the wristlet looks pretty good too! Last I checked, he was up to 555 views and I picked up another heart... Wee! It's almost like a drug this checking in!

Big Day For Edward!

So it's been a big day for '30 Days of Edward Cullen'... My pet project for various reasons. Today I tried out the Main Showcase on Etsy. As of last night he had 127 views and 4 hearts (mostly friends of mine which I have trouble counting accept others could be lead there through the faves). As of right now at 8:30 pm with 3.5 hours left before he goes off, I have 518 views and 8 hearts!! No sales, but lots of folks have viewed. I am DETERMINED to sell this to someone so I have some other ideas that I can implement if I don't wake up to a sale for my guy... It's such a cool idea too... hmmmm... Maybe persistence will pay off.

Tomorrow he's off to the Storque Showcase and it will be interesting to see if I pick up as many views. Until then!