Autumn Encouragement Necklace

Happy First Day of Autumn!

I finally sat down to create a necklace I’ve been thinking about for a while. We’ve been having some sad and unpleasurable times. Sad--The Husband’s dad passed away. Unpleasurable--toilet/plumbing issues, that some quality cussing time eventually took care of.

So here’s my new Autumn Encouragement Necklace. Along the way, I’ve managed to collect quite a few charms that I haven’t actually made much use of. So, here I combined them with Red Jasper for a necklace that’s warm and a constant reminder to Believe in ourselves.

Hope you like it!

www.bearchick.etsy.com

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The Beaded Sphere is now Available!

Judy Walker, a talented woman I met through the Bead Society of Orange County, has finally published a book of her amazing beading designs. These designs aren't your run of the mill necklace stringing or weaving. The Beaded Sphere shows her beautiful dimensional designs plus instructions for creating your own. I haven’t seen the book itself yet but I have had the pleasure of seeing her work first hand and it’s so COOL! She’s the winner of the Treasures of Toho beading contest twice over and you can clearly see the quality of her work when you visit the gallery on her website. My new computer and I still need to get acquainted, so I don't have any photos to show :-(

UPDATE! Here's the cover of the book!

http://www.walkerpublications.com/

If you ever get to take a class from Judy, who teaches at San Gabriel Bead among other places, grab the opportunity. Her instructional handouts are neat and clean, right off the press, and her verbal instructions are just as clear. She's a very patient teacher and you'll learn so much since she's very generous with her knowledge.

Congratulations, Judy!

www.bearchick.etsy.com

www.flickr.com/photos/bearchick

I’m On The Internet!

If you’ve never heard of Barbara Winter, here’s a good excuse to get acquainted. She’s an entrepreneur guru who I’ve followed ever since I read her book, How to Make a Living Without a Job, in the ‘90’s. Her websites and emails are always full of great business tips and her enthusiasm will give you a lift, whether you need it or not.

Here’s the link to see ME on her new website, in the category called Where in the World Do You Work?

http://joyfullyjobless.com/work.html

Wheeeee!! We got a brand spankin’ new HP computer this week. That means, as soon as I figure out the photo saving and fixing, I’ll be putting a whole lotta new items on Etsy. I also sell on Amazon and haven’t been able to access my seller account all summer, since they did an upgrade to their web site. So now, I can finally do some work on there, too. This is one Happy Girl, I tell ya!

www.bearchick.etsy.com

Molding Paste ATC’s

At last, I finished some more ATC’s.

This first one is a bit dark but there’s a reason for that. I wanted to show both dark and bright because, as the quote says, we ARE all fighting some kind of battle and wouldn’t it be nice if through some small simple act, we could brighten someone’s day. The background of molding paste was swirled around and painted with black and gold paint. The glittery piece at the top is a bit of old jewelry I stumbled upon, probably at a garage sale. I added the saying printed from my computer over, can you guess, a piece of foil from The Husbands’ Rollo.

I love this second one. I mixed the molding paste with blue acrylic paint and “painted” it onto an ATC mat board, within the lines I’d drawn in pencil. While the top was still wet, I poured on some tiny beads for bling. When the paste dried, I outlined the dress with a silver puff pen and added the frame and confetti with a silver ink pen. This may become a series, since for some reason I enjoy creating clothes. I did a series of paper clothes ATC’s and artwork earlier this summer.

Hope you like them.

www.bearchick.etsy.com

New Sale on Etsy!

Hope everyone is enjoying their Holiday weekend! I caught up on recent Monk episodes I’d had to tape and repaired a bracelet and necklace for customers. Also did a lot of cleaning and organizing and boring stuff like that…

I just finished putting some things with excellent gift potential on sale in my Etsy shop. Pretty jewelry and lots of wooden hand painted and decorated boxes that are great gift containers. I even have a couple in darker colors for guys! Just click on Sale Treats to the right of the shop page to see all the cool things.

Here’s a couple of examples to whet your appetite:

A pretty box with Washi Paper design

A necklace for your favorite Red Hatter

Also, I’m applying for another Tall Mouse show, this one on December 6. More on that later.

www.bearchick.etsy.com