A Little of This, A Little of That

Today I worked on a few little projects.

I made two more cross necklaces, in black.  One for an order and one to have on hand for future orders.  I dip every cross into a liquid clear acrylic sealer, to protect them from the elements and help protect from damage to the wire.  Back when I used to make hundreds of these at a time, I used to string a line across the backyard to hang them off of for this step.  Now I make them in smaller batches, so this is my drying station:

I've always had a thing for baskets.  When I was a kid, I used to go to yard sales and if they had baskets, I'd buy them.  I only own a few baskets now and this is one of them that serves a definite purpose, it is perfect for hang drying 2-3 crosses.

Remember the Buckskin Copper crosses from a few posts ago?  Here they are, fresh off the drying hooks.  I'll store them in small individual baggies in my "finished crosses" drawer until they sell, then I'll put them on necklace cords. 

I also did a bit of laser work, including a custom desktop tribute for a friend.  She ordered this to give to her mom, who has Icelandic horses.

We have an order for two custom clocks, with a picture engraved into them.  Here they are, laser work done.  I'm waiting on a final confirmation from the customer and then they'll be ready to assemble!

Lastly, this towering pile of wrapped boxes.  However, they aren't presents, they are actually boxes Jeff asked me to wrap up for his office Christmas party - which is tonight.  They will be used to collect raffle tickets.  I think they turned out pretty good.

Oh, I also snapped a quick picture of a few of the dream catchers I've gotten finished up!

 

 

Underway on Option Three

Today I embarked on my first session of "Option Three" as I've come to call it.  (AKA: Craft my butt off before I have to purge my supplies for the great move)

I was inspired by taking a few pictures of some dreamcatchers yesterday.  I had offered a choice to one of my giveaway winners who wanted a dreamcatcher.  Then today I decided to break out my pile of unfinished catchers and supplies, and get (back) to work on them.  It's been quite a while since I've made any - and they have been first on the list of crafty pursuits I've considered getting out of - but I do enjoy making them...  Today I got a few of them finished and the bead/color combinations picked out for a few more.  I'd like to do more work on them tomorrow.

Productivity Day, Not So Much Crafting Day

Last night I spent a couple of hours in the Studio room and this is the result:

Still a mess, but getting better...

I got a lot of things on the floor picked up and (finally) unpacked most of the boxes from the shows.

Today I started out by doing a bit of cross-stitching.  Here is my current in progress pad as it looks now:

All of the details of the pattern are done, now all that remains is a bunch of black stitching in the middle.  I think it looks good and I'm eager to get it finished - and start on another one!

After some stitching, I moved on to taking pictures of a bunch of finished items, to get them listed for sale.  I desperately wanted to craft away today and had originally planned to spend the whole day making things.  I sometimes wish I could hire someone to take pictures, format them, and write up all of the listings to sell them, while I do what I like best - making more things!  Alas, it is only me running this operation, so instead of making things today, I took a bunch of pictures of things I already have.

I took pictures of a lot of bookmarks...




Also dreamcatchers....

And I did my first ever photo shoot for some of my Stablemate-sized saddle pads!

I still have a lot more finished work that needs to be photographed and I might do another round tomorrow.  Then of course comes the arduous task of formatting all of the pictures and actually getting everything listed for sale.  No fun, or at least not as much fun as crafting, but it needs to be done!

Giveaway! - First of Many

I love to give gifts, I think it's easily as much fun to give as to receive - or even more so!  I almost always try to include "extras" when I ship off orders and for a while now I've wanted to do some sort of giveaway on my Studio Facebook page.  I've seen a lot of other pages organize giveaways as a way to increase traffic and so on.  I've wanted to do it for that reason, but also just because I love to give things away!

So, today I set up the first ever Giveaway on my Facebook page!  I couldn't decide what to offer as the prize, since I have a bunch of different things that I make, so I decided to offer a choice to the winner.  Whoever wins (I'll draw a name on December 6th) can chose from something in the picture:

Up for grabs are two Christmas cards, a dreamcatcher, a cross necklace or two Stablemate-scale saddle pads.  I already have plans for future giveaways - with more prizes and larger prizes too.

Ideas for future prizes...  More of the above...  plus: larger saddle pads and custom horses - maybe even NAN-qualified custom horses!  I might do some craft supply giveaways too, since I am wanting to pare down my "hoard".  The ideas are endless and I'm really excited about the opportunity to get more of my work out in the world, hopefully gain some new FB friends and fans, AND spread some cheer - not only during the holidays, but all year long.

Most giveaways ask you to like and share their page, I decided to give multiple entries for doing things.  So... Like the post = 1 entry.  Like and Comment on the post = 2 entries.  Like, Comment, and Share = 3 entries. 


In  other news, I've spent a few more sessions on my latest saddle pad and here's how it looks right now:

I did decide to go with the black, though I feel like I'm really itching to use a tan/sand color in a design, possibly in the next one.  I'd like to stitch this design again using shades of pink...  maybe it will turn out to be pink and tan? 

I love the way the 18 count pads turn out and the amount of detail I can work into them, versus the 14 count, but boy do they take a long time!  I've heard there are some pads stitched onto even higher count fabric - yikes!  While looking through my collection of fabric recently, I did find that I have some in a higher count - 20-something..  (I scored a bunch of fabric and floss for a few dollars at the thrift store a little while back and hadn't fully picked through it all until recently)  I'm thinking I'll break some of that out soon and see what kind of smaller scale pads I could make.  I'm not sure I'd do them in the Traditional-scale though, it seems like they would take for-ever.  Though knowing me, I'll probably try and do one anyway.  Yeah...  I'm nuts.  ;-)

Website - Getting Serious

Ok, so I've had my website up and running for...  a couple of years now...  with not much on it.  Well, over the last few days I've been chipping away at finally populating the Gallery pages I'd set up with pictures!

Here's what's up so far!:

http://www.horsetenderstudio.com/gallerymain.htm

I'm pretty happy with the progress so far.  I have to add several more dreamcatcher pictures and then get started on the greeting cards and bookmarks.  The biggest project today was the 4 hours or so spent on the cross gallery.  I think it was time well spent.  Now I FINALLY have a place where people can go to see every color I've made.  I have a few newer colors that I haven't photographed yet, but this was a huge step! 

Lovely Fall Day and Studio Pics

This morning when we woke up it was only 34 degrees. Very close to a first frost, I think it's coming soon. I did another big harvest of cherry tomatoes in the garden yesterday. Hopefully I'll get in another one before the frost hits.

The house has been a little chilly this morning. With chilly bare feet and thinking I should evetually put socks on, I wandered down to the room I call the Studio (yes, THE Studio! heehee) and opened the door. This is what I was greeted with:




The room was delightfully warmer than the rest of the house, having soaked up the morning sun for the past few hours. My chilly bare feet met the sun warmed carpet and it was fantastic! Instead of retrieving whatever now forgotten item I had went in there for, I went to get my camera and started taking pictures, not wanting to leave the warmth.

Here is my desk, were much of the creation takes place:




This is part of the view out the window - our garden and a scrawny little pine tree:




And of course, my cat found some sun as well on this lovey, if a bit chilly, fall morning.



I was insipred to go throgh my supplies and see what might be useful for the Harvest Creative Challenge at Etsy. Here's what I put together so far...




Hmmmm, what will I make? So far I'm thinking one or two cards and maybe even a few bookmarks. I'm also thinking of a dreamcatcher, as any natural colors usually look lovely on them.

A Flood of New Work

I've been working up a storm the last couple of weeks, mainly focusing on dreamcathers.

I've made dreamcatchers ever since I was a teenager. Over the years I have given many away as gifts. My favorite occasions are for a wedding or, in the original tradition of the dreamcatcher, for when a baby is born. I've also sold a few here and there - my "customizeable" dream catchers were a hit at a craft fair years ago. I had let people pick the colors they wanted and I made the dreamcatchers there on the spot. It was sort of a "dreamcatchers made while you shop" idea and it worked out well.

It wasn't until more recently, with the creation of the Studio as an entity, that I decided I'd like to sell them on a larger scale. I realized recently that I didn't have much in the way of an inventory. I had boxes and boxes of supplies, but only a couple of finished pieces. This is due to the fact that the majority of my dreamcatchers have been custom made - either as ordered, or as I made them for those special ocassions.

So, about two weeks ago I pulled out all of my supplies, popped on a movie and went to work. I've now made my way through several movies (and a couple of TV series on DVD) and I have about SIXTY brand new dreamcatchers ready to make their debut!

This is one of my favorites:







I now have quite a wide variety of dramcatchers, in sizes from two to nine inch rings, made in a rainbow of colors, and many with cool little charm and stone accents on the webbing.

Over the last couple of days I've been working on the time-consuming task of taking pictures and getting those uploaded to the store, the Studio's Facebook page, and the Studio site itself.

I foresee many more hours spent uploading photos, as I still have to repopulate the store and sites with pictures of all of my other items as well!

Hard at work!

I've been hard at work creating new things for the inventory here at the studio. I have also realized that Halloween is just around the corner. I made some wonderful Halloween themed greeting cards last year, based on a favorite card that I made for a friend many years ago. The cards feature a black cat sitting on the fence of a graveyard, with bats flying in the sky. The card is made from a mixture of cardstock, stamps, and hand drawn elements. I made up a bunch of them last year and I think I'll post them on my Facebook page and possible at my Etsy store.

I'm currently working on dreamcatchers and will have MANY of them available very soon, in a variety of colors and sizes. Stay tuned!

Where did summer go?

This spring and summer has been a crazy busy, very rough time - and the time has flown! I moved twice and had to keep ALL of my creative projects and supplies in storage for a few months. I am now unpacking everything and dusting off my inner creativity. I've been hard at work the past few days, trying to get back into the groove. I've been cranking out new projucts, primarily dreamcatchers at this time. I also have several new ideas for greeting cards and custom horses!

My websites had lapsed during all of the moving around. Today I finally reposted my websites online and now there is quite a bit of updating on those to do as well. I'm hoping to finally get my Etsy store and Facebook pages populated and "Open" for business within the next few weeks.

Moving stinks, especially when one was right in the middle of starting up a new venture!