I will punch you in the FACE if you buy another BUTTON!

This statement is of course said with all of the love in the world. It is the words of one crafty friend to another to spare her wasting money away on things she doesn't need. I first heard this little phrase at the Long Beach Flea Market shopping with my girls Annette and Earleen. It was said by Annette to Earleen, and has been repeated SEVERAL times since then. Why? Because we girls are addicted to buttons! Old, new, damaged, it really doesn't matter. The problem is, that we love buttons, we collect buttons, but we don't do shit with them.  They tend to sit in cute jars to be admired. Maybe every once in a while we might glue ONE to something.
     So after having lunch with my etsy friend Nan (check out her shop here, her jewelry is of impeccable quality) she showed me a sweet little spring themed bracelet made with buttons. I thought hmmmmm, I have buttons, a lot of buttons. Nan already taught me to wire wrap, I am going to make me some of those. Of course I put my own spin on them using a mix of old bracelet parts, new chain, old buttons, new buttons, charms and pieces of vintage costume jewelry. I am quite happy with the results. And now I find my place in the precarious position of running LOW on buttons, yes LOW on buttons! So Annette, Earleen take me off the banned from buying buttons list, it's ON!

{This one has a true mix of new and old. Also I love the big stone in the front, Nan gave it to me, I am sure it has some cool name but no exactly sure!}

{Orange, I am starting to like orange so much more, maybe because it looks so darn good with cream!}

{I am not a big fan of red, but this big vintage knot button was inspiring enough to make an entire red bracelet}

{I think this is one of my favorites! Although it has a lot of ewer buttons on it, the plastic clear ones with rhinestones just stand out}

{yellow, I loved the plastic white specked vintage buttons on this one. I also used a vintage costume jewelry bracelet, it was shiny gold but I put a patina on it that just came out great!}

-Denise

The truth doesn't always hurt

I was so excited to show off this little collage I made to my Mom. I knew she was going to ooohhh and awww over it and want to take it right home! But not this time. She took one look at it and said, "No, don't like it". I just immediately removed the offending artwork and got on with my business. Now I know my Mom thinks she hurt my feelings, but she didn't. You see I can appreciate that my Mom has an opinion and is honest. If you have ever watched the auditions for American Idol, there is inevitably some poor kid that is crushed and can't believe that they are bad singers! Well behind that kid is a mother who can't be honest! Being honest about what she thinks of what I make, makes me more trusting and accepting of her opinion. So think about that next time you are asked your opinion by someone that you love and trust (however I don't recommend this for those, "does this make me look fat?" situations!).
    So on to the offending collage. Personally I like it. It is very personal for me, I used my friend Andrea's word for the year "nurture" and I used one of my friend Michelle's trademarked red dennison labels. I used some of my favorite papers too. I like how it came out, and this is one piece of artwork I don't have to worry about my Mom stealing!

{this collage is the sample for a class I am going to do Called Collage Made Simple}

{love these labels!}

{I attached a twig with embroidery thread}

{used some upholstery trim to finish it off}

{some jute to hang it up}

{love this sweet bird!}

-Class info coming soon!

Denise

-Denise

Proof of Concept

As per Wikipedia:


A proof of concept or a proof of principle is realization of a certain method or idea(s) to demonstrate its feasibility,^[1] or a demonstration in principle, whose purpose is to verify that some concept or theory is probably capable of being useful. 


I bet you didn't know that with each and every workshop I hold, I have a Proof of Concept day. A day where I do my own workshop.... to see if it works!  I make sure to write down what tools and supplies I used, I also take note of dry time and what, if anything I should prepare in advance. And if I am really worried about how it will go, I make my Mom come over and do a test class. A few weeks ago I had my Mom come over and make a birdcage, I could tell that she was struggling with the initial wiring of the cage shut, so I made sure to be very specific on that part.  Today I worked on two POC's, one for my belt buckle classes already scheduled, and one for a NEW class I am looking forward to holding sometime, somewhere!
For my belt buckle class I wanted to make sure I was mixing my epoxy correctly and also how much epoxy should I mix; 2 drams will do just fine!

{I also played with the idea of making our own fabric belts in class, but as simple as it looked, that's a whole 'nother workshop!}

{Here she is, I mixed just a little too little, so now I know!}

So what about my new workshop project?... well maybe tomorrow I give you a sneak peek!

-Denise

Handwired Birdcage Class Photos

First I want to start by saying I absolutely LOVED teaching a Bella Cosa in Long Beach. Christie Pardini has set up a wonderful class space in the back of her shop and I can't wait to go back and have more workshops there. I had some new and returning students so it was a lot of fun for me. Here are the pictures. I just loved how everyones personality shined through their projects. That's one of the things I try to do in all of my workshops, is make sure that there is room to make everything a reflection of themselves. Here are the pics!

Bella Cosa's craft room, I love the cement floors with paint and remnants of artwork on the floor.

Each station has it's own light!

Class kit, and they got to keep everything including the little vintage lunch tray.

A sink! A must for crafting!

Kathleen

the ladies had a great time digging through the goodies I brought to create with

I had them collect things they liked onto their trays for wiring

Robin

Tori

Janes, she did a little Halloween theme on hers

Julia

Julia made a little crown for hers....so cute!

Robins whimsical cage! I love the pom poms on the bottom!

Me :)

Me and Robin, thanks for coming all the way from Vista!

Tori, this was her first ever craft class and I think we got her hooked!

Kathleen and Julia

Me and Jane, loved her dark style!

Julias sweet cage

Janes

Tori's

I hope everyone had a great time, I did! I will keep you posted about when I will be doing my next class at Bella Cosa can't wait to go back.

-Denise

To Swap or not to Swap- that is the question!

    I hosted my first swap ever at Kims Moulin Rouge event. I was so taken with a similar swap the Kims Les Sirenes event I know I just had to copy it! The swap was to get a vintage jewelry box, decorate it, if you want, and fill it will goodies, and or supplies for creating art.
        Now swaps can be quite stressful. Especially when it is one on one. You make something for someone and you have one person to please. Now with that said we all have our own likes, dislikes styles etc. so it can be very scary to see if what you created matches up with your "swapees" expectations.  Sadly it seems there is always a few swaps that don't align right, and that's where you feel the pressure as the hostess. You want everyone to be happy and thrilled with their swap. When someone is disappointed, you feel it as the hostess.
       As the attendee of the swap you don't want to feel like you "didn't get it." I know there was one sweet lady who felt exactly that. She didn't want to give her box up because she felt it was inadequate after seeing all of the other boxes. The second I saw her sort of breakdown my heart just sank... how can I fix this, a swap should make you cry tears of joy, not sorrow??? Just at that moment, Kim rushes up to this sweet lady and gives her a big hug and tell her it was going to be okay. This is a supportive environment and I felt so relieved that Kim saw her and did just the right thing.  And then we saw her box! It was very cute, certainly nothing to be embarrassed about and filled with very nice items.
                Swaps can be amazing and exhilarating, but there is sometimes disappointment that can come from any side of the swap. With that said, I want to share some of my wisdom that I have learned about swaps and hopefully will refer back to this post whenever I go to a swap filled event myself. So here are my tips for swapping! They are brutally honest and this list is MY opinion, it is in no way complete, I am sure a lot of you will have some .02 cents to say too so please feel free to leave comments.

#1- Swaps are not cheap!- Be prepared to spend money. I have spent over $100  on supplies for swaps I have done. They are not free. Even my Bijoux box swap...I pulled a lot of goodies from my own personal stash, but I also bought the box, the paint, ordered vintage papers off the Internet etc. Think about the cost. I did a charm swap and you think "oh a few bucks a charm...well if the charms were $5 x15 - now you are in $75 already and you haven't bought the bracelet, ordered the moo cards, mailed them ect. so THINK before you swap about the cost!
#2- Don't overwhelm yourself. Many of you work full time, have kids, or are running mini (and big) crafting empires. You can't do every swap. I would rather do one or two GREAT swaps, then do 6 or 7 and short change a swap or two because I ran out of time. Especially if you have to make multiples of things.
#3- Ask questions! Ask your hostess questions about your idea and if you think it will work if you are not sure. The hostess usually has a good barometer of what the swap "should" look like. But don't rely too heavily on the hostess to make decisions, use them as a guide.
#4- Personalize- If you are making something for someone else try to personalize it as much as possible to them, but also add a little of your own style in. I can tell you the swaps that are most touching are those that are personal, when the person took some time to know who you are. If the swap is not secret send an email or two (not one everyday!LOL!) with questions you may have for them.  If the swap is secret stalk their blog or FB pages and see who they are, or just ask the hostess to get more info for you.
#5- Make it something you don't want to give away. This is my final and best piece of advice I can give anyone. If you have made something you truly love, it is probably going to be hard for someone not to love it too, and even if it wasn't what they were expecting, you can not mistake heart and soul being put into it.

SO a bad swap item would look like this:
Made from craft room left overs, looks like someone threw it together in two minutes, totally impersonal to you and the person who made it, and will go straight to the recycle bin or get re-purposed

Now a GREAT swap item LOOKS like THIS!!!

This is the box I received from Danielle Muller. Danielle's style is creamy and vintage, hey so is mine!

I am primarily a papercrafter and she had lots of paper ephemera for me

I also love baby blue and saw lots of little baby blues in here

more goodies

supplies! I love the colors she chose for me.

hey whats that? A D stamp..for Danielle and Denise! Hmm how personal!

seam binding, a vintage lovers ribbon!

I also love a little bling- look at this vintage belt buckle!

Danielle's blog is the Vintage Dragonfly, so this is what I am talking about personalizing it, something that makes me think of the person who created it for me.

another special piece. 

OMG

it had writing in it from the owner I love that

and this great vintage image.

  So you can see, Danielle used a mix of new and old, she thought about me and my likes, she added her own personal touches, she put some items of great value in there, probably some things she did not want to part with. Make sense now?

The really difficult thing about swaps is you will never really know if someone does not like your creation. No one is that insensitive to call anyone out, nor should they. Gifts should always be accepted with gratitude. So I am putting this out there as my own General Guidelines.  I am not directing this towards anyone person, it is from my own personal experiences and those of the people I have talked to about swaps in general, trust me we have ALL talked about swaps, I am just laying it down!

So if you think this post is about "you" it isn't. I have appreciated every swap I have ever received and display them all proudly in my home. 

For me swaps are one of the most exciting parts of any event. At 41 years old they are the closest I get to that "Christmas Morning" excitement I got as a child.  

I highly recommend participating for that reason and I hope you will too!

-Denise