New order

This is an order I've just completed last night for a lady, who saw a pic of the design on facebook and ordered it in her own colour choices. These are my favourites as it gives me a chance to play around with the colour combinations that are chosen especially. It's always a little nervewracking when they see it for the first time as I worry that they won't like it, but luckily that hasn't happened yet *touch wood*!!

My giveaway is going well, 5 entries so far with hopefully more to come. There was some confusion from facebook fans regarding automatic entry due to being a fan - this is no longer allowed with the new facebook rules.
People have to choose to enter by going to Amaria's blog and commenting. Now that this is understood (poor communication by me there) people are starting to enter! Yay! Good luck to all...
The winner of the bracelet gets to pick their own colours. So I'm happy, whoever wins :)!

Giveaway!

With minutes to spare until we dash out the door for dinner at our friends' house, I've popped online to see my giveaway is up! How exciting.
The original idea was to do a "randomly chosen" type giveaway to go to two of my fans on facebook. However I soon found out from the lovely folk at the madeit forum that this is now against the rules over at facebook. Just my luck!

After posting my dismay at the rule change, I was soon saved by another madeit crafter. This lovely lady is Amaria, the brains behind Amaria's Paper Works. She's graciously hosting my giveaway over on her blog. Head over and check it out, instructions on how to enter are all there. Please also take the time to look at her shop at madeit. She makes gorgeous custom paper dolls in a variety of styles - I especially love her multicultural dolls. My mother in law would appreciate her Peruvian dolls, they are lovely!

Amaria's blog (and my giveaway) can be found at: http://amariasreviewsandgiveaways.blogspot.com/2011/06/mrs-monkei-jewelry-giveaway.html
You'll find links to her stores there as well.

Thank you Amaria!

p.s: I don't know how she did it, but she's made my photos look amazing! I'm going to prod her for her secrets :D
p.p.s: Apologies for the dodgy link, if blogger was being nice to me you wouldn't need to copy and paste ;)

Photography Lessons

Well it finally got to the point where I realised I needed to make some changes. I go onto etsy and madeit and I see all of this amazing handmade stuff, photographed so professionally - perfect lighting, no fuzz, no shadows, no glare...then I look at my stuff and it's just okay. Okay just doesn't cut it.

I'd LOVE a new camera (I'm currently using a 4.5 year old canon which my husband assures me is perfectly fine) but finances don't permit, so it was research time.

After a bit of googling I found a post that someone had put on a jewellery photography site about DIY light boxes. It involves a 3 sided box covered in white paper with 3 halogen lamps for light and tissue paper to add some sort of softening effect. All very doable but still a little too complex for this little duck. So instead I grabbed a little box, covered the inside with printer paper and bought myself a desk lamp. The real lesson came at Bunnings when I was trying to figure out which globe to buy - I now know the difference between warm white and natural light globes.

It has been a day of learning, but my pictures are certainly improving.



Before: an attempt to shoot in the afternoon sun



After: with my new makeshift lightbox. Still looks a little dark...maybe I do need another lamp?!




Edit: I discovered that I have a "auto adjust colours" option on irfanview! Yay!





Edit (again) 23/7/11: Okay, so nothing beats natural light. This was about 3 in the afternoon, with the blinds open, on my coffee table! I'm not messing with a good thing anymore, just have to hope that the sun keeps behaving itself!

100 Bookmarks!

Now that it's over and I haven't looked at or thought about bookmarks for a few days, I feel relaxed enough to write about it!
My sister in-law is getting married in just over a month. Unfortunately we can't make it to England for the wedding, but I made some hair slides for her bridesmaids a couple of months ago as a way of helping and being involved from over here in Oz.
Can't wait to see photos of them on the day!



Moving on!
Just a little over 2 weeks ago, my lovely mother in-law asked me if I could make something little to add into the favour pouches that will go to the guests. Just something else to help them feel our presence there on the day!
No problem, says I. What and how many?
In the end it was decided that corded bookmarks were the go, as they are fairly easy to put together, and pretty light for postage.
How many? 100. Oh..okay. No problem. *gulp*

Once I sourced the materials for them in the wedding theme colours, I got to work.
I set up a work space on my coffee table, we hired some movies and I got started.
Managed to get them done and in the mail 2 weeks later, quite an acheivement! I was surprised at how cheap it was to post, only $43 - and that was registered. No way was I risking this package disappearing after all those hours of work.



Now to wait for the news that it's arrived...

Beginnings

Hi folks and welcome!
After a couple of years of quietly stalking here on blogger, I've jumped aboard the blog wagon myself to see what the fuss is about. Glad to be here!

The beaded jewellery making hobby that I've enjoyed spending vast amounts of money on for the past 5 years has become a bit of a side venture, and I'm really enjoying creating things especially for people to wear and enjoy. I'm still (as you can see) grasping the online component of handmade crafting. My favourite orders by far are the times that people have seen something I've made and asked me if I can do it for them in their own choice of colours/styles. It makes it so much more personalised and I love to see their reactions.


A custom order from last year.

I certainly don't expect to take on the world anytime soon with my creations, but it would certainly help to support my bead buying habit!
I hope to connect with other crafty people on here, most of the blogs I currently follow revolve around baking, which is my other love. I imagine there'll be a balance of both on here over time!