Tag Giveaway

Don't walk in front of me
I may not follow
Don't walk behind me
I may not lead
Walk beside me
And just be my friend.
                       -Albert Camus.
 

This weeks tag giveaway is a tribute to good friends. When making this tag I was trying out a new style for me. I follow a number of scrapbookers and think one of these days I will find the time to add this to my list of things I do. So this is a mini scrapbook page. 

If you would like a chance to win this tag all you need to do is leave a comment below. I will draw for the winner on Friday of this week. 

Wendy

The writings on the wall and a winner.

It's time to draw for Monday's Tag winner. Drum roll please....the winner is Juniper Goods. Congratulations, I'll mail that out to you as soon as I get your info. Thanks for playing along. Well actually I've decided to have two winners this week since last weeks tag winner never responded to her win and I only had two comments(see sad face on me) this week I'm going to give last weeks tag to Jennifer from Adventures in Mixed Media. Congratulations Jennifer I'll get that to you shortly. Come on back on Monday for the next tag giveaway and please spread the word.

So how did your week go? Again my main focus is jewelry making for upcoming shows. Above is a new design I finished this week. I don't often name my jewelry but I decided this is going to be "The writings on the wall". What do you think? Do you name your art creations?

This is another accomplishment I had this week. I finished 50 pairs of earrings for the swag bags for Handmade Harvest. So if you want a pair for free you need to get to the show early Sunday Nov. 4th to be one of first 50 people to get in and get free swag bags. And I mean early, people line up before the show starts to get these! If you want to see some of the other things going into these swag bags, check out their face book page, better yet 'like' it so you're up on the latest about the show.

Here's all about the show:

Handmade Harvest

Nov. 3, 9am to 3pm

and 4, 10am to 3 pm (different vendors each day, hint I'm there on Sunday)

Almonte Old Town Hall

14 Bridge St. Almonte, ON.

Well I better get back at the jewelry making.

Have a great weekend and keep creating!

Wendy

Inspiring words to live by.

When I teach workshops I often make or start a piece to demonstrate techniques along the way. So while teaching my word canvas a few weeks ago at the end of the class I was left with a canvas ready to add words. I did have a few passing ideas of trying something different with this background but all my containers of letters still spewed about the studio drew me into making more words. Inspirational words of course. The fun thing about doing this canvas is to see at the end which words chose me. Yes I don't think I have much say in it and I don't put a lot of thought into it when I'm working on this canvas. In the end I just step back and let the words tell me where I am in life or what I should be listening to in my life.

Do you have any favourite inspirational words?

Happy Creating!

Wendy

Monday giveaway again.

This tag was done for a challenge a few years back. I'm guessing the theme was black and white! I don't often work in black and white but looking at this tag I think I may have to rethink that and take some time to explore it again.

You're probably starting to know the routine now. Leave a comment below and you will have a chance to win this tag. The draw is on Friday of this week. 

Good Luck and pass it on please!

Happy tagging!

Wendy

And the winner is...

I seem to have lost a day. Sorry I was suppose to draw the winner for Monday's tag giveaway yesterday. OH well better late than never. 

So the winner of this weeks tag is NZescapes. Congratulations I'll send that out to you as soon as I get your mailing information.

Well another week has gone by.  It's getting that time of year again when Christmas shows are about to start, so a lot of my time is being spent preparing for them. I know I should work all year to have enough inventory for them but it doesn't seem to work that way. My head has been spinning with new designs and new techniques I want to try but that is not necessarily a good thing at this time. So I will try to give myself a little time for exploring but mostly stick to tried and true designs or variations of them from the past. Ya like I have control!!? Oh well I need to tell myself these thing anyway.

 These two necklaces are variations of past ones. I've been working a lot with horizontal rectangles either etched or textured. These are both etched and then elements are riveted on. I think it's the first time I've used a fairy on a necklace and these flowers are different variations of ones I've done in the past. I've also been playing around with different ways to hang the pendants instead of just a chain. The first one has a combination of Adventuring and seed beads, while the second has a combination of seed beads and a fine brass chain. I've used this chain and bead combination a few times. It's a great way to add some extra colour to a piece.

Well I better get back to creating jewelry.

Happy Creating!

Wendy

Ottawa October ATC's

This months ATC theme was 'Ottawa'. I forgot to bring my camera but Lucie had her handy dandy Ipad with, so she was nice enough to take a group picture of the cards and send it to me.

From left to right. Top row: Louise, Wendy
                           Bottom row: Lucie, Marie, Virginia.                            

As always it was amazing to see the variety we get from one theme.

Happy Trading!

Wendy

Word Canvas workshop

I had a wonderful group of creative ladies this past weekend  for my first workshop in the new studio. As you can see they made the Word Canvas. It's always interesting to see what words different people chose. There were so many wonderfully inspiring words flying around that you could feel the energy in the room as they created their canvas'. Most of the students went with words that moved them and just let it flow. Sharon's canvas was inspired by a recent vacation cruise in the Baltic Sea. She used the names of all the countries they visited as well as her cruise ticket. What a great way to remember a wonderful holiday.

 Brenda

 Charlotte

 Margaret

 Sharon

Doreen

I was so inspired by this group of women that I think I'll do another word canvas myself. I'm just having a hard time deciding on a theme. Should I do my usual kind of canvas with inspirational words or try for a new theme idea?!!

Keep Creating!

Wendy

Monday Tag Giveaway

For my third tag giveaway I've chosen one inspired by those that love to sew. I am not one of those talented sewers, so I admire and appreciate  their craftsmanship. I'm more of a material collector because it is so hard to resist all the lovely colours and patterns when I happen to find myself in a quilting shop to take a quick peek. 

As in previous weeks all you need to do to have a chance to win this tag is leave a comment on this post. I will draw one winner on Friday.

Good luck and keep creating!

Wendy

Winner and first workshop

Another week has gone by so that means it time for the Monday's tag winner. This weeks winner is Regina. Congratulations Regina, I'll get that sent out to you as soon as I get your snail mail info.

I'm excited to be having my first workshop tomorrow in my new studio. I've been pulling out all kind of letters as you can see above, for the Word Canvas workshop. I love making and teaching this project. I'll try to remember to get some photo's of my students finished work.

Have a great weekend and be creative!

Wendy

More Auction finds

As promised here are more auction finds from the Tin Man.

 This is a Gestetner wheel pen. David Gestetner was the inventor of this pen, a revolutionary new way to make copies of written documents in the early 1900's. So interesting to learn of how they had to do things over a hundred years ago that we take for granted. Any one know of an interesting use for a wheel pen now?

 The Tin Man was told that these little bead monkeys are made from Jade. They're very roughly carved but do feel like they could be Jade.

 I've been looking for some crystal salt and pepper shakers to store my glitter in but I guess the Tin Man just heard salt and pepper shakers. Oh well they are kind of neat, just have to figure out what I can do with them now! Any one have some ideas for using small salt and pepper shakers, well other then the obvious!!?

And then there is this cute little old box. I'm sure I can find something to store in it. I love just about any kind of box. This one has definitely been around the block a few times.

So there are the Tin Man's auction find this time. What do you think, have you found any interesting auction finds lately?

Happy Creating!

Wendy

Auction finds.

 The Tin Man was at an auction yesterday and brought home some more fun goodies for me. My favourite were all these buttons. I may need to find some more jars to sort them in!

I also loved the old tin that some of them came in.

I'll show you some more finds he got tomorrow.

Happy Creating!

Wendy

Monday Giveaway

Time for my Monday tag giveaway again. Same deal as last week. Leave a comment below and your name will be put in the draw jar. One lucky name will be picked on Friday. 

Good luck and pass it on!

Happy Creating!

Wendy

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's that time of year again !  At least here in Canada it is. Time for pumpkins and squash and turkey and thanks giving for everything in between. I managed to take this pic before the Tin Man chops up the punkin for pie.

To all my Canadian followers, I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!

What are you creating this giving weekend?

Wendy

And the winner is...

 We've made it to the end of the week of my first tag give away! My winners jar didn't fill up this week, so those that commented have good odds at winner this time. And the winner is, drum roll please...

Sheila!

Congratulations Sheila!. For everyone else come on back Monday for another chance at a tag.

Have a great weekend and Happy Creating.
Wendy

What's new!

In the last year I've learned so much with my small creative business. Some days it can be all so overwhelming but I push my comfort zone and I learn, both about technical things and about me. Slowly I've changed and added things to my blog that you may or may not have noticed. So I thought today I would take you on a little tour of my blog.

First we visit the navigation bar situated below the banner. Starting from the left, of course you will find home which is where you can start your journey anytime you come to visit to see my most recent posts. Next to that is  the 2012 Show schedule, where you will find the shows  I will be selling my jewelry and altered art at in coming months. You will also find links there to more show information. On the right is my latest Workshop schedule. Right now my fall schedule is up, so you can see photos of projects as well as all the workshop information you need.

Moving along now to the right side column, at the top is a little bit about me and below is a link to my Etsy shop where you will find my jewelry for sale. Next are three links to other places on line you can follow me. The first is my Pinterest page, one of my favourite past times lately. If you haven't discovered it yet take a peek, so much eye candy! Second is twitter. This is something I'm new at and still trying to figure out but if you're a fan please give me a shout or I guess I should say 'tweet'. Thirdly is my Facebook page. I put a lot of my daily creative happenings up here, so if  you'd like a few extra peeks at my projects I'm working on, come on over and like me.

Next is a few ways to keep track of my blog posts. The first is to join the site to follow posts and the second is to follow by e-mail which will send you e-mails every time I post so you won't miss a thing.

Keep going down and you'll find labels and archives to help find past posts. And a list of some my favourite Artist's blogs.

Coming to the bottom of this column you will find information about workshops and lot's of photos of past and present classes. If you see something here that you're interested in learning but don't see it on my workshop schedule I'd love to hear about it. I'm always interested to know what people would like to see on my schedule for the next session.

So that's about it for how the blog is laid out right now. I've been tweaking the colours and banner every now and then so I'd love to hear what you think of the look as it is right now.

Thanks for taking the tour with me.

Happy Creating
Wendy

Win a tag!

Let's start this week with some fun! Since I've been doing so much reorganizing and moving of my studio I found some things that I had forgotten about. So when I started to put all my tags together I've made over the years I was surprised to see how many there were. I just don't know where to hang them all so I've decided to give away one each Monday for the rest of the year. So what do you have to do to have a chance to win it? Well just leave a comment below to let me know you'd like it and your name will be entered into the special Dragonfly Dreamers give away bag and randomly drawn on each Friday of that week. Good luck and share the love.

Happy Creating
Wendy