London

Here is one of my fun resin projects....it is so nice to finally use all the little snippets of vintage and antique papers I have been hoarding. I knew someday they would get some good use! I was lucky enough to travel to London with a girlfriend about 6 years ago. It was a wonderful trip and I hope to return someday with the DH. I hope this necklace will bring back wonderful memories for someone too. You can find this piece in my Etsy shop.

Flap Your Wings

It has been a busy week! Now that my open house is behind me and all the hub bub of Thanksgiving is done I have to concentrate on getting my shop loaded with some new items. This week I hope to finally give the copper etching a try. I have been waiting for a time when I could just focus on that. If anyone has any special tips they would like to share I sure would appreciate it. I am going to use the peroxide and acid mixture.

"Flap Your Wings" butterfly necklace can be found on my website.

Australian Chrysoprase

There is so much to do....so little time! Getting ready for my Trunk Show & Sale on Friday, yikes! I am trying to get some new things made and this bracelet is one of them. I am very pleased with the simpleness of this design, the stones say it all. You can find this on my website

I am sure everyone is getting ready for their Thanksgiving feast, cooking, cleaning and some will be traveling. We won't be visiting family this holiday as we were back to Massachusetts and Connecticut this past spring, instead we will be walking across the lawn to our good friends house, what a treat it will be for me not having to cook. I know it will be a lovely day spent with good friends.

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them." John Fitzgerald Kennedy

The day after...

I had a fantastic show yesterday....the best yet, I still can't believe it! The show had great traffic all day with customers that were buying. I could not believe how busy I was! I do believe offering to accept credit cards is a huge plus, and I have been extremely pleased with Propay, the service I have been using, half of my sales were credit card sales and it makes me wonder how many sales I would have lost if I did not offer this service.

These photos are not the best, as I used my I-phone to take them. My booth is always a work in progress, tweaking the best way to display my wares and draw people to the booth. My use of antiques is a big help , people are drawn to the antique typewriter and pictures and such. Half of the battle is to get people to come into your booth. As I looked around the show and saw many booths that did not have traffic, I believe it is the lack of a good display. You can have the best things but if if they are not displayed well no one will notice. A back drape would be a good addition to my display, but I need to figure that one out. Like I said, it is a work in progress and evolves until it feels right.



There was one booth that was very simple but eye catching, called "Squirrel In The Attic". The name itself was a stopper! Jennifer a young military wife is the creative graphic designer behind this greeting card business. Her cards make you smile, laugh and say awwww! I kept going back and buying more. After talking to her I learned that she has an Etsy shop, so I told her I would post her to my blog. I sure hope you will go and check out her shop and her wonderful fun cards.

Peddling my Wares

Getting ready for a show is a lot of work, but I love it! I enjoy setting up and creating an inviting space for shopping. This afternoon I head over to the Embassy Suites Hotel in Murfreesboro Tn. to set up my wares for the Holly Day Marketplace to be held tomorrow. With a pre-show sale starting at 8:30am and the admission costing $35 I sure hope we have some serious shoppers ( maybe the mimosas and appetizers will loosen them up!).

A last minute bracelet I finished at 11:15 pm ( I am a night owl) featuring one of Summer Studios wonderful ceramic charms. I just LOVE Leanne's work! Have you checked out her little birdies, they are the cutest! You can find Blue Moss in my Flapyourwings Etsy shop.

Have a great day and weekend, I hope the sun shines on you where ever you are!

Sweet Pea...and the winner is!

And now for the drum roll....The winner of my Autumn Giveaway is Sara from Arts Afire, please get in contact with me so I can get your mailing address. Congratulations!!

I saw a little pea pod necklace like this in the latest Rings and Things supplement catalog, I could not resist making one. I had just received my new custom make fonts for stamping from Fundametals.net and thought it would be a great time to try them out.

I just love my new stamps, but will need to get use to using them as they line up a little different than the ones I currently use. I think I will try to make some tiny pea pods with tiny pearls, these are just a tad big for me, but it was a good experiment.

I am in LOVE with these little blue swallows from Patina Queen! This sweet little necklace is called Woodland Dreams and you can find it on my website.

Batman...don't you see it?

Here is my boy Jack as he suns himself today. He found himself the biggest sunbeam he could. I thought about joining him, how relaxing!

Doesn't Jacks shadow looks just like the "Bat" building in downtown Nashville, known also as The AT&T building. Check it out and you will agree!

Ok, last chance for my Autumn giveaway...I will be drawing the lucky winner in the AM.

Etsy Facebook Application

Etsy has come out with an app for your facebook profile or fan page. It is a great application and easy to do. Now you can have your Etsy shop on your facebook page, how cool is that?

Go to My Etsy and follow the directions. One little note: When adding the tab to your profile or fan page you may not see it in the drop down box but if you type in MyEtsy in the little search at the bottom it will bring it up.

Don't forget to enter my Autumn Giveaway! I have extended the drawing until Tuesday Am.

FUN FOR ALL!

Whimsical Trinket Charm Bracelet

I have a nice little stash of bits and pieces, doo dads and the such in my studio, you just never know when you might need one of those things. Lets face it we all have a little stash of things to some extent, be it a junk drawer or work table or that basket of found items you have in the laundry room all those things you found in the dryer. So last night I decided to put some of my trinket stash to good use and created a charm bracelet. Many of the trinkets I used are vintage and some of them are new. I especially love the "Good Time Token" I think it says it all and on the reverse side it says "Fun For All". There you go...what more do you need?

So what do you save? What is the one thing you just can't throw out?
Don't forget to check out my Autumn giveaway. ~ Enter Here ~ Drawing to be held on Tuesday Am.

A small key opens big doors

"A small key opens big doors" Textured brass and hand stamped copper are joined together with a brass rivet to make a wonderful focal necklace. Wire wrapped agate beads are added as well as an antique key. This long copper necklace measures 34 1/4" long with a hand wrought brass hook and eye and a sweet dangle in the back. You can find this piece on my website.

Don't forget to check out my giveaway! These copper heat treated earrings could be yours! A winner will be chosen on Tuesday AM.
ENTER HERE !

Autumn Giveaway

I have been thinking it is time for a giveaway and can you guess what it will be???.... Earrings! Ever since Leslie of Bei Mondi had her earring swap I have been making lots of them, so I thought lets share a pair with you! I will make the lucky winner a pair of earrings like the ones above (these were sold right away, yay!) Copper textured and heat treated for some cool color. All you have to do is blog about this giveaway become a Facebook fan or give a little tweet out about the giveaway.

So there you go.... let me know what you did and you are entered and are good to go. I will draw the lucky winner on Tuesday Am. Good luck folks!

New Beginnings

New Beginnings...is a one of a kind necklace with a resin focal pendant. The resin piece is one of the new pieces I recently made. This unique necklace is created with hand wrought brass links with dangles of picassa glass beads with rich natural colors that reflect the changing colors of the leaves. A new beginnings of a sweet little brass wire bird nest with antique pearls dangle is added.

You can find New Beginnings on my web site Judith B. Designs.

Marketing Newsletter

It has taken me awhile but I have finally accomplished this task, I created an email Newsletter. I am not going to say it is very easy but the time I put in was worth it and there is lots to learn. Since I started doing some shows I really needed a way to communicate with the customers who signed up on my mailing list. The majority of people all email, out of 54 I had one person who did not. This newsletter will keep these folks informed of my show schedule, new products and special sales. Even though I do have a Facebook fan page and that kind of does the same thing, you just can't go and make people sign up for that, however even though people sign up for the newsletter they still can opt out easily. So how did I find this great site you ask.... well Via Etsy I found Mail Chimp a free site where you can host your list of names and create custom newsletters. You are probably wondering how do you know the folks get the mail...well Mail Chimp has a great reports section breaking every little thing down, like how many people opened the email,clicked a link, opted out, what time of day and who opened it. A lot of info, also a smidge scary too, but it is great marketing information. Now don't be afraid so and check it out!

Here is my first newsletter:http://eepurl.com/eP87

Autumn in Tennessee

Today was a stupendously warm and sunny day! A perfect day actually! The DH and I took a nice walk on the greenway and took in all the warm sun and autumn smells. I just love the sound and smell of the crunching leaves! The greenway is a few miles from our home and goes through the meadows and meanders around the creek. It is a great walk and so pretty.







Yesterday I had my second show and it was great! I was a little apprehensive at first because there was so much jewelry, but only one other real "handcrafted" jewelry booth. I guess the show was more of an upscale bazaar with a lot of company's showing their wares as well. It turned out well for me and I was able to get lots of names for my new newsletter that I have been working all day on! (be sure to sign up!)

I was very pleased with my display, however it is still a work in process. Lots of people are drawn to the antiques I use as displays so that is a big help.