Antiqued Silver fold out Accordion locket necklace, (Holds 4 pictures!) $34

This is such a unique locket, it opens like an accordion to hold 4 pictures! Embossed on the front of the locket is an intricate design with flowers, absolutely beautiful. I've given a brass owl a verdigris green patina, to add a bit of color, lovely!


Length- 22 inches
Locket/Large- 31x20x10mm

Closes with a lobster style clasp, and is hung on a high quality rhodium plated silver chain.

 NICKEL/LEAD FREE

I know my blog is usually for jewelry finds, but I had to share this awesome sunscreen.  I usually hate to wear sunscreen on my face, not with this stuff!  This sunscreen is awesome, and smells divine!  Try it out!

Dainty Sterling hammered heart bracelet, simple modern jewelry - $22.50

Delicate and petite sterling silver chain bracelet.



Handmade, sterling silver hammered heart sits at the center of this little beauty. A fine oxidized sterling chain holds the heart. Finished with a toggle clasp.



Please specify what length you would like the bracelet made in (5 1/2-8inches), other wise it will be made in the standard 7 inch length, thank you!



Enter my s...

Click Here to Visit My Etsy Shop!

Summer Sensations Treasury- 12 wonderful artists!!

My latest treasury featuring beautiful summertime finds :) Hope you all enjoy the creations from these wonderful artists!

(In Order From Top Left to right)

1. Eclectic Love Fabric Flower by RoseisRose
2. Happy Hedgehog Alternative Apparel Backstage Top by rainbowswirlz

3. Signed 8 x 10 Fine Art Photograph by NestaUsa

4. Beach Waves Hand Painted Mini Wedge Heels Sz. 7 by Crafttastrophe
5. flowering brooch by fleurfatale
6. MADE TO ORDER Set of Four Colorful Cereal Bowls by LynnCardwellPottery
7. Honey Bee Pin by sheridesthelion
8. Tree Wallet Mustard, Blue and Grey by getfeltup
9. Garden Party Fanfare Flower Messenger by magnolyadesigns
10. Spring Colors - Fabric Covered Buttons by missbutler
11. Spring colors soap trio ... by swanmountainsoaps
12. A Single Tree .... Eco Tote ... by seworiginal

<3> Show these artists some love!! :) <3>

Free Earrings!

I figured Mondays are always a little blah for me, so why not spice it up a little with a free shipping sale! I always love when one of my favorite etsians have some kind of sale like that, so I can go snatch up what I've been waiting to purchase!

I hope everyone loves it as much as me!

And whoever is my 300th customer, receives a FREE set of earrings (the ones pictured)! So spread the word so you can be the 300th! :)

A big Thank you for a beautiful front page!

Thank you Sigmosaics for a beautiful front page treasury!

For the Love of Treasuries....

Here is my latest Treasury! I haven't done one in awhile, it felt great to actually get one this time! :-) I hope you all like it!

How to Create an Etsy Banner Using GIMP...

Creating an Etsy Banner using GIMP

How do you like my new banner? :-) I used GIMP!! Took forever, but I love it!

♥ I just wanted to say a quick thanks to Luchi Creations for making this tutorial!


This is the GIMP version of daniellexo's instructions for creating an Etsy banner in PhotoShop. I am not a graphic artist, I don't work for Etsy, and I'm new to GIMP. Without daniellexo's instructions for PhotoShop Etsy Banners, I wouldn't have been able to figure out GIMP as easily. Thanks Daniellexo!! You can find her PhotoShop instructions here.

Follow daniellexo's tip on finding a font and Step 1 to find a picture/graphic (not stolen).
Hint for fonts: http://www.dafont.com/

GIMP Step 2.
Crop your image by clicking the "select rectangular image" icon which is the top left icon on GIMP's tool panel.



Once you selected the icon go to your image and draw a wide rectangle, keep in mind this will be the area you are cropping to.

Step 2 a: On the menu bar, select Image, Crop Image



GIMP Step 3
Scale your image to the Etsy banner width 760.

On menu bar select Image, Scale Image.

In the pop up box enter 760 for the Image width.

Click the button "Scale".




GIMP Step 4
Creating the Etsy banner length of 100.

On menu bar, select Image, Canvas Size.

In the pop up box, click on the image of the chain link that connects width and height together.

Now the chain will look broken.

Change the height to 100.

You will see your image in the preview box of this screen, move your image around to make sure you are getting the part of the image you want on the canvas. When satisfied click the button "Resize".



GIMP Step 5
Add some text, like your shop name....

In GIMP tool panel, select the T icon, third row, far right. Now select the area on your image where you want to place text. A GIMP text edit will open, enter your text here. Do not close the editor yet.

Go back to the GIMP tool panel, choose your font style, font size, and color.



P.S. You can later move the text around my selecting the arrow icon in second row, second from right.

Final Step - Save and Upload
NOTE:
I didn't try out all the extras for growing images and such but GIMP does have the magic wand, see GIMP tool panel, icon first row forth from the left.

After you are done playing and editing you are ready to upload! Make sure you save your new banner to your PC!!! File, Save as.. Chose a name! Remember you you saved it!

Login to Etsy, goto Your Etsy, Appearance, under Banner select Browse. Find and select the image you just saved, select Open. Select orange button "Save changes".

Your done! Enjoy your banner!!!

For The Love of Nature- my new line

I'm so excited about my new line of bird's nest jewelry. This is my first bird's nest necklace, and I also have the earrings listed, with even a cute ring to match!! I have to say I made myself one and wear it constantly! I love it! I hope everyone else will too... I haven't had much time to blog lately, I've been working quite a bit, and I will be working even more this weekend (probably about 24 hours in 2 days) So I figured before I went into work I would show everyone my new design. This week I am going to set aside some time specially for blogging, I have some great ideas for adding tutorials to my shop that I want to share with everyone. Pretty exciting!

Gotta Show the Men Some Love!

I decided after having several of my Husband's friend's ask me why I didn't have any guy's jewelry on my site, to add some! So this is one of my first of hopefully many more men's designs. Of course I like the rings enough, I made myself a set :-) So I guess it could be considered unisex, what do you think? I love them! Stay tuned for more of the manly men series :-D

My Latest Treasury...

What a wonderful collection of talented artists! I absolutely LOVE these colors, I hope it gets the artisans some extra exposure! I know we need everything we can get on Etsy :-)

A day in the Life..

A Day in The Life of Amber........

That was this morning when the girls were coloring..... on themselves.... I take the markers away and up on the table they go. Well it's been about an hour (I hadn't given Ava a bath yet to get the marker off) and as I'm walking downstairs from putting laundry away, I see Ava looking at me while sitting on the couch, with another marker in her hand!! Where she found it I don'tknow, but now this is what I see.... LOL I had to take pictures of course!

How to Find People on Twitter....

One of the benefits to spending time on Twitter is that it's a great way to network. But if you are new to Twitter, it can seem difficult to find people that are in your industry or that share your interests. Here's some tips to help get you started meeting new friends on Twitter!

There doesn't seem to be any way to "find" anyone unless you already know them from somewhere else. How do you make new acquaintances with similar interests? What's the point in marketing via Twitter if you can't figure out how to get heard?"

This is a real concern, but thankfully there's several resources that can help you expand your network of friends on Twitter.

First, start on Twitter itself. At the top right of your Twitter homepage you will see a search box that lets you not only search for people, but also by location or any other term that might be in their Twitter profile. If you are looking for other Twitter members in Michigan, search for Michigan, and Twitter will give you a listing of all the members that have their location identified as being 'Michigan'. Or you can search for anyone with 'Etsy' in their profile, or 'social media', or any other term you can think of.


Another great way to find people that share your interests is with the Twitter Packs wiki. Here you can find Twitter users by subject matter, you can find companies that have a presence on Twitter, and even locate people by region. If you are interested in meeting other Twitter members that focus on 'jewelry'. for example, you can view the list, and even add yourself to this same list so that other members can find you!

My favorite search tool for Twitter is Tweetscan. With Tweetscan, you can search for topics, people, places, anything. You can also search and make sure that you have seen all the replies to you that other Twitter members have left. Just search for '@YourTwitterName'. Sometimes the web version of Twitter as well as Twhirl will miss some of your replies.

But perhaps the best way to meet new people on Twitter is to follow the people that your friends are following. Watch the conversations unfolding, and if you see that one of your friends is having an interesting conversation and replying to someone that you aren't following, then click on that person's name and check out their Twitter page. It could be that they are someone that you would like to follow.

With these tools, you should be able to expand your Twitter network significantly. And the best part is, your Twitter experience becomes much richer and more rewarding as you follow more people.

List of Jewelry Suppliers

Beads and Gemstones
anybeads.com/index.php ~ great variety & prices
www.beadwright.etsy.com and www.nicolecampanella.com - seed beady supplies and tuts
CrysallisGEMS.etsy.com – really super quality and great service.
DerondaDesign - fabulous lampwork goodness. Great customer service.
www.StudioMarcy.etsy.com - SRA lampwork artist with fabulous and cute works of lampwork art
inmcrystal.com/ GREAT prices on Swarovskis, plus Bali
thebeadyeye.com/shop/
www.artbeads.com - free shipping on all sales, regardless of size
www.auntiesbeads.com/ ~ sign up for newsletter on sales
www.beadaholique.com - they have some items no one else does
www.firemountaingems.com - well, really, what can’t you get at FMG?
www.fusionbeads.com - very much like Artbeads, a little different selection, with free shipping
www.gemshow-online.com/ ~ sign up for sales newsletters, free ship over $25.
www.halsteadbead.com - great prices but $100 minimum order
www.jewelweaver.com - gemstones, Bali silver
www.lampwork.net/ ~ Gorgeous Lampworks by Kandice Seeber
www.nilecorp.com - packaging, displays, jewelry trays
Pure Beads great variety of mostly Czech glass beads, fire-polished and pressed glass.
www.riogrande.com - equipment and metal, lots of cool cabs too
www.tammystreasures.etsy.com -
www.theearthbazaar.com – great gemstones
www.whimbeads.com - flip tops in different sizes, plus seed beads and czech glass
www.znetshows.com/ - Wholesale beads and gemstones tins
beadbead.etsy.com/ (used to be bluewater studio)
lillysbeadbox.etsy.com
rtsy.etsy.com
beadznmore.etsy.com
http://serenasbeadery.com/
studiorent.etsy.com
Stoned.Etsy.com
Bellbohemian.Etsy.com
Brightlings Beads.com
Beads2String.etsy.com
Eavesdrop.etsy.com
DuetSupplies.etsy.com
Magpiegemstones.com

Findings, Wire, Chain
www.monsterslayer.com - lots of cool metal, fine silver, etc, also some stones and other odds and ends. AWESOME service!!
www.azur1.com/ Finished snake chain
stores.channeladvisor.com/accessoriessusan/ brass and silver beads, wraps, finding, and other vintage style and free shipping
http://www.finedings.com- findings, Swarovskis, some Bali, all at competitive prices
www.thunderbirdsupply.com - mostly metal for me
www.tierracast.com - lots of really cool jewelry findings and charms
www.mermaidsdowry.etsy.com - cool brass findings
www.ninadesigns.com - wonderful silver charms
The Ring Lord Chainmail supplies, including jump rings in aluminum too
www.shiana.com/ gorgeous Thai Karen Hill Tribes & Fair Trade silver

Shipping and Packing Supplies
www.royalmailers.com/home.php - Bubble Mailers *Free Shipping* Best prices online. AWESOME service!!
www.fetpak.com/index.html ~ great bulk rates for gift packaging & free shipping
www.papermart.com/
www.skunkgrove.com - flip tops
www.specialtybottle.com/index.asp - Supplier of bottles, jars and tin containers.
Nashvillewraps.com - Great gift boxes, bags, ribbon and paper. Great prices too.

If you are a jewelry artist, I’d love to add your favorite suppliers to my list. Know any more you can recommend?

TOP 10 TUESDAY for Jan 27th

♥ Top 10 Tuesday For Jan 27th ♥

1. Fused Glass Candleholder
2. Secret Love
3. Felted Tea Cozy
4. Sterling Silver Button Cufflinks
5. stick it to the cell dominOh effect pin
6. Spread the Love Card
7. Handpainted Purple Tree Resin Pendant
8. Winter tree Art Photo
9. Brown and Black Fleck Bag
10. Copper Tab Earrings
    

Tune in to my Twitter channel every Tuesday at 1:00 for the top 10...

TOP TEN TUESDAY!!

♥ TOP TEN TUESDAY!! ♥

I decided that I wanted to give some love to my fellow Etsy artists by holding a top ten contest each week. So this is the first week for the top ten! WooHoo!!
Hop on over to my Twitter channel every Tuesday at 1:00 for the top 10, I have over 1,800 followers that are ready to see the top ten!
*******************************************************************************
If you would like to have your Etsy shop considered Leave a comment on this blog post showing me your favorite items!

Also post your Etsy shop in the Forums>
HERE is the Thread for this week.

My Favorite Search Keywords

I installed Google Analytics on my Etsy site (www.beadinbabe.etsy.com) last month. I sell wire wrapped jewelry, and custom soldered rings and the like. It's pretty funny to see some of the searchwords used to find me.. wierd, but funny!

People have found me through the following keyword searches:

1. Instant Human, Just Add Coffee <-- HAHA, Best By Far!!!

2. Cheap Rabbit Treats

3. Willie Warmer

4. Etsy Sellers Who Have Been Blacklisted <--( what is blacklisted??)

5. Zebra Light Switch

6. Talk Nerdy To me Tee Shirt

7. Cheap, Ugly, Made by inexpierenced jewelry makers <--- Now that's just Mean!! And untrue! LOL

8. Corn Poo Blog

9. Pierced Boob Magnets

10. Thai Fisherman Pants

11. Table Runners, Pinecones

Now That's what I call some crazy search words!! hahaha

How To Increase Your Etsy Business..

Twitter is an amazing promotional tool as well as a way to meet some awesome people! It definitely helps increase your Etsy views and business. If you aren't utilizing it to it's fullest, here's how :-)

On Etsy your RSS feed is linked directly from your shop, and every time you update or renew an item 'twitterfeed' will automatically post it to twitter for you. You can even set up the timel you want them to update, like every hour or every 24 hours, it's great! You can set up your twitterfeed account to automatically update to twitter like this... :-)

1. Go to... http://twitterfeed.com

2. Make an Open ID, Click the blue (more), it will take to to where you can create an openID, I used vidoop, and created a new OpenID with my Etsy Username...

3. It will give you an activation code sent to you email, after you get that, you can log in to www.twitterfeed.com with your New OpenID name,
For example, mine is now http://beadinbabe.myvidoop.com/ ...

4. It will have you fill out your info..name, birthday ect. Then will ask for the RSS URL of the account you want to feed

**To find your RSS go to your Etsy Site to 'Shop Home' on the right side of your screen, scroll down and you will see a little orange and grey RSS feed box, click on that..It will take you to your RSS feed, go up the the URL, highlight that and copy it. This is what you will insert in the twitterfeed as the URL you want to feed from :-)

4. It then asks what you want to feed (title and description or just title) You can choose whichever you Like. The Prefix for each tweet is what will be put up in front of every RSS that is sent through to Twitter.

6. Make sure your active box is checked.

7. Click Create! You are all set!! This will make things much easier when using twitter since all of your renewals and new listings will automatically be posted to twitter for you. Good luck! :-)

Have fun tweeting!! :-) www.twitter.com/beadinbabe

Season of Love...

WOOHOOOO!! I'm SO excited!!



My heart necklace ^ was selected for the *Season of Love* poll on the Storque!! This is my first time ever being picked for anything! Even a poll! lol

Katie, an intern for the Etsy blog contacted me and told me to "Make sure to spread the word, blog the link, and let people know about it so that they can vote for your item! The top favorite items will be featured in the Gift Guides and on the Etsy blog. Share the love!"

So that's what I'm doing!! Will you help me? Thanks everyone!

PLEASE VOTE FOR ME! > http://www.etsy.com/voter_list.php?ref=voter&room_id=28 Thank You Everyone!!!

I've Been Tagged.....

I've Been Tagged

Courtney just tagged me with a meme. This is my first one.

The way it works:
1. Go to the 4th picture folder on your computer.
2. Post the 4th picture in that folder.
3. Explain the picture.
4. Tag 4 more people.

Here’s my picture:

This is so funny!! This is a picture of my little girl almost 1 1/2 ago when we were in Florida at Disney World on vacation, we were waiting for the bus to take us back to the hotel. She looks like such a goofball! LOL! She had just eaten dip-n-dots and decided to make a hat out of the container, I took a picture just as it was falling off her head! What sweet memories :-) Thanks Courtney!

http://www.thismilitarymama.com/, http://athenasolivetree.blogspot.com/, http://tiltcreations.blogspot.com/, and http://lemondropstudio.blogspot.com/

But, if anyone else wants to do it, go ahead
& leave me a comment if/when you do! :]