Christmas Corner at Maude Cobb

The Christmas Corner Arts and Crafts Extravaganza is happening early this year! Do some holiday shopping (Halloween and Christmas) now and relax later!

Where: Maude Cobb Convention Center

When:
Friday 9-5
Saturday 9-5
Sunday 11-4

Price: Tickets are $5.

My friend, Josie, and I are sharing a booth again this year. We figure scrapbooking and pictures go together well. I'll try to remember to take a picture of our booth this year... I totally forgot last year!

We're also going to be neighbors to Alison, Janette and Amy. Check out Amy's creations in her etsy shop: Amy's Little Bowtique. Notice her bottlecap bows? Hmmm, for some reason, those amazing bottlecaps look very familiar... I love how Amy put them in her bows!

So, come out to shop, chat and sample yummy food (no food in our booth, unfortunately), and, make sure you stop by and say hi, too!

When nothing else will do...

I began making Scrabble Tile Necklaces not too long ago. I'm really enjoying them! I had a great idea for how to disply them using stick pins on a corkboard. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any pins that turned the right direction.

So, I got out my hubby's needle nose pliers and a box of stick pins and started working. I knew exactly what I wanted, so I didn't mind the effort involved.

I started with a beautiful framed corkboard from Hobby Lobby (half off, of course). Then I used crochet string (or whatever it's called) and I began a grid.


Almost done...


Finished! Now, that wasn't too bad, was it? Um, yes, yes, it was because I wanted to make sure everything was perfectly, evenly spaced. But, I got pretty close and I was pleased with the grid.


Then I used a Sharpie marker and put a dot at each intersection on the grid.


Then, at each dot, I put a twisted and warped... um, I mean, lovingly shaped and bent push pin.


You can see it took two bends to get the shape I wanted so that the bail of the pendant would sit flat and the pendant would hang just right.


After I shaped about half of the pins, I began removing them one row at a time, adding a dab of glue, and then putting the pins back in. About 1/3 of the way through, I realized that it would have been quicker to not put them in the corkboard until I was ready to glue them down. That would've saved me an unnecessary step. Oh, well.

Here is the finished display on a beautiful easel. The easel was a splurge--it wasn't on sale!--but it was love at first sight! I even bought a cheaper one somewhere else and decided I just really wanted this one. So, I returned the first one and bought the one I liked best and we lived happily ever after.


I really think this will be eye-catching at craft shows!

I think I have one of those personalities where I get addicted to things. My life was just fine and complete until I discovered I could make Scrabble Tile Pendants and now I just. can't. stop.


I suppose I'm not really *trying* to stop...


Here are a few pretty pendants. I was taking pictures to list them in my etsy shop and I decided I liked the one in the front with the color bursts. So, it's not going to be for sale. Sorry.


But, I have lots more. And, I do mean *lots*!


Here's another favorite that I haven't quite decided if I'm keeping or selling. If you're quick, you might beat me...


Someday, it will stop raining here and I'll have some decent lighting to take pictures of the necklaces available to hang the Scrabble tile pendants and my photo pendants from. But, not yet...

A little Japanese


A little modern


A little swirly


I would say check out my etsy shop for more Scrabble pendants, but I haven't listed any yet! So, don't go check out my etsy shop for Scrabble pendants. Although, you can go check it out for bottlecap necklaces! *grin*

Bottle Cap Choker Necklaces

I was so pleased with how my niece's bottle cap necklaces turned out, that I caught the bottle cap bug and began looking for great images to use, more bottlecaps to purchase and tips on how to keep the lacquer from bubbling. I just jumped in with both feet! I come by that tendency naturally, as my mom is the exact same way!

I discovered that there are crafty people out there that sell images that are the perfect size for bottle cap necklaces! Yay! So, I spent hours poring over different images searching for my favorites.

After I had made about 200 or more bottlecaps, I decided I ought to make the choker necklaces for the caps to attach to. So, I learned, through trial and error, what to use for the necklaces.

Then I went back and forth with a few ideas, trying to think of how to display the necklaces and bottlecaps at craft shows. I have come up with one favorite idea, although I'm open for any brainstorming anyone else can come up with, and I thought I'd share my idea for how to store and display the necklaces.


So far, I have black, white, bright pink and pale pink. I haven't been able to find other colors, but, really, those are the most common colors in my bottlecaps.


I'll probably have the jars sitting on the table with the lids off. And maybe have a few out of the jar?


The magnets on the back of the bottlecaps attach to the metal wahers.


You can mix and match chokers to bottlecaps.


Side view of the way the cap snaps onto the choker.


Back view.


A few samples of the necklaces I've been busy making. Tinkerbell galore!


"boy crazy" with some bling


You can wear more than one choker at a time for a layered look.


"Drama Queen"


Cinderella


Mix and match chokers


"You want thing-a-ma-bobs? I've got twenty!"


I have skateboarders, fun phrases, sports, cheerleading, you name it, I either have it or I can find it. I'm very excited to see how these sell!

Maude Cobb Christmas Corner

Well, this weekend was Longview's Christmas Corner at Maude Cobb. This is my second year to sell my items at it. Last year, I shared a booth and was very pleased when they had extra room and we both ended up getting a full booth space (at only half the cost).

This year, I decided to get a booth alone and see how it went. My friend, Mandy, was going to share the booth with me and use a small corner for her photography business, but then she had to go and move! (You know I love you, Mandy!) :-) So, I invited my other photographer friend, Josie, to join me.

I brought my camera to take a picture of our wonderfully amazing booth, but just never got around to taking a picture. I was lazy... Just take my word for it that we were the coolest booth in the joint! :-)

One of my newest additions to my display items was this cool locker!

I was so excited to get it and set it up! Doesn't it look so cool!


Unfortunately, it's not magnetic. Silly me. I didn't realize that it would be wood! Oh, well.


As I was putting it together, I had everything spread all out across the livingroom floor. Slade was doing something on the computer and when he finished, he scooted his chair back and we heard this terrible "crack!" Here's the back... Notice the hole?


Just the size of the leg of the chair... Oops! :-)


But, it wasn't noticeable when it was on the table at the Christmas Corner.

It was a long weekend (all day Friday, all day Saturday and half a day on Sunday), but the time flew by! It went so much quicker having someone there with me--to chat with, to help take money. We both got good at giving each other's info and laughed together at people that didn't even hear us as we talked and talked about our products and services. Also, we knew quite a few of the people that came through to shop and enjoyed getting to chat and catch up.

All in all, a great weekend and very profitable for me. It was also a great way for Josie to get her name out to more people. She filled her calendar from now to Christmas!

Back in School Again

I had my first craft show of the season this weekend in Gladewater, Texas. It seems to get smaller each year, but it was still a great show for me!

My friend, Christy, came with me on Saturday and my mom came with me on Sunday. I enjoyed both days very much.

Christy and I were brainstorming better ways to set up my tables to give them height since most of what I sell is flat *grin* and came up with the idea to look for a locker of some sort. I could put paper bag albums inside and then magnets and refrigerator scrapbooks on the outside. I couldn't wait to get home and look up lockers.

I was thinking about buying a real, full-size single locker, but then I found this:


It was exactly what I was looking for! It won't be too heavy or long to tote back and forth to shows, but it is definitely a locker and people will be able to tell right away!

Now I'm even more excited about my next craft show!