Designs By Grace

what im currently working on....

2011-01-28T21:54:00.001-08:00

baby boy, due feb 26th

i did some crafty things for the nursery and i will post those pictures soon

it was a warning of an empty space in between

2010-06-10T10:43:00.000-07:00

so, i have been majorly slacking! i have been making jewelry, but i havent been taking pictures of it for etsy. i have, however, become obsessed with editing pictures in picnik. here are some of my favorite before and afters

my parents backyard:

somewhere in virginia:

self-portrait:

sign at coopers rock:

listening: meiko
reading: design blogs, pmc information

give a gal a little time to think

2010-05-14T20:20:00.000-07:00

i have been very busy creating the last couple of weeks! i wanted to do several posts with pictures of the creating processes, but its hard bc my hards are covered in oil and clay. i did manage to get some pictures when they were finished.

- i bought some sculpey baking clay to make harder molds and i love it. i also splurged on a sculpey work n bake mat and i am in love with it! the underside is non-skid! and when im done making my molds i just pop it on a cookie sheet and in the oven. here are a few molds that i recently made.

these are mostly stamps:

made from heilcopter seeds!

i haven't made anything with them yet, bc i need to order more pmc. i am super excited to try the helicopter seed molds!

listening: bess rogers
reading: crafting blogs, forums on pmc

a boy with a coin he found in the weeds

2010-04-30T20:04:00.000-07:00

i made a couple of molds today for the first time. i think they turned out pretty well. i used a 2 part molding putty that doesnt require baking. i might eventually make stronger molds of certain designs if i use them a lot, but for now this works. here was my process in pictures.

* first i found things that would make interesting molds

* then you mix equal parts of the putty

* press items firmly into putty and wait 20 minutes

* remove items from mold and you are left with an imprint that is flexable!

* i also make a mold from a cute bird stamp

i cant wait to make silver pieces from my molds! thats the next step, hopefully it will happen this weekend.

listening: iron & wine

i came for the drinks but i stayed for the love

2010-04-29T18:45:00.000-07:00

it was a very exciting day in my craft world! i started my day by shipping out etsy orders, went to michaels where i spent too much money, then spent the rest of the day painting on my porch

i found the perfect burnt orange paint for my painting. its so close to being done!

this section is my all time favorite mixing/shading that i have ever done.

and the light was gorgeous on my porch!

listening: i cant stop listening to william elliott whitmore, especially latitudes!

the little cracks they escalated

2010-04-23T12:38:00.000-07:00

I feel like I am in a creative rut. I want to create, but I can't figure out what. I had supplies strung out all over my desk last night and I just stared at it, hoping something would jump out at me. It didn't. So, I decided to work on the boring side of estying. I took pictures, listed items, organized supplies. It felt good to be productive, but I was still lacking that inspiration. I decided to give up and go to bed thinking that today would be better. So far it isn't. I, again, took pictures, relisted, looked at other crafty blogs and I got nothin'.

Does this happen to you? What do you do to get your creative juices flowing again?

In the past, mine has come back pretty quickly. I can look through my supplies, my sketch book (which is pathetic bc I cant draw!), my idea box and get some spark. But in the last month or so it hasnt worked. I was hoping the pressure of the blog would help a bit too. Nothing. Well, I'm off to keep trying...

listening: Once soundtrack

i have just begun a long journey...

2010-04-20T16:57:00.000-07:00

...that will run
the length and width of summer time
and the cool fall air will guide me home
yeah the cool fall air will blow me home

I have a love/hate relationship with organization. I normally love to do it and I get excited about it. I'd like to think that I am very good at it. The hate part comes in when I hit a problem. I can organize to a point and then I get super frustrated and don't want to do it anymore. Then I get even more mad b/c there is nothing worse than a half organized project. In my case that normally means that the things that haven't been put nicely away are everywhere! Then they just sit.

I started to enter my etsy items into spreadsheets with information such as: price, description, how many, if I have materials to make more, if there is a good picture, and if it is listed on etsy. i also gave each item a code number to identify it easier. In the begining this project was amazing. I was so excited, I could find my items easier and know what I needed to update. However, now I'm getting annoyed. I have everything that is currently on etsy entered, but I have so much more to do!

I love sitting down and making jewelry and I even sometimes enjoy taking the tedious pictures. But I hate listing for some reason. I feel like I get writers block everytime I have to come up with a title and description. So, I probably have hundreds of items that haven't been photographed and therefore haven't been listed. This is one of the many new goals that I have set for myself to re-vamp my etsy site.

Two organization projects that I managed to finish:

* On the top shelf are my shipping supplies and the next shelf is a portion of my inventory

* I bought a ton of the plastic containers and seperated my beads by color

listening: sarah jarosz

Hello!

2010-04-19T15:33:00.001-07:00

I have many high hopes for this blog, so we will see how it goes.

I would like to:

* Feature projects in pictures
* Feature my handmade goodies daily
* Help other etsians by featuring my favorite items

And pretty much anything else on a creative note. I will probably also end up posting my pictures bc I take a ton! Also, I have a huge love of music and I know that will be talked about as well.

Well, I think that's enough of this boring first post. Hope to get more exciting soon!