One World One Heart Giveaway Winner Announcement

Well I drew the name last night but decided to wait until I was more awake to post the name and blog of the winner. The One World One Heart trip was great and I met some wonderful bloggers on my worldwide travels.

Okay here is the winner. It is Thespoena McLaughlin of Vintiquities Workshop. Check out her blog if you have time. Now you are wondering what she wins, well she wins this box of goodies.

Congrats to Thespoena and all the other lucky winners throughout the world.

The Best Bead Giveaway Ever Offered By Denise Yezbak Moore

Oh, my gosh, can you imagine winning all of this stash of beads or even just a part of it. My giveaway may be over but you can certainly get in on this one. There is over 7 1/2 lbs of beads here. The giveaway ends on July 2nd so you better jump on over to Denise's blog Bling It On! and enter.

Okay, it's not like I don't have beads because as most of you know, I do, but we would all love more beads. What would you do with all these beads?

Remodel Update: Yes, we are still in the middle of the big kitchen remodel. Today paint went on the walls and tomorrow we pick up the cabinets so that the contractor can install them.....woo hoo. We almost have a kitchen back. The granite guys are scheduled for Thursday so by Friday it should look more like a kitchen. I'm still not sure when the floor and new window will go in. Wouldn't you think the window should be installed before the cabinets?  Humm, I may have to ask the contractor about that tomorrow.

I hope everybody is having a great week so far. Think of us in your nice clean and un-dusty house.

Winner of the CSN Giveaway

The winner is Rebecca. Congrats.

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:8Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Time for the Reveal

Bead Soup Reveal is here. I gave you a sneak peak last week but now you get to see the whole necklace and earring set. My bead soup partner, Cathryn sent me some wonderful beads in Summer colors. Be sure to hop over to her blog today and check out what she made. The first thing I made when I got down to it was the earrings.

Then I had to mull over the other beads for awhile. I knew I wanted to use the other orange open rectangle piece as a focal pendant so I made that.

I had some brass links that I had soldered so I set about placing all the other beads around and organizing them in a planned random pattern and ended up with this.

It turned out to be quite a long necklace, but that is what I wanted. I added the leather at the back to make it more comfortable and lighter weight.

This was a lot of fun and I highly recommend participating in bead swaps or challenges. Thanks to Lori Anderson over at Pretty Things for hosting the party.

If you want to check out all the other bead soup reveals today, head on over to Lori's blog where she has a complete list.

Don't forget about my giveaway for a $60.00 gift certificate to any of the CSN Stores. Here is the post if you would like to enter.

Has Summer Finally Arrived?

Be sure to enter for my giveaway on this post. You could win a $60.00 gift certificate to CSN Stores.com. Lots of wonderful items to use for yourself or as a gift.

We decided to get out of the house for awhile due to all the remodel dust and what do we find but wonderful weather. This morning it was sunny and 59 degrees. Now that may not seem warm to you but to those of us here in Washington State it's downright balmy especially if the sun is out. It was short, tank top and flip flops for me today. Ahhh, now if I could only get these allergies under control. I'm up to 2 Zyrtec a day, nose spray and eye drops....I'm not sure of what else I can try at this point. My only hope is that whatever is in the air will go away soon.

Have you check out the bead soup hop today. Head on over to Lori Anderson's Pretty Things blog and check out all the cool and amazing bead designs by today's artists. I'm getting caught up now in viewing them all. Such wonderful artists.

Come visit my post tomorrow for the big bead soup reveal.

Remodel Update Plus a Giveaway

Uugg, we are living with stud walls, no floor and lots of dust.

This is our kitchen.

Yes, we are having fun now. The plan is to work our way through the house. I won't even show you the picture of the dining room and living room which has all the kitchen appliances and dining room furniture and boxes in it. Oh and the dust. I don't know whether to clean every day or just leave it until we are finished.

So, in the dining room we will be refinishing the hard wood floors (carpet was already taken up) and then put crown molding around the top. Living room we will be doing the same thing. We are still up in the air about the office as we would like custom cabinets but then resale gets a little tricky as that is the spare bedroom also. Then we moved into our bedroom. Lots of ideas there besides just painting and replacing the carpet. I could do some redecorating. We got our new bed (no headboard yet) but haven't replaced any of the furniture. I could get a new bedroom vanity. Like this one.

This one would go with some of my antique furniture.

So, because I am living with so much remodeling I am hosting a giveaway. Yes, that's right just because I love all my readers...okay so I was given the opportunity to host a giveaway and it just so happens to be something that we would all love and that is a gift certificate for $60.00. The sponsor is CSN Stores, and Just Vanities is only one of 200+ sites they have that you can choose from to use the gift certificate.

This is an easy one to enter. 

1. Just hop over to Just Vanities and pick your favorite bedroom vanity and tell me what it is in a comment.

2. For an additional 2 entries blog about this post with a link back to me and to JustVanities.com. Oh be sure to leave me your blog address so I can check out your blog.

3. For more entries, tweet, facebook or use any other social media outlet to announce this giveaway and get one more entry.

Be sure to leave a separate comment for each entry. Yes, it is easier for me that way. I will use Random.org to generate the winner.

Things you should know. Please leave me your e-mail address so that the representative Jess from CSN Stores can get a hold of you if you are the winner. Also, please note that on some products you may have shipping charges to pay.

Deadline is June 27th at 9:00 pm PST, which is midnight EST.

Come on guys, $60.00 would make one great gift or even buy something nice for you. Like this laptop case, and look it's in my favorite color. You could send it to me. ha ha

How about a wedding gift or maybe you just need to update your steak knives. I know we just had to buy a new set for the motor home.

I'll remind you to enter throughout the week, but why not do it now while you are thinking about it.

Have a great day.

Giveaway by Casto Creations

If you follow my blog then you'll remember that I had a giveaway of several pieces of Copper jewelry not too long ago. Well if you liked that jewelry you will love this as it is the exact same set. I sent a set to Megan of Casto Creations for a review and now she is going to give it to one lucky winner. I'm sure that all of you would like another try at winning this great set, so head on over to Megan's blog Casto Creations Jewelry and enter.

The set includes a Swirl pendent on chain, Charm earrings, bangle bracelet, cluster ring and the jewelry pouch. It's a fun set that you could use or give as a gift.

As part of my reorganization of priorities, I actually finished a special order yesterday. I like being able to finish a project. Now to just finish all those gem trees that I have to mail on the 31st.

Don't forget to sign up for my newsletter....right hand column to get the coupon codes to purchase my book Gem Tree Sculptures at a $10 price vs. $17.99 and a special offer on any gem tree supplies or kits.

Imagine the Possibilities

I finally came up with my next tutorial idea..now just to document it and put all the steps down for you. To give you a little hint…. It will be an earring design that you could expand into a necklace. In fact, I have shown that design here on my blog last year, but I don’t think I’ll tell you which post it was. You will just have to wait until tomorrow.

REMINDER Enter to win all this Copper jewelry here on my blog. Easy to enter and there aren’t a slew of entries yet so you have a very good chance of winning. Click HERE to go to that post.







Until tomorrow friends, have a great and beautiful day.

The signs of Spring are here.

Giveaway Deadline is Approaching

For those of you that missed this post the Copper Giveaway ends on March 3rd, so enter today so you don't miss out. Here is the link. http://danasjewelrydesign.blogspot.com/2010/02/plethora-of-copper-giveaway.html
 You get everything you see pictured including the drawstring bag.




When it rains it pours and in the past week I landed 4 special orders. The first one I completed today which was for two bracelet and earring sets and a pair of charm earrings all in sterling silver. I really like the way the green set turned out especially with Spring on our heels. Now I have to get busy on the next order of 9 gem trees....this one may take me awhile, good thing I have until the end of March to complete them.

Yes, I haven't quit sewing yet. Hubby had a special request for the motor home and that was a knife roll. Having no idea what that was or how to make one, I looked up some commercial ones one the internet to see how they were made. It didn't turn out too bad and it will keep the knives safe in the drawer while we are traveling.

  









Hopefully everyone is having a wonderful weekend.

Dana

The Plethora of Copper Giveaway

I know you want to win this! A complete wardrobe of Copper jewelry. You will get a copper bangle, cluster ring, energy pendant with chain, charm earrings and one of my new drawstring pouches. This is a whopping $75.00 value, my biggest giveaway yet. The giveaway is only open to U.S. Residents...sorry, next time I'll do one for all my International followers. NOTE: You do not have to do all three below to be entered into the drawing. If you don't have a Twitter account no worries, just leave me a comment for 1 and if you want to have another chance, leave another comment on an interesting fact.

What do you need to do to win this wonderful prize?
1. Leave a comment here on my blog about what you would do with all this jewelry if you won it.
2. Second entry - Tweet about this giveaway or blog (leave your blog link in the comments) about this giveaway. Be sure to use #gemdiva if twittering so that I can find your tweet.
3. Third entry - Tell me an interesting fact about Copper.

The all important deadline will be March 3rd at 10:00 pm PST.

Good luck!

And We're Off...

Off to Arizona that is. Hubby bought a motorhome on Ebay. I always wondered who would buy such expensive things like boats, houses, cars, RV's on Ebay without even seeing it and now I know....it is us. Wow, I sure hope it runs. It is a used 1997 Foretravel, 36'. I'm sure I'll be posting pictures of it once we get on the road tomorrow evening. Now we did see pictures of it, but you know how some pictures can be deceiving, so we shall see. Wish us luck. It will take us about 3 days travel to get it back home if hubby we drive 8 hours a day. Here is the picture of the outside that was posted by the dealer.

Yes, I know it looks like a bus and I haven't driven a bus before, but does a Suburban qualify?

In other news, I sewed all day yesterday and now I'm sewn out. New things I made were to re-purpose some material to create passport covers, yes my own bad design, but since we wanted them for this trip, I didn't make them too fancy. Hubby's is the denim made from old jean shorts that didn't fit and mine was from fabric scraps left over from all the drawstring pouches.

My other little experiment came to me when I was trying to sleep the other night. I have tons of vintage hankies and some of them aren't really good for much as they are stained and have holes, so I thought why couldn't I make some drawstring pouches with them. So here is my first attempt. It didn't turn out too bad, but next time I will reinforce between the layers with interfacing or quilt batting. I'll have to test both out to see what works best.

This was so easy as the ends are already finished on the hankies so all you have to do is create the casing for the drawstring.

I'm still working on putting together my February newsletter, but it looks like it won't be out until next week, so you still have time to sign up.

February Giveaway...I haven't forgotten and that will have to be next week also, but I have a huge selection of Copper jewelry that I've made that will all go to one lucky person.

Moonstone Necklace and Holiday Fun

My final giveaway for the year is ending tonight at 6:00 pm PST, so if you haven't entered do so quick. It is a beautiful set and could be used as a gift or as a gift to yourself. I do want to thank The Give-Away Diva for all her help in generating interest in this giveaway and for her review. Also, thanks to all who have entered and now are following this blog or my Facebook Fan page. My next giveaway will be in January and will be an autographed copy of my book "Gem Tree Sculptures". This book would be perfect for a man or woman who likes to work with their hands or is crafty.

On to the holiday, today is cookie making day. I decided to do a limited amout of cookies as all of us don't need the extra poundage but we love the sweets. I have my butter out so that it can warm up to room temp and then I'll make my Russian Tea Cakes and Thumbprint cookies. They use the same recipe so that makes it easy. One is just rolled in powdered sugar and the other is filled with frosting....yummy. I'll post pictures tomorrow along with the recipe.

So are you doing any holiday crafting or baking? My craftyness now is learning how to use acrylic paints to paint ACEO's. ACEO's are art cards, editions or original works of art in a very small size of 2 1/2 by 3 1/2. I found some canvases and bought some paints and have been painting little works of art. Okay, I'm not sure they can be considered works of art yet (see picture), but I'm getting better. I probably should have started with a bigger canvas for learning to use acrylic paint but I really wanted to start making these little paintings.  My favorite is the tropical scene with all it's bright little colors.

Cheers and have a great day.

Featured Artist - Vintage Soap Shoppe

I love soap as much as the next person but these soaps look wonderful. Face it we all need soap and why not try some of Angela's. She has soaps, candles and bath products in her Etsy and ArtFire shops.

Here is a little more about Angela:

She is a professional pastry chef and has been making hand made soap for years. She started a soap business 3 years ago due to the urging of friends and family. She started out doing retail and have expanded into the wholesale market. Her vendors are supportive of her creativity and request her soap cakes. She loves doing them as they are a lot of fun. She incorporates her love for the pastry arts and soap making in one.

Her biggest reward is when she hears such wonderful comments about her soap. Her specialty is her heavy cream and goatsmilk soaps. She uses local sustainable products in her soap business and loves researching for the best and most purest essential oils, herbs, bontanicals, roots and spices.

Using the purest, freshest ingredients is very important to Angela as you have to start with the best ingredients to get the best product.

 

See Angela's blog at http://www.vintagesoapshoppe.blogspot.com/ and her products at http://www.etsy.com/shop/vintagesoapshoppe and http://vintagesoapshoppe.artfire.com/.

 

Don't forget about my December giveaway. The deadline is tomorrow for that wonderful moonstone necklace and earring set. Here is the link to that blog post. Don't let this one pass you by. http://danasjewelrydesign.blogspot.com/2009/12/december-giveaway-moonstone-necklace.html

 

Have a great day.

Another picture

I'm not sure if this picture is any better than the one yesterday, but here is another shot of the December giveaway necklace set.

Today is one of those solomn days as it is the memorial and procession for the 4 slain police officers. For those of you that are not here in the States, last week a lone gunman went into a coffee shop and shot 4 police officers. He was found and shot while trying to escape and now they have found several people who helped him that will be going on trial. Obviously, this has been the biggest news in the area for the past week and our hearts and prayers go out to the family members of these officers.

I've put a link to a You Tube video of Wintley Phipps of Amazing Grace. This is one of my favorite songs. Take a listen and give thanks for your family today, I know I did.

December Giveaway - Moonstone necklace set

Here it is, the final giveaway for the year. The Giveaway Diva will also be featuring this giveaway so if you have arrived here from there, please let me know. You only have a short time to enter (Ends December 18th at 6:00 pm PST) as I will be ending this prior to Christmas so that I can get the item shipped. The picture of the necklace and earrings is a dark, but I had a hard time photographing moonstone. What you will receive is a 16" sterling silver chain with faceted moonstone briolettes. The pendant is about 1 1/4". The earrings are also included and are on sterling silver leverback style earrings. The drop features another moonstone briolette. The earring dangle is also about 1 1/4". This is a delicate set, but one that you can wear with most anything from a t-shirt to a fancy little black dress.

To enter you must leave comment(s) here on my blog. These are the rules.

• Visit my 1000 Markets store or my Artfire store and let me know what your favorite item is and whether it would be for you or a gift. - Receive 1 entry per store you visit, this is the first step to getting entered no matter if you do any of the others or not. Links to my stores are below.
• Follow my blog and you will receive 2 entries
• Already a follower, let me know and you will also receive 2 entries
• Fan my Facebook page and you will get 2 entries
• Already a fan, you will get 2 entries, but you have to let me know in your comment
• Follow the Giveaway Diva's blog, or her facebook page and receive 1 entry each
• Blog about this giveaway or tweet about this giveaway and receive 2 entries for each

Any other advertising for me or this giveaway and you will receive additional entries into the giveway. Please feel free to leave me as many comments as you like to get that amount of entries into the giveaway. This set would make a perfect holiday present. This giveaway is open to my International followers also.

Also, please check out the Giveaway Diva's blog for additional giveaway's.

I look forward to your comments.  Cheers and happy holidays.
Here are the links to my shops.
1000 Markets
ArtFire

My Jewelry Review

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, a pair of my earrings were going up for review by the Give-Away Diva. I will be hosting a giveaway soon on her blog, so stay tuned. Details will be out Monday. These are the earrings that she reviewed. They are simple, yet very good quality faceted garnets with 14 kt gold filled ear wires and gold vermeil findings. These earrings normally sell for around $18.00 so very affordable.

If you like this delicate look, then you will love the necklace and earrings that I'll be giving away this month.

Check out the Give-Away Diva's site and all her great giveaway and reviews. You never know what might be available.

Chow and have a great weekend.  Dana

The Giveaway Diva - Fabulous giveaways

If you haven't checked out the Giveaway Diva blog you just have to. She reviews products (yes, she will be reviewing one of mine soon) and then hosts a giveaway. This week the giveaway is for a Guy and Eva Britney Ring. Don't wait too long, this ring would be perfect for those special occassions.

Have fun entering all of her giveaways.

Happy Monday

Good day to everyone. I've missed you. I know I posted a few blogs out here the past week for my giveaway, but I actually was on a cruise for the Thanksgiving holiday. We had a great time and was sea sick one day out of 7 which for me was good as I get sick at the drop of a hat when motion is involved. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and started their holiday shopping. I'll be starting mine here real soon and I've made a vow to either make gifts myself or buy hand made this year. We will see how this turns out.

If you missed my posts this past week I did have a giveaway over at Alterity Button Jewelry and Gifts and she picked a winner bright and early this morning. Congrats and thanks to all who entered and are now following this blog, my facebook fan page or twitter. I appreciate it.

I'm making this post short and quick as I still have a lot to catch up on. Hugs to you all. It's good to be connected again.

Let us not Forget...

You know, my Giveaway. Yea...banners flowing, confetti, balloons, lets celebrate!

Go to Alterity Button, Jewelry and Gifts for all the fantastic details.

Dear Entrecard Droppers, I have been absent, but I will be back.

Today is the Great Giveaway Day

I know I've been having a lot of these lately, but I have a lot to be thankful for and that is you. Check out Alterity Button Jewelry and Gifts blog for all the great details on how to get these special earrings from me to you.