Southern Scraps

This week I'd like to introduce you to Ruby Red Handmade , a cute etsy shop with onesies and accessories for baby! Chocolate and Red Bloom hair accessory elastic headband Little Birdie Onesie

Happy Friday! I'm thrilled to introduce to you another great etsy seller- Firefly Myst . This lovely shop sells beaded jewelry and supplies to make your own. Let's take a look at some of her creations.

Hi, hope you've all had an amazing first week of 2012. We are kicking off the first Friday Feature of the year with a giveaway from a very unique etsy shop- Beach City Boutique Bath and Body Products aka She's that Girl. You'll find handmade soap and bath products in unique shapes and designs here. Let's look at some of my favorites- Of course I'm partial to butterflies Plumeria Soap Set Butterfly Garden in Aqua

Hello and Happy Friday again! Today I'd like to introduce you to a great little handmade jewelry shop- The Bird's Papaya. You'll find beautiful pendant necklaces like these: PENDANT NECKLACE - Large Smokey Grey Chrysanthemum

This week I'd like to introduce you to a cute shop ran by two friends, both named Nicole - Dear Nicole. You'll find fabulous things there, like this rosette necklace (They have these in other fabulous colors too!)

The etsygreetings team is having a holiday event from November 7- November 14, 2011. As a participating team member, I’m offering a 10% discount on all items from my shop . Just enter the code “Holiday10” during the checkout process. Take advantage of this deal to stock up on Christmas and Holiday cards : Happy Holidays handmade greeting card kraft base set of six Gift tags to add flair to those packages: Vintage Santa gift tags And even gifts: Polka dot glass bead bracelet sterling silver toggle Find other participating shops at the etsygreetings blog or by typing the tag “egholiday” in the search menu at Etsy. 

This week I'm thrilled to introduce to you Melanie and her cute shop Tinker B Boutique.  You'll find cute scrabble tile and button pendants in her shop. Teal Flowers Scrabble Tile Pendant

Happy Friday! I'm excited to welcome you to the first Friday Feature. I'll be featuring a different etsy shop each Friday.

My newest necklace creation reminds me of the clear blue ocean. I was in the mood to make jewelry last weekend so I dug into the stash of beads I've been collecting. I had no instruction to follow for this, other than the inspiration of seeing some seed bead chokers in a book I have. I picked up these raku beads at Big Lots one day and a tube of glass E beads at Tuesday Morning another day. I had no intention of using them together and didn't know what I was buying them for- I just knew they were a great price and I was drawn to the colors. Lucky for me these work together perfectly. Don't you just love it when your stash provides all the inpsiration you need for a project? Here's what I came up with: I made a set of earrings to go with it. This was my first try at  a wire wrapped loop. I love these vibrant colors and would love to keep this for myself, but I've listed it in my shop  for someone else to love and enjoy. Check out the link parties on the si

Somewhere in blogland I discovered Stella and Dot jewelry. I've never been to a show but have browsed the website often. I've been wanting a long necklace for some time and their "Rachel " caught my eye, but I'm not really into paying $89 and above for a necklace. So what's a girl to do? KNOCK IT OFF! I've been having fun learing to string beads into jewelry and decided I'd tackle this one. This necklace is made to wear two ways. Here there's both ways: Here is mine:  and here is mine being worn: Mine's a little longer in length than there's but I love it. It's so light and I had so much fun wearing it last night. All of my beads and materials came from Michael's (40-50% off)  and my investment is about $30 (you could say less because I have quite a few of some of the beads left over and could make one or two more pieces with the leftovers.) Thanks for stopping by. I'll be linking this up to the parties on the

I've been making gift card holders again. My hubby and nephew love video games. This gift card holder would be great to hold a Gamestop gift card or other game store card. I can't resist linking up to a challenge once in a while. Stampin Sisters in Christ always has a great message with their challenge. This week the challenge is to use green. The Basic Grey Lime Ricky papers I've used fit this perfectly. I'll also be linking this up to some of the linky parties on the side. If you want to make your own gift card holder, you'll need a piece of cardstock 11 inches by 4.25. Score at 5.5 and fold. Glue the two long outer edges, but just the edges. You'll want the insert to fit. Cut a piece of cardstock 3 inches by 5 inches. The rest is up to you. Use whatever image or craft goodies you want to embellish your gift card holder. If you don't want to make one, you can always pick one up from time to time in my shop . From Feb. 21-25, I (along with other et

Since I still haven't done any new crafting due to spending my time on the home clean up and organization project, today I'm sharing another project I made as a Christmas gift. Remember my fall felt brooch? I wore it when we visited my mother-in-law for Thanksgiving and she had a fit about it. So.. I made her one for Christmas. I made her's gray so she could get more wear out of it than just fall.  Again, I used my good ol' Sizzix and flower dies. I cut multiples in different shades and then layered them. The center of one flower is a vintage clip on earring and the other center is a brad. Both flowers are accented with some stitching. So easy and fun. Thanks for stopping by. I also want to let you know about an etsy project that is going on now- Share the Love. Read more about it HERE . Basically, they supply meals and greeting cards to elderly New Yorkers in February. If you'd like to participate by sending a card, stop by my shop and purchase one. Shipping

Now through Dec. 31, the Christmas section in my shop is 40% off. Stock up on cards and tags for next year. Get tags for an early "wrapping basket" gift for someone else.  Or get yourself a gift in the jewerly and gifts section - those items are 20% off.

I'm having fun making gift card holders . I used the sketch at Friday Sketchers for this one. The image is from MFT and is colored with copics. The papers are by Cosmo Cricket.  Crazy for Challenges is having a Christmas challenge so I'll be linking up there too. Thanks for looking.

I started working on some Christmas card and tag designs this weekend. (I'm really behind the curve on this.) Sketches are always a great inspiration for me. I almost always reach for a sketch when designing a card. I used this sketch from Jen at i{heart}tostamp for my cards.  One of my cards does not follow the sketch EXACTLY because I only have one embellishment/flower instead of two. But that's the beauty of a sketch- you are free to use your own interpretation. Here are my cards: I used BasicGrey Wassail papers and some vintage digital images from VintageHolidayCrafts. When I finished the cards, I used the scraps to make some tags. The next time you need some inspiration, turn to a sketch and your scraps. 

LOL! It's leaning against the wall by the front door. It will get moved out into the yard later. These photos were taken a couple of years ago. My hubby loves Halloween and does some over-the-top projects and decorations. He built this coffin a couple of years ago. I can take no credit for this. He made this all by himself. I would not have had a clue where to start. He had no pattern either. He sketched out the shape he wanted for the coffin on the shop floor and made sure it was wide enough and long enough for him to fit in. (Kids get great candy here at my house, but they get the daylights scared out of them.) He made this from 1x12 spruce boards and stained them. He used door knockers purchased from ebay that he added some paint to in order to distress and antique them. Handles from cabinets and upholstery fasteners were used on the sides for embellishment. Oh and the inside is lined too!

For many kids, college students, and parents it's back to the books this time of year. Crazy4challenges issued a "book related" challenge so I've created a bookmark. Papers: Pink cardstock, BasicGrey sugared Tools: EKSuccess treading water punch Accents: Flowers, brad, ribbon Here are a few steps to making your own: Cut a 6 1/2 inch by 3 1/2inch  piece of pink cardstock. Punch each long side with a decorative edge punch. Cut a 6 1/4 inch piece of decorative paper. Adhere to pink piece. Cut a  2 inch by 4 1/2 inch piece of white cardstock. Stamp image. Color. Adhere to decorative paper. I then sponged walnut distress ink around the edges of my image panel. Punch a  hole in the center at the top. Tie in a piece of ribbon.  Layer flowers with a brad in the center. Attach at the top so they cover the hole. Voila! Super easy bookmark! I'm linking this up to the Crazy4Challenges blog and to the link parties on the side. I'm also putting this bookmark in

I recently added new items to my etsy shop - handmade jewelry .  I love to make stuff but can't keep it all. Sometimes I make something for myself and then make a similar item with the leftovers. You've probably seen most of it on here already but you may not know that it's for sale. Maybe you wanted something you saw but didn't want to invest in the time or supplies to make it. Go ahead and splurge - get it for yourself. You'll be glad you purchased handmade. Here are the items for sale: Repurposed fabric rosette necklace Memory wire bracelet Fabric rosette bib necklace Braided ribbon necklace If you are buying a gift for someone else, pick up a handmade greeting card to go with it.

After a three month sabbatical of no card making, I've made a card. I told you I wouldn't give it up completely. I just needed to take a break and spend my crafting time trying some of the other things on my list. I'm using the sketch from The Sweet Stop . I'll also be linking this up at Papertake Weekly's "just the one" challenge . I used "just one" flower and "just one" piece of ribbon. Here is my card: Image: Whiff of Joy Paper: BasicGrey Sugared

Last week I saw Becca's post on Blue Cricket Designs about how to make a ribbon necklace. I had been wanting to find a tutorial for those and was so excited that she posted one. Michael's also had ribbon and beads on sale , so I headed right over, got some stuff, and made myself two necklaces this weekend. I decided to try and put my on spin on it and wanted to use more than three beads and also used clear faceted ones instead of wooden beads. So for the first one, I cut my ribbon a little longer than a yard- I added about 14 inches. I originally wanted the necklace to tie but I didn't quite add enough length for that. So I ended up folding my ribbon over a jump ring and tying a knot. I started with a bead and then began braiding. The ends of ribbon that were left after tying the knot blended into the braid and what didn't got smoothed down with a little glue on the back. I continued braiding and adding beads until I got to the end and then finished the same way I sta