Christmas is coming!

So Christmas is just around the corner.  A week from tomorrow?  Already?  Yikes!!  All my decorations are finally in place, I wrapped all the presents today, and thinking about what baking I need to do this weekend.  I really want to be in the studio, however.  I have all these ideas that I want to play with but I told myself that I can't get back to work until I get everything ready for Christmas AND I get everything posted to my etsy store.  I'm one step closer, the earring photos are edited and will be going up tomorrow morning.  Yay!!

 

 The pink earrings are pretty little lucite flower beads, Swarovski crystals, and metal filigree.  They've been really popular at my craft shows.  They are bright and lightweight.  Check out the etsy store tomorrow afternoon to see all the different colors and designs.  I had alot of fun making these.

This is a super close up detail shot of one of the patina earrings.  This one is copper with a verdigris finish.  The earrings started out bright silver, then I coated them with a metal infused paint and brushed on an antiquing solution.  You get this gorgeous blue green color that makes the earrings look really old.  I love finding inexpensive earrings I can upcycle into something pretty!  The product I use is from Triangle Crafts called Sophisticated Finishes.  I picked up mine from Michael's but the last time I looked, they had them in the clearance section.  I bought all my store had.  You can get it online at several different stores. 

This is a close up of an earring made from Friendly Plastic.  No, it's not metal, it's plastic!  You start out with black Friendly Plastic, warm it up and use a texture stamp to give it a nice design.  The rest is a secret...  Nah, the technique is in one of the bead magazines and maybe on the Friendly Plastic blog as well.  It's pretty simple - I swirl on a mixture of Krylon gold leaf pen and copper leaf pen and, before that dries, paint on some antiquing solution.  I use a solution from Triangle Crafts called Sophisticated Finishes. 

There are other products out there that do the same thing but this is the only manufacturer that I have tried - yet.  If anyone wants to send me product to try out *hint hint* I would be more than happy to do so!  The Sophisticated Finishes metal paints that I mentioned above can be used on Friendly Plastic, but it has an irritating habit of flaking off, so I'm working on a fix for that.  It works pretty well on flat pieces like earrings, but I want to use it on bracelets and it would not be good for the finish to flake off easily.  But I have to get into the studio in order to work on that process, and well, you know, I have other things I have to do first, like getring these earrings posted into my Etsy shop...

There is still time to order for Christmas delivery, but you better order soon!  I was at the post office this morning, sending out an order, and it was not fun.  And it's only going to get worse.  And more expensive.  So check out the earrings tomorrow and let me know if you need any last minute gifts and I'll ship out as soon as possible.  And remember, use promo code FBFRIENDS15 to get 15% off your order!