Christmas Listings, Sale & A Giveaway!

Having a little sort out of my "left over" pendants...the one's that didn't make it into sets...thought instead of hoarding them or listing them, I'd have a little giveaway to see if someone could put them to good use.

I probably won't be listing until after Christmas now. I'll be starting on new greenware tomorrow but can't see me getting it dried out, sanded, fired, glazed and fired again before the festivities begin!

Anyway...the giveaway! A selection of pendants and charms, everything pictured below. None of these are seconds, all great quality, just ran out of beads whilst making sets up. All mostly shades of blues. The brown one has a little cat on it (hard to see with the flash glare).  For an idea of size, the rectangle pendant is 37mm in length. 

To stand a chance of winning, simply leave a comment. To win more chances to win do any of the following for an extra entry each - 

1. Follow me on Facebook

2. Follow me on Etsy

3. Follow my blog

4. Subscribe to my newsletter (once a month or so, no spam)

5. Share the giveaway on your blog

6. Share the giveaway on your Facebook

Remember to add an extra comment for each thing you do! Winners announced on the 22nd December. 

Christmas Sale

Save 20% on all items by using XMAS20 at checkout. This will run till Jan 1st. 

New Listings

A small selection of new items...over 50 new listings posted today! 

Giveaway Winner!!

I had a giveaway on my blog last week which corresponded with the cyber sale. 

I used Randon.Org to choose the winning number and that number was.....

8

Rebecca

My 30% code is still running, use code ARTBEADS30 for 30% off your order. 

Congrats! Thank you to all who entered, I'l be having another giveaway soon to celebrate 400 sales on Etsy (17 to go!)

Cyber Week Sale!

Members of Artisan Whimsy are joining together to have a cyber week sale with Over $1300 in giveaways...45 winners and a whole week to get entered and shop for great Artisan Jewelry & a great discount!! 

Use code ARTBEADS30 for 30% off your order from Grubbi!

I'm also having a giveaway! You can win $25 to spend in my shop on beads and components simply by commenting on this blog.  Winners will be drawn at random on 1st December!

You can earn extra chances to win by doing any of the following -

1. Follow my page on Facebook (comment leaving your name)

2. Add my Etsy shop to your favourites and follow me (Add to circle) on Etsy (leave your Etsy name/Shop in comments)

3. Follow me on Pinterest (Leave Pinterest name in comments)

4. Follow my blog (comment saying you've followed)

5. Share a picture from my Facebook page on your wall. (Leave link to your FB)

6. Subscribe to my newsletter (top right of the blog page)

I will like/follow you back too of course! 

I have lots of new ceramic sets up as of yesterday!

New nugget shaped beads!

Bracelet cuff in teal and olive!

Red paisley toggle clasp

Paisley Pendant

Cute little charms (pair)

Beads and leaf charm set

Pastel beads

Bright beads

Happy Shopping!

Check out the other artists giveaways and sales below! 

Artisan Whimsy - Brit Team Design Challenge - Liverpool

We had a little challenge over at Artisan Whimsy last month and today is results day! 

I'm from Liverpool...land of The Beatles, the River Mersey, our famous shipping port and of course, our awful weather! 

The Liverpool Skyline Under A Cloud

One of my favourite places in Liverpool is Sefton Park. It's one of the biggest public park's in Europe and was designed in the 1800's. It's over 233 acres in size, and I know every inch of it like the back of my hand. 

I grew up with my bedroom over looking the park, I went there every day and it holds a lot of special memories for me, especially memories of my Grandad. 

The Fairy Glen - Sefton Park

Above is a place called "The Fairy Glen" deep within Sefton Park...it has a small stream where swans idle about, a beautiful cast iron bridge, a waterfall, stepping stones and beautiful greenery. Above is my daughter sitting in the tree on our last outing to the park. 

The park also has a massive "Palm House", a huge boating lake, many ornate victorian statues and fountains and is lined around the edges by beautiful old Victorian and Edwardian houses. 

The Boating Lake - Sefton Park

The Palm House - Sefton Park

I made two pieces for this challenge...one based on Sefton Park which, due to overtime at work, I've yet to photograph, and one based on Liverpool's cloudy weather! Although there may be blue skies in the pics above, 95% of the time we have grey clouds and lots of rain! This suits me fine as it's my favourite kind of weather...I adore the rain and thunder storms. 

I'll add my pics of my 1st piece here once I've photographed it. 

My second piece was inspired by the grey rain clouds and our fabulous pink sunsets. 

I've been into knotting in big way lately, so combined some pink Irish waxed linen cording with some of my ceramic beads, one of my ceramic cloud pendants, little pink and grey toho and a fine silver toggle handmade by me. 

Please take a minute to check out all the entries and the hosts blog! 

The Hosts

 Lesley Watt Gossiping Goddess

Rebecca Anderson Songbeads

Pippa Chandler Pip's Jewellery

Teresa Hulley Bo Hulley Beads

Natalie McKenna Grubbi

Jo Tinley Daisychain Designs

Dorset

Gale White Bantering Bird on Flickr

Ginger Bishop Lilmummylikes

Cece Cormier The Beading Yogini

Therese Frank Therese’s Treasures

Cilla Watkins Tell Your Girlfriends

Kay Toodles and Binks

Edinburgh

Therese Frank Therese’s Treasures

Kashmira Patel Sadafulee

Caroline Dewison Blueberribeads

Pam Sears Crazy Creative Corner

Leigh Thow Jewellrleigh

Bath

Cynthia Machata  http://antiquitytravelers.blogspot.com

Pam Sears Crazy Creative Corner

Isle of Wight

Duane Clark Bizzy Bead

Sharyl McMillian-Nelson Sharyl's Jewelry

Leigh Thow Jewellrleigh

Jean Wright Just Beadey

D Lynne Bowland Islandgirl’s Insights

Lisa Lodge Pine Ridge Treasures

Liverpool

Jean A. Wells  http://www.jeanawells.blogspot.com

Shalini Austin   Jewellery by Shalini

Doris Stumpf Glaszwerg

Lennis C Windbent

Southampton

Sherri Stokey Knot Just Macramé

Sherry Baun

Leigh Thow Jewellrleigh

Kathy Lindemer Bay Moon Design

Hooters At Artisan Whimsy

Artisan Whimsy is a brand spanking new website for beady folk! They're having a Hooters challenge where we have to make either a piece of jewellery or a component with an Owl in it. 

Having just created several ceramic bead sets for my Etsy shop that have owl's in, I decided to pull one set and use it to create a piece of jewellery for this challenge. 

You can see the full details for the challenge and vote for your favourite piece by joining Artisan Whimsy HERE. 

I decided to make a necklace.  I'm pretty please with how it's turned out and it is for sale on my Etsy shop HERE. 

I've used the following to make this necklace -

Ceramic owl pendant by Grubbi

6 ceramic beads by Grubbi

1 polymer bead by Humblebeads

1 lampwork disk by Lisa Falzone 

Toho seed

Wooden beads

Czech glass

Copper toggle by Grubbi

Brown waxed Irish linen cording. 

Wowsers!!

Check out this AMAAAAZING giveaway from Genea Beads and Artisan Accents! 

I'm wiping the drool from my chin as I type! Those colours and shapes...wow!  Definitely my favourite colour palette...ever!

http://wesocialartists.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/giveaway-time.html

Bead Soup Blog Party Reveal!

So it's time for Lori Anderson's BSBP and I'm in the third reveal! 

My partner is the wonderfully creative Marjolein Trewavas

The link for her blog is RoomForChange and she up-cycles pieces with such imagination! Check out what she did with my soup, amazing stuff!

Unfortunately Marjolein's soup for me went astray in the post and turned up quite late and damaged, so a lot of the things she sent me were missing. Lori Anderson sent me a replacement soup and so I combined both to create my pieces.

Here's what I was sent

Sale At Grubbi - 40% Off!

I'm clearing my handmade sections in my Etsy shop as I'll be starting with ceramics next week and want to tidy up the sections.  So it's sale time! 40% off all handmade beads and metal.  Use code 40OFFBEADS at checkout. This code applies to items in the Handmade Beads and Metal section only. http://www.etsy.com/shop/Grubbi

All beads below are still available, plus lots more! 

Very Thankful

I've had a busy time these last few weeks getting ready for a craft show. I've not had much time for anything besides making beads, making jewellery...fitting in my uni essay etc. So housework and family have had to take a back seat. Now the fair is over (very much enjoyed my first one!) I look around and my house is such a mess!!  That will be remedied this week! I'm going to try and spend some more time with my wonderful daughter and my very patient man!

This time last year I was not long out of a very bad relationship which damaged my confidence quite a lot, I was lacking direction, didn't have an ambition for the future, was a bit skint, no car, and just generally floating along not knowing what to do with myself.  Getting out of that relationship was the best thing I ever did.  I hold no ill will towards him, I believe things happen for a reason and maybe that happened to show me my worth.

I won't stick around and let anyone treat me badly again. That was my lesson.

Birthday Blues & Stresses

Feeling stressed this week. Sick of the house being a mess, the cats are driving me nuts (I have five!), the teenage daughter is full of attitude and I never seem to have one quiet minute from the time I get up until I go to bed!  

To top it all off I'm 35 in 10 days. Yep, 10 days left of being 34 and I'm not amused! I don't want to get old! It's bad enough having to dye my hair to hide the grey coming through but now I'm going to be subjected to wrinkles and all the other things that 35+ brings!

Catching Up....Plus 100 Etsy Sales!

I finally hit and surpassed 100 sales on Etsy! Hurrah! To celebrate, I'm having a sale!  Use the code HAPPY100 for 25% off for the next 7 days! 

I also treated myself to some Moogin beads.  I saw Lorelei Eurto posting on her blog about Moogin lampwork beads and once I visited Mindy's shop I fell in love! These beads are even better in the flesh, I received them this morning and they had me drooling! So much so that they won't be made into anything to be sold on, I shall be creating something for myself with them, we will not be parting ways!