Tree of Life Tutorial now available 08/08/2010
I've been meaning to wrap up this tutorial for a long time. It is fun and fast to make and requires very little materials. The tools you probably already have, so lets get it going. Click on the free tutorials link and you can down load it for free or you can view it on my jewelry blog at http://www.danasjewelrydesign.blogspot.com  1 Comment New Gem Tree Design 07/17/2010
This past week I have been feverishly working on getting my teaching submission ready for the Bellevue Bead show that will be held in November. I have submitted 3 different gem tree classes. One is the standard gem tree, pine tree and a new tree I have titled Tree of Hope and Life. I think I finally have the instructions and kit all worked out so it will be offered for sale here and on my ArtFire studio as well as Etsy so stay tuned. Here is what that new tree looks like. This one was made in honor of a friend who passed away due to Breast Cancer.  This tree can have significant meaning to the person making it or receiving it. I can see it being used as a birthday tree, survivor tree to honor those with illnesses such as cancer or a remembrance tree for those we have lost. For this tree I used pink ribbons, metal ribbon charms, other various charms, rose quartz, freshwater pearls and a few other special items. You could also use buttons, fabric scraps, rhinestones, crystals or anything else small that would remind you of that person. New Tutorial for June 06/26/2010
I just added a Multi Strand Leather necklace to the Free Tutorials sections here on this site. Fun design and you could make it any length you wish by just adjusting the amount of leather and beads.  Have fun with it. Art Cards collide with Gem Trees 06/20/2010
I've been playing around with my art cards lately and today I had a wild hair to put a tree on the front of the card. So, I painted the background with my acrylic paints then made a small wire tree (no stones) just loops. In the loops I tied ribbons. So, I call this my Breast Cancer Awareness Tree Art Card. The card is only 2.5 x 3.5" so it is a small tree. I think it turned out fabulous.  For those of you interested in giveaways, I have one running on my Dana's Jewelry Design blog. You could win a $60.00 gift certificate, so it is well worth checking out. http://danasjewelrydesign.blogspot.com/2010/06/remodel-update-plus-giveaway.html What's Coming Up? 06/17/2010
 I just had to show you some of my new beads. I decided to make some art beads and since I love to paint, went about painting some with acrylic paints then because I was just playing around I wound one with fabric and then added some wire and beads. They're kind of different and I'm not sure how I'll use them, but I'm sure I'll come up with something. Along with the beads today, I finally finished some art cards or ACEO's. ACEO's are Art Cards, Editions and Originals. To be considered an art card the dimensions must be 3.5" by 2.5". If you want to find out more, here is a cool site http://www.art-cards.org/about.html. The only other ones I have made besides these are prints of my watercolor paintings. These three that you see would fall in the orginal category.  I haven't decided how to mount them yet. I've been tossing around some balsa wood or maybe some foam board. I also thought about putting rivets in the top so that they could hang. Humm, these might make a great tutorial. I'll have to make some more and let you know. More Stuff Added 06/14/2010
If you are dropping by for the first time, Welcome. Please look around. I have tutorials available for sale as well as some that are FREE. The photo gallery is now up and running as well as the items I have for sale. Don't think that this is the end as I have lots more to load as I bring things over from my old site. The old crafting blog will still be there for archival purposes but after the tutorials are added here only new information will be posted and the old stuff will stay there. Now if there are some interesting things from last year that I posted that I think you would enjoy today, then maybe I'll repost them again. I love comments, so please feel free to comment on anything you see or would like to see. The New Crafting Site 06/12/2010
Well, I've tried various venues for my crafting blog and a place to host all the tutorials that I've created along with links to cool tutorials that I find on-line and I'm hoping this will be the last. I'm still playing around with the templates but think I have the right one. Now to create a header that reflects what this site will be all about. I had a site with .ning and they decided to charge fees monthly for their product and since I'm small potatoes compared to other crafting sites I decided that wasn't the place for me. I also had a blog with Blogger but it didn't offer the flexibility that I needed to upload .pdf files. So, here we are. For members of my Craft How To site over at .ning, no need to join here but you can keep up to date on what's going on with the RSS Feed. In fact I welcome everyone to subscribe. I hope you enjoy the tutorials and fun projects that I'll be posting about. Dana |   AuthorHi I'm Dana and I love to do all kinds of crafts. I'm a painter, jewelry designer and author of the book "Gem Tree Sculptures". ArchivesAugust 2010 CategoriesAll |
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