A Bright Idea for Biz Cards!

I made and printed the pin cards (shown above) on my computer for my first craft show earlier this year. They worked out fine to merchandise my items. However, they became a bit tedious, especially since I had to cut out each and every card. After some brainstorming, I thought of using business cards as my cards to display both my pins and magnets. The business cards ended up being the perfect size for my work. Plus, I did not have to print them off on my computer or cut out each of them. Another bonus is that the business card cardstock is thicker than any of the cardstock I could find to use on my printer. Thus, I surfed my way online to Vistaprint and ordered my first set of merchandiser cards.

I found a cute, colorful, and simple template design to use for my merchandiser cards. I wanted the center of the card "blank" since this is the area where my pin or magnet would be attached to. All I added to the card design was my business name and slogan at the top. And then I added my By Hand profile address at the bottom of the cards.

The first set of cards I ordered were vertical. After attaching some of my pins/magnets to the cards, I realized that I needed some horizontally designed cards. I was very happy with how well the business cards worked out for what I needed. All I need to do when I want to attach a pin is punch a couple of holes in the card and then cut a slot between them to slide my pins on the cards. I love them. Plus, they don't cost a lot to use, approx $10 for 250 cards.

My froggy pin on merchandiser cards.

My frog and bunny pins posing on horizontal design.

This is how my pins look on the new cards.

Life of an Artful Pen from beginning to end, part 3 the "finale"

Ta-da, it's the "finale" of my Artful Pens in process series. Now you can see my Bee Artful Pens "buzzing" through my blog in living color. But first things first. My last entry ended with the process of mold-making. Now I'll discuss what happens after the molds and castings are made.

The photo above shows my bee pieces attached to the pen clip with some strong glue. Note, the pen clip was first covered with a layer of Apoxie Sculpt to ensure a good foundation to build my design upon. And the beauty of Apoxie Sculpt is that it adheres to itself and beomes a "solid" piece after being placed on another piece. This characteristic of Apoxie Sculpt ensures that my design is solidly attached to the pen clip.

After I attach the bees to the pen clip with glue and I patiently wait for the glue to set, I go back and fill in any "open" areas with some Apoxie Sculpt. To help smooth out the Apoxie Sculpt, I use some water on my fingertips. This can be a sloppy/drippy process. If I get any drops of water mixed with some Apoxie Sculpt on the pen surface, it will be permanently be there once it's cured. And that's not the result I want to end up with. Thus, I use a clear sheet of plastic beneath the pen clip to help prevent drippy drops from messin' up my pen surface. Another method I recently used to prevent this messy problem is using a coat of liquid mask on the pen cap surface. It's a bit smelly, but works pretty nicely and after I'm done with the pen, the liquid mask peels away. You can see the liquid mask "in action" in the next couple of photos. That gummy yellow looking surface is the liquid mask safely protecting the pen surface.

There's the liquid mask on the pen cap of a bee piece that just went under the Dremel treatment. I try to clean up and smooth out the surface of my pieces when needed. And my Dremel stone grinding bit works wonderfully to tackle this cleaning task.

In the photo above, I used a yellow colored Apoxie, to touch up areas on the bees. Yes, Apoxie Sculpt comes in a few different colors, but my preference is using the neutral gray color for most of my work.

After the Dremeling is completed, it's time to put a coat of gesso on the surface. This helps me see if there are any remaining areas that need to be cleaned. Plus, it provides a nice surface/foundation to start painting.

So, now comes the fun part, the painting. The pens go from this:

. . . to this, pens with a colorful coat of paint . . .

. . . and finally, pens coated with some glaze to protect the painted surface.

What pen design is your favorite, A, B, C or D? Please comment below.

One other thing I wanted to share is that one of my spotlights that I created at the ByHand site is featured at the ByHand Gallery blog. Yay!!! Stop by and check it out. I created a spotlight of some the adorable and colorful items from some of my "hearted" Etsy stores.

Life of an Artful Pen from beginning to end, part 2

In my last post I demonstrated how I make my Artful Pens up to the point where I make a silicone mold of my original piece. And now the demo continues into the fun and challenging and sticky, messy process of working with silicone. Yay!

Here's my bee piece all ready to go under the silicone treatment. The next photo is the silicone I use. It comes in two parts. To make a mold, I scoop out equal amounts of part A (white) and part B (blue).

After scooping out equal parts I then mix both parts together, making sure it is mixed evenly and done quickly. The silicone material sets quickly, so time is not your friend during this process. Once it's mixed evenly, I immediately press the silicone into the more detailed areas of my piece and the "deeper" areas on the surface. This is done in a thin quick layer to make sure the detail "sets" before the silicone cures. When I'm at this stage of the process, I always feel like I'm on some game show where you need to beat a clock counting down the seconds. I'm in a "hurry, hurry" mode and I try to work "lickety-split." There is no going back once the silicone is mixed and when it sets/cures, that's it, the time buzzer blares and you're outta luck.

After this first layer, I go back over it with a second layer to make sure the mold is thick enough. However, do not go too thick, otherwise you are just wasting your precious silicone, which does not come by cheap. And sometimes after I release the original piece from the mold, I hold it up to the light to see if there are any patches of light peering through my newly crafted mold. After making oodles of molds, I've gotten a better idea on how to make my molds and knowing a good thickness. It's hard to suggest a specific amount of thickness, as this depends on the size and detail of each individual piece. However, I would say that approximately a 1/8" thickness would be a good rule of thumb.

The above photos show some pieces cast with Apoxie Sculpt. The first photo shows the Apoxie pieces as they're done curing and just before being released from the molds. And the next photo reveals how each piece looks after being released from the molds. Don't you want to start mold making now?

Stay tuned for the next post featuring the next phase in the life of an Artful Pen, it should be "colorful"! :-)

Burned out bulbs with a "Bright Future" & more!

This week I went to a Recycling Center to pick up some burned out light bulbs for my Recyc-a-lite sculptures. I found out about getting light bulbs from the Auburn Recycling Center in my local Freecycle network. I was so happy to hear of someone offering an unlimited supply of bulbs. Thank you Gerda. Yay! Since some of the bulbs were dirty I hosed them down outside in the beautiful sunshine today. After washing them I thought, "These dirty bulbs are going to have a bright future!"

I've also been working on a new Artful Pen design for a fellow "By Hander" named James, of Birdy Knits. His wife is a bee fan, so I have three different designs in the works. I'll keep you posted. Hopefully in about a week I'll have some "in process" photos posted in my blog. Stay tuned!

Any American Idol fans out there?

Tomorrow I'm going with Renee to see our favorite American Idol, Danny Gokey in Milwaukee! Yay! I am excited. Renee was able to borrow a nice camera to try to get some good pics tomorrow. I will definitely have to post the pics from Danny Gokey Day. :-)

"By Hand" site is like a Facebook site for Crafters...but better!

For anyone interested in selling and/or buying hand-made items, you need to stop and visit the By Hand website! There are so many nice features at this site. At this site I can list links to all of my on-line shops, my blog, my Twitter page, my Flickr page and more. Now when I'd like to direct a potential buyer to my business, I can give them one address, which is my profile address. Pictured above is the "homepage" of my profile page. From this page you can click on the "details" button to see a list of my on-line website links (Etsy, 1000Markets, Twitter, etc) along with a description of the items I make, methods of payment, and my customer service e-mail link.



Another great feature is that I can submit my RSS feeds from my blog and my Etsy shop. The RSS feeds are posted on my profile homepage and as shown below, when your mouse hovers over each feed post, a pop out box reveals a sneak peak at one of my store's items along with a photo.


This nice little feature applies as well to each blog feed, except there is no photo, but there is a snippet of the beginning of each of my blog entries. I love this sneak peak feature for my RSS feeds!



And speaking of blogs, you can make your very own blog directly at the By Hand site and select whether or not you'd like it posted on the By Hand homepage. Hint! This is a great way to gain more exposure. Again, on my profile homepage I can find my By Hand blog entries posted under the "My Blog" tab and see the date, title and number of views for my blog entry. There is so much packed into the profile homepage. I can find a list of the forum posts I replied in, the latest visitors to my profile, my spotlights, my clubhouses and more. Next, I'd like to address two of the items from the list, spotlights and clubhouses.


At the By Hand site you can create a spotlight similar to the one shown above. Spotlights are so fun and easy to create. You can create a spotlight of your own shop items or of your favorite items from other sellers. And once you create a spotlight, items from the spotlight are randomly selected to scroll along the top of the By Hand pages. This feature allows some additional exposure for you and your products. Yay!



The last feature I will discuss is the clubhouse feature. I recently joined the clubhouse called, "I Love Packaging" that was created by Pattie of StructuredChaos. Clubhouses are groups that you can join that focus on a main topic such as Polymer Clay or Loving Packaging. I have discovered good friends in joining the clubhouse and participating in the forum pages. There is so much offered at the By Hand site and so much to discover, please stop by and see for yourself. Just a warning, it is highly addictive. Why don't you find out yourself? Oh, and please come and join us at the "I Love Packaging" clubhouse to discuss all things packaging. All are welcome!