Unique Christmas Gifts and Stocking Stuffers

As we are ending the year of 2012 (and yes, I'm planning on making it past the 21st!), we have grown our merchandise line quite a bit. I've really been pushing our Facebook page and our Etsy page in an attempt to get our name out there to the world. Just remember, if you have any last minute shopping to do, we have items that would make GREAT stocking stuffers! We have handmade bracelets, necklaces, and earrings, along with magnets, and uniquely designed journals (for the writer in the family). We can even customize items for you by adding a name or names.

If you don't like to deal with the crowds of last minute shoppers at the local mall, you can shop from the comfort of your home via our Etsy and Facebook pages! We try to make everything as easy as possible for you.

With that being said, we are working on new items to welcome in the new year and I can't wait! We may even have a SALE or possibly another giveaway in the near future. Don't forget to bookmark or subscribe to this blog so that you can keep up to date on what new items we have to offer. We also love to hear your comments and opinions, so don't be shy!

Here are just a few items we have right now

Beaded nautical bracelet with fish and anchor charms.

Beautiful beaded earrings using glass beads and fire polished beads. The bottom beads are crystal with hand painted purple flowers.

Love heart journal! This is the cover of one of our journals/notebooks/diaries. It even has glitter!

Ready for Christmas!

We are hosting another open house in a few weeks, hoping it will be as successful as the last one, especially since it will be only a few weeks before Christmas! We have made a ton of Christmas/holiday cards. I have some of them for sale online in our etsy store and on our Facebook page. Here are some samples...

Handmade greeting cards add a unique touch to the sentiment because they are not mass produced in a factory and are made with real hands and creativity!

I'm looking at making some new types of merchandise for the new year. I have so many ideas running around in my head. I can't wait to put them into motion. I think we are going to concentrate our efforts on the animal/pet niche. We are even thinking about hosting a special event next year for a a week or however long, and give a percentage of our sales to an animal rescue of some type (haven't decided on one specific one yet). If you are an animal lover, you will want to come back soon!

Pop Tab Earrings

Finally finished a few pop tab earrings. Worked on a few different designs but I think these two are my favorites so far:

I think these are super cute, especially for the holiday season.  Red tabs with silver glitter and the red tear drop bead! I think I'm going to make an extra pair for myself!

I used purple hemp with these to attach them to the earring posts and then added some pretty sparkly beads! The pop tabs are black with purple glitter. Who doesn't like glitter!?!?

I am dealing with some health issues at the moment which is draining the energy right out of me. Been trying to work on some handpainted Christmas ornaments and I think we are going to host another open house next month, since our first one was such a success!

Pop Tab Jewelry

We have slowly been working on new items. B is moving this weekend so packing has stolen a lot of our free time because I have also been helping as much as possible. I've been working on some new projects at home when I can find a little bit of time here and there. I'm working on pop tab jewelry. Here are a few things I've come up with so far...

This is a black tab with purple glitter. The details didn't show up too well in this photos but I will take better pics when they are all finished.

This tab is red with an opaque/metallic layer on top.

I am working on different designs and ideas and will post everything new here!

Fall and Halloween Time Is Here!

We have been working on a few Fall items as well as gearing up for the Christmas season. For fall, we have been mainly working on note cards and small gift items.. I have ideas for some fun Halloween items but we just haven't had time to get them done and October is almost over! We will know to plan earlier next year!

Here are a few of the note cards we have made:

And these super cute gem magnets:

These items are currently not available on our Etsy store but if you are interested in anything, become a fan on our Facebook page or send us an email. 

I have recently started a new job and the orientation/training part has sucked up most of my free time but in a week or so, I will only be working part time, giving me more time to work on new items!

Customized Bracelet

This is a custom bracelet that I made for a friend of mine. I really like the idea of customizing items. I'm thinking of offering customized bracelets and necklaces, and possibly some other items. I still have a whole list of items that I want to make, it's just finding the time (and money for supplies) to get them all done.



As far as bracelets go, you could get your own name, a family member's name, a best friend's name, maybe a name in memory of someone who has passed, or even children's initials for kind of like a mother's bracelet. I have plenty of ideas for customizing these! I've also been working on making them so that they are adjustable that way, they will fit a variety of write sizes and they can be adjusted to be as tight or loose as you want them to be.

Also, don't forget, only ONE day left to enter our giveaway! Find the post and enter before it's too late!

Looking for Early Christmas Gifts?

Who has started Christmas shopping already? Are you the type who starts early or are you rushing around last minute making sure that you remembered everyone on your list? I always seem to be rushing at the last minute, but you don't have to!

Check out what we have in our store. These items would make great gifts!

Enter Our Giveaway to Win Some Great Prizes!

We are hosting our first blog giveaway. We just finished up doing a small giveaway on our Facebook page and are now going the blog route.

Use the Rafflecopter form below to enter easily starting September 10, 2012, and earn more entries! Here is what you can win:



Assortment of Handmade Jewelry and Accessories

3 Gem Magnets and 2 Greeting Cards

 

Close up of Beaded Bracelet with 3 charms.

 

 

 Close up of Beaded earrings

 

List of Prizes:

 

1 Beaded Bracelet with 3 Charms

 

1 Purple Hemp Beaded Adjustable Bracelet

 

1 Pair of Purple Hemp and Beads Earrings

 

1 Pair of Beaded Earrings

 

1 Brown Hemp Ring

 

1 Purple Hemp with Silver Spiral Beaded Keychain

 

1 Large Pony Bead Bracelet with Football

 

1 Small Child's Pony Bead Pink Heart Bracelet

 

3 Gem Magnets (1 pumpkin, 1 purple camo, 1 sunset)

 

2 Greeting Cards (1 Halloween, 1 Christmas)

 

Approximately $30 worth of prizes!!!!

 

Enter now for your chance to win and share with your friends!

 

We will be doing these types of giveaways often throughout the year!

 

 

 



 

 

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Vintage Valentine Journal and Purple Hemp Necklace

More new items to share with you this week. I am also planning on posting our giveaway next weekend so keep an eye out for it and enter!

I spent this week working on another journal...

 

An older vintage looking valentine cover. I love this cover it has a bunch of super cute valentine sayings on it.

 

This is a close up of the cover.

 

... and I've been working on this new purple hemp necklace...

 

 

All of these items are or will be soon on our etsy store so don't forget to check it out!

 

 

 

 

Busy Busy Bees

We have been busy this week working on some new items. I am using my creativity to make some journals/diaries, and some new jewelry!

This is my first attempt at making a cute journal:

 

 

This is a hemp choker and earring set. Choker has an antique skeleton key on it.

 

 

Hemp rings that I am working on. Eventually, I will sell these in sets, perhaps a ring and matching bracelet or maybe sets of 2 or 3 rings sold together. These are so easy to make and they are cute, too, in my opinion!

 

 

Our First Open House

Last Sunday afternoon, we held our first open house. We invited local friends to come, and enticed them into bringing a guest by offering a free gift if you brought a guest (a magnet). B made some delicious food and we held a drawing for a gift basket that was filled with various items from our shop.

The open house proved to be a success and we were quite surprised at how many sales we had, and I even got a few custom orders that I am really excited about doing. Here are a few photos from our open house.



The yummy food table that got rave reviews!

The "crowd" of shoppers.

Our table of cards. These were a big hit.



Our doggy table. One fleece dog toy that was left and some dog cards (even sympathy cards for the loss of a pet). We had 2 doggy gift baskets that sold almost immediately.

We were very happy with the turnout at our first open house and plan to do it again. We are now going to begin working on Fall and Winter/Christmas items and do a few holiday craft shows in the fall and winter. 

We have a lot of new items to show you soon and some fun things planned!

Dragonfly and Cat Bracelets

We have been busily preparing for our upcoming open house next Sunday. I've finally found a place to find some charms I've been looking for so I made a few new bracelets this week. Once the open house is over, we are going to have a giveaway for a gift basket filled with some of our merchandise. Actually, we will probably end up doing two in the future. We will do one first on Facebook to gain some new FB followers and then one on this blog. I have a few other blog friends that are going to work with me and help spread the word with the blog giveway, so subscribe to our email list so you can find out when the giveaways are up and running or go ahead and follow our Facebook Page B and D Novelties and Gifts

Here are the newest bracelets I have made:



This photo turned out kinda dark but I still think it's pretty!

A clearer photo.

We are beginning our first try at making a jean purse. Once we get it right, we will have all sorts of purses to choose from! I'm excited about these! Also, my next project is going to be small notebooks/journals. I have so many ideas!

New Hemp Jewelry

I'm not going to add any more items to our Etsy store until after our open house in a few weeks because I don't want to add something and then sell it at the open house and have to take it down. For now, I'm just going to showcase some of the new things that we have made. I've been working on making necklaces and earrings. Thinking about selling them as a set but not sure yet. Would love some opinions?

Hemp choker. The stone in the middle is genuine Jade.

Hemp Tear Drop Earrings with small key. These keys are very small and I thought they would be very cute to use as earrings.

I'm getting better with the hemp cord and making different designs with it. Even though you can't see too well on the earrings, the hemp is in a spiral design.

Gift Bags for Every Occasion

One of our newest creations are these cute little handmade gift bags. At first, I was making them simply to give to customers when they purchased a product from us. I would place the item in the bag and give it to the custome that way. We have received some good compliments on these little bags and were told that we could even sell the bags. I had never thought of that! I then had the idea of doing custom orders for these little gift bags. We can customize them to the customer's specifications and give them special pricing depending on how many they are wanting.

We can make these gift bags for weddings, birthdays, holidays, or just as a thank you. We have a variety of sayings to choose from including:

Thank You

Happy Birthday

Thinking of You

Congratulations

Warm Wishes

and various Christmas sayings.

Along with the saying, we can also use other stamps to go along with the sayings such as butterflies, celebration confetti, a bird holding a heart, flowers, a moon with stars, and more. (I also like to add a bit of coloring to the stamps as an accent.)

The bags can come in pretty much any color you would like and each bag comes with a ribbon handle in iridescent pink, gold, purple, blue, or white.

Here are a few samples of some of the gift bag designs we have come up with so far.

If you are interested in purchasing some of these gift bags for a special event, email us and let us know what you have in mind and we will work with you to come up with the design to give you exactly what you are looking for.

Eventually, we are hoping to be able to offer other sizes and designs.

New Greeting Cards and Buttefly Bracelet

We have been busily working on new items in preparation for our open house next month. We have been working on making new and unique greeting cards/note cards and jewelry, and have been coming up with new ideas to add even more fun items in the future. Soon we will be working on making purses, dog toys, and more!

I like the idea of making unique cards like these:

Sometimes we want to be funny, or sometimes we just want to say "I'm Sorry"

Beautiful butterfly bracelet.

Purple Earrings and Rocker Bracelet!

We had a little change of plans and will not be doing our first vendor fair but we are currently making plans to host an open house in August! We will invite friends to come and see what we have to offer and also have some drawings for giveaways along with some delish food! I'm looking forward to it and hope it helps spread the word about our growing business!

I have been working on making more items with hemp. I've made a keychain and some earrings. I have all kinds of ideas for earring designs and will continue working on them and sharing them with you.

Purple twisted hemp earrings with 4 beads.

This is another bracelet that I made this week:

This was a fun bracelet to make! I utilized a variety of beads along with a skull charm and a guitar charm. Great for any rocker to wear!

You can find all of these items in our Etsy store or email us directly for more information! Also, don't forget to follow our FACEBOOK page for more photos and updates!

Purple Hemp Jewelry

I am finally getting better at making hemp jewelry. I've been practicing with the new purple hemp that I got (I love purple) and have made a few bracelets and an anklet, adding a few beads and charms to it. I'm finally getting the hang of it and I plan on also making some keychains and even some earrings. I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to do the earrings but I will play around with it until I come up with something that I really like.

The purple hemp bracelet and anklet set.

A close up of the hemp bracelet. It has a dolphin charm on the end.

Visit our Etsy shop to see what else we have added!!

Door Stops and Merchandise Coming Soon

We have been busy ordering new supplies and working on more merchandise. As you can see from the photo below, B has made a door stop with a cute little goat on it. She plans on making more of these with a variety of designs on them. We will soon be working on making more greeting cards, including some more humorous designs instead of basic typical greeting cards. We are also going to try our hands at making our first jean purse. This will be interesting, and if we get the hang of it, they should be very cute! We will keep updating you, so keep checking back or subscribe so that every time we post something new, it will come directly to your email.

This photo is of our little set up so far. We will continue to grow. We had our first Etsy sale! It was for some vintage earrings though, not something we have made.

Some Vintage Jewelry

B and I have had a lot of my grandmother's things stashed away since she passed away a year and a half ago. My grandmother loved to wear jewelry and she had all kinds. After she died, family members went through and picked out what we wanted from her jewelry, and what was left was just stashed away in the basement. We finally got some of it out and I decided to put it up on Etsy because it is vintage jewelry. I have a few things up there right now but have more to add. Here are a few of the beauties we have up there

Beautiful lavender necklace with matching clip-on earrings.

I have a few more necklaces to list and some earrings. They are just sitting taking up space at my mom's house so maybe someone would like them who appreciates vintage jewelry.

In other news, we are having a big garage sale at my mom's house this Saturday and we are going to have a special table set up with just our handmade merchandise! I'm not sure what to expect since it's just a garage sale but would be nice to make a few sales. Our business cards were just delivered so we will be handing those out as well. After the hustle and bustle of getting everything ready for this garage sale is over, we will begin working on items for the craft show next month. We are going to attempt making our first purse made out of jeans.. should be super cute as long as we do everything right, haha. B is working on making some really nice door stops, and we will also have our first doggy gift basket at the show. Exciting things are coming for us!!

Check out the items in our Etsy store

New Items For Sale!

So excited! We have plans to do our first flea market/craft show in July which will take place in the Bowling Green, Ohio mall! I am excited to do this and see what everyone thinks of some of our merchandise!

Speaking of merchandise, B made these over the weekend (sorry for the bad pics, these were taken with my cell phone instead of our digital camera)

Aren't these cute?? There is one other that says, "Dance" on it. We will have these for sale at the above craft show in July.

We have also been working on a few new greeting cards, especially for Father's Day. Here are a few we have recently come up with

I will probably post these in our Etsy shop soon. You can also send us an email if interested!

First Attempt at Hemp Bracelets

One thing I really wanted to work with was hemp. I wanted to learn how to make some really cute hemp jewelry. I bought a spool of hemp cord without knowing what I was getting or what I needed. I just saw it and grabbed it. Once I began searching for various ways to make jewelry with hemp, I realized that what I got was too big. I did get some practice done with it and these are my first few attempts

My first attempt adding beads, but could only used wide mouth beads.

With a little practice and smaller hemp cord.

I recently got some purple hemp and am excited about playing around with it to see what I can come up with! Soon enough, I will have some of my hemp bracelets and necklaces up in our etsy store!