Happy Friday: Hand stamped dog charms

I promised you dog-themed, hand stamped bag charms last week, and here they are.

Just listed on Etsy here...

I hope they are going to be popular.  I've tested them out on dog walks and can confirm they are quite sturdy!

So which is your favourite?  Let me know.

Lucca says he likes them all, but it's been so hot, he has mostly been concentrating on paddling and sleeping in the sun. 

Alison x

Happy Friday: Cute puppy pics and some stamping

This week I needed to sort through my dog pictures to pick one for a competition in one of my Labrador groups on Facebook. This is quite a task when you have thousands of photos of your dog - I'm sure I'm not the only one! - and you're asked to pick the cutest one, so took quite a while. In the end, I narrowed it down to these three.

On the mat - this was Lucca's first day at home.

Waiting to go in. This one really melts my heart!

I love the expression in his eyes here! 

Now it will be interesting to see if you think I picked the right one. Which do you think would get the most likes on Facebook?

On another part of planet Alison, as well as sorting some sales from my shops, I've been enjoying some stamping with a new font. 

I'm now working on a range of dog-related sayings for bag charms and key rings which is keeping me busy. Perhaps next week I'll be ready to show them.

What have you been making, or enjoying, this week?

Alison x

A milestone to share

Just a quick post to share this little milestone - 500 sales in my Folksy shop https://folksy.com/shops/BlueForestJewellery

It's been a while coming, and it was reached at 1.15 am with the sale of a pair of earrings. I love it that sales can come at any time of the day and night, and go anywhere. Yesterday, three bracelets set off for Stockholm, and we all wished we could go with them!

Thanks to all my blog followers and commentators who have kept me at it over the years. Overall sales reached about 1,000 a couple of months ago.  It's great that people like things enough to purchase them, and it's always a lovely surprise to get a sales notification. 

Please pop along to have a look at the shop if you're interested. There are some new key rings, in vintage bronze and antique silver, and until the end of the month, you can use the discount code Celebrate 500 to get a 20% reduction. 

Here are some recent makes.  Which do you like best?  And what are you making at the moment?

Alison x

Happy Friday: Mostly chainmaille

Hi everyone,

The week's seem to fly by, don't they?  Now that it's getting towards Spring, we have been taking advantage of some sunny but cold days to get out and about and do some swimming.  That's Lucca swimming, not me or Phil!

This was great fun and Lucca got a good workout for his dodgy elbow. Then one of those swans that you can just see in the background decided to swim over to remind us whose territory it was!  

Amazing what you see when you're dog pulls you to every available river.  From the distance, we did wonder out loud whether this was a toy helicopter!  We all thought it was a bit showy to have it on the lawn, but I suppose if you've got one, it's a challenge to find parking spaces big enough.  Not a problem I think I will ever have. The chickens seemed to be quite happy with it there. 

Jewellery wise, still mostly chainmaille. How long can this obsession last? Some of these bracelets are quite heavy - it's amazing how the weight of the rings builds up.

I love that this one looks a bit like knitting.

The weave here is held in place with faux brown leather cord. 

This one is my favourite, with a rainbow of faux pearls.

Which do you like best?

Here's the link to see what others have been creating this week at Planet Penny .http://planetpenny.co.uk

Alison x

Handmade Monday - more of those tassel necklaces

Happy New Year blog followers. I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year break.  Here's a quick pic of Lucca the dog enjoying the beach at Broad Haven on Christmas Day, when it was bright and windy.   

I kept crafting all the way through the break, and I'm still a bit obsessed with making dangles for the interchangeable chain necklaces. Because I always want my jewellery to have a touch of the ancient world about it - I like things to look like they could have literally been dug out of the ground! - I always love to use pearls, glass pearls in this case. 

That one is a bit Cleopatra, don't you think?

Five pearls in a row.

A lovely textured ring charm.

And some chainmaille with green Quartz beads. 

Would love to know which you like best?

One of my New Year resolutions is to do more tutorials on this blog, so please make sure you nag me if they don't appear, won't you?

Here's a link to Handmade Harbour where you can see what other crafty people have been making this week. http://handmadeharbour.blogspot.co.uk

Alison x