Saturday, November 12, 2011

Etsy Specials!

Starting November 14th through the 18th receive free shipping on any order from my Etsy account. The link is posted at the top left hand corner of this page. Also watch for a great deal on Black Friday!

Friday, November 4, 2011

Exclusive Pieces!

As some of you may know I've recently started getting my jewelry published for sale on Etsy. Well, I've got some other exciting news! I've now got a few items available in an actual store!! Woo hoo! If any of you are familiar with downtown Cadillac, MI I'm sure you  know there are some really quaint little shops there. Blossom, formerly known as Apple Blossom, is by far my favorite. They have adorable, and unique clothing, along with shoes, and other nick-knacks. As of a week or so ago, I placed some of my jewelry there. These items are exclusively found only at Blossom!!!
 This is made with flower shaped drops for the focal points. It also has peek-a-boo pearls inside the flower. The chain is black metal.

 You can see the peek-a-boo pearls inside, along with some ruby crystals.

 I've recently been playing with asymmetry in my jewelry designs. I use a focal point on the side instead of the middle. I think this gives a vintage look with a modern take.
 I used copper wire for this one
 Up close view on the focal piece. I've been really attracted to the vintage fillagree. I really like the way it looks especially with pearls.
 This is one of my favorites and I hope to replicate it for future designs. There is no clasp in this one. Instead it uses a hoop in the front in which the pearl barely fits through. This gives the focal piece in the front with a new twist. You can pull the pearl farther up or down to change the length of the necklace.
 For this one I used a brass colored metal. This gives it an aged look.
 Close up of this one
 I really liked the unique features of this one.
 This is another version of one of the previous ones. I used light green pearls and a gunmetal focal piece.
 Gunmetal is a color somewhat between silver and black. It almost looks like a silver that has been tarnished, but is still shiny.

 This is another one that I tend to replicate. This necklace has the clasp on the side right after the metal leaf. I also have these leaf pieces in silver.
 Close up of the focal point
 Matching earrings.
 This necklace has a the same asymmetry but with a  double chain in the front. I used antique silver split pieces to do that.
 Close up of the focal piece
 Matching earrings
 This one is the same concept as the last. I used peach colored pearls instead. Also the focal piece is a rose instead of a metal embellishment.
 I really love this rose bead. It's made from separate parts and combine to give it a fuller effect. I definitely plan on buying more of these before I can't find them anymore!
Although these are only at Blossom, in beautiful downtown Cadillac, MI, I can always try to create them again. The biggest issue I have is to try and find the exact parts that I've previously used. I try to only buy 1 of each thing, so that all of my items are unique. If you are interested in any of these, however, just let me know. I can do my best to replicate them and post them on Etsy. Thanks for stopping by!
Holly

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Let Them Eat Cake!

It seems like it's been forever since I've been on here. I've recently completed school with for my RN. Now that I'm done I will have more free time to get on here and post. I've recently started baking more in my spare time. I've always loved watching those cake shows on TV and was always impressed at how grand they were. I've always made cakes but nothing like those. Well, I made a trip to Hobby Lobby and ended up with all of the cake tools I may need, probably for the rest of my life. I started with a basic cake. I made James help. I made homemade buttercream and put him to work. Then I got busy trying to figure out how to make sugar flowers.


These are my first attempts at daisies and roses. Not bad for a first try. Then it came time to put the tiers together. These are the daisies, believe it or not these were really pretty easy to make. You just have to cut them out of the gum paste. Then you use little tools to make the edges thinner. The middle is just gum paste tinted yellow.

 This is my first attempt at a rose. This was a little more difficult. I still need more practice on getting the edges thinner. You have to start with a base then make individual flowers and layer them to get a fuller look.







This is a close up of the daisy. I used yellow sugar for the middle too.
This started out to be a water lilly, but I never made the rest of it. I just had extra pink colored gum paste.


This is the first official cake. It's pretty helter skelter, but that's just because I was trying to get a feel for decorating the cake in general. It takes a lot of time in order to place things just right. I also had to fondant a cake for the first time. Let me tell you they make that look easy on TV. It's really harder than it looks.





Here's the other side of the cake. I made calla lillies the same way as the other flowers. I think these turned out a little better than the daisies.

 This was the top layer of fondant. I used a press that embossed a design into the fondant. I really like the way it turned out!


 Here's the rose and 2 carnations that I attempted.



This is the second cake I tried. With this practice cake I tried to pipe on a design instead of using the embossing mat. This is going to take some practice. Mind you this is the 1st attempt at piping. My hand is still not as steady as it needs to be.










This is the top of the cake. I ran out of callas, but you get the general idea. This is what the top of my sister's wedding cake will look like. It will be next September at my house. And guess who is making the cake? ME! OMG I'd better get some more practice in. I really enjoy making cakes. I would like to start making more out of my home. I've tried thinking of a really cute name for my "bakery" or so you could say. Any ideas?