Welcome to the end of the year 2009.

I hope everyone has had a spectacular Christmas/holiday. I am looking forward to the new year and will let you know exactly whats to come!

So here is my new years resolution ...so far:

<3 I plan to make sure to have 1 new piece of Jewelery up every week MINIMUM.

Merry Christmas.........TO ME :D

Here's a little story of how dreams really can come true :D A few weeks ago I was on my Twitter and saw a tweet from ohmycrafts, asking if you could get any Tool for Christmas what would it be? Well That's not hard.....I've always wanted to have a pair of Lindstrom pliers/cutters I replied.  Well a few minutes later I get a message directly from Lindstrom_USA, asking which tool would I choose if I could have any of there tools? WOW that's the hard question what to choose FIRST! I believe I said pliers or close cutters LOL. I can't quite remember exactly! Thinking that's that I logged off my hootsuite. I went did some designing and came back a little later to find another message from them asking for my adress and that they were sending me the 7293 Close cutters. With this message came a picture showing me the box it was coming in. I was soo excited at this point that I told EVERYONE. Called my parents, my friends, EVERYONE.

Well the day FINALLY came :D They are here! I am so excited I have looked them over so many times writing this post.

I also tested them, and they are so SMOOTH! I love it. There also smaller then i thought they would be!

So one TRILLION thanks go out to Lindstrom this Christmas season and to a great New year!

GIVEAWAY TIME

Well it's about time I get down to one of these giveaways.

As I am sure is pretty obvious I love beading and anything beading related. I have a few favorites that I stick with. One of them is Artbeads. I can't even remember HOW I found them! I'm just glad I did. Anyways, I am setting up a giveaway for a $25.00 email gift card. Spend it on anything you want at Artbeads.

Not only am I offering this giveaway! but I will let you in on another giveaway that Artbeads is doing. It is for a $100 giftcard to there shop online. This gives you two chances to get a gift card. So go to there Facebook Fanpage and check it out

Now to enter the $25.00 Gift card giveaway, please see below.

To Enter:

Visit Artbeads.com and tell me what your favorite supply is.

Bonus Entries:

1. Subscribe to my blog by email.

2. Follow my blog.

3. Blog about the giveaway and leave me the link.

4. Follow me on Twitter and tweet the giveaway.

5. Become a fan of ElizabethMD Jewelery Designs on Facebook.

Open to all.

Giveaway ends on December 29, 2009 at 11:59 pm EST. Winners will be selected by random.org and notified by email and will have 48 hours to reply back before a new winner is selected. Please remember to leave your email address and name if it is not attached to your profile so I can contact you if you win. Good luck!

BIG NEWS B****** LOL

OK so I got a truelly WICKED email from Artbeads a couple days ago that I wanna share with all of you(think of me as your inside scoop ;)). Anyways the basis of it was that 09/03/09, Artbeads.com launched there biggest sale ever for the Labor Day weekend with a 20% Off coupon that’s good on everything! This is the largest discount that they have ever had. On there entire selection of beads and jewelry supplies....The only catch is there is a $60 minimum (big deal) with the coupon and you have to sign up for there email newsletter to get the coupon code.

So if you haven't already sign up to Artbeads Goodies newsletter via this link.

Now as a last tidbit to everyone!! This isn't gonna last long! I promise. This magical moment will end at 9AM Tuesday morning!

So get up and get it quick before the sale is over!!


(Sorry this is added so late guys)

Blogging For Beads Challenge

So as you know I've now been working on this challenge called "blogging for Beads" for about a month now. I chose 3 Swarovski crystal cosmic Ovals. I thought of many different possibilities of what I could use them in. I have tried all of those ideas and many more. Nothing is doing these gorgeous swarovski ovals any justice.



So I do apologize Artbeads These beautiful frames are too gorgeous to waste on just "any old piece". They have Delicious firey coloring and great structure. Making them easy to use in many different Styles of jewelry.

I will say this though when I do get the chance to use them in that piece that just DAZZLES. You'l be the first to know.

Gone for a minute now I'm back! ICE ON!!!

So that was a very unexpected leave of absence from the studio. 2 weeks ago I went into the health clinic with abdominal pains and ended up being rushed by cab to emerg. I waited over 12+ hours there went through crazy battery tests with IV's in my arm to finally be diagnosed and told I need an appendectomy. FINALLY I can get this all over lol. So 2 weeks tonight at midnight I went in for surgery and had my appendix removed. True story LOL. It took longer to recover then I thought it would. I guess it's harder to recover as quickly when you get older :D.

Anyways, now that I'm back heres whats been happening. I am now Blogging for beads (as I'm sure you have seen in previous posts). I got my first "toys" from Artbeads for it too! (which you can also see in a previous post). Those Sworvski rings are going to gorgeoso laying over a crystal path WOW! If you could only see inside my head, all the designs I got going on....it's crazy madness up in here. I am however finally back in the studio working so there will be new pieces coming up in the next month.

So now back to business. Lets see, I had a professional photog come and take pictures of my jewelry (my cameras puched). Money I would like to say is well spent for what I received. I have also set up shop on Etsy finally as well (click this link to go to my shop).

The website is going well and will be link directly through to my Etsy shop so that you can feel secure in knowing your in safe hands when buying.

I hope all is well in your Wonderland, I bid you adu and goodday. Theres gonna be some new programming coming soon!

OPEN SESAME ETSY

Well, I have been wanting to do this for a very long time. I just never had the means too. I now as of 11AM EST will be open for business on ETSY. I am very excited about this opening. Although I still love and adore my ARTFIRE shop. I honestly believe that ETSY will further me as an artisan in a more well known community so that I can bring that knowledge back to ARTFIRE.

I am truelly believing that this will be a new and fresh start and I look forward to many conversations and many new friends and contacts through ETSY.

THERE HERE!! THERE HERE!!

They are finally here after what feels like forever my swarovski crystal ovals are finally here. Now the first thing I realize is WOW Artbeads.com is definitely consistent. They have consistent shipping timeframes and detail in packaging. This is my second package receipt from them and I have another one on the way. So I knew when I got into the envelope that for obviouse reasons I did not have to worry about the bill. So I went straight for Christmas morning. I am always amazed with Swarovski Crystal it's so beautiful, and this is definatly a company who wants to make sure you get it in top condition unlike others I have received I received each oval in a little plastic container in it's own little ziploc baggy, and then the three baggies are in a larger baggie wrapped in cushy shipping etc.

I WILL BE OFF DUE TOO SURGERY FOR THE NEXT WEEK OR SO!

My first Artbeads Request!!

So I got the email from Artbeads.com a little over a week ago. I got it and got sooooo overwhelmed by all the choices that I actually *GASP* left it for a few days. When I came back I started analyzing and seeing what I could actually see myself playing with. Oh sure there were tons of possible new toys to ask for, everything from swarovski crystal pieces to jewelry cleaner and beyond. One really neat thing I saw was wooden frames (little, little pieces) with beautiful artwork on them!. My problem was I wanted to cut them apart and change the holes to make different angles. So instead of all the possibilities I decided to get 3 very firey beautiful swarovski ovals






I'm so excited to get these crystals. I have so many ideas running through my head as I look at the pictures. I promised I would not work until Saturday but I could not help but want to put this up so that you get to see what I have chosen before it gets here!

If you have any ideas you would like to share with me on how you would use these beautiful ovals in your jewelry leave a comment they are always welcome!

ATTENTION ATTENTION ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

I have a fair amount of blog posts in my head right now so I'm deciding to separate them so that they all get there very own importance.

I'm very excited to announce that I have been offered an opportunity to blog for Artbeads. I am very excited about it. I got a twitter message from Steve Groenier (BeadGuy) of Artbeads, asking me to email them about an opportunity to work with Artbeads. I'm thinking GREAT. I wonder what there looking for?. So I emailed the address he gave me and waited till the next day. When i got the email I was sooo excited. They were asking to me as a handmade jewelry artist to blog for there website along with many other talented artists. I emailed back right away excepting there offer and now I'm going through the list of options they sent me for products they want me to play with and then blog about.

I have also decided to bring YOU my readers through the whole process with me.

I hope you enjoy this job (more like a love affair) with me. Fell free to leave comments.

I reward great customer service!!

I did a blog post a week or so ago (as I'm sure all of you have now read), basically letting everyone know about my experience with Artbeads. I also wanted to make sure that the company new how impressed and satisfied I am as a new customer. So I twittered Artbeads (there exact location is http://twitter.com/Artbeads), so I could let them know to read my blog so they could tell there staff how appreciative I am as well as I'm sure other people too. In response to my message I received the following.
This is my Twitter account.
http://tinyurl.com/m389mu


and this......... is a comment that was left on my blog.
http://tinyurl.com/mdpmwc

So the lesson of the story is this. Someone does there job well. Rewarding them makes them feel good. It didn't cost me a darn thing to tell everyone willing to listen, what a great company Artbeads is and what great service I got.

ARTBEADS Experience

OK so I promised I would Help everyone out by letting people know about the different companies I deal with in regards to buying my supplies for my jewelry designs. Well when I got a request for a custom pendant! I decided to do some checking around. So I found Artbeads website a little while back through Facebook and Twitter and they're great. I started out by checking out there prices to my fallback sites. Better prices equal better prices for my customers right!

Well I got my order done and got a message from my client I was doing the custom work for, basically letting me know she changed her mind on color. Ok lets test reaction time of this new company right! I told her I already made the order but let me see if I can change it!?. If not I would just make another order, no big deal. So I wrote the company right away and asked if I could basically cancel my order so i could reorder. Well normal turnaround I know is roughly 24-42 hrs (usually). They called me a few hrs later. A nice girl ( I'm terribly sorry I wanna say it was a Carrie but I'm not sure!) called and asked what exactly I wanted to do and we changed the order together. It was great. She verified everything with me and then she explained the shipping changes (basically- orders go out in the morning she called in the afternoon so my order would be pulled and shipped the next morning, I believe it was the 14th or 15th of June. Well later that day I got a few email verifications from them. One was an invoice with the changes we made. The next was to let me know the original invoice shipment # went out (which she told me to ignore), then the next email I get is that the corrected order went out. I figure SWEET I will get it in a couple of weeks!

NO WAY!! order shipped out on a Monday! (I chose regular mail -for Canadians, shipping is only $1 -Americans it's free) I got the package the following Monday! Man did it feel like Christmas! LOL or at least my birthday :D. I had ordered copper chain, 4 swarovski 4mm bicone crystals (that's actually what needed to originally be changed- my client wanted a different color of purple) a beautiful lobster claw, some nice copper jump rings i believe inner diameter of those are 4mm as well, and for a treat for myself ( If I can when doing online orders I buy a "treat" for my studio, usually it's a new tool or gadget). This time I chose a nicely designed heavy duty cutter (for when I go back to my chainmaille vest for my hubby). The packaging was amazing so creative yet sooo professional, love the little info card they send to, it's so vibrant and colorful. I thought from now on when i do an expose on a new store I would show what I got and how it comes for you. Purely because of Artbeads.


So here it is folks!!

Isn't the packaging soo cute!?


I definitely give Artbeads a

OMG WOW

So a little while ago I put up all 6 of my new pieces in my photo gallery on Facebook, because of that I got a lovely woman in one of my crazy little games inquired if I could recreate a cute little Putty Tat that she draws on correspondence. With much delight I absolutely agreed and we are now well on our way! Here is the start of the the lil' mini Putty Tat!


Now I'm just waiting for supplies to come in and I will finish up her design! I'm actually guess it will take a few weeks. Purely because i am waiting for supplies from the states. This will also be another chance to check out a new store and how they work, other then Cowspot Beads. I'm really looking forward to it!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~June 24th 2009~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ok so now I can officially start this Putty tat piece for Kelly! I have been fiddling around with it and I am starting to get the look down!


This is the evolution so far!

New pieces and a new Direction

Ok so here's all the new pieces folks!: