Shealynn's Faerie Shoppe

Skylines and Turtles

noreply@blogger.com (Shaylynn) — Thu, 16 May 2013 17:41:00 +0000

I've grown up in semi-rural and suburban areas, so cities always overwhelm me. However, there is definitely something beautiful about all the hustle-and-bustle and the strangely crowded buildings. Last weekend, we visited some family in Chicago for my cousin's baptism. It was my first trip to the Windy City, and the only sightseeing we did was a stroll along Lake Michigan.

That walk was beautiful and eerie. The lake is practically an ocean, and it even has a proper beach. After driving by so many crowded streets it was strange to walk on the beach and see no more people than I see hiking in the woods at home.

The pier, snuggled between a gray sky and cold gray water, was empty, but we could still see the busy skyline from a distance.

It was a lovely trip and I took some really cool pictures with my family!

There's been this strange sense of unreality for me lately-- it's probably one of those things most teens get when preparing to graduate high school and "start being adults." When we came back home and I had a bit of free time after school and work, I went hiking in our local woods. These are the same trails that I've walked and biked for three years, but the powerful scent of honeysuckle and the heavy, damp forest air made it feel more like a fairytale adventure than one of the crisp hikes I'm used to.

I know I'm being florid right now. Oh well. Bloggers are allowed to do that sometimes.

And look! I found a woodhollow tree!

I ran into two box turtles on my walk. These fellows are anything but shy! When I got up close and personal to this turtle, he nonchalantly chewed a sprig of grass and kept his quizzically distant gaze fixed on my camera lense. All he needs is a pair of sunglasses and he'll pull of the "cool dude" look really well!

THIS turtle, however, did nothing but glare at me.

Flowers don't glare. They explode like fireworks instead.

My DIY Craft Fair Display

noreply@blogger.com (Shaylynn) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 01:49:00 +0000

Yesterday I was a vendor at the St. Theodore Tea and Fashion show and I needed a display to put my jewelry in! I spent exactly zero dollars on this, and just used things we had lying around the house! Somehow it still managed to look pretty professional and now I want to do more craft fairs just to use it! (I don't know if I'll be able to this summer, because it's such a time commitment--- we'll see!).

I know that most of you won't have supplies like these on hand, but I always like to see how others come up with solutions for things even when I don't have the supplies on hand. It usually helps me to think outside the box-- something I had to do a lot of for this display. No way was I going to spend $100 or more buying the "real" supplies that "real" artists use at fairs. I can buy beads and wire instead! :) The only item that I personally bought was the white necklace stand, and I got that months ago to use in photoshoots.

As I thought about putting a display together, I kept thinking about height-- no one likes bending over to see things!

The main part of the display is an unfinished oak kitchen cabinet which my Dad bought for $20 because it was damaged. We haven't given it a proper home yet, so it was out in the garage receiving a coat of cobwebs. It's heavy, but not too heavy to carry by myself.

The earring racks are two pieces of thin wood which I cut into rectangles with the scrollsaw and drilled dozens of holes into. The only downside is that a couple of the earrings get stuck in the holes-- they aren't too hard to get out, but they aren't too easy, either. It does make it easy to transport because none of them fall out on their own!

(By the way, I'm curious to know how other artisans price their jewelry for craft fairs. I rarely have more than one of any item on hand, except the ever-popular Evenstar collection, and it's tedious work to put a price tag by every item. Online, I can set each item to the exact price for my supplies and time. I would up compromising yesterday and averaging out the price of items to the nearest even-dollar increment. This meant that I had $7 and $14 earrings on the same rack, priced at $10. It's not ideal but for a one-day event I didn't know what to do!).

The strip lights are something that Dad had in the garage-- something for his truck, I've no idea what they are exactly but they are battery operated and stuck to the top with double-sided tape!

The bracelets are all resting on an empty roll of wrapping paper which I covered with part of a papery fabric tablecloth-- the same one that I use to wrap orders in when I run out of fabric or organza bags!

I put all the cuffs on the bottom of the display and gave it some height using glass from picture frames and wooden blocks.

I'm pretty proud of the hooks for the guitar string bangles and chainmaille keychains! I made it out of this giant roll of cheap aluminum wire I have on hand.

I was trying not to damage the nice cabinet so I used masking tape-- it was just strong enough but I was afraid it would fall down as people fingered the items! (it didn't!)

We had this wooden box lying around with knickknacks in it. I rolled up some fabric into little rolls and laid them side by side to display my rings properly. The cheaper plain wire rings and guitar string rings got jumbled up on the left because I had too many!

The necklace display is made from the cabinet doors. It wasn't ideal-- I think that necklace displays do a much better job of showing off my full necklaces. If I do any craft fairs in the future I will reserve these door displays for the pendant necklaces only. It works *great* for that!

The doors were just propped up on a basket and a book. They also have wire hooks taped to the back.

Lookie! Lookie! More Evenstar colors! It turns out that it's very difficult to find the leaf beads that I use for the Evenstar sets, especially when the website I usually buy from stopped carrying half the colors. Other places have them for crazy expensive prices. Think 50 cents or a dollar a bead. Then I found Brightling Beads and Shipwreck Beads so now I have every color they have in stock. Lots of new Evenstars!

I also will start using silver-plated chain instead of aluminum for the Evenstars. The aluminum I had before was cheap but wasn't up to par.

Anyway, the Evenstar necklaces and Enchanted Forest earrings are on another thin sheet of wood. I drilled holes for the earrings and nailed nails in to hang the pendants up.

The sapphire blue set is on the necklace stand that I made with an old book and a cereal box-- check out the tutorial here.

This is the necklace stand that I bought at Michaels awhile ago, and a folded-over index card (the perfect earring display in a pinch!).

This necklace very similar to the Eowyn necklace I made a few months ago, only (*cough* if I may say so myself) better made.

It's the first new item that I've had a chance to put up on my Shoppe-- check it out!

Hope you liked this peek at the jewelry display I dreamed up!

Preparing for a Craft Show

noreply@blogger.com (Shaylynn) — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 22:40:00 +0000

This Sunday I will be selling some of my jewelry at the St. Theodore Tea and Fashion show-- local friends, please come stop by! There will be lots of good food and fun, and it all supports the church's mission trip.

Here's a sneak peek at some of jewelry I've made in the past three weeks.

(These first few pictures are from my Instagram account-- @ShealynnsFaerie. It's a weird story why I have an account when I have to use my mom's phone to do it, but basically one of my youngest brothers signed up without permission and now I have to monitor him. What better excuse to start posting my own over-edited, blurry snapshots?)

These are some brand-new chainmaille bracelets! I've been having fun with my two favorite weaves: the Byzantine (lookie at the blue and green ombre!) and the two-in-two mobius. I've also made some bracelets with the Shaggy Loops pattern, the European 4-in-4, and the Persian box weave.

Basically, lots of fun. These are my favorite bracelets to make and to wear. ^_^ I'll photograph them properly later!

Behind the bracelets are some guitar string earrings.

Earrings! These are all on a display that I made all on my own with some scrap wood. I'll take some pictures of my displays this weekend and write up a blog post with tips and tricks later!

One of many necklaces made with my favorite beads ever-- the Czech glass pressed into leaves!

Also hard at work on two of Aurora's crowns!

I made Evenstar sets in every single color I could get my hands on.

The teacup is there because of Tea Trolling. :)

My brother kept pestering me to upload pictures to Instagram the moment I created an account, and I couldn't find anything to post except for the teacup I was drinking out of at the time. So I spammed him with funny pictures of tea or just the teacup in different places. ^_^ If anyone else likes taking funny pictures of tea, use the hashtag #teatrolling. 'Tis fun. Especially when you have little brothers who call tea "dirt water." Tea trolling rankles them. (I'm such a lovely big sister.)

I'm off to go write some essays, drink some tea, and put the finishing touches on the displays! What are you all up to this evening?

DIY Book Box {Tutorial}

noreply@blogger.com (Shaylynn) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 22:52:00 +0000

Secret book boxes. These are the stuff of old whodunits, with cursed and precious jewels hiding in the library of mysterious mansions. The only word to describe it is cool.

I've tried my hand three times in the past at making book boxes in the past. At first, I simply used an x-acto knife to cut out hundreds of individual pages. I did a tutorial for it and everything, but it is a very time consuming process and your hands get really tired.

Last year I attacked a book with power tools, and learned what not to do! Don't worry, though. I just helped a friend make her own book box and now I can (finally) show you how to make a nice book box using a drill, two screws, a scrollsaw, and some glue!

The project takes around half an hour to complete, but you'll want to let it dry overnight.

Begin by taking a destroyable book. What is a destroyable book? Something like a Reader's Digest Abriged book, which has a beautiful cover but it generally rubbish inside.

Do NOT destroy good books. You'll make bibliophiles like me die a little inside. ;)

Fold back the cover and a few pages from the front and back of the book.

This next step is very important-- if you forgo it, you'll ruin the book box. Sandwich the book between two pieces of wood and screw two screws through it.

Make sure everything is very snug.

Next, trace the edges of the book on the wood and draw the design you'd like to cut out. We chose a rectangle with rounded corners. Be sure to leave at least a half-inch border around the design.

It's difficult to twist a scrollsaw to make sharp edges, and even the curves we worked with were sideloading the blade. If you would like to make a straight rectangle, I'd recommend drilling holes at each corner. This gives the blade enough room to wiggle so that you can cut ninety-degree corners.

Drill a hole all the way through the book, push the blade through it, and set up your scrollsaw:

Then, DESTROY THAT BOOK!

When you are finished, you'll have a nice block of paper left. These book guts are lots of fun. You can use the paper for origami, artwork, and even costumes!

Next, do a victory dance because IT WORKED! :D

The book will feel very smooth where you cut it. You are done hollowing it out at this point, but it doesn't work all that well as a box because the pages can be opened.

Paint the insides of the box with glue. This will make your box sturdy but let it look like a very normal book from the outside.

(This is different from the technique that I did with my previous book boxes, when I glued the outsides of the pages shut. If you are sure to sandwhich the book between the pieces of wood, you won't need the extra stability that gluing the outside of the book shut gives.)

Glue a piece of decorative paper or fabric on the first non-cut page at the back of the book.

Now, set a nice heavy dictionary on top of the book and let it dry flat and even.

This would make a really cool afternoon project! It takes around half and hour and only requires a basic knowledge of how to use a drill and scrollsaw. My book box is the perfect place to hide candy from little siblings, and my little sister keeps her favorite pieces of jewelry inside of hers. I've seen some neat pictures of people putting engagement rings inside of book boxes or hiding ipods and other valuables in hollowed textbooks inside backpacks.

Happy Easter

noreply@blogger.com (Shaylynn) — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 01:59:00 +0000

I recently started a job and have been very busy finishing my senior year of high school in addition to working on Shoppe orders, so blog posts are going to be sporadic until the end of May. Today I went to put together a post and discovered that this one-- which was supposed to go up EASTER MONDAY-- didn't actually publish and instead saved as a draft. I don't EVEN know how I overlooked that. Oh, well. Happy late Easter Monday. Here's some eggs to look at.

Happy Easter, everyone!

Do you remember the Sharpie Easter Eggs I made last year? I'd experimented with Sharpies to try to copy the traditional Ukrainian eggs but discovered that it was really hard to do. Sharpies are great for drawing on eggs, but the neat geometric patterns are difficult to copy without using the beeswax and dye technique.

And guess what??? My parents bought us a pysanky set this year! Here's a collection of (most of) the eggs I've decorated in the past couple of weeks. The pictures are blurry because I didn't grab a tripod-- I was in a rush to take pictures before putting the eggs into little boxes to give to friends and family!

We got a neat egg-blowing tool which only makes one hole and does not require killing your cheeks and lungs in order to squirt the insides out. It's a nice little pump that creates a vaccum and will both empty and clean an egg in about two minutes.

Ukrainian eggs are a lot more complicated and time-instensive than I had anticipated! (Which of course just means that I am more obsessed with it than I would have been, because it's a nice challenge.) We boiled dyes and put them into mason jars. You take a cleaned egg, write on it with melted beeswax using a kitska wherever you want white, dye it in yellow, write with beeswax, dye it in the next darkest color, etc.

Our favorite part? When the egg is completely decorated and covered with blackened beeswax, you hold it over a flame until all the wax melts. You get to play with fire, guys. This is the coolest thing since the invention of fire. If you aren't careful, you can even heat the egg up so much that it hurts your fingers and you drop it!

click to enlarge

The kit arrived the same day that Pope Francis was elected! This was my second-ever egg made using this technique. The front has a slightly messy version of the papal seal, the back has a cross, and the sides say "Habemus Papam - Francis - Allelulia."

(My first egg was awful and not worth photographing).

This one was actually a lot cooler in real life. I soaked the egg in vinegar for a few minutes after making it a deep blue, and the top layer of dye (or of the egg itself, I'm not sure) rubbed right off with a paper towel. It made a messy, faded look. I've heard you can also dye eggs in bleach to go back to white-- this is how you get white backgrounds. It would be sooo much easier than trying to cover large swatches with wax.

Ta-da! Ukrainian eggs are so much fun, but as you can see I both have little time and little patience, so I gravitated towards making lots of simpler designs. I'm in complete awe of true pysanky eggs!

Oh, and I didn't spend all my egg decorating time using dyes. There aren't any cool religious icon eggs this year, but I did make this:

Frodo Baggins LOTR sharpie easter egg

A Blue Box

noreply@blogger.com (Shaylynn) — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 01:35:00 +0000

This weekend, we had over a foot of snow in one day. We built some epic igloos in the backyard, and then, suddenly, POOF! Someone crash landed in our front yard!

Geek out time! It's a snow TARDIS, people! It's made out of at least 98 cubic feet of snow and is definitely bigger on the inside.

Just for a sense of scale, this is my brother (taller than me) next to the TARDIS on top of a snow pile. This sculpture was done almost entirely by the two of us because our other brothers wimped out or started snowball fights! My little sister turned the top of the TARDIS into a little playfort-- I'm going to get those pictures off of Mom's phone to share with you if I can.

We built this as the snow was falling heavily, but it was dark out when we finished. The next day, we had to leave in the morning, and by the time we got back, it had melted! This TARDIS as pictured is several inches shorter than it was originally and has also morphed into the Leaning Tower of TARDIS. It was very straight, smooth and right-angled when we built it-- with half my family destined to be engineers like Dad, there was no other way to do it!

There totally would have been some awesome photoshoots with my siblings and I dressed as the Doctor & Co., only our TARDIS has died already. Silly weather. First you snow in late March, then you decide to hang out in the mid-forties all day? We wanted to make Daleks and Weeping Angels!

(P.S. We love our snow sculptures-- last year we didn't get any appreciable snowfall, but you can see Sir Herbert Junior the Snow Giant and Smaug the Dragon, right here!)

Photo update! Here are some more from Mom:

Shabby Apple Gift Card Winner

noreply@blogger.com (Shaylynn) — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 14:46:00 +0000

Right now I am sitting at my desk, cuddled up in my warmest sweater with a cup of tea by my laptop, and staring out at a plain white canvas. Yesterday we had a major storm and I believe it is the second-largest snowfall that I have ever experienced! Well over a foot of snow and big drifts by my window. My brothers and I are in the process of making snow sculptures, and we've calculated that each one will require 98 cubic feet of snow. We're over halfway done!

But you don't want to know about the weather, do you? You want to know who won the Shabby Apple giveaway. I don't blame you! You had to wait an extra day because our internet speed was inching along during the snow.

And the winner is...

...

Melissa P.

Congratulations! I'm sending you an email right now.

DIY Sealing Wax Stamp

noreply@blogger.com (Shaylynn) — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 04:01:00 +0000

Today I stepped out of my comfort zone and made a video tutorial! I just snapped a few pictures as I worked, so the video is probably more illuminating.

I've always loved writing letters and have dreamed of the days of yore when people sent letters calligraphied on parchment, sealed with wax... there's something so romantic about it. Then, after I made the blog post about glass nib pens and several of you oh-so-lovely readers teased me about having sealing wax kits while I didn't... I just had to get or make one! :)

I bought some sealing wax but didn't want to spend $20 or more on a stamp that I would only use when sending those long, rare, handwritten letters, so I decided to make my own! I tried using buttons as a stamp but we didn't have any pretty ones that worked, and I wanted to make my own cool design. Several months ago I saw this pin and memorized the steps from the photos. I just spent a couple of minutes searching, and it looked like this idea originated from this post on a design blog called RageHaus.

Anyway, here's my spin on the DIY wooden sealing wax stamps!

You will need:
A wooden dowel or block
A woodburner / pyrography wand
A dremel tool
Oil
Sealing wax
Approximately 45 minutes

Above you can see my first attempt at making a wax stamp (the red stamp with the monogram "S). I was really pleased with how it turned out, especially considering the complexity of the design! For this tutorial I made a very basic heart stamp. It's a lot easier than it looks!

To begin, you'll need a circular wood dowel. I used a block from one of those ubiquitos toy block sets.

Draw the design that you want on the dowel. Remember, your image will be reversed when stamping. For the heart it doesn't matter, but for the monogram I freehanded a mirror image. If you don't like mirroring or drawing things without a reference, you can print out a reverse image and transfer the picture onto the wood.

Next, use the pyrography tool to burn the wood! Begin by simply using the smallest tip to slowly, slowly trace the design. After the initial burn, press down the the tool (it's best if you do this using the side of the tool, not just the tip) to deepen the valleys. It needs to be deep enough for the wax design to stand out clearly. Do your best to not just push a bunch of dots into the wood, as this will make the final design very bumpy.

Protip: If your design starts getting really bumpy, use a small flathead screwdriver to push the bumpy wood down flat. You want everything to be level-- unless you want a design with varying heights, such as my monogram, where I carved the main letter deeply but made the swirlies much lighter.

Also, if your wooden block is covered with paint like mine, and it smells really foul while burning it, you can always put on a mask. I wound up doing that because the smell made me queasy, so just watch out.

You're not done yet! The design needs to be sanded to make it flat and even. If you sand it well enough, the wax will not stick to the wood. Use a fine nib dremel tool to do this!

Ta-da! The design is finished, and all that remains is to dip the tip in oil and wipe off the excess (to discourage the wax from sticking to your stamp). Then it's time to test out your new toy!

I just wanted to send a little shout-out to GreenCraftStore, where I bought the wax. Their pieces were reasonably priced and just lookit that beautiful packaging!

I'm not really an expert on stamping with wax, as the first time I did it was when I made the monogram stamp, but here's a couple of tips:

1. Don't catch the paper on fire if you are using a wax stick with a wick. Do, however, get really excited that you are holding a flame and dripping really really really hot wax on paper. It's cool.

2. Let the wax dry for just a couple of seconds before imprinting it with the stamp.

3. Let the wax dry with the stamp ontop of it, then wiggle the stamp off.

4. If you are going to mail this, use modern plastic waxes that won't break in the mail. I used beeswax, which is great for historical accuracy. However, historically seals were used not only as a sort of signature but also to keep prying eyes off of letters. If a seal was fiddled with, it would crack. I think that beeswax probably won't survive modern mail machines. I've yet to test it out, though!

Ahhh! It WORKED.

Ignore the cheesy "To: You"-- I needed something to quickly write on the sheet of paper and "To: You Lovely Blog Readers and YouTube Followers and The Random Person Who Just Stumbled Upon This Video and/or Blog Post" would have taken too long to write.

Here's a shot of my "S" stamp. And an envelope which I marbled. That will hopefully be another tutorial someday, just as soon as I perfect my marbling technique...

You can see that I didn't sand the heart down all the way; it's still a little bumpy.

Now I need to go write some long-overdue letters to some dear friends and stamp them all with handmade sealing wax stamps. :)

Habemus Papam

noreply@blogger.com (Shaylynn) — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 22:54:00 +0000

To my Catholic readers: I know this is old news to you by now, but WE HAVE A POPE!

After Pope emeritus Benedict XVI resigned, we had several pope-less days and I was so excited to see a Twitter post proclaiming "Habemus Papam-- we have a Pope!" Then I got a text from Pope Alarm just a few seconds later (why yes, I did sign up to get a text for the big news!) and had the honor of being the first one to run around the house telling my family!

I don't remember much about Benedict's election so this week was, I think, the very first that I heard about the smoke tradition. The Cardinals vote on the Pope multiple times each day. After each set of votes, they light a fire and send smoke up the chimney of the Sistine Chapel. Black smoke signifies that they have not reached a decision, and white smoke means that they were led by the Holy Spirit, made a conclusive vote, and HABEMUS PAPAM!

We turned on EWTN (a Catholic channel, where you are much more likely to just get to see everything going on at the Vatican and not have to suffer through all the snide comments on how everyone thinks that they can be a better pope than the popes).

We basically sat there for an hour, watching the smoke and the crowds in the square of the basilica, praying for the new pope, and wondering who it is!

I of course grabbed my travel sketchbook and sat doodling. Lately I've been trying to be more decisive with my sketches, so these are all drawn directly with pen (no erasing mistakes) and then splashed with a bit of watercolor. (I recently discovered the epic Urban Sketchers' blog, and I'm surprised by how much these sketches are similar to their style!).

I think that the Swiss Guard are pretty awesome. I wish they'd shown more of them!

The wait was very very long... so I drew St. Peter's, a happy pilgrim girl who appeared on screen for about two seconds but was so picturesquely joyful, a clock that they kept filming, and some of the crowds. It's surprisingly difficult to draw things on TV; they sure don't keep the camera pointed in one direction all the time!

The excitement and prayerfulness of the crowd there was inspiring.

And finally, they announced the Pope! Francis I is from Argentina and looks like he will be a wonderful pope. He's a theologian and from the Americas and, judging by his speech, has a sense of humor. I'm excited, hopefully he'll be just as strong and totally epic as JPII and Benedict.

(this is a REALLY rough translation that a friend shared on facebook; more polished ones are now online)

I was impressed by his humble request for prayers before he even gave the Apostolic blessing.

He surprisingly didn't come out in the full garb with the red cloak; just the white habit and the stole (basically a prayer shawl but with deep symbolism).

(Here's the Altoids watercolor tin that I made several months ago if you were wondering how it's holding up! It works really well. Also, I found a waterbrush in Mom's scrapbook stash yesterday. It's pretty epic.)

Just because I'm posting pictures that I drew of Pope Francis' election today... here's a pen-only sketch from when when pope emeritus Benedict announced his resignation. Just pretend that the hands are the right size and all that.

I don't remember too much about the previous papal election. We were on a class trip to the state Capitol, and someone said something about the pope being sick during a tour of one of the offices. When I got home that day, Mom told me that John Paul II had passed away. Even though I'm racking my brains, I don't have any strong memories of Benedict's election. We just got a new pope and everything was as it should be. When you are in fourth grade, things seem to just work out like that and there is nothing remarkable in it.

Several months later (Jan 2006, judging by where this was in my old sketchbook) I drew a picture of JPII and then a quick sketch of Benedict XVI. It was only after JPII's death that I read encyclicals and books by him and his sucessor and the wisdom of these two saintly men has really strengthened my faith!

Let's pray for the new Pope Francis I and the entire church!

Shabby Apple Gift Card Giveaway

noreply@blogger.com (Shaylynn) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 15:17:00 +0000

Calliope Skirt by Shabby Apple

If you haven't heard of Shabby Apple before, you are missing out. I can't tell you how many times I've browsed their website, gushing over all the eye candy and wishing that I had a good excuse to buy another dress! So it was with great excitement that I read an email asking me to host a $50 gift card giveaway for them (and boy, do I wish I could enter my own giveaways!).

They make some beautiful, vintage, bold, modest, and feminine clothing. My favorites have got to be the dresses... And some of the skirts, like the bright Calliope skirt pictured above. But mostly the dresses. Lookie lookie look!

{left to right: Cider, Veni Vidi Vici, Blue Eyes}

{left to right: Red Queen, Headliner Dress, Aripidae}

I literally just grabbed some random favorites here, I have a bajillion more but don't feel like organizing a bajillion photos for one blog post! You should definitely check out their website and take a peek at all the beautiful dresses. They even have a cool tool to help you find dresses that are especially flattering to your body type!

One of you will get to win a $50 gift card! This is enough to purchase a fun skirt or pretty blouse, or put it towards buying one of the dresses! Most are in the $60-100 range so they are definitely affordable if you want to splurge.

Also, Shabby Apple is offering a coupon for everyone!

Enter shealynnsfaerieshoppe10off at checkout to receive 10% off your purchase. (Good until 4/12/13)

The giveaway linky is below. Please note that you do need a facebook account to participate in this particular giveaway. It lasts until next Friday.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A Copper Grecian-style Headpiece

noreply@blogger.com (Shaylynn) — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 15:14:00 +0000

There is something so yummy about warm copper, crisp pewter, and bubbly cream freshwater pearls, isn't there? Or is this just me? It's probably just me, but the flavor is almost as palpable as the colors. I've decided that I don't use copper and bubbly freshwater pearls nearly as much as I should!

This is a custom piece I recently made for a bride who wanted a Grecian-style headband set made out of copper!

It was a rushed order so I used the odds-and-ends from my bead stash for the fascinator part. This always forces me to be extra creative about what kinds of beads go together. The dress is a blush with hints of pewter in it, and I wound up using many more gray and blue tone beads than I normally would in a copper piece. I think it works!

image via

The headbands are designed to be worn separated on the head with a messy bun. To the right is the hairstyle that the headpiece will be worn with!

They are thinner than most of the braided circlets and headbands, as I used 20 gauge copper. It is designed to accent her hairstyle rather than overwhelm it. Copper is stiff enough that the headbands will hold their shape on their own but I imagine that she will use bobby pins or ribbon to make it extra-secure on the day.

After taking these pictures we decided that a patina (basically oxidation that makes the copper look older, less shiny, and more rich) would be the perfect finish!

Aaaand, I randomly stuck the main headband onto my cloche hat. I kind of want to make one of these for me now, so that I can tie it onto my hat with a nice poofy ribbon in the back and be all fancy! :)

Pieces like these are so much fun to work on. ^_^

P.S. I have a cool tutorial coming up in the next few days (hopefully)! There has been so much to do lately that I haven't had a chance to finish up with the pictures, but I promise I'm going to blog about something other than custom orders soon. :)

The Prop Replica Weapons from "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit"!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Shaylynn) — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 04:29:00 +0000

Major image overload post! This one is for my geeky readers who, like me, have to see ALL THE PHOTOS if The Lord of the Rings is involved.

Gandalf the Grey's staff, Orcrist, Andruil, Glamdring, Gandalf the White's staff, and Sing at the bottom. Kili's weapon is yet to arrive!

A few months ago, I won in the Weapons category of an art contest for my favorite series of all time (Lord of the Rings/ The Hobbit) judged by three of my favorite Tolkien-artists of all time! The prize is prop replica weapons from the movies! And they finally arrived!!!

(If you want to see more of the picture, see my old posts here and here).

I will be doing a more detailed description of all the swords and staffs down the line and will probably do many themed photoshoots. For now, here's enough snapshots to fill Smaug's lair to the brim!

When the boxes finally arrived after weeks of waiting, I had to wait three whole hours for Dad to get home from work. It was torture, staring at the boxes without opening them!

When we finally got them out of the boxes-- AHH! They are gorgeous, very accurate and honest-to-goodness swords. I now have a lot of respect for any warrior (or actors) who lugged around heavy swords all day!

We were all too caught up in the moment to bother with cameras much, but here's some of my family geeking out with me!

All of the swords came with these beautiful wooden plaques to hang them on the wall. The staffs have smaller resin and metal ones.

My favorites are Sting's plaque (top right, with the celtic knotwork and Fellowship brooch leaf) and Andruil's (bottom right, with the tree of Gondor). Orcrist (top left) has the same design has the hilt of the sword-- it's the emblem of the Gondolin king to whom the sword used to belong.

Thus far, I've only been able to do one quick impromptu photoshoot with two of my friends, but I know how much some of you have been looking forward to seeing the swords, so I'd thought I'd share this now! I have plans to do a costumed photoshoot sometime down the line and to get nice close-up photos of the swords and staffs (without fingerprints all over them), but that will probably have to wait until spring.

Isn't her hat cute??

It was freezing and none of us had planned on being outside taking photos, so if we look a little pale and red-cheeked, that's why. :)

Here I am, holding Orcrist, the "goblin cleaver" which was a Gondolin Elf sword used by Thorin Oakenshield in The Hobbit. If you aren't a Tolkienite, none of that made sense to you. If you are, OHMYGOSH isn't it cooooool?! :)

Detail of Orcrist.

We all geeked out. A LOT. Seriously-- we were holding swords from LotR and the Hobbit. What is there to NOT get extremely excited about?

This beautifully engraved sword is the replica of Gandalf's trusty blade Glamdring.

Gandalf's staff even has the "G" rune carved into it.

This sword is Anduriel, Flame of the West, the sword of the Aragorn the King of Gondor. Forged from the shards of Narsil, "Renewed shall be blade that was broken / the crownless again shall be king" and all that-- THIS IS ANDRUIL and it is HUGE and heavy!

The runic engraving says, in Quenya, "I am Anduril who was Narsil, the sword of Elendil. Let the thralls of Mordor flee me."

My brother, the Hobbit.

Thanks to a completely obsessed family (I must admit that I am not the most die-hard fan compared to my tween/teen brothers), he is a true Tolkienite. I kid you not. He loves Middle Earth. Yesterday I was wearing a golden skeleton key on my necklace and he came up to me, fingered it, and said in his cute five year old accent, "One key to rule them all! It's a prrrrrecioussss!" He then pestered me to read him "That funny poem that goes 'Troll sat alone on his seat of stone'!"

When I am geeking out because I won an art contest and now own actual prop replicas from my favorite movie trilogy of all time (and it's 'prequel'!), it is very difficult for me to keep a straight face. I also don't do well in front of the camera. Lots and lots of classic "Shaylynn pictures" ensued. :P

The cloak which made my friends look like Elves made me look like a Jedi.

Above is a photo of me holding Sting the 'letter opener'! It's very difficult to imagine an accurate size for Hobbits until you are holding a to-scale knife that is a long sword for Bilbo and Frodo.

Also, I was so very serious. Don't you totally see the resemblance to the warrior-like Bilbo Baggins?

Yeah, I thought so.

I can't help it, I'm too excited!

DON'T WANNA GROW UP.

My little brother kept photobombing our pictures!

While I was in the process of writing this blog post my little sister came and offered to take pictures of me "all dressed up like Eowyn or Arwen or somebody"! I need to teach her how to hold the camera steady but we had fun in the snow!

(This is our first sledding-worthy snowfall of the season and we've spent countless hours riding down the hills. It's heavenly!)

I only used Glamdring for these shots because it was way the heck too cold to stay outside long enough in order to pose with multiple props.

I think you've seen more photos of me in this one blog post than I've ever posted before. :P

I promise that I'll take detailed close-up shots of the swords sometime soon!

Still I am a bit in shock-- the honor of winning in an art contest, and the extreme awesomeness of the prize... eeeeeeeek!

Aurora's Circlet from 'Once Upon a Time'

noreply@blogger.com (Shaylynn) — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 18:41:00 +0000

This post was originally published over at Confessions of a Seamstress, my friend Elena's blog. If you like the costumes in Once Upon a Time-- or any lovely clothing-- you should go visit her website! Elena makes beautiful outfits and costume replications and I highly recommend her!

This post is a lot longer and more image-heavy than the original guest post because I've had the chance to work on a couple more of these circlets!

Image from ABC's Once Upon a Time

With the latest season of Once Upon a Time, we were introduced to an awesome new character: Princess Aurora, the Sleeping Beauty.

I'm watching this show as much for the costumes, props, and sets as for the actual story... it's not unusual for my eye to wander everywhere except the actor's face! Right from the start, Aurora's headpiece caught my eye. ~*~*~ THE SPARKLES ~*~*~

A couple of days later, Elena recommended me to a bride who wanted a replica of Aurora's circlet to match her wedding gown! Eeep! This was my first time ever creating a replica piece, my first time ever working with rhinestones, and the first time making a bridal piece this large. I was a little nervous, but so excited.

Everything went well, though, and I can't wait to hear what the bride thinks when it arrives on her doorstep!

I started by re-watching the first episode and snagging screencaps to analyze. I analyzed it to death. :)

Her circlet is made from rhinestones and ribbon which are plaited together into a band that rests on her hairline. At least two small braids are woven around this band, creating a lovely mix of ribbon, hair, and sparkles.

Additional rhinestones are woven around her hairstyle in a very asymmetric zig-zag. This top part fits much more like a cap than a tiara, as it folds snugly over the crown of her head.

I noticed pretty quickly that Aurora seems to have found plenty of time to do her hair between scenes... :)

The rhinestone placement is not consistent, especially at the edges, and she wears at least three hairstyles in the first episode.

At first, her braids are woven around the top, zig-zag-y part, so that the rhinestones are barely visible. Later, the braids move down and are intertwined with the bottom band. In the last scene, the circlet rests on top of the braids, above her forehead.

I wanted to make the circlet versatile enough that all these hairstyles (and more) can be worn. The bride didn't want dangling rhinestones, so I simplified the design at the edges where it wasn't consistent.

Aurora always wears the back of her headpiece tucked underneath her hair. I think the actress had her hair teased and curled and then extensions added.

(This is a beautiful crown... I'd love to be a props/costume designer, I really would. It must have been so much fun for the designers to come up with a sparkly, girly headpiece that wasn't your typical tiara. Aurora's whole costume is lovely. I hope she doesn't get put in pants like the rest of the royalty. I feel that we need at least one kick-butt princess who can wield a sword while wearing a frilly skirt!!!)

After I figured how how the circlet was made (and planned a few changes of my own to make it sturdier), it was time to get started!

First, I wove a base from silver-plated copper wire.

The next part-- making the band of braided rhinestones and ribbon-- proved very tricky. If I simply braided the strands, they would move around too much.

I used two different sizes of silver-plated rhinestones and twisted them around each other, using temporary jewelry glue to hold it in place.

After this was done, I wove the ribbon in and laced everything together with wire before removing the glue and polishing everything.

The ribbon in the show looks like a champagne or a pink (depending on the lighting and editing) but this one was requested in bright white.

The asymmetric zig-zag design was made from more rhinestone chain twisted onto freeform silver wire.

The circlet can be attached with bobby pins, or tied with ribbon. It's just heavy enough that it won't stay on without being secured in some way.

And then... it was done!

After I took these pictures, I tweaked things a bit more... I "de-fluffed" the ribbon and adjusted one point of the zig-zag so it isn't so tall and pointy. (The zig zags are slightly adjustable so it will fit any head size or hairstyle like a glove!)

The bride was kind enough to me model the circlet before shipping it!

I usually have friends model for me, but I'm the only one with long and dark enough hair to attempt Aurora's hairstyle. So one cold autumn morning, I put my hair up in braids and taught my lovely mom how to use my camera.

________

After I completed this circlet, I received two more orders for replicas of the Sleeping Beauty's crown! This one was practically identical to the first:

This next one, however, has several requested modifications that were a joy to work on!

I specially ordered 100% silk satin ribbon in a creamy champagne color. It's a vintage French ribbon line, and there is something about those words that makes me so happy to finger the shiny ribbon.

They wanted a very sturdy circlet that would not require ribbon to remain securely on the head, so I used my vise to twist silver plated wire into a strand which I attached to the plaiting.

It holds its shape very well. I think that I will always use this technique on future circlets (or at least the higher-end ones, because it requires a lot of wire!).

(excuse my workdesk mess). Two full feet of wire and ribbon and beading to wrangle into a circlet!

I replaced every other large rhinestone with an amethyst crystal. I really like this look, as it adds a touch of color and interest.

Replacing all those stones in their settings was a great learning experience. Those are fiddly little sparkles, there, guys!

If you would like to request a custom item like this, don't hesitate to email me at shealynnsfaerieshoppe@gmail.com I can usually accommodate many kinds of budgets on more intensive pieces like these, depending on how much customization you want.

I'm also in the process of using the leftover odds and ends of the rhinestones to create some Aurora-inspired cuff bracelets. There are a couple on my workbench right now which are going to get colorful ribbons!

QUESTION TIME!

noreply@blogger.com (Shaylynn) — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 02:28:00 +0000

(Just a super quickie post to let you know that if you place an order in my shop this weekend, you can take 15% off with this coupon: VALENTINES201315 (custom orders excluded, except the Evenstar set)

The code is good until Valentine's itself, but due to the time it takes the mail to arrive, only US packages ordered this weekend will be able to arrive in time for Valentines!)

I've discovered a major oversight! I've had this blog for over three years, but have never made a FAQ page! Honestly, I always felt that these pages are for big bloggers who, you know, have thousands of fans and receive dozens of comments and emails daily. I might be busy, but I can still read through my emails in a timely manner. But I thought it was high time to put together a page with some of the more commonly asked questions-- like the ones about custom orders or why my name is spelt funny or whether I will make a specific tutorial.

However, there aren't that many questions that I receive on a regular basis. I need your helping making up some FAQ for me to answer!

If there is anything you'd like to ask me-- whether it's a straightforward question ("When did you learn to unicycle?"), a random question ("What is your favorite tea?"), or a geeky question ("Gondor or Rohan?")-- please ask!

I'm just going to make a thing of it, so if you feel like tagging me in one of those blog questionnaires, go for it!

You can leave a comment on this blog post, write on my facebook page, tweet @shealynnsfaerie, or email shealynnsfaerieshoppe{at}gmail.com!

Also, a blog post isn't a post without a random picture. Tada!

We haven't had much of a winter. The pond has frozen over maybe three times the entire season.

What's On My Workdesk? + Wordless Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (Shaylynn) — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 04:11:00 +0000

I recently heard about a blog linky called WOYWW (What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday) hosted by Stamping Ground where many artists and crafters write a short blog post about their workspaces covered with all their works in progress. Since I've been much too busy to prepare a blog post for this week, I thought I'd go ahead and join in and let you all peek at my workdesk!

Well, okay, you get to see about a square foot of my workspace. The rest is... um... I'm a teenager-- we're supposed to keep things messy, right? Right?

Above you can see projects from this week that are still living in my crafting space. The circlets are custom orders that I am very excited about!
And the painting is clearly just an acrylics exercise that isn't going so well.

I snagged this shot two weeks ago so I'm going to sneak it in here just because I forgot to take other pictures of the torc necklaces. So. I made two cool torc necklaces lately. :) And used up all my thick wire. :(

I also killed half and hour working on some Elf-ear costume jewelry things. I made a few of these a couple of years ago, but it would be nice if I can figure out how to make them fit multiple ear shapes without falling off. Clearly I'm still working on it.

Some sketches for a booklet I'm working on.

This is a sneak-peek picture of one of those circlets that is still sitting on my workdesk.

So, those are the artsy things currently cluttering my crafting space! The desk in my bedroom is covered with school papers, so I imagine you don't want to see what's on that workdesk. And most of my time this week is being spent on the Ink and Fairydust magazine. But that's kind of hard to photograph because it's just my laptop and tablet!

I'd love to see what's on your workdesk, so if you join the blog linky leave a comment so that I can be sure to check your post out (I wish I could browse every link on the regular linky but I can't!).

Wordless Wednesday by Aquariann is another cool Wednesday linky so I thought I'd share a photo I recently took:

Complete tangent: I know that many of you have realized that I am very excited, nervous, and slightly overwhelmed with my upcoming decisions on college. This weekend I made a two-day trip to do a scholarship interview and I will be doing another shortly which also involves timed essays. I think that the moment these interviews are over, all the nervousness will be gone and it will be pure excitement! I'm more and more impressed with the programs of the two colleges I'm deciding between. So thank you all for your prayers and support!

Glass Dip Pens Video

noreply@blogger.com (Shaylynn) — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

A few days ago I wrote about the lovely Venetian glass pens that I've been having so much fun with. I made a short video about them-- basically it's just me having fun and doodling!

Venetian Glass Pens

noreply@blogger.com (Shaylynn) — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 21:42:00 +0000

I love words. I love lines. I love the stories you can weave into books and drawings with a thousand swishes of a pen. I love typography and calligraphy and making sure that words and pictures get mixed together into a beautiful mess of this thing called Art.

I'm the sort of person who collects pens and art supplies and actually uses them all.

I'm also the sort of person who is inordinately fascinated by ultra cool trinkets, gadgets, and gizmos-- especially historical ones.

Last summer, I was being my usual procratinator self and browsing Etsy even though I had no money to spend. I found something that made me stare at the screen in astonished delight at the pure existence of the thing:

image via

Guys. GUYS. It's a glass pen-- literally, a pen made out of glass. Including the nib. This beautiful piece of craftsmanship is made by hand by the Thailand artisan J. Nagadhana, and this is her shop.

image via J. Nagadhana's blog

These pens originated in Venice in the 17th century. They were favored not only for their beauty but for their superiority over other dip pens (this was, of course, in the age of quills-- there was no such thing as a ballpoint pen or even a reloadable fountain pen). The nibs are made from twisted ribbed glass rods, and these grooves mean that the pen is capillary fed.

This means that the ink can be loaded up to the handle and the writer only has to dip the pen into the inkwell once every few lines or even pages!

image via

I'm including a gratuitous picture of Venice. Ahhh, the strange city built on stilts, where the people travel to the grocery store in boats, and see historical beauty in every direction. A city of extravagance and craftsmanship.

I really want to go to Venice someday.

I loved these pens so much and googled (to no avail) for tutorials. I quickly realized that this is not a DIY because I have no access to or knowledge of glassmaking tools. It didn't take me long to decide that this was what I would spend my birthday money on!

My first glass pen purchase was a Pulcinella Teal Glass Calligraphy Set (originally sold by Barnes and Noble) that I bought on eBay. It was a really great price, but arrived with a chipped tip. It barely wrote at all and I had to refill the pen every one or two words; a far cry from the two or three lines that the pen is supposed to last without being dipped into the inkwell.

However, it was such a great price that it totally wasn't worth the postage to return it and get a refund. The penstand, box, inkwell, and powdered ink were so pretty that I almost didn't want to return it anyways.

I'm usually a good hand a fixing things, so I thought "Oh yeah, it's no biggie! I'll just use my magic DIY skillz and make this pen wonderful!"

I rubbed the tip with the smallest sandpaper Dad has, 300 grit (I've since heard that 400 grit is the best for this sort of work). The tip was so chipped that I had to sand quite a lot in order to even everything out. Unfortunately, this also evened out the ribbing.

The pen could now write, but the ink welled up in strange ways (no matter if I filled the pen to the top of the ribbing or only dipped a little bit). The lines, when I could get the ink to flow, varied between ultra thick and wet to barely visible.

This page was the sad result of many attempts to write with the pen. The Jane Austen quote from earlier was also a ridiculously tedious process.

I'm much to stubborn to let a little thing like this let me down, however. After an hour of fiddling with the pen and being very let down that this cool trinket wasn't as cool as it promised to be, I had another brilliant idea.

POWER TOOLS FOR THE WIN.

Glass pens are made from glass rods which are heated and twisted, right? What if I just re-melted the tippy tip and make it pointy again? I may never have worked with glass before in my life, but I figured that I was totally up to heating a stick with a propane torch, right?

Right?

I didn't realize that glass needs to be heated very, very slowly in order to melt and re-form without cracking.

That's an experiment gone wrong. So heads up for anyone who wants to try repairing a glass pen on their own: Don't, unless someone can teach you proper glassmithing techniques.

is it really bad that I used my Chinese tea cup for washing off ink??? I scrubbed it really, really well afterwards...

I ruined the cheap pen back in August, but the glass pens still haunted my thoughts. I searched until I found the site JetPens.com and purchased the small J. Herbin glass nib pen here. Unfortunately these pens appear to be no longer manufactured (or at least in stock), because when I wrote to the company asking if they had the colorful blue pen in the listing, they said that the only ones they have are the 9 plain ones left. I went for the classy maroon one.

The pen arrived incredibly quickly and I immediately fell in love! I also splurged on a bottle of Terre De Feu ink-- my excuse was that it would get me free shipping but really I wanted to have my first ever bottle of new ink. Everything I've used for calligraphy before is secondhand and a bit stiff. The ink is PWETTY.

The pen is small and writes with a medium-width line. I was afraid at first because the pen made grating noises on the paper, even though I was only brushing the glass across it gently, but after one or two lines it started to flow perfectly.

Glass pens aren't really calligraphy pens, because they only write in one width. However, I absolutely love the feeling of writing a letter with a glass pen, dipping it into a glass inkwell, and trying desperately to write in legible cursive.

(This is the curse of a 21st century artistic teen. I can do fancy calligraphy and can type really fast, but my everyday writing is sloppy manuscript. I even struggle to sign my own name in cursive. Seriously, have you ever tried quickly writing two cursive "n's" in a row? I thought not. I sign my name as Shaylym or Shaylynnn and half the time those "y's" just turn into up-and-down zig-zags instead of letters.)

If you overload the pen and write at an extreme angle, you can get half-controlled smudges. This worked really well in this Hobbiton drawing I recently completed. I've been trying to free up my linework for ink sketching, and not rely on pencil underdrawings. Kinda proud of this sketch. :)

I also drew another Hobbit hole in nearly the same style... only as fast as I could because speed-sketching is another thing I want to work on. And I drew a bird. So I may as well overload this post with yet ANOTHER picture. :)

Next on my list of cool old-fashioned things... pretty stationary paper and a sealing wax set.

And who knows, maybe I'll be able to justify buying another glass pen someday. I keep going back to the Etsy shop I first ran across, thinking how pretty one of those decorative flower pens would be.

(Just so you know, I was not compensated in any way or asked to do a review for these products. I just wanted to share these really cool novelty items that I purchased and my experiences with them!)

Update: I made a video of me playing with the glass pens if you'd like to check it out!

Giveaway Winners Announced

noreply@blogger.com (Shaylynn) — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 23:00:00 +0000

The 12 Days of Christmas giveaway extravaganza is officially over! I'd like to thank all the talented artisans who graciously gave away their time and talents. Please be sure to keep visiting their sites and showing your support!

I used Rafflecopter to randomly generate a winner from the many entries in each giveaway. Congratulations to the winners! I truly wish that every person who entered could have won a prize, but, well, that wouldn't really have worked out, would it? Anyway, the winners have been notified and are announced below!

Item of choice from Shealynn's Faerie Shoppe:

LIZ L.

Middle Earth Perfume Sampler from Sarawen:

MARIA S.

Arkenstone Necklace from Third Wind Studio:

CHARITY U.

Accio Keychain or Deathly Hallows Ring from foxwise:

AMANDA P.

Hobbit Notecards from Erika Heins:

ERIKA

(I find it funny that the winner has the same first name as the artist!)

tengwar notebook from the little schremlin:

KAT M.

3 Chainmaille Bracelet Sets from Unkamen Gifts:

STEPHANIE H.

glass rose necklace from The Untamed Rose:

DESPINA V.

Item of choice from Bookish Charm:

CAMRYN K.

Handmade Soap Gift Bag from The Goat Milk Soap Shop:

MORGAN G.

Quilled Jewelry Set by Chava:

VICTORIA

Fairytale Flower Necklace from Rosie's Shop:

LAURA C.

Earring Storage Tip

noreply@blogger.com (Shaylynn) — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 10:00:00 +0000

Are you tired of your earrings being a jumbled mess in your jewelry box? Here's a neat little storage solution, which also doubles as a piece of pretty and blingy decor.

I'm sure you've seen this idea dozens of places. Basically, just take a piece of loosely-woven material (such as the fabric used for cross-stitching), secure it in an embroidery hoop, and hang the earrings on it.

I found this old piece of cross-stitching in an old storage box. My mom made it when she was close to my age. In fact, when she saw this hanging on my bookcase she told me (rather proudly) that she had come up with the design all on her own! And yet she insists that she hasn't got a creative bone in her body. :P

Most of the earring displays that I've seen have plain fabric. I really like the idea of using a piece of actual cross-stitching. Especially one like this, which is sentimental and would otherwise spend eternity in a storage box because it's slightly boring on its own.

I hung it up with a 3M hook so that the frame is easy to remove. It's impossible to hang up stud earrings if the hoop is attached to a wall!

This is just my personal earring collection. There is no way that this would make sense for storing all the earrings in my Shoppe. If you'd like to see how I displayed those for a craft fair, check out this old post.

Happy Epiphany!

noreply@blogger.com (Shaylynn) — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 00:32:00 +0000

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I may be a bit behind in blogging about the holidays, but today is Epiphany and still technically part of Christmas-- so I'm not too late!

Today after mass we drove to a family friend's house for the annual Epiphany party.
They recently completed an addition on their house, and some friends who used to live in Germany did a traditional Epiphany blessing of the home, which was lovely!
(Singing "We Three Kings" with a raw throat in the cold did not sound quite as lovely, however! lol!).

Surprisingly, this Christmas I was not all that much of a camera monster. I took tons of pictures of people, but most of the time was spent making memories and not fiddling with the camera!

However, I did have some time to have fun with bokeh (the fuzzy circles of light made by the Christmas lights in the background of this picture).

My old stocking was eaten by mice, so Mom made me a new stocking! Isn't it cute?

BUT WAIT THAT'S NOT ALL!!!

Look look look!

---->

That's right-- there are seven stockings! We found out on Christmas Eve that Mom is expecting!!!

After that news, it feels weird to just hop along to the next picture... my Christmas presents! I got some lovely art books: The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook by Alan Lee, The Hobbit Chronicles by Weta Workshop, and The Crafting of Narnia by Weta Workshop. These are dangerous books. I am now FULLY convinced that I should be a concept artist and prop maker in addition to a graphic designer!

I also got a lovely scarf and lots of candy. And our family present (aside from the news about the baby, of course), was a project that we've been working on for a couple of months. We turned extra space in the garage into a nice little room for exercise equipment. That's right-- we have our own personal gym! We even put the TV out there, for extra incentive.

This picture is too cute not to share. This summer, we bought an oversized map to hang on the wall in the schoolroom. My little brother loves that thing. He loves pointing to countries (or shooting Nerf guns at them.......) and having you name each one-- and the describe every last little thing that you know about said country. All he asked for for Christmas was a globe. :)

A couple days after Christmas, we had the more-than-annual family get-together. I think we counted 44 people, all of whom stayed at least two days. This time we were only missing eleven people! My family is CRAZY and AWESOME and I love hanging out with them!!!

The above is a picture of the White Elephant exchange. In the package I made, I put a Post-It note which said "Haha, you get nothing!" inside of a gift box. My aunt laughed and was actually about to throw it away when I told her to lift the note up because there were earrings underneath it in the box. :)

We played board games, Crack the Case, 3D tic-tac-toe, rubik's cubes, the levitating top that my brother built, puzzle word games, card games, Taboo, and Pinochle. And many, many more. :)

It's also been decided that Robo Wars is a new tradition.

Of course, the girls had to dress up in my epic costumes. :) That's just a necessity. Here's a couple of snapshots. It was freezing out so the photoshoot lasted all of five minutes.

We also did Christmas crackers! I only knew about them because of HP. In one of the first books, Dumbledore gets a great big hat and pretend wand out of his magical cracker. Apparently crackers are very popular in the UK. I wanted to try making some, but we couldn't find supplies for a decent price in the US, so Mom just ordered a huge pack of pre-made ones.

We still have paper crowns and joke cards in every corner of the house!

What's orange and rhymes with parrot?

CARROT!

Hahahahaha.... eh.

These are some of the most exquisite cookies that I've ever seen. Some good friends dropped them off at our house secretly (as in, the cookies wandered inside in the arms of one of our cousins and we didn't realize it until ten minutes later!). It felt almost like a crime to eat them-- but not quite. They were delicious and flavored with rosewater!

I hope you enjoyed this little peak into our celebrations! May you all have a blessed New Year. :)

The 12th Day of Christmas -- Introducing Rosie's Shop! --and Giveaway

noreply@blogger.com (Shaylynn) — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Hello, everyone! I'd like to introduce you to my little gymnast sister "Rosie"!

picture from my blog post about Halloween!

Isn't she a sweetheart? (Well, most of the time!). You've probably seen her around my blog a lot. The boys manage to avoid the artsy craftsy craziness-- or at least they stay well away from the camera-- but my lil sis is a big help with many of my projects.

I'm going to interrupt myself for a moment here and share two pictures left over from the Book Page Skirt project we did earlier this year. Rosie picked out quotes to make neat little graphics with! And I went crazy with typography, and think these look neat, but don't feel like making a full blog post about it. Click to enlarge, please:

Over the past few months, she has become extremely fascinated with the jewelry that I make for the Shoppe. She's helped me with packaging and shipping a lot, and is always ready with critique and praise if I run into problems with any designs. I've discovered that she is really handy with pliers and beads, too. In fact, I've been teaching her some jewelry techniques that are really advanced for a barely-nine year old.

Rosie has graduated beyond the typical plastic beads and elastic bracelets that I did when I was her age. She's been asking me to teach her how to run a business so she can start one by herself if she wants when I leave for college. (Unfortunately, Roses, you have to be able to read emails and such in order to do that... awesome art and math skills alone won't do the trick, lol!). But experience is a great thing to have, so Rosie and I collaborated to bring you a line of beautiful jewelry!

Steampunk Bracelet

She made each and every piece all by herself and many of them are entirely her own designs, based on techniques we've been practicing for ages. I inspect each one carefully to make sure that they are up to my own quality standards.

All of her jewelry is listed on my Shoppe-- if the image has a red banner that says "Rosie's Special," it is part of her jewelry line!

St. Therese Good Deed Beads

Rosie did all of the photography, too, although editing the photos was a tad beyond her. :) She will do all the packaging for her jewelry. (Don't worry, any order placed at Shealynn's Faerie Shoppe with a Rosie Shop item in the cart will not require extra postage, we'll combine our stuff).

She's already decided to give away a portion of her profit to charity, too! Rosie wants to support a local food pantry for the poor in our community. She says she'll save the rest of what she earns to buy an accessory for her dolls or save up until she sees something really cool. Little girl plans are so sweet. :)

Hobbit Hole Necklace

Random trivia fact: Sis chose the name "Rosie" for her shop because of Rosie Cotton from The Lord of the Rings. Rosie Cotton is the lovely Hobbit girl who Samwise Gamgee married. (Plus, "Rosie" is a nickname my sister frequently gets called at home).

There are several more pieces waiting to be photographed and added to Rosie's jewelry line. They will most likely only be up for a few months, so if you like a piece, go after it sooner than later!

Rosie decided to join in the Christmas festivities and give away one of her favorite necklaces!
(In fact, she was so proud of this design that she made it twice! The other one is up on my Shoppe.).

The winner will receive this gorgeous Fairytale Flower Necklace in Summer Greens!

It features one of my own designs (the flower pendant made with beads and a wirewrapping technique that took ages to teach her-- even though she normally catches on really quickly) but the beading on the 16 inch necklace chain is entirely her making! She even helped pick out some of the beads at the store!

The necklace is reversible. One side is an iridescent green that turns to yellow or pink in certain lighting. The other is a pale peridot green. Rosie made matching dainty earrings.

Enter below to win Rosie's Fairytale Flower Necklace!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

11th Day of Christmas -- Quilled Jewelry by Chava

noreply@blogger.com (Shaylynn) — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 13:00:00 +0000

I'm sorry that the 11th Day of Christmas post is one day late-- I was having some issues, but my friend Chava very kindly offered to do a last minute giveaway! So today will be a double giveaway day!

Chava makes absolutely stunning jewelry out of paper. She uses a quilling technique, which consists of spiraling tiny strips of paper around a special needle, bending it into shape, and gluing everything together.

(I remember trying to do quilling a few years ago. I wasn't able to get the paper to spiral properly and even something as simple as gluing together a bunch of circles to make a catepillar proved to be a messy challenge! Chava has the knack, though!).

She doesn't have an online shop yet, but you should go visit her blog. There is information there about placing special orders!

A few months ago we did an artists' swap and she made me the lovely set pictured above. (I have a chain of my own for the necklace and managed to get it tangled... something always goes wrong when I am trying to take pictures!). Isn't it lovely? She seemed to figure out exactly what I wanted, even though I had no idea what design to choose!

Here are some more examples of her work:

Chava will create a jewelry set for the winner of today's giveaway! She can make the jewelry set that she designed for me (the necklace and earrings in the top picture) in any color!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

10th Day of Christmas -- The Goat Milk Soap Shop -- 3 Handmade Soaps

noreply@blogger.com (Shaylynn) — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 20:07:00 +0000

The Goat Milk Soap Shop is a lovely store selling handmade all-natural soaps. Have a look through their site-- don't the Orange Spice Tea and the Burnt Orange Patchouli sound like they smell heavenly? (Can you tell that I love citrus smells for soap?).

I'm sure that you've noticed a geeky theme with these 12 Days of Christmas giveaways. I've known the Dominick girls through various things online (and then at a gathering) for years, and they are delightfully geeky.

While I was browsing their shop to choose scents to highlight, this one immediately caught my eye:

Dragon's Blood
The gentle fragrance of incense with hints of orange and rose give “Dragon’s Blood” a mild, yet pleasing scent. Even Bilbo and the dwarves wouldn’t mind washing up if they could use this!

So far I've only mentioned the essential oils soaps, but they also sell fragrance (man-made scents) like this one:

Creme Brulee
Swirls of caramel and hints of custard will have you sighing with delight as you enjoy the creamy lather of this sweet soap.

Here's a little bit about the owners of the shop-- three really sweet girls who love their craft!

We are Amanda, Megan and Teresa. Three sisters on a mission to provide you with the best handmade soap!

Several years ago, Mom, Laura, started The Goat Milk Soap Shop and began selling handmade goat milk soap. While Amanda was away at college, Megan and Teresa joined in on the business and helped to sell the soaps online and at craft fairs. When Amanda decided to leave school and return home, she joined in on the venture and now the three of them run The Goat Milk Soap Shop.

The Goat Milk Soap Shop is giving away a 3 pack of soap in these lovely scents: Creme Brulee, Cherry Almond, and Biscotti!

Good luck! Enter below using the Rafflecopter widget.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

9th Day of Christmas -- Bookish Charm Giveaway

noreply@blogger.com (Shaylynn) — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 04:21:00 +0000

Bookish Charm just might be one of the most remarkably perfect shops for a bibliophile. They sell jewelry with quotes from dozens of books and poems (along with other assorted sayings).

Look. Just look.

Lord of the Rings Quote Necklace

C.S. Lewis Quote Necklace by Bookish Charm

Harry Potter Necklace

And not just quotes from books and famous authors!

(I have a very strong temptation to just stick a picture of every lovely quote right here on this blog post, but you'll have to go visit Bookish Charm to see the rest!)

Bookish Charm is run by Erin and Ducky, who clearly love books and brilliance. They kindly wrote up a short bio:

We're a husband and wife duo (trio if you count the cat, which we do) who believe that curiosity is a way of life. We try to encourage and celebrate that kind of life through our business, creating items to reflect things that we find inspiring, thought-provoking, or amusing in an intellectual kind of way.

Erin is the creative side of things—designing, refining and handcrafting each item you see in our shop, while Ducky runs the administrative side, crunching numbers and printing shipping. Our cat sits there looking cute, which is arguably the most difficult job of all.

Now that you've just spent ages looking through all the shiny necklaces, bookmarks, and prints in their shop, have you found a favorite? No? Go and look harder. You'll have to make a decision, because Ducky says that the winner of this giveaway gets to receive a prize that they love.

Bookish Charm is giving away any item of your choice from their store!

Happy 9th Day of Christmas, and may the odds be ever in your favor, dear readers! Once again, I'm a little bit jealous because I really wish I could enter this giveaway myself!

(Enter below via the Rafflecopter widget, and don't forget to share this giveaway and the entire 12 Days of Christmas giveaway extravaganza with your friends and family! Don't forget that Jan 12th is the last day to enter!).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

P.S. Their blog and website are definitely worth checking out! You probably saw the links in Rafflecopter, but just in case. :)

8th Day of Christmas-- The Untamed Rose

noreply@blogger.com (Shaylynn) — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 06:11:00 +0000

Glass wonders fill The Untamed Rose, a beautiful Etsy shop run by Breana, an "artist, student, wife, and mother" who somehow takes glass and turns it into these beautiful works of art.

skeleton key glass rose necklace

Everything is handmade-- it just blows my mind.

handblown glass boro pendant

Doesn't it look like a miniature galaxy in this pendant? She has many unique pendants like this!

heart necklace

And below are some examples of the beautiful glass roses that Breanna makes!

The Untamed Rose is giving away one of these beautiful glass rose pendants-- in the winner's choice of colors!!!

custom rose

Aren't these stunning?! I can't wait to see who the really lucky winner is. Be sure to explore all of The Untamed Rose and see all the creative glasswork.

a Rafflecopter giveaway