Amy Peters' Studio Buzz

Ultimate Blog Party 2011

So excited to be linking up to the Ultimate Blog party again this year.   I had so much fun last year I had to join in the fun again. And of course we dontated fun prizes to the prize pool! If you are stopping by for the first time, welcome to my blog. 

2010 marked my 15th anniversary in the business of inspiring and uplifting women with our jewelry.  All of my original designs are hand fabricated by me and then hand cast in the United States.

On my blog I share my jewelry designs, my inspirations, fun contests and tidbits of my life in the country. 

So come on in and look around, make yourself at home. 

Apple Valley School, 1854

 

For the next three weeks our son Nikolas has disappeared.  In his place is a boy named Mark Allen who lives in Apple Valley in the year 1854.  He is 16 years old and is the oldest child in the school.  He is the eldest son of a preacher and his wife and has two brothers in the class. His teacher has become Mrs. Baker a widow who traveled west to live with her extended family.

This is a fun exercise all 2nd and 3rd graders go through at their school. Over the weekend the room was magically (thanks to Nik's dad and quite a few other parents) transported back in time. It is meant to teach the kids about this time in our history and the difficulties of the people's lives.  Nikolas is lucky to have a lot of family history including a hand written letter from a great, great, great, great uncle written while traveling to find "good land".  Each child earns points towards graduation by choosing fate cards and doing extra credit projects. 

Kyra did the same program and has so many memories of her projects and the time frame.  It will surely stick with them for a lifetime. 

 

Blue and White

I love blue and white together, there is something so soothing and calming about the color combination for me.  

So crisp and clean. 

I especailly love white blooms on a bright blue spring day.

Are there color combinations that spark your imagination? What feelings do they bring out? 

How to Tuesday: Shrinky Dinks Necklace

Last weekend when I was at my parent's house I found a really old package of Shrinky Dinks. 

Just look at the packaging...Amazing NEW plastic craft material, shrinks when heated. I used to love shrinky dinks.  

It got me thinking.

Shrinky Dinks have grown up a bit since I was a kid.  They now have ink jet versions of this amazing craft.  How cool is that!

First I arranged the images of me and my sister in photoshop on a page, so I could print them out.

Print them out.

Cut them apart

Punch holes in both top corners.

Line your pan with a brown paper bag, so they don't stick to the pan.  Arrange the images with a bit of space, so they can shrink without sticking to each other.

Bake at 275 to 300 degrees for 3-5 minutes.  We have a small oven I love to use for crafts.

 

Magically they shrink...no really if you haven't used these in awhile...They are so cool. 

I used some of our charms from the Pewter Hearts Collection, our stainless steel chain and jump rings. 

Attach each of the charms with jump rings, making sure to adjust the charms so they hang correctly. 

Finish attaching the charms until you are finished.

Wear proudly!

This would be a fun project for family reunions, anniversary party, wedding rehearsal, birthdays...and the list goes on.  

What would you make one for?

Linking up...Love these blogs...please visit them!!!

 

For Me Monday: Bloom

The last few weeks as spring has approached I've watched as the trees have blossomed. The hills around us so green and lush.  It's my favorite season.  I love the flowers, the green and the promises of spring.

 

The spring flowers have brought with them a renewed spark, my creative soul has been overflowing with ideas. The past few weeks I've been making new designs and collections.  In the next few months we'll be showcasing everything first on our blog.  I can't wait to share. 

 

 

 

 

And the winners are...

We had random choose the two winners.

 

Since we had the crazy double post and didn't catch it until people had posted on both.   We counted the comments from our blog dashboard, so we could know who posted in what order.  Sorry for any confusion.   

The winners are:

Gosfam

and

Jill M. 

We will send you both emails to get your shipping addresses. 

Thanks so much everyone for joining in on the fun. 

 

Discover {treasure} contest

Fun contest this weekend. 

We will be giving away two of our treasures party kits to two lucky winners.  The kits includes 48 pewter charms and 24 chains along with a fun treasure box. You can build necklaces until you heart is full! $140 retail value for each kit.

We treasure our retailers, so this contest I want to share some of the love with the amazing stores that carry Amy Peters' Studio lovely jewels. They can "win" gift certificates by you telling eveyone how great they are!

1) First Entry (manditory): Tell us how you first discovered Amy Peters' Studio. Was it through a store, Facebook, twitter, from a friend's lovely gift....how did you first discover treasure?  Tell us how much you love our retailers!

Additional Entries:

This is where it gets really fun for our retailers. For every picture we get of their store or of you wearing Amy Peters' Studio jewelry from their store we will give them a $25 off certificate for their next order with Amy Peters' Studio. Up to $100 off. (the fine print, you can not be the owner or an employee of the store you are entering about, so get your customers excited to do this for you!)

2) Send us a picture of your favorite Amy Peters' Studio retailer to:

sales (at) AmyPetersStudio.com 

3) Send us a picture of you wearing Amy Peters' Studio jewels and tell us where you got the beautiful jewels to:

sales (at) AmyPetersStudio.com

Any pictures we receive will possibly be used on our blog. 

More additional entries.

4) First follow us on Twitter, then Tweet about your the contest for Amy Peters' Studio jewelry. Example (Discovered Treasure Contest @AmyPetersStudio jewelry enter at http://www.amypeters.blogs.com ) Make sure to use our @ tag so we can track it.

5) First "like" us on Facebook, then post about the contest on your Facebook page with the @AmyPetersStudioJewelry tag Example: Discovered Treasure Contest @AmyPetersStudioJewelry enter at http://www.amypeters.blogs.com

WOW!  5 entries possible. For each entry respond here on our blog (click here if you are reading on facebook)

 

We will have Random.org choose the number winner on Sunday evening and hopefully share some of the amazing pictures of stores then too!

 

 

Discover {treasure} contest

Fun contest this weekend. 

We will be giving away two of our treasures party kits to two lucky winners.  The kits includes 48 pewter charms and 24 chains along with a fun treasure box. You can build necklaces until you heart is full! $140 retail value for each kit.

We treasure our retailers, so this contest I want to share some of the love with the amazing stores that carry Amy Peters' Studio lovely jewels. They can "win" gift certificates by you telling eveyone how great they are!

1) First Entry (manditory): Tell us how you first discovered Amy Peters' Studio. Was it through a store, Facebook, twitter, from a friend's lovely gift....how did you first discover treasure?  Tell us how much you love our retailers!

Additional Entries:

This is where it gets really fun for our retailers. For every picture we get of their store or of you wearing Amy Peters' Studio jewelry from thier store we will give them a $25 off certificate for their next order with Amy Peters' Studio. Up to $100 off. (the fine print, you can not be the owner or an employee of the store you are entering about, so get your customers excited to do this for you!)

2) Send us a picture of your favorite Amy Peters' Studio retailer to:

sales (at) AmyPetersStudio.com 

3) Send us a picture of you wearing Amy Peters' Studio jewels and tell us where you got the beautiful jewels to:

sales (at) AmyPetersStudio.com

Any pictures we receive will possibly be used on our blog. 

More additional entries.

4) Tweet about your the contest for Amy Peters' Studio jewelry. Example (Discovered Treasure Contest @AmyPetersStudio jewelry enter at http://www.amypeters.blogs.com ) Make sure to use our @ tag so we can track it.

5) Post about the contest on your Facebook page with the @AmyPetersStudioJewelry tag Example: Discovered Treasure Contest @AmyPetersStudioJewelry enter at http://www.amypeters.blogs.com

WOW!  5 entries possible. For each entry respond here on our blog (click here if you are reading on facebook)

 

We will have Random.org choose the number winner on Sunday evening and hopefully share some of the amazing pictures of stores then too!

 

 

Creating {friendship}

Ok...I couldn't resist adding in this funny page from my 1955 version of the popular mechanics book, since I forgot to take pictures of my jewelry date with a friend.  

On Tuesday I spent a day laughing and creating jewelry with a Janett from Waterlily Jewelry. This year I've been focused on creating more outlets and opportunities to tap into my creativity and grow as an artist. 

After taking the class in precious metal clay (PMC) I had to play around more.  Janett does some pretty amazing things with PMC, so after I ruined a few pieces I asked for her help. What I realized is that the jewelry we created was  secondary to the friendship and conversations we shared. I came away from the day invigorated and overflowing with ideas and possibilities. 

 

 

How to Tuesday: Spring {birdies}

Today I have a friend stepping in to give us a fun how to Tuesday. This project is especially perfect for this first week of Spring.  I've introduced you to April a few times before. Along with her wonderful husband Steve she owns two Catching Fireflies stores, an online Catching Fireflies store, Yellow Door Art Market and a wholesale business Ai Paper.  So yep...they are amazing! 

If you are located in Michigan....A whole flock of these birdies made their way into their shops.  April couldn't resist taking a few of them home and in her ultra creative way found a way to display them.

If you don't have a flock of birdies around you, April suggests another great ornament option for this type of tree is decorated blown-out Easter eggs.

 

Thank you my sweet friend for sharing your beautiful spring birds on our blog today!  If you loved April's idea, head over to her blog.  It really is a favorite blog of mine, she has fun and interesting tidbits all of the time.  And her store goodies usually fill my kid's stocking each year.  Remember the smencils?  Yep, I got them from CatchingFlies.com.