Tuesday Night Holiday Show Recap

Thank you to everyone who came out to our first night of the Lab Rats Holiday Trunk Show! I was happy to see so many new and familiar faces. In case you missed it (or  need to remember those codes) here is a recap!

Laurie's Custom Creations offered free shipping and 15% off with code "TRUNKSHOW"

AVI Designs was offering up free shipping for all her items.

ForsythiaHill had a great deal of 20% off with the code "TRUNK" for her vintage items.

JackTheManAboutTown offered 20% off with the code "TRUNK."

Birdcage Cards has 10% off everything (excluding gift certificates) with the code "TRUNKET"

PoppySeedCats got on cam to offer us 10% off with code "TRUNKCAT" as well as a free super mini kitty!

Squier is offering a buy 2 get one ACEO free deal or if you spend $50+ you get a free ACEO. Be sure to check out her website as well as her Etsy shop for offerings.

BySaraLynn has a sale section as well as 10% off using the code "TRUNK"

And AuntKarensCreations is offering 50% off purses found in the Trunk Show section of her shop.

Take advantage of these offers while they last. Some sellers are keeping their codes up for hours, others for a few days. There will be a whole new line-up for tomorrow night's show at 8pm EST in the Virtual Labs so be sure to stop by for more deals!

Life of an Item with Ocasiocasa

Hello everyone. I’m Dale Ocasio, of ocasiocasa (pronounced
oh-KAH-see-oh KAH-sah). Casa, meaning house or home in spanish, and is
where we do our creating. Jeff, my husband, has been playing with
masking tape art for a while now. He sculpts with it and applies it to
three dimensional objects like glass bottles or, very recently, began
reclaiming dolls with it.

Like Calli, our butterfly art doll. She is one of two art dolls we
have up on Etsy right now.

The idea of using pre-loved dolls as a canvas for masking tape art
came about by bouncing ideas off of each other one morning. We weren’t
really looking for something new to do. It kind of went like this:
“Oh, you know what would be neat? Do what we do to a bottle, but on a
doll instead.” We both smiled, and it stuck.

The masking tape part is all Jeff’s work. It’s the first layer to be
applied. He’ll start with a general idea in his head, but most of the
design happens while he laying the bits of tape to the surface,
sometimes wadding long strips of it, sometimes twisting it, to give it
its shape.
Here are a couple of dolls at the taping stage.

Once the taping is finished, we apply layers of wood glue, sanding
before each new layer, then paint, and last, add a clear protective
coating.
Theses dolls are being glued.


This doll is in the process of being painted.

Calli’s cloth body was hand painted with acrylic paint and her
butterfly wings were made from a photograph of mine, of a real
butterfly. I glued the inkjet photo paper to some chipboard, painted
the backside and applied several coats of glue to the front and back
to stiffen the wings and protect the photo.

Holes were punched out prior making the wings stiff so that I could
sew, by hand, the wings to the back of her cloth body.

We recently showed the dolls, at an art show, for the first time. It
was awesome to see everyone’s reaction to them. This is Patterson,
during his first outing. He had a great time.

And here is a video showing a bit of the taping process on one of our
bottles. I recorded it using an app on my iphone called qik video. I
always meant to add narration, but since that wasn’t happening all on
its own, I just added a bit of music and some text to briefly explain
some details. It was fun, and we hope to do more of these soon.

http://vimeo.com/12956600

I’d like to thank everyone for allowing me to ramble and ‘show and
tell’ and I look forward to reading more about the lives of some of
your items. :-)

cheers,
~dale

Mosaic Monday

small silver christmas star stampings by Caracrass

Christmas Stocking Trio in three colors by auntkarenscreations

Small Black and White Pet Turtleneck by giggles

Scroll Tree Note Card Set by BirdcageCards

Trunk Show is This Week!

Remember to join us this week Tuesday, Nov 30th and Wednesday, Dec 1st at 8pm EST for our Annual Holiday Show in the Virtual Labs. You can find us there in the Moon Room. Each night we will have a unique line up filled with our members offering great deals for your holiday shopping. Anyone can attend so spread the word and invite your friends. Hope to see you there!

Introducing........

Introducing......... Our newest members for November!

Our team is growing and we cherish each member! We are happy to welcome our newest members by introducing them to the entire team. Here is our opportunity to meet our new teammates, make new friends and help one another in our endeavor to make our shops better.

Lets give a big Lab Rats Team welcome to our newest members!

Introducing.......

mcsdesigns 
1. What is your given name? (If you are only comfortable giving your first name that is fine.)
My given name is Mae

2. How long have you been on Etsy (includes the time you were NOT a seller).
I have been on Etsy for 2 years
 
3. How long has your shop been open?
My shop has been up and running for 1 1/2 years

4. Which item in your shop is your favorite?
One of my favorites is my pearl dangle earrings.

5. What do you enjoy doing when not creating for your shop?
I enjoy going to the movies,Aquariums,concerts,Museums ,to name a few. :)

6. What question would you like to ask your new teammates?
What is the easiest way to take great photos for you shop? What is the best way to promote your shop to get results ?
 
Introducing......

JackTheManAboutTown
1. What is your given name? (If you are only comfortable giving your first name that is fine.)
 My name is Debra Vacaro. I am an artist who currently enjoys knitting creative hats.

2. How long have you been on Etsy (includes the time you were NOT a seller).
 I discovered Etsy in August of 2009

3. How long has your shop been open?
 I opened my shop on Sept. 11, 2009.

4. Which item in your shop is your favorite?
My favorite item is always the last one I post. I love creating each creature and I become instantly fond of him when he is completed. Call me kooky but I kiss each one goodbye and be good!

5. What do you enjoy doing when not creating for your shop?
I love the outdoors, travel, birding, board games - our family is a bit competitive. Settler's of Cataan is our latest obsession.

6. What question would you like to ask your new teammates?
I don't really have a question just a great big thanks for letting me be a part of this great team. I look forward to knowing your shops and items.

Introducing.......

ForsythiaHill
1. What is your given name? (If you are only comfortable giving your first name that is fine.)
Rebecca English

2. How long have you been on Etsy (includes the time you were NOT a seller).
Immediately began setting up my shop a few days after I discovered it! Sept. 19, 2010

3. How long has your shop been open?
1st Item listed on Oct 12

4. Which item in your shop is your favorite?
My Unisex Maize and Brick Red Optical Eyeglasses Tie.

5. What do you enjoy doing when not creating for your shop?
I love to photograph and write for my blog forsythiahill.blogspot.com and am a hardcore garden/nature nut and couponer!


6. What question would you like to ask your new teammates?
I would love to know what each teammate sells and somehow get to know everyone!
What do you sell and how the heck do I get to know so many people on Lab Rats!! ?

Introducing.......

 AVIDesigns
1. What is your given name? (If you are only comfortable giving your first name that is fine.)
Jan Yuill

2. How long have you been on Etsy (includes the time you were NOT a seller).
I have been on etsy for 3 years

3. How long has your shop been open?
1 year but became really active in my shop since June of this year.

4. Which item in your shop is your favorite?
My favorate is my green with evy cuff.

5. What do you enjoy doing when not creating for your shop?
I love to Cook. My family for years have been trying to get me to go to culinary arts school.

6. What question would you like to ask your new teammates?
What is the best way to get more traffic to my sight?

Introducing........

 SuzyJaneB
1. What is your given name? (If you are only comfortable giving your first name that is fine.)
My name is Suzy
2. How long have you been on Etsy (includes the time you were NOT a seller).
I've been on Etsy, since Feb 2010


3. How long has your shop been open?
10 months

4. Which item in your shop is your favorite?
I like the 'Love' Marionette the most, she has attitude :-)

5. What do you enjoy doing when not creating for your shop?When I am not creating for my shop I am painting murals, its actually my main business (http://www.make-a-scene.nl/)

6. What question would you like to ask your new teammates?
Not sure there is just one question I would like to ask my team mates! It would probably have to be, how do they keep themselves motivated and inspired?

Welcome to team Lab Rats! We all look forward to seeing you and getting to know you even better!

Life of an Item with BlueberryShoes

The Empress Headband

The ribbon is actually vintage and I found it at my favorite thrift shop up north in Minnesota. That's basically where I buy all of my supplies. They're vintage and never picked over. Perfection, really. When I find ribbon, I automatically put it up to my head, just like it sits in the picture. I see if it looks pretty as a head piece. If it does, it's a must have.

I made the basic headband part late one night (couldn't sleep and the vision of it moved me to get up and get to work). Then when I put it around my head I automatically thought of the Empress from Neverending Story. She's one of my favorite fantasy characters of all time, and I was stoked to pay my homage to her. The pearls really added some mystery and femininity.

It was a very fun piece to make and felt SO right when it was finished. Taking the pics for the listing photos was also a cool experience. I have a fascination with snow queens, and that's also a big part of the piece. Starkness that could almost give you a chill. That's what I wanted the photos to get across.

Mosaic Monday...Getting "Reddy" in time for Christmas

Queen of Hearts Cameo Wondercard Necklace by blueberryshoes

King of Hearts Journal Sketchbook Album by somavenus

Red Cat Christmas Tree Decoration by SuzyJaneB

Crystal and gold chain love Bracelet by AVIDesigns

And the Gift Guide Treasury Challenge Winner Is...

RolyzCreations! Congratulations on a great treasury that captivated our voters to become the clear winner. As always, thank you to everyone who created these beautiful treasuries, wonderful items, and everyone who voted. RolyzCreations' shop will be in our Rat Spotlight for the next month, so check it out!

Life of an Item with MrooArt

Hello, I'm Shannon Dybvig of Mroo Art! I live in a gnome-filled apartment in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. I mostly draw and sculpt and am heavily influenced by fantasy, science fiction, surrealism, and comic arts. In my shop I carry an assortment of original polymer clay creatures and dragons, original art necklaces, print-based magnets, original drawings, prints, and greeting cards.

My drawing process can start in a couple of ways. If I'm only concept building, I work in my sketchbook and the results are usually half-formed people and a variety of mark-making - often an art of its own right, but at the same time not really "finished" works. When seeking to create a "finished" piece, I usually start off with a mood or concept and an idea for a pose for a figure - I use the human body as a vehicle for exploring emotions and concepts relating to interpersonal and internal relationships.

For my Fall Faery piece I was in a bit of a glum mood when I started working on it and the body position followed fairly quickly. I think the image speaks for itself better than I do in text, so I'll spare you any more exposition on the ideation process. I lay down some quick pencil work first, to get the energy of the mood down, and then I go in with a few details.

I try to get most of the details cleared up during the inking and coloring processes so the energy of the mood isn't lost. Previously when I've detailed the piece too much at the pencil stage the final piece ends up not being particularly emotive because the mark-making is so different when you're going over lines you've already made instead of making new ones.

For this piece I used my glass dip pen with Private Reserve ink. The lines that come from that pen lend themselves to the feeling of this piece, and the ink has a lovely fluidity to it - it's a very thick and luxurious ink. After I inked the piece I scanned it, cleaned up any smudges, and printed it on bristol paper for coloring. I sometimes color on the same sheet as I do my linework, but I didn't in this instance for two reasons: the paper I worked on does not respond well to my coloring methods (Copic Sketch art markers and water color) and the Private Reserve ink doesn't react kindly to my Copics either. I haven't tried it with the water colors.

I don't have a photo of it, but I worked out the colors of the faery on a small scrap of bristol to make sure I liked them before using them on the lines. The background was made on a piece of water color paper using, unsurprisingly, water colors. I scanned the two separately and joined them in my photo editing program (GIMP).

Here is a video showing a good portion of the inking and coloring processes (silent for your continued listening-to-something-else pleasure). The footage in this video originally lasted nearly an hour (I think, it may have been more?), but it has been condensed down to just over two minutes.

The final step is print-testing. Print-testing involves printing the image with different color adjustments and aligning the piece to the paper correctly (my printer has become a little wonky about proper alignment in its age).

I have two types of paper I print on - my greeting cards and my normal print size. They take the ink slightly differently from each other, so I have to test how the image prints on each and adjust the values of the image accordingly. For nearly every print/card I make I have two different files for the two papers. Print-testing can take printing the image just once or 10+ times! Luckily this piece only took a few tests before it was production-ready.

So, there you have it! That's how I make a print/card from start to finish. The final piece can be found here (the 8x10 version will be posted soon, I got a little distracted by another project!).

Gift Guide Treasury Challenge Finalists

From all the amazing gift guides submitted, we have a final four. Congratulations to MollysMuses, RolyzCreations, MrooArt, and PixieDustFineries! Be sure to vote for your favorite this week. The winner will be featured in our Rat Spotlight.

Christmas Party Girl by MollysMuses

Gifts on A Budget by RolyzCreations

Holiday Warmth by MrooArt

A Blue Christmas by PixieDustFineries

Which gift guide treasury is your favorite?
	Christmas Party Girl by MollysMuses
	Gifts on a Budget by Rolyzcreations
	Holiday Warmth by MrooArt
	A Blue Christmas by PixieDustFineries
pollcode.com free polls

Mosaic Monday

MCSDesigns

freelion

laurabailliedesigns

Jackthemanabouttown

Pixelknit

Happy Sales-Ready Holidays

If you haven't been following along with the Holiday Boot Camp, there's still time to catch up! Admin and Lab Rat member daniellexo has posted a week-by-week guide to get every seller in a state of ready-for-the-holidays fitness. Fortunately this workout doesn't involve a single crunch or push-up!

For more help, check out additional seasonal resources:
• Merchandising for the Holidays
• Offering Services (gift wrapping, gift certificates, shipping upgrades)
• Holiday Rush checklist

Feature Friday - lauriescustomcreations

Please say hello to our Feature Friday artist, Laurie Magoon


Where we can find you on the web?



the necklace that started it all



Etsy Shop - http://www.etsy.com/shop/lauriescustomcreate

Webpage - http://www.lauriescustomcreations.com

Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/LauriesCustomCreations

Blog: - http://lauriescustomcreations-laurie.blogspot.com/

1.) Tell us about yourself, your shop, and what brought you to the Etsy community

Let's see...I'm 29 (30 next month), been married for 8 years, have 2 cats (Flutter and Slick), am considered disabled due to bone deformities in my feet...I love studying the Bible, music, reading, sewing, and other crafty pursuits.

I got started in this whole jewelry endeavor because of 2 things: a broken pair of earrings and a dress. I needed to fix the fishhook part of a pair of earrings, and I had this dress that didn't have a necklace to go with it.

While I was getting the replacement fishhooks and pliers to fix the earrings, I saw these beads that would go just awesomely with my dress. So I picked them up along with the earring fixings and headed home.

Once I finished that necklace, I decided to post it on my Facebook page where I'd been posting pictures of my sewing projects. I had so many compliments and questions of "Are you making jewelry to sell now? You should!" that I thought I'd try my hand at making & selling jewelry.

Bought a few books, watched a few videos online, and voila, I was making jewelry. A friend of mine mentioned Etsy to me as a place she looked at for inspiration. When I checked it out, I was hooked. A few days later I opened my shop with 1 item...which has now slowly grown to about 40.

2.) Walk us through a typical day in your life

I can't say I have a very typical day...I'm usually up by around 8:30. First thing I do is check my email to see if I had a sale, then check Craftopolis and Craftcult and reset my item view on Craftcult. Then I'm off to Etsy to check the few promotion threads that I've started participating in. Then it's time to get up, get dressed, give the little cat her kitty milk (yes, they make "milk" that's special for cats to digest) and eat breakfast.

After that the days vary...sometimes it's straight to my desk to start creating, or if I have a buildup of made-but-not-photographed items I may set up for taking pictures. Then it's back to the recliner end of the couch to put my feet up, check the forum threads again, work on editing pictures and listing items.

Somewhere in the middle of doing all that comes lunch, waking up my husband (who has an unusual sleep schedule), making doctor's appointments and trying to arrange the cat so she doesn't inhibit my ability to type.

A couple evenings a week I play piano as an accompanist for a vocal teacher, and teach a few piano lessons myself. Then I check my email again before going to bed, cuddle up with the cat and head off to sleep.

3.) Name your top 3 of each of the following:

Books - Bible, the Dune series by Frank Herbert & his son Brian Herbert, and Pride & Prejudice

Music - I have really eclectic tastes...I like everything from Mozart & Bach to 80's to some country. About the only things I can't stand are rap and heavy metal.

Movies - A&E's Pride & Prejudice, Sci-Fi's Dune & Children of Dune, and The Interpreter

TV Shows - Star Trek Next Generation, Star Trek Voyager, Alias

Websites - Etsy, Fanfiction.net, Facebook

4.) What are your top 3 favorite shops on Etsy?

There's no way I could pick just 3...there's too many talented people on Etsy.

5.) Where do you hope your shop will be in a year?

I'd love to be making at least 1 sale a week

6.) What projects are you currently working on?

I bought a bunch of beads from an Etsy jewelry artist who is slowly selling off her bead stash, and my projects right now revolve around using the beads I got from her. Some of the things I'm working with are black onyx, freshwater pearls of different colors, and some beautiful colors of Swarovski crystal pearls.

7.) What suggestions/tips would you offer to someone new to Etsy?

GO TO THE VIRTUAL LABS!!!! Not only will you get great tips on things to improve your shop and your Etsy experience as a whole, you'll meet wonderful people who can really become friends, even if you never meet in actuality. The support of the people who are in the labs is a great resource, especially when you're really new and feel like you have no idea what you're doing.

Life of an Item with GrayFlannelDesign

Hello everyone! I’m Lori and my Etsy shop is Gray Flannel Design. I’ve been involved in all sorts of arts and crafts since I was little, and love vintage, so you never know what you might find in my shop.

Up until now, I’ve had mostly jewelry available, but will be listing more things soon.
I design all the jewelry myself, combining new beads and findings along with new-old stock vintage beads. Most of my designs are based on what I find. I search high and low, at stores, on the internet, flea markets, garage sales, attics, from friends, all sorts of places. One thing I always try to use are things that are unique or have character.

I’m always on the lookout for supplies and have boxes and boxes of stuff to use.
So many choices can make it difficult to choose, so I usually just go with my gut and use whatever is inspiring me at that particular moment.

One of my favorite things in my shop would have to be the earrings I designed with my Mom in mind. She has an emerald necklace that belonged to my grandmother that she was looking for a pair of earrings to go with, so gave them to her as a gift Mother’s Day. She loves them, not only because I made them, but because they’re a pretty simple design, so she wear them everyday or for a special occasion.

They’re made from new-old stock vintage beads with new sterling silver findings and they’ve been one of the best sellers. Since they’re made from vintage beads, I have only a few sets of beads available, which make them pretty much one of a kind.

Mosaic Monday...well said

http://www.etsy.com/shop/EvenAndy

http://www.etsy.com/shop/glassali

http://www.etsy.com/shop/KimArt

http://www.etsy.com/shop/nightowlcraftworks

http://www.etsy.com/shop/rctees

http://www.etsy.com/shop/jmliss

http://www.etsy.com/shop/lemonadesun

http://www.etsy.com/shop/glassali

November Treasury Challenge

Snow Candy Wrist Cuff from Waterrose

Ahh, November. Halloween has passed and stores are now playing holiday music. The retail world has its eye on the holiday gift buying season and so should we! That's why for this month's treasury challenge, we want you to make your best gift guides. Make one for the man in your life or the girl who has everything. Make one for the crazy cat lady next door. Whatever it is, we want to see it. Here are the rules:

1. Use at least 8 Lab Rat members. You can use our members list in the sidebar.
2. Include "Treasury Challenge" in the title of your treasury
3. Tag your treasury with "labratsteam"
4. Tag your treasury with "labratchallenge"
5. Tag your treasury with "gift guide"
6. Link back to this post to encourage others to participate
7. Leave a comment on this post with a link to your treasury for official entry
8. Promote! 

This month your judges will be Sara from BySaraLynn and Karen from AuntKarensCreations. Get your entries in by the 12th and our judges will pick the finalists for your vote. Popular vote winner gets to be features in our Rat Spotlight! A few extra tips to make your treasury front page friendly - include a variety of items with a range of prices, don't include yourself, tag your treasuries, and keep in mind this month's merchandising notes. Head to the Treasury to get started or read up on how to make a treasury first. Either way - make the Lab Rats proud. 

P.S. Don't forget about our upcoming Holiday Show Nov 30th and Dec 1st. Sign up using the link in the sidebar.

Feature Friday

Let's give a warm LabRats welcome to our Feature Friday artist this week...Rita & Michael Squier!

Where can we find you on the web?

My Website: http://rasquier.com
My Etsy Shop: http://squier.etsy.com
My Blog: http://ritasquier.blogspot.com
My Twitter: http://twitter.com/therita
My Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/rasquier
Our Business Site: http://squierdesign.com

I would love to friend fellow Lab Rat members & Etsy friends on Facebook through my new Facebook account: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001795591325

1. Tell us about yourself, your shop, and what brought you to the Etsy community.

I am a professional artist and graphic designer. I paint in watercolors and dabble in a few other mediums as well. I also teach watercolor painting classes. The summer of 2008, my husband gave me an art magazine which had an article about a lady who sells some of her art on Etsy. I did a little research and found out what Etsy was all about. I liked it and thought I would give it a try.

2. Walk us through a typical day in your life.

My typical day has recently changed. I get up, cook food for my dog Chloe, who has been diagnosed with TCC cancer, stress over getting her to eat and make sure she gets her morning meds. Then I have my own breakfast while checking emails and checking on my Etsy shop. At that point I try to schedule and organize my day according to what needs to be done. Sometimes I'm designing graphics for race cars or commercial vehicles (our regular business). Other times I'm working on updating and adding to my Etsy shop. I plan to paint and do chores. Occasionally, I try to squeeze in time for my blog & social networking. My schedule often changes at the drop of a hat, things pop up that just have to get done. The chores are the first to get bumped off the list. Running your own business and running an Etsy shop on the side can be crazy at times. We do everything ourselves, it is all done in house, from top to bottom: managing the business, bookkeeping, invoicing, advertising, web design, our own graphics, business cards, stickers, production of goods, such as vinyl graphics, magnets, banners, static cling, packing and shipping it off through the post office or FedEx. Plus I squeeze in time to watercolor paint everyday. On February 1, 2010 I began a Painting A Day Challenge for myself. I create at least one ACEO sized watercolor painting each day.

3. Name your top 3...

• Books - Janet Evanovich Stephanie Plum Series
• Music - John Cougar Mellencamp, Bryan Adams ... Rock 'n Roll & some pop ... actually I like a huge variety of music.
• Movies - I love romantic comedies, too many to choose from.
• TV Shows - NCIS, Amazing Race, the English comedies on PBS.
  

4. What are your top 3 favorite shops on Etsy?

Top 3 favorite Etsy shops? Pick 3? That's too hard.

5. Where do you hope your shop will be in one year?

In one year, I hope my Etsy shop is having regular daily sales.

6. What projects are you currently working on ?

My Painting A Day Challenge is the project I work on everyday. I am in the process of getting my own website for my artwork up to date. Once a week, I do a Tuesday's Tips & Techniques for Watercolor Painting on my blog.

7. What suggestions/tips would you offer to someone new to Etsy?

I would suggest those who are new to Etsy to read through the Help section, the link is at the top of every Etsy page. There is so much information there. There is a wealth of information on the Etsy blog also known as The Storque, in the left column under Featured Series is a section called Selling and it has excellent links to good info.

Life of an Item with Senioritis

What do the Wall Street Journal, paper towels, and CD cases all have in common?

Well, these are all things we used to use to keep rings off of things before we made our Famous Seniors coasters.

Inspiration:

While keeping our surfaces clean and dry is pretty sweet[and a terrific added bonus] we must admit that this was not the initial inspiration behind our line of coasters. We had been designing prints for several months and had received pretty good feedback; however, one common remark we were hearing from people time and again went something like this:"Hey, we like your designs,but we don't have the space to hang a bunch of 11x17" prints." With this in mind, we started to search for other ways to display our designs with the hope that we could come up with something that would be functional while still looking cool. The famous seniors smiled on us, and we stumbled upon an excellent how-to article for tile coasters from fellow Etsian, kittybeans. So, of course, we said to ourselves, "Selves, people drink things, and their drinks probably sweat the same way ours do. It would be pretty sweet if people could have a tricked out way to protect their delicate surfaces." Thus, a legend was born. Our first set of coasters appeared on our counter that night-the second, although lesser known, recorded immaculate conception.

Process:

Truth be told, no, our first set of coasters didn't just appear, we made them.

While tile coasters are nothing new, here at senioritis we like to do things a bit differently. We liked the idea of tile, but after dropping one on a concrete floor and seeing the corner chip we figured there might be a better alternative. The answer for us was Plexiglas; it's lightweight, very strong and most importantly, we would get to use the word Plexiglas in our descriptions.


To make our coasters, we start with a sheet of Plexiglas that we cut into 4" squares.

We then make 3.75" square designs. We print our designs on 80-pound card stock, after which they are laminated and cut.


Next comes the fun part: it's time to get our designs on to the Plexi. Time to break out some mod podge (as a side note:the first time this appeared on our shopping list I thought it was an alt rock band and had to ask someone at the art store if it was an actual product). Once we have our mod podge, we grab a foam brush and put a few coats onto the Plexiglas, position the design on the Plexiglas and center it as best as possible. Once the design is centered, we put a few coats of mod podge over the design.



After the mod podge dries, we spray the coaster with an acrylic sealer and repeat the whole process several times. Finally we place 4 vinyl bumpers on the bottom of each piece of Plexiglas and shazam!
We now have some coasters.


While our coasters are currently out of stock, they should be back for an encore soon. Until then, stay thirsty friends.

Mosaic Monday

Blushing Pink

Fuschia Flower...Lampwork Necklace by glassali

Pink Dogwood Print Mini Clutch by AuntKarensCreations

Tendre Fleur Soap Bar by treeandsap

Beautiful Pink Butterfly Glass Pendant Necklace by GlowingGlassStudio



Secret Santa is coming to a Shop near you!



Shhhhhh..... Secret Santa's Coming!



This is just a quick note for all Lab Rats.... Secret Santa is lurking around every corner!  You may apply to become and be visited by Santa.  You can convo either AuntKarensCreations or GrayFlannelDesigns.  You will get the name of your Secret recipient on Nov 5th. With your Secret's Information.

This is an edit:   those who  posted their names here on the blog will be getting a convo confirming questions.  We need EVERYONE to please convo either Aunt Karen or Gray Flannel...we want to keep addresses private and Convos seem the most secret way.

If you would: please answer these 4 questions in your convo:

1.  What is your favorite color?
2.  Do you have any allergies?
3.  May we use your favorites as a guide for gift giving?
4.  Your physical address.

again.. please do this in a convo to either AuntKarensCreations or GrayFlannelDesign.

A limit of $20 has been set and does not including shipping costs.   The reason for the short assignment time is so that our members dealing with gifts from outside the US will have time to ship and receive their gifts in time for Christmas.  Shipment by December 1st is urged especially for any out of country gifts.

Ho Ho Ho!!!!  It's gonna be a Merrrrry Christmas!