Let's bring this thing back to life!

It has been a crazy two years. I got a new job that's turned into a career, buried a wonderful man, moved TWO HOURS away from where I've lived the past 7 years, and completely turned my craft business around. My main focus now is on Pixel Art of all kinds. If you'd like a fast look at all of it, check out my Storenvy site, Ashley E Glidewell Fine Art & Crafts. 

Diamond Sword Iron-On Patch $13.98

It started with cross stitching Perler Bead patterns onto regular Aida fabric and turning them into iron on patches. 

Majora's Mask Magnet $48.98

Then I discovered a plastic canvas that's actually made to the same sizing as Aida fabric! Now I could expand into magnets, bookmarks, keychains, hairclips, and jewelry! 

Goomba Keychain $19.49

Each is carefully coated with a permanent sealant, protecting it from all elements and giving it a kid-friendly wipe-clean finish!

Elsa Magnet $44.98

Magnets are now backed with super strong ceramic magnets, so unlike my original Perler Bead magnets, these are NOT only decorative, they are fully functional!

Diamond Sword Necklace $23.95

Necklaces are hung on 18 inch chain, but can be customized to suit your individual size!

Rainbow Dash Hairclip Duo $30.98

After that, I added in greeting cards. First I draw out the pattern on a grid, then I punch each hole into a blank greeting card. After that, I stitch the pattern onto the card and it is ready for you to add your own message! Each comes sealed in an individual bag for protection. 

BMO Greeting Card $4.95

And just to make things interesting, I discovered Needle Felting! I can also make plushes based on the same characters that I stitch!

Lumpy Space Princess Plush $28.88

I also discovered Mosaic Tiling and how I can create beautiful Pixel Art from it! 

Creeper Mosaic Tile $98.98 SOLD! 

That's enough for today. As I said, if you want to see more, feel free to visit my store and browse around. There's lots to look at and plenty of Christmas shopping ideas! Please keep in mind that many of my items are unique and though I can make a similar item of one out of stock, it may not always be exactly the same. If you'd like to purchase an out of stock item, please message me and I can let you know if I can make a similar one. Also, I am always adding more items to the shop! There's several in my to finish box that I have to add the backings to and then photograph. 

I'm Free!!

Well, mostly free, from my wrist brace. I'll wear it at night tonight just to make sure it's 100% for work on Thursday. If all else fails, I did get a new one to wear to work. But even with the brace, I got lots of work done!

I've got nice new packaging for the ceramic coasters and packaged all the old and new ones. They're sealed in shrink wrap and tied with little scraps of lace, fabric, or trim! I did lower the cost on a couple of the sets in my shop as well as posting new pictures of both the old and new coaster sets.

I have quite a few new beaded items that just need their various backings placed on them. These include Tiana, a new glow-in-the-dark tic tac toe set, two houses, a bass fish, Lightning McQueen, Darth Vader's lightsaber, some Minecraft items, Red Bird, and more!

I just need to photograph the bead items and upload them to the shop still, as well as putting those backs on them.

Check everything out at my craft shop!

Ashleyeglidewell.storenvy.com

My apologies...

My beautiful spools of Lombard S.A. Rayon!! $6 at the flea market!

But I have become hopelessly addicted to Instagram! It has the added convenience of posting directly to my Twitter and Facebook, which takes all the work of updating away! Unfortunately, it doesn't post to the blog, so I'm stuck updating this on my own. I've been up to a lot the last week, though. I've branched out my bead items, and I'll post more on them later. My carpal tunnel syndrome is flaring up, and my wrist brace makes it super hard to type. 

If you'd like to keep up with my updates on a regular basis, follow me on your favorite social network. To the right are links to my Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr.

Knotted Bracelets $2 each

The flea market was a bust today, but I did pick up some gorgeous rayon thread from a former crafter. I meant to use it for a project, but since I couldn't remember what project that was, I decided to pass the time at the flea market making knotted bracelets. I only bought two spools to start with, and once I made my first bracelet and realized how beautiful the rayon was as a bracelet, I went back and bought all the rest and only spent $6! I also bought twelve little skeins of embroidery floss from another lady for only $2. 

Bracelet in progress

I got eight bracelets done at the flea market, and those are posted to my shop. For only @2 each, with FREE shipping, you get a randomly chosen bracelet from the batch in the photos. If you'd like a particular bracelet, just message me to ask about availability. No two of them are alike, but I have a limit of colors, so the one you receive may be similar to another, but still one of a kind! 

Getting ready for Sunday's No Nonsense Neutering event

So, on Sunday I'm going to a craft, vendor, and flea market in Shartlesville, PA to benefit No Nonsense Neutering. Unlike most of the places I sell at, this event takes all the table fees and requests a small donation to be raffled off, and ALL of the proceeds are going to benefit this great cause! They provide low-cost, but high quality spay and neuter services for feral cats and request only a $15 donation per cat! This is a great way to keep feral cats out of shelters and humane societies, where they are usually put down immediately. As long as they aren't breeding and aren't a danger to other animals or humans, there is no reason a feral cat can't be caught, fixed, and released.

Phillies Kee-Shirts in Progress

Since I'll be selling my crafts at this event, I plan to get my stocks back up, plus add a new variant of my Kee-Shirts. I finally got the right size and type of Phillies fabric I've been looking for, and I have the shirts cut out and partially ironed. They're not complete yet, because I want to get a whole batch ready to be sewn at once, since it's quicker that way. I also want to get a few bead magnets and keychains made up too. Oh, and the lady from my rant post? Never showed up Wednesday to pay for her items. I don't know why I expected anything different, but I already have a few people express interest in them. If you want to purchase anything before it disappears Sunday, visit my craft shop! As I've said before, most of my items are one of a kind, and once they're gone, they're gone. And if you want a Phillies Kee-Shirt, please leave a comment. I only have a limited quantity of them because the fabric is out of print and nearly impossible to find.

Some Annoyances from Sundays Flea Market

Sunday was not a good flea market day for me. The wind was crazy, it was kind of chilly, and sales were terrible. These were the two worst points for me. 

First off, it's obvious to any normal person that my bead magnets are potentially fragile. At the very least, they shouldn't be bent. They're made of melted plastic and plastic breaks. I had a woman stop by, and at first seemed alright. She wanted to order keychains and told me what kind and how many she'd like. Then, things started to get weird as she kept picking up and putting down my magnets, until I realized she was actually bending them each to see how far they'd bend before snapping! Fortunately, she only broke one before choosing which designs she wanted to order. She kept messing with them a few more minutes before finally leaving. I don't know if she's actually going to show Wednesday to pick them up, but if she doesn't, someone will buy the designs. This was a grown adult, too. All the kids that pick up my magnets know better than to be rough with them, so it was insane that an adult would do what would obviously break them. The other fortunate thing is that the beads easily remelt together, so the broken one is fixable and can be returned to stock. 

The other thing that made me really mad was discovering someone that may have contributed to my poor sales. At one point I went to the bathroom, and the woman behind me was carrying a large crocheted afghan. Someone behind her asked about it, and it turned out, she'd bought it early in the morning from a woman for five dollars. This wouldn't have been so bad for me, except the seller was telling people she was crocheting them herself and they took five months each to make! There is absolutely no way she was making them over that time period and selling them so cheaply. That five dollars wouldn't cover the cost of yarn, let alone her time. She is clearly one of those resellers who get their goods cheap from another country and resell them as handmade. However, this does nothing but hurt those of us who actually make our own products and have to charge accordingly to pay for our supplies and time! I have no problem with her selling afghans that cheap, but she really needs to stop lying and hurting the handmade industry. I thought about finding her and giving her a piece of my mind, but I decided to be the bigger person, have a small rant here, and let it go.

That's all for now. More bead magnets and keychains to come tonight. I need to get my stock up before my craft show in Shartlesville, PA at Haag's Hotel on Sunday. It's for a great cause, so if you're in Berks County, stop on by!

An Update

Vintage Tan Kee-Shirt ©

I did a little house-cleaning on the blog today, reorganizing the links on the side page and adding in my all-new Instagram account and former personal Twitter turned business Twitter account, as well as Tumblr. Feel free to follow me on any of those! Also, looks like there was a problem with my Paypal connection on the shop and purchases weren't working. That is now functional, so feel free to go shopping!

Added a new batch of Kee-Shirts to my shop!

Vintage Paisley Kee-Shirt ©

Vintage Sunflowers Kee-Shirt ©

Vintage Chair Kee-Shirt ©

I just added a huge new batch of Kee-Shirts to my craft shop! Fifteen new ones, including three duplicates. Nearly all of this batch is made of vintage fabric. The only shirts I make duplicates of I have a lot of fabric in that print, which means it's a fabric purchased within the last seven years. All of my other fabrics are hand-me-downs from my great-grandmother, grandmother, and a friend of the family.

Vintage Tan Kee-Shirt ©

Autumn Leaves Kee-Shirt ©

Many of these fabrics are one of a kind, as they are quilt square leftovers and I only have enough to make one shirt from each one. That means when you purchase a Kee-Shirt with me, you are getting a one of a kind item that will never be duplicated! For example, I just added a Vintage Sunflowers Kee-Shirt and a Vintage Chair Kee-Shirt. Both of these were squeezed out of just two four inch quilt squares each. When I need to fussy-cut a shirt front/back out of one of the squares, it makes it that much harder to be able to get sleeves out of the rest. However, the effort is worth the end result!

I also added a few patriotic themed Kee-Shirts just in time for Memorial Day! Check them out here.