October Giveaway: Win A Pen!

I'm giving away a FREE PEN, every month!

The winner of the October Giveaway can choose any pen in my shop, MandiBeads!

This contest is open to international residents, as well!

Ways To enter the October Giveaway:

• leave a comment under this post and tell me about your favorite pen in my shop, or suggest a new design!
• Subscribe to my newsletter (thru box at top right)
• tweet about this giveaway, and let me know about it in the comments

Please leave enough info so I can contact you if you win: email, etsy shop, twitter etc.

Each person can enter 3 times by doing each of the 3 ways described.

The winner will be announced November 1, 2009

And the Sept. Giveaway winner is....

Dawn! Congratulations :) I'm sending you an email now. Thanks so much to everyone that entered. Your comments and suggestions help me a lot. Check out my new Triple Cupcake Pen inspired by all the cupcake lovers:


The October Giveaway details will be posted tomorrow!

Bash Voted "Best One-Stop Shop!"

Holy cow holy cow!! Our Bash shows were just voted as Dallas' "Best One-Stop Shop" in the coveted and uber popular Dallas Observer's Best Of annual issue. It's on stands today!!

This is a huge. mega. deal. Here's the write-up:

Sure etsy.com—the online boutique community for crafters, jewelry designers, knitters, tailors, bookbinders, vintage sellers and collectors of everything—is a surefire way to kill an afternoon and build up a wish list, but an Etsy Dallas event is even better. Prices are great, the craftsmanship is fantastic, it feels good to support local crafters and you'll still cover everyone on any gift list you might have for the next two years. But the downside is you'll also empty your bank account with little to no effort without some preventive measures. We have a friend keep us from purchasing on the first lap through the show. We spend only cash (even if a booth takes cards). And we buy no more than we can carry on our own person. It's hard, but, well, you gotta leave something for the rest of the shoppers to look at. On the other hand, screw everyone else, retail therapy rocks! The Etsy Dallas Jingle Bash takes place November 21 at Sons of Hermann Hall. Sharp elbows stimulate the economy, people.

In case you're wondering, What the heck is the Bash?, let me fill you in. The Bash is the premier arts and crafts event in Dallas that we started back in 2008. The Bash is put on by Tefi Designs and Pamela Michelle, with support from the Etsy Dallas leadership team: Larry, Carrie, Cheyne, Alicia, Mandi (that's me :), Dylan, and Randi.

This year's 2nd Annual Jingle Bash will take place at the historic (and somewhat David-Lynchian) Sons of Hermann Hall, November 21st (that's a Saturday) from 1am-7pm. More deets here.

Reposted from Etsy Dallas Blog

Time Track Thursday: Key Questions to Ask Yourself

Here are some amazing questions to ask yourself throughout the day to keep yourself on track, identify things to delegate, and avoid time wasters. Choose one to ask yourself, and start today.

1. What is the best use of my time right now? -Lakein, How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life
   
2. What is the value added from this task? -Kunich & Lester, Survival Kit for Leaders
   
3. Is there an easier way to do this? -Griessman, Time Tactics of Very Successful People
   
4. What 3-5 things can I accomplish today that will make a big difference to the bottom line?-Rinke, Don't Oil the Squeaky Wheel
   
5. Is what I'm doing this minute moving me measurably closer to my goals? -Kennedy, No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs

I have number 5 on a sticky on my computer, and it's a great reminder. These were complied by Pamela Dodd and Dog Sundheim, The 25 Best Time Management Tools and Techniques.

5 Cool & Green Craft Projects

While I'm working on my next tutorial, I thought I would share some awesome projects I've found around the web. Enjoy!

1. Repurposed Paper Magnets by Tara Anderson- for these unique magnets, you get to bust out your sewing machine and repurpose Starbucks coffee sleeves
   
2. Recycled Denim Book Covers by Margot Potter- a back pocket becomes the front pocket to hold your pens, then you can graffiti it up with stencils
3. Recycled Paper Bag Art Journals by Regina- art journaling is so inspiring and can open your doors to new projects, and this is a fabulous way to reuse paper bags from the grocery store
4. Recycled Magazine Baskets by Jessica Jones- you can never have too much storage in a craft room, and these baskets can clear the clutter of magazines and hold works in progress
5. T-shirt Grocery bags via Martha Stewart- all those old souvenir shirts you don't wear, but can't get rid of can now carry your groceries

P.S. Don't forget to leave a comment on this post and be entered to win a free pen!

My Big Crafty Weekend

On Saturday, I got up early, got all my beady supplies together, then drove through the rain to the Dallas Bead Society meeting. Marcia DeCoster is coming to teach classes next month, and we were practicing Right Angle Weave in preparation.

My friend Ralonda just finished a huge project, Willow, who is a semi-finalist for the Land of Odds Competition. I can't show a picture until its been posted to the site. She needed to go on a huge bead shopping spree to restock. Two other DBS members Carol Ann and Lisa joined us. We went to Rock Barrel, had some fabulous crepes at Cafe Brazil, then headed to Artful Bead. Here's a shot of my loot:


Driving through the rain this whole time made me realize my Jeep needed new windshield wipers! After my DH installed them, I was off to Larry's for the Esty Dallas 2nd Birthday Party. We had a great time and honored our fearless leader, Stephanie, with a surprise:

I LOVE football. So all I did the entire rainy Sunday was bead and watch the Cowboys, and a few other games. At 9pm, I watched the final episode of Design Star, and my fav from the beginning, Antonio, was the winner! Those design shows can inspire my work and give me great ideas, so I can't wait to watch his show :)

Time Track Thursday: 6 Powerful Prioritization Tips

We know we should be working in Quadrant 2 and that list making can help us prioritize. Here are 6 more tips to help you prioritize with power.

1. Actually use your planner. Write down your priorities and plans in your organizer so you can always have them with you.
2. Have some flexibility. Plan your day around tasks that must be done at a certain time (meetings, your favorite workout time). Delegate and simplify if possible.
3. Eat your ugliest frog. Mark Twain came up with this phrase, and he recommends tackling the things you hate to do first thing in the morning. It feels great to get it out of the way, and you can spend the rest of the day doin what you love.
4. Rule with an iron fist. Schedule the important things and stick to your plan. Dinner with friends, craft time, and a child's school play are just as important as big meetings. It's ok to say "I'm busy."
5. Use your prime time wisely. You know that time when you have the most energy and tend to do your best work? Well that's a great time to do your most important work as well.
6. Give yourself a time out. This can be used in conjunction with your prime time. Minimize interruptions for an hour by turning off the phone, closing your email, TweetDeck, Facebook, and even the door. Take a few moments to reflect as well.

Next week I'll have a list of questions that time management experts constantly ask themselves. Maybe you can apply one or think of your own to help you spend you time wisely. Until then, eat ugly frogs and go to time out!

Worktable Wednesday: Fabric Panels for Labor Day Sale Living Room

Our love seat was hideous! The chewed up cushions sank into the hole in the bottom of the dated disgusting flower patterned couch, and I couldn't stand it anymore! I got an ad in the mail for the huge Labor Day Sale at Rooms to Go, and found the perfect sofa for $300 off. DH and I ended up redoing our entire living room (taking advantage of all Labor Day sales), and the only thing we kept from the old room was my papasan chair and our tower lamps. Everything looked great except for the monstrosity of a dog cage in our dining room:



So I decided to make fabric panels that hang from the vaulted ceiling to cover it all up. Luckily all Home Decor fabric was on sale at Hobby Lobby. It was kind of scary climbing on top of the dog house to put the hooks in the ceiling! The dining room looks really small now, so I have a bit more designing to do. The most important thing is that Ruby can be happy in her giant cage away from my brand new sofa!



I also got to finally thread and use my sewing machine that has been sitting in a dusty box since I got it for Christmas 2 years ago! It was a lot of fun, and I plan on making a beaded art quilt. I'm still working on the painting for the living room, and I'll post a slideshow of the final results!

$212 Giveaway & Online Sale

Happy Birthday 2nd Etsy Dallas! This group started with a few convos from Stephanie Hindall, our fearless leader and fabulous designer. We had a trunk show that fall with like 8 vendors, where I met graphic artist extraordinaire, Pamela Michelle. Now we are putting on the 2nd Annual Jingle Bash with 50+ vendors, entertainment, free raffle, and 50 Etsy Dallas reusable grocery totes full of handmade goodies! We have come so far, and now it's time to Sale-A-Brate!


This is the pen I donated for the Birthday Giveaway. Just leave a comment on this post for your chance to win the $212 worth of handmade goodies! There are a few other ways to get extra entries, so scan through the whole post.

We are having a huge online sale as well. I am offering free worldwide shipping all week! Click here to see the full list of sales. Here's to many more years of fun and crafts with Etsy Dallas. Cheers!

Time Track Thursday: List Making

We know from last week's post that we need to do the most important things first. All time management experts suggest making lists to organize all those important things. I like to get everything out of my head and on paper so I can focus on a task without worrying about everything I might forget to do. Here is a list of the lists that I keep handy:

• Monthly goals based on my Master Plan (which was created by planning backwards)
  
• daily to-do list with tasks I must accomplish to reach those goals
• Checklist of my recurring activities (ex. I do link-building on Mondays, check Facebook on Fridays, and write my newsletter once a month)
• A sticky note on my computer with the most important thing I need to do to call it a productive day, even if I don't get anything else accomplished

It's also a good idea to prioritize your lists using the ABC system. Rank each item as A=high priority, B= medium priority, or C=low priority. You can color code them if that works better for you. Don't fall into the trap of spending more time creating lists than you do on crossing things off. Again, crossing off more As is better than crossing off as many items as you can.

Worktable Wednesday: Hummingbird Necklace

I'm having so much fun playing with flat marbles and magazine images. When my mother-in-law came to visit recently, she had a copy of Birds & Blooms magazine. She has a million hummingbird feeders and the magazine was a special issue about gardening for birds and butterflies. The photography is gorgeous and the perfect size for the bigger marbles! "Can I cut that up?" I ask. She gives me the look and I explain my idea. She mailed it to me a few weeks ago after she was finished with it, and now I have the perfect Hummingbird Necklace to send back to her! I may need to make a tutorial about this project as well :)

Giveaway: My Etsy Dallas friend Patricia of KarmaCrochet is giving away a whole basket of handmade goodies! Click here for the blog post with directions on how to enter.

September Giveaway: Win A Pen!

I'm giving away a FREE PEN, every month!

The winner of the September Giveaway can choose any pen in my shop, MandiBeads! This contest is open to international residents, as well!

To enter the September Giveaway, leave a comment under this post and tell me about your favorite pen in my shop, or suggest a new design!

Subscribing to my newsletter gives you an additional entry!

The winner will be announced September 30th. Thanks to The House of Mouse for inspiring this contest. Click here to enter to win a mouse!

6 New Pens, 1 Brand New Design

I know you're not supposed to list items in your shop in batches, but I can't help it. That's just how I work, I guess. I had fun playing with the colors of my butterfly, swirl, and vertigo designs. Then, I worked on a brand new design: the flowers.

I played around a lot with the flowers design: drawing, beading, and ripping out! I was going to have them swirl around the pen, but you couldn't see them very well. I staggered them, but then the back was too blank. After ripping that out, I decided to do 6 flowers on each side. I think it turned out great, how about you? I'm going to try to get a few of these listed in my shop today.

Special note: The first of the monthly giveaways begins tomorrow! Just leave a comment on tomorrow's post to enter. Also, the subscriber-only offer (for those of you signed up for my newsletter) ends tomorrow at midnight.

E-book Review: Making a Great Blog

I bought it, read it, did the worksheets, and applied what I've learned. Now its time for the review of Making a Great Blog: A Guide for Creative People by "Sister" Diane Gilleland. She also writes my favorite blog ever, Crafty Pod. At $12.50, this e-book is a must-have for crafty bloggers!

I've had several blogs since I discovered blogging, but after reading about adsense, blogging for business, and driving traffic etc, they weren't fun anymore, I couldn't think of anything "good enough" to write about, and they just died. Thanks to Diane's e-book, I have turned my original blog around, and blogging is fun again! Through the worksheets, I pondered why I want to blog, my goals, brainstormed ideas, and discovered that my blog shouldn't be about me. All the traffic stuff I was worried about before is happening all by itself thanks to this new approach.

"A great blog is about the whole world as filtered through the lens of your passions." -Diane Gilleland

Diane covers how to avoid all the problems I encountered on my blogging journey and the most important parts of blogging:

• How to build an interesting and valuable blog.
• How to create great blog posts and great photographs.
• How to keep your blogging inspiration flowing over time.
• The do’s and don’ts of blogger etiquette.

This e-book is great for someone who is just getting started, or to refresh the blog of a veteran. Thanks, Diane!

Time Track Thursday #8

Now that I've gotten you to plan backwards, it's time to do some prioritizing. Do the important things you need to reach your goals first, and these are not always the things you want to do. I'd rather make some more projects into tutorials instead of filling out my LLC paperwork, but it has the highest priority at the moment.

Today's biggest focus: Do the most important thing first!




I'm sure many of you are familiar with Stephen Covey's Time Management Matrix. This is a friendly reminder that we should all be spending most of our time in Quadrant 2: important but not urgent. Occasional urgency is ok, but don't let it run your life. Activities in Quadrant 2 significantly and positively affect our lives, the quadrant in which our dreams and goals are. Next week I'll have some great tips to help you prioritize more effectively.

Tutorial: Recycled Magazine Magnets

Today I will be making a set of Mythbuster Magnets featuring Adam and Jamie! DH and I love the show. I also love green projects, and I would like to start sharing them. I chose an easier one to start with because I'm new at writing tutorial instructions. Please let me know how I do, and look past the dirt and glue on my nails and hands. True hands of a crafter, right?

Materials:

• Magazine with cool images to recycle
• small circle punch (mine is Fiskars brand)
  
• E-6000 glue
• Diamond Glaze (had to order from Joann's online, Etsy sellers also carry)
  
• clear flat backed floral marbles
• 1/2 in button magnets
• scissors
  

1. Find the perfect image in your magazine. Cut it out and leave enough space that you get the whole image, and can get to it with the punch.

2. Punch out the image.

3. Apply Diamond Glaze to the flat side of the marble.

4. Place the image face down on the glaze. Look from the front to make sure the image is centered. The glaze is slick stuff so it will be easy to make adjustments.

5. Cut away any excess paper, and let dry. There is no drying time listed on the bottle, so I waited long enough to make a pizza and watch a movie with DH before getting back to the project.

6. Glue on a button magnet using E-6000, and let it cure overnight before using.

I had to photograph them outside for the least amount of glare. These are for my DH who lets me cut up his magazines even before he gets a chance to read them:

DH: Where's my new issue that came in the mail yesterday?
Me: Right here. (I hand it over)
DH: Where's the Mythbuster's article?
Me: Right here. (I place the new magnets in his hand)
DH: (rolls eyes) Thanks.......actually these are kinda cool.

FREE Promotion with the Jingle Bash Goody Bags!

Ok, I just misplaced my decoupage scissors, so I decided it was a good time to take a break from crafting, and talk about promoting your crafty business by sponsoring the Jingle Bash. This fabulous show is put on by Etsy Dallas, and I am in charge of the goody bags this year.

About the Goody Bags
Our popular Goody Bags have become a thing of legend. Shoppers at the 1st Annual Jingle Bash arrived over 30 minutes before the doors opened just to get one of these bags! The line of shoppers was winding down the hall, out the door, and down the sidewalk to the next block (pictured). At the 1st Annual Spring Bash, a crowd of Dallas shoppers snatched up the bags in less than 2 minutes. Wow!

I am working on getting some reusable grocery totes for Dylan of Dowdy Studio to screen print, and all 50 will be filled to the brim with handmade goodies from the vendors and other crafty businesses. To participate, please fill out the form found here.

Elf: FREE
- Include 50 business promos in our popular Goody Bags
- Get your 50 promos listed on this page and the Etsy Dallas blog
-Deadline November 13, 2009

Frosty: $50
- 150x150 ad/logo and link posted on this Sponsors page
- Include 50 business promos in our popular Goody Bags
- Get your 50 promos listed on this page and the Etsy Dallas blog

Rudolph: $200
- Hang your company banner or sign at the Jingle Bash
- 150x150 ad/logo and link posted on the Etsy Dallas blog
- 150x150 ad/logo and link posted on this Sponsors page
- Include 50 business promos in our popular Goody Bags
- Get your 50 promos listed on this page and the Etsy Dallas blog

Santa: $500
- Logo posted as "Official Jingle Bash Sponsor" on promotional materials (logo due August 24th)
- Hang your company banner or sign at the Jingle Bash
- 150x150 ad/logo and link posted on the Etsy Dallas blog
- 175x175 ad/logo and link posted at the top of this Sponsors page and on the Etsy Dallas home page
- Spotlight article about your company posted on the Etsy Dallas blog
- Include 50 business promos in our popular Goody Bags
- Get your 50 promos listed on this page and the Etsy Dallas blog

Click here to fill out the form to participate! Thanks for your support! Now where are those scissors...

Time Track Thursday #7

Planning backwards helps you focus on results

Planning forward is the natural approach. We have a goal and think about all the future actions we need to take, but the real focus should be results. Planning backwards is results based, and provides a structure to get the right things done at the right time.

How to Plan Backward

1. Pick out one of your larger goals, and break it down into smaller goals. Pick the first one you need to achieve.
2. List the mini goals or milestones you need to accomplish to achieve your goal by the deadline you've set.
3. Draw a timeline from left to right. Put the current date on the far left and your deadline on the far right. Insert each milestone with a date, starting from your deadline and working backwards.
4. Once your milestones are in the right places, list underneath each one the actions you need to take to achieve them. Keep it in your planner, and TAKE ACTION!

Planning this way can make your dreams become reality and transforms your excitement for a project into focus productivity. Writing out a plan like this is really the hardest part of achieving your larger goals and dreams :)

Worktable Wednesday: Butterfly Bracelet

Yesterday was my birthday! I worked on this piece for some of the day, and later had drinks with friends. I feel pretty good about being 26.

The bracelet encompasses 3 of my favorite things: butterflies, purple, and button clasps. I plan to turn this project into a free tutorial on my other site www.beadcircle.com. I moving the site to my new server today, and then I have some more exciting ideas to add :)

SonStock '09

I skipped blogging last week to get ready for a show that came up unexpectedly. My glass artist friend, Larry Pile aka Kessler Craftsman, invited me to share his booth at SonStock at the Sons of Hermann Hall. I love that venue, so I accepted! It was a dismal show in the way of sales, but I got to hang out with Larry all day, made some great new friends, got a lead on another show, and drank Shiner draft all day.

Since my birthday is August 18th, Larry let me choose a pair of his new earrings! The blue circles are copper that have pens colored with colored pencil and sealed. Apparently the sealing technique is a secret, and I just love them. He's getting good at wirework and silversmithing :)

Steve Moya was the artist next to us. I loved visiting with him and his wife Janice. His art is a-m-a-z-i-n-g! He paints a lot of musicians, and various athletes. I fell in love with a few of his KISS and Stevie Ray Vaughn pieces. The photos on his website do not do his work enough justice, so advise everyone to see him in person at the Front Street Festival on Saturday, September 26, 2009 from 10am-5pm. Larry will be there, and maybe even me.