Mountain Laurel Soap Featured in Etsy Treasury!

Thank you, kjmSILKS, for featuring my Mountain Laurel Soap in your Etsy Treasury!

Blog Contest #3 - Everyone Should Vote!

It is going to be another custom pair of earrings as the giveaway this time. They can be designed from any of the gemstones I have in stock with sterling silver, copper, or brass accents. We will work together to make a truly unique design, just for you!

So what do you have to do? Well, vote of course! Vote for me on Artzee once per day and post my rank as a comment here. For example, your comment can just say, "I voted, your rank was 42." This link will cast a vote for you, and then you will need to look for DLPom in the listing of sites:

Vote Here!

Person with the most posts and correct ranking numbers by the end of the contest wins...ties will be broken by random drawing...contest ends Saturday, September 6th, 2008.

Lucky winners from the past:

Blog Contest #1 Prize
Blog Contest #2 Prize

Good luck!

I've Been Featured - Again!

It is the nicest compliment for someone to feature your work! In this case, my organized, soap ingredient closet was featured. Now that's unique!

Check out Etsy Studios for a peek behind the white door.

Thanks, Kerry, from Etsy shop "the red door."

Soap, Soap, Soap - Texas Blooms Series

I'm doing a themed soap series for my Etsy shop, SoapSense. We have so many wonderful florals in Texas, I wanted to represent them in my cold process soaps.

I started off with Mountain Laurel and Bluebonnet, both blooming in the spring. Mountain Laurel has a unique, grapey scent that I just couldn't ignore. Bluebonnet, of course, is the state flower.


Then, there is Honeysuckle, Yellow Rose, & Jasmine. All are true scents, that match the real flower perfectly. The jasmine soap was even made using jasmine tea! If it is difficult to choose, just get one of each. Watch for holiday gift baskets that include these soaps, coming soon.

Or, if you don't really need the fancy packaging, purchase these soaps as "Birthday Suit Bars." Yes, they are simply undressed, at a 10% savings!

The Prize! - Blog Contest #2

Katie G. of Indiana won Blog Contest #2 and wanted a pair of simple, sophisticated, freshwater pearl earrings. I hope these clustered beauties fit the bill!

Congratulations, Katie...your earrings will be on the way!

Stay tuned for Blog Contest #3 to win your own pair of custom earrings from any of the 150 semi-precious gemstones I have in stock...

Salsa Earrings Declared a "Tuesday Treasure"

Thanks for featuring my Salsa Earrings on your Tuesday's Treasures blog feature, Simply Sentimental!

An Appreciation for Soap!

I made my castile soap recipe the other day...I had forgotten how stubborn and mean it is, but it always turns out good if you are willing to wait about 10 weeks for it to cure! Yes, I said 10 weeks!

Castile soap is considered to be the first real soap ever made, long ago in medieval times, near present day Spain in the Kingdom of Castile. Later in history, the Italians, Greeks, and French tried to take credit. I'm a purist, and still believe that castile soap should be made from 100% olive oil only.

A few days ago, during the soap making process, I stick-blendered it to death...and it FINALLY traced. Then, I waited 48 hrs. to unmold it...then another 12 hrs. so it would be hard enough to cut into bars. But look out! It was still quite alkaline to the touch, and my hands were stinging just from handling it.

Ah, but in 10 weeks, it will be some of the tamest, mildest soap on the planet! Just wait...

........The First Creative Thinking Skill........

FLUENCY

Fluency means thinking of many, many, many ideas. Your ideas do not have to be unusual, but try to get as many ideas as you can in just a few minutes. Lean in to unusual ideas and hitchhike on identified ideas. Try not to judge or make comments about ideas as they are being generated. This skill is related to brainstorming, except that it is done more quickly, and should not be a prolonged activity.

Here are two exercises to improve your creative fluency: 1) With a partner, talk for one minute without stopping about a topic you know something about. The partner cannot interrupt or comment during the one minute; 2) In one minute, jot down as many words as you can that replace the word "said." If you do this with a partner, share your words when the one minute is up.

How could you improve your crafting fluency today?

What is Creativity?

What has been around as long as humans? What exists in all cultures? What can be demonstrated by young and old, educated and uneducated, rich and poor? What is known and recognized by most everyone, yet is so hard to define?

CREATIVITY!

This is one definition offered by E. Paul Torrence, the "father of creativity":

"Creativity is a process of becoming sensitive to problems, gaps in knowledge, missing elements, disharmonies, and so on; identifying the difficulty; searching for solutions; making guesses or formulating hypotheses about the deficiencies; testing and retesting and possibly modifying and retesting again! And finally, communicating the results."

We all have more ideas floating around in our minds than we use. Creative thinking, which is innate to some and has to be learned by others, will help us use these ideas and come up with new and better ideas. The more you practive creative thinking, the more the mind will become creative... Some people look at a different situation and say, "It cannot be done." With creative thinking, you will find very few things are impossible.

My next blog installments on creativity will review the skills needed for creative thinking: fluency, flexibility, elaboration, and evaluation.

Until next time, think about how you can become more creative with your craft!

Friday's FavoriteS

Why is the "S" capitalized this week? Because I've decided to feature three Etsy shops with really cool items and awesome photos! Here are the three lucky shops:

1. Tom, from Etsy shop The View Up Here, is a photographer with a twist. He uses some unique methods to capture his pictures, and that struck me as a very creative and original approach to this art form! Please visit his Etsy shop to learn more, and be prepared to view some beautiful landscapes as well as detailed, closeup shots from Hawaii and Texas.

2. Redhead Diva's Paper Emporium can get you stickered! To quote her shop announcement, "Shop Stickers, Thank You Stickers, Birthday Stickers" - she has them all! Some nice business cards in this shop, too. This would be a great place to shop to help your own Etsy shop look very professional!

3. Amy, from Etsy shop Have Art, specializes in hand painted wall art, with inspiration! Check out some of her colorful and comtemporary crosses.

Please visit these three shops and leave us your comments! Until next Friday...

All images are used with permission and © by the above mentioned artists. All rights reserved.

Blog Contest #2 - Everyone Should Vote!

I'm a firm believer in the voting process...

It is going to be another custom pair of earrings as the giveaway this time. They can be designed from any of the gemstones I have in stock with sterling silver, copper, or brass accents. We will work together to make a truly unique design, just for you!

So what do you have to do? Well, vote of course! Vote for me on Artzee once per day and post my rank as a comment here. For example, your comment can just say, "I voted, your rank was 42." This link will cast a vote for you, and then you will need to look for DLPom in the listing of sites:

Vote Here!

Person with the most posts and correct ranking numbers by the end of the contest wins...ties will be broken by random drawing...contest ends August 10th, 2008.

Good luck!

Friday's Favorite: Artful Memories

This Etsy shop is all about colorful fun, and getting your photos organized. I like that! I'm pleased to feature Lara Medina of the Etsy shop "Artful Memories" as my Friday's Favorite. Here is her interview:

Are your family's photos in shoeboxes and old sticky albums? Get them out! Let me help! My name is Lara and my shop is Artful Memories. I create fun, funky scrapbooks, scrapbooking kits, journals, wall art, and other goodies that showcase your treasured memories and tell your story.


Scrapbooking, for me, is therapeutic and my creative outlet. A few years back, I was sick, and didn't know what was wrong with me. To this day, we still don't know what was wrong. I needed something to get my mind off of how awful I felt, so I headed off to my local craft store and picked up some card making supplies. The kids and I made a few cards together; it was okay. My husband is a photographer, so we have tons of pictures of the kids lying around. I thought, let me try this "scrapbooking" I hear so much about. I was hooked! The rest is history, our history!

I would love to do some more custom work. I have done pages for people, where they just send me a photograph and some info about the picture, and I create a layout for them. I want to do complete albums like baby's first year or a family's "year in review."

There are so many resources on the internet for paper crafting. I get a lot of inspiration from many different places. A great one is Scrapbook. My blog is a great source of inspiration, too!


If you are just getting started in scrapbooking, just remember, there is no wrong way. If you are new to Etsy or have recently opened your shop, congratulations! Etsy is an amazingly awesome community. Everyone is so friendly and always eager to help. Get involved in the forums, ask questions, check out shops that are similar to yours. Keep your shop current by adding new items regularly, and renewing items when you can't list new ones. Last but not least, hang in there! The sales will come. For some it happens the first day they open and for some, it takes a while longer. I waited 1 1/2 months for my first sale, and my first customer bought 3 kits from me. I was so excited! So just hang in there!

There are so many wonderful shops on Etsy! I have barely scratched the surface! I find new shops to heart every time I log on! I recently purchased a sling bag from L&B Accessories. Everything about the experience was terrific and I love my new bag!

Thanks, Lara, for that wonderful interview. Please visit her shop and leave a comment to let us know you dropped by!