Valerie: Compliment Necklaces

Hello all! Here is your Wednesday post as promised, and trying out a new blog look. Check out the new Etsy Mini box :)

I've been keeping myself really busy with a variety of craft projects, but what I want to highlight today are a few deliciously simple but eye catching necklaces that I've made recently. I was going to post about them eventually, but I wore one when I went to a large art fair this weekend and had people stalking me to compliment me on it. I figured that had to be a sign!

The best thing about these necklaces is that they're are so many options for customization. I can do any color (or colors!) of ribbon or metal. So far I've only used plain silver, but there are plenty of ideas floating around in my head for colors and patterns.

These are the two I made for myself:

















Aaanndd ... Since summer has made a rapid departure, here's the festive autumn one that I made for the shop! It will be up a bit later tonight.

I'll have a few more pictures up when I post the necklace in the Etsy shop.

Have a great day!

Valerie

First Sale!

This is Amanda. I'm very excited to announce our first Etsy sale!

A few hours ago, one of the Harry Potter Gryffendor scarves sold! I can't help but hope it was for someone's Halloween costume.

I'm so pumped! We really need to get our business cards ready, so we have something to put in with our future orders.

The Materials I Use

Amanda Here. I would like to start off by making a small announcement. I have finally decided that Wednesdays will be our blog update day. You can now expect a new entry every week, every Wednesday! This is something I really should have done a long time ago. I'm sorry it took us so long to get our act together.

This doesn't mean we will ONLY update once a week. There will be occasional bonus posts, but you can expect one post every Wednesday at the very least.

We're currently in the middle of a big push to get the shop cleaned up and full of new merchandise. Our next big project is designing our business cards. After we all have a nice stash of business cards ready, we're going to be tackling advertising in a big, new way. I'm very excited for it. So, hopefully you'll be seeing lots of little changes around here, and things should start running more smoothly! Starting with weekly blog updates.

Since I don't have any big projects going at the moment, I thought I'd take this week to give you a sort of walking tour of some of the materials I use on a regular basis. First is a new product that I'm very excited about: Padding Compound.

Padding compound is painted on the top of a stack of paper, then allowed to dry. It turns into the rubbery top of the notepad. It's strong and durable, but the individual pages can tear away easily. It can also be used for bookbinding. You just paint it on the spine of the signatures, then apply a piece of cheese cloth between the layers for extra strength.

I have only just recently started using Padding Compound, so I can't provide any product reviews yet. Lithco seemed to be a common brand when I was shopping around. So far, I'm still getting my bearings. I'll let you know how things are going when I've had some more experience with it.

Something I've been using for a number of years, however, are my Speedball linoleum cutters.

I actually have two. The one pictured has 'safety blades' that curl back in on themselves to prevent injury. The other set (which are MIA at the moment) are straight. It's easier on your wrists, but there is a potential for accidents to happen.

Speedball is sort of the standard brand for linoleum-related crafts. I buy my cutters, ink, ink rollers and linoleum from them. I've been keeping my eye on other fancy tools sold by Speedball. The issue is that most of the tools that aid in the printing process are large compared to the size of prints I make. My prints are mainly small and decorative, so I do all my printing by hand. It's easier to handle the prints that way, and it leaves less margin for error.

And then there's knitting! My grandmother gave up knitting a few years ago, because her artheritis was really starting to bother her. She sent me up to her craft room with a plastic bag, and I came back with a whole mess of knitting needles:

Some of them are from Indonesia, some from Canada, and some I bought myself here in Michigan. So, that needle sizer is a necessity, not a luxury.

The collection is sort of haphazard. My grandma didn't keep them very organized. But they do the trick. I just have to make sure and compulsively size my needles before starting any new project. It is nice to have variety, though. I certainly thank my grandma for my ability to knit diverse patterns, without running back to the craft store constantly!

That's all I've got for this week. You can look forward to a post from Val next Wednesday!

Store Items from Valerie

Hey all,

I finally kicked my butt in gear and got a few items up in the Etsy shop!

I listed the cowl that I showed in an earlier post and I finally posted some of my needlebooks.


I made my first needlebook about a year ago and it has been the most useful thing I've ever made. I finally had a place to keep all of my needles for cross-stitch, embroidery, sewing, and knitting. It's big enough and made out of a bright enough material that it's hard to misplace, yet small enough to go anywhere easily. I've since made a few for friends and family, and I'm really excited to be able to sell them. Hopefully people find them as useful as I do.

I made these fairly simple with bright patterned fabric, but I have all kinds of ideas for fun embroidered ones. I think I'll debut the first of my next style of needlebooks for Halloween. I have a fun idea that I'm really excited about!

- Valerie

Shop Item: Personalized Note Cards

Amanda here. I'm really excited about posting my first paper craft item in the Etsy shop. I decided to take a previous craft I did for Val's wedding and post it as a commission item. I'm especially excited to have used some of the best photos I've taken for this blog.

Remember this?

You can view the Etsy posting by clicking here.

I'm excited to be getting back into paper crafts. I hope to continue to post more of them in the future. Next on my list: personalized notepads!

Catching Up: Personal Projects

Amanda, here. And I'm armed and ready with my official excuse for being so scarce around the ol' blog here. I've been crazy busy with personal projects lately. Luckily, I took lots of pictures so I could share with you guys.

Firstly, I had a chili sauce party a few weeks ago. I had a bunch of friends over and we spent the day making two big batches of homemade chili sauce. Here are the highlights:

It was like tomato-mania in my kitchen for a while. We had approximately 60 tomatoes and 20 onions. It was wild.

First, we had to blanch them (heat them up, then cool them down really fast)...

then peel them and chop them up...

then we strained them, and finally we threw them in the pot with the onions, vinegar and sugar.

I'm not sure how, but we never ended up getting any photos of the pots full of chili sauce. How disappointing. But I did get photos of the canning process:

You have to sterilize the jars before you fill them.

... and if you forget to bring a canning funnel, filling them can be kind of messy.

We ended up with a lot of jars. It was fantastic.

My other project was the new rat cage! Brandon assisted me as we built a new, improved rat complex based on Kelli's own design. I didn't get many 'in-progress' photos of this project, as it basically sat on our living room floor for 2 weeks and we would work on it whenever we got time. But I can show you a bit of it:

Brandon drew up a blueprint because, unlike me, he understands that carpentry requires planning.

We bought a bunch of 2x2s and I spent two mornings staining them all. Two coats, for extra water-proofing. Or, in the case of a rat cage, urine-proofing.

Brandon assembled the frame, then I took the chicken wire, cut it, bent it to fit, and tacked it in place. The finished product is amazing. The litter boxes slide underneath for easy cleaning.

They love to climb around and play in their new cage.


I also decided to put their food in the top hammock, to encourage them to climb. Otherwise they would just hang out on the bottom.

So now you know what I've been up to lately. And I'm sorry again for the hiatus. But I should have lots of projects to show you soon. Stay tuned!

Catching Up: Crafting Projects

Amanda here. I'm sorry it's been so long. I should warn you before I go on a blogging hiatus. Things have been crazy around here, and I haven't had much time for crafting. But I do have a few projects to show you.

Firstly, I finally posted my lovely fall cowl. I finally got some new photos of it. I wanted to show the colors just right.

It's so cozy and warm, and I love the colors. I'll be sad to give it away.

So, that's for sale in the shop right now!

And I finally got started on my notepad project. I finished my first notepad, which is a gift for my dad for his birthday. Here it is, all wrapped and ready for him to open:

I really hope he likes it.

I printed his initials on every page, then pasted them together at the top with padding compound. I need some more practice with the padding compound, but I have some scrap pieces of paper, so I'll make myself some spare notepads and try to refine my technique. I may adjust a few details about these notepads before I put them up on Etsy. Also, I need more block prints! If you have an idea for a design you'd like to see on a notepad, please leave a comment on this entry and I will certainly give it a try! I'm hoping these notepads become a common item in the shop.

Next up, I finally started working on a block print for our business cards. I just took the Nimble Toad logo and shrunk it down, and traced it. Here's what I have so far:

It's a bit messy at the moment. I plan to clean it up before I start carving.

And with that, hopefully we'll have business card designs soon. I haven't yet decided how I want to go about making those. I'll probably be enlisting help from other Nimble Toad members on this one.

That's it for the crafting update. Stay tuned for my recent personal projects. Perhaps that will shed some light on why I haven't been around lately.

Scale mail petal skirt!

I just got back from the renaissance faire this weekend, and I have a few photos of a scale mail petal skirt that I've been working on for the past 2-3 months.
Though I originally intended it to be a miniskirt, it ended up being pretty close to knee length.


As you can see, one of the scales came undone during the course of our adventures at the renaissance faire. The skirt ended up being a bit on the tight side, which was forcing links apart and causing such problems. I'm going to take it apart and expand it by a few scales in order to correct this. I also plan on extending the brass section along the bottom to make it more pronounced, just once I acquire some more brass scales.
The belt was originally intended to hold the skirt, but I found that a drawstring actually accomplished this much more effectively, and now the belt plays a principally decorative role.
Here's a shot from the back:


Altogether, there are about 1400 scales and 3400 rings in the skirt. The belt is an additionally 770 rings of jeweler's brass. The buckle came from Amazon. The total weight of the skirt is 11.4 pounds.
The skirt made quite a stir at the faire; my companion was dragged off at one point to have her picture taken by an official photographer, and I got a couple people who were interested in potentially commissioning one of their own from me. I'm thinking it'll end up being about 250-300 USD, depending on the size of the commissioner and how fancy of materials they want to use.

~Alex, the Metal Artisan

Final Logo Design

I got the final version of the Nimble Toad logo and banner from Melissa a while back, but life has been so hectic lately, I didn't get around to opening the file until today. You've already seen the banner, now it's time to unveil the Logo. I am very excited to present to you the Nimble Toad official logo:

There he is! In all his nimbe-toed glory.

I'm so excited about this logo. It's perfect. It's simple and clean, but still playful and fun. And it has a solid, recognizable silhouette so I can make block prints of it, or we could stitch it into our products, or make Nimble Toad tote bags! I've got a million ideas for this little guy.

But none of them would be possible without the lovely Miss Melissa VanVaerenbergh, who designed him. I want you to hop on over and check out her blog right now, she is a wonderfully talented illustrator and graphic designer. Thank you Melissa, for your hard work on this beautiful design.

I'm so pumped to get started designing our business cards!