New Currencies on Etsy and a discount

If you've never been tempted to shop on Etsy, now could be the time to give it a go.

Unlike Ebay, Etsy is designed more towards handcrafted items, and over the past few years it has grown in popularity. It has virtual shop like feel to it, as each seller automatically gets their own shop front making items easy to find. All prices are buy it now, so no having to wait for an auction to finish.

Until a few days ago, all listings were in $USD, which I think tended to put people off. But not anymore, now we are able to list in most major currencies, including GBP!! This makes it much easier for local buyers and for sellers as we don't see our prices fluctuating!

All my listings have now been converted into sterling and I've even revised some prices and lowered them. But if that isn't enough to tempt you to have a look, up until the end of December I'm offering a 10% discount across the shop (this applies to the item price and not the P&P). The discount code to enter at check out is CHRISTMASDISCOUNT - coupons are new to me so fingers crossed this all works, but if you have any problems just email me.

You can find my Etsy shop here.

Trudi x

Give Me Colour!!

Long before I stared making beads, I made jewellery. These days I tend to make more beads, but every now and then I get the urge to make up jewellery. Sometimes it's for gifts, but sometimes it's just because.....

This bracelet was a "just because" ........... I do like making beads to suit the season, and coming up blacks, greys and blues will be popular, but I just felt like I needed some colour!!! These beads were made with a light topaz glass, a colour I do love to use, with a little goldstone and rolled in Beady Sam's trifle frit!!

I had a root around in my bead stash and found some coppered ceramic discs and findings that really bring out the gold stone. A further root and I came up with the coloured ceramic discs that I bought from Hilary, don't they look great, and in between I have some cut glass beads that I bought at a bead fair from Buffy's Beads!

When I look at this now, one word springs to mind and that's

Happy!

Bright as a Button!

Custom buttons , originally uploaded by claires crystal classics.

While I was having a little look through Flickr, this set really caught my eye!!

It's bold and bright and is perfect for chasing away any winter blues!! I've always admired button jewellery but I don't seem to be gifted in being able to put a piece together as well as this!

This was designed by Claire, to see more of her work visit http://clairescrystalclassics.co.uk/

Free Entry Prize Draw

It's time for another giveaway people!

On offer is this focal - Heart Of A Showgirl

I'm a Kylie Fan!!

If you're not into making jewellery I'll make this up into a pendant so you can easily pop in on a chain.

To enter visit my website www.glitteringprize.co.uk have a look around and I want to know what item you like best on there and why. Post your answers on the discussions tab of my facebook page www.facebook.com/glitteringprize by Friday 8th November 2010, and a winner will be picked at random.

One entry per person please!

Good luck!

Trudi

Hollows Made Easy!

Last week I was lucky enough to go to Di East's Open Day - a real treat for any lampie!!

It was great to meet up with friends that I hadn't seen for a while, and make new ones too!

Through out the day there were scheduled demos, and lots of show and tells!

During an impromptu show and tell, the lovely Kay (Hollergrafik) showed me how to make hollows the easy way!

I do love hollow beads as they are nice and light weight and are also very reflective, but I was reluctant to make many as they were time consuming and not always easy to get consistent sizes ................ but not any more!

Thanks Kay!

Think Pink Beads

Well it's October and it's Breast Cancer Awareness month!

So I have made some beads with pink ribbons (decorated on both sides)!

These are ideal for making into pendants or bag charms, and I'm donating half of the sale price to Cancer Research!

So please help me to raise not only money for this great cause, but also awareness!

If you like these beads and don't make jewellery or charms, contact me and I can help with that.

The beads are on my website www.glitteringprize.co.uk

Thanks for looking!

Trudi x

Check-Mate

I had a new customer buy this focal from me a short while ago - Rita, but she does make up jewellery so she called upon her friend Katherine to do the honours.

Katherine makes superb jewellery and she soon got to work on this, but she had a fixed idea in mind for this. The focal has a copper heart inside it, so she knew that to match this Red Magma Swarovski's were called for. These have many many facets so the light really catches the cuts and sparkles like mad!

A super collaboration don't you agree!