Meet Kaleidoscope by Erin

Black and Pink Lace Overlay 6 Inch Kiss Lock Chained Clutch

Bio:

She's a stay-at-home mother to two beautiful and busy little boys and a wife to my wonderful and caring husband. I have used art as an outlet for as long as I can remember. I started taking private art lessons in elementary school and continued through college. I enjoy the challenge of learning a new craft and perfecting it over time. The Etsy community has been such a great opportunity to learn and grow while showing the world my creations.

How'd you get started on Etsy?

My aunt's friend told be about the site. I had never heard of it before. I checked it out and fell in love with the beauty of it.


What was your inspiration for your shop?
My love for jewelry (then) and now my love for clutches. Wonder what'll be next??



What's your favorite shop item and why?

My crane clutch. I struggled with listing it for sale. It's just so beautiful, classy and timeless.


1950's Vintage Silk Kimono Crane Kiss Lock Clutch

How do you unwind when you're not creating?

I like to watch reality TV with my husband and drink a glass of wine (though I wish it was at the beach and not 2 hours away).



What's your favorite kind of cupcake?

Vanilla with butter cream icing. I like the simple things.

What pushes you to want to create something?

My kids. I use it as an outlet to do something "productive". What's a clean house anyways? LOL

What's your favorite cartoon as a kid. As an adult, if you stumble upon it while channel surfing now would you stop & watch?

The Smurfs. I LOVED Smurfette. And no, I wouldn't stop now. Azrial would get on my nerves. :)



Sweet Honey, Organic Cotton Kiss Lock Clutch

What's your fantasy job?
Owning my own extremely successful company, selling my craft.

Do you have a secret guilty pleasure?

Anything reality on VH1, bad or good, and the Twilight Series.

List 3 things you are so obsessed with it is torture to ever say no to.

1- My family 2- Shopping for clothes that are sale (though I think the economy has cured that) 3- buying fabric

List 3 of your favorite Etsy shops.

I can't pick three. There are so extremely talented shops on my team. I honestly love ALL of them.

Do you have a favorite author? When you read, do you use a proper bookmark, bend the page, or grab anything handy to mark your place?

Nicholas Sparks. I love his stories and that I know the areas he writes about. Couldn't get any better, in my opinion.



Bridal White and Something Blue 8 inch Kiss Lock Clutch

If money was no object and you can live wherever you want….where would that be?

Hawaii. My husband and I went there for our honeymoon and we talk about moving there all the time.

What is your best childhood memory?

Fishing with my dad and shopping with my mom. :)

You can follow and show love to Kaleidoscope by Erin at Etsy, Artfire and Facebook. Also be on the lookout for Kaleidoscope by Erin's participation in the Etsy DTeam's Thanksgiving Sale that runs from November 26 through November 29, 2010.

 

Thank you.

I'm having a sale!

I'm having a sale! 15% off everything in the Etsy shop. Get ready for the upcoming season with the great selection you'll find here! Sale ends 12 midnight Sunday night.

No one jumped on the free shipping that I hid in my last post so that opportunity has been replace with this one and no longer available. My apologies to all the late-comers.

Seriously, I have a lot of inventory and need to move some of these items.  So, come on by and check it out. Remember, Christmas is not that far away and you can't go wrong with jewelry!

Bracelets OMG!

I have forgotten how fun and easy it is to make a bracelet or six.
Here's what I've come up with so far.

Faceted agate with red dyed quartz. This picture doesn't do it justice.

Found the great neckace with missing stones. Repurposed it in to this fabulous bracelet.

Lightweight and fun. This plastic necklace is ready for fall!

The colors of this reminds me of indian corn. Or maybe I just have fall on the brain. Is made of moukaite and red dyed quartz.

Lightweight plastic faceted beads in a great alternating pattern.

Imitation red coral. Who said that coral was just for summer? This one is ready to rock Halloween.

Rockabilly Red,...........with Polka Dots!

I saw these beads and I just had to get them. You know the deal. The addiction of the beading. It just grabs you and even though you have 10 million beads already you NEED these beads.

So, here they are:

Necklace is made from beads reminiscent of bakelite. The white beads are Czech in the front and size down to plastic and glass beads. Adjustable length but basically a choker.

Dangle earrings to match the above necklace on silver chain. Surgical steel ear posts.

These were alot of fun working with the wire to create a dangle and wrap in one.

I thought this kind of outfit and neckline would really work well with these pieces.

This great pictures is  deannadeadly* and found on deviantart.com.

*Mature pictures on profile, please check your filters if you are easily offended.

All of these will be available today on Etsy.  As I'm writing this it's 12:16am Tuesday. It's late and I have to get ready for my daughter's swim lesson tomorrow morning. Watch for my twitter announcing their availability. And tell a friend.

Might be changing the "To Kill a Mockingbird" necklace

http://www.instructables.com/id/Altered-Scrabble-Tile/

This instructable shows how you can add images to scrabble tiles. The instructions are succinct and just make the ideas just flow on how I can add a bit of personality to the necklace.

The originator is http://blog.spottedsparrow.com/ you should visit her site for more tutorials. The woman is amazing with her craftiness.

Crochet Brooches

Recently I was at a friend's house and she had these straw made shapes that she didn't know how to use. Instantly, I thought they looked like leaves so I had to get some myself.

Once I started, I couldn't stop. Now I'm at the point of having too many flowers with no leaves so I'm playing with different ideas of how to make leaves. I just finished these last night. The "official" pics will come later. I just HAD to show you.

Vintage bracelet design and background

I was the 4th child and the 3rd daughter in my family. As a result I got a lot of hand me downs over the years. Some of them I wish I had like the original Barbie in the black and white stripe bandeau bathingsuit. Some of them I don't understand how I kept like my wrought iron cobbler stand. And some of them I cherish like the jewelry pieces.

Mom still has her nice jewelry. What I got were the dimestore items and trinkets from vacations long past. The elastic in the bracelet broke as the bead string on the necklaces and I kept what beads I could. Years passed and during them, I would find something at a yard sale or Goodwill that would remind me of the original jewelry piece now broken. I started collecting them and soon I had quite a collection.

I've sorted through and made several pieces. This is one of them. I've had lots of fun making this bracelet and might find myself just keeping it.