Steenta's Creations Update

I like to think of myself as both an artist and artisan. I have many things that I make by hand. Now, you may be able to find some of those items in a store near you. If you are in the Louisiana area, check out the Fashion Frog in Farmerville, where some of my creations are now waiting for you to come by and purchase them. Watermelon purses, this is the home of the Watermelon Festival anyway, necklaces, earrings, anklets, and much more.

If you are not in the area, do not fret, I am also going to be putting up some of my wonderful hand crocheted anklets on the etsy site. www.steenta.etsy.com From every anklet sale, I donate $1 to St. Jude in memory of my Mimi who supported their cause for as long as I can remember.

I do more than just jewelry, don't forget about my adorable baby booties, which I'll probably be putting on the etsy site too. I have some other things in the works too. Also caricatures, illustrations, paintings, portraits, charcoal drawings. Want to have something commissioned, contact me through my etsy store.

Thanks to everyone who's already taken an interest in my creations!

Peach and Watermelon Festivals

Peach Festival is this weekend. I am looking forward to it, but at the same time I am kind of dreading it, because I know it's going to be like 100 degrees out. We have been eating peaches everyday for the past few days, because my husband's mother took my daughter out peach picking the other day. So I probably won't be stuffing myself with peaches at the festival this year. However, I may try something if it looks interesting.

The Peach Festival has me thinking more about the upcoming Watermelon Festival more than anything though. That was a deadline I set for myself and my little business. I wanted to get a table and sell some of my handmade crafts, as well as have a portfolio of my artwork to show people in case they wanted to commission any work from me. I have been making caricatures and portraits already, but I also do graphic design and digital art. Not to mention my jewelry, hair clips, and other assorted crafts.

Needless to say, I feel like I am all over the place and I either need to focus on less or I need to separate these into smaller categories of one larger company. I think I will do the latter, because one company making jewelry or drawing portraits will not do well where I live. I know I would get bored and lose my drive very quickly when things get slow too. Overall, I think this coming week I need to get my butt in gear and start making products, put the money down for a table, and determine how I will organize this business.

A Jewelry Box for my Daughter

I got the idea a while back to make a jewelry box for my daughter using magazine clippings and mod pogding them on to a plain box. I picked up a plain box at a craft store for less than five dollars and tore a few sheets of paper out of a magazine. I tried to make sure that all the pieces of paper were similar in color, but had enough interest. I ended up using about four pieces of paper of that had pictures of a nursery. I then cut the pieces of paper up width wise, due to the dimensions of the box I bought. The box is about 9 inches by 7 1/2 inches. Anyway I then just simply glued them down overlapping as I went. I used Mod Podge and a painting brush that I use just for gluing. Then after I covered the box, I went through some magazines that I have saved and looked for words that I wanted to use to decorate the box with. I have things like, "laugh, party central, dream big, baby steps, girl talk," etc. I also cut out the letters to write, "Adelyn's Treasures" on the front. I think it's coming out pretty good. It's not done yet. I still have to do the bottom and the inside, but I wanted to show how the progress of this jewelry box since I may have to hold off on finishing it for a little bit.

My Jewelry

Lately I have been trying to redo our family's budget, so it is only natural that I would also be thinking of ways to add to our family's income. That is why I have decided to start up my jewelry making again. I used to make jewelry all the time before I had children. I think it will be good to try to add some extra income. I love etsy.com and you can look for my stuff at steenta.etsy.com I only have one thing for sale right now but I will add more.

Decoupaged Jewelry Box

On Saturday, I have a birthday party to go to for a little two-year old girl. I got some materials together from the store, and of course when I was there, I changed my plan a bit. I had originally planned on getting a wooden box to decorate, but when I got to the store, the wooden boxes weren't exactly the right shape and they didn't close all the way. What I did eventually get was one of those lightweight paper mache boxes. I also saw paper for sale so I got some to decorate the sides of the box. I also got some sheets of felt, so that I could line the bottom. For the top of the box I got a picture online of a famous piece of art. The picture I chose is of some ballerinas from a Degas painting. I put it into Phtotoshop and made it the size of the top of the box. I scaled the picture and cropped it, then I played around with the colors a bit. I wanted to personalize it, so I added some layers of text. I chose the colors for the text by picking out colors from the picture. Since I know a little bit of French, I translated some simple sentences and used them to give the box a little something special. It says, "Je suis un danseur!" and "Bijoux" which translated just means, "I am a dancer!" and "Jewelry". I had all that stuff ready and I had even painted the majority of the box, when I realized I could not find my Mod Podge. I ended up using an all purpose white glue mixed with a little water to thin it out. I applied it to both the box and the paper I was going to apply with a paint brush. All I have left to do is seal it.