A Preview: I am the face

There is a wonderful site called iamtheface.org that helps put women know they are not alone in their losses. Having gone through one chemical pregnancy and two miscarriages, it's helpful to know that I am not alone. I find it amazing that this site can help bring comfort to women everywhere. Women who have been through early and late losses can come together, talk to one another and continue to help others.

Here is a small preview of what I am hoping to contribute.





And this one is something separate I created.

BOGO!

Since I'm moving more toward the stamped metal, I need to clear out my inventory! Help me out by taking advantage of a BOGO sale!

Everything is BUY ONE GET ONE FREE right now! Even with shipping!

This means anything that is not stamped metal is up for sale, even custom items. As soon as these are cleared out, a new line of stamped metals will be coming out. I guarantee you'll love them!

Creations 1 and 2

I got right to work and started out with the first two on the list. Here is the pearl link necklace with angel charm.


Then I moved on to the domed pendant with two birth stones. The family all have names that start with "C" so the mom wanted C2 (squared) for her two kids and their birth stones, ruby and garnet.


Now, I'm finishing up the dual layer all metal necklace and the black pearl set! I am loving all of it!

And now, an adorable picture of Noah wearing high fashion sunglasses. ;-)

Projects Galore!

The party not only was fun, but is keeping me busy for a couple weeks! I got ten custom orders and I'm having a ball creating them.

Creation 1:
A pearl link necklace with an angel and dangling pearl for a 5 year old

Creation 2:
A domed pendant with two brithstones

Creation 3:
A dual layer coin necklace, but silver copper and brass with green accent

Creation 4:
Black pearl bracelet and necklace set

Creation 5:
Blue, brown and cream bracelet and necklace set

Creation 6:
1" washer with name and birthstone

Creation 7:
Small notched dog-tag with initials and birthstone

Creation 8:
All silver dual layer necklace

Creation 9:
Orange and brown breast cancer awareness necklace

Creation 10:
Packers themed full set (necklace, bracelet and earrings)

As I create these I'll also be taking pictures and uploading them unless asked not to do so by the purchaser. I'm having a blast with all of these! They're making me thing, work and challenge me in ways that I would not have been otherwise.

We have a winner!

Thank you to everyone who entered you made this a great weekend. The jewelry party was fantastic and everyone had a ton of fun. The Mary Kay products were fantastic and the food and wine topped it off.

I'm looking forward to my first Princess Party next month. That might be a good time to have another giveaway ;-)

For now though, the winner (based on Random.org) for this giveaway of a free customized necklace is....::drumroll::

Kristen Hence Bozard

Again, thank you to everyone! Please check back here and on the fan page for sales I'll be running every so often! Don't forget, Christmas is coming up soon.

Time For The Giveaway To Begin!!

I'm having my first jewelry party this weekend and I guess I'm in a great mood! I've decided to have a giveaway and send someone a free custom necklace with one charm!

How you can enter:

Become a fan of The fan page and say "add me!"

Follow me on Twitter and tell me your screen name below. The Tweets

Follow the blog and add a comment below



Gain as many entries as possible by Sunday at 10pm (central time) for your chance to win a free custom necklace! The necklace will be a 1 inch disc or two 3/4 inch discs with your choice of a charm or gem. The winner will be chosen at 10:30pm (central time) via Random.org.

Joining the Boot Camp!

As a member and seller on Etsy, I receive the weekly newsletter. This being my first holiday on Etsy, I'm going to do all I can to make this an awesome holiday for my friends, family and buyers!

I, _Noah-Bear_, pledge to participate in the Etsy Success Holiday Boot Camp to the best of my abilities. I vow to check in every week, do my homework and support my fellow Holiday Boot Campers. I will read the weekly newsletters and blog posts, check in on the weekly forum thread, read the weekly blog post, check off the checklists and salute the mascot. I promise to share what I've learned with those who need it, support my fellow Etsy indiepreneurs and, most of all, have a positive and persistent attitude. I understand that together we can spread the word about our handmade and vintage goods, making this holiday season a more unique and meaningful one to gift givers and give-ees everywhere!

Give me some feedback...

What do you think of this? I stamped in the word "fight" several times on a small, notched, sterling silver dog tag and included a pink ribbon in honor of October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month.




The comments are open to all and you can remain anonymous if you'd like. Tell me it sucks, tell me it's awesome, just tell me something!

Don't forget: Check in Friday for a chance to enter the competition for a FREE necklace. Several chances in fact.

Brass and Pearls

Here is another one-of-a-kind creation. These materials will not be able to be found again, at least not without some serious searching. This is a wedding/anniversary creation made of brass, pearls and love.






The swiveling brass pendant says "Have and to hold" encompassing all of the vows and love shared between two people. I yet again tried on my newest piece and, well yet again, fell in love. Sometimes the most random pieces of material make the most stunning creations and this ranks in the top of them all.

These can also be personalized and given as gifts for other occasions or purchased for yourself. Never hesitate to ask!

Be a fan of the fan page!

Noahs Ark Creations has a fan page!

Be sure to follow and "like" the fan page for chances at giveaways and upcoming sales. I'll post the giveaways on here as well as the fan page, but be involved in both to increase your chances of winning.

Also be sure to follow N.A.C. on Twitter for the pre-giveaway or pre-sale announcements so you know when to pounce.

Hold it together

I intentionally spaced out "Hope" on this charm because even if you feel like you can't keep it together, you have to hold onto hope. Hope has been my word throughout my life. My grandfather used to tell me if I had hope I could do anything.

Hope & Faith

We're kicking it off right and creating new designs with stamped metal. These will be some I bet you'll have a difficult time finding! Right now, all the letters are uppercase. Eventually I'll be offering upper and lower of the typer font and a lowercase calligraphy type font.

And the madness has begun!

Boxes have flooded my living room and my dining table has been overrun! The stamped section of my life has now begun! I'm taking orders and shipping out daily. I'm also still sticking to my lovely beads and it seems I have 2 new pieces to upload every day. I sure love this madness!

Todays glorious madness:


I am in love with this set. The glass is so smooth and the black is so shiny...I just love it! Did I mention I loved it?

I also got a shipment of Serpentine in and have already incorporated it into a necklace I made tonight. It's so smooth and is amazing to look at. There are speckled pieces and dark pieces, light pieces and monotoned pieces. So far, it is the one product I've seen the most variable in. It looks amazing in the green Jade and Aventurine necklace. Don't worry, it'll be up in Etsy tomorrow! Now I just need to learn how to put everything on the products page!

A Change Is Upon Us

As you can tell, there are a lot of changes going on. Please bear with me as I adjust all of this and fill it all out.

Here's a break down of the pages:

Projects: The main page that follows the same daily things

DIY: This is the page where you can plan your own parties where your attendants can make their own jewelry. They can make bracelets, necklaces or earings, all three or any combination.

Products: All the products I've made and will continue to make will be listed on this page. The ones marked "one of a kind" cannot be made again. The rest will be available for purchase or can be made upon request, or changed if that's what you'd like.

About Me: Exactly like it sounds. It's a break down of who I am, why I do what I do and why I put in certain things in my pieces.

Contact Me: Also just like it sounds. My Facebook page, my e-mail and my Etsy shop will all be listed.

I will offer sales on both the Projects page (for my Etsy shop sales) and they DIY page (sales for the parties, a certain amount or percentage off your total order)

Todays adventure

Well, I guess more appropriately, last night's adventure.

I had picked up some cool buttons in the shape of varying size leaves at Michaels and thought they'd be perfect for earrings or a bracelet. So, last night, I put them to use.


I created Fall Foliage Earrings along with another pair of dangling ones. I'm in love with the earrings. I'm actually considering getting my ears pierced again just so I can make my own for me! Granted I'm allergic to any material I've put in, but that's how much I like the earrings! Haha.

Anyway, I am yet again expanding my photography skills. Sadly, there's only an hour or two during the day that gives me the perfect light, so I've been doing as many as I can. I am again blown away by what a camera can do. I even pulled out my old 35mm last night. Surprisingly I still have film! Sadly, no batteries.

Now I await my stamping gear and I'm hitting the road running when it gets here! I have several ideas drawn out and several custom orders already.

If you're interested in getting an order soon, I suggest e-mailing me as soon as you decide on something!

It's here! It's here!

My beautiful gemstones are here and the first of many new items are out! I now offer earrings that can be customized to match and make full sets.

Fertility jewelry is something I am now in love with. The beautiful colours all together just look amazing to me.


Now, I wait for my metal stamping gear! I'm so excited! Here's a sample of the styles of stamped metal I'll be offering.

These will be perfect with another charm or gemstone.

These will be for stacking or use with birth-month stones.

If you buy it, they will come...at least I hope they will!

It's official! The stamped metal section will soon be released to the general public. I already have a notebook full of drawings of ideas and designs for new pieces with stamped metal.

Two things have stood out to me the most in the recent past. I guess you could call them sayings.

1) Strength & Grace- I first really to this to heart when I had my first loss. There was a gift exchange called Strength & Grace. You find a meaningful gift (or create something) for the person you are matched up with. It's all random and you never know until you get your gift. My first time I received an amazing person who I grew close with. This last time I was, yet again, paired up with an amazing woman who was actually the organizer for the event (the recent one anyway). I searched for the perfect gifts for these ladies. Now, I want to work this saying into my pieces so that others can carry around strength and grace with them all day long. No one should feel defeated.

2) Shoulder to shoulder- My husband and I both have military background and he is also still involved with the Army. Because of this, I get the chance to see a lot of what goes on with soldiers. Shoulder To Shoulder came up in a suicide prevention video. No, this is not going to be jewelry about suicide prevention, but rather about sticking together, looking out for each other and caring. I've already designed 3 pieces that have this saying on them. One will be a four sided pendant (as shown a few posts down) that says 1)shoulder 2)to 3)shoulder 4)to. That way it always says "shoulder to shoulder". The second piece will be a simple disc. Front) Shoulder to Shoulder Back) Soldier to soldier. The third piece will also be a disc saying Front)Shoulder to shoulder Back) Friend to friend.

I'm more excited than ever to get these out for everyone. I also plan to do remembrance pieces of dates, sayings, or anything else someone might want.

SALE TIME!!!

I'm expecting a large shipment of supplies in the next couple days. I need my workspace and you need jewelry (subtle, huh?)

Starting at midnight tonight:

FREE shipping
HALF OFF everything in the store


How's that sound? This is my first sale PROMO so I'm only doing this big of a sale maybe once a month.

Anything purchased tomorrow before 5pm central time will be shipped out the same day!

Project? Completed!

It took me quite a bit longer to create than I had planned, but overall, I am very pleased with it. I always try on all my pieces (except the kids items) and this one feels perfect. I took old and new materials to create an eclectic look with metals, knots and coloured beads.

I also created my first button clasp. It's literally a button you put through a hole and it stays on perfectly! It's not too tight or too loose so there is no fear of it falling off. I would love to wear this with my short hair or, if I have long hair, an up-do. To me, this is something that should be shown off in its entirety!

Please forgive the bad lighting, it's cloudy outside so I had to use my flash.

Project? Bring it on.

Another recycled necklace project awaits me! The material?


I'm also awaiting my first shipment of earring bases so I can make some kick-butt earrings and full sets!

The first of, hopefully, many

That's right. My first jewelry party! I'm nervous and so excited! It's going to be a jewelry/make-up party with wine, hors'dourves, and other drinks. We'll talk about everything, drink, do facials, and have door prizes! Hopefully everything will go off without a hitch, but really, hitches are too fun. Not.

I also have a big announcement. After this party I will be METAL STAMPING!! That means I can make beautiful pieces like this:

and this:

As always I'll be doing memorial jewelry, patriotic jewelry and custom orders. I'm so excited to be able to make all these wonderful pieces!

Be sure to keep checking in. I'm going to start picking random days to offer half prices and free shipping throughout the month!

Not the same, but not so new

I decided I needed better pictures for my shop. I re-did about 98% of the pictures and I'll be finishing up today.

I'm also going to be starting up on fertility jewelry and earrings.

Before:


After:


I think they look much better!

Also, the blog will be getting a face lift in about a week and a half. I'll have different pages with different things in them. One will be my projects and be just like this page. Another will be my products listing. I'll also be doing a page where you can create a DIY jewelry party. You chose the colours and theme and I'll prepare all the "ingredients" for you and mail them out. All you have to do is attach the beads and close off the bracelet or necklace! The last page will be about me and how you can contact me!

This Time, It's Personal

Part of what I incorporate into my jewelry is Miscarriage and Pregnancy Loss Awareness and remembrance. I have personally experienced a chemical pregnancy and two miscarriages. Someone in an online group I'm in shared a story about elephants. When a mother elephant loses a baby, the entire herd stands around her while she grieves. Since then, elephants have become our "mascot" and hold a new meaning to us all.

This particular piece was a necklace with the two disc charms that have the birthstone. They were my due dates for the recent miscarriages. I decided to put it into a charm bracelet since Noah likes to break all my necklaces. I added the elephant and two rings containing a pink and blue bead on each one. If I ever get to a place where I can make those discs, you can bed I'll be making this exact piece again for someone out there who needs the support and love I hope my jewelry brings.

Sew Wonderful

I'm taking on my next sewing project. My son, Noah, is completely in love with cars. So, rather than spending $25 on curtains he'll "outgrow" in a year or two, I decided to get some fabric at WalMart and make my own!

Here's the fabric as it is right now....


I hope to have it done in a day or two since I can only sew over naps and bedtime.

Double strand and a blue pearl...

I have always loved the look of double strand necklaces. While this isn't exactly a double strand, it's close enough. I really like the look of it connected down the chain rather than at the top.



The materials are re-used and made into a beautiful vintage style necklace. I try all my pieces on and I loved the look and feel of this one!

My next "project" was to turn this into something:



So, being the pearl lover than I am...I worked them in. I love working with the wire and twisting and turning it. Sometimes the jumprings and beads hurt my fingers when I mold them, but it feels good to work with my hands! Making this necklace was a joy because I got to take something and transform it. It started out as a choker and ended up a beautiful light necklace.