Free Fisher Price Little People Avatars: Set One

I recently took some new pictures of my Fisher Price Little People to make some personal avatars for my family and Blog. I have several extras here you can copy for your personal use. I will be posting 8 a week, every Saturday, until I run out of them.

This is the first set. Each image is 72 pixels/inch; 96x96 pixels.

To save the images, right-click the photo and choose either "Save Picture As" (Internet Explorer) or "Save Image As" (Firefox). This will open a file save dialog box, allowing you to specify a folder on your system to save the image into.

Just looking at them brightens my day!

Enameled Garden

Bright, shinny, happy, and retro! I love these things when combined in one object. My favorite pieces of jewelry are enameled flowers. I've started collecting them and mounting them in shadow boxes which I hang in my dining/work room. They give the room a cheerful feeling.

I keep an updated treasure list of the flowers I covet on Etsy. Here is a view of it compliments of CraftCult. Each image is a link that will carry you to that flower's location on Etsy. The title is also a link. It will take you to the actual treasure list on Etsy.


It's "dynamic" so every time I update my list the changes will be reflected here as well. If you love enameled flowers too and like to shop on Etsy, I'm already doing the search for you! Feel free to bookmark this post and remember it.

Customized my blog today

As you can see I spent most of the day customizing my blog. Adding HTML and CSS, plain gadget background, made my own wallpaper, made a header image to match the craft cult slide show on the right, updated my profile, and added Google Analytics . . . Whew! I hope everyone enjoys the new format.

I'm also up-cycling an old vinyl purse. I will post its transformation in the next few days.

Frank's fantastic find!

My neighbor, Frank, is a carpenter. Sometimes he trades work for items of equal value. He occasionally brings me beautiful pieces of mid-century modern furniture, paintings, and various collectibles when he can't identify them. I research them for him and he mows my lawn for whatever information I mine.

Today he brought me a belt buckle he pulled out of storage. He received it in exchange for work 15 years ago from a a lady he re-finished a chair for.

As soon as I saw it I knew what it was! I could hardly contain my excitement. Here are the pictures.

A Christopher Ross Horse Belt Buckle!

I've already lined a buyer up for him, but if she passes it up I'm going to somehow find the cash and add it to my jewelry collection.

Ombre Gradation Beaded Fringe Patterns for Earrings

I'm adding beaded fringe to my watch band earrings.

The above picture was a free hand gradation tassel I made for my first pair of earrings. I will be showing you some additional pairs I'm working on and a few patterns I created for the fringe.

(The fringe patterns I am providing can also be used on Cheyenne Brick Stitch earrings. Here is a link to a tutorial for them at Beltana's Beads.)

I created JPG patterns for a 2, 3, and 4 tone fringe that has the illusion of gradation in color (otherwise known as Ombre). I'm attaching the fringe off a bit of beaded brick stitch.The next diagram shows the bead direction in the brick stitch portion and how it will attach to the watch band link.

 Here is the pattern for your free use of 2 color gradient/Ombre. The fringe is 8 strings across by 43 beads long. Create the fringe off a brick stitch 8 beads wide made of the same color your fringe will start with (Brick Stitch Basics from Bead & Button magazine). I used beads I had on hand so the gradation is not as gradual as it could be. If you are getting beads especially for this project be sure they are just a shade off from each other and the gradation will be more subtle and realistic.
The image is turned on it's side to reduce the amount of room it takes up on my blog. The gold or white portion can be the top of your fringe. Click on the image to see a larger pattern that you can print and utilize.

Here is a watch band earring with the 2 tone Ombre fringe that I'm working on. The fringe is temporarily pinned in place with a beading needle until I get the fringe made for the other earring and am ready to assemble them. (see my previous post for disassembling metal watch bands if you want to see how these earrings were started; The bail is a simple wire triangle bail. You can see how to make the bail at Fusion Beads.) I extended the bead count for the length by 17 white beads to get extra long fringe (for 60 beads total).

 3 color gradient/Ombre

 4 color gradient/Ombre

Finished Watch Link Earrings with 2 and 3 tone Ombre Fringe.