Winner of the November Craft A Long is....

Gold Cross matchbook notebooks from Brenda S White!!
Thanks to all who entered and voted!

November Craft a Long Voting Time!

Sorry we're late again!
November's Theme was "Be Thankful", please vote on the left side bar!

1. Ribbon Turkey T-Shirt from Embellished Bayou

2. Stuffed Ferret from scrivenerferret

3. Handspun, handpainted Wensleydale twoply from Knitzy
thanks to my friend Andy for gifting me this lovely roving, which I spun and plyed into a semi-bulky yarn.

4. Dress from Magnolia's Boutique

5. Turkey Day Clothespin Magnets from MicroMops
These nifty clothespins can be magnets or altered clothespins. They also made it to the front page of Etsy.com! :)

6. White Gold Medium Paper Bowl from Etco
I am very thankful that my Paper Bowl is featured in the October-November issue of Lonny magazine!

7. Sunset Passage from laceydu

8. Time to Give Thanks from Art On the Half Shell
Handcrafted oyster shell wall clock featuring a dozen oyster shells set like the hours around a stamped copper platter rimmed with a mosaic of sea glass in shades of amber, quartz and coral.

9. Thankful for the Cross by Karens Klay Works

10. Gold Cross Matchbook Notepads by brendaswhite
Large 3" x 4-1/4" notepads made with chocolate brown card stock and an ornate cross hand stamped in gold ink. This item made the Etsy Finds gift guide daily email!

11. Bald Eagle by RainbeauxArtist

12. Finian's Rainbow Hand Dyed Scarf from SplendiferousFiber
Thankful for color! Glad I am not colorblind (LOL)

13. November Beauty by ChloeBoutique/Wildlifer78
A beautiful Sparkling Citrine Pendant that resembles the sun is surrounded by more Citrine and Smoky Quartz. Citrine is November's birthstone!

15. LSU Bear from AmyErwin

Vote for your fave!!

Black Friday Sales with Handmade Louisiana!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! I hope you have a wonderful holiday! This is the time for shopping deals and Handmade Louisiana has some for you!!

Check out these great deals!

Shop Name: Chloe Boutique   
Shop URL: http://www.etsy.com/shop/wildlifer78
Use coupon code "handmadelouisiana" for 15% Off!
Shop Name: Chloe Boutique   
Shop URL: http://www.artfire.com/users/chloeboutique
FREE SHIPPING

Shop name: DebiDeaux Designs

Shop url: http://www.artfire.com/users/debideaux

Coupon: HANDMADELA for 15% off

Flambeaux Design Company
www.flambeaux.etsy.com
Use coupon code "HANDMADELOUISIANA" for a 20% discount.  Offer expires December 31, 2010

Shop Name:: Gypsy Forest
15% off to anything in my shop through December 17th.
Shop URL :: http://www.etsy.com/shop/GypsyForest 

Shop Name: Scrivener's Retreat
Shop URL: http://etsy.com/shop/scrivenerferret
Use coupon code "handmadelouisiana" for 10% Off!

Shop Name: Ditsy Gypsy
Shop URL: http://etsy.com/shop/ditsygypsy
20% off with code HANDMADELA

SLM Chance Art
http://www.etsy.com/shop/slmChance
Coupon: handmadelouisiana for 15% off indefinitely

Store name: Fluente Designs

Store Link: http://www.fluentedesigns.artfire.com

Code: HANDMADELOUISIANA     

Discount: FREE SHIPPING (U.S. & Canada)

Duration: now - Dec. 31, 2010

DustyOak Ornaments

http://www.etsy.com/shop/DustyOakOrnaments 
15% off   

Shop name: HurricanePottery
url: http://HurricanePottery.etsy.com
discount: use code "handmadelouisiana" for 15% off through January 6, 2011
Hurricane Pottery - http://hurricanepottery.etsy.com - will be offering 25% off Black Friday through Cyber Monday, using the code - blackfriday2010 

NoEmpire

http://www.etsy.com/shop/noempire

15% Off

Code "handmadelouisiana"

Shop Name: Tincy's Corner
Shop URL: http://tincyscorner.com
Use coupon code "handmadelouisiana" for 10% Off!
12:00 a.m. - 11:59 p.m. Central Time - only on Friday, November 26.

 

Shop Name: Embellished Bayou
Shop URL: http://www.etsy.com/shop/embellishedbayou 

Use coupon code "handmadelouisiana" for 20% Off!

Vivy's Closet
http://www.etsy.com/shop/vivyscloset
use coupon code "handmadelouisiana" for 15% off

 Shop: Mama's Little Monkeys on Etsy

www.mamaslittlemonkeys.etsy.com

Code: handmadelouisiana
Sale: 15% off any order (ends 12/10/10)

Shop: Badge Reels on Etsy
www.badgereels.etsy.com
Code: handmadelouisiana
Sale: 15% off any order (ends 12/10/10)

Shop: MicroMops on Etsy
www.micromops.etsy.com

Code: handmadelouisiana
Sale: 15% off any order (ends 12/10/10)



BabyDeary: 40% off (now through Friday night)
coupon code= "wintersale" !!!
www.BabyDeary.com 


Shop name: Rainbeauxart
URL: www.etsy.com/shop/rainbeauxart
Special Holiday Sale and New Shop Sales prices on many items!

Design Studio 504

www.designstudio504.etsy.com
25% off thru December 31st with coupon code HandmadeLouisiana

If we missed any members, please add them in our comments!! :)

 ~~amy

 

Winner of the October Craft A Long is....

Dusty Oak Ornaments! We had to choose the winner with a run off voting this month but Dusty, you are the winner! :) Congrats!! Thanks to everyone who entered and voted and check back in a week or two for our November Craft a Long Challenge!

~Amy

First Ever Run-Off Voting for Craft a Long!!!

Sorry this is so late, life!
For the first time ever, Handmade Louisiana is having a run off for winner of the craft a long!! So these are the top four entries tied at 1st place! We need to declare a winner so choose your fave and spread the word!

Pumpkin Necklace by Etco

Autumn Haze Ornament by Dusty Oak Ornaments

Sunset Trees Handpainted Scarf by Splendiferous Fiber

Rustic Pumpkin Earrings from Chloe Boutique

Vote in the poll on the left hand side!

Time to Vote for the October Craft a Long!

Apologies for the late date on this one! 

Our theme was Harvest/Fall and here are the entries:

1. Burnt Orange Cloche Hat from kaysbows

2, Hand Built Ceramic Harvest Pumpkins from HurricanePottery

3. Rustic Pumpkin Earrings from ChloeBoutique

Melon beads are frosty orange, but the stripes or corrugation marks are transparent, allowing a little bit of sparkle. The beads are topped with leafy bronze bead caps and bronze corrugated rounds. The "rustic pumpkins" are then secured onto bronze oval rings with bronze wire. Czech glass leaf beads in a pearly topaz finish fall beside the "rustic pumpkins" on the bronze oval rings. 

4. Sunset Trees Handpainted Scarf from Splendiferous Fiber

Sunset colors of reds, orange, purple and deep yellow make a watercolor background for metallic pewter hand printed trees. Metallic Gold spatters accent the scarf. One of a Kind, 100 % silk, handpainted and heat set. Long enough to use as a sash as well as neck scarf. 10.5 x 59 inches of pure color.

5. October Tones Watercolor Print by SlmChance

I love autumn… the colors, the cooling weather, comfy clothing, Halloween… and this painting is a tribute to the great warm colors and stylish clothes of the fall season. 

6. Early Autumn Necklace by Fluente Designs

The beautiful colors in this necklace represent the magical changes from summer's greens to fall's golds, oranges, and reds.

7. Harvest Leaves Ponytails from Mama's Little Monkeys

8. Autumnal Leaves Scarf by Trapped In Time Designs

9. Pumpkin Necklace by Etco

Handmade polymer clay pumpkin, accented with antiqued brass bead cap. Hang from an antique brass chain

10. Oyster Shell Wall Clock - Amber Leopard by Art on the Half Shell

Handcrafted oyster shell wall clock featuring a dozen oyster shells set like the hours around a hand-glazed dinner plate with a unique leopard-like amber pattern. Sea glass in shades of amber and bottle brown circles the plate bottom like minutes.

11. Autumn Haze by Dusty Oak Ornaments

This pretty fall ornament is made with the subtle tones of an October day. Autumn leaves in shades of teal, orange and yellow float on a cream background with glistening copper highlights. I used a matching iridescent, copper ribbon for the bow and adorned it with glittered leaves and small berries

12. Sunset Handspun Hat by Knitzy

fall sunset colors in a handspun, handknit hat

13. Aqua Owl Corduory Coat by Vivy's Closet

14.Red Beans and Lotion Bar from Homestead

Our Red Beans & Rice Lotion Bar is a unique solid lotion bar made of luscious oils, butters, and essential oils that melt with the warmth of your skin. This is NOT a bar of soap.

Two ingredients make our Red Beans & Rice Lotion Bar unique: the Red Beans, actually Asian adzuki beans, are wonderful massagers that aid in delivering the nutrients from the oils and butters deep into the skin; Rice Bran oil, a traditional beauty treatment in Japan, is a powerful antioxidant and contains a high level of Vitamin E as well as many nutrients, fatty acids and essential oils.

Preservative free and fragranced with the purest lavender essential oil to be found, our massage bar is a decadent pleasure you can't live without.

15.Assorted Fall Clothespins by MicroMops

16. Boo! Necklace from Karens Klayworks

Handmade Louisiana Editorial in Saphhire Whisper Magazine

Hello gang! We are back finally from our vacation and have reopened the team shop.  We're also very happy to have returned to an editorial about us in Sapphire Whisper Magazine. Please hop on over there and give it a read and share with your friends!! Many thanks to Sandra at Sapphire Whisper for putting it all together!!

Craft a Longs ARE returning but we've ran into a Yahoo photo albums snafu and some of our members are having problems uploading their pics to our usual albums, so we'll be voting on the next theme later this week.

I hope everyone is having a fabulous October, I know the craft show circuit is in full swing now and I hope everyone is getting out and checking out what fabulous items our local artisans have to offer!

Today's game was disappointing, but keep up the good spirits Who Dat Nation!! We will come through with flying black and gold colors!!

~~Amy

HML Is Taking a Vacation!

Hello gang! It's Inventory Time and Vacation Time for Handmade Louisiana. Craft a Long's will be back soon, and the Team Shop will be closed from 9/15/10-10/10/10.

Keep creating gang!! And let's hear it for our Saints!! WHO DAT!!

~~Amy

Craft a Long Winner Is..........

Etco!! Congrats to Etco for her beautiful bayou bracelet! Please check her shop out!

Stay tuned for another Craft A Long next month!

I Am New Orleans....

Five years ago today, life changed for everyone in the Gulf Coast, in one form or another. The Mississippi Coast was shattered, the Bayou and Coastal parishes of Louisiana were tortured and eroded. New Orleans flooded. My own hometown of Slidell was drastically damaged as 8 feet of water came in from Lake Ponchartrain.

Today, please remember the cities, states and PEOPLE who suffered the damage of this incredible storm. Be PREPARED for a storm! Be ready to evacuate. Donate to the organizations that help those who can not leave, and who clean up the damage.

Our coast, our state, our neighbors are important...special people. We are a hardy people, but we must work together to have a safer, better New Orleans and surrounding cities. Louisiana is where we at!

So today, I'm not going to post pictures of the damage. My heart can't take it. Instead, I post this video from our very own Vince Vance. Even though it focuses on New Orleans, anyone in the Gulf Coast can 'get' it and understand. Hurricane Katrina may have tried to kick our ass....but we can kick it back.

Be strong! Remember, they said the Saints would never win a Super Bowl! Who looks stupid NOW!?





And because we can NEVER get enough footage of our Saints kicking BUTT:

Member Artisan Feature: Firebolt Creations

Meet Kelly, who started making jewelry as a hobby ten years ago and has since evolved into successful business called Firebolt Creations.

Kelly is inspired by anything she finds that is “new, fun, colorful, interesting.” When asked what the favorite aspect of her work is, she replies, “Having people say, ‘wow - how did you do that?’"

She advises artisans not to overspend on materials. “You can always get more later,” she says, “and there may be a better product that comes out before you work thought all the stuff you have your money tied up in.”

One skill Kelly would like to develop is metalworking.

Kelly’s connection to Louisiana is deep. She was born and raised in South Louisiana. “Louisiana will always be a place like no other,” she says. “It is a unique place that I have many fun memories of.”

To learn more about Kelly’s creations, visit her Etsy shop at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/FireboltCreations

Time to Vote in the August Craft a Long!!

This month's theme is "Southern Living"....which item do YOU feel most captures that theme?

*Bayou Bracelet from Etco

Bracelet made with a fabulous verdigris patina Fleur De Lis, chocolate Seed Beads and Antique Brass components

*Southern Celebrations by BayouMoon

In the South we LOVE parties, and we love details!!

*Coffee Cup Cozy by Girls Love Bows

*Love Louisiana Magnet from Mama's Little Monkeys

Cardstock La state and heart magnet

*NOLA Dish Cloth Bouquet from Baby Deary

Add a little Southern Charm to your kitchen... Use as decorations until you need a towel! :-)

*LSU Tiger Dress by Sheila Mallard

*Eye of the Tiger from Dusty Oak Ornaments

So cast your vote in your fave!! Thanks so much and keep an eye out for next month's theme!

Member Artisan Feature: Bellabugs

  

Meet Grechen, owner/operator of Bellabugs, specializing in children’s clothing and accessories. Louisiana born and raised, Grechen has been creating handcrafted baby items since the birth of her daughter, and she continues to be inspired by her children.

She enjoys mixing and matching fabrics and offers boutique quality items at affordable prices. Her favorite creations include her pillowcase dresses (above), but be sure to check out her adorable onesies: “Little Dive High Heel Shoe Onesie” and “Little Dude Tie Onesie.”

When asked about her biggest challenge as designer/artist/business owner, she cites a common one: managing her time. Grechen offers the following advice for other artist/sellers: “Constantly look for new and creative ways of drawing buyers in.”

To learn more about Bellabugs, visit:

Her Etsy shop: http://www.bellabug08.etsy.com/

Her blog: http://www.bellabug08.blogspot.com/