Minimalist and Spring

Volume 13 Issue 3, March 2016

What's New in March?

Spring is right around the corner, and I am working on flowers both inside my studio and outside in the garden. Last year, I planted a lot of day lilies that are maturing and hopefully, will bloom this year. My amaryllis is down to one leaf, but it will soon start sprouting more. My milkweed has multiplied from one plant that is now dead to seven smaller plants that should start to bloom soon. The butterflies will love that. Honeysuckle is blooming and the bottle brush is starting to bud.

All of these flowers make me want to  start working on making more canes and beads. I have gotten a few things done, but most of this year has been spent working on other projects that needed to be done. Like rebuilding the website again and splitting out my beads from the rest of my site. I am doing a little reorganization here.  A little spring cleaning.

In the meantime, I have concentrated on working with minimalist styles.   

More Beads: Cabochons, loose beads, pill beads and more tube beads are all on the list of things to do this month.

Prints and Posters: I have been working on compiling art and photos to  have printed as posters, cards and other prints. They will soon be available on my website.

Potholder Magnets: New designs and an expansion on some of my tried and true best sellers are in the works.

You will find all of my beads, canes and finished jewelry on my website. www.bluemorningexpressions.com

Until next month,

Julie & Blu

Things to Look Forward To:

New Products:

Watches: There are new watches in my shop. I went a little Southwestern with beads and charms.

Thimbles: I am working on getting some new thimbles created. I am completely sold out.

Hotrod magnets: I am adding hotrod magnets to my shops, and since I only have one finished, I will have to show them off next month.

October 2011 BluPrint Official Newsletter of Blue Morning Expressions

Volume 8 Issue 10, October 2011

What's New in October?

Artfire—In an effort to conserve space, accommodate my regular customers and to take advantage of a great handmade site, I have consolidated all my websites into one at Artfire. All of my other sites are still updated and used, you can still access your customer information and your order history, I am just using Artfire to save space and make it convenient for my customers. You will find Blue Morning Expressions, X-Stitch-Patterns, The Seed Bead Pattern Store, and Clipon Earrings Boutique. If you are interested, you can find me at http://www.artfire.com/users/bluemorningexpressions

Writing—I have spent the last month writing full-time and I must confess, I have sorely neglected all my canes and polymer clay items. I did over 250 web articles and one feature article for a local newsmagazine. All of these things were fun to do, but very time consuming and my clay suffered. I had quite a few sales of canes and over half of my inventory went out in boxes this last month. That is good for clearing space for me, but bad for providing a great selection of canes for you!

Kaleidoscope Canes -I started to do my canes that I had drawn out and ran into problems with my clay being too soft to work with. I put it out to leach some of the moisture out of the clay and got busy doing other things. This made the clay unsuitable for the project I had in mind, so I have to start over. This would not be a problem, except that one of my canes was specific to Halloween and featured candy corn. Oh well, off to work on new designs.

Beads—I am working on new focal beads and doing a few necklaces with the penguins that I did last year for Christmas. I have six focal beads ready to go and will get those necklaces done soon. The next sets of focal beads will be ready in the next couple of weeks. You can find both the beads and the finished necklaces on www.bluemorningexpressions.com or at my Artfire store http://www.artfire.com/users/bluemorningexpressions

As always, thank you for all your support and emails.

www.bluemorningexpressions.com

Until next month,

Julie & Blu

New Products:

Earrings—These are all created from my bead sets, I used both floral rounds, heart swirl lentils, and full size 20mm pillow beads to create 30 new sets of earrings. Each set is under $4—I wanted to create an affordable set of earrings for gifts that can be easily purchased in groups. The only sets not under $4 are the dangle heart swirls, those are under $10.

Technorati Tags: raw canes,polymer clay,polymer clay canes,fimo canes,fimo beads,polymer clay beads for sale,blue morning expressions,kaleidoscope canes,tab beads,polymer clay earrings

September BluPrint Newsletter Blue Morning Expressions

What's New in September?

Earring Pairs have been something that I have putting off for a long time now. I am happy to inform you that I have created over 50 pairs and most are under $2.50.

I had a blast making these and for some reason I just couldn't stop!

I stocked up on a ton of Premo! Clay while it was on sale and I have to admit that I will be using this for a long time. :) I can never have too much clay.

I have been really busy lately with designing websites and writing articles for the local paper, that my bead time has been a little lacking. I am trying to do at least 20 new sets a month using all my latest canework.

I will start the fall colours and get the new lentils out. I created this necklace from a set of lentils that I couldn't bear to part with.

Lots more beads on the workbench and I have had the chance to create some jewelry pieces for a change. I forgot how much fun it was to design and string new bracelets and necklaces. I took a few to the office and sold out immediately. Now, I am working on redoing the designs. Selling out is NOT a bad thing!

I will be creating many more lentil flower beads and round floral beads. There are also kaleidoscope canes that I have in the works for my latest rounds of pillow beads.

The new beads are available on www.bluemorningexpressions.com now.

www.theseedbeadpatternstore.com has been updated and all the bracelet patterns are up. I have a couple of the tapestries up but have not finished all of those yet. I added a few more wolf patterns and I have added a free pattern section. I will be putting up free patterns on the site.

Fans of clip on earrings for big girls will find www.cliponearringsboutique.com restocked with earrings just for them. I added 20 sets of dangles with Swarovski, glass pearls, Czech faceted rounds and lots of iridescent and sparkly things. Also added were one of a kind sets of millefiori glass hearts, diamonds and chicklet beads.

Thank you so much for all the input and emails. I enjoy all the encouragement that you send my way.

Until next month,

Julie

May 2010 BluPrint Newsletter for Blue Morning Expressions

Volume 7 Issue 5 May 2010 What's New in May?

Busy!

New canes are in the making—I have to completely replenish my kaleidoscope cane collection for my pillow beads since I have exhausted a very extensive selection. I did two new ones that are sold but got the creative juices going for the 4th of July! I will work on new beads for the sparkly holiday.

It is GOOD to fall back in love with the polymer clay medium. I am not sure how many of these canes I will make but there will be more colour schemes than just the 4th of July.

My tab and floral rounds need to be replenished as well, I created some new flower canes that I want to try out on the tabs and I want to get some of my beads strung on completed projects.



New white tab bead/discs are available for the waterslide decals now. I have shown a few of my favourite designs and will be stringing these beads on some elaborate necklaces.

The whole point of these blanks is to give you a choice of the bead and the decal without having to purchase the whole decal sheet.





I finished one lampwork beaded necklace and have over 12 more to go. I have a large collection of focal beads that I have found along the way over the last couple of years and I am in the process of finally completing those. I just LOVE the way the seed beads drape and I totally fascinated by fringe!



New earring and necklace sets were added using some of my other lampwork beads and now I only have one set left. That didn’t last long! I still have a few more sets of matching beads that I will put sets together from.


They are available on www.bluemorningexpressions.com now.

www.theseedbeadpatternstore.com has been updated and all the bracelet patterns are up. I have a couple of the tapestries up but have not finished all of those yet. I added a few more wolf patterns and I have added a free pattern section. I will be putting up free patterns on the site.

If you have purchased bracelet patterns from me in the past and did not receive the 10 colour and under updates, please let me know and I will get those to you. I have updated the patterns to make it easier on everyone.

Fans of clip on earrings for big girls will find www.cliponearringsboutique.com restocked with earrings just for them. I added 20 sets of dangles with Swarovski, glass pearls, Czech faceted rounds and lots of iridescent and sparkly things. Also added were one of a kind sets of millefiori glass hearts, diamonds and chicklet beads.

Thank you so much for all the input and emails. I enjoy all the encouragement that you send my way.

Until next month,
Julie

What's New in April?

Lots of projects coming together. I have been preparing for a large bead contest and that has kept me busy completing projects and designing new ones. I have one more piece to finish and then I am done for 2010. This is my first entry into the Beadstar contest, so we will see what happens!

I have been busy trying to replenish my bead stash, they sell out faster than I can make them sometimes. I put together a couple fairly good sized kaleidoscope canes and put them up for sale. I sold one right away and still have one in stock.

I re-opened my ebay store, they were making some changes to the stores so I thought I would open back up for a couple months and see what happens. It has been over 2 years since I closed the store! Time sure flies.

I did manage to create 26 sets of new beads this month, I have about half of those still available. I stocked back up on the floral rounds and I did 7 sets of larger tab beads (more of a quarter size than a dime) which are perfect for lanyards and such. I will try and get a couple lanyards or bracelets for sale.

Colorful, aren’t they?


www.theseedbeadpatternstore.com has been updated and all the bracelet patterns are up. I have a couple of the tapestries up but have not finished all of those yet. I added a few more wolf patterns and I have added a free pattern section. I will be putting up free patterns on the site.

If you have purchased bracelet patterns from me in the past and did not receive the 10 colour and under updates, please let me know and I will get those to you. I have updated the patterns to make it easier on everyone.

Fans of clip on earrings for big girls will find www.cliponearringsboutique.com restocked with earrings just for them. I added 20 sets of dangles with Swarovski, glass pearls, Czech faceted rounds and lots of iridescent and sparkly things. Also added were one of a kind sets of millefiori glass hearts, diamonds and chicklet beads.

www.x-stitch-patterns.com is still being worked on. It is behind the scenes so there should be no interruption of service.

My spring waterslide decals are now up. I added over 100 new patterns in the waterslide decal section on www.bluemorningexpressions.com

Watch for new beads featuring my decals and also watch for blank clay beads designed for your own decal creativity.

For an example of my waterslide on a cab, see my polymer clay canes and beads blog.

Thank you so much for all the input and emails. I enjoy all
the encouragement that you send my way.

Until next month,
Julie

BluPrint Newsletter November 2009 Blue Morning Expressions

Volume 6 Issue 11 November 2009

What's New in November?

This piece is an example of one of my original waterslide decals on a handcrafted white polymer clay focal bead that has been beaded with Swarovski crystals and Czech round glass beads. The matching earrings have been wrapped to leverbacks. The piece is currently unavailable for sale as it is going to be submitted to a magazine.







This lanyard is the next one scheduled to be in Polymer Café magazine in the spring readers showcase.


I added a dozen or so tab beads to the website—one set I duplicated so that I can create a new bracelet with them. They feature my white floral cane on a black background.









www.theseedbeadpatternstore.com and www.x-stitch-patterns.com are both slated for complete makeovers that hasnot happened yet. There was an issue for awhile with the download site that I use to dispense the patterns upon purchase and I wanted to get that fixed before I continued with the revamping. For the moment, both sites are working but I am afraid I will need to postpone updating until after the first of the year.

I am busy getting more of my items up on www.bluemorningexpressions.com and the Christmas ornaments are up and ready for personalization.

Use the coupon code loyal on www.bluemorningexpressions.com for
30% off your entire order before shipping. Shipping on the site is a flat
$2.75 in case anyone wants to know. If you have ANY problem with the code, please let me know, I will fix it for you.

All new visitors to www.bluemorningexpressions.com receive a $5 Gift Certificate for signing up. Use it however you please!

Thank you so much for all the input and emails. I enjoy all
the encouragement that you send my way.

Until next month,
Julie

BluPrint August 09 The Newsletter of Blue Morning Expressions

Volume 6 Issue 8 August 2009

What's New in August?

It’s that time of the year again!
We are having a birthday!

In honor of our 5th birthday, we are having all kinds of great sales over in our www.bluemorningexpressions.com store. I will be putting everything in the store on sale for the ENTIRE month!! Just remember though that many of our items are one of a kind and when they are gone, they are gone and will never be repeated again. I am in the process of making a lot of design changes this year and retiring many of my previous designs so if you see something that you like, be sure and snag it now.

I have 12 new bead kits on the site, most are for eyeglass leashes but I also added two new earring kits and one ladybug necklace kit. All feature my own unique beads so rest assured, you will not be getting a mass produced kit of beads that can be found just anywhere.


I took two weeks off to go and wander about the upper northwest of our beautiful country and came back refreshed, inspired and thankful for all the magnificent vistas that we are blessed to call home to. I took hundreds of photos and was inspired by new pallets that I don’t normally see everyday.

Once you have gazed at the spectrum of colours radiating from the depths of the earth in Yellowstone or the stark beauty of the desert colours dashing across the landscape, you come away with a new pantone sample to create from. Photos will be posted on my website when I get a chance.

But back to work!

Waterslide Decals! I got 20 new sheets of designs up on the website, I used one for a heart that I did as an example. I was so happy with it that I intend to create a whole set of beads. I did make an error in the sizing of the decals so they are a bit too large for the moment but I will correct that soon.



www.bluemorningexpressions.com is very close to being complete. I have added a discontinued category for my old designs. Most of those are under $3.00. I also have been working on free instructions—I just am not getting as much done on those as I would like. I don’t sit down to write like I used to.

In my running around, I regrettably have neglected my other duties to my other sites so I need to focus on those sites here in the next few weeks. That means that new patterns on www.theseedbeadpatternstore.com and www.x-stitch-patterns.com have been set aside for a few and it also means that www.cliponearringsboutique.com has not been updated as promised. I will take care of those things very soon.

Use the coupon code loyal on www.bluemorningexpressions.com for
30% off your entire order before shipping. Shipping on the site is a flat
$2.75 in case anyone wants to know.

Thank you so much for all the input and emails. I enjoy all
the encouragement that you send my way.

Until next month,
Julie

June 09 BluPrint the Newsletter of Blue Morning Expressions

What's New in June?


Blue Morning Expressions.com got a complete long overdue makeover!
I finally started to bring all of my items home to one place. Even though I
continueto sell in other venues like bonanzle, etsy and occasionally eBay, I
wanted to get everything in one place. I have accomplished the store set up
and I am slowly building and moving everything in. Currently I have several
categories completed and stocked with all the inventory that I have with many
more to go.

One of the most exciting factors in building this store is the ability to run
specials, sales and coupon codes any time I like and with this, I am able to
give my regular customers special pricing.

I continue to create as many new beads as I can and I have 10 fresh sets of
floral rounds that I just uploaded to Blue Morning Expressions.com and 3 of
them are already sold. I spent some time doing some custom cane work so
I didn't get a lot of bead sets done this month but look for more next month.
I have some fresh ideas/pieces that I will be including so look for some new
designs.

I will be doing a lot more new canes as well, I took a ton of photos at a local
nursery to use as basis for my new canes and will be incorporating them into
the standards. Some of my photography can also be found on Shutterstock.com.

Bead Kits are ready to be photo'ed. I am starting with a simple ladybug necklace
kit for the kids and I will go from there. I am discontinuing the completed items
and will be offering the kits. I don't have the time to create the sets any more, yet
they are still in demand so this is the happy medium.






www.TheSeedBeadPatternStore.com has been successful and the sales
bounce back and forth between the actual site, where you can find over 300
patterns, and eBay which is limited to some of my booklets. If you
want digital download and immediate gratification, go to the website
www.theseedbeadpatternstore.com and download your bead
patterns. eBay requires me to provide a cd so there is the extra charge
for that and shipping, whereas the website has no additional charge.

If you have any problems with the files, I am right here to help, just
drop me an email and I will fix it for you.

There are more peyote patterns just waiting for me to get uploaded
and there are animal prints and my Fourth of July series that I have not
finished yet, so watch for those. There also is a couple of complete series
of patterns that are going to be focusing on limited colour pallets, so watch
for them as well.

www.x-stitch-patterns.com will be updated soon to accomodate a lot of the
4x4 patterns that I have sitting here. I did a lot of small images that are
perfect for the motif cards that I will be adding.

All kinds of good and new things going on!!

Use the coupon code loyal on www.bluemorningexpressions.com for
30% off your entire order before shipping. Shipping on the site is a flat
$2.75 in case anyone wants to know.

Thank you so much for all the input and emails. I enjoy all
the encouragement that you send my way.

Until next month,

Julie

Blu Print April 09 Official Newsletter of Blue Morning Expressions

What's New in April?



Blue Morning Expressions is pleased to announce two new product line openings. After some experimentation with the cross stitch patterns, we have officially opened up www.x-stitch-patterns.com and it is the site of over 300 patterns currently. If you look at it, you will see that there are several areas left to fill, like 4x4 cards, samplers and other goodies. They are still being put together. I also discovered that the huge key word search is bringing in those looking for free patterns, so I will be accomodating those folks as well. The site is set up for immediate download and there is no waiting for me to email the pattern or the code.

Now, keeping that in mind, my other grand opening that has been in the making for over 20 years is www.theseedbeadpatternstore.com. I have been wanting to develope these patterns for years and they are just now coming into their own. I have over 70 individual patterns for bracelets that are bundled into pattern packs of 10 each. They have been wildly successful and now I am splitting them out for individual purchases. The site is open with only the pattern booklets at the moment, but I have over 100 tapestry patterns for loomwork. I will also be converting my bracelet patterns into peyote stitch as well as time permits.

And keeping with the DIY crowd, my kits are still in the standby mode as I try and get the patterns together. I want to create some specific beads for those kits and I have been so busy building sites and creating the patterns that I have had little time for other things. So, if you are waiting to see the new bead kits, it will be just a bit longer and then I will have them ready to go. They will be showcased on my bonanzle site for beads. www.bonanzle.com/polymerclaybeads - take a look at what I have in there now, I have my canes and my loose beads there. I also have my loom work patterns and my raw canes. I also have freebies on that site!

I will be putting together the lanyard and eyechain kits within the next few weeks. I need to move the extra beads and goodies into packages and put them in their place instead of all over
my work bench.

I have added one more raw clay cane flower this week. It is a beautiful blue and white. Unfortunately that is the extent of what I have managed to get accomplished in the cane department. That and a freshened up leaf cane. These little staples are fun to create and I love to experiment with the colors. I also took time to create some beads. I did put up 6 new kaledioscope bead sets on etsy, I have 2 of them left. I did put up a couple new thimbles, they are gone as well. I will try and get some more beads created soon.

You can always, always find me at www.bluemorningexpressions.com that is the hub site for all the goodies. I keep my fractal art clothing line there and my buttons and my magnets and my art prints and all the other things that I am playing with.

Thank you so much for all the input and emails. I enjoy all the encouragement that you send my way.

Until next month,

Julie