Rain's Embellishments: November 2011

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Indie Gift Guide: Sweet Tooth - Indie Sacramento

*REPOST from Indie Sacramento!* - Thanks for including me Amy! :)

We all have at least one person on our list that has a major sweet tooth. Check out this selection of gifts for the sweetie on YOUR list.

1.) Sweet cupcake earrings by Rain's Embellishments

2.) Try an indulgent Birthday Cake candle from Beegrl88

3.) What doughnut lover wouldn't be thrilled with a gift certificate from Doughbot Doughnuts, where they can try flavors like maple bacon and chai? {Photo above by Rodney Blackwell}

4.) Any cupcake baker would adore these handmade cupcake flags by la maison des plumes

5.) Take the scent of Red Velvet wherever you go with a roller ball fragrance fromBody Luminosity

6.) Need a gift for someone who is crazy for cupcakes? How about a box of decedent flavors like chocolate hazelnut and pb&j by Icing on the Cupcake

7.) And what cupcake lover wouldn't want to adorn him or herself with these adorable cupcake buttons by Klinger Creative?

8.) This cherry covered apron might fit the bill. By Mrs. Talbot

Indie Gift Guide: Skulls - Indie Sacramento

*REPOST from Indie Sacramento* ... Thanks for including me Amy! :)

Do you have someone on your gift guide that is obsessed with skulls? Whether they are a little bit goth or just in love with the Mexican holiday Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), we've got you covered.

1.) How about a colorful Day of the Dead painting by The Vintage Peacock?

2.) Rain's Embellishments offers a variety of festive and colorful skull jewelry.

3.) If skulls could be cute, these earrings by Leighlicious Designs are the cutest skulls I've ever seen.

4.) Does your skull-lover own a pet? If so, these skull and crossbones colars byxoxokakes are a MUST.

5.) This creepy cute skull and crossbones headband by BugzerkBands would make a great gift for that punky girl on your list.

6.) Do you like your skulls with a little more sophistication? Try a Dia de los Muertos serving platter from whygirlsgoastray.

7.) This framed skull makes a "smart" gift - it's printed on a dictionary page. ByVintageDictionaryArt.

8.) Ana Apple's Bad to the Bone onsies are the perfect gift for a skull-loving baby.

9.) What about this unisex Day of the Dead tee by Zen Threads? Other styles available.

10.) Perfect for the Dia de los Muertos man in your life, is this t-shirt by Mi Vida Creations.

11.) Last, but not least, are these bright and colorful clay earrings by Penny's Lane. Other colors and styles available.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

New on Etsy

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Shopping Bonus!

With the plethora of shopping expected this weekend, I just wanted to remind everyone to help support small businesses during

Black Friday/Small Business Saturday/Cyber Monday!

Along with that, I want to share a shopping coupon bonus!:

From now til the end of the month, I'll give you 10% off your purchase at my Etsy shop when you use the coupon code LETITRAIN at checkout! How sweet is that?!

So please check out all the new goodies I have up in the shop! All the necklaces, bracelets & earrings are looking for great new owners! :)

Monday, November 14, 2011

I (HEART) The Guild!

I must confess, I'm a GEEK! (If you didn't already know this, now you do!) I'm sure you've noticed my fair share of blogging about Buffy or Joss Whedon , but I've barely talked about The Guild! It's basically a show (web series) centered around Syd/Codex and her "friends" who love to play a online role-playing game (think World of Warcraft) and how they interact with each other in game and real life. You can catch episodes on their website, YouTube or Netflix...I suggest you do! :)

I've felt pretty crafty towards The Guild recently and made myself a couple items in honor of my favorite web series!

Please allow me to rewind for a quick second....

I <3 The Guild sooo much that I went to the Long Beach Comic Con back in April just to catch a glimpse of them taping Season 5!

I'll admit, I was stalking the set!

Taking quick pics when the guards weren't looking!

(Hence the blurry photos) XD

Getting back on track... A couple seasons ago Zaboo had this Highland Sextacy painting done for Codex to show how much he supported her "relationship" with Fawkes (leader of the rival guild). Think Geek actually started selling Team Codex-Fawkes (Team Cawkes >:) ) posters! I subsequently emailed Think Geek to see if they would be selling t-shirts with the print. Sadly, they responded no because it would be too hard to print the dark picture, resolution, etc..

Then I thought: "Hey, I've made my own 'screen printed' shirts before! I can totally do a Team Cawkes shirt myself!". A trip to the fabric store to buy a tee and dark transfer paper and I was ready to get to business. I just downloaded the image, printed it out on the transfer paper, ironed it on the tee, altered the tee to fit me better & voila!

Me & my Team Cawkes shirt!

But I didn't stop there - because dude, I need jewelry to go with the shirt! "I can make shrinky dink charms out of The Guild icons and make a charm bracelet!" As it turned out, my shrinky dink charms came out a tad bit too large..."Necklace it is!".

Here's how I did it:

(Disclaimer: ALL images are property of The Guild (Felicia Day, et al)! I made the shirt and the necklace just for myself! I do not intend to sell them!)

Downloaded the icons and printed them out on shrink paper.

Then I cut them out, punched charm holes and laid them on parchment paper on a cookie sheet to bake/shrink at 350 degrees for about 8 minutes.

They went from really BIG

(a little more than a quarter of a regular sheet of paper)

to big charm size (about 2 inches) :

(By the way, sorry for the crappy images! I was using my phone camera at night!)

To keep the ink from running (from either getting wet or sweat) I decided to put a clear coat on each charm. I started by using nail polish (since I couldn't find my Diamond Glaze) and found out that it was a bad idea.

If you look closely, you'll notice that something funny started to happen to the Clara (blue) charm when I applied the nail polish. The ink wanted to run - yikes! So I sprayed a clear coat of Krylon on the charms. As it turned out, that wasn't the wisest choice either because it made the ink spotty. I ultimately decided that I didn't buy the proper shrink paper because the ink did not want to fully dry!

Though, I must make another confession: I hate waiting for things to set! Whether it be glue, paint, nail polish, ink, whatever - I get impatient! I want to get to the next step! Which I have found never really helps any project. I just get so excited that I want to get to the finished product! I'm sure many of you other artists/crafters have been in this situation before as well! Come on, 'fess up!

I'm sure if I had waited overnight for the printer ink to dry on the shrink paper then tried to bake/shrink the charms I would have had much more positive results!

Anyway, I soldiered on!

I did end up applying a coat of the nail polish to the charms to make them glittery. ;)

I wire worked the charms onto a white enameled chain and added a lobster claw clasp.

Then I laid out different colored Czech glass heart and star beads to see how I wanted the remainder of the necklace to look. Then I put all the beads on head pins and wire worked them on the chain. I omitted some beads and added others and this is what I ended up making:

There's me & my finished product! I couldn't be a happier jeweler/geek!

All I need now is some Jones soda featuring The Guild while I watch the webisodes! (BIG thumbs up!)

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Rain's Embellishments Trunk Show THIS Saturday!

Spanglish will be hosting a Trunk Show

featuring MY Jewelry

THIS Saturday!!!!!

Hope to see you there!

Great time to buy for the holidays! ;)

Sunshine Tutu

I made a Sunshine Tutu for my niece (girlfriend's daughter) for Halloween!

Here's how I did it:

1. First cut out 3-4 different colored pieces of tulle in varying shades of orange & yellow. I cut 8 pieces of each tulle...two shades of yellow & two shades of orange = 24 triangles.

2. Do a zig-zag edge stitch along two sides of your triangles with matching thread.

You should get a nice pile of edged pieces

3. Get a piece of ribbon and straight stitch your triangles onto it. You'll want to cut the ribbon to twice the length of the waist measurement.

Stagger your pieces along the ribbon so they lay unevenly.

Lay orange on top of yellow...yellow on top of orange to create depth .

4. Trim any tulle points that might sick out along the top edge of your ribbon.

5. Get a thicker piece (at least twice as wide as the base ribbon) of ribbon and fold it evenly over the front & back of the base ribbon.

You can't really tell from the top picture, but I took my long ends of ribbon & tied them in a bow in the back of my niece. Pretty easy project!

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Halloween Costume '11

I always dream BIG for Halloween because it's my favorite holiday!

After much debate I decided to do something Tim Burton-esque! After going to his art exhibit earlier this year I've just felt so inspired by his art. In preparing my costume I scoured the web for ideas and created this Etsy Treasury:

As well as this Pinterest Board:

(more pictures on my pin board)

Tim Burton, Helena Bonham Carter / Photo: Tim Walker

This is how my costume turned out:

Not exactly what I originally envisioned...actually I wanted something a bit more kick a$$ (like with a corset & skirt), but this worked for passing out candy to Trick-or-Treaters!

My mom made the AWESOME black & white striped jacket that I'm totally in LOVE with <3!!! It turned out so great that I even wore it to the Dia de los Muertos Celebration I vended at the weekend before. (Pictures below)

I originally wanted to construct a top hat to go with the awesome jacket, but I went with this psychedelic witch hat I got at Gatherings. To complete the ensemble I wore my red & white stockings I picked up at the Heebe Jeebe Halloween boutique!

Here's a few other creations made for Halloween/Day of the Dead:

My Frankenstein/Bride of Frankenstein Love Necklace

My sister showing off the "zip from the top to the bottom" skirt made by our mom!

Me & my jewelry with the jacket! :)