Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

Merry Plurkmas, Everyone!!

You may be wondering what the heck Plurkmas is.  But to me it's very special.   You see, Plurk is networking site similar to Facebook and Twitter.  It has a timeline that runs horizontally, and every "plurk" is a conversation bubble that shows up in your timeline and in the timeline of your friends.  You can carry on conversations, post pics, videos and links.

If you'd told me 5 years ago that I would become great friends with all kinds of people over the internet I would have snorted and denied it all!! But since I've been selling online I've found a whole world of friends from Europe to Asia to Australia and back across the US.  And I love them all!!  Now I just need friends form the North and South Poles!! lol Hey, don't laugh too hard, they could be Plurking as we speak!

This year we did our yearly swap and I received some wonderful gifts from Star of ColtPixy.  She's a master artisan of miniatures in clay.  Just see below!  Her new wondrous creations are her totally cool snails, with real shells. Not only is that snail adorable, but that teeny tiny pixy riding on it's back isn't even 1/2 inch high and look at all the detail!

I also received a mini snowman, which I love, love, LOVE!! Snowmen are my fav winter thing. This one is singing Frosty The Snowman.  Can you hear him?

She also sent me a whole school of fish magnets.  If you know me you'll know that I'm obsessed with fish. I have real fish, make glass fish, decorate with fish.  I just can't get enough of them.  And in PURPLE yet!!  These little guys have a place of honor on my metal cabinet in my work room.  All of these little beauties will be here to keep me company when I work.  Thanks so much Star :D  Oh, I think I need to make some bubble magnets.  Fish need bubbles, right!!

So, with that I want to wish everyone a very Merry Plurkmas!

What Could Be More Fun?

The only thing more fun then creating jewelry myself is seeing what creations other designers come up with using my hand made supplies!!  My friend Mischelle made these too cute earrings with some hand stamped charms and snowflakes, with a little crystal bling.

She's keeping these, sorry!

And then she took my little snowman and dressed him up with the cutest little crystal cube hat!! I hadn't thought of this, but next year maybe I will!!

She's keeping this too, but if you offer her enough you never know!

Mischelle has two great shops: MzzThang on ArtFire and Fo-Shizzle Design Studios.  And don't forget to check out her Soap Opera store for all kinds of good smelling soaps, lotions and potions!!

I was recently the lucky winner of a drawing from Soap Opera and I have to say they were so yummy smelling!!  My favorite was the Cranberry Spice. I'm so glad I got two of them!!

And don't forget my friend Rosy from RoEnchantedDesigns.  I love how she incorporates my metal stamping, she does amazing work. By the way...sold, and sold!

Here's a couple creations Rosy made with some of my lampwork beads.  Love this pumpkin!  Amazingly it's still for sale.  So click it if you want it!!

Happy Holidays, or Kwanzaa, or Whatever!!

It's been a busy month creating personalized gifts for customers. It's fun to design and create something so special that will be given to loved ones. This year I've done a lot of necklaces, which are my favorites. Below are some examples.

One of my other favorite things to do is to try to come up with designs that use the tools I have. Sure, I could have bought a snowman design stamp, but what fun would that be? Not as fun as this!

Or this....

And once in a while my snarky side takes over and I get all crazy and create items like this. I created the below items because I don't think Holiday greetings should be a debate. If someone came up to me and said Happy Kwanzaa or Happy Hanukkah I'd happily return the greeting. I wouldn't complain that it was inappropriate or care that I'm not of African American or Jewish decent. So to celebrate the holiday season here are some politically correct snarky items....

And with that I'd like to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season, a Merry Christmas or a Merry f-ing whatever!! Stay safe.

Welcome to Dzign by Jamie

Welcome to my Dzign by Jamie Blog. My name is Jamie, of course. And my handmade experience started out with soap. My sister and I were raising money for a humane society where she worked by attending craft sales and selling donated items. After few years we decided to earn a little cash while we helped the humane society, and that's when I started making soap. Well, not long after that I ventured into lampwork bead creating and was totally addicted. I've been making artisan beads for about 6 years now. I came upon hand stamped jewelry because I have a need to create. Unfortunately, living in Wisconsin makes it hard to torch lampwork beads when it's super cold in the winter, especially when my studio is in an old drafty garage. And I love doing both lampwork and metal stamping. So, to accommodate all that I love I decided to create one brand and merge my Glasstastic Treasures Lampwork with my Metal Amore hand Stamped Jewelry into one great shopping experience! I hope you enjoy Dzign by Jamie, which will be found in under my Glasstastic Treasures link, but branded with my new name.