Awesome Studio Handbook...

I was just sitting here playing around...doing the hunt for who knows what...LOL and came across this awesome handbook with tons of beautiful lettering.  I am kind of a font freak... When I was young...back in the days... I took this great lettering class in college.  Loved it...even though I didnt make a career of it, I really had fun playing with letters...hand painting them, drawing all types of creative type letters...I even did an airbrush painting of my initials which I thought at the time was amazing!  Today though...WOW...there are soooo many fonts, I have such a hard time not downloading them all...LOL..

Sooooo, I hope you enjoy this handbook as much as I do!

Sitting here making some new creations

Its been way too long since I posted something fun or beautiful...so I decided I would make a post of what I am creating right now.  I wont show you a picture of it, mainly because I am hoping to submit this design very soon to a magazine once I am done with all the pics and write up.  But I will give you a little bit of a mental visual..

So, to set the mood, I am listening to quiet music on Pandora...love their easy listening music, but I am not crazy of the ads...but since I dont pay for their services, I must suffer them out..LOL  I have some nice hot tea, a glass of water...seed beads, sea glass beads, and my essential tools with a nice bright OTTlite shining brightly sitting near my granny glasses so I can see what the heck I am doing!  My notebook is on hand, along with a fun glitter pen with black ink...didnt realize it was glittery until the ink dried and to my surprise...it sparkled!  You know one can never have enough glitter..heheheh  Oh, and beside all of this cluttery fun stuff, sits my camera waiting for my beck and call!

~I just love my mug...it was a gift from a friend..although we dont drink or shop a whole lot~

Now for the real visual...this is a picture I took at the coast last weekend...My birthday present get-a-way with hubby...  Pacific Star Winery and Fort Bragg...love the ocean!

I did enhance the colors and played with some fun features on my newest version of Paint Shop Pro.  If you love to play with images..I strongly suggest this software as an alternative to Photo Shop..but I do use them both... 

I miss the coast...we were told there are 3 ways you can live on the coast.

1. (1) you either have lots of money
2. (2) you have a successful business (growing pot..hmmmm)
3. (3) you live a life with far less than you have now. 

Well, I dont have lots of money, I dont sell pot, and I really dont want to live in poverty if I can help it. So, looks like we will stay right here in our happy little house, cluttered with all my (and hubby's) stuff!  Well, now we have our youngest moved back in, but only for a month until he gets himself settled in his newer place he is going to live.. hopefully with less stress...  :-)

So this is it for now...  More coming soon..I promise!

What kind of wings do you have?

I had to think hard on the answers to the questions they had for this test.  I could have answered a few of them differently.  I wonder what other wings I might have...

Angel Wings Test

Necklace Chart

Soooo today, I decided it was time for me to start putting my necklaces for sale on my Etsy shop.

 When it came time to measuring necklace, I didnt really have a chart.  I did the hunt on Pinterest and found a few I like but I didnt want to have the normal looking images...you know me, nothing is simple!  So I thought...heck why not make my own chart.

I did a little diggin in my Graphic Stock image folder and found a really cool face...but I needed a body too! LOL  So I looked a little more..and found a fun ballerina image.  I really liked it, but I had to do a little editing to get it all to work out.

I think I will write a simple tutorial on her a little later...but for now here is what I came up with...

Is she AWESOME or what???

Another drawing from Art Jewelry Magazine

I am not going to give up...  I really wanted that cool mini kiln..but oh well...it was not meant to be mine...so I am going to try for the magnifying glasses...those would really help me out with creating fun beaded stuff!  Check out the other great things they are giving away..  I want them all...Hehehehe

Art Jewelry Magazine Drawings

Creative Spark Fall 2014 is now available!

Creative Spark Fall is here...come check out all the amazing creations by the designers from ZnetShows..me included!  A handful of designers were asked to make something fun using Fall colors.  Here is a picture of the bead mix I chose.

 I created this fun bracelet from memory wire (found on page 27)...  I am currently working on the tutorial for making the matching necklace (VIDEO), but for now, here is the picture.. If you would like to be notified when I have the tutorial up and running, either become a fan of my FB page, subscribe to my blog, or bloglovin, or you can send me an email and I can add you to my email group.

Old website just got a facelift!

Miles of Country Smiles  Wow, I have never created a website so quickly as I have with this one.  I use Bravenet, and they have these new templates so I thought I would give them a try.  It was amazing how much easier it was to re-create my website.  I have so much more to learn from what I can do still to make it even better.  But now my site is a responsive website which means you can see it on cell phones, tablets and more with ease...its beautiful!  I am just so excited about this...  I normally use Dreamweaver and it can be lots of fun and challenging too...but it can also be a time vortex...something I lack these days is time.  Please let me know what you think, I would love to get your feedback!  Its not complete, but I want my Wings N Scales website to have it all...but this is just a small taste of whats to come...Hehehehe



THANKS...

I have been TREASURED...

I have been Treasured on the HIGHLIGHTS from Hand Made Artists...gotta love em!

WISH ME LUCK!

jewelrycontests.secondstreetapp.com

Anchors Aweigh Blog Hop Reveal!!!

Just a little blurp...I am sorry my page was not put up earlier, I had it set up to post last night at midnight and it did not post the page...ARGH. But here it is...and thanks for stopping by!

Here it is!  I was so excited about winning these beautiful Anchor beads created by Diana Ptaszynski. My hubby is a retired sailor, so when Rita from Tolec Jewels put this blog hop together I was all over it, probably the first person to request them!  I received my little package of joy within a short time and had to make a pit stop at the bead store almost immediately!   LOL  These beads got to travel to DC in July when hubby and I went on our vacation and to visit our son in Baltimore (and we made a little pit stop in Germantown and got to meet Lee and Bill from Znetshow...very nice people).  Although I didn't have much time to play with the beads, I think they enjoyed the trip! hehehe

So, before I even started putting this all together, my first idea was to make a multiple wrap around bracelet I have been coveting.  But as you see, my plans had changed some.  I don't remember what I did first, but I put a few fun elements in this piece I think that really make it work!

I enameled this really pretty filigree finding I got at our local bead store.  I had the perfect colors of enamel, so it went rather smoothly with that piece.  Then I knew I wanted to add the beads at the end..so I put a piece of chain on it and threw on the beads...it was way too plain and simple for me, so I made the AHOY charm from resin clay. I made two pieces which I tried to resembled wood with a little texture on them.  Added some metallic rub on silver and gold and those looked great!  Then I thought it needed a little more color..so I added the seahorse charm which I patina'd yellow.  Now it was starting to look good... 

I strung on some beads on both sides and thought I needed something that was going to give this some wow power..then I made the LOVE MY SAILOR resin bar...so I was quite happy at this point...the necklace was looking really good... But I thought it still needed something to break up the colors just a little...and then I remembered I had these beautiful ceramic beads I received from my very first bead soup partner.  It is the light pink bead you see on the right side of the picture... That was the perfect bead...I just love this necklace!

Then, last, I made these great bracelets using memory wire.  I am now a fan of memory wire.  With having 2 of the anchor charms, I didn't want to just make some cute earrings...I wanted MORE...and I think I got more accomplished! I tossed in that cute turtle which was a perfect match with the colors.  I have decided that this set is going to be ALL MINE! I wear it frequently and get lots of great compliments.  

Without this challenge, I would not have created these, so I really appreciate the awesome anchor charms and generosity from Diana, and opportunity to create with these charms from Toltec Jewels..

THANK YOU BOTH!!

Take a peek at all the other Jewelry DIVA'S...  :-)

Anchors Aweigh!! Design Challenge & Blog Hop 

Participating Artists

Featured & Honored Artist:        Diana Ptaszynski

Diana's Shop:                           Suburban Girl Beads

Diana's Blogs:                          Suburban Girl Studio

                                                 Art Jewelry Elements

Hostess: TJ                               Jewel School Friends

Bobbie Rafferty                         Beadsong Jewelry

Chris Eisenberg                         Wanderware

Heather Richter                         Desert Jewelry Designs

Michelle McCarthy                    Firefly Design Studio

Kathy Lindemer                         Bay Moon Design

Dini Bruinsma                            Angaza by Changes

Cynthia Machata                       Antiquity Travelers

Kathleen Breeding                     99 Bottles of Beads on the Wall

Linda Younkman                       Lindy's Designs

Robin Reed                                  Artistry HCBD

Marla Gibson                              Spice Box Designs

Gina Hockett                               Freestyle Elements

Renetha Stanziano                      Lamplight Crafts

Marianne Baxter                          Simply Seablime Jewelry        

Christina Miles                             Wings N Scales

Marybeth Rich                            A Few Words from Within the Pines

Shai Williams                              Shaiha's Ramblings

Cheri Reed                                  Creative Designs by Cheri

Monique Urquhart                      A Half-Baked Notion

Jennifer Reno                             Musings of a Crafty Jenny

Shirley Moore                             Beads and Bread

Tammy Adams                           Paisley Lizard

Melissa Trudinger                       Bead Recipes

Jill Bradley                                  JillyBeads

Anchors Away Blog Hop coming soon!

Ok, here is my sneak peek for the upcoming Blog Hop..it starts on this Sunday so stop back by and let me know what you think.

Hmmm....I wonder what this will look like?? hehehee...come back on Sunday.. :-)

Preparing for the RAW event

I have been super busy preparing for this event and I sure hope its worth all of the work...  I have not only made jewelry but I also made the tags, labels, I even made my own displays...  I have some stuff already but I want this event to go very well for me and I want to present myself as being not only professional but also quite creative...and FUN!  So first I want to share with you the tags I have been working on.  Its all a learning process for me since using the Cameo Silhouette is still a piece of new machinery for me.

So what I did first was do the hunt...I went to Graphic Stock and found a really nice graphic I thought would go well with my style.  Below is the process with which I went through to create it.  It looks like a lot of work, but really it goes fairly fast.  I use PaintShopPro and Photoshop to do most of me editing, but with this particular image, I used PSP.  I removed the background and some of the shadow and put a white circle on the top.  Then step 3, I put the image into the Cameo software, (by the way, it only accepted a jpeg image, so dont try to use a png!), traced out the image.  Once I was happy with the results of the line drawing, I grouped the pieces then copied and pasted them and put as many shapes as I could on the page.

Save the file..always save before you cut or print..I have made enough mistakes over the years that its something I automatically do.  Although the Cameo software does a nice job of autosave.  Then step 4 as you see is the final results after cutting.  I am going to eventually put another little label on the bottom half of the tags that say THANK YOU.  I found the exact shape on Graphic Stock and digitally cut out each label and saved them with different names...  I am really liking Graphic Stock.  There are far more designs I can use for more than just eye candy!  Anyway, I hope you like the tags...  When I get the second label made and adhere it to the tag I will show it to you then.

More fun stuff coming soon!

Thanks for stopping by..Chris  :-)

RAW update!

http://www.rawartists.org/wingsnscales

Hi Everybody, 

I have been hand-selected by RAW:natural born artists to show my work at their next artist showcase in Sacramento called COMMUNIQUE, but I need your help!

The event will be held at Ace of Spades, 1417 R St on Thursday, August 14th at 7:30pm. The event is 21+ and the dress code is cocktail attire. 

I'm writing to you to ask for your support to be a part of this amazing event! Not only can this event help me network with other great local artists and expose me to 700+ attendees, it can help me expand nationally as well. Here's how: 

RAW is providing me with a video interview and b-roll footage of the event, as well as head shots and photos of my display to help me to further promote myself independently. 

I'll be eligible to win the RAW artist of the year award locally, and have an opportunity to compete against other city winners for the national title to [perform/showcase] at the RAWards award show & ceremony in LA. 

AND I will have an opportunity to showcase again OUT-OF-STATE at any other RAW location of my choice!

All I have to do is sell 20 tickets to help promote the event. Your support would be greatly appreciated. The tickets are only $15 and need to be sold by Thursday, August 7th in order for me to participate. If you buy them from me you also save $5 because they go up to $20 at the door. 

You can purchase tickets right from my RAW artist profile: 

http://www.rawartists.org/wingsnscales

If you are not available to attend that night, you can still purchase a ticket to support me and my work. This will open up a guest list spot for me to invite someone who can attend [clients, record label owner, gallery owner, etc.]

I am currently running a special just for those who purchase tickets on my behalf.  You will receive a 50% discount code plus a special surprise for my Etsy and Handmade Artist shops. If you live locally, and would rather get the discount on an event I am participating in, please let me know.

Thank you so much for your support, I couldn't do this without you! 

Christina Miles XOXO

AND THE WINNER IS......

 Well, first off, let me announce the winner..  

MISCHELLE

 has won this pair of fun beautiful earrings and I am sooooo happy for her.  And I would also like to THANK ALL of you who participated, I really truly appreciated all your shares and comments very much. This has been a fun thing for me to do and I am going to plan on doing more in the future. I hope you enjoyed this and please try again at my next GiveAway..  I also wanted to Thank ZnetShows for those amazing sea glass beads...

Hugs to all....

Chris

FIRST "GIVEAWAY"

Yes, its my very first time for doing a "GIVE AWAY" and I am rather excited about it.  I did some research and checked out other designers give-away so I can see how I was going to do mine. So, this is it..  :-)

For those who are new to my blog, I am a designer for ZnetShows.  We often receive a beautiful handful of beads to create with. Many of our creations are put into their magazines and are also sometimes posted on their blog or website.  This set of earrings was created as part of the recent "Summer Days and Nights" challenge. I did not put them in the magazine so that I could use them as a bonus design on my blog, hence this Give-Away.

These are beautiful cherry red sea glass beads from ZnetShows.   I hand forged the copper wires and added the size 2 rondelle for that extra bling.  These are approximately 2 1/ inches long including the wire.  The copper is sealed with Clear Guard. 

Rules: well, I dont have many..lol.  All I really ask is that you leave a comment on this post.  Below I have a rafflecopter form and would greatly appreciate you filling it out and share the love of my blog.  Its not mandatory, just appreciated. I will put your name in the raffle for each item you fill out and complete on the form. So if you only fill out one of the items along with a comment, I will put your name in twice, etc.

Thank you so much for your interest and your participation...  PS, I do plan on another give away in September...so you might want to join my blog and like my FB page to see what I have coming up next..I will give you a hint, its not jewelry, but you can create something fun with it....and perhaps a few extras fun things tossed in!

***HUGS***

“WINGS N SCALES”

Blog Flickr MyWebsite Etsy Pinterest FACEBOOK

HandMadeArtists Doll Street Dreamers 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

My New Watermark for my Photos

You know how it goes when you want to leave that special watermark on your photos and you want something that stands out..something that is YOU and represents what you make.  I am constantly changing my watermark signature to find the one that really works and stands out.  

I was looking online one day for who knows what..hehehe and I saw this beautiful signature that was so simple and it had this cute simple flower that was I think blue and the rest of the signature of her name and then her website...I LOVED it...  But you know me, I can not do simple. 

 SOoo, I did the hunt on Graphic Stock where I have found so many amazing graphics already.  I searched for WINGS since my business is Wings N Scales..Wings represent Fairies and Scales represents Mermaids just in case you didn't know... So I found this great graphic that is a PSD file so I can edit it in Photoshop..YAY.

So, this is the image I found and fell madly in love with. This image is a JPG, so what you see is what you get.  The PDS file has all of the layers.  So, I separated the layers and kept just the woman and the wings and got rid of the background. Then changed the colors.

Then once I found the picture I wanted, I needed to find a fun font.  I usually go to DaFont.com, the trick is finding a font that is free for commercial use.  They are there, but take some time to find them.  Most are for personal use.  Always read the rules before you install them on your computer just in case you want to use them for anything that is considered commercial.

I think this turned our rather cute dont you?  Now this is a jpg so its not the file I use for my watermark but I just love the colors...sooo me!  I thought maybe the girl was too large at first, but I think any smaller would have been not as powerful or noticeable.

I would love to hear your feedback on this.. 

If you think its too colorful, or to big.. I can always change it, or leave it alone!  

THANKS...

ZNETSHOW “Summer Days & Nights”..Magazine reveral

Another bundle of pure beachy joy by Znetshows was sent to me along with many other designers to see what we could come up with for the "Summer Days & Night" challenge.  I will tell you this, you will be quite excited to see all the creations in this magazine. We were also asked what our "PERFECT SUMMER" would be like...  Well, you see how I write sometimes...like a NOVEL sized blurp.    So believe me when I say...mine was a bit wordy and really there was no room for it in the magazine..so I am going to tell you what my perfect summer is to me here on my blog.....lots more room to write and probably bore you to death!!LOL

"My idea of a perfect summer would be sitting on the beach with my toes in the sand and enjoying the cool breeze on a hot day. Of course I would have a hat on and some sunscreen slathered all over my body and a huge pair of sunglasses on.  I would be sitting next to my hubby while he reads. Then also, I would have to have my handy dandy camera with me so I can take millions of pictures only to pick out 10 of my favorite ones later. As for night time, sitting at an outside restaurant eating my favorite fish and chips and having a nice glass of wine or ice cold beer with my hubby...yea, he has to tag along just about everywhere I go, he can be fun!"

Now for the more exciting part of this post...the Magazine.. 
 You can find me on page 74-76.

Summer Days and Nights Magazine by ZnetShows

 To see all the participants visit Znetshows Blog

So, with all the yummy beads, here are some pictures which are not posted in the magazine.. Remember this picture below, this is what I started out with.

This is what I made for my evening wear...its beautiful.  I am quite happy with the finished piece

 See the yummy Swarovski ravolis?

 I bought these great pewter beads at Beads On Main when they had their big sale, its so pretty and is double sided

 And the fun beaded rope..  I watched a quick video on You Tube and got to work..once I got started it was pretty easy to make...but is a very loose stitch so I put the sari silk in the middle for added strength and stability of the beads.

I added a metal filigree backing to the Swarovski rivoli which gave the beads better support and it made it so much prettier I think.

This red design was just an added piece I had to do.  I made the polymer beads, was lots of fun to see this piece fall into place.  I had no idea what I was going to do with all the red hour glass sea glass beads other than the dangle part.  

 I made the dangle part first and beaded a loop on the top not really knowing what I was going to attach it to.

 I made the large beads first...which I think turned out really well..Then I had all this scrap clay I didnt want to waste, so I ended up making the ring you see here.  Little by little this piece came together and I am in love with it!

 I had this clasp for another creation I was going to make, but then decided it looked really good on this necklace...

 Here are the beads, they are quite big for me, but I am getting used to the larger beads.

This is my day time piece.  Now this one, I am going to keep.  It is amazing and very summery and beachy.  I had these beads sitting on my table for some time...not knowing what I was going to do and the deadline was getting closer and closer.....and closer.

It fits me perfectly..LOL

Here is a close up of the starfish pendent I made with polymer clay

 I actually made the bracelet first.  I love this bracelet too...all the dangly beads...

I kept the cording ends long so I could keep them as part of the design element...

Love this clasp...its rather large, but look how fun it is...and its easy to handle for those with larger fingers

I just love this color combination. Sunny, beachy and bold...

I thought the earrings would look best with the same dangling strands of cord with all the same beads tied on.  

And for a fun pair of earrings for my almost final piece.

I have a perfect top that will go well with these earrings..

This is my final piece.  I made these last but did not put them in the challenge.  I had run out of time.  

Now for the real fun part!  Yup, I am going to do a "GIVE AWAY" with this pair of earrings. I have never done one before and have seen lots of other designers do this and I have actually participated in a few.  If you are interested in my GIVE AWAY, please make sure you leave a comment.  Once I get my rules squared away, I will send you a little message and post it on my blog.

Thanks sooooo much for stopping by and checking out the new magazine!

Chris

Blog Hop Participants:

Amy Severino

Andrea Trank

BeckyPancake

BobbieRafferty

BR Kuhlman

CharlieJacka

ChristieMurrow

ChristinaMiles <-----me----->

ChristineStonefield

CynthiaMachata

CynthiaRiggs

DonettaFarrington

HopeSmitherman

KashmiraPatel

KathyLindemer

Kay Thomerson

KellyPatterson

KlaudeteKoon

Lee Koopman

Lisa Lodge

RenethaStanziano

SandraWashington

Shaiha Williams

SherylStephens

StephanieHaussler

TammieEverly

Graphic Stock review

I was given this gift from Graphic Stock and was asked to do a review of their digital products.  In doing so, I was given full access to their website and was able to pick and choose any of the graphics they have on their site. The beauty of this, is that any of the graphics I download I get to keep for life...and I can use them on my commercial website without paying an extra fee as many other graphic sites charge.  Being that I create slideshows for students who graduate in the program I work at, I can have so much more fun with the variety of designs I have to choose from.  I also do my own website and my sisters so, this is going to be much more fun once I start updating our sites.

So let me begin with how much I honestly love their website.  

Its very user friendly.  Once I logged in, I was able to move around the site very easily.  I am going to show you some screen shots I took of my dashboard and explain what I see.

This is what you will fist see once you log in, you can see on the left are your account management options.  It tells you the date when you opened your account and welcomes you by name.  Just below that are a couple of search engines where you can get to work right away looking for a specific graphic 

This screenshot is on the same page as the picture above only it has drop-down menu's where you can explore the different categories if you just want to browse around and see what the have. The first time I did this, I must have spent hours looking around..so much to see!

This is a screen shot of the images on the DESIGN ELEMENTS category.  You can see that I have it set to 48 images per page and look how many pages there are..OMG..I could not even look at the all.  One thing I do want to know you can search by file type too...look where it says VECTOR, RASTER, PHOTOSHOP near the upper middle area.  You check off these boxes and it will refine your search for these file types.  

This is what you see when you type in jewelry, you see all the different ways you can search for something you are looking for.

Here are some examples of what they have when I looked up Jewellery. Pretty designs.

These are GREAT! I love banners, and these are perfect of blogs and even websites.

I love these too...LOL  now as I mentioned earlier, I create slideshows...and one of the best parts for me is how to make the slides FUN for the students...so with this picture, I would take it apart and use the mustache on one student, put a pipe in their mouth..or maybe add the glasses to a teacher...anything to make the pictures stand out...  I will eventually add more examples of this particular image later..  :-)

One thing I really like about Graphic Stocks images is they give you a variety of designs using some of the same elements.  Look at the difference here... and again, I could use the graphic above and put it in my own background or maybe one of the other backgrounds I find here...

As for my conclusion of this review, I will say this... Graphic Stock is AWESOME..and I am not saying that because I am being partial to them.  I have used other graphics from other sites and have had to pay per item, and had to pay more for commercial rights.  Some graphics I have paid up to $30 just for that license plus the price of the graphics.  With Graphic Stock, that is not so.. You pay an annual fee, you get full benefits of their graphics including commercial rights without an extra fee.  And as always with any graphics on line, they are copyright protected, so your only limit is to not make money off of them, claim them as your own and a few other limitations which you can read in the Support Center before you decide you want to join in.

So, what are you waiting for?  Check out their website.

 You get 7 day free trial...

I promise it will be worth all 7 days to explore everything they have :-)

Thanks for reading this post and I hope you take advantage of their offer..

HUGS

Chris