Last Day for the CIJ Etsy Sale Event

Just a reminder to those who have been following along, the Christmas in July Sale is finishing up today. It's been an awesome event for me; I sold 3 items and hadn't expected any sales. With the amount of views I have been having, I've been happy with that, knowing that at least a few folks took the time to check out my shop and my art.

I want to thank the Creative Trends Team for allowing me to be part of their event on Etsy. Although I'm an honorary member, I've felt like a long-time friend to more than a few of the nice people on the team. Thanks so much for making me feel welcome. It was not uncommon to find 10 treasuries a day with my items in them. I can only marvel at the dedication it takes to do that daily.

I'd also like to thank the CIJ Team for their help in creating another avenue to share my social media links, get a few treasuries made and to have been featured in too. It was fun to learn about new shops and find new favorite items to share.

Just a reminder, since the sale is not over just yet, if you plug in the coupon code CIJ10 at checkout when you buy anything from my shop, you will receive 10% off your purchase. PLUS we're giving a free bonus coupon code for the Black Friday/Cyber Monday event. Wouldn't it be great to get a discount when the shopping frenzy begins?!

I got the last two crosses grouted and will be listing them both soon. My favorites so far are #1 (green stained glass with the yellow brooch) and #5 (shown below with the vintage atomic dish shards). I've got 20 more to go in the 25 Crosses project. As it looks now, some will be duplicated with glass and dishes but they won't all look the same, that's for sure. I found some more broken jewelry I want to use on a few. That's always fun to add recycled elements to my mosaics.

Blue and white - #4

Vintage atomic dish tiles - #5

Starting on Monday, July 22nd, I'm taking 3 days away from blogging and a lot of online social activities to get my listings all taken care of and back to normal. Both Etsy and Zibbet need some attention and it's time to get them done.

I need a bit of a break too because although I thought I could handle promoting this awesome sales event, working on mosaics plus taking care of the fam with a summer cold which is still hanging on, I forgot that I am not Super Nana!! Rest is necessary once in a while to us mere mortals.

I'll be back on Thursday!

Stay peaceful,
Cindy, Earth Mother Mosaics

CIJ Fun Days

This week has been a blur of activity online. Promoting and meeting new shops on Etsy and finding new items to love during the CIJ sale. It's been fun to do but very tiring. I'm okay with that though because I manage to introduce my shop and my mosaics to new folks along the way. For me, that is the best part of doing events like this. Not making sales, always a nice surprise and the ultimate goal of course, but connecting with new people. Discovering new shops and having others discover mine is one of the highlights of any online event. That means on any given day, according to Etsy's Stat page, I could have close to 500 people view my shop. Over the past 7 days over 1,000 items have been made a favorite. This astounds me. That means for every item that gets a heart, everyone in that heart's circle of friends on Etsy sees it too. Sheesh.

I made two treasuries today and wanted to share them here. One is for the Creative Trends Team and other is for the CIJ Team. I love making treasuries!

Lemon Sage - Creative Trends Team CIJ6

Awesomeness - Christmas in July Sale Continues

Everybody who has followed me on FB and on my blogs for more than a few days know that if I don't do something artful every day, I get grumpy. Well, I'm there ... I'm a big ole' harumphy Nana. It's been too long away from my Zen time with my muse and although she is okay with resting a little longer, I am not all that happy about it.

Yesterday I thought I'd spend some time no matter how late and work on the glass-on-glass project I started last week. I broke my glasses before I could start. That didn't just happen, I thought. I didn't just break what I need to help me see my mosaics, did I?! Oh yes, I did. My daughter glued them back together and although they are in one piece, they are a bit wonky and headaches have been a real added bonus.

With temperatures at 102 degrees today, it is not likely that I will be walking anywhere to get another pair. I use the dollar store near me for all my eye wear needs. I use these glasses for close up work, reading and computing. Pretty much what I do all day long in between kidlet wrangling.

Over the weekend I'm going to borrow the family car and head on over to the dollar store to get what I need. Meanwhile, the muse is resting and seems content. Sigh.

Did I share these? I glanced at previous posts and didn't see them. I put these dot painted items on the green bookcase to stay the other day and noticed how the dots came popping out at me. What a difference a background color can make! Wow! Way cool, right?!

Butterfly Wall Art

 Elephant Wall Art

Stay peaceful,
Cindy, Earth Mother Mosaics

ANNOUNCEMENT

~ANNOUNCEMENT!~

Good morning! We are half way through our CHRISTMAS IN JULY SALES EVENT on Etsy! Woo-hoo! For all my Facebook fans, today only, Wednesday, July 17th, you will receive FREE SHIPPING on ALL JEWELRY SETS (as seen here in this example), plus 10% off at checkout by using coupon code CIJ10 AND a bonus coupon code for our Black Friday/Cyber Monday Event. TODAY ONLY - FREE SHIPPING ON JEWELRY SETS (including vintage). Woooooooo!!!!!!!!!!! Let me know before you purchase so I can take the shipping off the listing. If you get so excited that you forget, I'll deduct the cost of shipping for you and refund it. Yay for free shipping!!

Mosaic Jewelry Set: 2 Pendants and Buckle

Stay peaceful,
Cindy, Earth Mother Mosaics

New Listings Coming Soon!

Although my actual mosaic time has been cut quite drastically by the current promotion happening on Etsy, I do still have some things to share and list.

The sweetest smile appeared on this elephant as I was cleaning off the grout and I noticed the placement of the flower on its head gave it not only an eye but a tiny hint of a smile. How cool is that?!

You all are getting a sneak peek at her cute grin since she's not yet listed. Isn't she cute?

I've changed my mind about not listing the crosses on my site. Originally I started with the plan to mosaic and/or paint all 25 MDF crosses and bring them with me in November when I do a church craft fair. After looking at the ones I've done so far, it can't hurt to list them and see if they sell. If they don't, they will go with me in November. Meanwhile, a few people have liked what I've done with them so far, which is why they are going to get listed. I'll share them as I get them on Etsy and Zibbet. Hopefully all of these will get listed tomorrow!

Believe it or not, I've still been having a lot of problems with this summer cold. Perhaps it's not as much of a surprise to anyone but me, but I've got a sinus infection that just won't go away. It's not all that bad; I can function, but it is quite bothersome, just the same. It has been hot, too, making it hard for me to go out for photo shoots with the mosaics as I had planned. I am guessing cooler weather will be a good time to do that since I am always physically bothered by the heat.

Not feeling all that well between the summer cold and the humidity makes it harder some days to keep up with everything going on around me. I try to share all the beautiful treasuries I'm in on my Facebook page and pin, tweet and every so often Wanelo gets updated with new items from my shop as well as those in treasuries. I think I'm doing fairly well with keeping up with it all but some days the 8-10 hours it takes to do it, makes me glad I don't have to work on a mosaic in addition to promoting unless I want to. Whew. It's exhausting.

My muse is not bugging me to go and do right now which means she knows I need to rest and do what I'm doing for others who have CIJ promotions going on (besides myself).

Today I'd like to share a Creative Trends Team item from ShopPretties Etsy shop. I'm diggin' this shop a lot! This team has an awesome amount of talent behind it. I'm thrilled to be associated with each and every one of them.

Murano glass pendant 

Nice, right?! I KNOW!! Gorgeous. Check out Deb's shop, she's got discounts during the CIJ Event running until July 21st. When you purchase something you'll get a bonus coupon code for Black Friday/Cyber Monday too! That rawks!!

Stay peaceful,
Cindy, Earth Mother Mosaics

The Etsy CIJ Sales Event Continues!

I hope everyone had a great weekend. It is going to be hot, hot, double-hot here in PA this week. Humidity is what gets us most. Because it's hard to breath out there, I'm staying in!

To help celebrate the Christmas in July Etsy Sale Event, running all week and ending July 21st, I'm sharing the coolest items I can find on Etsy from shops who are taking part in the CIJ Sales Event. This includes but is not limited to, the fine artisans of The Creative Trends team and the CIJ Team.

I'm thinking chilling thoughts all week long! Here's a photo I took in February, to help me remember what it was like only a few short months ago.

Doing a search for snowmen on Etsy, I found some delightful items. Here are a few:

needle-felted-snowman-snowmen

cij-on-sale-olde-frosty-winter-snowman

Tomorrow I'll share some items from the Creative Trends Team and make a treasury or two for them as well and the CIJ Team. Woo-hoo!

I'm enjoying getting to know everyone through this event. If nothing else, it is a wonderful way to meet the most incredibly creative folks on the planet! Awesome!!

I did a bit of grouting this weekend on 2 crosses and the funky elephant wall art too.

One more to cross is ready to grout and then I can start in on 5 more! Yippie-Skippie!

Isn't she cute?! I've painted the sides and back since this photo was taken and she'll be headed toward my shop very soon. I think it is so cool that she looks like she is smiling. Can you see it?

I got all the items that have been paid for so far from the auction and a few Etsy sales packed up and ready for mailing. I placed the custom ordered gazing ball next to them, so that the photo would have more than just a bunch of boxes to look at. I should have taken a photo of them sitting in the boxes before I wrapped them all up for a better photo. Oh well, I'm not used to having so many to mail out at one time! And FYI: I would never ship a mosaic exposed like this gazing ball is. It's not ready to go out just yet anyway, however, it is so pretty to look at. And this may seem like no big deal to anyone but me, but it took me 2-1/2 hours to wrap up the mosaics and get the postage printed, boxes sealed and so on. Wow, that's a lot of mosaics!

6 boxes of mosaics packed up and ready to head out sitting next to the shiny gazing ball.

Believe it or not, there may be a few more to pack up before the week is through. Hooray for being busy!


Stay peaceful,
Cindy, Earth Mother Mosaics

Shout Outs!

Today I'm giving some shout outs to the folks that help me along the way.

Yesterday, on the very first day of the Christmas in July Sales Event, I sold something! Thanks in no small part to the kindness of Deborah at RevampReuse who is a member of the Creative Trends Team on Etsy. She shared my newest mosaic, BELIEVE! (listed on July 10th) with a specific friend in mind. She knew she'd love it. She did and snatched it up immediately. Her friend collects things that say "believe" and was thrilled to find it.

The coolest part about this sale, besides the fact that it was purchased of course, is that I have had it sitting next to me for about a year, waiting to add the ribbon and hooks to it. I made the decision on the 10th to finish it up and list it, because even though it has been with me since 2009, I had hoped somebody would love it as much as I loved making it. This is just one more example as to how the Universe works. I've had it around for 4 years and within 24 hours of listing it, it sells. Amazing.

This mosaic was made during my "how do I do this?" stage in my mosaic life and I have stained glass, dish shards, glass gems that I painted flowers on the underside of, a broken earring and polymer clay on this. It was a learning mosaic and I have always thought it was pretty enough to share. I'm so happy someone sees it's beauty. Thank you, Deborah, for thinking of your friend and thank you, Katie, for getting my sales event off to a great start! I'm feeling very blessed!

To share in the love, today I'm showing you one of my favorite items from Deborah's shop. I LOVE THIS!!

RevampReuse

Next, I'd like to give a shout out to Jennifer, the fine person at JetJewels who sent out in record time some boxes I purchased for my mosaic pendants. She even provides the cotton inside.

I've had a few ideas over the last few months in ways to use up all the space in the shipping box to help protect the small mosaics and to make the experience of the shipping fees a little less painful. The tins I started mosaicking on was one idea. I love the tins but don't know yet if I'll use them along with the pendants or sell them on their own. The jury is still out on that and while it is, I continued to have the problem as to how to ship the jewelry.

These boxes will work perfectly for my needs. I'm so happy to have found them! My business cards will look great attached to the top. And it all would look awesome wrapped up with raffia or string. Problem solved. Yay!

And finally I want to give a shout out to Mother Nature and the Universe for providing me with such inspiration in every day items. While making tea this morning I studied the lemon before I cut it and noticed how perfect it was.

Look at the shape inside the lemon. How perfectly beautiful. I'm grateful to be aware of how nature and the universe work together to help keep me inspired. It's a wonderful thing.


Stay peaceful,
Cindy, Earth Mother Mosaics