In addition to my regular quarterly donation I had the honor of creating a Love Like Liam necklace in which Cookies for Kids’ Cancer promoted for Valentines Day.  I was completely blown away with the response!  I couldn’t keep up with the demand and had to discontinue offering them for a brief time (they are available again for purchase at the link above).  From this campaign, 50% of the sales of 51 necklaces were donated CKC for a total of $1479!

Which makes my total combined donation this quarter is $1740.86!!!

As most of you know my daughter was born with stage 2 Wilms’ Tumor.  Last week she received clean scans which makes her  4.5 years old and 4 years cancer-free.  We are so lucky.  My wish is for more parents to have the outcome that we have.

Research makes a difference!  Do you want to help?  It’s the perfect time! Here’s an easy and fun way to get involved:  Host a bake sale!

Be a Good Cookie this May

When 2-year old Liam Witt was diagnosed with pediatric cancer in 2007, his mother Gretchen was shocked to learn that pediatric cancer is the leading cause of death by disease for kids in the United States. And she was equally shocked to learn just how little money was being spent to fund new, more effective treatments for pediatric cancer – treatments that hold the promise of better survival rates.

Though her son was in the fight of his life, Gretchen knew then that, as his mother, she must do everything in her power to change these sobering statistics not only for her son but all children. She was inspired to hold a larger-than-life cookie sale with the goal of baking and selling 96,000 cookies. She said she had no idea what she was doing, but had a heart full of determination and conviction. Just weeks later, a team of more than 250 volunteers, including a lot of moms who were not connected to pediatric cancer but heard about the mission and knew they had to get involved, worked tirelessly for 18 consecutive days and nights to bake and sell every cookie while raising more than $400,000 for a new treatment. After the ovens cooled, it became clear that something bigger than a one-time cookie sale had begun. In the fall of 2008, together with her husband Larry, Gretchen launched a national non-profit – Cookies for Kids’ Cancer – dedicated to raising money for new treatments for all types of pediatric cancer through the concept of local bake sales.

More than four years and over four million dollars in funds raised later, the Witts remain committed to inspiring others to get involved in the fight against pediatric cancer through Cookies for Kids’ Cancer. Though Liam tragically lost his battle with cancer in January2011, Cookies for Kids’ Cancer remains focused on funding new therapies for pediatric cancer.  Last year, the organization granted over $1.7 million toward research into new and improved therapies for pediatric cancer. With your help, that number will keep growing – giving families with children battling cancer today the hope they deserve.

While Cookies for Kids’ Cancer is a year-round organization, May holds special meaning because Liam’s birthday is May 13^th. Last year, supporters rallied in May to celebrate what would have been Liam’s 7^th birthday and broke records for numbers of bake sales in one month and amount raised. This year, with your help, Cookies for Kids’ Cancer will break that record, too.

Thanks so much for reading!

Cami

Or if you missed the giveaway you could just purchase one at my etsy shop.

The possibilities are endless…here are some of my favorites:

Celtic Mom:

For the Dog Mom:

First and Middle Name with Butterfly:

Good luck!

Cami

I’m so excited to be featured on this blog today!  Please head over to Simply Paperie and read the interview!  And, let me know what you think of my favorite musician choices!  I’d love to hear yours!

Cheers!

Cami

Love Like Liam Necklace

50% of the sale price of the Love Like Liam Necklace will be donated to Cookies for Kids’ Cancer to help raise funds to support research for new and improved therapies for pediatric cancer.

A few weeks ago when I posted about my quarterly donation to Cookies for Kids’ Cancer the founder of Cookies for Kids’ Cancer, Gretchen, saw my blog post and took the time out to thank me personally for my contributions.  Getting a personal thank you from someone who I respect so much and have prayed for for several years was simply overwhelming.

Almost 3 years ago, my daughter (then 1 and a half years old) was cured of pediatric cancer.  I wish I could say I support this cause out of the kindness of my heart and that I don’t have any personal reasons, but the truth is that once you have seen the devastation of cancer in a child you can’t get the image out of your head.  I can’t not do something.  My daughter is cured.  We had an “easy” time of it…6 months of chemo and lots of follow up appointments.  My daughter is going to be okay.  I, however, am always going to be a little bit of a maniac – every time she tells me she has a stomach ache, fever, or seems a bit off, my head goes “there.”

Gretchen actually lived “there” for years…and then experienced what no mother or father should ever have to see…their child leave this world before them.  Liam, just 6 years old was taken just 1 year ago.

When I was corresponding with Gretchen via email she asked me to create a necklace for her to commemorate Liam.  I was completely honored, but what a daunting task.  Here are her words about Liam that she offered to help me create a piece.

Liam loved creating and inventing and building. He loved science from concepts as vast as space to small as red blood cells. He loved the color orange. He loved discovering how things work. He loved people. He loved to take care of everyone. He loved life. The pureness and simplicity of his love is what appealed to everyone he met. You would have loved him too.

Thank you to Gretchen and Emily from Cookies for Kids’ Cancer for being so kind to me.  Thank you for allowing me to help in this way.  Thank you for working so hard to give hope to children and their families.

Kindest Regards,

Cami

This week I’m pleased to interview Shannon Moyer-Szemenyei, the artist and owner behind Sweet Stella’s!  I’ve been following Shannon on Twitter for a few months – if you don’t already I recommend following her.  She’s a perfect example of how to use social networking for a handmade business!

 ~*~ Shop Owner Top 3s ~*~

3 best places to find you on the web :

• Etsy
• Twitter
• Website

3 best-selling items or (3 favorite items):

Handpainted Abstract Journals

Handpainted Piggy Banks

Custom Birthday Banners

3 random facts about you:

• I am super addicted to twitter and love being able to connect around the world with my Blackberry
• I would much rather watch a Disney movie than anything grown-up
• I hate tomatoes and refuse to eat them…unless in pasta sauce or ketchup!

3 favorite things to do (that are not business related):

• Read a good book
• Play trucks and cars with my son
• Savour every drop from a yummy cappuccino

3 pieces of business advice:

• Stay in the present, learn from your past but focus on the tomorrow
• Engage on Twitter with your target market and care about what they have to say
• Take the time to promote others and establish sound relationships

3 favorite handmade shops:

• BailyBelle
• Atutudes Handmade Tutu’s
• Bellaroma Boutique

Where do you see yourself/your shop in 3 years

I definitely see myself still creating every day with paint and paper, focusing moreso on abstract art but still being a party planner and doing decor items. I hope to be doing it more fulltime once my son is in school (2 years away!) and hope to stay fresh with current trends, as they are always evolving. I would love to own a physical storefront or gallery one day.

***

Thanks again Shannon for letting me feature your adorable shop!!

*~*Exclusively for my readers…Save 10% on your entire Etsy order with coupon code SWEET10*~*

Have a great Monday!

Cami

You can read the article here and check out her amazing chanmaille creations while you’re there!

  Cami

I’m so excited to interview the talented Laura Hudson from Simply Paperie for my Artist Spotlight!  Her items are just gorgeous.  Who wouldn’t love one of her handmade journals for Valentine’s day?!  The lucky attendees at the Golden Globes GBK Gift Lounge will be getting one!

~*~ Shop Owner Top 3s ~*~

Top 3 places to find you on the web:

• website
• twitter
• facebook

Top 3 best-selling items (or Top 3 favorite items):

2012 Desk Calendar

Boarding Pass Invitation and Ticket Holder

Black Lace Personalized Stationery

 Top 3 random facts about you:

• My favorite food is chicken fried rice, I could eat it every day!
• My favorite colors are yellow and grey, which is totally coincidental, but is perfect as I am a University of Missouri grad and love my black and gold tigers!
• I have a kitten named Pickles (sorry for all of the pictures on Instagram he’s just too cute:)

Top 3 favorite things to do (that are not business related):

• Traveling (Esp going to the beach and scuba diving)
• Spending time with my family
• Baking

Top 3 pieces of business advice:

• Don’t be afraid to step outside your comfort zone
• Network, having a group of fellow artisans is an amazing support system and wealth of knowledge
• Keep working, it’s not always fast or easy, but keep at it and good things will happen!

Top 3 favorite handmade shops (not including your own):

• GoodLittleThings
• NikkiInStitches
• CherryTreeSoaps

Where do you see yourself/your shop in 3 years:

Hopefully continuing to grow my business and successfully designing wedding invitations full time!

****For my lucky readers….use code CAMILEE10 – for a discount in Simply Paperie’s shop.  Valid ’til 1/25/12***

Thanks again, Laura!!

Cami

I’m also giving away a $25 gift certificate for my Etsy Shop to one of her readers!  Check out the post for details.

Cheers!

Cami

$306.61 is based on 5% of my sales from my Etsy shop in October, November, and December 2011.

Year to date we’ve donated the following to cancer research:

q1 $45.97 (Cookies for Kids’ Cancer)
q2 $17.55 (Cookies for Kids’ Cancer)
q2 $74.05 (American Cancer Society)
q3 $74.45 (Cookies for Kids’ Cancer)
q4 $306.61(Cookies for Kids’ Cancer)

This year’s total donations:  $518.63!!

Thanks again to all of my customers for helping make this happen!

If you want to read more about my story and why I choose to donate to this organization please read here.

Grateful.

Cami

Head over to That Mama Gretchen and follow the details and instructions to enter for this sterling silver mom necklace with personalized with your children’s names (up to 3 discs)…there are several different ways to enter.

If you’d prefer to skip the contest you can buy the necklace at this link!

Good luck!!

Cami

They are made of blue quartz and peridot and all sterling silver components are hand-fabricated.  The earrings are one-of-a-kind, but you can find similar designs here in my Etsy shop.

This has been a huge week for my jewelry business!  View my previous post to see the other actress that will be receiving my one of my personalized sterling silver necklace!

Cheers!

Cami

Jessica will receive the necklace pictured above which includes charms that are hand cut from sterling silver and personalized with her husband’s name as well as hers and her 2 daughters.

This necklace is available at my Etsy shop here!

Please let me know if you see her wearing it!   And stay tuned for another celebrity announcement very soon, like in a few minutes!

Cami

For my Thanksgiving mantel I used mostly things from around my house and yard that I could consider fall-like.   The only new thing that I purchased was some tiny squashes and pumpkins and berries from Pier 1.  The small box was under $10.

For the backdrop I used 3 brown beaded place mats from Pier 1 that I had from last year.  They aren’t great for place mats because food gets stuck in the beads, but they are so pretty I didn’t want to throw them away!  I have had the golden mosaic hurricanes forever – also from Pier 1.  I love them.  There used to be a set of 4 of them, but 1 was a casualty of the girl, aged 1.   The big brown vase was a wedding gift from my bestie.  I gathered a bunch of sticks from the backyard and attached some faux leaves I had.

The 2 oddly shaped pumpkins are real and from my garden.  They weren’t great for carving, but I like their irregularity for fall decorating!  I used 2 fancy picture frames that normally feature family photos and printed off the words “Give” and “Thanks” for them.

Lastly the bunting, is some construction paper that I nabbed from the girl’s stash with previously mentioned faux leaves glued on top.

So inexpensive, but it makes me smile.

Here are a couple of other Thanksgiving mantels that I admire that I found on Pinterest, of course!

This is from www.organizeyourstuffnow.com.  Love the bunting with sparkling clothes pins!

This mantel is from a Diamond in the Stuff.  So simple, but very pleasant to look at.

Did you decorate for Thanksgiving?

Brr, it’s getting cold!

Cami

I’m hoping to participate in a swag bag very soon!  And, here is a link to the online 2011 Holiday Gift Guide on Pinterest brought to you by The Artisan Group.  My personalized Star/Moon Necklace is included.

Cool, huh?

Cami

(11/2/11:  Updated to add the link to the show:  here!)

Should be a good time – I’m setting my DVR now.  Here’s a link to the last time she was on TV.  Here’s her website:  www.stevensonquints.com

Here’s a couple of pictures with me and my sister.  I love her!

Cheers,

Cami

Anyway, my birthday was last week so I surprised myself by buying myself some new clothes from Ruche.   Here’s what I wore on Sunday.  I did nothing of mention on Sunday that I can think of.

Polka Dot Blouse:  Ruche

Tank:  Victoria’s Secret

Maroon Skinny Cords: Ruche

Shoes:  Lulu’s (a bday gift from my mom that I absolutely looooove!  Thanks Mama!!!)

Earrings:  New from Camilee Designs — view the blog post on how I got the inspiration for these here!

Here’s what I wore for Halloween.  We met up with a dozen family members and went Trick or Treating.  The kids thought I was a pirate.  Everything I am wearing is pulled from my closet.  My sidekick is the most adorable hula girl.

Scarves (head and waist):  Abercrombie & Fitch

Purple Corset: Not sure – old and no tag

Cardigan:  Victoria’s Secret

Maxi Skirt:  TJ Maxx  bought a few weeks ago marked down from $79 to $24.99.  Yay!

Boots:  Franco Sarto

Earrings:  Camilee Designs

And today…I worked a lot of the day (from home) and went to my sister’s house for a couple of hours.

Dress:  Ruche

Tank: Target

Socks:  Ralph Lauren from TJ Maxx

Boots:  Franco Sarto (funny I pulled them from the back of my closet for my Halloween costume and decided I kinda like them again especially with this dress.)

Necklace & Earrings:  Camilee Designs

That’s all for this week!  Linking up with The Pleated Poppy for WIWW.

TTFN,

Cami

Here are a few pairs that I found on Etsy that are adorable!

Funky Floral and Polka-Dot Fabric Button Earrings by LeMotPaperie

Lauren Earrings, Vintage Fabric, Buttons, Posts, Houndstooth by PenelopeAndAnastasia

Sunshine Vines- Fabric Button Earrings by SweeterThanThis

Most of the ones I found on Etsy ranged from $4-$14.  I purchased the Sunshine Vines because I like the idea of them being slightly different, which makes them feel more handmade to me.

Of course, I recommend supporting a handmade crafter, but if you must make your own fabric Covered Button Earrings I found this great tutorial on callmeamaesing.com:  http://callmeamaesing.com/crafttable/diy-fabric-button-earrings/

I also got wind on the twitter circuit that there is some kind of fabric button cover machine at JoAnn fabric that might make it even easier.

So, after I caught the button earring bug, I started thinking about how the shape and 50s feel reminded me of routing through my grandma’s costume jewelry that she let us play with on special occasions.  There were some great round cz encrusted clip-on earrings that I coveted.   So, I searched the vintage category on Etsy and here is a fantastic super-real vintage version similar to the ones I played dress-up with:

Estate Diamonds Emeralds & Pearls Earrings White Gold by adinantiquejewellery

Yowza, check out that price tag! 8Gs!

So, THEN I decided, wouldn’t it be sweet if I could come up with a similar design using my semi-precious beads and sterling silver and add them to my shop?  Oooohh, I think it would be!

This is what I came up with for my 50s-inspired post earrings.  I used white freshwater coin pearls and surrounded them with extra sparkly mystic labradorite microfaceted rondells.

50s Inspired Earrings – Coin Pearl w/ Mystic Labradorite Posts by CamileeDesigns

Love.  Love!  Love,

Cami

The first time I threw everything at the wall to see if I could get something to stick….I got a handful of item favorites out of it.  In an effort to give it a thorough chance, I thought I should give it one more try, so I threw another $10 on the table and carefully selected only the 10 keywords which most closely described my jewelry. Here are the results of my most recent campaign.

Not good, not even a little bit – pretty sucky actually.  6,282 Impressions would seem a worthwhile investment if my logo was served up with the image, but it’s not.  I’m also little perplexed about why only $6.44 out of my $10 was used, but grateful to not waste another $3.56.

I haven’t heard of many sellers having success with the Search Ads.  I think it would be great if Etsy Labs did a Search Ads tutorial because maybe we’re missing some info that would help us be more successful with it?

Additional Reading:

• Here is an excellent article on Everything Etsy which describes why  Search Ads aren’t helping out your brand.

• If you’re really looking for a way to make Search Ads work for you, I would recommend reading this Etsy blog post.

Have the Search Ads worked for you?  I’d love to hear about it!

Happy sales,

Cami

The girl loved decorating some old clothes with puffy paint and I have to admit, I did too.   Probably one of the best parts of being a mom is re-discovering things that used to be so fun when I was younger and having an excuse to do them again.

Husband came home with this sweet little nail polish pack for me.  It reminded me of being 6 years old hanging out on the couch at my grandma’s house with my brother and sister and Aunt Betty eating popcorn and watching The Muppets.  {And, look at my black eyed Susan’s still going strong! Yay! }

Browsing through the drug store this week I noticed a pack of Garbage Pail Kid Cards.  Duuuude.  I had hundreds of them when I was younger.  I had to waste $3.99 to look through these.   Disgusting…can’t wait to pass them to my brother.

Went and hung out with one of my besties this week.  I’ve known her since junior high.  Anyway, she had this little nugget that I drew back in the day – must have been circa 1993.  A quite exaggerated artistic rendering of our ski school skills.  That’s me on the bottom right!

The other night I watched Take Me Home Tonight.  It is a comedy starring Topher Grace and Ana Farris that takes place in the 80s.  I thought it was great, I’m sure it got horrible ratings.  Anyway, the next morning I was inspired to make this design.  I posted it on my Facebook page and got 27 likes!!!

SWAK,

Cami

Linking up with:

Here’s what I wore one day this week – I can’t remember what I did, or if I even left the house.  I’m not so sure about myself in this pumpkin color.  I’m thinking no.

Sweater:  Victoria’s Secret

Belt:  Forever 21

Jeans: Inc

Boots:  The only pair of non-leather boots I could find last year – I think they are some teenager-brand like Hot Kiss

Jacket:  Ralph Lauren

Earrings and Necklace:  Camilee Designs

And, my next outfit I wore this to a baby shower for my dear friend on Sunday.

Shirt:  TJMaxx MaxStudio.

Jeans:  Target

Shoes: GAP

Cardigan: GAP

Scarf: Some discount store in Chicago called Filene’s Basement?  The tag says Benjamin Sherman

Earrings: Camilee Designs

The tag on the shirt said $69.00 – I paid $19.99 at TJ Max – - Wooohoo!  I also got a maxi skirt that retailed for $89.00 for $24.99.  I’ll save it for another WIWW!

ttyl,

Cami