Personalized gift wrapping

I always find that the way a gift is wrapped is a big part of the fun in receiving a gift. Who doesn't like receiving a beautifully wrapped box and wondering what's inside? All my jewelry are always nicely placed in a pretty gift box ready to give as gifts. But with Christmas just around the corner I discovered many Internet sites displaying great ways to personalize and upgrade your gift wrapping so I thought I'd share some of these ideas here.

 1. Photos - printing a photograph of the Recipient of the gift and placing it on the gift is a super cute and easy way to personalize your wrapping.  

Photowrapping

 2. Drawing your own wrapping paper. Instead of using a standard wrapping paper you can use a simple white paper and let the children draw some cute pictures on it. Or you can make your own drawings on brown paper with a silver pen. You can use stencils if you need some help.

  

Children drawing wrap

  

Hand-drawn gift wrap



 3. Another cool way to add color to your wrapping is using yarn to create a rainbow-like look.

Yarn rainbow wrap

4. If you are a bit more artistic you can weave a nice pattern around your package. It takes a little work but it looks awesome.

Weave-like gift wrap

5. Bows and flower are always a nice embellishment and if they are hand made, even better. Here are some cute ideas for bows and flower you can make yourself to add to your gifts. They are made of simple materials like magazines or cupcake paper.    





1. Cupcake paper flowers




3. handmade

flower



2. handmade

ribbon





I have found all these wonderful ideas while browsing around Pinterest. Feel free to check out my cool gift wrapping board there for more ideas.



Black Friday goes international !

It has been a while since I last wrote in my blog. I had a lot of things on my plate and I just didn't get around to it. But I am back now!

I wanted to share some thoughts about black friday. Black Friday is basically an American thing. A few years ago I didn't even know that it existed. As I live in Israel where most people are jewish, Christmas is not celebrated here and there is no shopping frenzy.

But as the world becomes more and more of a small global village, in recent years several shops here in Israel started having black Friday sales and this trend seems to be catching on. After all everyone loves a good sale and you don't even need a special reason for it right?

So far I have seen these sales mainly in electronics stores which is not very helpful since I don't need any new electronic devices right now (I always want new devices but I really don't need any). But who knows if this trend continues to spread, maybe I will also be able to enjoy great sales without having to travel overseas!

I am also having a black Friday-cyber Monday sale in my Etsy store. Use coupon code "cybermonday" when you purchase something from my store and you will get free shipping. No limit on the number of items you can buy, everything ships for free worldwide. Happy holidays and happy shopping!

The worst time to be without a camera

While I was on vacation in Barcelona just a couple of weeks ago, the string holding my camera suddenly tore and the camera dropped to the floor. Unlucky for me - the screen broke. This of course was very upsetting as I love to take lots and lot's of pictures when I'm traveling. So we ended up buying a small not too expensive camera to use for the rest of the trip and came home with many beautiful pictures of Barcelona which I promise to share in one of my next posts.

However, this was not the end of the story. The broken camera is the same camera I use to photograph my jewelry. It is one I picked after careful examination and found to be best for my needs. Needless to say the the new camera could not replace this one for my business purposes. So I took the camera to a lab to fix and am now waiting for a part to arrive which will take about a month!!!

Of course this is the worst time in the world for me to be without a camera, with the holidays just around the corner and many new items just waiting to be photographed and listed in my store. Lucky for me I have some great friends that came to the rescue and lent me their camera to use until mine is fixed. So these are some of the picture I took with it:

 1. Sterling silver hoop earrings with an oxidized black rose

 2. Spiral wings pendant in sterling silver and an Opal stone

3. Square post earrings with a flower and green briolettes

Short vacation before the holiday rush begins

Last year was my first christmas as a full time internet seller so I was really not prepared for it. Of course it was wonderful to get so many orders but it was also very exhausting. So this year, just before the holiday rush begins, I went on a short vacation to Barcelona!

What a wonderfull city! So vibrant, colorful and happy. Not to mention how inspiring Barcelona is! Everywhere you look there's something beautiful and artistic. I am sure all this inspiration will develop into new design ideas for my future works.

So now I am back, rested, full of energy and ready for the upcoming holidays. I have started to prepare my store for christmas shopping, listing some new items and also making use of Etsy's new coupon feature to offer special deals for black friday, cyber monday etc. From today and untill cyber monday (29 november) I will be giving a 15% discount on all jewelry in my store. Just enter the coupon code BLACKTOCYBER to receive your discount.

1. Sterling silver branch and leaves ring

2. Sterling silver and aqua marine teardrop pendant 

3. Sterling silver dangling bouquet earrings