tassels

Tassel Party

April 22, 2010 By nester

I’m not going to waste your time with me going on and on about tassels. If you are new and are all “tassel huh?” read more about them here. They are addictive. If you are now convinced you must learn how to make tassels, you can also get the ebook here. If you are in desperate need of tassel toppers and fringe, they are for sale here.

Let’s get this party started. If you have made a tassel or tassels and want to show them off, here’s your chance.

If you have an etsy shop we would LOVE to meet you! But, instead of linking directly to your shop, link to your blog where you can be more personal and introduce us to you and your tassels and then include a link to your shop. Thanks so much!

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Tasseling

April 20, 2010 By nester

It’s that time of year again. The time when some of us are scrambling trying to figure out what to get our moms for Mother’s Day. Well, you have 2 1/2 weeks. Just long enough to learn how to make fabulous, beautiful, fat tassels and give one to your mom for Mother’s Day. I wrote an entire ebook all about how to make handmade tassels to help you with the process.

If you’ve been putting it off because you are afraid it’s too hard to learn, let me assure you, it’s not hard to learn. It’s easy and addictive and super rewarding. And once you learn the basics, you can personalize your tassels till your heart’s content and give them as gifts. It’s the skill that keeps on giving.

Maybe you are new here and you are wondering what a tassel is. I wrote an entire post about it, but, it’s an enchanting, magical beautiful little thing that nobody needs but everybody wants. Kind of like a chocolate chip cookie but you can’t eat it and it’s much prettier. I’ve seen handmade tassels priced over $100 in specialty shops in High Point. We aren’t talking your grandma’s curtain tie backs. These are handmade, decorative tassels packed with personality. I can’t prove it yet, but I think they come alive when you go to sleep. They dance around because they are all wearing fat, full ball gowns.

It would be really fun to learn how to make tassels and then get together with your mom and sisters and daughters and all make them together. The Ultimate Tassel Guide will show you everything you need to know to make tassels, including a special section for anyone who wants to sell tassels. It’s packed with tons of photos and super simple steps as well as lots of sources for tassel parts. This book is 100 pages long–way more information than I could ever fit in a blog post or series of posts.

If you haven’t bought the ebook yet, it’s only $10 and you can simply click that uncentered button right above this that says “add to cart”. You pay via paypal and then it guides you to download the ebook. It can take a few minutes but don’t worry, so far, everyone who’s tried it has been able to download it.

For those of you tassel making maniacs out there, I thought I’d host a tassel link up party on Thursday. That way you can show off your talents and inspire us with your ideas. If you have a shop and sell tassels, feel free to join in. Maybe you want to link to a tassel giveaway on your blog?

I’ve even got a few supplies to sell on ebay this week. Tons of toppers and a little fringe. I’ll let you know when it’s up.

Go forth and tassel!

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Nesting Spoons

March 15, 2010 By nester

Almost two years ago I saw a photo in a magazine of a spoon ornament that had some moss and an miniature egg on it. I immediately got my drill and tried to drill a hole through one of my disposal chewed up spoons. I almost started a fire but I simply couldn’t get that ding a ling hole drilled. And besides, I had tassels to make.

Then a few weeks ago my mom and I found some beautiful silver plate spoons and I remembered that photo. I couldn’t find it anywhere but that didn’t matter, I knew just what to do.

I asked my husband to help me. I found a heavy duty drill bit and he used his heavy duty drill and it still smelled like we were trying to melt metal but it worked. We had holes.

Then my mom came over and we glued all sorts of moss and bark and tiny eggs and shells and berries and stuff onto the bowl of the spoon. We also bent most of the spoons up a little on the end so the nesting part wouldn’t look like it was going to slip off.

We’ve got iced tea spoons and soup spoons and ladles, some have monograms and stampings and some are showing beautiful wear, proving they’ve been loved before they were separated from their sets. I wanted to think of a catchy name for them and I thought Nesting Spoons would fit nicely, you know Nesting Place, Nesting Spoons?

This is the part where I show you far too many photos.

I know what you are thinking, ok, they are pretty charming, but what’s a person supposed to do with them?

Remember tassels? Yep, same kind of thing. Beautiful, needless, purely unnecessary, and I must have them all.

I love them layered on a lamp.

Or layered on a lamp. Have I mentioned layered on a lamp? One looks lovely hanging from a knob in my kitchen and on my armoire.

Here’s an idea, you can hang it on a lamp. I’m a little partial to that one if you haven’t noticed.

If you have any random spoons laying around, you can drill a hole and add some little pretties to it and have a beautiful little conversations piece. Or, if you don’t want to make your own, we have 10 Nesting Spoons for sale in the ebay shop–all starting at 99 cents of course. Each Nesting Spoon is a unique silver plate spoon, not aluminum or anything cheap, each one has its own personality and is branded with the Nesting Place ribbon. They are so adorable!

***

Start doing your finger stretches because, tomorrow is Giveaway Day! We’ve got 28 giveaways and the plan is to have a new giveaway up every hour. However, if the past few giveaways are any indication, I may need to spread the giveaways out over a longer period of time so Nesting Place doesn’t wonky up the server. So if you come here tomorrow and get some crazy error page, promise me you’ll continue to check back, it just means that the giveaways are so impossibly wonderful that we are knocking out the internet!

Tassel Day

November 23, 2009 By designer

The tassel ebook , The Nester’s Ultimate Guide to Making the Most Beautiful, Proportional, Fluffy and Full Tassels That People Will Fight Over; For You to Give or Sell, is moving right along. If all goes as planned, it will be available this afternoon. I’ll have a new post up here as soon as it’s ready. This ebook is no frills, but, it’s 100 pages of incredibly useful tasseling content plus over 100 photos. There’s even a special section just for tassel sellers–stuff that can be applied to all crafters actually. The book is $10. And worth every penny. I would have paid $100 for this information when I started out. I think you’ll love it!

And to get you in the mood for tassels, I thought I’d introduce you to a tasseling friend of mine, Heathahlee who blogs at Butterfly Genes. She’s got a shop full of enchanting tassels that you will love. When I made the decision to not focus on making tassels anymore, she’s the girl I trusted with all my tassel supplies. Let’s get to know Heathahlee–my questions are in brown.

Why did you start making tassels and how long have you been making them?

Last year about this time I needed a unique Christmas gift for my Mother-in-Law. After winning a tassel giveaway, I thought, “Hmm…wonder if I could do that?” After some trial and error (and error, and error, and error…HA!) I finally made one that I fell in love with. Pretty much every other female in my family got one after that.

After Christmas we found out about a mission trip to Poland our church was going to do. I immediately started thinking about what I could do to earn the money to go. We have a huge craft fair in May in our county that I decided I’d make tassels for. One hundred tassels. Mmm-hmm. One. Hundred. Tassels. And I did it! I was working on them the night before the show, but I did it! What didn’t sell I used to open my Etsy shop.

Do you have a favorite tassel ?

Oh, my goodness! That is such a hard question to answer. I can honestly say that I adore most every single one that I make. I guess my all time favorite would have to be one of the earliest that I made to sell, the Pink Toile Bunny Tassel.

You have an etsy shop at butterflygenes.etsy.com but do you sell your tassels any place else?

I have sold a ton to people at church. I’m amazed at how well they do. I’ve had unsolicited requests several times. I think it still amazes me that someone would want something I had made.

I haven’t done another show since May, but I’m planning on doing the same show next year, as well as another huge one that is held in Memphis every October at the Pink Palace Museum. I also have an open house in which I’m participating in a couple of weeks.

Do you have any advice for someone who is thinking about making a craft of any kind for fun or to sell?

The first thing I would say is BUY NESTER’S TUTORIAL! hee hee {hmm, I wonder if she meant for me to leave this part in? I am–she’s actually read the rough outline without photos and liked it!}

I guess the one piece of advice would be to get advice from seasoned crafters that make what you want to make or are already making. There are teams on Etsy for certain crafts where people can trade ideas and get advice. I am still learning all the ins and outs of Etsy but I love it! It is the place to shop this Christmas.

Also, have your work critiqued by others, both in and out of the same craft. They will have an objective eye and can give you advice you might otherwise be blind to.

Do you have a favorite Etsy shop to buy from or window shop from?

Got Crow Creations

I have been drooling over two different shops for the past few weeks. The first is Got Crow Creations www.gotcrowcreations.etsy.com

if you love birds and/or nests, you HAVE to check her shop out. Too, too cute. The Tufted Titmouse is my fave. They are my real life favorite little birds.

The second is For the Love Of…www.fortheloveof.etsy.com. The Fly Away Little Bird Pendant is on my wish list. The blue glass…the brown bird…. Love. It.

Any last words?

Crafting is an art. It is also an expression of who you are. If you even think you might like to do something like tassels, or jewelry, or felt, whatever, start with one or two pieces and see if you like it. I knew after my first tassel that I wanted to make many, many more. To see a thing of beauty that I actually created still thrills me even after a year of making tassels.

Oh, and my last thought is this. Tassels make great Christmas gifts! =) (you can delete that if you want! HA!) Why would I delete that I couldn’t agree more!

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A Grateful Nest

September 15, 2009 By designer

At (in)courage today I’m asking “how have you found beauty and contentment in the place where you nest, right now“, even if it isn’t your dream home?

And, you can leave a comment while you are over there to enter to win a Grateful Nest tassel–{available to purchase here}.

Have I told you yet how these nest tassels are pretty much my favorite thing I’ve ever made? Lainie from (in)…{ let’s call it (in) for short shall we?} gave me a poem called “Be Grateful” months and months ago and asked if I could somehow work it into a tassel.

Here are the words I’ve included from the poem:

Be Grateful

for good music, for dark chocolate,
for a place to call home, for warm hugs,
for quiet time, freedom to dream, for family time,
for understanding souls, for kindred spirits,
for true forgiveness, for sweet memories,
for pink bubblegum, for silliness, for red shoes,
for blue skies, for every breath,
for sunshine on your face, for a child’s laughter,
for God’s grace

–Bonnie Jensen
(c) 2009 incourage

And, the nest is surrounded by my signature ragamuffin scraps with little trinkets buried within the folds. Each tassel is unique and of course, has its own personality. Now get on over to (in) and win yourself one!

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Tassel Alternatives

April 20, 2009 By designer

This lamp is so modest and fully clothed in the glorious and alluring item: The Tassel.

Here are a few quick and simple ideas of how to stop the embarrassment of having an unadorned lamp.

1. Embellish an Existing Tassel:

This tassel right up there is and embellished tassel. That means it’s not made from scratch. It started out as a pathetic, anorexic tassel and I nursed it back to health with the help of my glue gun, full fringe, ribbon and a neat little metal thing I had laying around. Maybe you have a tassel that’s a little skinny. All you have to do is wrap a few layers of fringe around it…Extreme Makeover: Tassel Edition.

2. Substitute with an Ornament

You can also hang a favorite ornament from that pokey out switch on your lamp. I got this bird a few Christmases ago. It has never seen the likes of a Christmas tree.

A friend sent me this cross a few weeks ago. I hung it on the lamp in the kitchen in lieu of a tassel.

3. Use Your Imagination:

I found this bag while out junking this weekend. It’s entirely too small for an actual real woman to use but it did have one good quality…

Those big furry pom poms look great wrapped around that lamp switch thing. Won’t this be charming in the winter?

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Last Wednesday’s Tassel Sale was a success thanks to all you rabid tassel fans. After only 21 minutes over half the 100 tassels had sold. Once we hit the hour mark, there were only 14 tassels left. And shortly thereafter there was one solitary and lonely Baby’s First Christmas tassel left and I had to take him out of his misery.

My plan is to open up the shop again later in the summer. I’m experimenting with the best way to keep from wanting to burn down my craft room and sealing the door shut with hot glue… taking good breaks seems like the obvious choice. My plans are subject to change based on what kind of mood I’m in.

Some of you didn’t get the tassel that you wanted –I’m so sorry. I had no idea how quickly these little gems would sell out and I promise, if I ever do this sale again I’ll open later in the day to accommodate you west coasties.