Featured Artist / Etsian: Dawn Houser

I have THOUSANDS of rubber stamps. I kid you not. I don't use them much anymore, but I used to collect, buy, use, design, and sell them when I was in high school and I've never been able to part with my huge collection. It is nearly 20 years later and most of them are still boxed up. I have pulled a few out now and then, but I always tell myself that I can NOT buy ANY MORE STAMPS. I broke my own rule when I went to the Stitch fashion and craft event in Austin. I stopped at Dawn Houser's booth and snatched up several packs of the stamps she designed for Inkadinkadoo, including this set with an Asian theme, as well as some holiday stamps. I could not resist her style, and ended up adding about 10 new rubber stamps to my collection. (Aaack!)

I later found Dawn on etsy, the site where I sell my jewelry. Her etsy site [http://dawnhouser.etsy.com/] includes some of her hand knit items, gorgeously eclectic aprons (Oh! I wish I needed an apron!), and sometimes some of her art or collage materials are available. (My wallet is thankful that her rubber stamps have not shown up on etsy.) Dawn also has a wonderful blog about her life in San Antonio as an artist, mom, thrifter, baker, knitter, crafter, reader, and pet lover. Through her blog [http://dawnhouser.blogspot.com/], I discovered that she's also designed stationery for Crane's. I purchased several boxes of these lovely papers for holiday gifts. I hope to one day meet Dawn in person at one of her open studio tours in the Alamo City.

Ring-a-Ding-Ding

A few days ago, these colorful buttons were trapped in an antique canning jar begging to be released. (See my post a few days ago.) Sure, they had storied pasts on old cardigans that traveled the world, on button-down shirts squeezed in the back of someone's overstuffed closet, or hidden for years at the bottom of grandma's sewing box.

After scoring this jar of stories at an antique mall in Wichita Falls, I couldn't help but dump the buttons out on my parents' dining room table to sift through them and see what pretties I could make. My sister and I made stacks and glued them together with a super strong adhesive. Then I put the stacks on adjustable ring bases, upcycling the old buttons into unique vintage button rings.

There are too many rings here to keep them all for myself, so as soon as the sun comes out and the dreary weather moves out of town, I'll be outside taking some well-lit photos and adding the bling to my etsy shop. I can't wait to share these with everyone!

As a side note, when I dumped out the jar there were a few interesting goodies in there that were not buttons, including a thumbtack, some marbles, a few beads, and a few bolts. Not one to let anything go to waste, I used the thumbtacks and marbles to make some mod-looking tacks. These beauties will dress up my otherwise boring bulletin board. I made them by stacking a few buttons, much like the rings are made, and topping them off with a brightly colored marble--giving it a bit of a "handle." [See top three pretties on the right in the photo above.] The whole stack was then glued to the flat-top of the thumbtack. Voila!