FEST

Monday, September 16, 2013

Florida Highlight - the Key's!

I thought now would be a great time to start exploring Florida, and what better way to do it then with a Florida Key's info graphic!

Travel Ideas infographic from HomeAway

Make sure to swing by Cottage Jewels and wish our Team Fest Key West native a hello.....

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Idea of the day: Wine Cork Keychain Organization

Last week while out shopping I couldn't find some of my rewards cards at checkout. Every store you go into now days has some sort of customer rewards program, and I can never find them in my wallet or purse. With two little munchkins with me at checkout I usually give up. Not anymore! I designated a wine cork key chain just for my reward cards!

Now I will be able to close my wallet AND find them every time. See our tutorial on making a wine cork key chain: Wine Cork Key Chain Tutorial This one was even easier, just a cork, a screw eye, and a split ring! No tools required.

Thanks, Bee

The Wooden Bee

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Hot-To: DIY Wall Vase Tutorial - made from reclaimed materials

Over the summer we made 20 wall vases for baby shower favors! Today I wanted to share how we created them. You don’t need to make twenty, but inside one or two can make beautiful wall sconces filled with candles. Or place a wall vase with fresh flowers from the garden by your front door. There are many ways to use these eco-friendly vases.

Materials Needed:

wood

saw

gloves

outdoor stain, and rags

drill stainless

steel clamps

lath screws

any medium to large glass jars

wall hanging hardware

First we cut some wood rectangles. We decided to use some curved reclaimed wood molding we had saved. Any size wood will do, but the idea is to have the wood wider and longer than the glass jars that you want to use. We cut two sizes of rectangles for two different sized jars: one 8.5″ by 5″ and one smaller 7.5″ x 4″.

Next I sealed the wood with outdoor deck stain. We prefer Sikkens but any outdoor stain with sealer will do. After the wood dried, I added wall hardware to the backs. Then my sweet husband drilled and secured the stainless steel clamps to the wood. There are many different size clamps. We used clamp size #56 (3 1/16″ to 4″). They can be found in the plumbing section of your local hardware store. We used a lath screw and a drill to hold the clamps to the wood. Lath screws are great all purpose fasteners. The exact screw label: truss washer lath screw 8 x 9/16.

To add the glass jars, I used a screwdriver to tighten the clamps around the glass. You can use all sorts of recycled glass jars. Wide mouth pickle and salad dressing glass jars are a favorite, if we’re not using mason canning jars.

I added some pink flowers (it’s a girl) and then packaged them up with an ultrasound picture of the baby. The mom to be loved them!!! If you have any questions when trying our tutorials please feel free to email us: thewoodenbee at gmail.com

Happy Creating, Bee
The Wooden Bee

Friday, September 13, 2013

Featured Friday - Richard and Richard

Hi Fest Followers! Each Friday we will be featuring a different Team Fest Member. Whether you are getting featured for a giveaway or because you won a challenge, we will slowly but surely learn all about each other!

So give some love to Richard and Richard of A Third Life, our first Team Fest interview feature!

Tell me a bit about yourself and what you sell:
A Third Life" is a father and son team, Richard and Richard, that makes crafts primarily from recycled wood that otherwise would probably end up on a trash pile. We utilize limbs pruned from our trees, discarded furniture, old fence, and construction remnants along with environmentally harvested exotic hardwoods. Our shop combines the skills of Richard Sr's years as an architect (retired) drawing and designing with the son's skills as a carpenter and painter to create original art pieces such as wooden wall hangings, jewelry, toys, guitar picks and much more.

Favorite piece you have made- and why?
Richard Sr's favorite pieces are the sensuous mermaid wall hangings and the Peanuts wall hangings and Christmas ornaments. Richard Jr's favorites include the life sized Snook and Redfish replicas, with other fish species in the works.
CLICK HERE TO CHECK IT OUT

What inspires you?
We are encouraged and inspired by our daughter/sister, Barbara, an accomplished jewelry artist with her own shop "World Treasures Collection", who introduced us to Etsy as a means of expressing our creativity. (Barbara will be moving back to Florida soon and would be an excellent addition to TeamFEST.) We are also continuously inspired by the wood grains, colors and textures to create pieces that incorporate their natural beauty, into our artworks.

click to visit listing on left
Favorite part about living in Florida?
The best part about living in Florida is the awesome weather and fantastic scenery associated with living in a tropical climate. Where else can you enjoy the beautiful flowers, trees, birds, butterflies, and the incredible beaches and oceans along with some of the best sunsets in the world.

See yourself in 5 years?
We thoroughly enjoy making our wood crafts and five years from now, hope to be doing the same thing, only with more skill and artistry.

If you could trade places with any other person for a week, famous or not famous, living or dead, real or fictional. with whom would it be?
If we could trade places with one person for a week, it would be Leonardo da Vinci, a great painter and inventor. His masterpieces such as the Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, and The Annunciation continue to be appreciated long after his time on earth had passed.

click to visit listing on left

Thank you Richard and Richard! Have a good weekend everyone!

-Chelsey
As it comes, it goes

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Team Pinterest

If you have not checked out our team Pinterest, now is the time. It is a great board to follow for updates on FEST products and trends. Happy Pinning!

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Roll Call - August

For those that don't know, each month we post a question on our team discussion board as a way to "check in" and see who is still active. This gives us a way to connect and get to know each other beyond the shop. Now, we have 11 pages of reply's in August, so I am only going to feature some of the better reply's

August's question....Where do you really live?

"Port St. Lucie - One day I decided to "follow" every other Etsian from Port St. Lucie. I was shocked to find there were pages and pages of my "neighbors" here on Etsy! I'm pretty sure there aren't many on TeamFEST, which seems odd. I would think this team would be almost automatic for all Floridians. Whenever I have the chance to talk to a Floridian who isn't a member of our team, I recommend it. I think this is one of the best support groups on Etsy." Madeline Meixner from HorizonCottage

"Kissimmee here :) A 'little' town south of Orlando. That is a great idea Madeline! I think I will follow other Etsians from my area as well. It is true -there is so much offered and much to learn from one another on our Team. Goooo FEST! " Luz from EstiloMargot

"I live in St. Augustine, where many other Floridians go for a weekend getaway!" Gail Hancock from AboveAverageJewelry

"Saint Cloud, Florida, Osceola County (Next door to Mickey's House) " Justine Redman from JustinesJewelry4U

"I live in Hollywood, Fl in Broward County. I usually just say Fort Lauderdale of Miami, I get tired of people asking if I live in California. lol. " Marcia Dee from WayfarerPrints

"Hi all- West Palm Beach here, born and raised! Fun to see where everyone is on the map! ;)" Casey Virata from LuckiiArts

"Panama City, Fl....In the Panhandle.........we are the last county on central time zone in the panhandle. :-) and I'm a native Birmingham,ALabamian. Moved here about 18 months ago and LOVE IT!" Robin Pichelmayer from RobinPichelmayerArts

"St. Augustine - just three blocks from work at the Fountain of Youth :)) so if you are in town stop in and say hello!" Rose from RecreationalArt

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Treasury Tuesday

Every month our team hosts a treasury challenge... to make it more exciting we will be featuring three of those treasury's every Tuesday! So far for September we have....