Recent Wedding Shoes!

Well, it has been way too long since my last post so here are a recent custom order for a bride that she was kind enough to send me pictures of her big day:

Etsy Craft Party - the Shoes!

When I went to the Etsy craft party on June 18th, I was asked by Vanessa (one of the organizers and a very sweet person) to do a demo:

Here I am working on a pair and showing the party-goers how Oxford Is Heaven does it.

The finished product! PPS gave me these shoes and they were perfect for doing a demo! I listed them in my shop after the party and now they are the first pair that I have sold to Scotland! How cool is that!

And if you'd like to create your own pair, here is my list of supplies that I gave out to everyone:

~ DIY Marie Antoinette Shoes Material List~
By Oxford is Heaven
www.etsy.com/shop/OxfordHeaven

- One pair of vintage shoes in your size – old bridesmaid’s shoes work amazing!
- Ribbon in coordinating colors – I like to have 3 widths to work with, 1/8 inch, 5/8 inch and 1+ inch wide (can be all the same color or 3 different colors).
- Rhinestone and/or pearl stickers – separate, self-adhesive kind
- Vintage clip-on earrings or buttons – thrift store finds!
- Millinery flowers
- Feathers
- Fabric paint and brushes – I use the kind meant for making t-shirts
- Needle and thread (for sewing ribbon)
- Hot glue gun and glue sticks – you can get a small one at any craft store

Good sources:
- High quality ribbon at good prices: www.theribbonretreat.com
- All kinds of supplies: www.mjtrim.com
- And my favorite: www.etsy.com! (Tons of good stuff under Supplies!)

Pink Wedding!

One of my pairs of shoes is going to a bride who is wearing pink for her wedding:

I love the idea of a pale colored dress! And it makes me happy that my shoes are going to be a part of her special day.

On the Etsy Blog again!

My gold and vintage pumps here: Etsy Blog.

Hurray! They were snapped up today too.

More Spring Style!

Nautical Stripe Lucky Diamonds Dress Sailor Mini PREPPY Bright Yellow WICKER Purse Wayfarer Sunglasses Girly Girl Gorgeous Liberty of London Vintage Silk Scarf Salmon Woven Leather Flats Vintage Cobbie White Woven Flats Number10 Cylinder Vase in Exeter Links Kelly Estate Earrings, Petites, Tanzanite Ugly Betty circle skirt ethereal innocence - wire flower crown

Etsy Buy Handmade OxfordHeaven

Fun Times in the Shop

It's been quite busy recently for Oxford Is Heaven.

I was featured again on the front page of Etsy earlier this week and did an interview for Designers4Design.

Here are some of the shoes I've been working on. Four of these pairs are custom orders!

I've also been using my new light which means I can take a picture like this even at night:

Good times!

Favorite Craft Vendors

Creating fun crafts requires finding lots of good supplies.

 

 I love thrift stores - so they are one of my primary methods of finding good shoes for projects and vintage elements like earrings (clip-ons are perfect for adding to shoes).

My favorites near my house are:

Goodwill on 355 (they often have really nice shoes)

Value Village in College Park (huge selection, tons and tons of stuff which is different every day)

And of course, the best online thrift store ever - eBay (where I go to get something specific)

I also really like finding yard sales or rummage sales (the Methodist church on campus has one twice a year that I've gotten some really great stuff at, like a box of vintage ribbon for $0.50!).

So far as general crafts go, there are a few good places to get new supplies:

Michaels

JoAnn Fabrics (great for general sewing supplies) 

  

 I also have used a couple of shop on Etsy to buy supplies - I like supporting my fellow shop owners and I've found some very specific and fun things I can use:

ChristopherPines (vintage millinery goods like ribbons, leaves and velvet flowers)

MaryNotMartha (more millinery, especially really lovely flowers)

GD Supplies (feathers and supplies for hair creations)

Beads N Bits (she hand-makes the most amazing velvet flowers)

Merelle (a huge selection of vintage jewelry at inexpensive prices)

Part of the fun for me is researching how to make a pair of really pretty shoes for someone. I love scouting around and picking up different things to create a specific look. I'm off now to keep working on getting supplies for 5 custom orders!

Exciting Times for Oxford is Heaven!

So a few days ago one of my pairs of shoes was featured on the front page of Etsy!

This was pretty exciting for me and something I've been hoping for while would happen. Etsy has been an amazing way of selling fun crafty items and I really like using it.

Here again is my shop (with tons of new stuff!):
http://www.etsy.com/shop/OxfordHeaven

Also, a lot of nice people have blogged about my shop! Here is a selection:
Molly & Mary - a fellow estyian and blogger who talks about "books, artworks, women, and places that inspire me."
Try Handmade -  a group of bloggers that encourage people to get away from big stores and shop little!
Wuthering Iris - a blogger who hearts all my favorite stores.

I've also added myself to Project Wedding. My plan is to try to market my shoes as the perfect custom wedding idea for either the bride or the whole wedding party. It gives the bride the chance to have the a pair of shoes that go perfect for her dress and the bridesmaids to have matching shoes, but slightly different if they want.

In fact, if there are any readers from my home church, I'd love to do shoes for your wedding at a discounted rate to get the word out locally! Just contact me for more info.

Crafting for Relaxation

So I've pretty much realized that when there is a lot going on in my life (and sometimes the stress level is high), I can measure it by the sheer volume of craftiness that suddenly overtakes me. Then I have to stop myself so I don't get out of control and start planning all sorts of crazy projects.

Guess what I've been up to recently? Well, first there was the cool shirt made by PPS:

(which I think is pretty awesome and soon to be posted in the etsy store)

So I tried my hand at some sewing:

(also coming to the store - I think I like how it turned out?)

Then there is something for the Meeper (Jan, close your eyes):

(I think he was trying to get away)

And as Amms correctly guessed, Marie Antoinette is in town:

(yummy shoes, anyone?)

Which brings me my special winter break project that I'm really excited about. Let's just say it relates to the pink shoes, but involves this:

(they look like easter eggs??)

I could stop at any time...

Etsy Friends and Hints

I think that it is very cool that there are a couple other friends on etsy (and hopefully more soon!).

onewordprints makes fun journals and collages (with the help of her goldfish).

mrsjennyjames is one of my favorite photographers and she has lovely prints in her store!

And here is a little hint for my winter break project! This picture comes from a movie involving delicious shoes - anyone know what it is?

Fall Weddings and Upcoming Attractions

Another wedding! Bride Sara asked me to do shoes for her and then decided that she wanted them for her bridesmaids as well. She had purchased jewelry already and so I went with the theme of black/silver/red roses to create the girls shoes.


Detail on one of the shoes. It was really fun because I did them all similar, but also different so they could each have their individualized pair. (How fun is customizing?!)


I bought some small pieces of vintage jewelry at the thrift store to incorporate into the shoes (like a pair of drop ebony earnings on the backs of this pair).


Doing these shoes involves my love of thrift stores, etsy, ebay and craft supplies. Even a small piece of ribbon can finish off a pair - left over from a gift or church rummage sale (where I bought a whole box of stuff for $0.50).


The bride's shoes turned out wonderful - vintage lace, a velvet rose and pearls and rhinestones - how decadent is that?


They almost seem like they could be the cake!

PPS and I have been brainstorming a lot recently. This has led to some thrift store purchases, checking out options online and a hopefully a crafting bonanza soon. She has some ideas to add to the store that I think will be really good. A spring line of fun fashion may be in the works! (And I also had a really fun idea of something I want to do over winter break!)

Lots of Shoes!

I have been quite busy working on finishing up a bunch of custom orders before taking a little break (now that school has started for the fall).

Here's what I've been busy with:

a pair of bride's shoes for a funky do-it-yourself wedding (she has some great ideas!)

a pair inspired by Anthropologie (my secret plan is to sell my shoes there some day)

classy, inspired by Chanel's recent line

this customer said "go all out". it was really fun (there are even pink feathers!)

Of course, sometimes I really just like to get a pair that's not for someone in particular and just see what happens... especially when the sister sends me some really fun shoes:

I just wish they were my size... but since they're not, you can buy them in my shop! I have some more fun happening in the shop, so I'll be posting again soon!

Etsy Favorites

One of my favorite things about Etsy is the Favorite feature. Like most of Etsy's options, it's clean and easy to use without making navigate away from your item or getting all crazy with options like some sites do (Amazon, you know who you are).

Consequently, I frequently add to my favorites (you can either add an item or a seller). When I'm working on a project, I'll add a whole bunch of things and then I can look at them all together and delete items I decide I don't want.

So here's an outfit I've put together for fall. I always like it in magazines when they show you an outfit you can do for a certain amount.

This is my cute "under $100 Fall Fashion" from my current favs.

(polka-dot cardigan $10 from teamkrause, vintage plaid mini-dress $35 from tltvintage, corduory clutch $16 from bellevuevintage, leather slouch boots $35 from AnyywhereButHere)

Fun Cards From Etsy!

photocredit: boygirlparty

RKP recently gifted me these so cute recipe cards from boygirlparty's amazing Etsy shop. Their stuff is quirky, whimsical and reasonable. These would make great hostess or aunt (or sister) gifts.

Recommended?
Yes!

Negative bits
The only negative bit is that the recipe cards (I don't know about the other products) are printed on heavy, glossy cardstock. Although this makes a beautiful image, it also means you can only write with ballpoint pen (other ink smears). As we all know, ballpoint pen is a horrible thing to use because it quickly deteriorates and easily fades. This librarian/archivist says thumbs-down to ballpoint.