Karen Williams won 1st place, a $50.00 gift certificate

#12 by Karen Williams 'Points Unknown'

Ellen Lambright won 2nd place, a $25.00 gift certificate.

#3 by Ellen Lambright titled 'Steampunk Challenge'

and Liz White is our 3rd place winner, a $25.00 gift certificate.

#11 by Liz White 'At the Bottom of the Ocean'

And finally, our random voter winner is: Susan Walters!  We will be sending a $20.00 gift certificate to Susan.

Thanks to all of you who voted, and especially all who entered. Your energy and efforts are very much appreciated. Thanks for sharing your designs and creativity with all of us.

* If you are a winner please email me at: pam@bellomodo.com so that I can email your gift certificate to you.

We included in the challenge kits a button we refer to as the Needlepoint Button. They have a grid of holes perfect for sewing or beading through. Also included were seed beads, findings, and Fire-polished & Czech Glass Beads.

13 people sent in pictures of their finished pieces, so now we need to select a winner! Please comment and help us choose. We will add up the comments and add them to the votes from each of us in the shop to select our finalists.

The contest will end Sunday night at midnight and we will announce the winner on Monday here on the blog and on Facebook. 1st place receives a $50.00 gift certificate, 2nd and 3rd place receive a $25.00 certificate each. Spread the word and help us choose!

The First photo is

#1 by Brenda Radford titled ‘Swirl’

#2 by Constance J. Mitro-Johnson titled 'Flower Garden'

#3 by Ellen Lambright titled 'Steampunk Challenge'

#4 by Debbie Zook untitled

#5 by Eileen Nelson Untitled

#6 by Kathy Pepp titled 'Rhapsody in Purple Bohemian Wrap'

#7 Jennifer Brown Untitled

#8 Margaret Brown untitled

#9 Catherine Numata 'Untitled'

#10 by Kate Parsons 'Jellyfish' Visit her site at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/SilverCircleDesigns

#11 by Liz White 'At the Bottom of the Ocean' Visit Liz's Etsy store at: My etsy store is lizwhite.etsy.com

#12 by Karen Williams 'Points Unknown' You ca ncontct Karen at: blog: baublicious.blogspot.com site: skunkhillstudio.com Etsy: skunkhillstudio Twitter: @skunkhillstudio

#13 by Tamera Mickelson 'Untitled' You can visit Tamara's website at: http://javagoth.artfire.com

First, you can rest at ease if you are in the USA as we currently ship free, though we are planning to institute a minimum $10.00 order to receive the free shipping in the future. Shipping for orders under $10.00 will be $2.00 in the future, the only exceptions are for items very large or heavy then we do ask for help with the shipping, but this only happens on rare occasions as most items we offer are not heavy. An example of an item that requires extra shipping is the Vagabond. And, if you are Canadian, regular shipping to Canada is only $1.00, a pretty good deal I think! International shipping is a base flat fee of $8.50 with more for heavy items. Insurance is optional, ask if you desire it, and we strongly suggest it for international orders. We cannot be held responsible for orders that go missing if they are not insured. We do use Delivery Confirmation on all orders.

The way we process payments is my next topic, something that seems to cause some confusion, so I want to clarify here. We use the highest method of security to process payments, that means no credit card numbers are ever stored on our computers. That is the way hackers get your card number, by stealing it from a merchant’s computer. It has happened to big stores, so we do not want to be a vehicle for some unscrupulous person to ruin your credit. All card info is sent scrambled directly to the main processor, and the order is charged at checkout. Most small businesses store the card information on their hard drives then send the info to the processor, and we find this to be unsafe, even for a few days as you never know when a hacker will get in. Our computers have no personal information of any interest to a hacker so even though we use Mac computers which have good security, we do not have to worry as your info is safely NOT on our hard drives.

All payments are processed when placed, all of your sensitive information, your card numbers, etc, go directly to the processors, and we never even see them. We can access the sale record on the processors website ( we use Authorize.net) which shows the last 4 numbers to process refunds if we need to but that is all. Doing business this way costs us additional fees if we refund, (and for that reason we generally prefer to add a credit to your account for amounts under $5.00) but we feel that the extra fees are worth the peace of mind. We get questions once in awhile about why we charge when the order is placed instead of when its shipped and I am hoping this answers those questions for you.

The next topic I want to address is Your Account. I want to encourage you to create an account, not for me or my business but for you. Having an account gives you access to your history, all the orders you have placed, what you paid, when it was shipped, where it is at in the process, and more information is available in your Account. You also have access to a Wish List, which is very useful to save items and for comparisons. You can add things you like or are interested in but don’t want to purchase at this time, or things you want to compare side by side. They will stay in your wish list until you either move them to your cart of delete them. And, your cart will be saved for you also, until you want to check out.

Next topic: How to add and update or subtract items from your cart. Once you have added a few items to your cart you may want to increase the number of an item you have in your cart, or delete something you have changed your mind about. To do this go to the Home or Front Page, and then click on Shopping Cart at the top right side of the home page. Once it is open simply change the numbers in the item box, or click in the small box to the left of each item to remove it, then click on the Update Button at the bottom of the page and your wishes will be followed through with. You must do any updating, adding quantities or deleting items from your cart before you go to checkout.

Checking out: Make sure that you want everything that is in your cart, and if there is anything in there you do not want or the quantity is wrong, go back to the front page and click on Shopping Cart and make the changes as discussed in the last paragraph. so now, you are ready to checkout! If you are not signed in the do so. Once in the checkout screen start at the top. If you have any credits on your account the first thing you will see is a line of text asking if you want to use your credit or gift voucher if you have a gift certificate. If you want to use it put a check in the box asking you if you want to use your voucher. You must check the box for the program to know you want to use it.

Next, are you using a discount code? If so enter it here and then click on Redeem. Once the screen refreshes, continue on to delivery address. If you want to send it to a different address than the one on file Click on Change Address, and follow the instructions, either select an alternate address already in the list or add a new one. Once done click on Continue, and you will be taken back to the main checkout page where you can select the Shipping Method. The free shipping is automatically selected but if you want Priority or Overnight change the selection to reflect your wishes by clicking in the corresponding box to the right of the type of delivery you desire.

Next choose the billing address in the same manner you chose the shipping address, and then enter the payment type. Be sure and click in the corresponding box that is all the way to the right across from the payment type. You must do this for your payment type to be recognized. Fill in the credit card info if you have chosen that method and finally add any comments you would like to send with the order in the comments box. View your order and if all is as you want it click on Confirm. Once you have done this the order will either go through and you will see a Success screen or it will throw the order back to checkout due to a wrong credit card number or address or something that needs to be addressed. Often if this happens a statement in red text will appear at the top of the page telling you what is wrong. In any event, if you have been returned to checkout be sure to check to see if all the proper checks are in the right boxes before confirming again.

We are always happy to assist and walk through the steps with you or answer questions over the phone or via email, just let us know how we can help!

My Etsy page is The Glass Stitch.

and from Merle Sherman, who had this t say about her piece: My inspiration to use these Lucite flowers for the challenge comes from a few different things. It is spring time and the flowers are just starting to unfold, flowers always make me smile. I love to bead and garden. My husband made the Opal spider for me for a special occasion. And Jenny Gallagher made me a most exquisite hatband using Lucite flowers. I have a large hat collection that is just yearning for decorations so I used these inspirations to start the creating. Thanks for the challenge, it was fun to do and fun to wear. I get a lot of positive comments when I wear my hat.

Congratulations ladies, thanks for sending in your entries, and enjoy your certificates which are being emailed to you today.

Take a peek! We are so honored to be included! Thanks to everyone who voted for us and moved it into the finals.

The About.com Readers’ Choice Awards recognizes the Best of the Best in products, services, and features as determined by the readers of About.com. This year is the biggest year ever for the Readers’ Choice Awards, and has expanded to include readers’ favorites in Beadwork!

Voting begins tomorrow, February 11, 2011 and continues until March 8.

Readers Choice Awards Finalist Badge

The link to the voting form is here:
http://beadwork.about.com/od/otherresources/ss/Vote-For-Your-Beadwork-Favorites-In-The-2011-About-Com-Readers-Choice-Awards.htm

We would be so happy if you would consider voting for us!

Thanks, Pam & Crew

And, we have all of our Tim Holtz Sizzix Products on sale as well:
Big Z Dies 25% OFF
Texture Fades Set of Two 25% OFF
New styles are going to be added soon, so we need to make some room!

Inspiration:
Check out the Gallery at the Art Institute

Glimmer Mists 30% OFF

Cool felt embellishments

Tim Holtz

Tim Holtz Big-Z Dies

On The Surface Fiber Sets
All Colorways
10% OFF

Making Memories

Cool felt embellishments

Glimmer Mists 30% OFF
Perfect Pearls Pigment Sets 25% OFF

From the upstairs window in the shop

It’s sunny out now, still dripping from earlier rain, but comparatively warm. I am looking forward to putting Christmas Earring Kits together this afternoon and decided to offer a special code for blog followers!

Enter code: TREE for 10% off any of our Holiday Earring Sets!