Clutch-Me.Com

Learn. Make. Sell. All about clutches.

Oscar(R) gowns and clutches

OMG, if you guys could see my site stats during the Academy Awards show!  It looks like ALL of you are watching it ‘cuz you can hear a cricket chirp on this blog.  🙂

I was inspired by the colors, textures, cuts and styles of the many beautiful women.  So of course, some clutches came to mind while I was watching the show.  Yes, they telecast it here live as well.  It’s the only awards show that I can watch on TV live in Viet Nam.  All other shows like the Golden Globes(R) and Grammys(R) are not televised here so I watch it on my Mac via a live stream that I dig on the net to find. I watch zero sports and ALL awards shows (Country Music, Emmy, People’s Choice… all of it).  Eye candy.

As a huge movie fan, the Oscars is the biggest night for me.  I love seeing the film clips, hearing the speeches, watching the “In Memoriam” piece (hey, wasn’t Esperanza Spalding great?)… hey pretty much all of it.

So here are a few of my favorite gowns for various reasons along with some clutches that popped into mind.  They are not meant to go with these gowns rather I’ve paired them with clutches whose characteristics are evoked by the gowns featured.   Check out the gowns and I hope they will inspire you to create some great clutches for the spring and bridal seasons!

Click on the images for a bigger view.  Please note that all photos are courtesy of Getty Images.

Louise Roe.

Best contrast (black blunt hair, white dress, red lips). Clutch by http://www.etsy.com/shop/pennyroyalty

Rooney Mara.  First movie in ages that I had to fast forward through a scene because I couldn’t stomach it.

Michelle Williams slays me in every film she’s in.  Time for a comedy, Michelle!

Best beading. Clutch by http://www.etsy.com/shop/ClutchChic

Octavia Spencer looks amazing!  Have you seen “The Help”?  It’ll stay with you long past the viewing.

Jane Seymour looks amazing at any age!

Best bejeweling (bedazzlin'!) Clutch by http://www.etsy.com/shop/BelleJouJou

I love this woman more than the dress, but the bejeweling brings some sparkle to an odd-colored gown.  Miss her as Sookie!

Best spring - green. Clutch by http://www.etsy.com/shop/AnOrangeBlossomBag

Viola Davis.  Granted I haven’t seen Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady but Viola was incredible in The Help.  She is equally stunning in this green color, especially with her au naturel red hair!  🙂

Best simplicity. Clutch by http://www.etsy.com/shop/MadeByPoppet

Gwyneth Paltrow.  My favorite look for this body type.  Both the cape and floral embellishment enhance the simplicity in the dress and clutch without overpowering either.

The fun is over.  Until the next Oscars!  🙂

February 27, 2012 Posted by | WhileBabyNaps General Updates | , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Helpful Hints: URLs contained in the Clutch PDF tutorial.

Thank you to a wonderful and loyal gal who brought to my attention a problem with one of the two URLs listed in the tutorial.  It seems that when it’s straight copy and pasted from the PDF, something is amiss in the translation and you end up in the “It seems like you are lost” cul-de-sac.

No, I'm not lost. You took me here.

The URL in question is here on page 23.

Troublesome URL highlighted in blue.

The problems:

1.  What you see on screen and highlighted in the PDF is not what gets copied and subsequently pasted into a new browser window.  Adobe’s copy/paste function is omitting one key character “-”  the dash between “helpful” and “hint”, and also adding extra spaces …. which then routes you to a dead end.  I’ve taken a screen capture below of what is exactly pasted.

Something got messed up ... See how this doesn't match to the URL highlighted in blue above?

2.  Going the other route to access the URL — when you highlight the URL and click on the highlighted portion (in blue) and open in a new browser, Adobe adds a stem at the end for no reason (other than to mess with you).  It adds “Sides” to the end of the URL string.

The solutions:

A.  Type in the URL exactly as you see it.  But this is cumbersome, however, it will work.

B.  In the blog, search “Gutermann glue” in the Search box.  Lots of previous posts will appear, but look for the one with that title and date.  All my blog posts are listed and can be found by date, name, search terms, tags, etc…

C.  OR Follow the steps below:

Step 1.  Highlight the URL in the PDF and click on the highlighted portion as shown.

Step 2.  A pop-up box will appear.  Click “Allow”

See how it adds a stem at the end and doesn't match what you highlighted? This will also lead you to a dead end.

Step 3. When you get to the dead end, go to the URL at the top and erase the word “Sides” that was added at the end.  Hit enter.

I've highlighted the entire URL here in green. Erase just the last portion "Sides".

Step 4.  Now it will lead you to the right post as shown below:

Once the "Sides" wording has been removed, you end up at the right spot.

The other URL is not at all changed by Adobe.  Not sure why one works as-is during the copy/paste, and one doesn’t.

Hope that helps!
Winn

February 26, 2012 Posted by | Helpful Tips | , , | 2 Comments

Valentine’s Day and Etsy Treasury Lists

Anyone else notice the home page of Etsy with the top bar for Valentine’s Day suggestions?  Have you got your Valentine’s day promotions out?  Do you have clutches that can be given as gifts for Valentine’s Day?

Here’s a treasury that recently made it on the front page of Etsy that I really liked.

Blush pink is just beautiful!

There are lots of treasuries being made for Valentine’s Day and I will be making one featuring only clutches.  As you know, many items featured in treasuries that make the front get sold!   It will feature clutches from some of the clutch makers on the Sellers page.  I’ll give instructions and let’s try to get it noticed and in the hands of many!

February 3, 2012 Posted by | WhileBabyNaps General Updates | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Back in Stock: 12 x 3.5

Hi!!!!  I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Years!  🙂  We’ve had our first Christmas here in Vietnam and my 9-year old said that it was “the best Christmas EVER”.   We brought along our trusty Christmas tree from Costco (and all of our other furniture and furnishings) and put up stockings on our electric fireplace mantel.  It worked to preserve and continue our Christmas traditions.  The kids were worried Santa wouldn’t know where they lived in Vietnam (they assumed New Jersey was well-known by Santa and his elves) and the fact that we have no chimney for Santa … but thanks to Norad, Elf the movie, and some great books to help explain it all.  Oh, the magic of Christmas!

My kids on Christmas Eve.

During the holidays, International schools here let kids out for three weeks in order for expat families to return back to their home countries.  And since the kids and I only got here in July, we stayed here during the holidays.  After celebrating 30+years of snowy and cold Christmases in the Midwest and NJ, it felt really weird not having the cold weather for Christmas!  I’m sure that is nothing new to those in the warm climates though.

Here’s my family holiday card to you all.  E-card this year via Smilebox!

Hope your holidays brought you many smiles. Smiling's my favorite! Name that movie (super easy...).

So with 3 kids home, you can imagine what little work I’ve got done.  But thank goodness for my sisters, Thy and Y who have been working quite hard.  Thy missed Christmas altogether due to illness!  She’s on the mend but her little one who’s only 4, is just recovering from another bout of something!  I miss the cold but I do not miss cold & flu season.

Oh, I’m a couple weeks late and giving you the news but I just want to let you all know that the 12×3.5 nickel-free frames are back in stock.  This one is a bit hard to manufacture and carry since it’s our costliest frame with all the iron and the large surface making a superb finish harder to achieve.  But with winter here and winter bags, this large, heavy and sturdy frame is ideal for the big bags.  This frame has been used to make the bigger carry-all bag.  It can support leather, vinyl, upholstery-weight and other heavier fabrics.   I designed a wide u-channel to accommodate both the heavier, thicker fabrics and the fusible interface/fleece.  The walls of the u-channel were also designed to be higher.  Check them out!

12x3.5 nickel-free purse frame

My internet connection has also been very frustratingly troublesome.  I get very slow service and when I do, I get disconnected frequently.  I have a fiber line but it gets throttled due to the servers here.  😦  Makes for long hours and a low productivity rate.  Alas, I will be back to sewing once I clear out a few things off my desk!

So since the kids went back to school today (yay, thank you teachers!), I will be able to work more (yay, my sanity returns!).  Love my kids, but I miss working.  Miss you all!  Thanks for your messages!!

Hoping you all are healthy for 2012!

~Winn

January 9, 2012 Posted by | WhileBabyNaps General Updates | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Snappy(TM) Wallet clutch – download the latest version!

Hi all from the other side of the world!  I made it here fine and after 5 days on the ground, the kids are just starting to adjust to the local time.  It’s p.m. here to your a.m.  There’s currently 11 hours difference than East Coast time!
I will post pics when I can find my camera cord to the computer.  I just got the Internet up and running today so I thought I’d do a quick post before hitting the sack!  I’ve been running around getting things done for the house here as we have only what we packed in our luggage.  Our air shipment won’t be here for another 10 days.  Many things are needed just to make a meal:  eg. after I boiled the spaghetti, I realized I didn’t have a strainer,  and when I went to cut the mango, I didn’t have a knife.  Little things that cause you to improvise…  🙂

Just a note for those who bought the Snappy(TM) Wallet Clutch, please use your existing password to access the tutorial that I recently updated.  I revised Step #1 to include a new picture and notes to trim your templates to fit the width of the frame before tracing them onto the interface.  What 2 of you have done is cut on the outside edge of the template causing extra length, which can cause puckering.  To prevent this, you only have to trim it to fit.

Please go to the PDF Order and sign in to download the most recent tutorial.  The templates remain the same.  I will make changes and additions to this tutorial and add new templates as time goes on, but please keep your password, which you can use to access it for free.  (If you lose it, it will be $5 to resend it to you.)

Thank you for the photos of your Snappy wallet clutches!  I love the variations.  Keep them coming!

Thanks and I’ll post again soon.

Winn

July 7, 2011 Posted by | WhileBabyNaps General Updates | , , | 2 Comments

10% OFF entire purchase at PurseFramesOutlet.Etsy.com

To thank you for all your support on my new business with my upcycled purse frames at PurseFramesOutlet.Etsy.com, I am offering 10% OFF your entire purchase at PurseFramesOutlet.Etsy.com!  Per my last blog post, this might be the bit of inspiration needed to kick start your summer creations!

For all of you who find my blogs useful and have followed along and have helped to make my second shop a sweet success, please enter “BLOGVIP” in the coupon code at check out to get an instant 10% off ALL your cart items.

The offer is effective as soon as this blog post hits your email account!  It ends Sunday, July 3rd at midnight.  That’s a whole week to get 10% OFF, but don’t delay.

I use this Snappy clutch every day ... 🙂

I am just starting to get feedback for the Snappy(TM) wallet clutch tutorial and upcycled frames.  Here are some of them:

“Great tutorial!”

“very creative design! How do you come up with it?! Will always be your great fan and supporter.. The pdf is easy to understand and very detailed. I love how she upcycled and came out with a very creative design. If you have trouble understanding it, just ask, any of the sisters will gladly help you through it~”

“Very easy to retrieve instructions. Thanks so much.”

“Congratulations on another great shop! You are so inspirational and encouraging!! Keep up the great work, I love to see women succeed, and even better when women help other women as you are doing. You Rock!!”

“Cannot WAIT to try out the new pattern with the frame!! I’m so glad you were able to get this new shop up and running so quickly – I’m trying just 5, to see how they will go over with my customers, but I have a feeling I’ll need more – at least I HOPE so! Congratulations, Winn – another WIN product for you! Take care!”

“Hi Win, I love this wallet! Looking forward to trying out the pattern soon. 🙂 Thanks so much…”

“yay! You listed it! Congrats!”

Oh, here’s a little trivia for you … I was going to trademark it as the Milk Run(TM) wallet clutch — since I’m always running out to get milk for my 3 kids … and this design allowed me to carry my essentials for my milk runs!  I still might use that trademark for another design though.

This new design is much simpler to do than the Classic Day Clutch(TM), the TeaTime(TM) clutch, or especially, the Baguette(TM) Clutch.  In my design, I actually tried to design it to be done without any sewing since one of my customer’s friends was hospitalized and needed a skill to pick up and something to do while in the hospital.  Sadly, I couldn’t make this without a sewing machine, but the amount of sewing needed is very minimal.  I’m really happy with how it was constructed.

So I hope you will make use of your beautiful bits of fabric and give this a try!  I would love to see the many varieties out there.

On another update … let me keep you up-to-date on my move … though it seems like I’ve been talking about this forever!

As I’ve told everyone in January of this year, my family and I are moving to Viet Nam!  Actually, my husband’s been living there since March, and I’ve been in New Jersey with the kids putting the house up for rent (we finally got renters – YAY) and the kids just finished the school year on Friday!

*The packers are coming tomorrow and they are packing everything up!  We will be staying in a nearby hotel for a week.

*Tonight, we’re packing things we need for the hotel and short-term 2-3 weeks.

*Tomorrow, they pack and ship our air shipment which will take 2 weeks to get to Viet Nam and another 5 days to clear Customs.

*Tues, they are packing the sea shipment — all of our household goods — which will take 2 months to make it to our new home in Viet Nam.

*Weds. they are packing the rest that will be put into storage here in New Jersey that we are not taking.  I don’t think we’ll have much left … but you never know.

*Thurs., the carpet cleaners are coming and so are the housecleaners.

*Friday is the walk-through with my tenants and they move in!

*Saturday, me and my family fly out to Viet Nam.

*On July 14th, Canine Carriers will pick up Pax from my dog sitter and fly him to Viet Nam.  We’ll get him on July 16th.  He’ll be in a temperature-controlled cargo with an airline that transfers pets all over the world.  He’ll have comfort stops and water for the trip.

*And on July 16th, after Pax is with us, I will breathe!  🙂

I cannot wait to take pictures and show you my new adventures in Viet Nam.  We are really going to venture out and just take advantage of all Viet Nam has to offer!  We’ll be there for 3 years, but the kids and I might come back earlier due to the school year, just like we stayed here later as well.  I will be hunting for fabrics like it’s going out of style!

And how great is this?  My two best girlfriends are both moving to Asia within a month of me moving to Viet Nam!  Lisa, a principal in Oklahoma City, just got a job teaching 4th graders in Shanghai!  And Kimberly, a stay-at-home mom of 3, is moving to Japan due to her husband’s job as well!  Could I be any luckier? 🙂  (Name the character and show who says his lines in that intonation!)

Have a great rest of the week! I’ll keep you posted as always.

~Winn

June 26, 2011 Posted by | SALES and PROMOTIONS | , , | 2 Comments

Thank YOU!!!!

Thank you for all of you who have purchased my Snappy(TM) Clutch Wallet PDF and my upcycled purse frames at my PurseFramesOutlet.Etsy.com store!!!!

Upcycling evolved out of recycling.  Upcycling “is the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new products of a higher environmental value.”

This is great video explaining the trend of upcycling:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qZvwxhqf2k

By offering a new design – my Snappy(TM) Wallet Clutch – I am able to re-use a subset of my useless, defective frames in a way that results in a new product that is better on the environment (it doesn’t have to be re-melted, or stripped using harsh industrial chemicals and solvents, etc…) and gives YOU a bigger profit margin.  You now have a new product to add to your product line at a different price point!

I know you all have been hoarding (there’s a show for that … :)) a stash of beloved scrap fabric, so now is the time to get those amazing little bits out and use them!  Those of you who can only have access to quilting cotton, now this is the perfect solution!

Learn all about upcycling trends.

It’s been a roaring success right out of the gate, and my research has paid off!

Here’s a post specifically about the upcycling trend by Etsy artists!

http://brittanysbest.com/?p=1233

So thank you, thank you, for helping me to upcycle my beautiful frames that simply didn’t make the cut for WhileBabyNaps.Etsy.com.  I would love to post pics of Snappy(TM) Wallet Clutches in a future post to see the many kinds of fabric designs out there!  So convo me with those pics or email me.  (I can’t re-post my email here since I’ve been getting spammers…)

Best ~ Winn

June 22, 2011 Posted by | WhileBabyNaps General Updates | , , , , | Leave a comment

New clutches to show off my fine purse frames!

Snow days … guess what I’ve been doing?

I'm totally pimpin' my dog Pax!

I’ve got new clutches made with my fine nickel-free purse frames(TM).  These are not for sale. But I’m using them to model my frames.  So for those who’ve wanted to know what the 10×3 with loops with chains look like when done …. ta-da!

This clutch will also be coming out as a complete make-your-own kit.  Using my classic PDF tutorial, I made a new template for my 10×3 nickel-free frame(TM) with loops!  This is shown with the coordinating 45.5″ nickel-free chain with lobster claws.

Oh, I got that Michael Kors trench coat at Costco!  Go get yours!!!  I’ve been looking for a single-breasted, belted, classic trench coat for 4 years.  And this one even has a detachable hood.  It also has faux tortoise shell buttons.  And it’s only $39.99.  Fully lined.

Here’s another super cute clutch I made using my 8×3 nickel-free EleganceLock(TM) with loops and chain.  I have the ribbon weaved in for an extra somein’ special!  I used my Robin’s Egg Blue ribbon.  Yes, the chain with ribbon is for sale at my shop.

I'm in the mood for Spring!

Look what Etsy is choosing for their front page Treasury.   Looks like they are promoting Spring looks, already.

Start making clutches for spring ... and make your own Treasury!

February 3, 2011 Posted by | WhileBabyNaps General Updates | , , , , , | 2 Comments

    Next Entries »