Alright, sorry for the delay in getting the voting up for everyone. This makes a slight change in voting dates... I think. Voting will begin now and go through 11:59pm PST, October 3, 2008. Once I've tallied the votes I will contact the winner and post the winner here, no later than Monday, October 6. Yeah! Good luck to all and I thank everyone for sending in such wonderful pieces that included the image Beauty's Lot.

Online Surveys & Market Research

Looking at this pendant... can you tell what it says?

Charming Sam is working on new things. More to come in the next few weeks but I thought I'd post a little morsel here.

Cheers!

Another beautiful jewelry artist.

OiOi Jewelry. Absolutely gorgeous!

Have you ever seen a piece of art and imagined you knew just what the artist must look like? I do that often and in my minds eye I imagined the person behind Rustic Goth to be ... well, not a grandmother of nine. She is. A grandmother of nine!

I love her art. Why? Because her work is something I could never conceive of in my own mind and so I truly appreciate what she does.

I bought a piece of jewelry from her. I can't wait. Her daughter is Bellatrix on Etsy and I've had her as a favorite for many, many months. But tonight I found Rustic Goth and fell in love. Her blog is at www.anotherpaintingblog.blogspot.com

My mom likes shrunken heads. I think she'll like this artist for the same qualities. :-)

I've been thinking for months about putting together a CSam design team. I'm finally getting my thoughts together and have been fortunate enough to find two wonderful artists to join and contribute art. I am, however looking for at least one other artist and maybe more. Here are the details as I know of them today. They are subject to change as things evolve.

Charming Sam Design Team - Looking for mixed media artists, apply today!

What is the CSam design team? A group of independent mixed media artists who are willing to produce at least six separate pieces of art over a 12 month period of time utilizing images or elements as supplied by Charming Sam Studios.

Promotional Rights - Each piece of art work will be owned by the artist and can be used at their discretion for promotion, product production and all other purposes deemed appropriate by the artist. The artist will assign limited rights to Charming Sam Studios to reprint the art for promotional purposes for an unlimited time period.

Design Team Gallery - A web page will be created for the CSam design team with a collective gallery page and individual pages for each design team member with complete information including bio, web address, contact information and gallery images submitted to CSam.

Charming Sam Studios reserves the right to refuse work submitted by design team members for any reason. We will not promote political, social or sexual content.

What does a design team member get from Charming Sam? Promotion on our website, blog and various social networking sites. We will also include design team art work in our monthly newsletters at our discretion. We will occasionally utilize design team member art work in seasonal campaigns and will coordinate with individual team members on logistics, etc.

Most importantly each design team member gets unlimited FREE access to Charming Sam Studios collage sheets, vintage prints and journal templates via digital download for use in their art work. Design team members can not resell Charming Sam Studios products with out our express permission. In other words if you include an image in a piece of your unique art work it is o.k. If you try and sell the image "as is" and/or "as supplied" is not permissible. (Don't resell Charming Sam Studios images unless you've altered and created a piece of unique art work.)

** We reserve the right to make changes to our Design Team policies at our discretion with or with out notice.

Are you interested in joining the team? If so, please send an email to information@charmingsam.com with your name and websites that showcase your art work. We'll email you back if we have questions or need additional information and notify you of our decision with in a couple of days.

Once we have the 2008/2009 design team pulled together I'll make an announcement of all members, etc.

Yes, it is finally that time so get out your art supplies and get to work because this is going to be fun!!



You can create anything you want as long as you incorporate this beautiful image called "Beauty's Lot" published in London sometime between 1760 and 1810. The inscription at the bottom is in French.

How to enter? Email information@charmingsam.com to get a hi-res version of this image and then go create. Any medium, any media, any size as long as you can photograph it for submission via email.

Here are the details:

Prize(s):
* $75 Gift Certificate from Charming Sam - http://www.charmingsam.com/
* A beautiful periwinkle angel with harp stained glass window ornament from Laurie Beth Beggin at Through A Looking Glass a $60 value!
* 3 months of free side bar advertising at http://marmaladepink.ning.com/ for your store, website or blog (ad size 120x240) a $30 value!

How to Win: The image "Beauty's Lot" shown above must be incorporated in to an "original" piece of art work done by you and owned by you. You can incorporate it any way you want whether you transfer, scrape, paint or whatever in to your piece of work. The art can be any size and medium.

Photograph: A scan or photograph of your art must be received via email no later than September 27, 2008 to information@charmingsam.com at 11:59pm, PST. High resolution photographs or scans are encouraged.

Voting: Each entry submitted will be posted at http://www.charmingsam.blogspot.com/ on September 27, 2008 with the capability for site visitors to vote for individual works of art. Tell your friends, co-workers and anyone else you know to stop by and vote for your piece. Which ever piece of art work has the most votes by October 3, 2008 at 11:59pm, PST will be considered the winner.

Winner: The winners entry will be posted at http://www.charmingsam.blogspot.com/ on October 5, 2008 along with details about the artist including a short bio, links to website, store, etc.

Yada-Yada: Each prize cannot be exchanged, resold, redeemed for cash or transferred with out the express permission of Charming Sam Studios. Charming Sam Studio is operating this contest with prizes offered as of September 8, 2008. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. A PURCHASE DOES NOT IMPROVE YOUR CHANCE OF WINNING. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED.

Eligibility: Entrant must be eighteen (18) years of age or older and a legal resident of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia or Canada as of September 7, 2008. Employees of Charming Sam Studio, parents, subsidiaries, affiliated companies, and agents and the immediate family (defined as parents, spouse, children, siblings, grandparents) of each such employees, and all those with whom such employees are domiciled, are NOT eligible.

Timing: Contest begins at 12:00:01 a.m. PST on Tuesday, September 9, 2008 and ends at 11:59:59 p.m. E.T. on Saturday, September 27, 2008 at 11:59pm, PST.

I think that is it. If you have questions please post them as comments to this post so I can answer for everybody.

Good luck!!!

I was going to start a new contest today but that will have to wait a day or two. I was also going to talk about the new Charming Sam Design Team. Both will have to wait for a HUGE congratulations to three very deserving jewelry designers who have been featured in the new Belle Armoire from the publishers of Somerset Studios. It is a beautiful magazine and each one of these designers have gotten wonderful coverage and I hope many, many sales.

Beth Quinn Designs

Sharon and her DH at Mana Moon Studios

Ann Burke - Inspired Jewelry