The Creative Children

Cupcake Belt Buckle

Paisley Belt Buckle

Birdie belt Buckle

Got clothing crisis? Need cool and new accessories to add some fun and style to your wardrobe? Here they are: the Waist Candy belts. A new line of modern belt buckles have been introduced to the Etsy scene and come in a number of stunning colors and modern scenes. Silver-tone metal belt buckles with a contemporary, colorful surface. Each modern belt buckle is protected by a high gloss industrial strength sealant, allowing you to enjoy these unique accessories for years to come.
Feeling differently today? Your mood is happier and more energetic? Then swap one design for another based on your mood, outfit, and time of day. These modern belt designs are sure to give you a unique sense of style wherever you are.

Here are some things to consider for all of you that are interested in making your own jewelry at home.  First, educate yourself on the area of jewelry making that interests you the most.  Plenty of info online and bookstores.  If your ideas involve special techniques that are not that clear online or books, then you should take a class and learn from an instructor. Make a list of the materials you will need to use in order to complete your projects.  Examples: beads, clasps, wire, pliers, charms etc… and also, make sure there is space in your home to sit down and make your jewelry.  Designate a comfortable spot to call your working area/office. Keep in mind the cost associated with jewelry making at home.  Those items could become costly. Do you have enough time to dedicate to this hobby? It’s all relative and it depends on how much you want to devote to this or not.  You never know, you could become the next David Yurman

I saw this pretty cute necklace the other day and this girl created her own design (the rabbit) and she makes jewelry around the rabbit. The rabbit comes in different colors too.  So you can get super creative and make your own designs if you wanted to, instead of buying already made materials from others at the stores.

handmade flower necklace

Handmade Cross

Handmade Earrings

Handmade Stainless Steel Accent Bracelet

Whimsical Handmade Jewelry

I saw the cutest thing today on a website!!!! I couldn’t resist sharing!

Beantownhandmade makes these adorable accessories for dogs  woof! This would be a great gift for your own dog and your friend’s dogs.

Why not create your personal style like no other by using a few fun vintage items.  Vintage is hip, different and cool.. Vintage is BACK!!! How fun is it to just take a simple coat and add some groovy vintage buttons to it? Voila!! Your coat has suddenly turned chic and fabulous.  Keep in mind, that you can always replace those buttons when you get bored.  Adding these will make you feel like you are actually wearing a new coat.

Read more »

The whole may be more than the sum of its parts, but without the parts, there is no whole. Lest that sound like some weird philosophical meandering to you, take comfort in observing the finer aspects of creative and appealing user interface design.

The following list bucks tradition by not being tied to one particular theme; although, as you’ll see, there are subtle threads running through them. While excellent, none of these designs are perfect, and I’ve pointed out room for improvement we can learn from.

Give it a go. Grab a coffee and take time to explore further. As you would a quality timepiece made of thousands of parts, analyze and enjoy how intricate parts come together to create a cohesive experience. Look closely and see what makes each website design tick.

You may also want to take a look at the following related articles:

Read more »

Saving repetitive tasks as Photoshop actions can save you a lot of time, allowing you to automate your work and improve workflow efficiency. A Photoshop action is a recording of a sequence of commands and operations that you can save and access later on.

We’ve searched for the best downloadable Photoshop actions that can help you improve your workflow and perform complex techniques with the push of a button. In this collection, you’ll find more than 350 free hand-picked Photoshop actions that you can use to speed up your graphics creation.

Note: It’s important to check the license of each action set you download and use.

Quick Introduction to Photoshop Actions

For those unfamiliar with Photoshop actions, they’re simply pre-recorded tasks that you can save and reuse anytime. Photoshop actions commonly have an .atn file extension. Installing a Photoshop action for more recent versions of Photoshop is easy: simply drag the .atn file onto the Actions palette or place it directly inside your Adobe Photoshop\Presets\Photoshop Actions folder. For a more comprehensive discussion of Photoshop actions, check out this complete guide to Photoshop actions.

Read more »

by Vailancio Rodrigues and Smashing Magazine Editorial Team

Of all the different types of photography showcased on Smashing Magazine, underwater photography is probably one of the most difficult to practice. It requires a very specialized equipment and the knowledge of some advanced techniques to get a perfect picture. You need to get the correct exposure, accurate focus, controlled movement of your subject and a pleasing color balance; you also have to deal with low light. Underwater photos offen suffer from loss of color and contrast when taken at a significant depth. Such photos are always adjusted with color balance to help offset the blueish tint of the water.

Because underwater photography is a specialized art, relatively few photographers attempt it. But it offers many exciting and rare photographic opportunities for fresh and truly different vivid images. Most often, photographers use a traditional film or digital camera covered in a watertight casing. Professionals prefer to use special underwater cameras.

Below, we present over 50 beautiful examples of underwater photos, created by artists and professional photographers. All works featured below have the artists and photographers’ names linked to their portfolios or websites. At the bottom of this post you’ll fine some links to Flickr groups where you can find more similar and exciting photos.

Read more »

By Robert Bowen and Smashing Editorial Team

In the realm of digital art, so many wonderful and playful genres exist that stimulate the imagination, but so few do it with the intricate style of fractal art. Fractal art is achieved through the mathematical calculations of fractal objects being visually displayed, with the use of self-similar transforms that are generated and manipulated with different assigned geometric properties to produce multiple variations of the shape in continually reducing patterns. Sounds extremely technical and not that artistic, true, but these equations create some of the most mesmerizing and inspiring artwork to emerge from the digital art arena.

In this edition of our Monday Inspiration series, we look at awe-inspiring examples of the dynamic digital art sensation that is fractal art with 50 Phenomenal Fractal Art Renders. Setting across the vast sea of cyberspace to find these works was such an amazing task as so many fantastic pieces surfaced. Here are scaled-down versions of some of the most breathtaking ones that were uncovered, though the full-sized versions (linked through the image) offer a much more spectacular view of these mathematical masterpieces.

Read more »