Countdown to Mother's Day Gift Ideas

The Countdown gift collection for week 9 is closed. Week 9 - Wow! Can you believe that there are only 3 weeks left of the Mother's Day Countdown? I'm sure you will agree with me that the Countdown has been LOTS of fun with LOTS of wonderfully creative items shared and promoted!

Mother's Day, Sunday, May 12, is fast approaching! If you haven't already started shopping for your Mum, now is definitely the time! A perfect place to do your shopping is at Julie and Blu's Mother's Day Gift Ideas Countdown, a collection of handmade and vintage items any Mother will love and cherish. The Countdown will run for another 3 weeks, which, when it ends, will make 12 weeks total. Last week 86 beautiful handmade and vintage items were shared. This week we were up considerably and broke 100 items! Yay! 108 items were shared which included: jewelry, fused glass, antiques, woodworking, knitting, sewing, cards, antique postcards, silk flower arrangements, jewelry supplies and pottery - so many different items and techniques! Something for everyone here! Shop early . . . shop often.

Floral Amy Butler fabric purse handmade by Barb of barbscrochethut

Sellers who have a studio/shop on ArtFire, SupaDupa, Zibbet, Etsy, stand alone websites and the like, are invited to share up to three Mother's Day gift items starting each Friday of the Countdown. Julie usually posts the link around noon on Friday. The collection will close for item submissions around midnight Sunday night. Then, the following Friday, a new collection will start - and so on - until the twelve weeks are up and Mother's Day is here! The items that are shared for the collections must be G-rated.

Cherry tree of Life pendant necklace with silver plated and copper wire by Jennifer of DesertCreations

When you participate in the Countdown to Mother's Day, those all important back links are supplied back to your studio, from the collection itself and from the people sharing your items. This helps your ranking with the various search engines. However, if you share your own items in the collection, you MUST promote each item in the Countdown collection. It's only fair!!! Pinterest and/or Wanelo are preferred since everyone can see the items and it is easy to resave again from those two sites. Twitter and Facebook just do not provide the ability to find items easily to share again and don't provide long lasting links.

Leopard poster/wall art handmade with oak wood in a black lacquer frame by Kevin of KevsKrafts

In addition to saving all the items shared to my Pinterest and Wanelo boards or collections, I decided each week to blog about the Countdown Collection and share an item from each of the ArtFire artists who participated. This helps to provide even longer lasting backlinks into the studios. All you have to do is get comfy, pull out a sheet of paper and a pen/pencil, have your credit card handy . . . and begin shopping! Above all have fun browsing these fabulous creations!

Here are the rest of the items in the Mother's Day Collection - Week 9:

Unique pendant necklace with pink quartz and matching free earrings by Hema of BeadedNecklaceShoppe

"You're Such an Amazing Mother" handmade vintage style Mother's Day card by Lisa of CardsbyLibe

Glowing dichroic textured glass pendant on a black base by Jo of Umeboshi

Three strand sunkist orange gemstone necklace by Eve of EvezBeadz

Embroidered Picasso jasper cabochon gemstone and woven bead pendant necklace by Rose of ThaddeusRose

Unique crazy stripe mirror in turquoise blue, purple and pearl polymer clay by Ann of MysticDreamerArt

Navy blue crochet Bohemian necklace with white pearls by Jacki of ChristieCottage

Encased large hole glass lampwork slider bead in apricot, raku and silver by Charlotte of Covergirlbeads

"Mustache Madness" 3x5 index card organizer binder handmade by Carla of ArtBySunfire

Red flowers on white polymer clay beads with navy blue swirled accents by Julie of BlueMorningExpressions

Pink lilacs and dahlia silk floral arrangement by Alka of FloralDesignsbyAlka

Fold formed and oxidized copper cuff bracelet by Elaine of zoomgraphik

Orange, cobalt blue and Swarovski pearl African bead earrings by Mary of PrettyGonzo

Chinese running horse on bone scrimshaw with sterling silver by Juliet of Thefamilyjoolz

Silver tone dragonfly pendant necklace and earrings set with Swarovski crystals and dalmatian jasper by Kathy of Specialtivity

Striped green fused glass plate or candle holder, 7"x 5", by Kellie of ResetarGlassArt

Eco-friendly handmade maple wood bowl with ivy carvings by Scott of BerkshireBowls

Australian and New Zealand coin bracelet on gold chain by Diane of DianesDangles

Crackle fire agate, banded agate and amber memory wire bracelet by Nancy of jazzitupwithdesignsbynancy

Noreena jasper pendant necklace with red jasper and poppy jasper by Kay of KatsAllThat

Embroidered black rooster hanging kitchen towel with hand knit topper by Sharon of HollyKnitterCreations

Sparkling blue/green Czech fire polished crystal cluster ring by Connie of TheSingingBeader

Turquoise magnesite 8mm x 4mm faceted rondelles, set of 10, by Diane of BeadSouk

"Mythical Lion in the Garden" small Oriental clay teapot by AsianSecrets

Antique Yemen silver and coral bead necklace with mini amulets by Anna of CraftsofthePast

Soft cotton and wool creamy mocha color handmade pillow cover by Karen of Uniquelyhandmade

Pyrite (fool's gold), black onyx and sterling silver bracelet by Catherine of ShadowDogDesigns

I know you agree that there are many amazing creations shared in this sampling. Be sure to click on this link Mother's Day Gift Ideas Countdown to see all 108 handmade and vintage items that were shared. Hopefully one (or more!) of the items will make its way to your Mum on this Mother's Day (: And remember, a new collection starts again this coming Friday!

Many, many thanks to Julie and Blu of BlueMorningExpressions for all their hard work in putting this together each week!

If you would like to make my day, please leave a comment. Any and all promotion you can do will be benefit us all and will be greatly appreciated.

My contact information:

Artfire studio: ShadowDogDesigns

Blog: ShadowDogDesigns' Blog

Facebook: ShadowDogDesigns - Jewelry

Twitter: ShadowDogDesign

Pinterest: Shadow Dog Designs

Wanelo: ShadowDog

SocialBliss: Catherine Waterhouse

Rebelmouse: ShadowDogDesigns

Google+: Catherine W