United Way Fundraiser...

We had an auction fundraiser at work recently. I dug through my stash to see what I might whip up - not having a lot of time before the auctions started, I decided to go with a few brooches/pins.

This was through the United Way and while I'm not a huge fan of the United Way, I am a fan of giving back and we are offered the opportunity to designate the charity(s) that will benefit from the money raised by our auction items. That option is what compelled me to participate.

My chosen charities this year - StandUp for Kids out of Oceanside, CA and Disabled American Veterans Charitable Service Trust out of Newport, KY.

I asked for suggestions from a couple of sources, then started checking those suggestions on Charity Navigator -a helpful website when you are looking to evaluate charities - it provides information on the financial health as well how responsibly the organizations function day to day.

I knew I wanted to help American Vets and found a great organization through the Charity Navigator site. I found StandUp for Kids through a friend of mine in Southern California (thanks Pam!).



This little heart started with a beautiful Lisa Peters Art Stoneware button. It is anchored to stiffened felt with a topaz Swarovski margarita crystal and a tiny bead. It is accented with copper colored fire polished beads and bronze colored seeds with hints of blue in the 15/0 seed bead accents.



It is backed with chocolate Ultrasuede.



This next one was very hard to photograph, the glass is deep blue with hints of green - those can't be seen in these photos and I'm not sure why. The dichroic glass cab was created by Deb DiSalvo of artisticflair.



It is accented with royal blue seed beads and vintage deep blue sequins that are secured with lots of sparkly black Swarovski bicones.



Then backed with royal blue Ultrasuede.

I auctioned off 3 other items that have already been shown on this blog, so I won't repeat the photos. I will link them though... this witch brooch, a pair of earrings (the gold pair in the second photo) and a Christmas ornament that was originally a blog giveaway item which was lost, then found after a replacement ornament was sent out.