Keep Your Buckle On! Or...How to Make a Leather Belt

Since I spend an unusual amount of time chatting with folks about belts and buckles, I've made some interesting finds about what might simply be called "General Belt & Buckle Know-How". Not surprising, most folks don't think twice about the topic, but I happen to think it's pretty interesting. So, in the spirit of increasing everyone's General Belt & Buckle Know-How, this is installment one in Belts & Buckles 101.

Today - How the heck does a person make a nice leather belt anyhow?

While I sell high quality leather belts here at Wild Bear Buckles, I don't make leather belts myself. So, we are headed to the experts for the answer. Take it away Maine Line Leather...

How to Make a Leather Belt - A complete tutorial!

Thinking of spring

We had an epic powder day yesterday. It included

• fresh tracks
• 12+ inches of new snow
• sunshine
• many face-shots
• maximizing the awesome-ness of my new (extremely fat) skis
• general celebration of snow and winter 

Nevertheless, today I find myself daydreaming of summer mountain trails.

And thinking of summer is inspiring buckles with fewer ski maps and more color. Even though this has some autumn leaves, it also has the bright colors of summer!

Back to daydreaming now...

Or putting more wood in the stove.

Guest post at elle.mnop!

The fantastic Elle over at elle.mnop is featuring a guest post by me today! Thanks so much to Elle for keeping up with my blog and asking me to contribute to hers. I love her sense of style, the great DIY projects she posts, and the fun things she finds around her neighborhood and online.

Since things have been crazy at the Moon house, I decided I better write a post to remind me (and maybe you) to take a deep breadth and relax once in awhile. With, of course, a few suggestions...

 So, head on over there to read my guest post and check out Elle's two-thumbs-up blog!

Treasury round up

Things at the Moon house have continued an alarming level of mayhem. But, thanks to the superior productivity of others, Wild Bear Buckles have appeared in some colorful, full, seasonal, and moody etsy treasuries recently. Click to check out all of the unique handmade items...

Get Your Circles On

Blue Skies - Blue Styles - Montana

 

Montana's Stormy Skies

Now, back to chaos...

A cornicopia of fantastic (free!) fonts

As business continues to grow at Wild Bear Buckles, I'm spending more time considering branding and a proper logo. In my quest for great design ideas, two different friends have mentioned one website -- dafont.com. It took me a bit to get around to look at it, but let me tell you - it rocks! I hope I'm not giving away some fantastic trade secret of text designers, but this website is worth exploring for anyone who likes

• design
• text
• being creative
• writing words on the computer

I'm assuming that pretty much means all of you.

So, here is the deal with dafont.com. You hop on the site and you can browse literally hundreds of font designs. You can even type in your text and preview how it will look. When you find something you like, just download it and follow the (very simple!) instructions to add it to your computer's fonts. Just make sure you take note if the font is "free" or "free for personal use", so you know how you can use it.

Check it out...

Wild Bear Buckles goes on a Caribbean vacation...

...dresses up as Frankenstein and sings Thriller...

...gets cultured at the avant garde movie theatre...

...does time...

...attends a night at the opera...

...and gets in touch with its Montana roots...

And that's only the beginning. Now go find your own crazy, fun, funky, modern, vintage text for your latest crafty idea. (Warning: may cause sleep loss.)