Flower Baubles Necklace

I have been in a slump lately, one that involves designing jewelry.  I've been busy quilting away and madly trying to finish up a quilt before I leave town for spring break.  As I was reading some of the blogs that are on my reader, one of the gals tossed out an idea for a resin baubles challenge and I thought why not.  Of course, I said yes before I made the trek to Michael's to find the said beads, but luckily I found the designated package and my little helper picked out the package of pink and purple.  The other choice was a spring green and teal which would have been fun too.

I purchased the package, brought it home and began playing with it.  This necklace was super fast to put together and I like how it came out.  I used crimp beads to keep everything in its place and attached a lobster clasp and jump rings to finish it off.

Thank you Lorelei for the challenge and I look forward to seeing everyone's creations.

Don't you just love these little globes?  Amazing how from the side 

they are clear but from the top, the color shows through.

A close up of these beauties

Coming soon to my etsy store.....

If you feel like blog hopping, here are the other participants

Lola

Denise McCabe

Mustard Bead

A Polymer Penchant

Pearl and Pebble

Peacock Fairy

Beads for Busy Gals

Dawn Williams

Shirley Moore

B Street Studios

Sally Russick

Pamela770

Erin Prais-Hintz

Heather Powers

MirandAck

Lily

Karen Firnberg

Tanya

Mary

Rosebud101

Ann

Toltec Jewels

Micha (ME :)

Terri

Neon Sunshine Necklace

I have been playing around with different materials in my jewelry making for awhile now and I have to say, it's been a lot of fun mixing paper and vinyl with my metals.  This necklace is white vinyl flowers from the Beadin Path and the paper flowers were from a jar of scrapbooking flowers I picked up at Michael's for a completely different craft project last summer.  

The chain is silver plated and 21 inches long. Since neon is still trending, you might find a few additions in my shop soon.

More pics can be found in my Etsy store.

Do Over Challenge

I love the idea of mystery boxes and the anticipation of what could possibly be inside.  The do over challenge from Jeannie was totally up my alley and I'm thankful for my dear sister-in-law and fellow jewelry designer/enabler for hooking me up with the link.  It's also a treat to get some fun mail and not all the political crap-o-la that is filling my mail box, but that's another rant.

I received a sweet three piece set of pink and white pearls with a pink and silver foil heart.  After taking the before pictures and taking all three pieces apart, I honestly just stared at the beads.  I'm not much of fan of the sweet, pink pearls and my first instinct was to recreate the beads into a bracelet for my one year old niece.  Unfortunately, little miss is going to have to wait a while for auntie to make her another bracelet.

Standing on my chair to reach my bead stash above my desk (to keep little busy hands in my household away), I started pulling out random beads.  Not sure what my color scheme was going to be, I just pulled beads out until I had at least 6 colors to choose from.  Once I saw the pink and brown ceramic beads, this was my jumping off point.  At first, I had planned a necklace, but the number of beads needed and my design wasn't cooperating.  I set it aside for a couple of days and when on with my life, wife and mom duties.

As I was sitting in bible study this past Wednesday, the design came to me - three stand bracelet.  Cha-ching!!  I drew out my design and then came home and went to work.  The third strand with the chain and aqua beads went through a few color changes before I felt the piece sang.  The only pieces I did not use were the white pearls, one of the claps and the earring wires.

I do love wearing multiple strands of bracelets, but rarely were a multiple strand piece at one time.  This was a good challenge for me and even though pink is so not my color (mom of 3 boys...) it was fun to play with and be challenged.

Feel free to do a little blog hopping with the other participants of Jeannie's 4th Do Over Challenge.

Jeannie K Dukic http://site.jkdjewelry.com/blog

Miranda Ackerley http://mirandack.com/

Patti Vanderbloemen http://myaddictionshandcrafted.blogspot.com/

Marlene Cupo http://amazingdesigns-marlene.blogspot.com/

Mary Govaars http://mlhjewelrydesigns.com/

Kelli Jacobson http://www.creativemoonjewelryandthings.com/

Dagi http://kokopellidesign.blogspot.com/

Gerry Nickerson http://gersgems1.blogspot.com/

Charlene Jacka http://clay-space.com/blog

Birgit Klughardt http://www.gitesbeads-gite.blogspot.com/

Mowse Doyle http://mowsemadethis.blogspot.com/

Renetha Stanziano http://lamplightcrafts.blogspot.com/

Debbie Beechy http://beetique56.blogspot.com/

Cilla Watkins http://www.tellyourgirlfriends.com/

Carolyn Lawson http://carolyncreationswa.blogspot.com

Micha Sorensen http://tulipsandpine.blogspot.com

Emma Todd http://www.apolymerpenchant.com

Donetta Farrington http://simplygorgeous-donetta.blogspot.com/

Tracy Stillman http://www.tracystillmandesigns.com/

Rita Avila http://www.jewelschoolfriends.com/

Armparty Surprise

What is it about twitter that has broaden my horizons, friendships and probably gotten me into more trouble with my husband than a trip to the bead store? I love my group of girlfriends that I have in real life, but it is also fun to meet new people over the interwebs, too.

One of the gals I follow on twitter is a gal who goes by the name Yellow Heart Art and she makes fun prints to add some sunshine to your walls and the gal is funny, too. She decided with a friend of hers, muchloveilly, to have an arm party exchange for people to make some new friends and make and receive some bling as well.

I was partnered up with Becca from sewLOVED, I'm mean really, how cute is her name?!?!  She has 2 adorable boys which goes perfect with my crazy clan of 3 boys.  It has been fun to get to know her a little bit and the bling she sent me was so. much. fun.

Now Becca makes adorable baby bibs and prints, but I am loving the friendship bracelets she made for me.  Okay, so maybe it's a bit junior high camp, but seriously, she did a fabulous job and I might have to breakout my cross stitch threads and make myself some of these bad boys again.

I know that I had a lot of fun making her a couple of bracelets from my stash and I must say, I am really considering making myself a cuff similar to the one I made Becca.

Happy Independence Day

Today was a fun family day just relaxing at home for a good part of the day. It was a bit random how the 4th landed on a Wednesday and of course will again, but odd to have a day off in the middle of the week. After naps, we walked the mile to grandpa and grandma's house because from there we walked up the hill to the city's festivities.

The city of Sammamish does a good job hosting a party. There were food trucks, a section of various inflatable bounce toys and lots of green grass to lay out a blanket and wait for the sun to go down. Fireworks don't start until 10 pm but it was a fun 20 minute show. Overall, it was a fun day with a lot of walking and the bonus was I made it home in time to remember to put out the cold pack for the Full Circle Farm driver to pick up when delivering my weekly box of produce.

I hope you had a great time celebrating our independence and may this nation remember what our founding fathers did to start forming this great nation. God Bless!
 

 

A little picture of my holiday bling.

Silver bracelet - gift

Blue Bangle - Beadin Path

Beaded Bracelet - tulipsandpine

Purple flowers

I feel like shouting, I made something, I made something!! It has been forever since I have had the opportunity to create, start to finish, a piece of jewelry. I recently placed an order at The Beadin Path for some components to make a pair of earrings.  I have been dying to try out the plastic filigree lace components and the vintage metal flowers.

I L.O.V.E how these earrings turned out. I cannot wait to wear them. It's amazing how truly light weight they are. I might just have to order more components to make a few for my etsy shop.

Day 317

Future Jewelry Designers

Day 259

Dancing Umbrella in Cooper

Day 198

My Personalized Thimble

Day 195

The Demise of Another Necklace
Scissors and a 2 year

Day 86

Finished Necklace
Donation for School Auction

Day 85

Riveting a Pendant

Day 9

Rainbow Jade
Vintaj Natural Brass
One Beautiful Bracelet

Day 363

The most exciting part of my day was the trip to the library to drop off books and pick up a couple of books I had on hold. I took a class back in September and have been waiting patiently for the book by Scott David Plumlee. The other book I found online and it's all about metal, which is a passion of mine in the jewelry world. Of course, getting these books only makes me want to go shopping for supplies so I can do some of the projects.

Oh, and I'm almost there. :)

Day 351

Going to the library takes on a whole new meaning for a few weeks as my little city is getting a bigger library and it's moving time for them. I went into the old library to pick up books I had reserved and was disappointed that one of the books I have been waiting on and was an inter library loan was not there, only the resin book, which I'm excited to be getting anyways. I look forward to looking into another medium for jewelry and possibly dappling in it a bit too.

Day 327

This afternoon I received a very unexpected surprise in my mail. One of the gals I follow on Twitter was giving away some of her extra beads and I responded saying I would gladly take any extra beads off her hands. She had sent the first package to someone else and I honestly wasn't expecting anything later on, but I do appreciate my gift today.

Day 326

What do 28 and 18 gauge brown wire and black drop beads have in common?

Another beading class courtesy of the beadclub. My sister-in-law and I took yet another wire class tonight and this one was called Berry Vines. I have one segment out of nine completed, but just honestly enjoyed a kid free evening hanging out with my partner in crime.

Day 325

I have been on a jewelry kick of late and took a picture of a couple of pairs of earrings that I have recently made. The one on the left is a cherry quartz faceted square bead dangling from a hand forged and hammered S swirl. The pair on the right is vintage Lucite blue with silver swirls through out the bead.

Day 270

This morning my beading partner in crime and I skipped church to take a jewelry class by Scott David Plumlee. The gal who owns the beadclub in Woodinville managed to get him to teach some classes over the weekend, so we jumped at this chance. Normally, Scott teaches at beading shows and the cost is significantly more. Today we learned how to use an electric screwdriver to make components of wire and beads and then used jump rings to make a chain. I always enjoy learning new techniques and how to use everyday tools in creating jewelry.

Day 258

I spent a few minutes pounding away on my metal rivets and completed my pieces. It's not the best picture because it was taken with my iPhone, but you kinda get the idea. Now I need to find the correct size of dowel to make the jump rings and the clasp.