Peace, Love & Bead Bloggers!

Wow, that weekend just flew right by!! It's time again to get geared up and gather some inspiration for the week.

Checking out these bead bloggers below is always fun way to wrap up a weekend and feel the love in the beading community! Hope you are all having a great day!

Beading Arts Cyndi shares some simple CopprClay pendants that you can have ready in time for holiday gift-giving!

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done! Ah, Etsy! So many of our problems solved by visiting Etsy for gifts for our dearest friends at this time of year. Take a look at this premade pendant, which also comes in a kit so you can teach yourself if you prefer. It's all jump rings and it's all beautiful. The Alchemist's Star!

Strands of Beads Melissa is thankful for generous friends - who share their beading supplies!

About.com Jewelry Making It's is so easy to get into the holiday spirit when you have the perfect lampwork beads to get you there.

Art Bead Scene Are you a Twilight Fan? If yes, then check out the Twilight inspired jewelry on the Art Bead Scene!

Carmi's Art/Life World Carmi uses embossing powder to make a bird pendant...a fun idea!

Cindy Gimbrone aka The Lampwork Diva It's Double Dippin' Week - a week full of ideas for the Double Dips. Try a necklace and become "Entwined."

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles Melanie gives her review of Enchanted Adornments, and gives a reminder to enter the Art Bead Scene monthly challenge for your chance to win a copy of it and some other great beads, including new Earthenwood beads!

This Week's Project: Sunny CZ Necklace & Earrings

These Cubic Zirconia Beads from Artbeads.com have been such fun to work with!

This week's project makes use of the yellow Cubic Zirconia teardrop I mentioned on Monday and the 8mm Yellow Cushions that I mentioned on Thursday. I threw in a few miscellaneous beads I had on hand including some 4mm bicone glass beads.

The bicones are not crystals, but I thought they were a nice fit because the color was close and they won't be competing at all with the CZ's. I think what really made this fun and the yellow stand out is the Soft Flex "econoflex" beading wire in Autumn Brown which I found at Hobby Lobby.

I hope everyone had a happy holiday and are now enjoying a nice weekend and if you are lucky, there will be time for arts and crafts! It's "craft night" for me which means a night full of fun, food and crafts till the wee hours with family and friends. Yay!

The project I am taking is a holiday bracelet that will coordinate well with the one I took last year. I normally do not use elastic in my jewelry pieces, but I think we will give it a try this time just for something different.

It will be full of sparkle and if I can get them done in time, I will be making a fun 12 bead bauble for the focal piece for each one...I better get busy and head over to the craft store!! :)

Have a great day!!

Featured Designer: Wickedly Mod Pendants

I hope you have all had a wonderful holiday and for those of you who shopped today, I hope you had fun and found some great deals!!

Believe it or not, it is time for another Featured Designer Friday post!! Yay!!

This week's designer is Suzanne of Wickedly Mod Pendants. As soon as I saw one of these pendants, I knew I was going to have to share these with all of you!!

Wow, I love these!! They are so creative and adorable, I can't really say enough about them!! Suzanne mentioned in her profile page on Etsy that she has been working online doing web design for over 10 years and was introduced to Etsy by one of her customers.

Looks and sounds like so many of the rest of us, that she was hooked very quickly on the "handmade community"!!

Isn't that so true, it's amazing the amount of support and mentoring you can find within a matter of minutes!!

Suzanne's specialty is making scrabble tile pendants. She mentioned she loves grunge, rock and modern images and I have to tell you, these are fabulous!!

I really want them ALL!! There is truly something for everyone here!!

As usual, I wanted to share a few of my favorites here, but don't hesitate to check out the rest of the etsy site for many, many more themes and coolness! LOVE the holiday collection!!

Have a great weekend everyone!! AND, thanks so much Suzanne for allowing me to share your work!! :)

Suzanne can also be found on Twitter and Facebook!

$20 Giftcard Winner & Yellow CZ's

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I wanted to make a quick bead post, but most importantly, announce the winner of the $20 Artbeads.com gift card!!

Thanks the random number generator at Random.org, we have a winner....

KRISTIN of NW Ohio....she mentioned she would like to have the giftcard to give her Mom who is a beader. Aw, that is so nice and a perfect sentiment for a family holiday.

Thanks to EVERYONE who participated!! I will be having at least one giveaway next month and certainly a book giveaway (or two) in January, so STAY TUNED!!

So, on to the beads!! Today's bead is the 8mm Yellow Cushion CZ. Very sweet and cheerful! Not sure if these will be part of a bracelet or a choker yet...Hmm, what do you think??

The final cubic zirconia bead project will be posted on Saturday with tomorrow's post being the next featured designer, fun, fun and more fun! :) Have a great evening!

CZ Extravaganza Continues...

Hello! The week of Cubic Zirconias from Artbeads.com continues with these pretty 8x10mm Burnt Orange CZ Rectangles.

I was just wondering if I should use these as anchors in a focal piece for a bracelet when I looked up at the TV and there was a holiday movie playing and a gift was given with earrings made with what looked EXACTLY like these beads!! They were in a rectangular sterling silver setting that was intented to look a bit aged.

I was trying to think of something I already own that could be used to frame these beads so I can make earrings with a little more pizzazz.

I know everyone is REALLY busy this week, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on this!

Sterling Silver Cognac CZ Link

What a nice way to brighten up your day... sterling silver cognac cz links!!

These are so pretty with the bright sterling bezel. The actual description is: 6mm Sterling Silver Cognac CZ Bezel Link.

If you click on the product link above from Artbeads.com you can see the back side which comes to a point. This explains the sparkle and depth that you see from the front side! Very cool!....Oh how fun it would be to design pieces and parts for beaders!!

This color is perfect for fall and will be great through the holidays too! I originally selected these to use in earrings, but haven't decided what to hang from them yet. The possiblities seem endless! A crystal, a stone, a bright silver dangle? If you have any ideas or inspiration, please send them my way!!

More Cubic Zirconia Beads to come tomorrow!! Yay!! This is so exciting! What a wonderful sparkly week!

Pretty Fabulous CZ's

I mentioned yesterday that I recently selected some Cubic Zirconia Beads from Artbeads.com and I have to say, they are so gorgeous!! I am anxious to get started on a project with them!!!

The top left is a 9x36mm Yellow CZ Faceted Flat Teardrop Pendant. Wow, this is tall and impressive! The hole on this CZ is horizontal just below the top point which will be perfect for using it in a necklace, especially as a focal piece.

I am considering using a colored softflex beading wire and using tiny gold tone crimps to position some small crystals along the wire with this teardrop as the focal. It will be understated WOW!

The oval CZ is: 20x30mm CZ Faceted Oval Drop - Champagne. This substantial CZ really brings to mind a royal gem or something from an old movie. For this pendant drop bead, I'd like to hang it from a choker or a beaded memory choker wire.

I also wanted to mention the adorable packaging these beads came in. How cute is this perfect little purple package?

Tucked inside the package was this little card with one of their design gallery projects on it, the popcorn & cranberries necklace.

Those little white puffballs on the necklace are so darn adorable!!

I hope you have enjoyed these pieces as much as I have so far.

Stay tuned for tomorrow, MORE CZ's!!