I Received a Special Gift Today!!

You are not going to believe what I received as a gift from a friend today!! Ready?....

SHRINKY DINK EARRINGS!!

Seriously, these were tied together with a red ribbon and layed on top of a handmade card that accompanied a festively wrapped gift from Bath & Body Works in red celophane!!

Oh my gosh, I had a split second thought of , "wow, I'm not worthy!"... Then it turned into, "wow, I feel really special"!

Unbelievable!! My friend used the "real" shrinky dink brand white plastic and die-cut out the snowflakes, punched a hole, baked them and turned them into earrings. Aww, that is just so sweet.

If you are reading...THANK YOU MARY, you are truly one of a kind!! :)

Peace, Love & Bead Bloggers!

What a fun list of blog posts!! I am so excited to see all of the hustle and bustle going on out in the beading world. What a great time to share! I hope everyone had a great weekend!!

I wish there was one more day each week set aside just for crafting!! i guess that means we have to plan well to use the time we have wisely!! HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!

About.com Jewelry Making Thinking of making some beaded ornament covers? Then you'll need to know the size bulb to use too.

Katie's Beading Blog Katie's making tons of earrings this season. Here are a few fun ideas for your own last-minute gifts!

Jean Campbell Jean shares 3 easy tips for making holiday gift production a little less stressful.

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done! When you check out this ornament kit which is available for you to make, it will REALLY put you in the spirit!

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton Each representing a different spectrum of lampwork glass, Andrew shares the new additions to his bead collection from two different artists.

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio Lorelei is saying Thank you and Merry Christmas by giving away a gift certificate to artbeads.com!

Art Bead Scene It's the first day of Art Bead Scene's annual Twelve Days of Free Projects!

Barbe Saint John - New Jewelry from Forgotten Artifacts Barbe gets all steamy over the new Steampunk Style book!

Beading Arts Cyndi shares a new tutorial featuring one of Earthenwood Studio's fabulous new pendants!

Carmi's Art/Life World Carmi wonders if anyone else is working on Spring.

Cindy Gimbrone aka Lampwork Diva Inspired by Grandma's necklace, Cindy creates an edgey look with CZ's.

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles Melanie shows a sneak peek of a pair of earrings she made for the upcoming book Steampunk Style by Jean Campbell

This Week's Project: Happy Holidays Bracelet

After yesterday's softflex wire post, I took a few minutes to dig up the red and green wire so I would have it on hand when it was time to wrap a gift.

Well...I thought it would be fun to make a random bracelet with red and green beads. I wanted something fun, festive and simple, so I decided to just crimp on some beads allowing a good bit of the colored wire to show.

It seemed a little bare once the beads were all attached, so I added some sliding dangles. I started to laugh when I put it on and that's a good sign to myself that I have made something fun that, when worn, will lift my spirits.

That is ALWAYS a good thing!! I hope everyone had a chance to create some fun today too!!

Featured Designer: Jamie Hogsett & Softflex Econoflex

When I saw the guest blogger post by Jamie Hogsett on "Softflex Girl" Sara Hardin's blog this week, I was thrilled!

I enjoy wrapping a gift and embellishing it like crazy, especially with unusual or interesting materials. However, I never thought about using the softflex econoflex wire and as soon as I saw it, I thought, "OF COURSE"!! It made complete sense to me!! I don't know why I didn't think of it myself!

I was especially happy when I realized I already have the spring green, cinnamon red, autumn brown, black and steel blue on hand!! Yay!!

You can't beat the price and can find it in a number of places such as local hobby lobby stores or the Softflex website.

I can't wait to get wrapping!

Great stuff Jamie and Sara, thanks so much for sharing and allowing me to post these ideas!!

Have a great weekend!

Holiday Collage Jewelry

During the holidays I like to collect all of my festive beads and put them in a container together so I can make some standard gift jewelry quickly.

I have a tendency to want to create symmetrical patterns with beads, but if I push myself a little, I find that I enjoy making "collage" pieces.

This does involve "making a mess" with your beads, but it is well worth it!

Just make a pile of beads and get a clasp on a wire for a necklace or bracelet and just start randomly stringing them.

I like to use some kind of tiny toho seed bead in between beads just to help set each of them off a little better.

Memory wire bracelets are the most fun because you can easily do more than one strand AND they are "one size fits all" which is wonderful for gift giving!!

I hope you are all having a great week! :)

Huge Cubes!

Last Tuesday I posted some "green" ceramic raku cubes from Joann, Etc. They actually seemed a little more turquoise, but were really cool and interesting.

I also bought a strand of this much larger brown cube because I liked the variations and watery look of the colors.

At a glance, the green/turquoise raku bead seemed to be the same bead as this one, but in a different color.

The tag on this strand from Blue Moon Beads reads 7 in ceramic bead strand (STR BD CERA 7" SQ DK BRN). There isn't any mention of "raku".

What do you think? They seem so similar, I would be surprised if this was not a raku bead, but I honestly don't know how to tell the difference.

What I DO KNOW is that these are very earthy, yet sophisticated at the same time and that is very cool!

17 Velvet Hearts

Would you believe this strand of 17 large velvet heart beads was on clearance for $.98? This is the other find from the clearance wall at Michael's over the weekend! These hearts are soft and furry AND a whopping 24mm!

These are from the Lost & Found Collection from Blue Moon Beads and the packaging reads: STR BD VLVT HEART 24MM BLACK

These would make great key chains and what a fun zipper pull especially on a red coat or sweater.

My first thought was to use one of these as a focal bead in a necklace or on a choker, but then I was thinking you could make a long, dangly pendant using several of them. That would certainly make a statement.

Imagine pairing these with some seriously sparkly crystals for a fabulous new years eve eye-catcher!! How fun!!