Featured Designer: Madison Reece Designs

Oh happy day, Friday is here, YAY! And, the perfect way to celebrate that is by featuring someone new!

I recently stumbled upon The Bright Side Project and signed up for their daily emails. A new product, designer, website or company is featured daily for a dose of good cheer! One of last week's features was Madison Reece Designs.

When I visited her blog, I knew immediately from the pictures in the header that she made adorable, happy pieces and I wanted to share them with you here. Luckily, she agreed!! :)

Madison Reece Designs, features "fresh rustic modern unique" handmade fine silver jewelry. She states on her etsy site that "All of my Rustic Silver jewelry is freshly made when you purchase it."

By the way, there is one more day left to win the most adorable piece from Madison Reece Designs on The Bright Side Project!

I just love the cheerfulness that comes through in her work.

Thanks so much to Madison Reece Designs for allowing me to feature her here today!

The Magical World of Beading!

I could not resist buying a handful of these adorable "magic" wands at a local shop. I will be giving these out to friends (whether they like it or not). :)

As I mentioned yesterday, I was also able to find some adorable charms. I wanted to share the silver ones here because I already used the gold ones!!

The 4 leaf clover, heart and "diamond" ring charms are just great AND they feel very lucky!!

I can't wait to use them! I will share the other bracelet chains I bought in the near future so I can get your opinion!

Have a great evening!!

Digging for Treasure

I mentioned over the weekend that I had recently gathered up "treasure" that included some gold "coins" or medallions and had drilled a hole in one of them to include in my project of the week.

I've had such fun wearing it this week because the shell pearls and sparkly beads are so pretty, but also because that coin and the little charms make it very fun.

A friend and I went into a local shop to pick up the bracelet chains and just couldn't help but dig through a large container of plastic beads with a little shovel.

We probably spent an hour just scooping up beads and looking closely at them to pick out a baggie full for $1.99. It was seriously good and inexpensive therapy! You will need to click on this photo to get a close-up view of the little smiley faces, dice and all around silly beads. :)

I can't wait to get these worked into a piece of jewelry so I can be reminded of the day we were digging for treasure!

Beach Vacation Memories

These are the last couple of memory items provided by Rings & Things for this month's blog partner program. WOW!!

After reading comments over the last week or so from others on what they would like to carry around as a memory, the beach/sand/shell theme seemed to stand out.

I think that is a great way to use either these bottles, the picture frame, the shadow box or hinged glass pendant that have been showcased here recently.

They are all basically just a blank slate for you to fill as you see fit.

I'm wondering now if I can fit some tiny, sparkly seed beads and maybe even just a little bit of diamond dust glitter into one of these containers. Mmm...glitter does sound like fun!! :)

What do you think? Here are the catalog links just in case! :)

Jar, glass 32x15mm

Jar, glass, heart

Have a great evening!! :)

FTC compliance disclosure, notice of material connections: the items in this post from Rings&Things were provided as a promotional gift as part of the Blog Partner Program for review or design purposes. More info about the Rings & Things Blog Partner Program

Colorful Glass "Jars"

Are these colorful bottles from Rings & Things adorable or what? I was actually wishing I had a couple handfulls of them in a variety of colors. I just checked the online catalog and discovered these are in many other colors.

After finishing the gold chain bracelet yesterday, I was thinking a nice silver chain covered in these mini bottles, a few pastel shell pearls and a few swarovski crystals here and there would be GREAT! What do you think?

Now, the question is....what to put inside these little bottles...! I believe I read in the catalog that a piece of rice fits inside and there is a trend right now to write a word or message on the grain of rice and then secure it inside.

Each of the little bottle toppers are actually screw-on lids with a nice loop for hanging from a chain! Nice!! Any ideas you want to share?

FTC compliance disclosure, notice of material connections: the item in this post from Rings&Things was provided as a promotional gift as part of the Blog Partner Program for review or design purposes. More info about the Rings & Things Blog Partner Program

Blogger Udpates & This Week's Revised Project

This week's project was returned to the drawing board this afternoon after one of my furry kids stepped into an open bead box which also had my sort-of-dry bezels on the lid.

It's a very good thing he is adorable or I might have been upset. BUT, it is impossible to get mad at someone so cute and angelic looking! :)

This week's project no longer has bezel's attached, but you can't miss all of the great shell pearls and electric sparkly beads that I mentioned early last week!!

It is possible that I got slightly carried away with this... This is usually an issue I face when using a glue gun, but today it was having so many great beads to put on head pins!

I love it and was glad to find a great use for this gold toned chain bracelet and heart/clover charms.

The "coin" charm is actually a plastic piece from a "pirate's treasure" that I will tell you about another time... :) I drilled a hole and the next thing I knew, it was hanging from my bracelet!!

I hope you all had a great week! Below are updates from our fellow friendly bloggers so we can see what they have been up to as well!

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio The answers still hold true in this interview that Lorelei had with herself back in 2008.

Katie's Beading Blog Surf on over to Katie's blog for ideas about making your own chain, layering components, and easy earrings.

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done! Jean made a necklace for a relative. Of course, it had to be perfect. Therefore she turned to Kazuri Beads!

About.com Jewelry Making Turn a little hand-dyed ribbon and shell pendant into a trendy jewelry piece you'll wear with almost everything in your closet.

Art Bead Scene Got cabin fever? ABS has some beady suggestions so you can get out of the house.

Barbe Saint John - New Jewelry from Forgotten Artifacts Barbe is avoiding work by showing some pics of recently made creations.

Beading Arts Cyndi is running a contest on Beading Arts, and the prize is an absolutely free advertisement!

Carmi's Art/Life World A new spring challenge from Artbeads.com means Carmi has a new Brooch!

Cindy Gimbrone aka The Lampwork Diva Squee! Rings N Things sends shell pearls which Cindy mixes with her single color lampwork beads.

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles Ferris wheels, carnivals, and comedians inspire a new Song Lore Saturday post for Melanie.

Wearable Glass Display Case!

This week's project is still "under construction" at the moment as a couple of things are still drying. I'm using gold toned bezels received from Rings & Things along with the butterscotchy shell pearls and more electric sparkly beads to create a fun, lucky bracelet.

I'll mention more tomorrow, but in the mean time, here is another great item received from Rings & Things.

As you might have guessed this month's theme for the Rings & Things Blog Partners is memory jewelry. As with the items below, the pieces I've shown this week are for showing off saved or treasured items.

This square glass picture frame is so cool because it has a nice little sliding hinge type door so you can add your photos or even pressed items. This would be the perfect way to show your mixed media art.

The great part about it is there are two sides that can be displayed. You could actually go very different on either side for wearing with very different outfits. OR, you could determine which side to wear based on your mood.

A friend and I were just talking about a "good" vs. "evil" bracelet. Smiley faces and crystals on the top side and a little bit darker colors with an ornery vibe on the other. You could slide it around based on your mood. Yes, we were sort of joking, but now it sounds like a fun idea!

I hope you are all having fun crafting and HOPEFULLY enjoying a bit of sunshine today!!

FTC compliance disclosure, notice of material connections: the item in this post from Rings&Things was provided as a promotional gift as part of the Blog Partner Program for review or design purposes. More info about the Rings & Things Blog Partner Program