Cheerful Button Bracelet

Hello! This week's bracelet is made using some of the most cheerful little buttons I've ever seen. The colors are great and I love how the silver connectors contrast with them. The designer of this bracelet is a blogging friend, Nancy, of "Never Enough Time".

As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to share it with you and she kindly agreed to allow me to do that. In addition to being such a great bracelet, it was created as part of a worldwide initiative that provides an opportunity for fellow arts & crafts bloggers to get to know each other. It is called "One World, One Heart". There are now 785 crafters participating. Considering this is a one-woman show, this is very impressive.

I hope you are all having a nice weekend and getting a little crafting in!

Vintage Star Earrings

It's Friday (yay), which means it's time for this week's earrings.

I noticed these earrings in Teri B's etsy shop earlier this week and they really caught my eye. I love the size of them and the fact they are vintage metal pieces removed from belted chains. I can imagine how cool the belts were!

Using these metal stars as earrings is such a fun and festive idea!! They will certainly get you noticed and bring many smiles, I'm sure of it. Teri mentioned she has them in other colors as well, so here's a link to her shop so you can take a look. Thanks for letting me share these Teri!!

Have a great weekend!

Bright Red Flower Button

Hi there! I just came across this button and realized I hadn't posted it here before. I love using buttons in jewelry. Large buttons like this are perfect for memory wire bracelets.

It reminds me of those plastic rings you would get at a carnival or out of a gumball machine. How fun! I'm envisioning this one on memory wire with a black band of some kind. Either large, chunky black beads or a band of 6mm fire polished black beads. Yes, I think that might be the one. Well, maybe I need to make it before I can tell which one I like the best.

This came with 2 buttons on the pack, so you could actually make it into a ring if you really wanted to.

Have a good one!!

Nautical Rope Bead

I thought this bead looked very nautical. It is a dark navy color with a rope-like design in light blue and white. I immediately had thoughts of a crisp navy jacket with rope detailing and a crisp pair of pleated white shorts with deck shoes.

This would be cute wire wrapped as a focal bead and connected on either side to slightly bulky gold-tone chain links. I think a dash of red is necessary to complete the picture. A small solid red glass round wired onto either side of the nautical bead would be nice.

A lakeside vacation to go along with the outfit would be great too!

Have a good one and stay safe out there in this wintery weather!

Tassel of Beads

I recently purchased this "tassel" of beads because a friend mentioned she would love to have something colorful hanging from her purse and thought something "like a curtain tassel" would be fun. She had just found a designer bag in a second hand store that was in great condition. A large, but cute pink bag that reminded me of a carpet bag with chains for handles and a pink heart hanging from it.

It suits her personality perfectly which is large and in charge, but also cute and sparkly. After giving it a bit of thought I had to agree some additional sparkle couldn't hurt. I want to make something fun for her that she can't help but smile about.

I found this tassel of beads at Joann's and carried it over to the curtain tassel aisle. The edges of the bag look slightly purplish, so I thought the tassel below would be fun to embellish.

I do enjoy "sewing" with beads, so I am thinking of using some 4mm crystals or even some nice toho beads to sew in a swirling pattern around the top of the tassel. I'd like to figure out a way to use the pink tassel and also add some additional strands of beads hanging around the outer edges.

As always, let me know what you think, I'd love to hear your ideas!! Have a good one! For those of you in the snow belt, I encourage you to take a personal "snow day" tomorrow like I am and do some crafting!

Bead with Attitude!

Today's bead certainly has a lot of attitude! I'm not sure if teenagers are still prone to making this statement, but it always makes me think of the valley girl attitude back in the 80's. Okay, I might have said a few "what-evers" myself, truth be told.

I recently checked out a DVD of the old TV show, "Square Pegs", from the library and had a lot of fun watching it. The character played by Tracy Nelson is great, she is the best valley girl by far, like totally! If you ever want to get a glimpse back to a sitcom version of high school in the 80's, this is a good one with lots of great catch phrases! (Like totally different head, totally!!)

Okay, back to the bead...! This bead would make a great pull for a backpack or a cute choker made with sky blue faux suede cord. This is a big hole bead, so you could use a variety of stringing materials. It would be cute in between knots as a focal bead. You wouldn't really even need any other beads, but you could add a couple glass pony beads for a little shine on either side.

One last mention of Square Pegs...In case curiosity has gotten the best of you, You Tube has some great video clips including the appearance by DEVO, yes, D..E..V..O.

Have a good one!

Wire Sculpted Ear Pins

Hello! I wanted to share these gorgeous 14k gold filled "ear pins" with you because they are fascinating to me. I've worked with many types of wire before, but nothing as intricate and fancy as these!

You put this in your ear from the bottom up so the intricate wire work goes up the outer edge of your ear and the long "pin" goes up the back of the ear to secure it. See what I mean?...Fascinating!

These earrings are handcrafted and sold by "Dave's Jewelry & Crafts", currently out of Arcadia, Florida. If you are interested in learning more or making a purchase, you can contact Dave at D.Kohlmeier@yahoo.com. I'd love to learn this technique in person, especially if it requires a trip to Florida!

"Thank you" to Dave & Shelly for allowing me to share these today. It's always a lot of fun to see what others are doing in their little corner of the world!

Enjoy!