Bargain Find

I'm patting myself on the back for this $1 find.

These donut pieces are really cool and came in one package at Joann, etc. for $1!

I believe they are carved resin and have the design on both sides.

They can be used in so many styles from funky to earthy and even pieces with a jungle-like theme.

For me, I always think bracelets, so one of these perfectly fits on my wrist and would be so cool with a knotted hemp cord or even a velvety or silky black cord.

Definitely a great find!

New Faceted Focal

I have to tell you, I couldn't resist this component over the weekend as I did a quick stroll through Joann Etc.

I picked it up and put it down a couple times. I have a friend at work who has the most gorgeous black faceted gemstone ring that I just love.

This really reminded me of it and I thought it would be fun to use as a bracelet focal component with lots of miscellaneous black and silver sparkly beads.

If I get this the way I see it in my head, I imagine this will be a bracelet I will wear every day for a while.

That is usually the way it works for me. I make something, I love it, I wear it and wear it and wear it and then....somehow it disappears.

Usually into a jewelry box or pocket of a bag that I carry back and forth to work.

Is that fickle or just perfect timing?

Peace, Love & Bead Bloggers!

It's time to wrap up the week already...Wow, it never ceases to amaze me how quickly the time can go over the weekend.

Looks like some fun and exciting things are going on with our beading friends below! That makes Sunday evening a little bit easier to handle. THANKS GUYS!


About.com Jewelry Making Tammy announces her first About.com jewelry making video.

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles Melanie shows off the treasures of her shopping spree at Bead Fest Philly

Katie's Beading Blog Katie shares a couple of ideas for jewelry using crystals and pearls, plus, announces a giveaway winner.

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio Lorelei shows off her loot from her Bead Fest Philadelphia trip!

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done! Jean is totally WOWed by the fabulous Margot Potter's latest book: scroll down to read the truly intriguing review of this unique book--it is SO worth it!

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton SueBeads has generously supplied an assortment of goodies for this week's Thursday Giveaway.

Art Bead Scene While Art Bead Scene Editor, Cindy Gimbrone is on vacation, she's left us a gem from Studio Saturday - her box of inspiration!

Beading Arts After receiving a wonderful package of crystals from Auntie's Beads, Cyndi set out to make a bracelet that would show them off!

Carmi's Art/Life World The new Katiedids components are responsible for Carmi's new pearl necklace design.

Cindy Gimbrone, The Lampwork Diva While Cindy's off enjoying the bead-ch, let's get ready for the upcoming HalloweenMas newsletters by checking in on a re-wind. It's Barbe Saint John's magic with Cindy's Calaveraz.

I Love...

Have I told you lately that I love you?

Possibly not! I have mentioned how much I love beads and other beaders, but I think this is a good time to say it!

While in person with those I work with, I try to remind everyone how much their good spirits and happy comments mean to me...

I know I catch them off guard sometimes because "LOVE" is a primary force in my life and it is so important to have it, recognize it and revel in it... HOWEVER, sometimes staying in it is not that easy!

Working in a conservative environment is a challenge to make sure I share LOVE, recognize LOVE and encourage LOVE!!

Any time that I love the jewelry I am wearing is quite helpful and when people recognize and ask about jewelry I am wearing, it provides an opportunity for a "love fest"!

This particular piece has a focal bead out of shrink plastic! That makes me think I should warm up the oven and get some plastic pieces ready to work with tomorrow!

How is your crafty weekend going!

Weekend Project Pondering

I'm trying to decide what project to work on this weekend!

Sometimes there are so many choices, I can't seem to make any at all.

I don't want to let chores and the fact we are going to a local balloon show tomorrow keep me from using my availble time for beading.

It is so easy to give in to the flow of the weekend! I will follow up with you tomorrow and hope you all have a great weekend!

For now, here is a formerly created beading craft. Every time I look at this bracelet, I smile. It is SO crafty!!

Red, Gold & ???

As a continuation of yesterday's post, what do you think about red and gold?

For some reason I think those two colors would look crisp and cool on Tuesday's filigree pendant.

Of course, I LOVE bracelets, so I'd love to use the filigree piece as the focal point of a bracelet.

The size of it would fit perfectly on top of my wrist with just a little bit of the bracelet band showing.

I think I have figured it out! Now....what to use as the bracelet band...hmmm

Chain, beads, crytals or rubber tubing? Yes, the possibilities are endless, yikes! Any ideas?

The Makings of a Beaded Lapel Pin

I am thinking a combination of these swarovski crystals would be fun to attach to the filigree pendant in yesterday's post.

One of the ideas left on that post mentioned it would make a great lapel pin, I agree!

Especially a lapel pin covered in a random assortment of swarovski crystals...yum!

You wouldn't necessarily have to use crystals, you could use an e-bead mix from Joann Etc., there is one in particular with turquoise, gold, cream, topaz that would be pretty cute!

For just a few dollars a tube, you should have enough to also make a pair of earrings or even a bracelet to go along with it!

That's is definitely maximizing your beading dollar!

I hope you are having a great week!!

If you have other color ideas, please send them my way. :)

Filigree Craftiness

I'm starting to feel the crafty bug come over me! Beading is great, but using beads in a crafty jewelry project just makes me so happy!

I am thinking this filigree piece would make a nice foundation for adding beads and then either using as a pendant or even a focal piece in a bracelet.

If used in a bracelet, I'm thinking it should have two strands connected on each side for stability.

For a look of simplicity, using gold, clear and metallic gold crystals would be SO sparkly!!

As always, I would LOVE to hear your ideas for something crafty using this filigree round, so please comment if you have a minute! :)

Do Beads Look Like People?

Do you ever think that beads "look like" people? Maybe they don't actually "look" like people, but there are qualities in the beads that I think match qualities in people.

Sometimes I am a very "pearly" person, rather conservative and traditional. I love wearing pearls at certain times and they make me feel mature and confident.

At other times, all I want or need is crystals! I NEED to sparkle! Sometimes I am feeling sparkly inside and other times, I need to feel a little more sparkly. These are both occassions to bring out the crystals.

I have been known to get very weary of being mature and following routines day in and day out, I can always tell when I'm ready for a fun, crafty break. I tend to want to make jewelry craft projects and incorporate paper, found objects or scrapbooking findings into jewelry for one of a kind, often silly, results.

Today's photo is an example of a pair of paper earrings I made with paper punches! :)

When making jewelry for others, I like to think about the person and the reason they might have for wearing it and go with my intuition for making them something unique and special.

How about you? Do you think beads look like people? Are there certain techniques or materials that have certain people written all over them?

Peace, Love & Bead Bloggers!

The best part about a Sunday, from my perspective, is catching up with our fellow bead-blogger friends below. They always help me feel as though I am among friends and remind me how many things are going on in the world of beads...very exciting!

Here's to a great new week!

Carmi's Art/Life World This week Carmi makes a floral tribute necklace with fabric flowers.

Cindy Gimbrone, The Lampwork Diva This week Cindy's Mad for Monday is about the frit.

About.com Jewelry Making Have you ever thought about expanding your jewelry business but need a little mulla to do so? Then you may want to learn more about this jewelry grant.

Art Bead Scene It's the Art Bead Scene Monthly Carnival Blog! Join us as we embark on an exploration.

Beading Arts Chapter three of Cyndi's e-book is available for download! "Dimensional Beading" looks at how to use textural stitches in your bead embroidery!

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles Melanie shows the results of her experiments with Ice Resin and LEDs... Light! Science!

Strands of Beads Melissa unveils her new Saturn charm.

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton For this week's Thursday Giveaway, TWO winners will walk away with beautiful bead sets created by Gaea Ceramic Beads.

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done! Jean reviews Making Mixed Media Art Charms and Jewelry: not to be missed!

This Week's Project: Party Earrings

It's been a week since the 50th anniversary party for my parents and we've had fun reliving it all week!

I want to encourage people to remember to celebrate the milestones, even those not as extreme as 50 years of marriage!

It's something I think many of us tend to forget and keep waiting for these big events to come up.

I'm now thinking we need to pick something every year to pull people together for...I need to get the wheels turning!

These are the earrings I made for myself after making a pair for my Mom. I'm guessing I did them in less than 5 minutes and didn't really have that time to spare. I love doing things like that because in hindsight I sometimes wonder if I would have put the same things together if I had more time.

These are very simple, but I am really enjoying the color combo!

I hope you are all having a great weekend!!

Dimensional Beading now Available

I received a newsflash today from Cyndi Lavin of Beading Arts...part 3 of her e-book is ready to download for the cost of $3 on her website.

She describes chapter three as "dimensional beading". Here is the info:

"Chapter Three, Dimensional Beading, is 93 pages long and covers more stitches and techniques to take your bead embroidery from flat to fluffy: stacked stitches that turn into clusters, barnacles, and ruffles; seed beads that become small flowers and spiral elements; bezels and bails and more!

There are two step-by-step embroidery projects included that will put those techniques to excellent use."

Wow! There are several other pictures on her website in addition to this one, but I just loved the colors and the CRYSTALS on this one!! :)

Thanks for letting us know Cyndi!

I hope everyone is getting geared up for a great summery and creative weekend!!

Elegance and Sophistication!

I got a little hooked on the meaning of color chart and thought I would share some black beads since I DO HAVE a velvety black bead!!

(Even though I didn't have a velvety purple one).

Here are the meanings for the color black:

Elegance, sophistication, formality, power, strength, illegality, depression, morbidity, night

Most of these are positive, so I think it's about what you choose to focus on!

I like the elegance and sophistication part!

Here is the velvety black heart bead that I used to make a new year's eve bracelet...

I threw in a couple other black beads that are faves too!

I need purple beads!

Have you ever found yourself carried away after googling one subject and before you know it you are 5 or more clicks into a variety of other topics that sounded interesting?

Well, that's what just happened to me and the truth is, I consider it a bit of a guilty pleasure!

I just came across a site that listed colors and a variety of meanings associated with them. This was one of my favorites...

PURPLE: power, royalty, nobility, elegance, sophistication, artificial, luxury, mystery, royalty, elegance, magic

Those wonderful words made me want to pull all my purple beads and also made me wish I had some VELVETY purple beads! I don't, but hey, dare to dream!!

Here are a few I do have...and, CLEARLY I do not have enough purple beads...I think I can remedy that in the very near future!

Sweet, Sunshiny Yellow

I heard on the radio today that it won't be too long until FOOTBALL SEASON! WHAT??????!!

Please say it isn't so! Not that I have anything against sports necessarily, it's just that I'm not ready for a seasonal change.

Just a few degrees cooler right now would be great, but I'll take the heat over the cold any day!

Just to keep things in perspective and really appreciate the yellowy, bright goodness of the sun, here are a few of my sunny faves!

I remember during the winter reading the blog of our friend Davinia in Australia who wrote about the extra hot summer days while we were dealing with blizzardy weather.

I was so envious and I am not ready to switch places yet!!

I need to make something with all these beads while it's warm, that way in the wintertime, I can wear it and feel the warmth of this extreme heat!

Blue, Blue, Blue!

Today seemed like a great day to share some of my favorite blue beads!
While I'd like to say I love all blues equally, but they each bring something unique to the table.

Swarovski crystals of course bring BLING...

The blue leaf bead brings a softness and a drop shape while the glass chips bring an organic vibe to a finished piece.

All blue, all the time!

There is something so calming and hopeful about this color. And let's not forget about CHEERFUL! :)

I hope your week is off to a great start!

If not, pull out your blue jewelry and see if that makes a difference!!

Peace, Love & Bead Bloggers!

Wow, what a whirlwind weekend! It's time to relax and visit some friendly blogs of other beaders...ahh! I feel the peace, love and harmony...

About.com Jewelry Making Tammy found some inspiration by way of some very cool clasps!

Art Bead Scene Get your inspiration on for the August Art Bead Scene Monthly Challenge. Think "Sunrise."

Beading Arts Do you like art charms? Visit Beading Arts and sign up to win a copy of a brand new book on making them!

Carmi's Art/Life World Carmi pulls out her buttons to make a jeweled attachment for sweaters.

Cindy Gimbrone, The Lampwork Diva Cindy previews an upcoming newsletter series, Happy HalloweenMas. Sign up for her newsletter to find out what it's all about.

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles Melanie joins some up with some hacker friends to play with LEDs and Ice Resin

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio Lorelei is always inspired by music, and shares a favorite tune by Tori Amos.

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done! Jean continues her analysis of the jewelry designers whom she admires--wait!!!--loves! with some of her favorite seed beaders and weavers on "The Jean's List"!

Strands of Beads Melissa puts a new twist on her skully charm by pairing it with a new cutlass design.

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton Do you have a collection of lampwork beads nobody ever sees? Embrace simple, easy designs to showcase your glass treasures! Andrew shares five quick projects to inspire you to finally wear them!

Party...!

Yay, it's the weekend! Why does it seem like people are so much more creative on Saturday than any other day???

Just curious! I made a couple pairs of earrings today... One pair for my Mom and one for me. I didn't have a chance to photograph them, but used the same beads that are in this golden bracelet with a few swarovski's thrown in for extra sparkle.

My two sisters and I threw a 50th wedding anniversary party for our parents today. It was at their house, but even so, was a surprise for my Mom!

So many of their friends and neighbors stopped in for food and visiting, it was very nice! I feel fortunate that my husband and I did a 50th anniversary party for his parents as well back in 2003 or so...

I found some of the pictures from my in-laws party and realized that no matter what, the idea is to have people around who love you and especially those who know what you have been through in the course of 50 years!!

A good time was had by all today considering that the temperature and humidity were both high.

:) I hope you are having a great and creative weekend.

Fun Distraction!

I was thinking back when I made this back in the spring and just LOVE wearing it. The bracelet itself is the coolest and is a very special bead distraction!

Sorry for the short post today (and tomorrow) preparing for tomorrow's party!

I'll let you know how it goes! Take care all!!

Crystally Distractions...

I just can't help myself now...How about one more day of bead distractions and what is more distracting than CRYSTALS?!!!

This first grouping is Egyptian crystals!! Wow, I really wish you could see the SPARKLE on these! Like water sparkling in the sunshine...ahhh...! Okay, that was a serious distraction! :)

The next crystally distraction is the 8gigabyte flashdrive bracelet with swarovski crystals! Yeah, seriously!

I ordered this about a year ago after seeing it on the Beading Gem's blog. I read the article and immediately clicked over to order it.

A good example of knowing that you have to have something! I wore it a lot when I was finishing up my book and was keeping all the chapters and photos on it.

When I received the first draft of the designed pages from the publisher, I immediately put them on there as well as on my phone! It was great knowing I was carrying that around with me on these little devices! :)

These last two distractions are identical settings, but with different crystals! BOTH are beautiful in their own way.

The blue reminds me of the outdoors, the sky and water.... The pacific opal makes me think of the Caribbean...ALL GOOD THINGS!!

Any thoughts on these?

More Bead Distractions!

I was so happy to read yesterday's comments and discover that I'm not alone, I thought I'd share a few more bead distractions.

These are cute, funny, mezmerizing and interesting!

They are the kind of beads you might never use, but will come back to appreciate, laugh at, stare at and wonder about.

That crazy foot bead is too much! It was an unexpected discovery in a bead shop mix. How fun!

The robot is actually a bead with a top and bottom bead cap shaped as a robot!!

I am in LOVE with the deep blue bead with the swarovski sparkle in the middle!

And, finally the bird bead reminds me so much of the "quetzlcoatl" creature in an old sci-fi movie, it's scary!

I'd love to see or hear about your collections of intersting, mezmerizing and totally distracting beads!! :)

Bead Distraction

Have you ever had beading overload? Tonight it started when I was looking through a "junk drawer" or catch all drawer in the kitchen and found a HUGE black plastic bead that must have come from something like a purse and my mind started racing about how to use it.

Then I found a premade bracelet on stretchy cord that someone gave me so I could use the beads. They are pretty dark brown, sort of shiny beads.

The next thing I found in the drawer was the credit card-like cruise ship cabin "key". I started reminiscing about the cruise ship and remembered one of the ladies who works at a local Joann Etc. store. She took used Joann gift cards and cut out the word "Joann's", punched holes in either end and strung them, in between multi-colored 8mm crystal bicones all along a beaded eye glass holder. How cool was that!!!? I need to go on more cruises so I can make something out of multiple cruise ship cabin keys! :)

Okay, you are probably seeing a pattern of distraction here....

THEN, I saw my sparkly kadiedid bracelet in progress and became mezmerized by it and it is far from being done...which doesn't really matter, it still brought me joy from it's sparkliness and the thought of many possibilities of what it will become.

I am sure I am not alone and would love to hear your stories of bead overload or maybe that is more like bead distraction! :)

Metal Tulip Beads (on clearance)

I have a great new bead to share today and truth be told, I believe it will be Saturday before I get my new project done!

They were on clearance at Joann, Etc.! $1.97 for 4 lavender and 4 red metal tulip charms.

I'm not sure I'd call these charms, they are definitely beads!

They have a whole through the flower and I think the possiblities are pretty endless here, from color combos to different ways of using them.

I can definitely see them dangling with a large crystal inside, but I can also see them around an entire bracelet with lots of colorful beads in between.

Okay, I'm thinking memory wire!

I hope your week is off to a great start!

Peace, Love & Bead Bloggers!

Happy Sunday! As always, this is a great day to reflect upon the last week in the beading/jewelry making world!

I wanted to share my new Katiedid project with you today, but thought I better wait until I figure out the closure part and save it for tomorrow. For now, it is a 3 strand, multi-color, mosaic-looking bracelet! Hopefully it will stay that way :)

And now, here's some fun stuff to either wind down the weekend or fun stuff to kick off the new week!

Strands of Beads Melissa is giving away one of her new fine silver charms this week. Enter now!

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton Offered up in this week's Thursday Giveaway is a pack of Katiedid Creative Components by Katie Hacker.

About.com Jewelry Making Tammy has spotted several celebrities who have new jewelry lines and wonders what you think about this.

Art Bead Scene Art Bead Scene gets creative with storing supplies.

Beading Arts Metal clay is a great material to have in your jewelry-making repertoire!

Carmi's Art/Life World Carmi whips up a one hour brooch project with left over chain.

Cindy Gimbrone aka The Lampwork Diva Cindy learns that the fourth time can be a charm.

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles Melanie's friend David Erk Nelson shares a free project from his upcoming book Snip, Burn, Solder, Shred...a stuffed Cthulhu sock toy!

Katie's Beading Blog See 3 bloggers' ideas for painting metal, stringing crystals and making custom toggles using my new components.

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio Lorelei visits a cool lampwork artist in Atlanta, and tries her hand at making a bead.

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done! Jean explains a bit more about "The Jean's List", an ongoing selection of her favorite jewelry designers selected from all types of jewelry!

A Glittery Novel Giveaway

I hope you are all having a great weekend!! Since we are going to be heading out to the drive-in movie shortly and I didn't get my project done for today's post, I thought it would be fun to share another giveaway! :) Please stop by tomorrow for a new Katiedid project!

For now, our friend Cami of the blog, Art, Like Bread, shares a great story of attending the CHA in Chicago. She had an opportunity to meet the Crafty Chica in person AND is giving away a copy of her book:

Waking Up in the Land of Glitter, by the Crafty Chica, Kathy Cano-Murillo

Here is a description from Amazon.... while this is a crafty book, it is a novel! How cool is that!!? Good luck!! Just head on over to Cami's blog to enter. (Thanks Cami!)

Product Description
With glue guns, glitter, twigs, or yarn, the ordinary can become extraordinary . . . especially at La Pachanga. Owned by Estrella "Star" Esteban's family, the restaurant has a rep for two things: good food and great art.

La Pachanga brings people together-even when it looks like they couldn't be further apart.One ill-fated evening, Star jeopardizes her family's business, her relationship with her boyfriend, and her future career. To redeem herself, she agrees to participate in a national craft competition, teaming up with her best friend, Ofelia-a secretly troubled mother whose love for crafting borders on obsession-and local celebrity Chloe Chavez-a determined television personality with more than one skeleton in her professional closet. If these unlikely allies can set aside their differences, they'll find strength they never knew they had, and learn that friendship, like crafting, is truly an art form.

Would $250 in Beads Make you Happy?

I have so enjoyed everyone sharing their happy, smiley, sparkly jewelry ideas and philosophies over the last couple of days!! :) Now THAT really makes me happy! It's so nice to come across other people who totally get you!

I wanted to share something else exciting with you today instead of a featured artist because it could make someone really happy when they win $250 to spend at Artbeads.com!

I received an email from Duchess at Artbeads.com earlier in the week about a contest they are running about testing your bead knowledge and the possibility of winning $250 in BEADS! Nice!

I wanted to make sure you all saw it, so here are the details....

Artbeads.com just launched a new contest called the ‘Bead IQ Trivia Sweepstakes.’ You can test your bead knowledge by taking the short quiz and then enter the sweepstakes for a chance at winning a $250 ‘Bead Genius’ Prize Package, which includes a $100 Artbeads.com Gift Card and $150 worth of beading and jewelry supplies.

This is a great contest to share with your family, friends, fellow beaders and blog readers! This sweepstakes is open to US and Canadian residents (excluding Quebec ) 18 years of age and older and ends on September 16, 2010.

To play the Bead IQ Trivia Sweepstakes, follow this link.

GOOD LUCK!! :)

Smiley Faces!!

I love smiley faces!! :) Now that makes for some happy jewelry!!!

I've always doodled smiley faces and I can't seem to write a card or note without one!

I have used smiley faces in a number of jewelry projects.

I have knotted hemp cord around them, dangled them from bracelets and used them countless times in memory wire bracelets!

I think there is a smiley for everyone nowadays! There are plastic smileys, sterling smileys, Pandora smileys and smiley charms!

The one thing I keep on my desk at work is a classic yellow smiley coffee mug from the 1970's.

It's just to look at, not to drink out of :) I was so excited to find it at an antique show many years ago!

Can you see a smiley face and not smile back? I don't know if I can. Maybe on the outside I'm not actually smiling, but I am on the inside! That still counts!

I'd love to see other people's smiley jewelry that was made for adults. Wouldn't it be fun if we all made a smiley piece and I shared them all on a blog post?

If you have one, I'd love to see it and share it so.... please email me if you think that sounds like fun! abeadaday@sbcglobal.net