Christmas in July Linky Party

Now I know a lot of people don't like Christmas in July....says it takes away from the holiday. BUT for us crafter's, if we don't start in July, we won't be finished by Christmas.

But for me I love looking at the new ideas and see if there are any I can use for my holiday gifts!

For my idea I created a Christmas colored stretchy bracelet with matching earrings out of BUTTONS. I love working with buttons. They are so versatile.
You can do so much with them in the various colors! 

Just the right accessory to throw on as you go out the door during the holidays. It isn't showy or sparkly but it lets everyone know you are in the holiday spirit. 

For more great ideas, head over to Stone Cottage Adventures and become inspired!

Til next time..

Keep on Beading

V 

Facet June Design Challenge, UPCYCLE,

Hi ya'all. Yeah I know, I have been absent for a while....blame it on life. That's all I can say without going into gory detail...

SO....when Facet had their monthly challenge for June I knew I had to participate. I mean who doesn't upcycle????  I was ready and chomping at the bit.

A few years back when I was really into thrift store hopping and buying most anything, (I am more conservative now) I picked up a bag of ZAKS toys.

I knew I still had them laying around, so I dug them out and decided since July 4th was around the corner, I would make my color scheme red,white, and blue.

My first piece is the necklace...

As you can see, I wire wrapped (along with a bit of super glue) using some bead that I had on hand.

Next are the earrings: They were a little harder to do because I used three of the toy pieces stack on each other and getting the head pins just right and doing the wire wrapping, PLUS putting a hole in the middle piece....well it took me a while. But here they are.

For the last piece I did a pin/brooch: I would say it was the easiest...but it wasn't and I won't bore you with all the little details....lol. Suffice it to say I used super glue on this one too!

Sooo there you have them, my offerings to the Gods of Upcycling.

For more beauties and to even vote hop over to Facet and check them out.

Til next time...

            Bead on!

V

Pine Ridge Treasures' Blog Hop and Challenge - Sept 12, 2015

Once again, Lisa from A Grateful Artist has given us a challenge to complete. I so love these challenges as I use them to try and think out of the box. And in this group of beads I had a lot to challenge me. Normally when I get my challenge kit in, the beads start talking to me right away...This was a very quiet kit! But I started moving them around and putting them in different configurations and finally all the beads except one set talked to me.

SOOO...lets see what they said. First up:  I don't normally post clothes with my jewelry, but my daughter is a fan of Japanese culture and found this dress on line right after I made the necklace so I couldn't resist. Matches pretty well I think. The red balls are thread covered and then I used red and turquoise seed beads, though they look kind of blue in the picture. The bigger blue round beads and the blue disk beads were in my kit. I used bright silver tone bead caps on the red beads. I really like this piece and so does my daughter, it is no longer in my possession!

Next I wanted to do something with just the pearls and crystals and something swingy but feminine. So I found the silver necklace piece in my "junk" drawer stash and hung the crystals and pearls from it on wire that I flatten the end of, made the side pieces by stringing them on beading wire and then attached the sides to an antique silver chain with a lobster claw closure. Then as I have to make earrings, I did so.. 

In this one I used the small pale green crystal disk.They are so pale and small, they are hard to see. But they are glass and very cute. Then added pearls and acrylic aqua beads. Very simple looking. Has a silver tone toggle closure.The earrings I wired wrapped between each bead then attached to ear wires.

 Wanting to try my bead stitching again, I used a pattern from Domestic Diva that I had gotten offline. The pendant in the pattern is real small, but I used it to get started and then "grew" the pattern a little and added the spikes and oblong aqua beads. The twin seed beads that I used are a kind of brown with silver seed beads between them. There are brown veins in the spikes and then in the turquoise beads from my kit there are silver veins. The topper of the pendant is my own design, I just kept working at it til I got it the way I wanted. There is a little "bridge" on top to put the jump ring through. For the rest of the necklace and the earrings I used the turquoise round beads and the aqua round disk from my kit and added silver grey pearls and brown glass seed beads along with the oblong gold and aqua beads. 

There were a little package of these trapezoid looking wooden beads with two holes and they just screamed bracelet, so I used some small silver tone metal flower spacers, strung it all on wire, bent it to my wrist, attached a chain and toggle clasp. I really like, so I think I might keep it. It is easy to get on and off. 

And lastly, there were some small blue beads that kinda looked like coral, so I got out my sea shells, drilled a few, got out my sea creature charms and strung them up on head pins and attached to a chain with a toggle clasp, though I think I may change it, not sure. But it is swingy and says "beach"

Well, that is all for me. The blue glass beads that stayed silent are still in a baggie on my desk. When they decide to talk I will let them out. ;-p.

To see more challenge pieces hop over to Lisa's page for a list of the participants. 

Thanks for stopping by and til next time...

Keep on Beading

Veralynne