Black and White Challenge reveal

I am trying to get my designs added to my blog but am having trouble doing so.

I will have to try again this evening.  I have three designs that I did, so please come back to see what I did.

Carolyn

Blog Challenges

It's been awhile since I last posted.  Will be trying to get back on a regular posting schedule.

I have signed up for two new blog challenges, Sally of The Studio Sublime's Black and White Challenge on July 10 and Lori Anderson's Bead Hoarders' Challenge on July 20.  Have my items done for the Black and White Challenge but still need to work on the Bead Hoarders' piece(s).

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to come back on Wednesday, July 10th for the Black and White Challenge reveal.

Carolyn

Summer Elements Blog Hop

Today is the reveal for Rita of Toltec Jewels' Summer Elements Blog Hop.  The hop is to celebrate our favorite element of summer whether it be beads, jewelry, photos, a summer recipe, a campfire song, a craft, family memories, a poem, anything we would like to share.

I can remember spending 4th of July at the beach with family when I was in grade school.  We had such fun shooting off fireworks and cooking food and marshmallows in the fire pits.  Staying up late.  Racing around chasing each other.  I don't know why we ever stopped doing this but I haven't thought about this in years.

I used a premade copper chain bracelet and attached different silver seashell charms along with beaded headpins with sea aqua rounds and twisted rectangles.  There are also copper-colored ribbed beads and aqua and butter-colored beads.

This bracelet reminds me of being at the beach with the water and the sand, finding seashells and having fun.

Please join me in doing some blog-hopping to see what everyone has done.  Here is a link to Rita's blog to view a list of the participants:  summer-elements-blog-hop

Thanks for stopping by.

Carolyn

Lampwork spacers giveaway

Julie of Indian Creek Art Glass is having a giveaway of some her surplus lampwork spacers on June 8, 2013.

Please visit her blog to enter (click on the link above).

Thanks for visiting.

Carolyn

Google Reader replacement

With Google discontinuing their Google Reader for blogs, I was wondering if anyone has found a replacement? 

Please share what you have found for good or bad.  I haven't had a chance to do any investigating myself.

Thanks for reading

Carolyn

I can't believe it has been almost a month since the last time I posted.  Where does the time go?

      I won a guest pass to The Whole Bead Show in Lynnwood from Kristi Bowman of Kristi Bowman Design for the first weekend in May.  I met Kristi and Linda Landig of Linda Landig Jewelry.  Both very nice ladies.  Linda was there helping Kristi.

Kristi had some of her components and also some of her finished jewelry.  I bought several of her components.

Not sure if you can really see how gorgeous these components of Kristi's are.  I bought a Tree of Life, some small leaves, five petal flowers, and drop or egg shaped components with one hole at the top and three holes at the bottom and a snakeskin texture down the center.

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I also visited Judith Billig, a lampwork bead maker, and bought some autumn colored leaves and matching spacers.  I have learned that if I don't buy the autumn colors when I see them, I will be out of luck later.  Now to come up with a design.


I visited several other vendors and bought some other beads which I will have to cover in my next post as I am out of time tonight.

Thanks for stopping by.  Comments are welcome any time.  Just have to figure out how to reply to them.

Carolyn

Spring Fling Challenge

This was a post I started early this week but didn't finish, so I am turning it into my reveal post for Amy's Spring Fling Challenge.

This Saturday, April 20, is the reveal date for Amybeads' Spring Fling Challenge.  Amy and one of her previous Bead Soup Blog Party partners went together to sponsor the challenge.  Alenka made the pretty dragonfly pendant and Amy supplied the beads.



This is the selection of beads that were sent to the participants.



Here is the picture off Amy's website that is so much clearer than mine.



Below are the pictures of what I made from selections.  I used some of all the beads except for the crackle beads in the upper left corner of the picture above.

I used a glue-on bail for the pendant.  I glued it on at an angle so that the dragonfly is not straight up and down.

I added touches of green with Preciosa twin beads. 

I also added lavender/pinkish glass pearls to extend the length of the necklace.

In this picture is you can see the green Preciosa twin beads.

I used a triple ring toggle clasp to give the necklace some additional length.  It is 15 inches and the additional extension makes it 16 1/2 inches.

Here are the matching earring that I made using purple beads, white mirror beads and the navy pearls.

Here is a closer look at the pendant where you can see that the bail is off-set from the top of the dragonfly's head.


Here is a link to Amy's blog to see her creation and the list of the other participants:  Spring Fling Challenge

Thanks for stopping by.  Comments are welcome.

Carolyn