Winter's Sparkle Blog Hop Reveal

It has finally arrived, the reveal day for the Winter Sparkle Blog Hop. Back in September I signed up for another of Lisa Lodge's wonderful challenges. This is based on the colors and sparkle of a winter's night.

I got a wonderful palette of purple beads. I would love to show you a picture of the what I got in my kit but my camera and I are having issues. I take pictures but when I go to transfer them to my computer the images are not on the SD card.  It has been driving me crazy as it does not always happen.

I was inspired by the the mix of purple fire-polished rondelles. I had also just taken a class with Sue Charette-Hood at CreativFestival to learn how to do kumihimo with beads. In the class I made a bracelet with Magatamas. She taught us how to finish the braid without glue.

My first kumihimo with beads

So now I had a technique I wanted to use but still need to be inspire for a final project. So it was time to head over to Pinterest. There I found this beautiful necklace which combined seed beads and Unicorne Beads Handmade Teardrop.  It was designed by Diana Shiraishi and originally pubished in Bead Treads August 2011. 

Under the Sea

I decided to see how it would work with fire-polished rondelles, like those in the kit from Lisa. To work out the details of quantities and layout I made a necklace with some metallic blue rondelles and bronze lined blue seed beads.

Protype with metallic blue

Given the limited quantity of the purple rondelles in the kit I had to use more seed beads to complete the length that I wanted for the finished piece. I used a silver lined matte purple seed beads. Using copper findings was a nice compliment to the purple beads.

Once the braid was completed and I had finished using the technique learned from Sue, it was a little shorter that I had hoped. I decided to a little extra strung section with some of the larger rondelles in the kit.

Finished necklace

Detail of segment with rodelles

I have since worn this to work and have found a small design problem. The leaves of the end caps catch on my hair.

Take some time to hop around and see what everyone else has created with their kit from Lisa.

Our hostess:  Lisa Lodge, A Grateful Artist

Melissa Trudinger, Bead Recipes

Kathy Zeigler Lindemer, Bay Moon Design

Eleanor Burian Moore, The Charmed Life

Jo-Ann Woolverton, It's a Beadiful Creation

Chris Eisenberg, Wanderware

Carolyn Lawson, Carolyn's Creations

Toltec  Jewels, Jewel School Friends

Christie Searle Murrow, Charis Designs Jewelry

Heather Richter, Desert Jewelry Designs

Ev Shelby, Raindrop Creations

Dolores Raml, CraftyD's Creations

Kim Dworak, Cianci Blue

Cassi Renee Paslick, Beads: Rolling Downhill

Annette Rivers, Mama Owl's Mess

Tammie Tusher Everly, TTE Designs

Crystal Thain, Here Bead Dragons

Marybeth Rich, A Few Words from within the Pines

Norbel Marolla, She Flies Again Jewelry

Karen Burg, KEB Designs

Karin Grosset Grange, Ginkgo et Coquelicot

Jasvanti Patel, Jewels by Jasvanti

Thanks once again to Lisa for organizing this wonderful challenge.

Valentine's Day Monster Card

Here a fun Valentine's Day craft that I did with the preschoolers on Tuesday. Using two different sized hearts in two different colours we made a monster.

2 mid-sized hearts, 4 small hearts, 4 strips crimped for limbs and 2 goggly eyes

 Glue the two mid-sized hearts together to form the body of your monster.

Monster body

Attached limbs with hands and feet. Glue on eyes. Draw on nose and mouth.

Monster in progress

I printed a smiple card on card stock paper. Folded in half with message on the inside. Glue monster to front of card.

Finished outside of card

When the preschoolers did the craft on Tuesday, many of them glued the monster together right on to the card.

Here is the inside of the card which the children were able to colour the lettering any way they would like.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Bead Soup Blog Party #8

 

Today is the only day to sign up for the 8th Bead Soup Blog Party. I signed up just after midnight this morning. It will be my third time to participate in this amazing creative challenge.

My creations from my first Bead Soup Blog Party

My creations from my second Bead Soup Blog Party

So if you have a blog, want to share some beads and be challenged creatively head over and sign up before midnight EST Feb 9, 2014.

Reveal Day - Into the Forest Blog Hop

Back in the summer when the snow, ice and cold of winter seemed so far away, I signed up for the Into the Forest blog hop hosted by Lisa Lodge of Pine Ridge Treasures. 20 artisans have each received from Lisa a kits with a variety of materials such as Czech glass, clay, lampwork, art beads/pendants, and seed beads.We have until today to make something inspired by the forest.

Late in the summer my kit arrived in the mail. I got a clay pendant by Shaterra, green fire-polished crystals, orange leaves and some silver-lined seed beads.

Into the Forest Kit

I of course put them on my beading table and for most of the fall these beads were just sat there. I found some additional fall coloured crystals that I added to the kit.

As winter arrived here in Weston I knew that I should get working of this project. I decided to use some wonderful copper discs and small rondelles.

Finished necklace

Detail of pendant

Take some time to hop around and see what amazing creations my fellow artisans have to share with us.

Our hostess:  Lisa Lodge, A Grateful Artist

Melissa Trudinger, Bead Recipes

Kathy Zeigler Lindemer, Bay Moon Design

Eleanor Burian Moore, The Charmed Life

Jo-Ann Woolverton, It's a Beadiful Creation

Chris Eisenberg, Wanderware

Christine Stonefield, Sweet Girl Design

Carolyn Lawson, Carolyn's Creations

Janine Lucas, Esfera Travel Blog

Jasvanti Patel, Jewelry by Jasvanti

Shaiha Williams,   Shaiha's Ramblings

Kay Thomerson, Kayz Kreationz

Karla Morgan, Texas Pepper Jams

Veralynne Malone, Designed by Vera

Toltec  Jewels, Jewel School Friends

Christie Searle Murrow, Charis Designs Jewelry

Molly Alexander, Beautifully Broken Me

Monique Urquhart, A Half-Baked Notion

Janet Bocciardi, Honey from the Bee

Dini Bruinsma, Angaza by Changes

Heather Richter, Desert Jewelry Designs

Christina Miles, Wings n Scales

Elizabeth Engriser, Bead Contagion

Alice Peterson, Alice Dreaming

Alicia Marinache, All the Pretty Things

Kay Mallery,TBD

Catherine Yvonne King, Catherine's Musings

Alice Craddick, Alice's Beads and Baubles

Ema Kilroy, Ema K Designs

Thanks to Lisa for once again challenging me work outside my comfort zone.

Happy Beading!

Poppy Vase - revised

Over the holiday season I decided to work on a variation of the Poppy Vase from Julia Pretl's website.  I did the original version back in early 2013. It was a gift for my friend Nora, as she started her new job.

Original version

Having completed an inventory of my delica I decided to do a vase with purple flowers. I also changed the background colour to a pale lavendar and the olive green in the leaf to a silver-lined lawn green.

Base of vase

Leaves almost done

Leaves done

Start of flowers

Flowers done and ready to start hem

Completed Vase

During the working of the hem in the original I broke two needles and many beads.  I was lucky that I only broke two beads early in this project.

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy and creative new year!

I love clay blog hop

I sat down at my beading table last night to try and tidy it up. I was surprised to finded the beads and information sheet from Lisa for this blog hop that I had signed up for. Problem I did not remember that I was part of it. So it was time to get to work and create something with these beads by UK ceramic artist Grubbi.

Here are the beads that I got from Lisa when I signed up for this challenge.

What could I do last night to have it ready for today's deadline. The earth tones of the clay beads are not a palette that I normally work with. I look thru my collection of works in progress to see if there something that I could use for this challenge. I found a spiral rope worked with matte dark bronze beads, metallics cubes and delicas.

Finished off the rope and used a simple jump ring to hang the pendant.

To use some of the other beads I dug into the beads that I bought from Lisa during her destash event earlier in the fall. I love these turquoise hearts.

Combined with some of the metallic cubes used in the spiral rope and a few turquoise coloured lantern beads the clay beads make a wonderful bracelet to go with the necklace.

Here are the participants of the hop. Take the time to see what they have created with the clay beads that they were challenged to work with.

Our hostess:  Lisa Lodge, A Grateful Artist

Melissa Trudinger, Bead Recipes

Kathy Zeigler Lindemer, Bay Moon Design

Eleanor Burian Moore, The Charmed Life

Jo-Ann Woolverton, It's a Beadiful Creation

Chris Eisenberg, Wanderware

Carolyn Lawson, Carolyns Creations

Bonnie Coursolle, Jasper's Gems

Dolores Raml, Crafty D's Creations

Therese Frank, Therese's Treasures

Christine Stonefield, Sweet Girl Design

Carolyn Lawson, Carolyn's Creations

Mowse Doyle, Mowse Made This

Janine Lucas, Esfera Travel Blog

Karin Grosset Grange, Ginkgo et Coquelicot

Kelli Nelson, Zenith Jade Creations

Ann Schroeder, Bead Love

Jasvanti Patel, Jewelry by Jasvanti

Candida Castleberry, Sugar Spun Beadworks

Robin Reed, Artistry HCBD

Katrina Taylor, I Wanna Go Out

Thanks to Lisa for the challenge!

Little Netted Snowflake

Yesterday in the latest issue of the Rypan Designs newsletter I offered free access to my snowflake pattern for a limited time. Here is a chance for my followers and readers to have the same access. Access to the pattern will be ending on Tuesday December 10 @ 9:00 pm EST.

Here is picture of the six pack of snowflakes that I gave to Maria last Christmas.

Enjoy the pattern. If you have any problems please let me know - jlwoolverton@yahoo.ca.


Happy Beading!