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Friday, November 29, 2013

Give Away!

Be sure to stop by my Etsy shop! Receive one free pair of pearl/crystal earrings with every purchase.  This special give away starts now (11/29/13) and will last through Cyber Monday (12/2/13).
Give Away Earrings Are Pictured Below:
Pearl and Crystal Earrings

Pearl Hoop Earrings




Want to Find More Great HANDMADE Black Friday-Cyber Monday Deals ?
Click Here: 

Love My Art Jewelry Black Friday Sale

Saturday, November 23, 2013

Bead Shop'n !

Stopped by Walmart recently and was amazed, no actually floored, to see the huge selection of Cousin beads and supplies.  That aisle was literally bursting with all kinds of design possibilities and beady goodness!!

Lots of shopping to be done here for stringing supplies and storage stuff including canvas bead organizers, jewelry displays and plastic trays.
 


And the beads... Oh my! I thought I was strolling through a craft store.
 
 
And the wire! Did I tell you they had wire? Did I tell you it was 16 gauge colorized copper wire in every gorgeous color you could possibly imagine?
 
 
I've been busy...
 
 
Making some things ...
 
 
 
Gotta go and make some more things!!
 
Holiday stuff... ;)
 
 
And yes, I do believe I have found my favorite store for buying Cousin bead supplies.
 
 
 
 

Monday, November 18, 2013

Shop Handmade!

It's always good to shop handmade but especially so with this upcoming promotion and sale starting the day after Thanksgiving, November 29th.
 
Check out Love My Art Jewelry to see all participating artists. 
Click this button below:
 
Love My Art Jewelry Black Friday Sale

Buy jewelry at my shop anytime on or between
Black Friday (11/29/13) and Cyber Monday (12/2/13) and receive a free gift from my Secret Santa Stash. More info. later...

And if you happen to sell handmade it's not too late to stop by Love My Art Jewelry.
 Join the promotion and be a part of the fun!!!

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Vintage Sewing Spool Necklace

A Rolling Blog Hop by One Kiss Creations Jewelry
 
This wonderful blog hop hosted by Christine at One Kiss Creations is running along throughout the month of November. Christine sent each participant some lovely vintage wooden sewing spools and beads to use in this very fun no stress of a deadline hop. About half of the participants have posted and you can find more information about their work at links listed at the bottom of this post. And after a few tries, here is what I finally came up with:
 
 
I thought it would be fun to research the history of the wooden spools I had received including Lily, Vera, Star, Coats, Coats & Clark sewing threads. Coats & Clark celebrated it's 200 year anniversary last year and has published a lovely historic timeline on their website which is really worth the visit. I don't feel I can be 100% accurate just by looking at pictures on the Internet but would not be surprised if some of these spools go back to the early 1900's. Aw, now why did I have to go on and cover them up?
 
 
I love the flowing look of all the ribbons and used two different kinds. I started here with a few reclaimed sari ribbons from Darn Good Yarn in peach and blue for a wonderful vintage distressed look. Then I added a few fairy and silky ribbons to soften things up bit, these were purchased at Marsha Neal Studio. The lace ribbon used here was actually dyed by me and if you would like to learn more about my first adventure into the world of natural dyes click here. The faux antique porcelain roses and smoky AB crystals came from Cousin which can be ordered in small quantities at Prima Bead.
 

Everyone has been so creative in the use of their spools! Be sure to check out all the participants, the names highlighted in blue have already posted their designs. The rest will display their work some time later this November, following the date of this post. On with the hop!

A Rolling Blog Hop

 












 
 
 
 


Friday, November 8, 2013

Hang'n Out at the Y...

Random 5 Friday
 
Rubber Handle Grip on My Bike

 
1. Went to the gym today, same exercise routine, but it never gets boring.
 
2. It amazes me to see what people will pay athletic trainers to get them to do. -This is what I saw today on the sidewalk in front of the gym: people, adults mind you, teamed up in groups of two doing a pulling exercise with a canvas belt that sort of looks like "horse and driver".  At least 6 teams, politely taking turns running up and down the sidewalk playing horsey and driver...
 
3. A lady on the rowing machine next to me, twice my age going twice my speed. C'mon girly pick it up! PICK IT UP!
 
4. Woo hoo! 30 minutes on the CYBEX mighty Arc Trainer today. What's that on the display screen, LVL?WATTS? WT? CALS? BPM? hashtags?  too many acronyms. Hey anybody got a drivers manual?
 
5. Tomorrow I will take it easy, recover, walk the dog.
 
 
Stop by A Rural Journal for more of Random 5 Friday
 
 
 
 

Monday, November 4, 2013

Mandarin Orange Monday


Maybe More of a Rusty Orange Monday...
 

Metal Sculpture at the Park
 
 



Stop by Lorikart to see more orange photos by clicking on the link button below:


mom_badgeWEB-

Monday, October 28, 2013

Day of the Dead Blog Hop

The end of October is here and what better way to celebrate then with a Halloween/Day of the Dead Blog Hop hosted by Diana at Suburban Girl Studios.  I decided it would be fun to focus on the Day of the Dead since there are a lot of activities and events going on now through the first week of November in the Phoenix area, where I live.

Day of the Dead originates from Mexico, but it is celebrated throughout the southwestern United States and other parts of the world. It is a joyful celebration for family members who have died.
This celebration can be considered a blending of Aztec and Catholic traditions.

Here's a fun video of a Day of the Dead celebrated in Hollywood California last year:
 

 
And here are my jewelry pieces :
 
 
Handmade Polymer Clay Skull Beads
Copper Wire Work
 
 
 
 
 
 
Hand Made Polymer Clay Skull Beads
and Colorful Howlite Flower Beads
 
 
 
 
More Polymer Clay Skulls Formed and Painted By Me
 
 
 
 
 
Stop by and see more great designs by these participating artists:
 

 
 
 
Kathleen Breeding  http://99bobotw.blogspot.com
 
 
Dianne Miller  http://www.artbydianne.blogspot.com
 
Lisa Liddy  http://www.lisaliddy.wordpress.com

Toltec Jewels  http://www.JewelSchoolFriends.com


Laura Medeiros  http://Www.zoeowyn.blogspot.com

Veralynne Malone  http://www.veradesigns.blogspot.com


 
 

Jenny Davies-Reazor  http://jdaviesreazor.com/blog
 


 

 
 
Stephanie LaRosa  http://Www.stringaholic.blogspot.com



 
 
Nicole Valentine Rimmer  http://www.nvalentine.blogspot.com

 


Sarajo Wentling  http://www.sjdesignsjewelry.blogspot.com



 





   
Dawn M. Gallop  http://www.flipflopsandpoptarts.com
 
 
 

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Natural Dyes...

Had some fun this week experimenting with natural dyes on cotton lace for a mixed media jewelry piece. Have never worked with natural dyes before so I contacted KathyInOzarks who forwarded some great tips and simple steps for beginners. Here are examples of my results using strawberries, cranberries and coffee.

 
 
To get these results I started by preparing a fixative that the lace would need to be soaked in before dying. The fixative helps the fabric maintain color after dying. For the berry dyes I used a fixative made from 1/2 cup of salt mixed with 8 cups of boiling water. For the coffee I tried vinegar mixed with water. The lace was boiled on the stove for about an hour and then dropped into the various dye bathes for 4-5 hours.
 
 
 
For the first dye batch I used equal parts of chopped strawberries to water and boiled them for 1 hour. Then I strained out the berries and soaked the lace in the remaining liquid for about 5 hours at a low boil.
 
 
 
The top two strips of lace you see in the first photo are my results, kind of a light antique pink color. O.K., this is nice but I was hoping for something a little darker so I thought perhaps I would try a second dip in cranberries. After the second five hour dye bath using cranberries I got a surprise; the wider strip of lace actually rinsed out lighter while the thinner strip of lace turned a deeper brown (3rd and 4th lace strips in the first photo) -Not exactly sure what happened but I did get some new colors...
 
That was fun! For more information and natural dyes to try check out: http://www.moneycrashers.com/how-to-dye-fabric-clothes-make-natural-dyes/
 
Also be sure to look for some of this lace ribbon in my upcoming jewelry piece for One Kiss Creation's Vintage Wooden Spool Rolling Blog Hop.
 
 
Enjoy Your Saturday!


Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Holiday Boot Bracelets

Are you thinking about the holidays yet? New boot bracelets using "Tis the Season" Cousin beads and jewelry findings are looking good on these western boots from Saba's.


You can find "Tis the Season" beads and components at A.C. Moore on the east coast
and Beverly's out west.

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Vintage Neckware

1940's era silver necklace and earrings made in Mexico.
 
 
Still very wearable today.
 
 
Enjoy your Sunday
 
 
 
 
 

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Hoops Boot Camp

It's time for another Boot Camp project hosted by Love My Art Jewelry. The focus this time around is metal hoops.  I decided to try soldering a few 16g copper wire hoop rings which I have not done in a while. This first pair of earrings include some glass lampwork beads by Moderntrails.


The second pair of earrings I completed are similar in style to the first with more glass lampwork beads by Jewelweaver. Just love that green glass!



Be sure to stop by Love My Art Jewelry for some great tips on making hoops and more great designs.
 
 
 

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Raining on Clouds

I really did not notice the affect of rain water falling on clouds until later looking at the photo...

 
Kind of neat, don't you think?
 
 
Stop by The View From Right Here to see more great photos!
 
Weekly Top Shot #103

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Tuesday Muse

 October
 
 
 
Mini-pumpkins sitting on an old sunhat picked up at Walmart.


Stop by A Rural Journal for more great photos:
 



 

Monday, September 23, 2013

Something Fun From Grammy's Sewing Box...

Received package in the mail from Christine at OneKissCreations and I just had to show you.


I will be using these wooden spools and beads in her blog hop later next month. What a sweet note and I was so surprised to see wooden sewing spools!! Have never worked with anything like this before and am certainly looking forward to giving it a try...





Enjoy Your Monday!!


Friday, September 20, 2013

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Pearls! Pearls!! Pearls!!!...

Welcome to the Pearls! Pearls!! Pearls!!! Blog Hop brought to you by Michelle over at MiShel Designs. She is our resident expert on all things pearls, GIA certified in fact, so make sure to stop by her site and investigate all the great information she makes available in addition to links to all the fabulous designs you will see while touring today's blog hop. Enjoy all this wonderful inspiration!

I always think about pearls in their most classic sense, a simple strand of genuine knotted pearls to be given and worn for important occasions. Always elegant and very appropriate. But lately that idea has begun to change for me...expand so to speak, and I have started to experiment using them with definitely more casual earrings and bead woven necklaces; genuine, color treated, glass, plastic you name it. Whatever fits for the occasion. ;)

With the first project I used graduated sizes of some lovely pink faux glass pearls from Cousin Corporation. The largest of these pearly beauties measure a whopping 18 mm and they are very easy on the budget. At this point I can't help thinking how going faux has liberated the design options available to me.

I hope you like the addition of the patinated metal spacers and bead caps mentioned in my last blog post. And as far as future design options, there is still a long, long way to go with big pearls here...
 
 
 
 
Next up comes a fall bracelet made with freshwater rice pearls and biwah tubes I found online at Fusion Beads a few months ago. The pearls are lovely warm shades of gold, red and deep orange, perfect for fall. I had to add a few bits and pieces of Czech glass -don't you love the little cats?
 
 
Hope you enjoyed my portion of the pearl tour. 
Please click the button below for more great pearl design!
 
 
 
Pearls! Pearls!! Pearls!!! Blog Hop




Saturday, September 14, 2013

Patinated Components...

I am getting ready and all excited for MiShel's fabulous pearl blog hop on Sunday.  And since the hop tomorrow is supposed to be all about the pearls, I thought it would be fun to give you a sneak peak at some of the components I am using with a new (for me!) patination technique. Here is the before and after shot:


The colors are actually painted on in three layers of different colored inks specially made for painting on metal. I used a very small brush to paint with and then used swatch of cotton cloth to blot some of the color off . After the ink dried, I used two coats of glaze to help preserve the finish. Kind of a labor intensive process.  It will be interesting to see, and hope the finish lasts.

Be sure and stop by tomorrow to visit the hop! Then you can see how I used these colorful bead caps and spacers in my pearl jewelry piece.


Also stop by MiShel's blog right now for more advise and an awesome collection of information on
working with pearls at her link I posted up top!
 
 
Have a Great Saturday!
 
 

Friday, September 13, 2013

Random 5



First Love, Cunningham

1. I have had the family room to myself to watch television this week for some odd reason.  The dog jumps on my lap and promptly falls asleep. The cat sits on the arm of the chair, glares at the dog, and nudges me for attention. And then I get this maddening urge to get up and get a drink or turn a light off.  But I can't of course.

2.  Sometimes its nice to be trapped (see #1).

3. Found a baby tarantula in the house yesterday. He was kind-a cute for a hairy spider. Guess who was designated for pest removal...

4.  Am amazed at the number of photos I took for a necklace today. What did people do before digital  cameras?

5. I actually found 2 old 35mm cameras in the back of a cupboard this week. One was still in the box, a free gift from a subscription to Time magazine. Why am I saving this, a white elephant gift?


Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Getting Crafty for the Holidays!

O.K., yes I know it seems like we just made it through the Labor Day weekend...but it's never too early to plan for snow and holidays!  Here are a few fun and easy projects I put together with "Tis the Season" products from Cousin that will soon be available at A.C. Moore.

Let's start with some cute little zipper pulls for the kiddo's* winter jackets and snowsuits. Cousin's new "Tis the Season" products include a great selection of charms that you can check out here. For my project, I used the gingerbread house and holiday glazed donuts. I connected each charm to a metal lanyard using bright silver split jump rings. Then topped it off with a little red bow. Hint, hint: These zipper pulls also make great embellishments with ribbons and bows on gift wrap.





Next I made tree topper ornaments using Cousin's "Tis the Season" wine charm rings. It was easy adding acrylic bicones onto the rings and accenting them with some of the new beads and charms. Easy as connecting jump rings to jump rings with needle nose pliers - and finishing it off with 3/16 wide ribbon.



 
Here is a red one too!
 


 
 
 
Hope you like my frosty window affects on the photos. Can you tell I am getting excited for cooler temperatures?
 
 

More crafts to come later this month.
 
 



*For children over age 3.

Saturday, September 7, 2013

I Heart Macro Week 17

A petroglyph found near Cave Creek Arizona.

Desert Awareness Park, Cave Creek Arizona

 
Artistic renderings carved in natural stone by people who lived over 700 years ago.

 
 
 
 




Hohokam - Those who came before.
 


 
 
Shine the Divine
 


 
 
For more Information on petroglyphs go to: