Bead Peeps 3rd Annual Swap N Hop Reveal!

Hello and welcome to the :

   

2016 Swap N Hop Reveal

Welcome to the highly anticipated 2nd Annual Swap 'n' Hop reveal!

Cranberry Kit-A-Month - January

It's been a tough couple of years so to give myself something regular to look forward to I have joined a kit-a-month thingy being run by someone who makes me smile - Jo at Cranberry beads (www.cranberry.net.au).

 

The kit of the month is operated in conjuntion with Starman Inc. who provide their resellers with a (print only) pattern every month that incorporates their funky shaped beads.

 

JKD's 9th Do Over Reveal

Welcome to the 9th Do Over reveal, hosted by the multi-talented Jeannie K Dukic of JKD Studio. The blog hop where we reluctantly dismantle a retired piece of jewellery made by Jeannie and (hopefully) make something new and exciting from it.

Ooh! What's in this beautifully wrapped parcel I wonder?

Let' see!

Sign-Ups for JKD's Do Over Challenge Open

This year has been difficult for my family and my poor wee blog has been sadly neglected, but things are starting to settle and it's time for one of my favorite blog hop traditions:

 

 

For this blog hop, the multi-talented Jeannie of JKD Studios sends out one of her designs for FREE (you only pay the postage) for you to redesign, repurpose or remake into something unique to you.

Sign ups are here or you can click on the banner above.

This is such a fun hop, but spaces are limited so get in quick!

 

JDK's 8th Do Over Challenge

Welcome to the 8th Do Over Challenge reveal!

 

Stinky Dog Beads Blog Challenge and Hop

Welcome to the Stinky Dog Beads Blog Hop hosted by Lorelei!

A few weeks ago, Lorelei picked out a gorgeous selection of bits n bobs from Stinky Dog Beads and set the challenge for us to create gorgeousness with them.

 

Bead Soup Blog Party 8 Reveal!

Welcome to the 8th Bead Soup Blog Party, created and hosted by the absolutely amazing Lori Anderson.

 

 

JDK's 7th Do Over Challenge Reveal

Welcome to Jeannie K Dukic's 7th Do Over Challenge!

Devised and hosted by Jeannie, we are all sent a piece of jewellery, handmade by Jeannie herself, that she considers tired or boring. It is our job to make-over that piece into something splendiferous.

Spiral Netting Focal - Free Tutorial

Back in January I participated in a great blog hop titled "A TimeTo Stitch 4" and created a punky sort of necklace with a spiral netting focal and chevron strips.

A lot of interest was shown in the spiral focal which was based upon a tutorial in Russian I found at biser.info which I think is a site for beaders to post and discuss their work.

I found the instructions a bit hard to follow so I ended up drawing myself a bunch of diagrams so I could work out the thread path.

A Time to Stitch 4

Welcome to the reveal day of the ATTS4 blog hop!

The challenge was to create something in net stitch plus at least one other stitch out of 1) Chenille Stitch, 2) Chevron Stitch or 3) Spiral Rope. I kept it simple and chose only one other stitch : Chevron.

So without further ado, here is my slightly gothic looking necklace:

The side straps are chevron stitch and the focal is spiral netting - I hope I'm not cheating by using spiral netting! The swirly design is based upon something I found here, it's not very easy to follow so I'll add some (hopefully clearer) instructions in another post later on.

Here's a closer shot of the swirly net focal:

After a great deal of faffing and experimenting I used a dismantled charm bracelet to connect the individual components. The shiny silver seems to add a bit of punkiness in my eyes.

I really enjoyed this challenge so a big thankyou to the lovely hostesses Therese and Christine.

Enjoy looking at the amazing creations of the other participants, they are breath taking:

01. Amy Severino
02. Janet Bocciardi
03. Cynthia Machete
04. Alicia Marinate
05. Paula Kramer
06. Kim Hora
07. Dee Alcalde
08. Dagi (Kokopelli)
09. Maryanne Gross
10. LizE
11. Sally Russick
12. Becky Pancake
13. Jasvanti Patel
14. Karin Slaton
15. Alenka
16. Sarah Sequins
17. Tanya Goodwin
18. Debbie Rasmussen
19. Shirley Moore
20. Crystie Willard
21. Nelly May (you are here!)
22. Ana Cravidao
23. Therese Frank (wonderful hostess)
24. Christine Altmiller (amazing hostess)

6th Do Over Challenge Reveal!

Welcome to the 6th Do Over Challenge hosted by mixed media artist extraordinaire Jeannie K Dukik of Jewelry by Jeannie.

For this Challenge, Jeannie sent 20 lucky participants a piece of jewelry to make over. Check out the beautiful packaging!

Pepita's 1st Blogoversary Blog Hop Reveal!

Welcome to Pepita's 1st Blogoversary Blog Hop hosted by the very talented Alenka of Pepita Handcrafted Jewellery and accessories.

Bead Hoarder's Blog Hop Reveal!

Welcome to the first annual Bead Hoarder's Blog Hop reveal, where we all dig into our stash and get to work making something from some of those gorgeous things we've been hoarding away.

Pepita's 1st Blogoversary - it's arrived!

Alenka of Pepita Handmade is very generously sponsoring a blog hop to celebrate the 1 year anniversary of her blog :

She has sent several of her beautiful handmade components to 13 different participants all over the world, and here are the lovely things that Alenka has sent out:

Friday's Fave Three

I've had cruddy germs this week but thanks to my beautiful better half I've actually been allowed to stay in bed to recover. The last time that happened was the first few days after my youngest was born! Wow it makes so much difference to have that time to fight off yucky flu.

In between sleeping and loudly complaining of feeling cruddy I've been meandering around the internet, just having a looky-see, no particular purpose in mind. And these are my three favourite picks of the week:

Splendiferous Copper, Fabuloso Glass & Stinky Stuff

I was in heaven this Sunday. Surrounded by tools, metals, findings, sparkles, cabs, jewellery, wire, blow torches, chemicals, glass, polymer clay and not one, but two dogs! Sigh, bliss.

A wonderful bunch of ladies descended on the Whimsical Bead in Healesville for the most incredible workshop - 'Combine, Connect, Consolidate' - run by the amazingly generous Kay Lancashire of Kay's Artycles.

There are some great pics of the big mess and beautiful stuff we made on the Whimsical Bead's Facebook page (www.facebook.com/TheWhimsicalBead).

The Final 7th Bead Soup Blog Reveal!

5th Do-Over Challenge Reveal!

Welcome to reveal day of Jeannie K's 5th Do-Over!

For this challenge, Jeannie sent each of us one of her pieces that she wasn't completely happy with. Our task was to redesign that piece and make something new and spangly from it.

My problem, was that I liked my piece from Jeannie so much that I was loath to fiddle with it! A beautiful long necklace of large shiny silver plate links (I would get steel core, very substantial and attracted to magnets) interspersed with clear glass nuggets. It sparkled in the sun and attracted lots of comments with it's simple beauty. Oh yes I took it for walks and shopping before that fateful day when I got my pliers out.

Here's the before piece as kindly modelled by a random passing ballerina :

Jasper's Gems Colour Palette Design Reveal!

(Apologies for lateness, I had this set to post automatically in the wee hours of the 31st and then forgot to check. Clearly I do not know how to use technology properly, doh! Better late than never though.)

Today is the day for my first ever reveal of a blog hop challenge and I am inappropriately over-excited about it! The challange was to create a unique piece of jewellery based upon a given colour palette. Here's the palette I chose: