Beach Blog Hop

 Hello everyone, I cannot believe it's been a year.  I am joining Lisa at Pine Ridge Treasures once again for a blog hop.  This time it's beach themed and while I could say that I need a nice warm beach right now, it has been a very mild winter for us so far and I'm enjoying it.  

Lisa was very generous with the kits - she always is.  This is what I started with.

And here is what I ended up with:

The blue crystals were from the kit, everything else is mine.  This is my favorite piece; I love the blue and silver together.

The brown crystals, the focal and the clasp are mine.  Everything else is from the kit. 

And this set - the purple crystals are mine, everything else was from the kit.  

I am working on 4 more pieces, earrings to match the blue and silver necklace, 2 bracelets and another pair of earrings.  I didn't get them done in time for this post though.  

Thank you for stopping by, and please stop and see what the other participants did with their kits.  A big thank you to Lisa for hosting!!

Here is the list of participants:

Lisa Lodge, Pine Ridge Treasures
Kim Dworak, Cianci Blue ---->> you are here
Ann Schroeder, Bead Love
Lisa Prewett Knappenberger, LiRaysa Designs

Bead Treasures Blog Hop

 Well Hello, it's been a while!  Once again I am joining Lisa at Pine Ridge Treasures for a blog hop.  We were able to choose the color for the kits and I decided to be different for once and picked green instead of blue.  I have to say it was hard not to go with my favorite color but I'm glad I did.  

Here is my kit from Lisa:

I ended up making 3 pieces.  I did a filled netted necklace with some Toho seed beads I had, and used most of the green and amber crystals.  I finished it with chenille stitch.  I wish I could capture the sparkle, I'm really happy with it.  

 

 

Then I did another necklace with the clear crystals, the rondelles and one of the big crystal focals.  I added some more Toho beads that I had.  Again this sparkles so much and I just love it.   

 

 

I wasn't sure what to do next, and then I saw this video in an email from Potomac Beads.  I thought it would be perfect for the green squares, so I made this:

 

 

 

I haven't done any wire work in a while, and it's a little too small so I may redo it.  I had a lot of fun making it though.

 

 

Now I have Renee Edbrooke's project for you:

She picked the blue kit: 

She decided to do "inchies" from a YouTube video she saw from Turtle Soup Beads (here is the link if you want to see it).  Here are some of the pieces she made:

Renee put them all together in a frame, I think it turned out really nice.  What a fun and unique way to use the kit!

I hope you enjoyed seeing what we made, please take a look at the other blogs to see what everyone else created:

Your hostess: Lisa Lodge, A Grateful Artist

Heather Canepa, Desert Jewelry Designs

Beti Horvath, Stringing Fool Jewelry

Ann Schroeder, Bead Love

Marde Lowe, FanciMar Designs

Gloria Allen, Wings and Beads

Kim Dworak, and Renee Edbrooke  Cianci Blue  ---------> You are here

Happy Beads Blog Hop

 Hello, I know it's been quite a while!  I am glad to be back for a blog hop with Lisa at A Grateful Artist.

Lisa is always very generous with the kits she sent.  This time there were two color options, purple and blue, I chose blue of course.  I remembered to take a before picture after I sorted everything.  So many pretty beads and so many different shades of blue

 

I decided to make an ornament, and did a netted cover for a glass bulb.  I think I might add another row, I decided not to originally because I thought the netting would go down too far but now I'm not sure. The only beads not from the kit are the seed beads.  It really sparkles!!

I hope you enjoyed my post, and please take a look at what the other participants made with their kits.  

Your hostess: Lisa Lodge, A Grateful Artist



Heather Canepa, Desert Jewelry Designs

Beti Horvath, Stringing Fool Jewelry

Shaiha Williams, Shaiha’s Ramblings

Ann Schroeder, Bead Love

Kari Asbury, Design Challenges

Therese Frank, Therese's Treasures

Linda Anderson, From the Beadboard of...

Lisa Prewitt Knappenberger, LiRaysa Designs

Ellen Newcombe Gravante, TBD 

 

Have a wonderful holiday season, here is a dose of cuteness with Heidi and Mozart in front (kind of) the Christmas tree :-)

 

Summer Romance Blog Hop

Hello Everyone!!  Once again, I am joining up with Lisa at A Grateful Artist for a blog hop.  This time, I brought a friend to join in on the fun.  

Introducing my friend Renee, she purchased a kit and we were able to get together twice and work on our kits - beading with her is so much fun.  She doesn't have a blog, so I am doing a post for both of us:  

Here is Renee's kit:

And here are her pieces, she did a wonderful job!

Lisa sent a wonderful bag of goodies, and I did take a before photo.  Unfortunately, my phone has been strange and I keep losing pictures.  The before photo was one of the casualties.  But, I do have pictures of my pieces - thankfully my husband's phone works!  

For this piece, all of the beads except the focal were from the kit.  I added the focal and the chain from my stash.  

 

 This focal is from Humblebeads.  Lisa always seems to know which art beads I've been sitting on and sends me perfect beads to match them!  The green beads were mine, along with the clasp and copper chain,  Everything else was from the kit, and Renee donated her leftover pink rectangular beads so I had enough to make a longer necklace.

And finally some cute earrings, everything was from the kit, except the ear wires.

Thank you for stopping by, please take a look at the other participants to see what they did with their kits.

Your hostess:  Lisa Lodge, A Grateful Artist

You are here ------->   Kim Dworak and Renee Edbrooke, Cianci Blue

Beti Horvath, Stringing Fool Jewelry

Shaiha Williams, Shaiha’s Ramblings

Karin Grosset Grange, Ginkgo et Coquelicot

Ann Schroeder, Bead Love

Kari Asbury, Design Challenges

Pearls Blog Hop

It's time for another blog hop!  Today it's Pearls and I am joining up with Lisa at Pine Ridge Treasures.  Lisa always sends very generous kits and I really loved the colors in this kit.  I even remembered to take a before picture.  

I tried a couple of things, but couldn't make them work.  Then I was showing a friend of mine this pattern from a magazine and thought - the beads for the pearl hop would be perfect for this!  The pattern is called Coronation Day Necklace by Evelina Palmontova, featured in the Aug/Sept 2014 issue of Beadwork Magazine.  I have made the whole necklace before and it is one of my favorite pieces.  You can see it here if you are interested (funny it was for another Pearl blog hop by Lisa - at least I am consistent)!  This time I only made the chain, the beads are bigger so I had to play with it a bit, but I love it.

Thanks for stopping by to see what I made, please stop by the other blogs to see what everyone else did with their kits!

Your hostess:  Lisa Lodge, A Grateful Artist

Beti Horvath, Stringing Fool Jewelry

Veralynne Malone, Designed by Vera

Gloria Allen, Wings and Beads

Jo-Ann Woolverton, It's a Beadiful Creation

Ann Schroeder, Bead Love

Kari Asbury, Hippie Chick Design

UFO Blog Hop Number 2

Today I am joining Karen at Baublicious and posting another UFO that is finished.  I know that last time I posted a picture of the item I wanted to work on next, but I have not been able to get that one done.  I have a friend, and she's been waiting for a long time for me to finish this for her, so it became a priority.  And now it's finished!

It is the Celtic Trefoil pendant from Diane Fitzgerald's Shaped Beadwork book.  I love this pendant, it is my favorite piece from the book  I forgot to take a before picture - it was almost done, just needed 1/3 of a row, then I zipped it up and added the jump rings.

There is no necklace, she wanted the jump rings to hang it from a chain. I am so glad to have this one finished!!! Please take a look at what everyone else was able to get done:

Karen Williams, Baublicious

Francie Broadie,  FAB

Christine Van Dyke Altmiller, One Kiss Creations

Therese, Therese's Treasures

You are here ------>>  Kim Dworak, CianciBlue

Liz Hart, Treetop Life

Liz En, Bead Contagion

Amy Severino, Amy Beads

Cynthia Machata, Antiquity Travelers

Hope Smitherman, Crafty Hope

Christi Carter, Sweetpea Path

Bobbie Rafferty, Beadsong Jewelry

Margo Lynn Hablutzel, My World and It's Full of Books

Bead Soup Blog Party - Bead Hoarders Edition

The day is finally here and I am so excited!!!  Welcome to the reveal for the Bead Hoarders Edition of the Bead Soup Blog Party.  The fabulous Lori Anderson has done a lot of hard work to bring us to this day, please see her blog for all of the participants.  

My partner is Lucy Clasen, she will be posting on Pinterest here.  Her Etsy shop is here.  She has some lovely pieces there and is very talented.  I had such a great time talking with her.  I never imagined that out of all of the people to be partners with, she would live in Chicago and we would both be Cubs fans!

Here is what she sent me:

I took another shot of the little bird, because I love him.

 

 

This is what Lucy said about the beads she sent.  "I chose these beads because I love the bar and found a couple of lampwork beads to coordinate with it.  Have fun!"  The orange bird was made by Simone Lange, and the lampwork rounds were made by Jennifer Powers.  She doesn't have a record of who made the acorn and leaf bar, but she bought it to make something for herself with and has been hoarding it.  hmmmm that sounds like something I would do (and have done).  Thank you so much Lucy for these lovely beads.  I had a great time with them!

Here are the beads I pulled out to work with:

I had to change out the orange beads for different ones in the necklace, because the holes weren't big enough for the wire I was using.  I did use them in the earrings.  

I ended up with two pairs of earrings and a necklace, here are the earrings.  I was just going to do the one pair, but I had set the leaves aside when I was looking for coordinating beads and they kept calling me, so I made a second pair:

Here is the necklace:

Another view:

The little bird:

A close up of the beads Lucy sent:

 One more closeup of another part of the necklace:

Thank you so much Lori for hosting, I have missed having my Bead Soup!!!!  Thank you to Lucy for sending me these wonderful beads.  

Please take a look at what the other participants did, you can get to the list on Lori's blog.  

And a big Thank You to everyone for stopping by and reading my post!