BSBP#8

And here we are again, for another round of fabulous partnerships and beady goodness, hosted by the incredible Lori Anderson and her hubby Rick :)

Despite having an incredibly rough year, Lori has once again dived in and set up another great, world wide party, with close to five hundred participants! :)

This year, I was partnered with Audrey Belanger, a fellow Canadian. Audrey sent me a fabulous soup that I managed to stretch my wings with ;)

As a refresher .. here's the fabulous soup she sent me to play with...

And here is what I created while playing :D

To start, yes I know I said I'd push myself with the spiked to NOT do earrings... tough. I did however, take the two largest to make these, and I LOVE them. I've worn them several times now and they are officially among my favorites :) 

 Next I'll show you some of my foray into very minor chainmaille... and *gasp* 'mixed metals' >.< Which I ended up loving , I might add. Here is the little bird brass stamping form Audrey that added a touch of colour too. A bit of nail polish in an antique copper-ish tone. I also added the same colour to the clasp :) (btw, the open link there... I fixed it but didn't retake the pic, sorry >.< lol)

Sticking with the 'wings' theme, but detouring from birds to butterflies... some bright, summery earrings. Truth be told, these were NOT supposed to be earrings at all...I had these findings and stones all set aside to be a bracelet, and had created a little butterfly focal for it... then hated the focal and tada, the earrings were born lol

Back to the birds... a simple adjustable bracelet featuring some faux sea glass teardrops I bought ages ago and never even took off the strand until now, and some of the cute little copper birds I sent along with my soup to Audrey :) From the soup she sent me, I've used some of the Spectra rounds.. again, I had a different piece in mind that used all of these beads but in the end only the pretty teal ones jumped forward to be used.

The sari ribbon found it's way into two pieces; this bracelet is one of them. That beaded chain uses the amethyst rounds from the soup, along with the beadcaps. The chain was actually the first thing I made, intending for it to go with the focal... That clasp I made to go with the focal as well... then decided both the chain, and the focal ( which uses some of the little crystals from the soup ) , made the piece look to heavy. And so.. tada... bracelet. :)

Here is another piece that used up some long 'forgotten' parts of my stash. The clasp is of course, from my soup, as is the shard. The chain is made of some rather large copper coloured aluminum rings that have been sitting here mocking me forever.

The pendant is wood, and the bird image on it was originally silver in colour. I pulled out the nail polish to recolour it carefully, then glued on the little blue-green stone. There two cathedral beads hanging beneath with the shard and the wing ( also nail polished ;) ) are the same colour.

And of course, the focal.

After much hemming and hawing over what to do, I went with a simple brass chain paired with the sari ribbon. I think it works best with the attention being fully on the focal.

I found the weight of the focal kept making it hang crooked, so I used a bit of apoxy putty and a piece of brass wire to make a second bail at the back behind the tail. The two bails let the piece hang evenly and placates my ocd over things like that ;)

And so there we have another successful round of the BSBP... this one more so than previous rounds since I not only pushed myself outside my box a bit more, but I also finished my pieces EARLY! No last minute rush to get things done followed by midnight photos with crappy lighting and photoshop to try to make them passable >.< lol This year, they were done on time and the pictures were taken in daylight... albeit through a window since it was still a tad nippy outside ;)

Thanks again to our amazing hostess Lori and her equally amazing hubby, Rick, as well as all of the people who chipped in to help make this round happen.

As well, a special thank you to my partner Audrey for such a wonderful soup to play with :) I've decided that despite the fact that many of the pieces are 'not my style' for wearing, I'm keeping them and going to wear them :) See...? Still pushing myself outside my box ;)

 You can find the full hop list of participants here -> BSBP#8 HopList

Okay... you know what? I lied. I'm not keeping ALL of what I made. I think I'll share one piece with one of you :)

* Update ! The first giveaway for the butterfly earrings show above is over and the winner has been emailed!
 HOWEVER... for those still hopping, There's is a second giveaway now running, for a shorter version of the crystal spike earrings above. The spikes are about half the size as the ones shown, and I used a finer gauge copper for the wrap so the crystal wouldn't be hidden beneath it ;)

So if you'd like to win the spike earrings, just fill out the rafflecopter form and you're in :) There are two entries available, although only one is mandatory, so if you do both, that's two chances to win :) Blog subscribers, you have to click through to the actual post itself in order to see the rafflecopter widget. :) EVERYONE who entered the last giveaway on this post, are already entered! ( except the previous winner ;) )
 This will run the full week to give more hoppers a chance to get their entries in :)



a Rafflecopter giveaway

ABS & YoJ, plus #99!

Yup, multiple topics post :D

You may remember I attempted to take part in the ArtBeadScene monthly challenges last year... I think I managed one... maybe two, but I remember one for sure, and I don't recall making it on the list so I must have screwed up the submitting somehow >.< lol I did want to try several of them, but they never amounted to much due to various reasons. I wasn't really planning on trying this year, since I signed up for The Year of Jewelry Project  instead... but fate smiled :)

The painting for the January ABS challenge...

And my entry....

The gorgeous peacock focal was made by Marti Conrad of Marti's Buttons n' Beads.  This was actually made for a gift exchange Lori Anderson put together over on BSC . My partner was Rebecca Anderson, and this baby spent about a month in the post to reach her. Her gift to me is still traveling, so I'll have to share that another time ;)

As for The Year Of Jewelry , week #1 's project started off great... then hit a snag and stalled... then grew into three different ones, all of which went slowly due to them each demanding my attention... >.< This meant that my Week #1 project is a day late in getting posted.

The theme was 'renewal'.

Sorry for the crappy pic... night time, indoors... and my normal background is currently acting as a 'table' to hold current projects >.<

Alrighty... now.. for the #99 part..

This is (or should be, anyhow) blog post #99 ... which means the next post has goodies up for grabs :) The day I write the post, I'll do a random.org pick of my followers for one surprise prize.. and then I'll have a second fun little giveaway posted for everyone to enter :)  So make sure you keep an eye out for #100! ;)

Plus, you can still pop over to the F.F. #13 post and enter that giveaway, too :)

Hooters Challenge

I entered my hooters... but forgot to do a blog post! Ack! lol

actually, I DID blog them... just under a different topic. I was planning on making a new Owl piece for this challenge, but in the end went with the owl earring(s) I did for the mismatched art bead earring swap.

The owl is, of course, from Tree Wing studio :)



Pop over to Artisan Whimsy and cast your votes for your favorite Owl jewelry And Owl components :)
you have to be a member to vote, but anyone can join :)

Creative Chaos Design Challenge #2!

Alright.. so I'm terrible at time limit challenges >.<

This is my OWN challenge and yet here I am, the afternoon/evening the day before reveal.. writing my post...

... and I have ONE piece about half done.. and another one kinda started >.<

so, after I write the bones of this post, I'm going to dig out my sketches and see if any of them are workable in short order... then toss them aside, grab the tools and pretend I have a clue what I'm doing >.<

 ... so.. pretty much the same as last time.

* Jumping ahead a couple hours **

Whoohoo! I got some stuff done! And a couple pieces of it I even like.. and one I friggin LOVE :D

And then I had a minor heart attack and cursed out my computer, tore apart my parts drawers, and ransacked the old computer in the bedroom... because as I was about to upload my photos and finish this post... my optic mouse DIED >.<  SO glad I have extra...mice... around. So I'm stuck using the clunky old thing that came with the computer *sigh* I'll have to cross my fingers for nice weather to walk up to Staples after work tomorrow and get a new ergonomic optic mouse.

But I digress... back to the task at hand.

So, to refresh your memories... THIS is what we all had to work with.

( *note - I can't find where I saved my photos of this stuff, so I snitched Kristi's photo from her blog ;) lol)

The rules were that we had to use SOME of an item out of EACH baggie...

 Two different cordings were in one baggie, and while I really wanted to use the brown and gold, my plans failed me several times, so I went with the orange tent cord. For this, my original idea was earrings...but for some reason, when I started to thread the wire through the cord, I ended up with an ugly bracelet instead. Not happy with it. I had thought to wrap a beaded strand or some wire around the outside too... or use that big wooden round ball on the end... but nothing wanted to work. In the end I gave up, slapped some orange wooden beads on the ends and pretended it was finished >.<

 the feathers & Brass piece were in one baggie. I had plans for the brass but time failed me... so I went with the feathers... and after much frustration... made these. simple, three feathers, bound at the top and slipped inside a carved bone bead. The light is misleading... the feathers are NOT green... honest >.<

On to the stuff I LIKE how it turned out :)

The die and the buttons were up next. I did have plans for the die... my skills failed me, however >.< No worries. I had plans for the buttons , too.

Buttons came out and I decided to go with the white pair. I grabbed my new nylon tipped pliers and made some lovely little spirals :) and tada! earrings :) I made the hooks too... hammered them... definitely need some work on my hammered earwires yet, but the over all design came out nice :D

And my absolute FAVORITE piece... well.. it's not a completed piece of jewelry, but it's a completed jewelry component :) and it uses something from the last bag.. the wooden bits. A pendant...

This one was cute how it turned out...I had it turned the other way and was trying different stones against the 'inside' of the scoop... then I dropped it.. and when I picked it up happened to notice that it looked like a leaf from the other side :)

So there's my contributions to the challenge. Still have lots of stuff I didn't use, but not energy.. or time... to use them. I managed to do slightly more then the minimum needed to complete the challenge and that'll do >.<

Hopefully the rest of the challenge crew did better then me >.< lol Make sure to stop off at their blogs and see !

Marge Beebe of RockCreekCreations

Kristi J of CuriositiesbyK

Tammie Everly of TTE Designs

Sarah Goode  of Pookledo

Sherri Stokey of KnotJustMacrame

Paula Hisel of SimplyBeadiful

Shawn Mills of Bent Wire Boutique  

Oh, and for fun, I'll giveaway the button earrings and the leaf pendant to two lucky commenters :) Just say which one you'd like and I'll eventually get around to choosing winners. Oh, and I'll replace the ear wires with 'real' ones before I send them to you ;) lol

Thrift Store Blog Hop

Reveal day!  Whoohoo!

This is Sarah of Poodledo's first go at running a challenge and bloghop and I think she chose a great challenge :)

Here were the rules ;

• Go to the thrift store/charity shop and buy an item for less that £1 ($1.50 approx at the moment)
• Take a photo of the item when you get home 
• Take an "in progress" photo
• Take a photo when you have finished making your item
• And blog about it on Saturday August 4th.

 I'm constantly finding treasures at my thrift and second hand shops, so I didn't think I'd have any trouble at finding stuff within the budget. As a matter of fact, I knew my trouble would be in STOPPING finding things >.< lol I had a pair of metal candle holders that were layers of petals held together by a single screw and had plans to use them.... but that fell through >.< Luckily while I was growling and grumbling over my failed plans, I came across one of my lucky finds.

 Yes... that is a bag of jewelry for $0.88. Like I said, I find stuff like this all the time.. sometimes it's salvageable, sometimes it's not.

Here it is out of the bag.

 A HUGE necklace of resin 'amber' beads permanently attached to the string, a necklace of blue plastic beads, also permanently attached to it's string, and a black link necklace that I immediately had plans for... and promptly lost >.<

 And two necklaces of wooden beads .. the purple are wood but all the white on with them are plastic.

 So there's what I found and had to work with.

My first idea had me painting those big purple beads, and two of the medium round greens.  yup, this was one of my failed Panda projects >.<

I had them ALMOST finished before I messed up and had to scrap them .. shame since they'd been getting really cute...*sigh*

So one idea trashed.... onto the next !




So what did I use?

I used that 'Amber' necklace, the blue necklace, the smallest of the green wooden beads, and those stripey purple and white beads, and made three different pieces.

Here are the in progress shots of each.

First I had to alter some of it to work. Here I applied a light coat of black paint to the blue beads, then wiped it off again, leaving a black 'patina' .

 Once the 'patina' was varnished and dried, I began attaching it to the amber by weaving some black waxed cord through the 'three' strands.





And this is where I realize I forgot to take a picture of the second project in progress... oops >.<

and the dingy purple and white beads get painted in orange and 'turquoise'
... because I felt like it. so there :p







Ready to see the end results?

Above and to the right is the bracelet I forgot to snap 'in progress' . The greenish wooden beads strung on orange faux suede and knotted, with one of the black wooden beads as a button hole clasp.












so there you have it :) how I took a bag of 'junk jewelry' and reworked some of it. I'm not happy with the way I finished the ends of that 'amber' one... think if I do another one, or remake this one, I'll do the weaving with a suede or ribbon and cover the ends completely...

Participants 

www.pookledo.blogspot.co.uk

Deb - http://greenshoot.blogspot.co.uk/

Kimberley - http://goddessesandbeads.blogspot.co.uk/

Skye - http://skyescreativechaos.blogspot.co.uk/

Ambra - http://chicandfrog.wordpress.com/

Beti - http://stringingfool.blogspot.com/

Emma - www.apolymerpenchant.com

Shelley - www.shelleygrahamturner.blogspot.com

Tammie -  http://ttedesigns.blogspot.co.uk/

Leah - http://beadyeyedbunny.blogspot.co.uk/

Denielle - www.somebeadsandotherthings.com

Keri Lee - http://www.pinklemonade.typepad.com 

Rochelle - acreativechelle.blogspot.com

Pam - http://pamelas-studio.blogspot.com/

Ingetraud - http://ingetraud.wordpress.com/

Audrey - http://esperianterra.blogspot.com/

Julie Anne - www.thepeacefulbead.com

Sharyl - http://www.sharylsjewelry.blogspot.com

Micheladas - http://micheladasmusings.blogspot.com 

? -   http://thecreativeklutz.blogspot.co.uk/

Kala - http://maybejustperhaps.blogspot.co.uk/

C.C.D.C.#2 Intro and Rules!

 

Welcome to the Second Creative Chaos Design Challenge :)

 

There are four simple rules.

#1 – Send me an email or pm to let me know you have received your kit :)

#2 – There are four baggies of ingredients in the kit -You must use SOMETHING from each baggie.

#3 - You must take photos of your finished work.

#4 -You must have a blog post containing the photos of your work posted on the day of the hop ( which will be decided once everyone has reported in that their kits have arrived.)

You do not have to use ALL the items, but you can.

You do not have to use all of each item you chose, but you can.

You do not have to use the items as you find them... you may alter them in any way you see fit – drill holes, patina, paint, glue, etc etc etc.

Please do not post about what you received in this kit until I give the okay. Almost everyone wanted their kit to be a surprise so let's not ruin that for them. Once I give the okay, you are welcome to post about what you received, as well as in progress work... but you can't share your finished work until the day of the hop. I suggest either scheduling your post for just after midnight ( EST) , or post it before you head off to bed.

If you don't have a blog, then email me your photos and post at least one full day before the hop date, and I'll add it to my post.

The little yellow tissue wrapped bundle is NOT part of the kit. That is simply a little thank you for being a follower/ reader of my blog and for taking part in this challenge :)

You are of course welcome to use any of your own items combined with those in the kit, including adding more of the same if you happen to find them.

Oh, and the most important part … be creative and have fun :) I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with!

~

 

This round's roster ( & shop list - will be updated to include the blogs long before the actual hop date ;)) :

Marge Beebe of RockCreekCreations

Kristi J of CuriositiesbyK

Tammie Everly of TTE Designs

Sarah Goode  of Poodledo

Sherri Stokey of KnotJustMacrame

Paula Hisel of SimplyBeadiful

Shawn Mills of Bent Wire Boutique 

 and ME, of course :D

Here's the kit we all get to play with :)

Heheh .. sorry, but almost all of them wanted the kit to be a surprise when they opened it.

As soon as I get word they've all arrived, I'll share the ingredients with you :) The first kit has already arrived... and it was the one with the furthest to go!

~Skye

And the winners are....

 Marge, Kristi, Tammie, Sherri, Sarah, Paula, & Shawn Marie :)

Don't believe me, check out Rafflecopter below :p lol

a Rafflecopter giveaway

wow I really love that thing... just click a button and it chooses your winners for you and displays them on the widget for you. so much easier and quicker than random.org ;)

So there you have it. The 7 designers who will be joining me for the next round of the Creative Chaos Design Challenge :)  

Assuming of course that they email me their mailing addresses so I can get their bundles mailed off to them.I'll do the same as the giveaways - you've each got two weeks from today to get back to me with your address. If I don't hear from you by then, I'll pick someone to take your place ;)

Once I've heard back from all the participants and discovered whether they'd like me to post photos of the kits before they receive them, or to wait until after wards, as well as the reveal date they all agree on, I'll do another update on this :)

I really need to get these things packaged and mailed though... because I keep seeing things that would be so perfect to add in... >.< lol It's getting hard to resist!

Freebie Friday #7

Welcome to July ! And I'm fairly sure wherever you are, if you're on the same half of the hemisphere as I am, then you've been having a very hot and steam so far!

I'm sitting here with a glass of ice water with lemon, and my little air conditioner humming loudly away and I'm still sweating >.< It's been very interesting trying to get my apartment clean in time for my mother to get here... which could be any time in the next couple of hours... so this'll be a quick type post, so excuse the typos >.< I still got cleaning to finish up ;) My laundry may have to be snuck down in the morning before mom wakes up ;) lol

Alright, first up a couple reminders.

The winner of June's FF, Susan G. still hasn't contacted me about claiming her prize!  Susan, you've got one more week! If I don't hear from you by Thursday night ( Midnight EST) , then I'll be drawing a new winner !

Next up, you've still got two more days to enter for a chance at a spot in the next Creative Chaos Design Challenge- sign ups are HERE.

Reminders down with, on with the announcement :)

The winner of the first Creative Chaos Design Challenge, with a total of five votes ( several of the others had four so it was very close ), is piece #2created by Alicia of All Pretty Things.

So what am I sticking in the mail for her?

this lovely, and large, red stone two hole pendant.

I mean large about this is 2 " across, but it's so lovely :)

I hope she enjoys it. If it's not her style to work with, then I hope she finds someone who would enjoy playing with it instead ;)

Alrighty, so on to the part you're all here about.  The new Giveaway :)

This month was short on time to prepare another batch of handmade items, and I came up short on theme ideas... however, between the rash of destashes going on and all the Bead Soup batches in the mail and on peoples work tables, I decided to do a goodie box :)

What? you can't see what's all in it?  *sigh* oh alright... here

 better? There's a crap load of red satin ribbon,  a bunch of two tone glass coin beads,two porcelain beads with rather oriental theme to them, some crackled and clear glass beads that I got form Grace's destash sale :) some metal butterflies, a bunch of catseye beads in purple, green and cream, and some handmade brass chain with black glass.

And there's still room in the box, so I may just find or make a few more things to add in through out the month ;)

Alright... my butt needs to get busy cleaning again... gotta vacuum my carpets at the very least >.<

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Another Round?

My Creative Chaos Design Challenge went off without a hitch with everyone posting on time, and while I wrote my blog out with only two pieces finished, by the time I scheduled it to post, I had several done. I literally made three quarters of my designs Friday afternoon and evening, which left only one item in my kit that I didn't use.

I was seriously impressed by the others designs too, especially one done by a thirteen year old girl who got creative with Shaiha's kit :)

I promised some little prizes to go along with it, and here we go with that :) since no one used the full kit ( although my last minute scramble got me close ;) lol ) We'll just go with a vote for favorite piece :) 

I'll share a pic of each piece here with a number attached to it, and you leave a comment below with the number you're voting for :) Make sure you leave your email or have it attached to your blogger profile so I can get in touch with you, because everyone who votes will be entered to win a little something too :) 

* note ; the photographs below were all taken from their creators blogs, and do not belong to me.

#1

~ ~ ~

#2

~ ~ ~

#3

~ ~ ~

#4

~ ~ ~

#5

~ ~ ~

And no, I'm not including mine since I obviously don't need to win my own prize ;) lol  Voting will be open until Thursday July 5th at Midnight ( EST) and the winners will be announced in the new Freebie Friday post :)

So, while you're all casting your votes and waiting for a winner to be chosen... who's up for a new Creative Chaos Design Challenge ?

This one would take place mid August - early September ( depending on the participants ) and has room for SEVEN designers aside from myself  :) 

Want a sneak peek ?

Hmm... you know, now I can't decide if I should show  the full kit after the team has been picked like I did last time... or make you wait longer lol  Part of me likes the element of surprise... Not showing you until the kits have been received.

As you can see, this one is more earthy tones in favor of Autumn... where as the last one was more of a Summer theme.. of course, aside from that itsy bitsy glimpse in the center there.. that's ALL you can tell :)

The rules will be the same as the previous Challenge. ;  they have to use some of these items to create jewelry... ( the more of it they use, the happier and more impressed I'll be ;) ) They don't have to use it 'as is'; they can alter any or all of the items in any way they want. They create, they photograph and they share on the chosen reveal date. I think I'll have them use at least a third of that pile. 

Once again I'll have a couple little prizes as well. One will be for the one you all vote for as your fave piece , and the second prize(s) for any of them that manage to use ALL of the kit. 

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Creative Chaos Challenge Reveal!

Okay :) We're here!

A while back I made up four kits of various objects that I offered up for grabs to three of you. It was the first step for the first Creative Chaos Design Challenge :)

And here we are... reveal day :)

Joining me in this little jaunt outside the normal are Shaiha of Shaiha's Ramblings , Alicia of All The Pretty Things , and Rochelle of A Creative Chelle .

A refresher of what the kits contained ;

 

The month kind of got away from me. I had some designs started, then things kept getting in the way and they got shoved aside. Then, when I pulled them back, I ended up discovering I'd forgotten my original idea... misplaced the design I had sketched out... and then when I got past that, I found mistake that had to be fixed >.<

My challenge was indeed challenging ... lol Or rather 'challenged' >.<

I didn't use all of my ingredients, but I ended up being able to use a bit of everything except the white shell pieces. I'm not loving some of them, and some need to be taken apart and have some things fixed.. in one case for no real reason, just that I noticed something that is now driving me nuts just knowing it's there >.< lol

So without further ado... here are my designs for the challenge.

The large blue shell pieces were combined with some fake pearls to make a pair of earrings.

 The washers were linked together to make a pair of earrings, and a bracelet. with a large lobster clasp to make it adjustable.

 Necklace with buried 'treasure'

This is the bottle, and the idea I had for the Skull blog hop a few weeks ago that the weather messed up on me. ( the red suede cord is only loose there due to the way the chain is laying... when worn, it's pulled even with the chain) .

 Here's a close up so you can see the skull partially buried in the sand. The sand is sealed 'mostly' in place so it doesn't shift around. There are a couple long rice pearls in there too to look like bones, but they didn't want to show up in the photos.

  This bugger was the first design.. the pendant was a lucky find after I had picked out the colors and started the chain.. it was in a mixed bag of beads and buttons I picked up for a buck and matched  nicely.. so I added it. This is the two creamy buttons, one of which is attached to the clasp.. that I made :D

It's also definitely getting redone.. again. I think I'll take the pendant off and shift the buttons around a bit...

  

See...I made that twisted wire hook and eye all by myself :) It was SUCH a pain in the ass to do, to, let me tell you >.<

 

 This is just a quick little choker that I need to add some weight into the front of... I think maybe a few little blue crystals or something....  either that or turn it into a wrap bracelet...

  ....and here is the last quick little bracelet... that I actually really like..I'm wearing it right now :)

 I took one of the white buttons and ran the cord through two of the holes, then looped it around and poked both ends up through the other two holes...

 

You pull the cords to loosen it enough to slip it on, then pull the two ends to tighten it again, then just tuck and wrap the ends. It is REALLY comfy... and simple.. and I like it :)

And that's it.  The last two were quickies I did just to use up some more of my stuff, and I took all of the photos this afternoon... thus the crappy lighting, sorry >.<

I can't wait to see what these same items were turned into by the others :)

Here are the link to the other participants :) Be sure to stop in and see what they made :)

Alicia - http://www.allprettythings.ca/

Shaiha - http://shaihasramblings.blogspot.com/

Rochelle - http://acreativechelle.blogspot.ca/

And for those interested, the kits for the second Creative Chaos Design Challenge are all ready to go :) I'll be posting signs up some time this week :)  And July 6th is the new F.F. giveaway post for those wondering why it hasn't gone up yet ... it's the first Friday of the month ;)

~ Skye