Halloween Treats



I  love giving my family and friends fun little treats for Halloween.  This year I found this great earring design at Fusionbeads.com.  They always have seasonal designs that I love to make for my daughter, myself and two of my closest friends.  As you can see, this year it's these adorable witches' hats.

They are made with Swarovski componets, Jet and Sun margarites, 1 Jet cosmic ring, and 1 Jet artemis beads.  I love the artemis bead.  It's a described as a spacer bead but I think this is a great application for it.

Since I love to make the presentation part of the gift, I decided to make  tags to hang them on.  I've had fun making Halloween tags this year, and after completing a Halloween tag garland, which I'll post later in the week, I still had some ideas left!  

Making the earrings and the tags was lots of fun, now I can't wait to deliver the treats.  I'll see one friend tomorrow for breakfast, so I'll take hers along with me.  My other friend will have to wait until next week.  But, they'll have them for Halloween, and it will be cool thinking of them wearing them at the Witching Hour!!

One last photo, my daughter's tag, purple and black, embossed with a stamp she loves because she's a Baltimore Ravens fan!



Thanks for stopping by.  Have a creative day.



Two Fall Necklaces...

and a pair of earrings!

As you all know by now, I love Fall.  I've made things to decorate the house for years.  I've also made jewelry over the years using the motifs and colors I love so much.  Two of my favorites are these necklaces. 

  I'm really a seed bead person.  But, I'm beginning to try my hand at wirework.  I like a lot of wire jewelry that's out there, and I've taken a few classes, which I've really enjoyed.  Both of these necklaces were a lot of fun to make.  The one on the left used some pieces from the My Elements line and a few recycled pieces from old jewelry.  I decided to try some wire working to make a clasp to match the black chain.  And, that was really fun!  I used 22 gauge black wire to make a loop and hook.  The second necklace made use of some of my collection of lucite leaves.  I love lucite beads, flowers and leaves.  I think Beadin' Path http://www.beadinpath.com/ has the best selection of lucite, and that's where these leaves came from.  I used copper chain, along with Swarovski column beads to add sparkle.  When I finished the necklace, I decided to use the remaining chain and crystal columns to make a pair of earrings. 

I'll leave you with some close ups.  Enjoy  your day and make art!





Autumn Treasures

There are so many treasures in Autumn.  It's my favorite time of year  for many reasons, not the least of which is the glorious color that surrounds us.  The trees turn the most fabulous reds, oranges, russets, golds and coppers.   While there aren't many colors I don't like, the fall colors are some of my favorites.  Even summer's left over flowers and foliage take on a luminous glow as the angle of the sun begins to change into it's winter mode.  Spectacular!

A few years ago I cross stitched this sampler.  I have no idea where I found the chart, but it expressed my feeling about Autumn.  It's a time to treasure because it's so fleeting and everyone is so busy.  Once I finished stitching it I didn't want another framed cross stitch sampler.  So, I decided to make a small art quilt out of it.  I foraged among all my fall fabrics and beads.  My stash of fabric and beads in fall colors resemble the abundance of fall.  After all, they are my favorite colors!

This is what I came up with.

I used two shades of Cherrywood sueded cottons for the background.  After sewing the pieces together I used WonderUnder to foil leaf shapes on the fabric.  Using WonderUnder is my favorite way to foil fabric.  I like to do it as a first step, so that when I sew over it the foil flakes off giving the piece a more distressed look.  I free motioned quilted around the leaves and then added a batik over it.  I  fringed the cross stitched sampler and stitched it down to the background.  I then added beads and lucite leaves (another favorite).  I found the piece of wire work that I had made in a class, and added that to the bottom of the sampler.  After assembling the quilt with the batik as a backing fabric, I edge stitched around the sampler and the batik.  I free motion stitched a leaf shape using a variety of threads, including some of the linen threads I had pulled from the sampler when I fringed the edges.  I beaded the leaf and attached it to the quilt. 

I hang the quilt from a small vintage looking hanger, but I'm going to put fabric loops on it and hang it from a small branch. 

Here are some of the details.

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I hope you're enjoying all the treasures the season has to offer.  Thanks for taking the time to stop by. 

Changing seasons

Fall is definitely in the air.   After our incredibly hot summer, we've had a string of lovely days!  We've been able to work in the garden, getting back to projects we had to give up by the end of June because of the heat.  The vegetables are loving it, as well as the roses.  All in all, a very welcome change.

And, I've begun thinking about my fall projects.  I've started working on a fun project that I've been planning all summer.  I'll just give you a tease here.  You'll have to check back to see the finished product.  In the meantime, enjoy the beautiful weather.  I hope you're inspired to create something fun to celebrate the season.

Can you see the hint?

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a wonderful day.

 

Bead Crochet Necklace

I've finished my first bead crochet necklace.  I wanted it to be a choker, so it's about 16.5 inches in length.  I'm really pleased with the results.  I used size 8 hex beads in colors I love.  I have a lot of size 8 hex beads that I buy from my friend

Leslie.  I make reversible knitted bead cuffs with them, and I use them in my freeform beadweaving also.  I love the way the light reflects off of those angles!  This combination happened to be sitting on my work table and I thought it would make a wonderful fall necklace.  I call it Burnished Olives.  I had been trying to decide what I was going to do next for a bead crochet project.  I wanted to make a necklace and these colors spoke to me.  Of course, this means that I'm finally moving out of my summer color mode and into fall colors, which is a sure sign that the seasons are getting ready to change.  I'm very affected by the changing seasons, both with the colors I wear, and the colors I work with.  But, more on that at another time. 

I always try to think about what the closure will look like when I begin a piece of jewelry, and I try to use different techniques.  I'd been wanting to use a magnetic clasp covered with a peyote tube and this was my chance to do that.  I like the ease of a magnetic clasp, but I don't think they're very attractive all by themselves. 

I used copper size 8 seed beads and made a peyote tube.  I did a picot edge with size 11's in colors that coordinated with the hex beads.  I then did a picot stitch down the middle of the the tube using the same 11's.  I wrapped it around the necklace and zipped it  closed.  It moves out of the way when  I want to put the necklace on.  I'm really pleased with the results and I think it's going to become one of my favorite fall necklaces.  Of course, I say that all the time about the newest necklace, bracelet or pair of earrings I've made!

Here are some close ups of the closure. 

 

I hope you have a wonderful day, and thanks for stopping by and sharing your time with me.

More Freeform Beadwork

This bracelet isn't new, but I'm making a necklace to go with it and I decided to take some pictures of the bracelet the other day.  I worked the freeform peyote a little differently for this piece.  Instead of stringing beads of different sizes and shapes and working off of that, I strung some 11's and then a 10mm crystal, and then some more 11's.  On the return row I worked freeform peyote for the 11's and skipped the crystals.  From there I began doing freeform along the row, creating bridges and using a variety of beads and crystals.  I love the crystal bicones I used for the bracelet.  They are some of the specially coated Swarovski that I found at my friend Kathy's store, Bead Soup.  They are called Rosaline.  That name is so pretty that I'm calling the bracelet the same!  The button is another dichroic from my friend Terrie.

Here are some other views of the bracelet.  Enjoy!  I'll post pictures of the necklace when it's finished. 

   

Freeform, Summer Melons

I've been gone from the blog for quite a while.  My daughter and I have spent the last several weeks creating costumes for a show written and directed by a very dear friend of hers.  We have done this for several summers now, Carrie designing, and both of us building the costumes, and it's always enjoyable.  The entire production is a family affair with many of the same actors, techies and volunteers coming back year after year to help get these plays on the stage successfully.  But, this past weekend was the opening and our work has morphed from making to managing the costumes backstage.  So, I'm able to return to what passes for normal in my life! 

While we were working on costumes I would take a few minutes here and there to work on a new freeform necklace I had started several weeks ago.  I had put a tease on the blog thinking it would be finished long before now.  I call it Summer Melons and you can see why.

I love the colors.  If you look closely you can see a square element that I incorporated into the beadwork.  It's a hand painted plastic piece from a company called My Elements.  They have a wonderful assortment of pieces in bright colors that can be used in all sorts of ways.  I decided to try them in freeform.  By beading over and under them the pieces became part of the beadwork.  And, they were the jumping off point for my colors.  The finished necklace reminds me of melons!   Here are a couple more closeups of the finished necklace.

It's a fun summer necklace with it's mother of pearl beads, lucite flowers, and fringe coming off parts of the beadwork.  I'm happy I finished it while there's still some summer left so I can enjoy wearing it.  

I hope you're enjoying your summer.  Thanks for sharing you time with me.