Saturday, July 23, 2011

Simple Link Bracelet Tutorial


Happy Saturday! I recently had a fun time making these little link bracelets. They are so simple and easy to make, so I thought I'd share. I hope you enjoy making some of these for yourself or they would make great gifts, too! One of the nice things about this design, the bracelets can be made with an adjustable closure, so they are able to fit a range of wrist sizes.

What you'll need:

1 yard or 36" of 1mm Waxed Cotton Cord - Fire Mountain Gems
1 TierraCast Rhodium Peace Link - Artbeads.com
1 Silver Greek Chip bead - Fire and Fibers

Tools:
Scissors

Note:
The measurements given in the instructions below fit my wrist on the first loop closure.
This bracelet works best if it's fitted perfectly to your wrist, so you may need to adjust the measurements just slightly to get a nice fit. The adjustable closure helps with that a bit though!



It's simple and I love it. It looks really cute layered with other bracelets, too.
Let me know if you make one....or five. Trust me you'll be addicted!
Feel free to link to this tutorial, if you are so inclined.

Friday, July 22, 2011

And the Winner is...

The winner of the fabric and cotton cord covered beads is...

Martin Caraballo of Haegaerpr Jewelry!


Congratulations, Martin!
Martin, thanks for leaving me your email. I will email you to get your mailing address and I'll get your package right out to you. Thank you and happy creating with your new beads!

Also, thank you to everyone who entered and thanks to Wholeport.com for the giveaway items.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Fun Fabric Necklace and Giveaway


Last week I told you about the peace sign pendants I received from WholePort.com. I also got these fun fabric and cotton cord covered beads! I used a big eye needle to string the beads onto some pretty pink silk ribbon from Marsha Neal Studio. I also tied on a crimson glass link from Cindy Gimbrone and a bit of ivory dupioni silk from Ornamentea for more texture. What a fun piece to make...and wear!

    
And now for the giveaway...
I'm giving away these 8 beads as shown above courtesy of WholePort.com.  4 fabric covered beads in a colorful plaid fabric and 4 cotton cord covered beads in pink and white. These beads are light weight and fun to work with. You will love them.

To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment on this post by Thursday, July 21st.
Tell me what you would make with these beads if you won them. I will randomly draw one lucky winner on Friday, July 22nd.

Thank you for stopping by and GOOD LUCK!

Friday, July 15, 2011

And the Winner is...

The winner of the "Peace & Love" Giveaway is...



Congratulations, Stefanie!
Please email me your mailing address and I'll get your package right out to you. Thank you and happy beading with your new wooden pendants!

Also, thank you to everyone who entered and thanks to Wholeport.com for the giveaway items.
Stay tuned next week for another fun jewelry piece, another giveaway and another chance to win!
Peace out.

Monday, July 11, 2011

A Necklace and the Peace & Love Giveaway

Recently, I received an email from the lovely gal, Jenny over at WholePort.com, inviting me to take a look at her website. I really appreciated the friendly, personal email I got from her. Wholeport is an online craft supply site and I was more than happy to take a look around. While there, I found a few things I liked a lot. The first was this wooden peace sign. Jenny was kind enough to send me some sample pendants to try out, along with a few other items that I will share in another post coming up.

Here's my "Peace on Earth" Necklace I made with my peace sign pendant from WholePort.com. For my necklace, I wanted to give the pendant a worn, vintage look as if the necklace had been around the neck of a flower child from the 60's and 70's. I distressed the wooden pendant with a piece of fine grit sandpaper. I really like the affect. It adds some extra interest and dimension to the focal and the light sanding also smoothed out any rough spots in the wood. My necklace also features handmade ceramic beads by the artists of Sedillo Hill Studio and some copper African trade beads. The beads are simply knotted on some chocolate brown waxed cotton cord and finished off with a loop and large wood bead closure. A perfect Summer necklace.

The "Peace & Love" Giveaway
Okay, now for the giveaway part!!! Jenny at Wholeport also sent me some extra items to host a giveaway on my blog. This will be the first of two giveaways. The second giveaway will be in a separate post coming up next week. The first giveaway package is this collection of wooden cut-out pendants I am calling the "Peace & Love" Giveaway:

You will receive the the item shown above: Two large cut-out heart pendants and three wood peace signs that are a good size for either a pendant or charm for a bracelet or even earrings, too.

If you would like to enter my "Peace & Love" giveaway, you can do one of the following:
"LIKE" WholePort on Face Book: www.facebook.com/wholeport
OR
"FOLLOW" WholePort on Twitter: www.twitter.com/wholeport
OR
If you don't have Facebook or Twitter, you can just visit the website: www.wholeport.com

Then, leave me a comment letting me know you want to enter.  
Leave a comment on this post by Thursday, July 14th. Then, I will randomly select a winner from the comments on Friday, July 15th.

Even if you're not interested in the giveaway, please feel free to comment without mentioning the giveaway in your comment.

Also, in addition to this giveaway, Jenny is happy to spread the love even more by offering 10% off all items at www.wholeport.com with coupon code: CRAFTFUN10 that's good until July 31st, 2011.

Good Luck on the Giveaway!
and 
happy shopping at WholePort.com for new beading or craft supplies.
Also, stay tuned for the second giveaway coming up next week.
Peace & Love, Baby!