Bead Trends and A Giveaway!

In the July issue of Bead Trends Magazine, you will find my second published Necklace! This piece called, Aqua Terra Beach, features one of my handmade Stoneware Sand Dollar Pendants! To celebrate this and my new blog, I'm having a Giveaway!

1st Prize - One lucky winner will receive the following: A copy of the July issue of Bead Trends Magazine, 1 handmade Stoneware Sand Dollar Pendant and 2 matching Stoneware Sand Dollar Charms!

2nd and 3rd Prizes - Each winner will receive 1 handmade Stoneware Sand Dollar Pendant each!

3 prizes, 3 winners!

Yes, that's right! You get three chances to win something!

Here's how to Enter:

1. Leave a comment on this post for 1 Entry to win.

2. Follow this blog for 2 Entries to win. If you already follow, you will automatically be entered two times, BUT everyone must leave me a comment, so I know you want to be entered in the giveaway! So, that's 3 Entries total, if you leave a comment and follow.

  

3. Tell your friends about this giveaway on your own blog with a link back here, for 5 Entries to win. You can either leave a comment here that you posted or you can e-mail me a link to your post.

The winners will be announced on July 10th!

Please come back to this blog on that day to see if you won or leave me a way to contact you! Thank you!

GOOD LUCK! :)

First Baseball Game at the Boston Red Sox!

Just a quick post of my first baseball game! It's amazing I've never been to a game, but it's hard to get tickets in Boston! Here's me and my hubby, Josh at the Boston Red Sox baseball game last night! It was an awesome Summer night, the weather was perfect! Being at the game was so fun! We even had a baseball fly up into the stands right next to us! Josh bought me peanuts and cracker-jacks, of course to complete the experience! :) We won 8-5 against the Tampa Bay Rays. GO SOX! :)

Summer Issue of Stringing!

www.stringingmagazine.com

I love Stringing Magazine! It's one of the best publications out there for featuring creative jewelry designs. I'm lucky enough to have my first published pieces of jewelry in this issue of the magazine!

Ocean's Bounty Necklace and Sand Dollar Earrings

I love seeing my own work on the pages, but I LOVE flipping through and seeing the creations of some of my favorite beady, bloggy friends!!! Check them out!

Melanie Brooks - My favorite from this issue: Bracelet #17!

Gaea Cannaday - Cute Bracelet #6!

Lorelei Eurto - My favorite from this issue: Tweet Wishes Necklace!

Kelly Morgan - My favorite from this issue: Barnacle Beach Necklace! (Love this!)
Sharon Palac - Enchanted Pathway Necklace! (Amazing!)

Kristie Roeder - My favorite from this issue: Earrings #31!

Andrew Thornton - My favorite from this issue: Earrings #2!

Heather Trudeau - Quick-Change Artist Necklace! 

Jennifer Judd Velasquez - My favorite from this issue: Simple-Cut Elegance Necklace! (So Pretty!)

Dorothy Winchell - My favorite from this issue: Nature Walk Necklace!

Plums & Grasses Necklace

The theme for this month's Artbeads.com design partner blog program is Summer! Summer places, Summer activities or just the season in general. One of my favorite places to visit here during the Summer months is Plum Island, known for the beach plums that still grow on it.  It's a small barrier island off the Massachusetts east coast. I decided to use this place as my inspiration as I choose my materials from Artbeads.com.

This Sea Grass ceramic pendant by Marsha Neal, reminds me of the tall, green grasses that grow along the outskirts of the sandy beaches. A sterling silver dragonfly charm accents the pendant, as dragonflies flutter about these tall grasses. I tied up the pendant and charm with three strands of these plum/iris matte glass seed beads for a bail. Next, I picked out this fancy, plum-dyed silk satin cord to represent the plums that grow on bushes along the island. This silk cord came stuffed with chiffon. I un-stuffed it, so I could thread a section of silk onto this dark brown leather cord for the necklace. I wire-wrapped the silk section to the leather cord with a little sterling silver wire. I wanted to add a rustic touch to contrast with the silk and give the necklace a more casual feel. I left most of the leather cord showing and finished the the ends off with a simple loop and bead closure. Now, I'm ready for my walk along Plum Island!

Disclaimer: Artbeads.com has sent me the above mentioned beads, pendants, and/or findings to create with as part of their design partner blog program. I have not been paid by Artbeads.com to participate. Thank you.

An Ocean of Favorites

 Ocean Depths Bracelet

 The beads and colors of this bracelet remind me of the ocean. The sea is one of my favorite themes and colors to work around! I can just imagine the sunlight filtering through the blue waters and a school of silver fish swimming among a forest of kelp.

I made time for a little beading session over the weekend. It ended up being a work of favorites!  I pulled out these African recycled glass beads from my stash. These have become a  favorite as of late. I got them at a local bead shop. I love the color, the matte finish and the organic shape of them. They remind me of sea glass, which I just LOVE!!! I want to start adding some of my favorite art beads to my work, so I pulled out this Round Rabbit ceramic button that I've been hording...err... holding onto for a while. :) Nancy of Round Rabbit has been a favorite ceramic artist and jewelry designer for a long time! The blue and green button compliment the beads so well! Another all-time favorite is Hill Tribe Silver! I'm absolutely in love with Thai silver! I wire-wrapped a few silver tube beads with seed bead accents for the dangles. Then, I hand knotted everything up onto some matching blue and green waxed linen cord, of course another favorite material that I love to work with!!!

Beaded Leather Cuff

I love, love, love the look of leather cuffs! They are so popular in fashion jewelry right now. I wanted to try my hand at making my own version. I ended up with this little number right here! It's so soft and comfy to wear! I know little about leather working, it's something I'd be very interested in learning sometime. I just fudged around a little to make this one. I did have a pretty clear plan of how I was going to go about making it and just followed that all the way through.

I picked up some nice genuine leather scraps I found at the craft store and some heavy-duty closure snaps from the fabric store. I wanted a leather punch to make holes in the leather for the beads, but the ones I saw were way to large for what I needed for this project. I ended up using a tiny, tiny paper punch that I had already. This hole punch makes about a 1mm hole. It worked OK, not great, but doable.

The first thing I did to make the cuff was I made myself a template out of some card stock. I measured everything out VERY carefully, including extra space at the ends for the snap closure and measuring and marking out all of the holes along the cuff for the beading. This cuff is 1" wide and 71/2'' long, but fits like a 7" because of the snap overlap. Once I had my template measured out perfect, I cut it out and punched out the hole marks on the template. Then, I traced the template onto the wrong side of the leather and marked all of the holes with a pen. I cut the leather out with just a nice pair of fabric shears, cuts like a dream! Then, I just punched out the hole marks with that little paper punch, cleaned up the holes a little with a small pair of sewing scissors and added on the heavy-duty fabric snap, following the directions it came with. Now, I had my leather cuff base! Lastly, I threaded some waxed linen cord through the holes and tied on some Sodalite roundels and Thai silver accent beads with square knots and frayed the ends of the linen. 

Suede Leather Earrings

I've been playing around with some suede lacing! A bit of an experiment that turned out well! ;) These were fun to make.  I love the combination of the suede, sterling silver and beads. You can see a few more pairs I made on my flickr page. The leather adds earthy, natural texture that I just love to bring into my designs. I hope to incorporate this in some other ways in the future!