Free Tutorial: Wire Wrapped Clover Charm

Good ol' St. Patty's Day is just a few weeks away! I'm a proud Irish lass myself, so I wanted to share something fun. I created this sweet wire-wrapped clover charm. Isn't it adorable? I'm showing you how to make one yourself, in case you want to add a little luck o' the Irish to your jewelry creations. Clovers aren't just for St. Patrick's Day or the Irish, you know? They are a universal symbol of good luck any day of the year. Incorporate a clover in your jewelry designs to add a wish of luck to the wearer. This charm could be used as a pendant for a necklace, a charm for a bracelet or make two for the cutest little earrings. For my clover charm, I made a braided cord of Irish waxed linen, of course! What else? :)

Here's what you'll need:

3 green 7x7mm puff teardrop beads
18" of brass 24 gauge wire

Tools:
Chain nose pliers
Round nose pliers
Wire cutters
Ruler

Instructions:
Start by making a wrapped loop 8" from the end of the wire.
Follow the picture instructions below to create your clover charm.
Have fun!

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial.

Happy St. Patty's Day!

7000 Bracelets for Hope

The 7000 Bracelets for Hope Campaign is to help raise awareness for kids living with rare diseases and also to show support for the family members caring for the children. The Global Genes Project is asking jewelry designers, beaders, crafters and artisans to donate hand-crafted, blue jean-inspired bracelets for the cause. Below, is the bracelet I made to donate this year...

 Blue Flower Macrame Bracelet

 My blue flower macrame bracelet is created with sodalite and turquoise rounds, along with brass cornerless cubes and brass findings. I hand-knotted the beads onto waxed linen cord using a square knot macrame technique to create the flower motif. I love it. I had so much fun designing this bracelet! I hope the recipient enjoys wearing it with her favorite pair of jeans and I hope it brightens her day a little.

 I hope you enjoyed my design, as well. Now, please join me and visit some others who also made bracelets to donate to this worthy cause. Two lovely ladies in the bead blogging community are our hosts of the blog hop today for this year's bracelet campaign... 

Elysian Studios  and  One Kiss Creations.

Thank you Erin and Christine for organizing the hop and getting us all together!

 Below is the list of generous artists donating a bracelet and participating in the blog hop. Enjoy! I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's bracelet designs.   
 The Studio Sublime

Crafty Hope

The Gossiping Goddess

SilverRose Designs

Firefly Visions

Pink Chapeau Vintage Jewelry

Michelle Mach

Pine Ridge Treasures

Backstory Beads

Adventures in Creativity with Lorillijean

Carefree Jewelry by Lisa

Sue Beads

MiShel Designs

Created Treasures

Taralinda Muses

My Life Under The Bus

Elizabeth Creates

SilverNikNats

Erin Siegel Jewelry

Carolyn’s Creations

My Life…one bead at a time

Fresh Baked Designs

Songbeads

Sunshine Bliss

Lori Anderson

Rainy Days Designs

Pat Barden Jewelry

Tell Your Girlfriends

Therese's Treasures

Windrock Studio

Bead Lola Bead

Spice Box Designs

Antiquity Travelers

Vitamin C...A Daily Dose of Creativity

Beads and Bread

Sharyl's Jewelry and Reflections

Ahtee's Blog

Thoughtful-Notions

Beads for Brains:365

Wild Sally Road

All The Pretty Things

Skye's Creative Chaos

My Addictions...Handcrafted Jewelry by Patti

Lindy's Designs

Falling Into The Sky

Star Hitched Wagon

Mama's Got to Doodle

10KDgroup

Kashmira's Crochet Flower

 

Recently, I visited Kashmira's blog, Sadafulee and I complimented her on the lovely crocheted flower focal she had made for her Bead Soup partner. Kashmira then graciously and generously offered to send me one to play with. She said she'd be interested to see what I would create with it. Well, how could I refuse an offer like that! And, so here is the flower, in all it's beautiful glory. I have a few ideas about what I may do with it. Maybe, a beaded necklace with the flower off to one side in an asymmetrical design or possibly a leather cuff bracelet with the crocheted focal in the center. I will share my design when I come up with something, but in the meantime I'd love to hear your thoughts...

What would you do? It would be really fun to hear your design ideas. Please share!

A Fun Night Out

My husband, Josh and I enjoyed a nice "date night" out recently at his company party. It was held at the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem, Ma. The museum is just a few blocks away from where we live, so there were no excuses not to go. We booked a babysitter for Nora, got all dressed up and off we went!

I wore a new little black dress, high-heel black pumps and these earrings I made a few months ago for just such an occasion...

silk and crystal earrings

A wonderful time was had in a beautiful, elegant setting. One of the highlights of the evening was this fun, rented photo booth they had set up in the lobby with silly props, hats, and feather boas to use in your pics! What fun! I love how the photos came out, so I thought I'd share our fun and sillyness from the evening with you...

 Photos are from www.smilebooth.com.

Sweet Slide Bracelet TUTORIAL

 Sweet Slide bracelets

Check out my free tutorial on how to make a sliding knot adjustable bracelet at Art Bead Scene! So hip, so chic, so EASY! You will not want to miss this sliding knot technique. I hope you enjoy the tutorial! If you make one of these bracelets or use this sliding knot adjustable closure in a piece of jewelry, please do share. I want to see what you make!

Here's what you need for the Sweet Slide bracelets:

6mm ceramic rounds by Elaine Ray

Brass 3mm cornerless cubes

Dark brown 1mm premium waxed cotton cord

To make your bracelet, cut a piece of cord about 24 inches long. String and/or knot your beads on as desired, making sure to leave at least a 4 inch tail on each end of your bracelet.

Now, you're ready to create your sliding closure!

1. Cut a separate 12" piece of cord and fold the cord back onto itself about 4". This will be your "working" cord.

2. Place the left and right bracelet cords parallel to each other with the ends in opposite directions.

 

3. Place the working cord on top of the bracelet cords. Hold the folded end with the short tail end in the opposite direction.

4. Loosely wrap the working cord around the bracelet cords and the tail of the working cord.

5. Make 5 wraps, moving towards the tail end of your working cord.

6. Insert the working cord through the wraps you just made, exiting the folded end.

7. Pull the ends of your working cord tight, but not super tight or you won't be able to move your bracelet cords back and forth. If desired, add some beads to the working cord tails and trim.

8. Add a few more beads to the bracelet cords, knot, trim and you're done! Be sure to leave the bracelet tails long enough to slip your hand through when the bracelet is all the way open.

I hope you enjoy the tutorial!

7000 Bracelets for Hope

The 7000 Bracelets for Hope Campaign is to help raise awareness for kids living with rare diseases and also to show support for the family members caring for the children. The Global Genes Project is asking jewelry designers, beaders, crafters and artisans to donate hand-crafted, blue jean-inspired bracelets for the cause.

To give you and idea of the theme for the bracelets, 

here are a couple of design examples I've made:

Blue Jean Baby Bracelet

 Owl Button Bracelet

Click on the link to find out more details about the 7000 Bracelets for Hope campaign and to sign up to donate a bracelet!

There are two lovely ladies in the bead blogging community hosting a blog hop for this year's bracelet campaign, Erin of Elysian Studios and Christine of One Kiss Creations. If you'd like to participate in the blog hop, you'll have to hurry! Today is the last day for sign-ups!

Click the button below to be taken to Erin's page to sign-up for the blog hop!

I can't wait to design a new bracelet to donate this year! I better get working on it soon, the blog hop is coming up in two weeks! See you all there on Saturday, February 25th.

Spring Stringing

The Spring 2012 issue of Stringing is now available for download.

If you have to have the latest beading magazines as soon as they come out like I do, you'll be happy to know you can already download the Spring 2012 issue of Stringing magazine! Just click the cover picture above to download your copy from the Interweave website. 
I have two bracelet designs in there. Also, an ad for our upcoming book, Bohemian-Inspired Jewelry: 50 Designs Using Leather, Ribbon and Cords appears in this Spring issue. That was exciting to see!!!