Spooky Bracelet and a Blog Hop

As promised yesterday here is my Halloween bracelet I made with the charm swap hosted by Thespa at Vintiquities Workshop.  This first picture is of my pendant. I had charms left over so I fashioned the word "Boo" from wire and then attached the charms at the bottom. Now I just have to add my chain. The charms were all awesome and creative. Thanks to Thespa for organizing.

Now if you would like to see all the others bracelets created by the participants click HERE. She also has some fun Halloween printables that would be fun to play with.

Happy Halloween everyone and let us all remember the folks affected by the huge storm Sandy on the East coast. My thoughts and prayers are with you all.

Bead Soup Reveal...yea

It's the day of the official Bead Soup Blog Party hosted by Lori Anderson of Pretty Things. Now for the reveal of our creations that we sent our partners earlier this month. If you want to see what I received here is the link to that post.   http://danasjewelrydesign.blogspot.com/2012/07/6th-bead-soup-party.html

The rules are simple, we are to use the focal and clasp in our design(s), which can be all in one piece or a couple, we don't have to use all the beads our partner sent and we can add some of our own.

As soon as I saw what my partner Cheryl sent I knew I had to use the pink and the little silver purse for my niece who is a Miche representative. I used the clasp in this piece as the findings were sterling and that is what she wears most often. I struggled with this piece as I first thought I wanted to do a stretchy bracelet and then the clasp called to me and I decided she would wear a strung one more often. I love how it turned out. Most of these beads are Cheryl's with the lampwork and sterling bead caps of mine thrown in.

This next piece has the lovely enamel pieces that Cheryl made....love them, so I used the largest as my focal, along with some copper washers that I hit with my torch and then hammered, green garnet that Cheryl sent, blue lapis and some jade that I had. Cheryl also sent the chain I used. This piece doesn't have a clasp as it is long enough to slip over the head and I love the sari silk at the back.

I hope everyone is enjoying the hop. Be sure to check out my partners creations from the beads I sent her at  http://cherylmccloud.blogspot.com/.  If you are just stopping my and haven't seen the other participants creations, here is the link to some wonderful blogs to check out. http://lorianderson-beadsoupblogparty.blogspot.com/2012/06/participants-of-6th-bead-soup-blog.html

The Bead Soup Party Reveal

A couple times a year I participate in Lori Anderson's Bead Soup Blog party. This is such an inspiring event as it pushes your boundaries to try new things and use different supplies that you wouldn't normally purchase. After we sign up, Lori pairs everyone up and then we send our partner a clasp, pendant or focal bead and a selection of beads. They in turn have to make some thing with those beads and now show them off during this big blog hop. There are over 300 participants, so that's a lot of blogs to visit but I'll be starting bright and early tomorrow morning. So, finally I get to show you what I made with my bead soup. My partner was Christie of Charis Designs and to start off I'll show you the wonderful mix of beads she sent me.

Now we all get in a rut sometimes and I'm just as susceptible as anyone but who couldn't be inspired with this mix. I just am in love with blues right now. Okay, so there was a funny coincidence in that we both sent each other the same metal to work with as well as blue beads and as I'm writing this I jumped over to her blog and we both created items that look very similar or that you could wear with each other. Check out what she made on this post. I made this set before we left for our Napa trip and just had to take it with me. It was fun to wear and just a bit edgy.

As you can tell I used the bronze chain on one side of the necklace and some brown leather knotted with beads and jump rings on the other and the pendant just works to set it all off. The bracelet is made with stretch magic more of the ceramic beads, bronze spacer beads and some Kyanite square beads I had in my stash that mixed well with the other blues. I don't normally like stretchy bracelets but this one is so comfortable. I can't wait to play with some more of the beads she sent me. 

To visit some of the other participants in the party, check out Lori Anderson's blog for the full list.

One World One Heart

Winner has been announced....come on over to my post on Feb. 18th to see who it is.

Welcome friends. This year I'm participating in the One World One Heart blog hop. This is an International event and in years past had over 900 participants.....can you say WOW. This is a wonderful way to get to know fellow bloggers. All the bloggers participating will also be giving away a door prize for visiting their blog.

When people ask me what I do, I tell them that I'm a stay-at-home wife, as I really am too young to be retired. I do have a wonderful hubby who is retired and two quite mischievous dogs. We pretty much have the days to ourselves to get into all kinds of trouble. You would think that having all day every day to myself that my house would be clean, there would be no laundry to do and dinner would be cooked every night...well no, it really doesn't work out that way. At least not for us. I have so many interests that more often than not, I get immersed in whatever jewelry, painting, paper art, mixed media, art charms, ATC's, crocheting, sewing, writing my next big book or whatever new thing that comes along that I often forget the time. Such is life and we do enjoy it so much and that is the point isn't it.

We take mini trips in our motor home in the Spring, Summer and Fall (hoping that we will be in Arizona next Winter) and we go on cruises at least once a year. We love wine country (Napa, CA) and visit there annually along with other parts of the area that grows wine such as Eastern Washington and Oregon. So to say we sit home all the time just doing our thing isn't quite right as we do travel quite a bit.

We do have family around, my parents live close by and two of the three kids are close as well as two of the three grand kids. I have several step siblings and when we have a family gathering it can get quite hectic with up to 20 for dinner. I'm so glad my mother still has a large enough house to accommodate all of us.

I really never know what to tell people when I introduce myself so sorry if I have blabbed on and on. Now to the good stuff. I have a ginormous door prize of destash that I will be giving away. Drawing will be on February 17th and I will be mailing those items within 3 days. What do you need to do? Just leave me a comment, that's it. This is open to all International participants and bloggers.  In your comment, be sure that it links back to your blog or an e-mail where I can get a hold of you if you win.

This prize is something I would jump on if it was me and I don't need any of it...humm maybe that's why I'm giving it away. Although it could be that I have just collected too much stuff. I don't know, can you have too much stuff? What you will get is a small flat rate shipping box packed to the brim with items you can use in mixed media, jewelry, charms, scrap booking or whatever you want. What is in it, well you can see quite a bit but there is ribbons, charms, beads, found objects, scrap book paper, ATC size paper, digital images, scrabble tiles, beach glass, buttons, glue, old stamps and other things that you don't see is scrap leather and a wood unfinished bangle just to help fill out the box. So see for yourself.

Just skip on down and leave me a comment....it can be about anything. Oh and make sure you have included your e-mail or that I find your link via Google or Blogger in case you win.