Saturday, February 23, 2013

My Shop

I have added a few things back into my etsy shop. Hopefully I'll add more - it's so time consuming and I'd rather be making jewelery if I have time to than photographing it and writing about it for sale. Anyway, if you click on the picture, it will take you there. :)


Tuesday, February 19, 2013

What I sent...

Now that my Bead Soup partner, Leslie, has posted pictures of what I sent her, I can post the picture I took before I packaged everything up. You can see her post about what I sent here.

I love the combo I sent her and can't wait to see what she makes!

Thursday, February 14, 2013

How to make a photobox

My bead soup partner Leslie received the soup I sent her today. Not only did she love the beads, which I will post a picture of as soon as she does, but the girls she showed her soup to also loved the little boxes I made up. So, I told her that would do a little photo tutorial of how to do it. Because apparently Valentine's Day is sitting on the couch and not feeling motivated to do any school work. It's OK. Soon I will have some Richardson's ice cream.

OK. I first saw this idea on Pinterest, except the directions I saw used toilet paper rolls covered in scrapbook paper. Since I didn't have any tp rolls and, frankly, the idea of sending my old tp rolls across the country to a stranger seemed weird. Since I have an abundance of dahlia photos that I normally use for cards, I decided to try it out with those. It worked and I was pretty pleased with myself, to be honest. I had really wanted to send out my soup in some neat package and was happy I managed to pull it together with materials I already owned.

Here's how I did it!
1. You'll need a pair of scissors, double sided tape, and a photo. I used a 4x6.

2. Fold in one of the 4" sides of the photo.

3. Fold the remaining card in half.

4. Sticky tape along the length of the originally folded over flap.

5. Flatten down your tube.

6. Using the scissors, cut the ends in a dome shape.

7. Repeat on the other end and your flattened tube will look like this.

8. Unflatten your tube and fold in one of the sides toward the center of the tube. Pinching it when it is folded helps to make the crease. Repeat on the other side and then the other end.

9. Finished box!

It Arrived!

My bead soup from Leslie arrived today! What a great Valentine's Day present, as it turns out. How did she know these are colors I love, love, love?! I haven't used this typed of bead before and can't wait to make something with these!

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Soup is on!

Yesterday I received my partner for the Bead Soup Blog Party, Leslie Wayment of AA Beads & More in Sebastian, FL. After being intimidated by making and sending a soup for someone who owns a bead shop and has access to pretty much everything, and being undecided on which of the soups I had already made to send, my stash called, I was inspired, and I put together a new one. I know it is the right one to send because I love it and want to keep it for myself. But, I know, that if I did keep it, it may never get made. I have so many projects floating around in my head. I can't post a picture of what I'm sending until she posts that she received it, but I will show you the cute little packaging I made out of some of my dahlia photos. I'm quite pleased with myself about that.

Saturday, February 9, 2013

A budding beader


As R sat down to her beads tonight it reminded me of these photos of her first beading experiences which also coincided with her first day of preschool this year. Tonight she started a necklace to replace one I lost earlier this week and I was amazed at her choice of color. I always feel that I'm working on my color combos, but she seems to have it down. (Though if you saw the outfit she chose for our snow day yesterday, you might disagree.)

Kiddo #1 and me beading.

It's coming along

What a week and a blizzard will do to one's embroidery project!

Today on the pond...

Clear skies after 2 feet of snow in 24 hours.

Friday, February 1, 2013

Clutch

Last year, once I became more comfortable with bead embroidery, I made this clutch based off of Jamie Cloud Eakin's design in her book Dimensional Bead Embroidery. It took forever, and I've only used it once, but I love it.