7th Bead Soup Blog Party – My Reveal

I first came across the bead soup blog party last year, not long after starting my blog. I thought it was a great idea and I saw some really inspirational pieces. When I saw the sign up for this year’s bead soup I had to sign up. My jewellery making skills are very basic compared to a lot of people, but I hoped to still make something nice.

In my first blog soup post I explained the principle behind the idea of bead soup. When I wrote that post I didn’t take some of the beads out of the bags they came in as I was a bit scared to lose any beads. I can show you these beads better now.

In your make you have to use the focal and the clasp supplied by your partner. I was sent these:

If you look closely at the focal you will see little pearls, so I decided to use these, from my soup, in my piece:

I used some silver coloured beads from my stash in addition to these. 
Here it is:

And up close…

I was also given an assortment of quartz beads:

I wanted to use these to make a separate piece and decided to make a bracelet.

I didn’t use all the quartz beads as there were quite a few. I’m sure I’ll use the rest of the beads relatively soon.

So there you go, that’s my little contribution to the 7th Bead Soup Blog Party. Why not visit some of the other blogs? You’ll find some far more impressive pieces. The main Bead Soup Blog Party website has links to all 541 people taking part.

International Craft Swap – Part Two

I was very lucky with the goodies Jo gave me as part of the International Craft Swap (see here for details). I thought I would share what I gave her with you.

Jo commutes into London by train every day, so I thought a notebook which is portable enough for use on the train would be a nice idea.

The booklet is roughly A6 in size and has 72 pages, so should have enough space for a few notes / scribbles.

I tied it in with the nautical theme with the anchor button and anchor lining.

The paper is a free printable download found here

I have treated myself to both black and white thread for bookmaking, but decided that I liked seeing the binding on the outside,  so went for white.

Jo makes her own clothes and I decided to make something to go with her outfits.  The nautical theme made me think of the sea and I had some beads that seemed perfect.

The blue beads are see through,  like the sea! Blue and white together seemed quite nautical too. I’m pleased to tell you that Jo put the necklace and bracelet on straight away.

We also had a exchange a small gift of less than £3 in value.  As I mentioned in my last post,  I heard about this swap whilst on holiday in Malta. I bought this there:

It’s an eye of Osiris and you find these on traditional Maltese boats. They are supposed to guard against bad luck etc. This admittedly is a fridge magnet, but I thought it linked well with the theme.

Jo seemed to like her goodies. I have since found that Rachel at House of Pinheiro organises a swap once a year. I’ve enjoyed this one and will definitely sign up to whatever she organises next year!

Advent Day Thirteen

Unbelievably, it is now closer to Christmas than it is to the start of December. How did that happen? I’d love another week to get sorted, both at work and at home, but in many ways I’d like to be on my holidays now!

Anyway, now I have opened over half of my advent gifts 😦 They have been great and I look forward to seeing what I have yet to come. I am off to the inlaws for our first out if our Christmasses this weekend and I have packed my gifts for those days!

Anyway, day thirteen….

Justine made me a lovely bag holder in my favourite colour, purple:

Isn’t it lovely? (for some reason I seem to sing that line in my head!)

I sent her:

A handmade bracelet. I hope she likes it and it isn’t too loose!

Unfortunately I may end uo posting about my gift for the 14th on the 15th. It all depends how our journey goes…

Sparkles!

As I had my jewellery making stuff out to make my sister a bracelet, I decided to make something for myself. I had previously treated myself to some silver plated hollow beads:

I turned the beads into a matching set of a three layer necklace, earrings and bracelet:

The beads reflect a lot of light, as you can see in the photo above! I wanted another silver coloured option to wear to work. I can guarantee that no one else will have the same. According to a couple of kids I teach I am a jewellery designer!

Beaded bracelet

Sorry for the unimaginative blog title! If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ll know that my little sister’s favourite colour is red. It is her birthday in a few days and I wanted to send her a little handmade something.

Hopefully she’ll like it!

One blog leads to another…

The winner of my first ever giveaway, Janey, made a lovely button bracelet with some of the beads she won.

If you want to know how to make one like this click here to see her tutorial.

She got the inspiration for this bracelet from a US based blog I had never visited – Little Bravery. Reading this blog wants to make me go back to the states! Along with lots of inspiring travel ideas, there is the occasional crafty post with a tutorial. For example, even I with my very limited sewing skills, might be able to make a simple skirt after reading this method. After all if all you need to do is sew in straight lines, then it can’t be that hard, can it?

On a different note, Rainbow Junkie Corner nominated me for the Wonderful Team Member Readership Award. It is a relatively new award and theoretically I should share it with 14 people. I am happy to receive the award and will write a dedicated post soon, but finding 14 people who have not already received it will be a challenge as either Rainbow Junkie, or other people she awarded it to, have nominated a lot of people I would nominate! I need a bit of time to think on this one, and therefore the button/image has not yet appeared on my blog.

Four from one…

I seem to be on a jewellery making mission at the moment!

When in Singapore, we went to Chinatown and I bought some bargain necklaces from the night market (see this post). I bought two of each necklace so that I could make matching earrings.

This is what I made from just one necklace.

The earrings:

A bracelet:

And two more necklaces:

So that is four things made from just one necklace. I still have thirty five beads left!

Squeeeee!

Remember the free bracelets we got in our hotel room a few nights back? I got a bit excited with all the possibilities for the beads (the bracelets were a tad too small for us) and thought they’d be a fab reminder of our time here. Well apparently I made a squealing noise tonight when hubby found they’d given us more tonight!

I’d thought we wouldn’t get any more as they’d rotate freebies a bit more, but I’m definitely not complaining! I made a comment to hubby that whilst these are great gifts for women, they’re not great for blokes. His response was that they are as any bloke would give his to his wife / girlfriend / daughter and if said female was not there he could claim he bought it especially for them! Men, huh?!

Anyway I’m a happy bunny with now over 80 of these beads to play with.

My fingers are crossed for more tomorrow, but I strongly doubt it will happen. Yesterdays gift was cute, but no where near as good for me…

I wonder what tomorrow (our last night here) will bring…

Free Bracelets!

Mr M and I are still exploring South East Asia, and as we’ll be spending our wedding anniversary in Siem Reap, we decided to treat ourselves to an expensive hotel. We’re getting luxuries like a bed turn down every night and they have even left little gifts every night (although this is only our second night). Yesterday we got Monkey Balm which is apparently for massage to reduce pain. Today we got these:

I got slightly excited when I saw one on my bedside table and rushed round to hubbies side to see he had one too! Unfortunately they are both a bit too small for our wrists (whilst elasticated they both have a bit of bare elastic when put on our wrists as we’re larger than people here) but I think I might (?!) find a use for the beads when I get home. I can’t wait to see what we get tomorrow…