Saturday, May 26, 2012

Rondelle Challenge - Sue & Donna Rock!

A few weeks back, Sue from Suebeads threw out a Rondelle Challenge and gave five lucky readers a set of her enameled rondelles. It's a new shape for her, so she's giving us a chance to work with them and show off the possibilities!

I decided to take these rondelles from Sue and combine them with some of her other lampworked glass as well as more glass from Donna Millard. I ended up with three pieces to share...the first is this memory wire bracelet that features lots of bright colors and shapes:

I love the pinks and oranges together.

I made up some twisted blue wire beads to pull in the blues. I love how the shape of the wire wrapping mimics the shape of the blue lampworked bead from Sue.

The second piece is a sweet pendant hanging from a simple fuchsia choker wire. I created a little stack of handmade goodness including one of the rondelles.

I had a set of two big blue pearls from a Hawaii trip in recent years and was able to use them here and in the bracelet.

The final piece ended up strung! I was working with wire and created a lot of links. Then, after walking away for a while, I ended up cutting them all apart and starting over.

I strung this asymmetric section and then attached it to some nice long leather with a fancy clasp at the bag.

The piece ends up hanging really long and I love it.

The rest of the rondelle bunch can be seen at their blogs linked here:

Holly Westfall - SilverRose Designs

Erin Prais-Hintz - Treasures Found...Inspiration Everywhere

Barbara Fernald - Barbara S. Fernald Jewelry

Kristi Harrison - It's a New Day

and, you're already here with Jen Judd Rocks! :)

Thanks again to Sue for the great idea and the great beads!!

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Things that are awesome

Things that are awesome.

Or, at least I think they're awesome right at the moment. I'm kinda fickle...

~ Loving on handmade beads from my friends Sue & Donna in great shades of orange and pink and blue.

~ Working with beads and wire...it has been a long time since I got down to business at the bead table.

~ Sleeping in when it's raining on a Sunday morning.

~ Realizing that the pink on my toes matches the pink of my bathroom rug.

~Taking fun pictures with Hipstamatic's "random" setup because you never know how the shot is going to come out.
~ Pulling out some pearls that came from my last trip to Hawaii and fondling their richness before finally using them in a project.
~ Eating no-bake peanut butter cookies from Sheetz that are just like the ones we made in middle school home ec class.

~ Taking a two hour nap on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
~ Feeling skinny after taking a 14 mile ride on the recumbent bike.
~ Playing sudoku while taking a 14 mile ride on the recumbent bike.
~ Being pain free for 10 minutes after an hour on the recumbent bike.

~ Laughing tremendously across the lunch table with a good friend about ridiculous things like capuchins and crimping irons.
~ Making up the bed with freshly laundered sheets.
~ Organizing a bunch of new bras in various shades of pretty pink and melon and salmon and sexy.
~ Savoring a banana pudding milkshake with whipped cream and a cherry from Chik-fil-a; okay, actually savoring a few of them, not just one.

~ Getting Frankie kitty up close enough for some snuggling since it has taken five years for him to get comfortable with me.
~ Figuring out how to play poker with friends and realizing that I can't count; did you know you need all the numbers in a row for a straight?
~ Reliving high school memories and relationships with new album updates in my iTunes repertoire...Van Halen, Ozzy, Tesla, Warrant...you get the drift.

~ Finally getting an appointment with a doctor who might be able to help me get some back pain relief; it's not for a couple of weeks, but it's still scheduled.
~ Watching Modern Family. This week's episode was flipping hilarious.
~ Discovering Ellen and laughing out loud while looking at Sophia Grace and Rosie over and over.
~ Finishing out the weekend with a Sonic slushie.

~ Life is good. :)

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Project 52 Pic - At the Bellagio

A few months ago my ma called and asked if she could visit over Mother's Day weekend. Well, here in Hampton, there's lots of exciting things to do like knit or craft or play with cats, but I decided to propose something a little different. You know...life is too short and so it's time to do fun stuff. So, we went to Vegas!!

We called The Bellagio home for a couple of days and treated ourselves to luscious massages and a stunning Cirque du Soleiel show and fantastic late night meals and phenomenal cocktails. It was

I have a ton of pictures, but I decided to just feature this one for today as part of my "Project 52" set...I've actually made it to Week 19!

I captured this shot using my iPhone's Hipstamatic app with some kind of cool black and white filter/film combination. I don't know exactly which one. :) We had just finished our Sunday morning breakfast and were, sadly, getting ready to head to the airport. We decided to hang out in the lobby and watch people for a little while before venturing back into travel mode. I ended up watching chandeliers more. :)

It's hard to tell that we're related, right? haaaaaaaaaaaa

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Hi, Little One...in a new eBook!

Okay, there's not really a little one here with me, other than the three cats who are wandering around. The Little One I'm speaking of here is a sweet, tiny pewter fairy pendant from Green Girl Studios. She's featured in a leather bracelet that I designed and which was released in a brand new eBook this week!!

See...she's right there on the cover...lower left-hand side. :)

This is a new eBook available from Interweave press:

10 Handmade Leather Bracelet Projects

Click the link to order yourself a copy!

I perused my copy of it and there are a ton of great ideas jammed in here!

I love the way leather can go casual or fancy or funky or fun.

I've been having a less-than-fulfilling experience at my regular day job, so it's really nice to see some of my creative energy rewarded in print. :) Yeah!

Thanks for letting me share!

Saturday, May 5, 2012

One Color Crayon Challenge: My Purple Went Exotic

Here she is...my little tribute to the purple crayon:

I think it looks like some sort of tile or carpet from an exotic land. I created a kaleidoscope image in Photoshop Elements using an original painting and a Kim Klassen texture.Here's a little background on the hop...~Sally Russick decided to host a little monochromatic challenge on her Studio Sublime blog.

~ She invited 65 of us to pick one of eight basic crayon colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown or black.

~ Then, we had to create a monochromatic design with the color we picked...focusing on a few or a lot of that color's hues.

~ The cool part is that it's not just about jewelry...she opened it up to any medium! That's what got me started thinking about painting and mixed media

I pulled out everything I have in my arts and crafts supplies that could be anything close to purple. I posted about that earlier this week. I spent lot of time with ink and acrylics coming up with some cool designs. My favorite ended up being this one:

After studying it and thinking about using it as the background of a collage, I decided to go down a different path and try something I've been wanting to do for a while: make a kaleidoscope image. I used this tutorial from the Scrapper's Guide that I found a few months ago. I was scared to try it, but it ended up being pretty easy and I'm tickled with the end result.

There are 64 other blogs to check out today...see how many took the deep dive into just one color!