Saturday, July 13, 2013

Fish Are Friends - Fancy Fish Blog Hop hosted by Karen Williams


Hi Y'all,

A couple of months ago Karen Williams of Baublicious blog put out the call to anyone that wanted to make one or more of her fancy fish and possibly be in the running to be a member of her design team.  So I jumped in feet first.  I was not one of the ones pick to be on her design team, but I am in the hop.

Here is my little fancy fish...


Isn't she just the cutest little fishy!

Thank you Karen for hosting this blog hop I enjoyed making my little fancy fish and will make more to go with her.

Please go and visit the rest of the participants in the blog hop.


The five member design team
  Francie Broadie - FAB Custom Jewelry
    Shirley Moore - Beads and Bread
    Bobbie Rafferty - Beadsong Jewelry
    Tanya Goodwin - A Work in Progress
    Cynthia Machata - Antiquity Travelers


Kathy Jo - KJ's Beadacious Beads 
Therese Frank - Therese's Treasures
Nancy Sopp - AlaskanNancyAlison Oman
Christine Altmiller - One Kiss Beaded Creations 
Dolores Dwight
Amy - AmyBeads
Eleanor Pigman - Eleanor Pigman

To the participants
I am doing this blog post on Wednesday, because I am going to be in Orlando, FL Saturday and I am not sure if I will have access to a computer, but I will hop as soon as I get back home on Tuesday.  I am looking forward to seeing everyone's little fancy fish.

Happy beading Y'all,
Therese
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Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Black and White Challenge hosted by Sally Russick


Hi Y'all,

When Sally Russick of The Studio Sublime blog announced that she was going to host a Black and White Challenge I jumped right in and signed up.  There are 36 participants, so I am going to get right to the pieces so you can go on to the next participant in the challenge.

I made this bracelet and earrings set from Czech glass beads that I received from the Best Bead Shop in the Czech Republic 6 mm black and silver props and white 4x7 mm roundels.  The black and white lamp worked ribbed glass beads are from Studio Juls. I used sterling silver 22 gauge wire to make the links, clasp, and ear wires.


When I saw this tutorial on facebook by Tracey L. Gwilliams of Crystal Star Gems.  I just knew this would be  the perfect piece done in black and white.  I really like how it turned out.  This tutorial uses twin beads, seed beads and 4 mm drop bead.  I did not have black and white drops, but I did have black and white 4 mm glass pearls and they worked just as well as the drops would have.

Now that you have seen what I made for this challenge, please leave a comment, cause I really enjoy hearing your opinions, and then please visit the other participants in this challenge.

List of Participants


Happy beading Y'all
Therese
  

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Monday, July 8, 2013

I'm Still Around

Hi,

I just thought that I would let y'all know that I am still around.  I took a little break from blogging and participating in most of the challenges that have been going on, things were beginning to get a little over whelming.  My pay the bills job has been very stressful, so much so, that when I get home from work I don't even want to turn the computer on, I just want to relax in silence.

I am participating in two up coming challenges the first one will be on Wednesday July 10th, it is Sally Russick's  Black and White Challenge.

The second challenge will be on Saturday July 13th, it is Karen William's Fancy Fish Blog Hop.


Please come and visit my blog on those days to see what I created for each of these challenges and of course go and see what the other participants have created as well.

I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying your summer despite of the weather.  I am about to take two weeks off from work starting on the 11th through the 23rd of July.  I am taking off to Orlando, FL on the 11th for a PMC certification class on the 12th, 13th, and 14th, the class is being taught by Barbara Becker Simon, I am so excited I can hardly stand it.  I will be sure to take pictures of my trip.  Then the next weekend will be my family reunion.   Well that is about it for what has been going on with me and my absence from the blogging world.  Until next time...

Happy beading Y'all
Therese


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Wednesday, May 15, 2013

A Time To Stitch 3 hosted by Therese Frank and Christine Altmiller


   


Hi Y'all,

It is time again for another round of A Time To Stitch hosted by Christine and myself.  This time around the stitches we chose are Ladder, Square, Brick, Cellini Spiral, Russian Spiral, and African Helix. The rules were simple pick one flat stitch, one spiral stitch and create pieces using those stitches. The stitches could be combined in one piece or separate pieces.  If one was real ambitious they could create with all of the stitches.

Along with my creations I will also be showing the creations of two of my beading friends, that do not have blogs.

Let me introduce you to Crystie Willard.  Crystie and I met a long time ago, but just recently became good friends.  She is a very talented hair dresser and becoming a very talented bead weaver.  Here is what Crystie created...


Crystie started this pendant when we went on our beading retreat in Florida.  She wanted to learn how to do bead embroidery and asked me if I would help guide her through the process.  I think this pendant turned out gorgeous.  Crystie used three of the stitches in this challenge in her piece, brick stitch around the edge of the pendant, ladder stitch for the bail, and Russian spiral for the neck strap.

Next I would like to introduce you to Cynthia Wilson.  Cynthia and I met at the former High Strung Beads bead store one day when I went in to get a few things and have been friends ever since.  Cynthia is now the co-owner of the new bead store in Montgomery called the Enchanted Bead the home of the Bead Fairies.  Here is what Cynthia created...


Cynthia created this beautiful bracelet using the ladder stitch.  I just love those yellow glass beads in the middle.  Yellow is a hard color to work with, but Cynthia managed quite beautifully.


Cynthia also chose to use the Russian Spiral to make this dainty little bracelet for her grand daughter.  She used size 15 and 11 seed beads in this bracelet.  

Now for my creations.  I did all of the stitches except for the African Helix I just did not have the time to do it before the reveal date, that is what happens when you sign up for just about every challenge you come across on the blogs. Oh well moving on, here is what I created...


I love Tracey Gwillimas designs they are so pretty and when I came across this tutorial I just had to have it to make this bracelet for this challenge. 


Some of y'all may recognize this from my BSBP post, but since that was going on at the same time this challenge was announced I believe the brick stitch in the flowers qualifies for this challenge.  The Gumdrop flowers are from Kerrie Slade's Gumdrops In My Garden tutorial which is free at Bead and Button web site.


Cellini Spiral is my favorite of the spiral stitches I just love the look of it.  I made this bracelet with leather that I knotted with square knots.  I gave this one to my niece Belle.


This bracelet was made using the Square stitch and is my very first time using this stitch.  I love this stitch it is so easy and fast. In this bracelet I used size 6 seed beads and 3 mm glass cubes.  I call this one Block Windows because you can see through the glass cube beads.


This bracelet is done with a tutorial that Kristen Stevens posted on Art Jewelry Elements blog on May 13th.  Kristen tried to tell me over the phone a while back how to do the Russian spiral using twins, but I am a visual person, I need to see it to do it.  So I was very excited when I saw this post, that I got started on it right away.  The stitch is very easy to do and works up very fast.  Thank you Kristen for sharing this tutorial with all of us.

Thank you to all that participated in this challenge, and a big thank you to Christine for being my co-host in this challenge.  Christine and I enjoy doing this challenge and will be thinking up some stitches for A Time To Stitch 4.  I can not wait to see what all of you have created I just know that I will be blown away by your creations.  

Here is the list of participants please go see what they have created.

Therese Frank  (you are here)



Happy beading Y'all,
Therese

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Saturday, May 4, 2013

Hats Off Challenge - Hosted by Bobbie Rafferty









Hi Y'all,

Today is the reveal day for the Hats Off Challenge hosted by Bobbie Rafferty.  Bobbie lives in Louisville, KY and tomorrow is the start of the Kentucky Derby weekend.  Bobbie had this idea to make jewelry that was inspired by the hats that ladies wear to the Derby, so she asked if anyone else thought that it was a good idea and if so would you like to join in on the challenge.  Twenty six of us thought that it sounded like a good idea and something fun and very challenging.  
I had a hard time with this one.  I had this vision in my head but I just could not get my hands to work what  I  had envisioned in my head.  I tried but the more I embroidered the worse it looked to me.  So I stopped and went to plan "B".  Plan "B" turned out so much more prettier then plan "A".

Plan "A"


I found this picture on the internet for my inspiration.  I had this face cab for a long time, so even though the face is not as beautiful as the inspiration photo I thought I could make it work.  I used blue, because the face cab has a blue wash over it to bring out the features of the face.  My first mistake was using the blue to bezel around the face, but then I thought about doing a bow at the bottom to make it look like the hat has a ribbon tie.  The part that I just could not get right is the part of the hat that goes across the face cab's forehead. This piece reminds me of "A Christmas Carol" the ghost of Bob Marley.  Can you see what I mean?  The only part of this that I really like is the rivoli flower I made on top of the hat.  I asked my Mom what she thought of it and she said "Are you making a Witch?".  That is when I tossed it down onto my work table and said that does it I am going on to another idea!

Plan "B"



I went to Hobby Lobby yesterday and found this little straw hat, the flower arrangement, cup chain and ribbon.  On the back of the flower arrangement there was a hair clip and a pin back. I took both of those pieces off of the back of the flowers and set it aside.  the cup chain was a little to long so I clipped of two cups and four fell off, Huh how did that happened? (scratching my head) Now it was to short, but being the crafty person that I am I made it work by gluing the flower arrangement over the gap. Before I glued the flowers on I wrapped the cup chain with the ribbon and glued it to the hat. I let the glue dry, and then I turned the hat over and glued the pin back to the side that the flower arrangement is on, so that it could not be seen.  Ta Dah a Kentucky Derby inspired piece of jewelry!

Thank you Bobbie for this very challenging challenge although plan "A" did not go the way I planned. I enjoyed making plan "B" it is always fun to go back to the craft making part of my creativity.

Please go by and visit the other participants in this Hats Off Challenge.

Bobbie Rafferty www.beadsong.blogspot.com
Christine Altmiller www.onekisscreations.blogspot.com
Sally Russick www.thestudiosublime.com
Susan Nelson Bowie www.susanbowie.wordpress.com


Happy beading Y'all,
Therese

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Tuesday, April 30, 2013

She Made/She Made April Reveal



Hi Y'all,

Wow it is already April 30th!  Man, this year is flying by!  As many of y'all know that follow mine and Christine's blog, each month we do the She Made/She Made from the beady gifts we gave to each other when we met in July of 2012.  This is what I chose for us to create with this month.


A beautiful glass cab and some really cool looking Agate ovals.  The glass cabs I won in a giveaway on Linda Roberts' blog two years ago and have been hoarding saving them, until I decided to share one with Christine.  The Agate I got at a trunk show at my LBS (local bead store). 

Here is what I created with the Agate ovals...


I was having a hard time trying to come up with a design to use with these ovals, until the other day when I got the June Bead and Button magazine in the mail. There on the cover was the solution to my problem.  The name of the tutorial in the magazine is Victorian Embrace designed by Sylvie Camps.



I was going to make the bracelet in the magazine, but then thought, "Come on! This is suppose to be a challenge, and what is the challenge in coping what is in the magazine!", so I made a necklace with glass pearls and metal findings. I am very pleased with how this turned out.

Here is what I made with the glass cab...


I originally had planed in making a cuff with this cab, but time was running out on me, so it became a pendant, which I literally just finished about 3 hours from the time that I wrote this blog post.  The only beads that I knew for sure that were going into this piece were the matte black 11 seed beads, the gold 15 seed beads. and the metallic blue bi-cones, the rest were last minute decisions. 


I am amazed at how pretty this turned out.



Christine sent me an email with the pictures of what she made with the April picks asking me if I could display them on my blog post, because she was having problems posting on Blogger, but then she sent another email saying that she was able to post using her daughter's computer.  I am going to post Christine's pictures just in case she runs into more problems. 
Here is what Christine made...


I love what she did with the cab I gave to her.  I had looked at this cab so many times and was always puzzled with how I would use it.  Christine did an awesome job at cradling the cab with seed beads. 


I love the simple, but yet beautiful design of the bracelet Christine made with the Agate ovals.

Well hopefully Christine was able to post on her blog and y'all can go by her blog and read how she came up with these designs.

I hope you enjoyed viewing what we made this month and will come back at the end of next month to see what we did in May.

Happy beading Y'all,
Therese




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Saturday, April 27, 2013

7th Bead Soup Blog Party 3rd Reveal - Hosted by Lori Anderson

(borrowed from Lori Anderson's blog)

It has been a long time coming, but the day is finally here to show y'all what I made with my bead soup form my partner Penny Mills.  Penny sent me some beautiful 10 mm aqua blue glass beads, some copper findings, clasp, and a aqua blue sea glass focal bead.


Here is what I created using most of the bead soup Penny sent.



I wanted to make these sweet little flowers with the gumdrop bead middles ever since I saw the Gumdrops in my Garden bracelet tutorial by Kerry Slade.  I did a brick stitch around the 10 mm glass beads with size 11 copper delicas and did a picot stitch out of size 15 rounds connected the gumdrop flowers with the brick stitch flowers by using the 4 mm bicones that were part of my bead soup. 


The focal bead I knew as soon as I saw it I wanted to try and wire wrap it in honor of my bead soup partner Penny, she is a wire wrapper.  It is very basic and not all that great, but I like it.  I had some copper chain so I suspended the focal from the chain, added the to sides of the beaded beads, then more copper chain with the toggle clasp.


For the bracelet I used the aqua blue glass beads, the 4 mm round copper beads, copper daisy spacers, 12 mm corrugated copper beads, 2 4 mm bicones, and a copper focal bead added a copper toggle clasp and there you have it a pretty little bracelet. 

I would like to thank Lori Anderson  our hostess, for without her genius, "The Bead Soup Blog Party" would not be. 
I would also like to thank my partner Penny for sending me a very challenging bead soup, it took a lot of thinking on how I was going to use her bead soup, but in the end I am very pleased with my choice.

Please click on Lori's name above for the list of the other participants in the 3rd reveal to see what they have done with their soups.

Thank you so much for coming by, y'all come back again, ya hear!

Happy beading Y'all,
Therese

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