2015 Creative Continuum of Seven Artists - Pictures

April is 

"Pastel Spring"

Hi Ya'll

Welcome to the first month of the 2015 Creative Continuum of Seven Artists. Our theme for this year is Pictures.  Alicia is our coordinator, it was her brain child to bring seven artist together to create a piece of wearable art based on a monthly theme.  This year Alicia suggested that we each pick a picture (preferably one of our own to avoid copy right laws) and do a color pallet.  Alicia put our names in a bowl and drew out a name for each month of this challenge.  Alicia got April, she chose a photo of Easter eggs from a past Easter. 

Here are Alicia's own words for choosing this photo:

Since April will bring Easter for all of us (our Easter will arrive a week later than yours, but it will still be April), I chose a picture to symbolize that :) Our own basket of (mostly) naturally colored eggs. The palette is all over the place, as the colors are scattered (and I used one of the pastel baskets, I have one hat will go very well with a gypsy theme - really all over the spectrum!) For April the theme will be 'Pastel Spring' 

I went to my stash of beads and I found a polymer clay cross that my bestie Crystie gave to me.  I then went to my seed bead stash and pulled out 15/0 seeds in orange, blue, pink, green, and black. I decided to do a Chenille stitch rope for the cross.  Here is my version of Pastel Spring...

Oops I just noticed that the jump ring is not closed well, I need to fix that.  

 Doing a Chenille stitched rope in 15/0 seed beads can be a little daunting, so when I got 10 inches stitched I decided to do the rest with leather.  I just so happened to have a dark olive green in my stash.  I beaded loops on the ends of the Chenille rope and wire wrapped the leather to the beaded rope and then wire wrapped a toggle clasp to the other ends of the leather and called it done. 

Thank you for stopping by and thank you to Alicia for bringing us all together again in 2015 to continue the Creative Continuum of Seven Artist, speaking of which, please go and visit their blogs and see what they created for "Pastel Spring".

April: Alicia

May: Therese  (you are here)

June: Sally

August: Monique

September: Cynthia

October: Emma

November: Christine

Next month is mine, so I hope that you will come back on May 26th to see what we all have created with my pallet "Tutti Fruity" 

Happy beading Y'all,

Therese

Butterfly Birthday Blog Hop and Giveaway Hosted by Alenka (Pepita)

Hi Y'all,

Back on February 28, 2015 Alenka of Pepeita Homemade blog announced a Birthday Blog Hop and Giveaway. The rules in her words:

BLOG HOP RULES:

Every participant has to:

- create something on the theme of butterflies - it can be a piece of jewelry, an ornament or something else;

- write a blog post about the final creation and publish it on the blog hop date with the link to my blog and the list of all the participants. 

Well fortunately for me, because I missed the first sign up date, Alenka, changed the blog hop date from March 28th to April 11th and extended the sign up date to March 21st. Yay!!!

I have been seeing a lot of bead embroidered bugs and butterflies lately on Pinterest they are all so beautiful, so yeah you guessed it I had to do one for this blog hop challenge.

Okay I am not that great of a drawer, so I was a little intimidated about getting started, also I just could not decide on what I wanted to used as the focal element on the butterfly. I was looking at my precious (my stone cabochons tee-hee) and reluctantly chose to use the Mushroom Rhyolite and the Rose Quartz cabs. Then I started pulling other items from my stash to use to fill in around the cabs.

Here is the results:

Pink and Gray Butterfly front:

Back:

My first choice was to make this into a pin, but then when I was finished with the embroidering I decided to make it where the wearer could wear it as a pin or a pendant.

Happy Birthday and Thank you Alenka, for thinking up such a great challenge, to not only to celebrate your birthday, but the awakening of Spring.

Thank you for stopping by please leave a comment I love hearing from Y'all.  Now please go and visit the other participants in this Butterfly Birthday Blog Hop - Giveaway.  Oh yeah I forgot, you too can have a chance in the giveaway.  Here are the rules in Alenka's words:

 GIVEAWAY:

On 13th of April I will randomly chose:

a) between all the participants at the blog hop  

5 persons 

that will receive one of beads or cabochons made by me from polymer clay;

b) between all that will comment on my reveal blog post  

1 person 

that will receive a pair of earrings made by me.

Now for the list of participants:

1. Alenka (Pepita) --> me, the hostess

2. Monique (A Half-Baked Notion)

3. Beti Horvath

4. Kathy Lindemer

5. Kepi

6. Christine Altmiller

7. Amy S.

8. Dini Bruinsma

9. Cynthia (Antiquity Travelers)

10. Alicia

11. sheilaposter

12. Therese Frank (you are here)

13. Rebecca White

14. Rachel Mallis

15. Liz E

16. Ana (ACBeads)

17. Jasvanti Patel

18. Carolyn

19. Nan Smith

Happy beading Y'all,

Therese

Jasper Intrigue Blog Hop and Challenge - Hosted by Lisa Lodge

Jasper Intrigue 

April 4, 2015

Hi Y'all,

Sometime last year Lisa Lodge put out the call for those that would be interested in participating in Jasper Intrigue Blog Hop and Challenge.  I was intrigued about this challenge since Jasper is one my favorite gemstones so I signed up and paid my fee and a month or so later I got my package of beautiful Jasper of honey and lemon color tones along with some glass pearls, 4 mm bicones, toggle clasps and a few other findings. I forgot to take a picture of my package before I started creating, but I can tell you that Lisa was more then generous with the goodies she sent.

Here is what I created with the yummy Jasper and other tidbits in the package.  

First up a necklace and bracelet set.

I wanted to stay true to my bead weaving, but these beads were just not having it no matter what pattern or stitch I used, they just wanted to be in a simple strung necklace and bracelet.

Second a bracelet.

These rice glass pearls did not mind being in a bead weave I used RAW to make this simple bracelet.  The bracelet is embellished with 4 mm bicone crystals and Jasper squares.  I could not find a button to fit through the circle of beads so I made a toggle from a piece of copper wire.

The third and last a pair of earrings.

In the baggie of finding there were angle wings and with the Jasper a small string of drops perfect to make angel earrings.

Thank you Lisa for hosting this wonderful Blog Hop and Challenge.

Thank you for stopping by now please go by and visit the other blogs in this hop.

Your hostess:  Lisa Lodge, A Grateful Artist

Carolyn Lawson, Carolyn's Creations

Susan Anderson, La Main Tresor

Karin Grosset Grange (France), Ginkgo et Coquelicot

Shaiha Williams, Shaiha’s Ramblings

Sheila Prose, Cheap Charms

Terri Wlaschin, Baking Beads in the Keys

You are here Therese Frank, Therese's Treasures

Happy beading Y'all,

Therese

Winter Blues Blue Gold Stone Blog Hop - Hosted by LizE

If you are looking for the Circles of Love Challenge click here

Hi Y'all,

Liz E decided that she wanted to do a blog hop here is what she said...

I've got the winter blues.  I also have an excess of blue goldstone donuts.  Blue goldstone is a synthetic stone made of glass and tiny crystals of copper, dark midnight blue in color with a deep-space mysterious sparkle.  To break-up the cold gray days of winter, and spread the joy I feel gazing into their twinkling expanse, I thought I'd have a little blog hop. I want people to use these man-made beauties to summon creativity and rise up against winter's oppression.  For those interested, please leave a comment below (with a way for me to reach you).  You will be sent some blue goldstone donuts, completely free!  Your mission is to make something (anything) using at least one of the beads you are sent.  Post your creation on your blog March 28, 2015.



  
I missed the original sign up, but I got a note from LizE asking if I wanted to participate and of course I said yes.  I did not take a photo of the beads before I started my piece but along with the larger blue gold stone doughnut there were 12 tiny doughnut beads and 12 6 mm gold stone round beads.

Here is what I made with my blue gold stone beads.

 The pendant I used the larger blue gold stone doughnut and strung iris blue size 11/0 seed beads through a iris gold twin bead to make the bail and the dangle I also used two 3 mm bicones at the top and four 3 mm bicones on the dangles along with gold size 15/0 seed beads.

The neck lace is made using iris gold twin beads, iris blue 11/0 seed beads, and gold 15/0 seed beads accented with the tiny doughnuts beads with the rose 3 mm bicones in the center, and the 6 mm blue gold stone round beads.  I made a pair of matching earrings too. 

I used every piece that LizE sent to me. I am very please with how these pieces turned out.  March 23rd was my sister's birthday and I gifted this set to her, she loves it.

Thank you LizE for inviting me to play along in your blog hop I enjoyed creating with the blue gold stone.
Thank you for stopping by and visiting my blog.  Please go and visit the others participants in this blog hop.

Liz (host):  Bead Contagion
Christine:  One Kiss Creations Beaded Jewelry 

Jasvanti:  Jewelry by Jasvant 

Cynthia:  Antiquity Travelers    

JoJo:  Tahoma Beadworks & Photography

Bobbie:  Beadsong Jewelry

Therese:  Therese’s Treasures (you are here)

Amy:  Amybeads

Happy beading Y'all,

Therese

Circles of Love Challenge - Hosted by Alicia Marinache CC7A

If you are looking for the Winter Blues Blog Hop click here

Hi Y'all,

Alicia wanted to continue the Creative Continuum of Seven Artist for 2015 so she is starting it off with a special challenge of Circles of Love.  While she was writing her Christmas cards she decided that it would be fun to have a challenge with the above gemstone doughnuts.  So she placed one doughnut into a card each for Christine, Cynthia, Sally, Monique, Emma, and myself.  Well unfortunately for those of us in the United State the doughnuts did not make it through customs. All was not at a loss, because Christine, Cynthia, Sally, and me agreed to use a doughnut that we had in our own stash or purchased one.

I had a Leopard Skin Jasper doughnut in my stash, so all I had to do is think of how I wanted to decorate it.  I am a big fan of Lisa Lynn Barth and I had just purchased her new wire wrapping book for a birthday present to myself, so I knew I wanted to do a wire wrap on the doughnut.

Well in Lisa's book there are two tutorials on wire wrapping a doughnut.  I tried one of the ideas, but I was not pleased with how it turned out so I set the doughnut down and thought about if for a while.

I did a couple of the other projects in the book and I decided that I really like how the snake weave comes out using beads in between the weaves and the light bulb came on as to what I wanted to do with the doughnut.

I did a snake weave using 4 mm red bicones on silver 20 gauge  Artisan Wire. Then I wrapped 26 gauge silver Artisan Wire to hold the snake weave to the outside rim of the doughnut.

Side view.

I am very pleased with how it turned out. It is hanging from a 30 inch silver base metal chain.

Thank you Alicia for inviting us to play along with the Circles of Love.

Thank you for stopping by please go by and visit my fellow CC7A members and see what they did with their Circles of Love doughnuts.

Alicia

Christine

Cynthia

Sally  

Monique

Emma

Be looking for the fist of the CC7A Challenges on April 26th

Happy beading Y'all,

Therese

Make A Statement Jewelry Challenge - Hosted by Sally Russick

Hi Y'all,

I just want to say that Sally Russick's challenges are always fun to join, whether it is a jewelry challenge or a photography challenge.  Thank you Sally for pushing us to use our creativity in fresh and inspiring ways.

I have been told that my style of beading is Elegant Romance with Bling, and I guess this is correct at least that is how most of my pieces come out.  So when Sally said that the first of her challenges this year is "Make A Statement" all I could think of is a piece that would look good worn with a beautiful gown.  So I went through my stash and pulled out a Swarovski 30 x 18 mm oval in Astral pink, and two 18 mm round raviolis in the same color along with some 11/0 silver seed beads.  My plan was to bezel the oval and rounds and connect them with RAW accented with Indian pink 3mm bicones and then do the neck strap in CRAW accented with 4mm Astral pink bicones with the 3mm Indian pick bicones.  Sounds beautiful don't it?  Well that one never happened.  Try as I might I could not get the bezel to workout the way I wanted it to on the oval I started and took it apart three times before I finally gave up and went back to the drawing board.  I was browsing through one of my Pinterest boards when I came across a Chevron stitched necklace and a light bulb went off in my head, that is what I will do.  So once again I went to my stash and pulled out what I wanted to use and got started, but I did not get very far, something just was not feeling right, it was not going to make a statement.  It was not until yesterday morning when I was checking my emails, that I saw a bezeled ravoli in the Beading Daily blog post.  I said to myself that is it, that is what my necklace needs.  I got busy and before I knew it my piece was done.

I present to you "Blue Ice"

Elegant Romance with Bling

I used 8/0 bronze seed beads, cobalt blue rondells, fresh water pearl drops and 4mm rounds in the necklace, for the pendant a 16 mm ravoli that flashes blue and green, 11/0 and 15/0 bronze seed beads along with 8/0 cobalt blue seed beads in the bezel and accented with the 4 mm fresh water pearls.

Thank you for stopping by, please leave a comment I love hearing from y'all.

Now please go by and visit the others in this challenge.  I know I can not wait to see what these very talented beady people have created.


Sally Russick
Kim Dworak 
Terri Gauthier
Elizabeth Bergesen
Karin Grosset Grange
Paula Kramer 
Patti Vanderbloemen 
Therese Frank 
Beth McCord
Niky Sayers 

Happy beading Y'all,
Therese

A Time To Stitch Seven Cabochon Giveaway Winners

Hi Y'all,

Well the sign ups are over. Christine and I had 26 beautiful beaders sign up for the challenge.  As promised I had random.org choose 8 numbers, but then I thought 8 is not enough, oh no not enough, so I added two more chances to win one of my cabs.

Here are the cabochons in the giveaway:

I do not know which cab will go to each person. I have them in the mailers waiting to put address on them, so I can get them in the mail.

Here are the lists of names, the names in red are the cabochon winners.

Christine’s Blog                                                                                                                                                                

1.       Amy S.

2.       Janet B.

3.       Cynthia M.

4.       Maryanne G.

5.       Karin S.

6.       Liz E.

7.       Samantha W.

8.       Wendy

9.       Bobbie R.

10.   Bead Addict

Random.org number generator

            5, 8, 9, 1, 4,

         My Blog

1.       Alicia M.

2.       Lori F.

3.       Karin G.

4.       Jasvanti P

5.       Sally R.

6.       Alenka

7.       Kim H.

8.       Nicole D.

9.       Niki S.

10.   Becky Pancake

11.   Paula K.

12.   Sarah S.

13.   Mary H.

14.   Ginger B.

15.   Lola S.

16.   Debbie R.

Random.org number generator

15, 8, 2, 14, 5

                                                                           

Oh but wait I am feeling generous today so I added 4 more cabochons in the giveaway.

The winning Random .org generated numbers are, from Christine's blog  6 & 2, from my blog 13 & 7
names are highlighted in blue.
Thank you to all of you for signing up to play along with Christine and I in the A Time To Stitch Seven - Bead Embroidery Challenge. Congratulations to all of the 14 winners of my cabochons.
I am looking forward to seeing what all of you create.

Happy beading Y'all,
Therese