Friday, August 31, 2012

Pay It Forward With Handmade

Hi Y'all

Today I was reading one of the blogs that I follow Over The Moon Design by Karen Mitchell and she was saying how last week she had read about a meme going around, it’s called Pay it Forward - Handmade and a lot of bloggers are joining in. She joined in on Maša’s blog,HEARTing Handmade :3  So now I have joined in on Karen's blog.  The rules are below that I borrowed from Karen's blog. 








Here’s How It Works


I’ll send a surprise gift to the first three commenters on this blog post. The gift will be a handmade surprise by me and will be sent to you some time in the next 365 days (yep, mystery gift at a mystery time).

Here’s what you need to do, leave me a comment and make sure you include your email address (if your profile doesn’t include it). I’ll email you for your snail mail address and a ask a few questions (likes/dislikes, favourite colours, sizes general stuff like that). In case your wondering, I’m happy to sent gifts overseas :)

To complete signing up you MUST play along too. To do this you must blog a similar post and pledge to make a surprise gift for the first three people who comment on it.

So, do you want to play? Comment below and I’ll sent a thoughtful handmade gift to the first three people who do.

Let the fun and games begin! 


Happy beading Y'all,
Therese

Phantom Of The Opera Blog Hop




Hi Y'all,
A few months ago I signed up for Phantom of the Opera Blog Hop over at Pam's blog Crazy Creative Corner.  The rules were very simple pick a song from the opera and create a piece, then on August 31 do a blog post about your piece.  First before I show y'all what I did I would like to say thank you to Pam for having this idea for a blog hop.  I enjoyed do the research for this hop.  You see I have this huge crush on Gerard Butler and I did not know that he played the Phantom in the 2004 Phantom movie.  I knew he could sing, but not like this.  


I could not decide on just one song "Music of the Night" is my favorite song from the Opera, that was the  song that I would hum while I was making my piece, but then I also really like the song " All I Ask Of You" so I am choosing two songs.



I knew I was going to make a necklace and I wanted it to be elegant and something someone would wear to an opera.  So I started searching Etsy for beading patterns of elegant necklaces and I came across this necklace pattern at Isabella Lam's store Bead4me. This pattern is worked in Right Angle Weave and Peyote.  It was a fast pattern to work it only took me about 4 hours to make.  The colors I chose for this necklace are white pearls to represent the purity of Christine Daae and the white mask of the Phantom. The red to represent the true love between Christine and Raoul de Chagny.   The red roses to represent the roses that the Phantom always left for Christine. 


The pattern showed a metal clasp but I beaded a toggle clasp.  I think this looks much better.  This was my first time using Ravolis.

I gifted this necklace to my Aunt Betsy.  She discovered that her cancer had come back earlier this year and has been going through kemo treatments, which she just had her last session and she is well and in remission again.  I gave this necklace to her because I also wanted to say thank you to her, she has always been one of my biggest supporters in whatever form of creativeness I was into at the time and I love her dearly. She was over the moon thrilled with the necklace, oh and red is also her favorite color.  She told me she has the perfect dress to wear the necklace with and that she will be telling everyone, that my niece made this for me.  While I was making this necklace I could picture this necklace being around Christine's neck I think it would have been fitting for that era.

Now go and check out what the others have created.  I know I will be.

The Crazier Sister (Pam)
 




Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Lesley at Gossiping Goddess is having a Giveaway

Hi Y'all,

If you are familiar with Lesley's blog Gossiping Goddess then you know about her Etsy shop TheaToo, but if you are not familiar I strongly suggest that you go and check out her blog and shops.  Yes the divine Ms. Lesley has two shops TheaToo is for her bronze PMC components and THEAjewellery is  her Etsy shop for   her made jewelry.

Components from TheaToo

 
Pieces from Theajewellery 

Hurry now and go by Lesley's blog and find out what all you need to do to get in the running for the wonderful and generous gift she is giving away.

Happy beading Y'all,
Therese

Saturday, August 11, 2012

6th Bead Soup Blog Party! Soup's ready!


Hi Y'all and welcome to the 6th Bead Soup Blog Party reveal #2 hosted by the beautiful and talented Lori Anderson.  A big thank you goes to Lori and her husband for the hard work in pairing everyone up to make this party a success.  I hope y'all are ready to hop around and view 126 participants blogs, I am sure you are going to be dazzled by some amazingly beautiful pieces.

This is my second BSBP.  The first time I participated was in the August/September 2011 BSBP and my partner was the beautiful and talented Lola Surwillo of Bead Lola Bead blog, which she is in this reveal too, so be sure to go by and see what she created.  This time my partner is Sabine Dittrich of Perlen Dschungel blog.  Sabine lives in Munich, Germany and makes gorgeous glass beads which she sells in her Etsy shop.  Please go by Sabine's blog and see what she has created with this bead soup I sent to her. 


As I stated above Sabine makes gorgeous glass beads.  They are truly amazing I only wish that my photo could have shown how beautiful they really are.  Here is the bead soup Sabine sent to me.

So beautiful I love, love, love them!

Here is what I made with these beautiful beads.


I used three different bead stitches in this necklace, flat spiral at the top, herringbone spiral that the pendant is hanging from, and peyote for the bail.

In the flat spiral I used 4mm silver crystal roundels, 3mm gold roundels and blue iris size 11 seed beads.  I chose these colors to bring out the colors in the glass beads.

I carried on the same color scheme in the herringbone spiral and the peyote bail.  The peyote bail is inspired by a pattern in Diane Fitzgerald's Shaped Beadwork.  Isn't that glass pendant gorgeous?

I strung most of the other glass beads onto flex beading wire to make a bracelet to go with my necklace.

I used the two sandy colored glass beads for a pair of earrings. I made the ear wires, they turned out a little funky, but I like them.

I had two glass beads left, so I took a piece of silver plated wire and made a bail for the bead with the bumps, I love this bead it is my favorite of the glass beads.  I made the bail so the bead could spin like a wheel. I call it my fidget wheel.  I hung the fidget wheel pendant from a strand of  Marsha Neal Studio silk ribbon and a piece of 1mm leather cord, I tied two large roundels to the ends of the silk and leather and Ta Da a simple, but yet pretty necklace.

A closer look at the Fidget Wheel pendant.



I hope that I did not disappoint Sabine, or you, with what I created with her beautiful glass beads.
Please go check out the other participant's blogs to see what they all have created in reveal #2 of the BSBP!

Here is the link to make it easier for you to hop...

Happy hopping Y'all
Therese









  








Wednesday, August 8, 2012

You are all are invited!

Come 

One

Come 

All

To the Sixth Annual Bead Soup Blog Party
Reveal 2!



When: Saturday, August 11, 2012

Time: 12:00 AM until...

Where: Here and at 125 other participant's blogs 

What to bring:  Your favorite beverage, a snack or two, and lots of time to view all of the beautiful creations myself and the other participants have created.

Here is the bead soup from my partner Sabine Dittrich  and a teaser of what I created with the beautiful beads Sabine sent to me, so be sure to come on the 11th to see the gorgeousness I created.




See Y'all at the party,
Therese


Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Summer Lovin' summer challenge kit hosted by Amy Severino



Hi Y'all,
Welcome to the Summer Lovin' kit challenge blog hop, but before I show y'all what I made with my kit from Amy, there is something I need to say.

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Amy, happy birthday to you and many more!!!!!

Okay now onto the hop.



Back near the end of May, Amy, put out the call for those that would be interested in doing her Summer Lovin' challenge.  Of course I jumped at it and then again why wouldn't I, just look at the beautiful items we would get to play and create with.  I paid my small fee for the kit and waited for it to arrive in the mail.
I am like so many, I love to get those bubble wrap envelopes in the mail.  I jumped for joy the day it arrived. I tore it open and dumped the contents out onto my work table and marveled at the beauty of the pendant and the lovely glass pearls and silver crystals and findings.  I knew right away what I was going to do with this kit, well at least the stitch I planned to use that is.  So I gathered it all back up and put it back into it's baggie and set it aside while I did other commitments that were due first.  Amy gave us a long time to do something with the kit and that is dangerous for a procrastinator like me.  I would come across the kit each time I went to my work table and say to myself I need to get started on this, but I still have time.  Well before I knew it it was July and of course there is the 4th celebrations and vacations to take, which by the way I got to meet three wonderful beady people on my trip north for a family reunion in Pennsylvania July 18th - 22nd, Christine Altmiller, Maryanne Gross and our hostess Amy Severino.  I met up with Christine on July 19th in Carlisle, PA,  we were having too much fun bead shopping and talking, that taking a picture never entered our minds and I regret this, but I did get one with Amy and Maryanne when I met them on July 22nd.

Me, Maryanne, Amy at Bead Soup in Savage, MD

Okay, okay, I hear you enough with the reminiscing and on with the reveal y'all want to see what I created I know.  So any way I got back home on July 23rd and I started my piece for Amy's challenge.  I finished it the next day and I am so proud of my piece because I did the whole piece without resulting to someone else's pattern or tutorial.
Without further ado here is my Summer Lovin' challenge piece...


I used RAW(right angle weave) as the base stitch and then embellished it with crystals and seed beads.  On the 4mm silver glass pearls I used 3mm metallic gold crystals and size 11 seed beads on the top and along the side I used size 11 gold seed beads and 3mm metallic silver crystals.  On the 6mm black glass pearls I used 4mm gold crystals and gold 11 seed beads on the top and along the side I used 4mm silver crystals with the gold 11 seed beads.  On the gold 6mm glass pearls I used 4mm silver crystals with silver 11 seed beads and along the side gold 4mm crystals with silver 11 seed beads.  I hung the pendant on the necklace and it just was not enough plain so I beaded a bezel around it with 11 and 15 silver and gold seed beads and then put a row around the outside edge with the 3 mm silver and gold crystals. 

Well I still had some silver 4mm pearls left, from the extra pearls I purchase from Michael's, and some gold 3 mm crystals, so I made a bracelet and earrings to match the necklace.




So there you have it my Summer Lovin' challenge pieces.  

Now it is time to go and see what the other's have made with their kits.

Participants in the Summer Lovin' Kit Challenge!
Reveal Date
August 1
Renetha LampLightCrafts
Lori B.
Shirley Beads and Bread
Therese Therese's Treasures (You are here)
Kristen My Bead Journey