CC7A's Last Blog Hop for 2015 November hosted by Christine Altmiller

Hi Y'all,

I apologize for being late with posting the final installment of CC7A's blog hop for 2015, but like most of you understand life gets in the way, please accept my apology . I hope everyone that celebrates Thanksgiving had a wonderful and safe holiday. The month of November was hosted by Christine Altmiller she chose a very pretty picture of her Rose of Sharron tree on a beautiful clear day in late fall.

I am all about taking the colors of the picture and creating from there and this one was a challenge, because of the beautiful blue sky color and the dark dead flower pods and bare branches, but I think you will be pleased with what I put together for this final CC7A blog hop.

I had a string of Aquamarine gemstone chips that I had been hoarding, yes I said it hoarding, and thought that their color comes close to the color of the blue sky in Christine's photo. So I pulled out some aqua rondel crystals and got busy making another Bling bracelet. I do not normally like repeating a pattern over and over, but this one is so versatile, that it does not seem repetitious.

I saw the Pinnacle Lace necklace designed by Renee Kovesky in the December 2015 issue of Bead and Button and fell in love with the pattern. That I went straight to my stash and started pulling out all of the items listed on the material list.  This one is the second one I made and I knew I was going to use this one for this blog hop. The blues are darker that the photo but the bronze color is what I was going for the represent the Rose of Sharron tree.

I was gifted the Sediment Jasper beads by my friend Cynthia Wilson, because she know how much I love this stone. The mineral in this stone give it the blue color and the sediment looks like it is floating in water. I think this stone is a good representative of Christine's photo because it captures the blue of the sky and the browns of the Rose of Sharron tree.

Thank you to Alicia for bring us together to make up the CC7A and to Christine for the beautiful photo to inspire us all.

Thank you to you for stopping by and visiting my post. Please leave a comment I love hearing from y'all.

Now go by and see what the other's have created in this final CC7A for 2015.

April: Alicia

May: Therese  (you are here)

June: Sally

August: Monique

September: Cynthia

October: 

November: Christine 

A Time To Stitch What's Your Bag? Reveal hosted by: Therese Frank and Christine Altmiller

Hi Y'all,

Welcome to mine and Christine's eight addition to A Time To Stitch.  This go around we decided to do beaded bags.  It could be any kind of bag as long as it has beads on it in some sort of fashion.

I had big plans to make more than one bag, but as usual I only got one bag done, and I finished it just in time for the reveal.

I also have a guest on my blog today, my friend Cynthia Wilson.  She does not have a blog, but she wanted to participate in the challenge. So I will show you Cynthia's bag first, then mine.

Cynthia calls this Dragon Warrior against Cancer. Cynthia found the dragon at Hobby Lobby and knew that she had to do a bead embroidery piece with the dragon. The dragon is copper tone metal with purple crystals in the wings and eye. She scattered other crystals and purple glass pearls around and swirled purple seed beads all around. the border around the motif is done with super duos and size 15 seed beads. Cynthia whip stitched around the edges of the purse with purple iris size 11 seed beads, and along the bottom of the purse Cynthia did a lace trim with the size 11 seed beads. The strap is done with super duos.

Now my purse.

I had glued the Glen Green/Larsonite Jasper and Citrine  cabs to a piece of bead backing and was waiting and waiting for the cabochons to speak to me. Finally they began to speak to me and I am pleased with how it turned out. I went to Hancock Fabrics and was looking for some material to make a purse to put the bead embroidered piece onto. I found some ultra suede but it was to flimsy. I saw some satin that I liked but not stiff enough. then I saw some canvas and it was perfect.
I cut a strip of the canvas and a strip of some white broad cloth for the lining. There it sat up until Thursday when I sewed the bag together and glued the motif to the flap and when it was dry I sewed it down as well.  I decided to do a diagonal design and put a glass pearl at the intersections. I had to open back up one side so I could get my needle and thread inside of the bag. As I was stitching the design on the bag I was thinking about what I was going to use for the strap. I knew I did not have time to bead one.  I remembered I had this rolo chain and it was long enough to make an across the body strap.

This bag is going to be my nieces Christmas present. She is in college and it is the perfect size to carry her cell phone, driver license, student ID and some money. (The citrine looks like it is fractured, well it is, but on the inside the outside of the cab is very smooth and not fractured, some people call the fractures on the inside of a transparent stone angel lights.)

Thank you for stopping by and visiting my blog. Please leave a comment I love hearing from you.
Thank you Christine for being my partner in the on going A Time To Stitch challenges, you are the best.

Now please go by and visit the other participants in this challenge.

Therese  (you are here)

Christine

Jenny

Bobbie

Ana

Amy

Cynthia

Karin S

Maryanne

Liz

Lori

Paula

Jasvanti

Dagi

Kepi

Samantha

Alicia

Motidana

Becky

Happy beading Y'all

Therese

The Creative Continuum of Seven Artist September Challenge hosted by Cynthia Machata

Hi Y'all,

Wow another month has gone by already and it is time for the CC7A September challenge. This month it is being hosted by Cynthia Machata. The photo that Cynthia chose was of a lake where her family visits often. The photo was taken at sunset showing all the beautiful reds, golden yellow, and orange tones. Cynthia named her photo Indian Summer.

I made three pieces for this challenge. One I did with the color pallet in mind the other two just happen to go with the colors in the photo.

Here is my first piece.

I got this Swarovski bicone mix from Fire Mountain Gems and after it arrived in the mail I realized that it would go with the colors of Cynthia's photo.  I have been making these bracelets for a few months now they are very easy. The base is ladder stitch with size 4 cubes and then you embellish the top with either crystals, gemstone chips, or pearls and size 11 seed beads I like to use clear AB or silver lined clear.

Here is the second piece.

A bling bracelet done with 4 mm Swarovski crystal pearls.

Here is my third piece.

I have gotten into doing Lapidary work and I love it just as much as I do bead weaving.  Although I have a ways to go to be as good as those that I admire. This cab was made from a slab that I purchase on Rocks Of Ages Designs on facebook.

Here is what I did with the cab.

A simple wire wrap with square copper wire hanging form a copper viking stitched chain made by a friend of mine.

Thank you Cynthia for supplying such a beautiful inspiration photo. Thank you Alicia for bringing us all together. A big thank you to all of you that have came by to visit please leave a comment I love hearing from you.

Now please go by and see what my fellow CC7A members created for this month's challenge.

April: Alicia

May: Therese  (you are here)

June: Sally

August: Monique

September: Cynthia

October: 

November: Christine 

Happy beading Y'all

Therese

Creative Continuum of Seven Artists August Challenge hosted by Monique

Hi Yall,

I hope all of you have been enjoying your summer and are now settling in for the fall and winter.  I have been pretty much vacant from the blog since June.  My Mom and I drove, rather I drove and she rode, across the country from Montgomery, AL to Henderson, NV for a family reunion. The round trip was 4,398 miles. So as to not bore you with details and not to get off track of this blog post, we had a fabulous time lots of fun, laughter, and site seeing. Now on to my post.

August is Monique's month and she chose a wonderful picture for our inspiration.  Short recap on our monthly challenge. the CC7A was brought together by Alicia of All The Pretty Things blog. She asked six of her blogging friends Christine, Cynthia, Monique, Sally, Emma, and myself if we would like to participate in a monthly challenge spanning seven months where each month one of us is the host. Of course we all said yes and thus the CC7A was created.

Here is Monique's inspiration photo Colorful Chaos:

St. John's Newfoundland. If one could not get some kind of inspiration from this photo, then a funeral is in order because one's muse has died.

Here is what I beaded for this challenge:

I enjoy doing the patterns by Debi Roberti from  Around The Bead Table. This Brocade bracelet is just one of the two styles that come with the tutorial I am currently working on the second one, which is in turquoise and bronze.

 My co-worker Wanda gave me Kelly Dale's book Beading with Montee's.  When I showed her a bracelet and earrings that I had made from the book, which I intended to give to her, she exclaimed "Oh can you make me a set in orange and blue?" so I did. After I made the set I realized these were two of the colors in the challenge. If you are wondering why she requested orange and blue, well we live in Alabama and in Alabama this time of year there is only two things that mater the University of Alabama football and Auburn University football. I am a Bama Girl (Roll Tide), so it was a little difficult to work with these colors, but I put on my big girl panties on and beaded on through it. LOL!!!!

Last but not least, Super Duo Knit Herringbone Bracelet Potomac Bead Company the link is to the You Tube for the video tutorial for the bracelet.  I had placed an order for some beads from Beads To Weave on Etsy, and when they arrived I realized (yes again I realized) that the Southwestern raku mix was a perfect mix for this month's challenge. Oh and by the way this bracelet feels so good on the skin it is so flexible and very comfortable to wear.

Thank you Monique for the fabulously colorful picture and for hosting this month's CC7A challenge.
Thank you to Alicia for bringing us all together and thank you to all of you that stop by to read my blog please leave a comment I love hearing from you.

Now please go and visit the others to see what wonderful colorful creations they made for this month's challenge.

April: Alicia

May: Therese  (you are here)

June: Sally

August: Monique

September: Cynthia

October: 

November: Christine 

Creative Continuum of Seven Artist - June - Soft Summer Hues - Sally Russick

Hi Y'all,

Welcome to the June reveal of Creative Continuum of Seven Artist blog hop.  June is Sally Russick's month and she chose a soft color pallet for us to create with.

If you are not familiar with the CC7A group, let me fill you in.  Last year Alicia of All the Pretty Things blog asked six others if we wanted to be a part of a group that chooses themes to create by and each of us will be given a month to host the challenge.  Last year it was based on a title or event of our choice and a bead soup for us to create with. This year it is based on a color pallet from a photo we chose.  It could be a photo we took ourselves or one someone else took.

Sally took this photo of garlic plants and pulled out the soft hues of green, mauve, bluish gray, gray, and off white.  I chose all but the bluish gray to work with in my piece.

Here is the bracelet I made using the green, mauve, gray, and off white colors.

I am a member of the Facebook group Seedbeadersters and this three drop peyote bracelet pattern was this month's challenge. If you want to try this pattern you can find it at Fusion Beads the pattern's name is Mocha Swirl.  Sally's color pallet was perfect for this bracelet. Don't you just love those colors together? I used Miyuki  Delica seed beads:  eggshell, matte rainbow finish gray, a shimmering chartreuse green, and matte mauve. I chose a summer maiden button for the closure.

Thank you Sally for the beautiful soft color pallet. Thank you to all of you that stopped by to take a look at what I created this month. Please leave a comment I love hearing from you and then go by and visit the others in the CC7A group to see what they created with Sally's color pallet.

We are skipping July because too many of us will be vacationing in July, also one of our members had to take a leave of absence from our group for a little while.

April: Alicia

May: Therese  (you are here)

June: Sally

August: Monique

September: Cynthia

October: 

November: Christine

Happy beading Y'all,

Therese

A Time To Stitch Eight - What's Your Bag Sign Up

This is a reminder that Saturday June 27th is the last day to sign up for ATTS 8 What's Your Bag? challenge.  You can sign up here or here (my original post) or on Christine's blog. So come on and sign up and in November reveal your bag!

Happy beading Y'all,
Therese

A Time To Stitch Eight - What's Your Bag? Sign Up

Hi Y'all,

Well Christine and I have made a decision on the theme for ATTS 8. What's Your Bag? Christine's idea was to do an amulet bag, Which I thought was a great idea, but I thought why stop at an amulet bag. How about any type of bag as long as it has stitched beads.  It could be done totally in beads or trimmed in a beaded fringe. You could do a bead crochet bag, or bead embroidery ext...  The possibilities are only limited by your imagination.

I fell in love with the bag that Paula did for ATTS 7.  Paula purchased the kit for the bag from Beads East, which they have many kits and patterns for bags and all kinds of other beading projects.

Other places to get inspiration are Pinterest, You Tube, and magazines just to name a few places.

So if you are interested in playing along for another round of A Time To Stitch please sign up either here on my blog or on Christine's blog.  Sign ups are from June 19th through the 27th (I know the blog badge says the 20th, but we are giving y'all an extra day.). You will have five months to work on your project or projects, for those that are truly ambitious.


Happy beading Y'all
Therese

A Time To Stitch Seven hosted by Therese and Christine

Hi Y'all,

I can not believe that it is time for the reveal of A Time To Stitch Seven co-hosted with my friend Christine.  The first ATTS was in June 2012 we had 22 participants the two stitches that Christine and I chose for the challenge was Herringbone and Peyote the rules were simple, as they still are today. Make a piece with either or both stitches. It does not matter if you finish as long as you gave it a try and post what you made or attempted to make. Since that fist ATTS we have done several stitches and each time Christine and I have tried to raise the bar just a little to keep the challenge interesting.  This time around is my favorite form of free form beading, Bead Embroidery.

Not so much Christine's, but she did give it a try and her piece turned out beautifully.

All of the pieces pictured in the blog badge are my original creations with the exception of the blue cuff it is my version of Sherry Serafini's Ripple Effect cuff featured in June/July 2011 Beadwork magazine.

I am going to be featuring a guest on my blog today.  A dear friend of mine, Cynthia Wilson, that owns one of the local bead shops in Montgomery, AL The Enchanted Bead Store.  Cynthia is in rehab at the moment. This past year she has been having these episodes that mimic small strokes and about the beginning of May Cynthia had a sever episode that put her in the hospital for about two weeks and then into a rehabilitation center.  The episodes were being caused by a rare form of migraine headache called Hemiplegic Migraines only about 1% of migraine suffers get these types of migraines.  Cynthia was very excited when I told her about the ATTS 7 challenge and asked if she could join.  She has been working on this piece when her hands will cooperate and let her bead.  Her piece is not finished, but knowing my friend she will not stop until it is done.

Here is her piece.

Cynthia made the fussed glass cabochon and is using fresh water pearls, glass pearls, and crystals to decorate her piece. Cynthia is planing on using chain for the neck strap. (sorry for the picture I took this in her room) 

Now for my pieces. I made two pendants and a pair of earrings.

The first pendant I did, I used one of my stone cabochons as the focal.

The cabochon is Lemon Grass Jasper.  I followed the design in the stone with the bead embroidery. I am pleased with the end result. A simple piece to let the beauty of the stone shine.

My second pendant and earrings set.

I saw this technique somewhere I thought it was on Pinterest, but when I went to look to for the link I could not find it.  So I will just tell you how I made the cabochons. I purchased plain glass cabs and painted the back of the glass with glitter finger nail polish let it dry and then paint over the glitter polish with plain polish. In this case green glitter polish and bright lime green polish.  When I was looking for the delicas I wanted to use for the beaded bezel I could not find a green that was suitable so I chose the orange.  I then pulled out some orange 4 mm Czech rounds, some green glass beads, some clear drops and some 3mm emerald green bicone crystals.  There you have it a bright and cheerful pendant and earring set.

Thank you so much for dropping by my blog. Thank you once again to Christine for being my co-host and thank you to all of the participants that signed up for this challenge.

Now please go by and visit and see what wonderful items they have created.

                                          1.       Therese (Host) 

2.       Christine  (Host)

3.       Amy

4.       Lola

5.       Lori F

6.       Kim

7.       Becky Pancake

8.       Karin G.

9.       Debbie (Kepi)

10.   LizE

11.   Maryanne

12.   Paula

13.   Wendy

14.   Janet

15.   Jasvanti

16.   Ginger

17.   Alicia

18.   Bobbie

19.   Shirley

20.   Sarah

21.   Cynthia

22.   Lizzie

23.   Samantha

24.   Sally

25.   Niki

26.  Karen W.

Happy beading Y'all

Therese

Creating With Cabochons Challenge - Hosted by Sally Russick

Hi Y'all,

Well it is time for Creating with Cabochons Challenge hosted by Sally Russick.  I enjoy participating in Sally's challenges they are always a lot of fun and push you to think about what you are creating.

Here are the rules in Sally's own words borrowed from her blog.

Guidelines:

: create a unique piece of jewelry using any type of cabochon(s)!  

: techniques you can use (but aren't limited too) are metalsmithing, wire wrapping, beadweaving, bead embroidery

: you can tab set it...sink it in a metal bezel... wrap it... smother it in seed beads...  the sky is the limit!!!  Go for it!!!

: post a photo  and a little bit about what you created on the reveal date: May 30th, 2015

: KEEP CALM and HAVE FUN!!!  Don't worry about finishing just start!  We love progress photos and if you have something that just didn't work out, post about it!! Someone else might be in the same boat or better yet you may find someone has an answer that may make it work!! 

So there you have it easy and care free.  I was going to show y'all the process of making a stone cabochon, but fate has a funny way of skewing my well laid plans up and throwing them out the window. So I am left with showing you an already made cabochon, that I made, and the process of what I did with the cabochon.

But first I want to show you a slab of rough stone.

This is a piece of Marble slab, that I will be able to cut out three cabochons. As you can see in the upper left hand corner it is fractured all the way through, so I snapped it loose.

The corner piece is still big enough to make a nice cabochon out of it.

See this will be the back side of the cabochon.  Okay on to the one I actually worked with.

I chose this cabochon because I like the waves that run across the stone.  I was going to bead embroider it, but then an wire wrapping idea came to me, so I went with it.

I got my box of wire out and my tools and started to bring my idea to life. ( I did the wire wrapping on top of the box resting on my lap.)

I used 21 gauge square copper wire for the base wires, 21 gauge silver twisted wire for the decoration. and 21 gauge copper half round wire for wrapping all the wires together.

The result...

It turned out almost like I had envisioned it.  I wanted to mimic the waves with the silver wire going across the stone, without covering the waves.  Not quite what I wanted, but I am satisfied with the results.

Thank you Sally for hosting yet another fun challenge.

Thank you to all of you that have stopped by for a visit. Please go by and visit the other participants in this challenge and see what wonders they have created using a cabochon.

Sally Russick

Niky Sayers

Elizabeth Bergesen 

Therese Frank  (you are here)

Veralynne Malone

Terri Gauthier

Paula Kramer

Karin Grosset Grange

Sandi Volpe

Cynthia Machata

Happy beading Y'all,

Therese

The Creative Continuum of Seven Artist May Challenge - Tutti Fruity

Hi Y'all,

Let me give you a brief history of the CC7A.  It was started by Alicia of All Pretty Things blog.  In 2014 she asked seven artist, me being one of the seven, if we would be interested in doing a monthly challenge for 7 months, where each of us would pick a theme and make up a packet of beads and such and send out to each of the participants.  This year Alicia asked us to pick a photo and make a color palette from the photo.

The month of May is my month and I chose the above photo of my Mom's Confetti Lantana plant.  Lantana is in full bloom in May through September in Alabama it is a very hardy plant and one of my favorites.  I love the colors in the Confetti Lantana, this plant makes me smile.

Here is what I created from my color palette.

This bracelet is made using spiral rope section divided by 8 mm fern green Swarovski bicone crystals
and silver daisy spacers.

This is Skinny Super Duo Band designed by Deborah Roberti of http://www.aroundthebeadingtable.com.  I really like the green picasso Czechmate tiles.

This is a Herringbone Stitch done with Super Duos.  I learned this stitch from watching a You Tube video from Potomac Bead Store Super Duo Herringbone Knit stitch.  I was looking through a bag of buttons for a closure to this bracelet and found this orange and white button it was the perfect match to the orange 11/0 seed beads.

Thank you for stopping by I hope you liked what you saw, please leave a comment I love hearing from you.  Thank you again Alicia.

Now please go and visit my fellow CC7A members to see what they created from the Tutti Fruity color palette.

April: Alicia

May: Therese  (you are here)

June: Sally

August: Monique

September: Cynthia

October: Emma

November: Christine

Happy beading Y'all,

Therese

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