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

Ordinary Extraordinary Everyday Mini Photo Challenge hosted by Sally Russick - days 11-15

Days 11 - 15

A Time To Stitch Seven sign up is here


Hi Y'all,

This is the last five days of Sally's mini photo challenge.  This has been a challenge for me to take photos of the prompts everyday, but I managed to get it done.
Here are the last five prompts.

Day 11 - Macro

I could not decide what I wanted to take a macro shot of so I grabbed this oval crystal and stared shooting I like this shot because it captured the items that was surrounding the crystal in my living room.


Day 12 - Temptation

I could have taken shots of all the Valentine candy in the stores, but this is my real temptation it is so hard to not buy something when I go visit my friend Cynthia the owner of the Enchanted Bead store.


Day 13 - Sweetness

My guy Chris, got me hooked on these little sweet candies when he came for Christmas and New Years this past year.

Day 14 - Love

My little guy Chewy loves me unconditionally, nuff said!

Day 15 - Togetherness

Everyday, need I say more?

Thank you for stopping by, please go visit the others participating in this challenge here.

Therese

A Time To Stitch Seven - Bead Embroidery Sign Ups - hosted by Therese and Christine

Hi Y'all,

It is time for another go around of "A Time To Stitch" hosted by myself and Christine Altmiller, this round is number seven and I am happy to announce that it will be Bead Embroidery, Christine, said it was not one of her favorites, but that she is willing to give it a chance.  I was so excited that she gave in, because it is my favorite form of free form beading.

In case some of you do not know, I have been making stone cabochons lately, one of my new loves, and I have decided that I would have a little giveaway with the people that sign up for this challenge.
I will pick eight random people, four from my blog and four from Christine's blog, to receive one of my stone cabochons.  I will post a picture of the eight cabochons when I decide which eight I am willing to part with, LOL, no seriously it is a tough decision, because I am a hoarder love my stones.

The sign up is from today 2/16/15 through Friday 2/20/15, on my blog or Christine's blog.

Here are links to some web pages for inspiration and instructions for bead embroidery:

My Bead Embroidery board on Pintrest

https://www.pinterest.com/tmpfrank/bead-embroidery/

Beads East

http://www.beadseast.com/free-bead-embroidery-tutorial.html

You Tube

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bead+embroidery+tutorial

Amazon has many books on bead embroidery, for instruction and inspiration. 

Come join me and Christine in this challenge.

Happy beading Y'all,

Therese

Ordinary Extraordinary Everyday Mini Photo Challenge week two 6-10

Week two 6-10

Hi Y'all,

This is week two of Sally Russick's Ordinary Extraordinary Everyday Mini Photo Challenge

photos days 6-10.

Day Six - Minimal

Day six was on Saturday Feb. 7, 2015, I was trying to think of what I could take a photo of the shows minimal.  Then I looked out the window at the parking lot.  Monday through Friday the lot is jammed full of cars, but on Saturday and Sunday just the minimal amount.  These vehicles are pretty much office vehicles with the exception of Dovie's white Toyota Corolla and my red Nissan Versa behind the SUV in the first row. 

Day seven - Daily Chaos

My sweet Chewy Jr.  he is a daily chaos in my life when I am trying to get ready for work, or really anytime of the day, but I love him to pieces he is my Chew Man! Sorry about the blurry picture it is very hard to get him being still.  If y'all are wondering he is part Chihuahua and part Jack Russell, hence the not being able to stay still.

Day eight - Words

My favorite coffee mug.  I could have opened a book, or took a photo of a bill board, but I was looking at my coffee mug and it had the perfect words on it. Sweet Coffee!

Day nine - Night Time Calm

This was taken off of my back porch with my iPhone 6 notice the sky it is the night time calm before the storm.

Day ten - Outside

It is a gorgeous day in Montgomery, AL the temperature is 68 today (2-11-15). Yes the skies are this blue in Alabama!

Thank you for stopping by, please go and visit the others participating here.

Therese

Ordinary Extraordinary Everyday Mini Photo Challenge hosted by Sally Russick

Hi Y'all,

I decided that I would participate in Sally Russick's Ordinary Extraordinary Everyday photo challenge.  Sally set up 15 days of prompts for us to take photos of for the next 15 days and we are to post every 5th day. The first 5 days prompts are:  1- reflection, 2- wrapping, 3- kitchen ritual, 4- paper, and 5- repetition.  Here are my interpretation of the prompts. 

1. Reflection

This is my Webber grill and when I came home from work and let my dog Chewy out I saw how pretty the sky and trees were reflecting on the lid of the grill. Of course now you can see me and my house as well in the reflection.

2. Wrapping

Lately I have really gotten into making stone cabochons so I have been buying stones to cab.  These came in the mail the other day all wrapped up in bubble wrap.

3. Kitchen Ritual

Every morning I make coffee when I am off in my kitchen, when at work in our break area, and every afternoon I fix a bottle of water with a flavored drink packet.

4. Paper

At work we use a lot of paper whether it is to write on or to gather information from.  This is my co-worker Susan she was my relief and she is all set up to start her shift.

5. Repetition

Yes one more photo of my work place.  I was trying to think of something other then taking a photo of a beaded project, so it hit me we have seven stations in our radio room and each one is set up exactly the same with the NCIC computer, radio log computer, and the digital radio system computer, and telephone. My co-workers in the photo are( from closest to farthest) Wanda, Dovie, and Keisha. Today was casual Friday no uniform Yay!  

Now please visit the others participating here

Therese