Bead Soup Blog Party-2nd Reveal

Today is the day for the 2nd Bead Soup Blog Party Reveal.  Lori Anderson of Pretty Things hosts these parties.  She sends out an invite to sign up, then pairs all the signee's and sends out the info. This time there were 400 people that signed up from all over the world!  We then get in touch with our partners, find out what we like, don't like, colors we typically use, techniques we use and then send out a 'Bead Soup' either with things our partner's like or things to challenge them. I personally like to send and receive bead, fabrics, metal, etc. to challenge me. After all that's what a challenge is, right?  I'm not in this reveal, but my reveal will be the 3rd one on August 25th. I'm frantically working on my pieces to get them done.  To see what my partner, Mandi sent me, check out this post.  But to see how the participants in this reveal were challenged check out Pretty Things for the list.  And be sure to come back August 25th to see how I was challenged and what I made.  If my pieces come together, I'll think you and I both will like them.  Let's see if we can trend this on twitter. Use the #beadsoupblogparty when you tweet!

Bead Soup Blog Hop- My Soup for Mandi

Time has just flown. I've had company for almost 2 weeks. Plus we've had meeting for 3 weekends. But here's my first post about my Bead Soup.  Lori at Pretty Things arranges these fantastic Blog Hops.  This one has 400 participants!  You sign up, get your partner, find out what they like or are comfortable working with in beads, fibers, etc. Then you exchange beads, either sending them things they're comfortable with or something that may challeng them some. I like to try to send something that will challenge my partner to some degree, since that's the basic premise of the Blog Hop.  This time I'm partnered up with Mandi Effron at Craft-o-liscious. She does some wonderful beading. Right now she's set her own challenge to keep her creativity going.  She works mostly with glass and seed beads and seem to favor red and pink, although she usually ends up making jewelry in green tints. She also likes to create multi-strand, twisted necklaces, something I haven't gotten up the nerve to try yet.  Although she's fairly new to beading, you couldn't tell it by her work.  Be sure to check out her blog and stay tuned for the reveal. We both will be revealing our Kreationz on August 25th.  Here's the soup I sent to Mandi:

It includes a Lampwork heart from Beadaholic, Cherry Shell rounds, Green Chinarovski rondelles, some fiber in various colors, a Clasp I created and patina'd, a copper connector/bead adn a pewter/silver clasp.  Stay tuned tomorrow for my reveal of what Mandi sent me to work with. I absolutely love it.

A BIG Giveaway! on Pretty Things

I love Lori's Pretty Things Blog! She always has such inspiring posts, ideas, giveaways, Blog Hops and more.  This time she's outdone herself.  She's having a BIG giveaway.  A (Five) Bead and Button Bead Giveaways!  She's got 5 different giveaways going at the same time.  They're all great.  But she makes it SOOOO difficult.  When you post a comment, you have to let her know which one of the 5 is your favorite!  I just couldn't decide.  I had it narrowed down to 3, but still couldn't decide my favorite.  So rush right over to her blog, Pretty Things and check out the giveaways, her ideas, and leave a comment to win.
This is just one of the giveaways she's got going.  Aren't they fabulous?