Toast of the Town-Michael's Blog Hop

I'm a little late, but here goes. Recently Erin Prais-Hintz worked together with Michael's, the hobby store to celebrate Jewelry month and created her Toast of the Town necklace. It was gorgeous. Talk about blingy and fun.  So she decided to have a little blog hop. 3 people won a set of beads from Erin and the rest of us were encouraged to play along.  While I wasn't one of the 3 that won beads, I loved one of the color palettes Erin had picked out for the beads for the winners.  So I decided to make my own Toast of the Town necklace with that red and black set.  However, my Michael's didn't have all the beads Erin had picked out, so I went out on my own to add more beads. At first I wasn't sure I liked the added beads I'd picked, but the more I looked at it, I really love it.  My next problem was, this blog hop came right on thee heels of my Kalmbach soup that had to be done by the same day and then I ended up having to go out of town, so I didn't get my Toast of the Town necklace post up by last Friday.  However, here it is.  I hope you like my palette and what I did with it.  I couldn't find a toggle clasp I really liked, so I found this great pendant that fit right in with my color palette/beads and made my own Toggle bar to go with it. And instead of cutting off the ring to attach it with, I made a dangle to hang from it. I may change it later, because I'm not sure it hangs like I'd like, but for now I really like it.  This necklace can be worn several different ways. You can keep it doubled like it is, you can twist those strands or you can separate it and wear it long with the toggle/pendant off to the side.  I'll probably wear it shorter, but you never know. I may be daring and wear it long once in a while, too.  Thanks for letting me play along, Erin. And be sure to check out her blog, Treasures Found to see the rest of the participants.  You'll have to scroll down to the post on the 2nd, but it's well worth it.
Be sure to check out my shop, KayzKreationz for more Wire-wrapped, beaded Jewelry, Stained Glass, Mosaics and Fused Glass Kreationz for your Home and Garden.

 

I used Natural Shell, Ruby Bamboo Coral spacer beads, Ruby Glass bicones, Jet Millefiori Lentil glass beads, and Hematite chips. 

Bead Soup-32 Projects

I recently received Lori Anderson's new book Bead Soup-32 Projects Show What Happens when 26 Beaders Swap Their Stash, from Kalmbach books. It's a great book. Lori started with the Bead Soup Blog Party basically by accident back in about December 2010.  She decided to see if people would want to swap bead stashes and create, preferably with things they hadn't or wouldn't have chosen to use to challenge themselves and then blog about it.  Since then it's grown to over 400 participants this last summer.  I have gotten to participate in 2 of those Bead Soup Bog Parties. They are fantastic and cause you to really challenge yourself to create something you might not have otherwise.  This book is written like a Bead Soup Party.  There were 26 designers involved, asked to swap beads and design.  I love the way the soup is written on 'recipe' cards in keeping with the soup theme.  Then the directions are described as 'recipes'.  What's fantastic about this book, is that although you can follow the directions exactly if you wish, it also teaches or encourages you to work with your own stash and see how you can create these projects or something very similar with what you already have.  This is great, since it gets us to go through our stash and see things in a different light.  The first chapter focuses on the Leftover method, where you use beads left over from other projects. It moves on to the Focal method which focuses on the focal of our piece.  It finishes up with the Color Palette method and the Random Purchase method.  Each project is named, gives us the 'utensils' (tools) to use and then encourages us to stretch our imagination.  She gives us little tips and substitutions to try.  She's very thorough in the way she approaches each project and then describes it. The photos are great.  In the back she introduces us to all the designers and contributors of the projects and gives us a shopping list, if we just have to have the same 'ingredients' used in a particular project.  In accord with the release of this book, Kalmbach books asked Bead stores from across the country to send in Soup mixes and then asked people if they'd like to sign up to participate in another Bead Soup party to celebrate the release of this great book.  I am thrilled to say, I was chosen and sent a fantastic soup from a Bead Store from my own great state of Texas, Wired Up Beads!  They're in Southlake, Tx.  Stay tuned in the next day or two for the reveal of my pieces.  In the meantime, run right out (or get online) and order this book. You won't regret it.  It will help you stretch your wings in your beading creativity.
And if you're looking for some of my Wire-wrapped, Beaded jewelry or Stained Glass, Mosaics or Fused Glass Kreationz for your Home or Garden, check out my shop, KayzKreationz.  I'll be glad to help you any way I can.

Don't forget, check back for my Kalmbach Bead Soup reveal from Wired UP Beads.

Glass, Craft & Artful Goodness: GIVEAWAY!!! - $90 to Spend in my Etsy Store

Check out her blog and the great giveaway she's got going. Glass, Craft & Artful Goodness: GIVEAWAY!!! - $90 to Spend in my Etsy Store: I am living a life full of gratitude and abundance and would like to show some of that gratitude to the wonderful people that have followed...

Also, watch for my post in the next day or two of my review of Lori Anderson's new book, Bead Soup-32 projects and my Bead Soup reveal for the Kalmbach books Bead Soup party in accord with the release of Lori's book.

Looking for some great Glass Kreationz for yourself or as gifts?  Check out my shop, KayzKreationz. I make Stained Glass, Mosaics and Fused Glass kreationz for your home and garden, along with Wire and Beaded Jewelry.

Bead Packet Design Challenge from Sharyl's Jewelry & NKP Designs

Back at the end of September, I signed up for a Design Challenge on Sharyl's Jewelry blog.  It was in conjunction with NKP Designs, using some of her artbeads.  We were mailed a packet of beads and asked to design a piece of jewelry. The idea was to see what 10 different jewelry designers would come up with using the same beads. I loved the beads.  The colors were fantastic and I had several ideas right away.  We were required to use the large focal artbead and at least 2 other of the artbeads. Then we could use the rest of the beads or beads from our stash to finish our piece. I thought my beads all complimented themselves so well, I decided to use only the beads I received in my piece along with the silk and the chain.  This is what I finally settled on. I'm loving using Sari silk ribbons in my jewelry lately and I had the perfect colors left from some silks I'd gotten from Marsha Neal's studio that I had used in my Bead Soup Blog Party piece in August.  I found this chain that just seemed to say "Use me" with these beads and the silks.  And the toggle fit perfectly, too.  What do you think?  How did I do with my beads and the Bead Challenge?  Be sure to visit Sharyl's Jewelry blog for the rest of the participants and see what the other 9 designers did with their beads.  Here's the beads I started with (I forgot to take a pic before I started designing, so this is the pic of the beads from Sharyl's website for the challenge):

And here's my finished piece:

If you're interested in purchasing this piece, let me know. I'll be putting it in my Etsy shop, KayzKreationz shortly.  And if you're looking for Stained Glass, Mosaics or Fused Glass kreationz for your Home or Garden, be sure to check my shop out.
You can also find me on twitter:  KayzKreationz 
And on facebook:  KayzKreationzGlassKreationz
And if you're interested in keeping up with what I'm doing, sign up for my e-mail newsletter on the sidebar.  I don't e-mail out very often, but you never know when I will and what might be in the e-mail.

Breast Cancer Charm-Breast Cancer Awareness

We all know someone who's either fought or lost the battle with Breast Cancer. I had a very good friend of 20 years die from it within 5 months after they found it. So in her honor I created this cute Pink Quartz, Howlite and White Coral charm with the pink Breast Cancer ribbon on it. It could be used as either a Cell phone charm, zipper pull or countless other uses. The beads are also wire-wrapped/strung on pink wire.

The Howlite appears to be like Turquoise but is painted/dyed. It is not real turquoise. This listing is for the charm only, NOT the phone.

For more Stained Glass, Glass Mosaic and Fused Glass Kreationz for your Home and Garden:

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Enter my shop here:http://KayzKreationz.etsy.com
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Softflex Knitting Spool review, Beading Contest, Vote for my 'I've Been Framed' piece

Good morning. About a month ago, I was sent a knitting spool from Softflex with the caveat I'd review it and then enter their contest. I've been frantically trying to learn how to use it and then create something with it to enter into their contest. I got it done last night. I'm not sure I'm completely happy with it, but I don't think it's too bad for my first go around with the knitting spool and entering a national contest.
I enjoyed the knitting spool, although I found it rather difficult to use. That is probably because I don't have a lot of strenth in my hands. I kept losing the beading wire when I would first start my piece.  I actually found using copper wire easier to start with than beading wire.  But I needed to use Softflex products for the contest, so I had some Garnet Beading wire and Copper Metallic Beading wire that I was wanting to use for this project and contest. I knew I wanted to knit a frame around some beads. But then I had to figure out what to do with the framed beads.  I finally decided it would be great as a leather cuff. So I kept working on my knitting frames for my jasper beads. I finally got them where I was fairly happy with them. However, I also felt that the directions for finishing off the knitting project lacked a little. I would have liked a little more information and pictures on how to finish the knitted project to get it off the spool, but after re-reading the directions and my copy of Sara's Show Your Colors book, I finally figured out how to finish off the piece to get it off the spool. Now my problem was, how to attach the 'framed' beads to the leather and then how to hook/clasp the cuff.  I just about gave up trying to sew my 'framed' beads to my leather cuff. (I had used my pinking shears to shape the edges of the leather and figured my darning needles would be heavy enough to get through the leather.)  After several attempts I finally had to put work/gardening gloves on to get my needle through the leather to attach the 'framed' beads and the button I used for the clasp.  Attaching the rivet for the leather loop to go through was another problem. I cut with a knife, scissors, poked it and FINALLY got the rivet through the leather so I could hammer it down. After pushing the leather thong through the rivet I knotted it on the back side making a big enough loop to go over the button I sewed on and Viola! I have a leather cuff bracelet with Knitting Spool framed jasper beads.  I also found it useful to number the three prongs on my knitting spool, 1, 2 and 3 so I could keep tabs easier on where I was when wrapping and then trying to get the loops off and over. That wasn't too bad, although it took a little practice to hold the beading wire at the bottom that you're working with and the wire at the top your wrapping while trying to get the loops off to 'knit' the wire.  As I said, though, if you have a lot of strength in your hands, this probably wouldn't be quite as difficult for you as it was for me.  All in all, I really enjoyed working with the spool and will keep on practicing it and trying to come up with new ideas for it.  I just won't be able to work with it for very long periods of time.  I hope you like my "I've Been Framed" bracelet I made with the Knitting Spool.  Please check out Softflex to see when the voting begins and be sure to vote for my bracelet.  Also, if you're wanting to do something really unique with your jewelry, get their book, 'Show Your Colors' and the knitting spool and have a ball.