Oh Mama Mia...where has the time flown?

Hi everybody...hope your New Year has started with a blast! All is going well on my end, but it just seems like the time has flown so dang fast and I am trying to play catch up!

A couple months ago, the design team for Znetshows was asked to make NON Jewelry creations and we had a few categories to choose from.  I chose ornaments...heck...who doesnt like a good pretty ornament, whether its on a tree, window, plant, or even hanging from your car rear view window?

So, I chose my pieces and a couple of weeks went by before I received my lovely beads... As always, they are so generous at Znetshows so I got a pretty bundle of joy!.  While I was waiting, I did some doodling and trying to decided on what I was going to create... 

I made one painting of a goddess on watercolor paper.  It turned out really nice but it didnt have that punch in the colors I wanted...so I photo-shopped the image and wow...I just think she is far better looking..

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You can see the photo of the original and the finished piece here...big difference.

Here is a better look at the finished piece.  What I did here was lots of fun... I copied my painting onto nice paper, adhered it to clay...sealed it and did some bead work around the piece. Its a little on the big side.3 inches round...but I think its a good fit for this design.

Cultured Sea Glass starfish large Beads top front drilled 32mm 16-Desert Gold

Cultured Sea Glass starfish large Beads 32mm 01-Crystal

Cultured Sea Glass round Beads 4mm 01-Crystal -clear 

For my next piece was a little more challenging for me to make.  I used heavy gauge copper and a bit of smaller gauged wire to create it..  

This was the drawing I made and I think I came pretty darn close to this idea.

Here is the finished piece... Cant you see something like this hanging in your window, or on a plant to bring it the sun?

Cultured Sea Glass double-hole flat free form mix Pendants two hole varies 84-Lemon 

For my 3rd piece, it was a bit simpler.  I had been making some fun little wired hooks for ornaments and the idea came to me for what I wanted to add to one of the hooks as I was making it.  I thought...hmm..why not use the starfish as a star and hang some chains with some beads...and make it like a shooting star!

Simple yet elegant shooting star... This was a hit for my son...LOL he had me make him like 3 of these babies to give to his friends for Christmas... :-)

Cultured Sea Glass tube Beads about 9x4mm 28-Turquoise Bay

Cultured Sea Glass tube Beads about 9x4mm 86-Moonstone Opal

Cultured Sea Glass round Beads 4mm 01-Crystal -clear 

Cultured Sea Glass round Beads 4mm 28-Turquoise Bay -light aqua

Cultured Sea Glass starfish large Beads 32mm 01-Crystal

Thanks again for stopping by...  I hope you enjoyed this little blurp...if you have any questions please feel free to send me a little note..

Znetshow's Summer Issue is in the makings...YAY

I received my fun stash of sea glass bead from ZNETSHOWS last week and I already have my pieces made. smile emoticon

But I am going to keep it a secret for now...sorry no peeking yet! LOL The things I made are NON jewelry pieces...that is my only hint... The reveal date is set for July so be on the look out! Here is a picture of my beads of choice...

Aren't these just a lovely bundle of eye candy?

AND THE WINNER IS......

 Well, first off, let me announce the winner..  

MISCHELLE

 has won this pair of fun beautiful earrings and I am sooooo happy for her.  And I would also like to THANK ALL of you who participated, I really truly appreciated all your shares and comments very much. This has been a fun thing for me to do and I am going to plan on doing more in the future. I hope you enjoyed this and please try again at my next GiveAway..  I also wanted to Thank ZnetShows for those amazing sea glass beads...

Hugs to all....

Chris

ZNETSHOW “Summer Days & Nights”..Magazine reveral

Another bundle of pure beachy joy by Znetshows was sent to me along with many other designers to see what we could come up with for the "Summer Days & Night" challenge.  I will tell you this, you will be quite excited to see all the creations in this magazine. We were also asked what our "PERFECT SUMMER" would be like...  Well, you see how I write sometimes...like a NOVEL sized blurp.    So believe me when I say...mine was a bit wordy and really there was no room for it in the magazine..so I am going to tell you what my perfect summer is to me here on my blog.....lots more room to write and probably bore you to death!!LOL

"My idea of a perfect summer would be sitting on the beach with my toes in the sand and enjoying the cool breeze on a hot day. Of course I would have a hat on and some sunscreen slathered all over my body and a huge pair of sunglasses on.  I would be sitting next to my hubby while he reads. Then also, I would have to have my handy dandy camera with me so I can take millions of pictures only to pick out 10 of my favorite ones later. As for night time, sitting at an outside restaurant eating my favorite fish and chips and having a nice glass of wine or ice cold beer with my hubby...yea, he has to tag along just about everywhere I go, he can be fun!"

Now for the more exciting part of this post...the Magazine.. 
 You can find me on page 74-76.

Summer Days and Nights Magazine by ZnetShows

 To see all the participants visit Znetshows Blog

So, with all the yummy beads, here are some pictures which are not posted in the magazine.. Remember this picture below, this is what I started out with.

This is what I made for my evening wear...its beautiful.  I am quite happy with the finished piece

 See the yummy Swarovski ravolis?

 I bought these great pewter beads at Beads On Main when they had their big sale, its so pretty and is double sided

 And the fun beaded rope..  I watched a quick video on You Tube and got to work..once I got started it was pretty easy to make...but is a very loose stitch so I put the sari silk in the middle for added strength and stability of the beads.

I added a metal filigree backing to the Swarovski rivoli which gave the beads better support and it made it so much prettier I think.

This red design was just an added piece I had to do.  I made the polymer beads, was lots of fun to see this piece fall into place.  I had no idea what I was going to do with all the red hour glass sea glass beads other than the dangle part.  

 I made the dangle part first and beaded a loop on the top not really knowing what I was going to attach it to.

 I made the large beads first...which I think turned out really well..Then I had all this scrap clay I didnt want to waste, so I ended up making the ring you see here.  Little by little this piece came together and I am in love with it!

 I had this clasp for another creation I was going to make, but then decided it looked really good on this necklace...

 Here are the beads, they are quite big for me, but I am getting used to the larger beads.

This is my day time piece.  Now this one, I am going to keep.  It is amazing and very summery and beachy.  I had these beads sitting on my table for some time...not knowing what I was going to do and the deadline was getting closer and closer.....and closer.

It fits me perfectly..LOL

Here is a close up of the starfish pendent I made with polymer clay

 I actually made the bracelet first.  I love this bracelet too...all the dangly beads...

I kept the cording ends long so I could keep them as part of the design element...

Love this clasp...its rather large, but look how fun it is...and its easy to handle for those with larger fingers

I just love this color combination. Sunny, beachy and bold...

I thought the earrings would look best with the same dangling strands of cord with all the same beads tied on.  

And for a fun pair of earrings for my almost final piece.

I have a perfect top that will go well with these earrings..

This is my final piece.  I made these last but did not put them in the challenge.  I had run out of time.  

Now for the real fun part!  Yup, I am going to do a "GIVE AWAY" with this pair of earrings. I have never done one before and have seen lots of other designers do this and I have actually participated in a few.  If you are interested in my GIVE AWAY, please make sure you leave a comment.  Once I get my rules squared away, I will send you a little message and post it on my blog.

Thanks sooooo much for stopping by and checking out the new magazine!

Chris

Blog Hop Participants:

Amy Severino

Andrea Trank

BeckyPancake

BobbieRafferty

BR Kuhlman

CharlieJacka

ChristieMurrow

ChristinaMiles <-----me----->

ChristineStonefield

CynthiaMachata

CynthiaRiggs

DonettaFarrington

HopeSmitherman

KashmiraPatel

KathyLindemer

Kay Thomerson

KellyPatterson

KlaudeteKoon

Lee Koopman

Lisa Lodge

RenethaStanziano

SandraWashington

Shaiha Williams

SherylStephens

StephanieHaussler

TammieEverly

Whoooo hooo... I am published in the Beadwork Magazine!

I have been waiting such a long time to announce this..  I had to wait for the magazine to come out first...so here it is... You will find my earrings on page 82 of the BeadWork Quick and Easy Special addition...Oh yeah!  My first submission to a magazine.  I am soooo excited.  Would love to get your feedback on the design.  As you see, most of the beads are from ZnetShows...

THANKS BILL for the beautiful beads...  I hope I made you proud!  :-)

June Inspiration - THE BEACH - ZnetShow Challenge begins..OH YEA!!

Good morning...

Yesterday I was quite excited when I checked the mail and my box of goodies was there.  Before opening my other mail, I quickly grabbed a pair of scissors and opened my box.  BUT, before I tell you what I got, I want a little about the challenge and who my partner is.

This months  "THE BEACH" challenge is to have beading partners. Znetshow has a Pinterest page and one of the boards has some wonderful photos for inspiration.  We could either chose a photo from this board or choose our own. I decided to choose my own, which I posted below. Your partner picks out beads from this HUGE list of beads to choose from which is provided by Znetshows.   We dont know what each other is getting until we our box in the mail.  Bill, from ZnetShows is so generous when he fills up our box with beads so that we can make multiple designs.

My partner is Karla  Texas Jelly Jams, an awesome jewelry designer and she also has this fantastic business making tasty JAMS.  I recently made her Raspberry Jam Crumb Cake recipe and it was sooooo good! It was gobbled up rather quickly..hehe I need to write up a little review on that...  Funny thing, is our taste in colors is very similar so without even knowing what we liked yet, we chose beads that we perfect!

Ok, so now you have a little idea what this challenge is about and a little about my partner.  Please check out her website, you will absolutely love it!

Here is my photo of inspiration for my Partner..

I found this awesome site through Pinterest that has all of these great color swatches. Design Seeds. I chose this picture because of the beautiful colors and it looks like a place I would like to sit and relax... listen to the ocean waves and birds...I miss the beach!

This is my Beach Mix which I received in the mail yesterday... Very yummy wouldnt you say?  Reminds me of seaweed with some little fish tossed in.  The beads are a bit larger than what I normally work with so this will be my challenge.  Below is the list of beads which you can find on ZnetShows.  

Cultured Sea Glass Beads - Oval - Medium Amethyst

Glass Pearls - Autumn Green

Chinese Crystals Kidney Beads

Sardonyx Twisted Oval Beads - Green

Cultured Sea Glass Nugget - Opaque Oval

Kyanite Tube Beads

Base Metal Alloy Beads - fish

This picture was chosen by my Partner 

As you see, there are lots of colors here to choose from.  I love my bead mix and I need to sit down and start drawing up some designs... 

Check back with my soon to see what I have created with these beautiful beads...my brain is thinking already!!!

Ahhh... Finished! Jujubee Bracelet

While siting and watching the Giants lose... I finally finished making my Jujubee Bracelet with the Mini Conch beach glass beads from Znetshows. I have made bracelets with this technique before and they always turn out so pretty.  Normally though I use smaller beads, but I just love how this bracelet turned out.  Its slightly heavy, but it makes music when you wear it.  I dont know what it is about jewelry that makes music that fascinates me.  I think of work I suppose, you can always hear certain people walking down the hall and you know who it is by the sounds/music that they make.  We wear lanyards a lot, and with keys hanging off of the lanyards along with other fun things, we all seem to make some kind of sound/music while walking.  Anyway...my mind is wandering because its late at night and my brain is a little on the slow mode!  LOL  I just had to put the pictures up so you can see how the bracelet turned out...

Please feel free to share and comment on my blog...  I enjoy the company!  :-)

Hope you enjoyed the candy...eye candy that is...  :-)