Out with the old

So as part of my New Year's clean-up, I am cleaning out my beading supplies.  I started by returning a metric butt ton of unused seed beads which I ordered online and haven't opened in the two years since I purchased them!!!  I don't have the original receipts, so we'll see if Artbeads will even take them, but if nothing else, they're out of my tackle box!

Meanwhile, I'll be featuring one of my destash listings every couple of days until I come up with better content.  LOL.

Here's a listing for 20 pressed glass flowers:

The flowers are drilled through the center from top to bottom (so you could see the entire flower laying flat if you string it). These are AB coated on one side. Would make a cute bracelet for your favorite little girl.

Look! Another Etsy Treasury!

Check out this treasury of handmade crafts, made in Hawaii!  (BTW, those are my earrings, on the last row, 2nd from the right.)  Cool!

 

 

 

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4d1a69903c236d91716322b4/handmade-in-paradise-team-hawaii

Another New Year's Resolution

Remember last year, when I decided to try "a picture a day" blogging?  Well, that lasted about a month.  :)  This year, I decided to ditch the minimalist black background and liven things up a bit.  

Here are my blogging resolutions for this year:

1. Post at least one photo a week
2. Include a tutorial or how-to at least once a month
3. Expand the content beyond just crafting projects

Simple enough, right?  We'll see.

Pearl and Brass Sparrow Double necklace

If you have Filipino family, you know that there are always extra people either living with you or traveling with you for the holidays.  The reason I explain is because even though I'm not Filipino,  my sister in law is.  On occasion, she catches me off guard with the assumption that her relatives are my relatives.  She is bringing her little sister to my parents' house for Christmas, and based on previous experience, I know the expectation is that the sister will also have something to open for Christmas.

 If you haven't noticed from my previous blogs, well, my budget for presents was pretty tight and I've more or less blown it already so I'm making gifts.

Brass is less expensive than silver, but that's not why I picked it for this particular piece.  These brass swallows are showing up all over the place right now... it's a really popular motif with the younger crowd.  You could, I guess, have a brass focal piece and use sterling chain, but I hate to mix metals and then add pearls and crystal in different colors.  I wanted a double strand look, and didn't want too many competing elements.

Of course, that being said, I think it needs a silk ribbon or something soft next to the pearls.  Time to dig through the stash and see what I can come up with.

Here's a shot for scale, so  you can see the length.

Another gift- Grandma's Angels Purse Charm

Earlier this year, I got a great deal on rice cookers. What does this have to do with beading? Well, I bought one for my family and another to squirrel away as a Christmas gift for my parents. Lo and behold, my dad was over for dinner after I ordered these things and says, "Your mom wants to go to COSTCO to buy a new rice cooker, because ours is dying." Five minutes later, the UPS guy shows up with my rice cookers. So anyway, my dad went back home with a new rice cooker and a funny story.

With interisland airfare being what it is, there's no expectation that we'll bring another gift when we go to my parents' house to visit for the holidays. However, I don't want to show up empty handed... And thus, I made my mom a purse charm with one angel for each of the grandkids.

I mean, really. What do you make for a person who doesn't wear jewelry? I guess you could also clip this to a key ring or hang it in a window as a light catcher...

Anyhow, these are quite simple. The dress is a pressed glass flower, metal wings are available in a number of different shapes, the heads are Swarovski crystal in birthstone colors, and a circular Bali silver spacer is used as a halo. They are hooked to a larger looped cable chain using 4.5mm jump rings. There you have it.

Fatima Earrings...

I'll admit, money's still tight around here so I'm making gifts out of things I've had in my stash for a while. Here's a pair of dangly earrings I made out of some laser cut Hand of Fatima focals.

I did buy the silver feather dangles and smaller (3mm) jump rings in order to make these, but they were relatively inexpensive. (Silver is sold by weight. Earrings need featherlight components.)

And to make a "card" to hold the earrings in its gift box, I took an old business card, punched some holes in it, and had my 2 year old scribble a "rainbow" on it. Voila! Hand made goodness!