Whimsy for the Girl

Here's a quick bracelet I made for my toddler during naptime.

It's fairly simple, just some beads and jelly bean buttons I picked up in Japan... and strung on memory wire. The girl loves to play with my glass bead memory wire bracelets. Since she's two years old, she more or less breaks any of the larger glass beads.

So, this one has plastic bugle beads, silver spacers, Czech fire polished glass, and plastic buttons. It took me a while to figure out a pattern that didn't put the jelly beans all bunched together.



The other reason I like memory wire for making play jewelry is because it's easy for little ones to dress themselves- no clasps to worry about. Not to mention that a quality memory wire doesn't lend itself to breaking very easily and since you can't make one out of sterling silver the wire itself is relatively inexpensive.



Here's a shot of the bracelet on my very accommodating model.

:)

Cute enough to eat!

More sewing...

It's soccer season... my son's team is in first place, which is the first time that's ever happened in his life. That's exciting but some of the games happen right during naptime. So I decided to make a little quilt for the toddler to sleep on while her brother embarrasses me with his smack talking.
It's a little quilt, only 2x3 feet. As always when I quilt, I draw out a much larger pattern, then end up only doing a piece of it. Anyway, the concept here are 12 inch squares of randomly sized strips. Not too complicated, and made of materials already on hand. If you look carefully on the left side of the picture, you can tell I was about 4 inches short on the pink fleece binding and patched in a piece of white.

Don't ask me why the standard increment in prepackaged binding is 3 yards, when there is no quilt or blanket you would ever make with only 3 yards of binding, but I bought these packages on sale years ago...

My carpal tunnel is acting up, so beading is difficult... but I can do machine quilting. :)

The next project I want to try is an "I Spy" quilt, and then maybe a T-shirt quilt.

Artbeads "What Inspires You?" Contest

Artbeads just announced their first ever ‘What Inspires You?’ jewelry contest! There are two categories, necklaces and other beaded designs for this contest. Voting will be open to the public to determine the top 3 winners in each category. A picture of the inspiration and design will allow the voters to see how each entry is represented.

The Grand Prize Winner in the Necklace and Beading contests will each receive a $500 Artbeads.com Gift Certificate, the 2nd Place winners will each receive a $250 Artbeads.com Gift Certificate and the 3rd Place winners will each receive a $100 Artbeads.com Gift Certificate.

This is a contest of originality, design, and vision. All entries MUST be an original design. At least 50% of the beads and components in a submitted entry must be purchased from Artbeads.com. Participants must upload one picture of their design and one of picture of their inspiration. This contest is open to beaders worldwide, aged 18 and older.

More Asakusabashi Finds

Can I just tell you how much I loved all the bead stores in Asakusabashi? Here are more pictures of the nifty things I found. Hand crafted lampwork beads with lovely details can be found in many stores.

Flowers and nature motifs are also quite popular.
I also picked up a quartz apple for a friend who is a teacher. Quartz is said to help people clarify their thoughts and focus their energy and is good for people who need to attract good energy.

Also found in Asakusabashi, these gemstone strands... I have no idea what they are. I suspect the blue beads are some sort of crushed composite... maybe quartz as well. The red and green ones will be perfect for Christmas gifts. :)

Buttons, buttons, everywhere!

As you may have already noticed, I also like to sew. My mother made sure I took sewing lessons and know how to alter clothes, sew from scratch, and alter patterns. I couldn't resist these cute little buttons... Aren't they just yummy?

This cute little bear is probably going to be a toggle on a purse or something similar. The jelly beans, flowers, and small Hello Kitty buttons are going to embellish ribbon covered hair clippies for my daughter.

HAHA, poor girl. She doesn't really like wearing clippies.

Maybe I'll make some hair bands or something else instead.

More from the Road

While wandering from bead store to bead store, I came across another store with an Indian shop keeper. The prices weren't all that great but they had these really unusual sterling spacer beads. If you haven't already noticed, I'm a sucker for small and dainty components.

Since it was sold by the gram and marked up quite a bit over the current market price for silver, I only picked up a dozen of these.

These little beads are so cute, I had to wire up another pair of drop earrings... so I sandwiched them between some faceted roundelle iolites. I brought wire, but didn't bring any headpins, so the only thing I could do was use briolettes at the end of the drop.

Fortunately, I brought these beautiful moonstones along with. They were actually quite expensive and are also relatively soft. When I started working with them, I actually ruined quite a few stones. It's a shame. Moonstones are beautifully opalescent, and look different from every angle. I love these, since each stone is unique.

The iolite is the perfect compliment to the bluish hues in the moonstone.
(Actually, iolite is also kind of soft... but not as much as the moonstone.)

Since all of these gems were purchased in strands, I could actually make a couple similar pairs of earrings. They are light and pretty, but I probably wouldn't make these except by special order or as gifts.

Maybe I should go back to Akasukabashi and look for more of these beads. Hehehehehehe.

On the Road

Today marks the end of my first of approximately 2.5 weeks in Japan. Figuring that I might have time to bead, I brought some things along with me. As it turns out, beading is a very popular hobby around here. So, as I was wandering around Tokyo, I found a huge concentration of bead stores in the Akasukabashi area.

This strand of pearls is one of my Akasukabashi finds. I couldn't resist the luster and color of these pearls for the price. :)

So anyway, I paired the pearls with some faceted garnet discs I brought with me, and some metal charms I bought on my trip to DC last year. These came out so cute that I made a couple of pearl and garnet links to make into a matching necklace (once I get back home and get into the chains and clasps already in my stash).

Since I don't get out of meetings until after dark, I'm stuck with artificial indoor lighting.

But anyway, here they are... my dainty little Tokyo pearl and DC garnet earrings!

One Dress a Day

This chick is chic!!! OMG, I've been wanting to get into upcycling and repurposing thrift store finds into crafty type things like quilts and purses, but here's a young lady (and I can say that because I'm older than her) who decided on her 30th birthday, to spend a year making her own clothes... 365 new items in 365 days on $365.


Her creativity also extends to her writing. You should check her out!

http://newdressaday.wordpress.com/

Other Nifty Crafts

Here are some cute little blogs with free crafting ideas:

First, a "Twirly Skirt Tutorial," with awesome photos of each step (and other cute kids' patterns) at House on Hill Road. I am totally making one of these! There is also a really detailed tutorial on an absolutely adorable shirred tank top (which I knew how to do, but rather than explain it to you, well, her directions are much better than anything I could explain!)

Then, you've all seen those "I Spy" bags, right? The local yuppy educational kid's toy store sells these things for $35. Being a crafter, I can't bring myself to spend that much on what amounts to a glorified bean bag that would cost me about $7 to make. Well, check out this mega creative tutorial on Make It and Love It!! OH MY GOODNESS, this is an even better idea than the one I had! (Which was basically a glorified bean bag.)

And last, but not least, my favorite online beading supply place has a terrific section of free ideas of what to do with the rest of the stuff I bought from them! HAHA. I got an email notification from Artbeads months ago saying they were doing this, but to be honest, it wasn't all that creative when it started. However, it has significantly expanded to include all sorts of different designs that are submitted by customers. Very cool. I should get back to beading and submit my own design!

I Wish I Had More Time!!!

Life is crazy but good around here.

My husband is on travel, and the break in our daily routine somehow led to this pair of earrings last night. The beads are a natural stone which has been sitting among my things so long that I can't remember what they are anymore. The metal flowers were picked up at a sale from Michaels' almost a year ago.

The wire cutters I used to make these are so sharp that I accidentally nicked one of my wire wraps on the right earring, so I need to re-do that one. I might just have to break out the wire jig and make a little clover or something.

Anyway, since I haven't had time to do much of anything this year, I'm going through my stash to make presents for friends and family. I guess that means I need to resist the urge to wear these!