Kuhimino

I bought a couple of bits a few months ago and absolutely love doing this now. This is the first beaded bracelet I made for my daughter.

My brother bought her the silver comb and scissors charm as she has just qualified as a level 3 hairdresser.

There are going to be very short blog posts for me over the next few days as I have big orders to finish but I want to use my blog more. I will add 'recipes' to the posts as soon as I have a couple of hours spare.

Thanks for looking

Made in Zakynthos

I thought I would show you some of the jewellery I made whilst on holiday in Zakynthos last month. I always take some beads with me when we go over there as I find it a great way to unwind, sitting by the pool making jewellery. However, if I took less beads I could probably take more clothes, well actually the three of us could as I always share my beads between all three cases :)

 

 The earrings are made from Lucite flowers in various colours and each flower centre is a Swarovski crystal.

 The necklace is made using AB acrylic 'crystals', silver lined clear seed beads and from silver frosted round beads

 The bracelet is made using the same beads as above but without the silver frosted beads. It also uses Lucite flowers and is finished off with a sterling silver clasp.

This bracelet / bangle is so effective. One half of the bangle is silver plate and the other half is purple suede thong. It closes by looping the thong over the heart and is kept shut using the round diamante bead which slides up and down.

There, I hope this has made a change as it's not very often I get to just sit and make jewellery unless it's commissioned but we're back to cards tomorrow. Well it's actually a card and a.....ha, not telling, you will just have to pop by tomorrow and have a look :)

Thanks for looking.
Sleep tight. xx

Today's effort!

I hope everyone has had a good day. I've had a good one with another 'diverse' mix of makes....variety is definitely the spice of life ;)

All of the items were ordered

Papers are by Blonde Moments, image is from Karen's Doodles coloured with Promarkers, Card Candy from Craftwork Cards
Next came the necklaces

Made using Swarovski hearts and crystals.
Burgundy fascinator

Wedding invitation sample

and finally......a sterling silver bracelet.

And that's the lot. Thanks for looking, back soon. xx

OWOH

.........and the winners are

Jax at Unproductively Productive (I love that name!)

who wins the beading book and

Lu at Crafting By Lu

wins the bracelet I made from the book :)

Both winners have been emailed and I'm just waiting for them to get back to me with their details and I can get their goodies in the post.
This was my first time taking part in this event and I shall definitely join in again next year but will keep an eye out for it starting as I joined mid way through this year.

Back soon and thanks everyone for playing.

*Edited to add that I have addresses for both my winners so I will get the goodies in the post on Monday at the very latest.

** A better picture of the bracelet

Zakynthos

Well we're back and rested and it seems such a long time since we were over there (we got back on Tuesday evening!) The most strenuous things we did was to have a shower and go out for dinner.

This is what we had to endure every day :)

Our apartment was the one directly above the corner parasol on the far side of the pool.

Note the cloud? It was the only one we saw for the whole two weeks.............the weather was just amazing, so hot!
It was the second time we had stayed at these apartments and we have decided to return again. The people are just so friendly, the service is excellent and it is spotlessly clean. Up until now we have alternated Zakynthos with Cornwall but I am seriously thinking of knocking Cornwall on the head and going abroad every year from now on. DH is leaving the decision up to me as I'm the one who is in love with Cornwall. I desperately want to live there but we can't afford it as the price of property is really expensive now. It is also more expensive to go to Cornwall. The apartments we use are right on the beach but when you factor in petrol and everything else it all mounts up. We have usually been pretty lucky with the weather down there but at least by going to Zakynthos we are guaranteed hot sunshine!

I took some beads with me and made a couple of things sat by the pool or on the balcony. I also gave out quite a few business cards ;)

DD gave the bracelet to a girl she met over there and I'm now about to start a matching necklace for her as she is wearing it for a wedding next week.

Washing has all been done at last and I now have to tackle the i***ing :( I think we managed to get two loads dried outside and the rest went in the drier..............what lousy weather to come back to. I'm glad today is a bit warmer, I've been cold all week!

Busy Bee!

Well, I just haven't stopped since I last posted so I thought I had better show a sample of some of the completed work. Life is just so hectic at the moment, I haven't had time to make my own Christmas cards yet. I've decided though, whatever is left in the box will be sent out from us LOL I will make special cards for my parents and DH's mum and that's it. My Christmas stuff has actually been put away twice and got back out again!!

One of my cards fitted in with the Little Extra on the DCM blog last Tuesday. I know it's late but I'm going to show it anyway.

This is what the challenge was

It's Tuesday again so we have a midweek challenge for you to play with. Santa's Little Helper this week is themed "Buttons and Bows"Just in case you're one of those super-efficient types who've made all the cards they need already, you can still join in with a non-Christmas card for this one.

The snowman and snowflake are buttons and the bow is obvious! The image is from Cornish Heritage Farms and he is just so cute. I stamped him onto acetate using a blue Stazon ink pad and glittered him from behind using irridescent glitter. The trees are Cuttlebug and the snowflake is a punch. The ric-rac is Doodlebug.

My second card is for Friday's dare

This week is my turn (Saffa) to set the dare!I love the stripey candy sticks that are around at this time of year so inspired by this I challenge you all to create a card featuring stripes of some kind, the occasion is up to you but you must use some form of stripes on your card. Maybe stamps, or paper, or ribbon...This one was made as part of the same order as the one above. This time using papers by Making Memories, stamp by Papernation. I stamped it once onto card and then onto patterned paper and cut the dress separately. The card was finished off with ribbon from the pink kit at Ribbon Oasis and a 'silver' teddy charm from stash.

Next I made a couple of pieces of jewellery which were also part of the same order!

Sorry about the lousy pictures but the light has been terrible so they were scanned as I needed to record the items and get them delivered. The bracelet below is to match the necklace.Both necklace and bracelet were made from one necklace which my client asked me to alter as she didn't like it. The beads are mostly jet with a few small glass beads added. The clasps on both are sterling silver. I also made her a pair of matching earrings and she was really pleased with the set.

Well, that's about it for now as I have more work in hand. Today I need to make two gift bags and two more exploding boxes! I was going to do them yesterday but we ended up going to the Christmas market in Lincoln. It was absolutely superb but we got sooooooooooooo wet! We had to have hot chocolate and donuts while we were walking round to try to keep warm! LOL