Bright Beads

Here's a new necklace I made for fun.

I love the bright colours and the pink chain. I need more pink chain!

The blue beads came from an old necklace that was my Grandmas. Some of the beads were flaking but I picked out the good ones.

I think they look like candy...

The star of it is this bead covered bead.

I got the idea from this blog but ended up doing it slightly differently.

I started by making to rings of beads for either end and then connecting them with strings of each colour bead.

The necklace isn't exactly my style, so I might try to sell it.

But it was fun to try out a new technique.

Pearl Ears

Have you noticed that decorative cat ears are now a thing?

Taylor even wears some in her 22 video.

I got the inspiration to make my own from a tutorial on Cut out and Keep.

It's pretty simple really; bead some wire into ears, thread on beads, attach to a hair band by wrapping around ribbon.

It took me ages to find both beads and ribbon that matched and were the right size.

My ear turned out a little wonky but I don't mind.

It adds character.

Beads

I bought these two beads back in 2008 from a bead shop in New Zealand, which I talked about here.

I've only just got round to doing something with them. Well, one of them.

The little black beads I used for this necklace came from a bead shop in New York.

So well travelled.

I made it so that the three strands are different lengths, but now I'm not sure if I'd prefer them all the same length.

Oh well, too late now, the ends are all glued together.

The necklace also doubles up as a pretty cool bracelet when wrapped around my wrist.

Hey, look at all these beads

My Aunt gave this to me recently and I thought I'd share it with y'all.

It's like a catalogue of beads.

It doesn't have a year on it, but judging by that cartoon bead with a face and pointy elbows I wouldn't say it's modern.

 It's full of bead samples!

Strings of tiny seed beads...

...pearly beads...

...colourful plastic beads...

...wooden beads.

And not just beads. There's sequins...

...and sequin trim...

...and little gems! So shiny.

It's going to be a fun afternoon taking these off the pages and adding them to my bead collection.

Geometric beads

I've seen a few things around the internet about making geometric beads from polymer clay, so I decided to make some myself.

I started by rolling small pieces of Sculpey into balls, and then flattening the edges against a ruler.

Once I'd baked them I made the sides flatter and more angular with sand paper.

I painted the beads with silver acrylic paint and used some of them to make this bar necklace.

I can't decided if I like it better as a short or long necklace.

Thoughts?

With some of the other beads, after I'd painted them silver, I then painted them with nail varnish for a metallic look.

Oh Sculpey, you're so full of possibilities.

Crochet Beads

 My Mum offered to make some crocheted beads for me after we saw some in Hobbycraft (otherwise known as my favourite place ever).

When they were done I threaded them onto some ribbon to make a necklace.

My Mum also tried making one using a ping-pong ball but I can't decide if it looks too big as part of the necklace. 

So I took it off to have it like this.

And I also tried spacing out the beads for a different look.

Which one do you prefer?

Bargain time #4

At the weekend I went to my village fete which included a car boot sale.

I scored this skirt for £1.

£1! It's from Miss Selfridge and it still has the tag in.

And it had pockets. I'm very excited about the pockets.

Bargain indeed.

I also got these two bags for 50p each. Similar to this one I got last year which was probably from the same lady.

One has a whole load of beads in it, including a pretty glass pendant with daisies on it. The other bag has a lot of bangles in it and some necklaces. All good stuff.

With some my new beads I fancied up my Mum's sun hat for her.

I just threaded the beads in a sort of pattern onto some brown ribbon.

She's been showing it off already.

Have you got any great bargains recently?  



Another new hairband

I've been making hairbands again. This one is just pretty things sewn onto felt which was then sewn around a hairband

The brooch was from this box of jewellery and the gems were from this bag of beads. 

In other news, my number of followers now exceeds my age! Wahoo!

Welcome new followers, and holla at my old ones, thanks for being here.

Keeping crafty

I made this bracelet having seen the one below from Oh So Crafty. She actually has a tutorial for how to make it and it kind of looks easier than the way I went about making mine, but I didn't see the tutorial until just now. Live and learn, right.

It's pretty simple. All you need is ribbon, thread and pearly beads. The perfect craft for sitting in front of a movie. Though I wouldn't recommend picking a french movie that has subtitles, cos you can't read them and look at what you're sewing at the same time. My bad.

Off site crafting

I'm back from my holiday, but don't worry, I kept up the craftyness while I was away.

This is my cousin and I making necklaces. Fiddly stuff.

We had an assortment of beads and used invisible thread, securing the ends with silver crimps.

And here are the results.

And now to return to my usual blogging schedule.

Bargain time #2

At the weekend I went to a car boot in my village and scored this bag of beads for £1. Bargain!

Lets delve inside...

These pretty flower pieces which have holes so they can be strung together.

This awesome pendant, it's a got a couple of gems missing, but I'm sure I can replace them.

A few religious pieces

A handful of yellowy gems.

Some girly pendants.

And a whole lot of little beads! It was at this point I realised tipping the bag out on my carpet perhaps wasn't the best idea. It took forever to pick them all up again.

Keep an eye out to see what I create with these goodies.

What I've been working on

Remember this box of goodies I scored at an antiques fair? Well I've started putting some of the things to use, starting with some of the broken necklaces.

I used the beads to embellish these large rosettes which I'm going to make into hairbands

The Bead Shop

In July/August of 2008 I went to Queenstown, New Zealand with my family. One day, while my Dad and my sister were white water rafting, my Mum, my other sister and I went to check out The Bead Shop.

This shop was awesome. The walls were covered in jars of all kinds of beads and you could just buy a bunch of beads, buy something already made with the beads, or sit down and make a necklace or bracelet using the supplies in the shop, and the shop lady even helps to attach the findings.

It was definitely a better way to spend an afternoon, rather than being outside in the cold white water rafting, and you get a nice view of the mountain from the shop window.

Here's the necklace I made; black and white wooden beads with a geometric pendant.

So if you're ever in Queenstown, NZ, I suggest you check it out. And while you're in town you might as well have a fergburger.