Why Not: Make A Surprise Gift For A Friend

Pic from Comments123.com 

I don't really need to expand on this point much do I, 

the title says it all really!

Why not get your bead box out and make 

something special for somebody special 

just because.

It will brighten your day creating it 

and most certainly 

brighten theirs receiving it!

Words To Live Your Life By

' Savour the little things. 

Appreciate what you have. Let go of what you haven't. 

There will always be somebody better off than you are,

and there will always be somebody much worse off than you are.

Count your blessings. Not other peoples.

Don't forget that.

Practice kindness. Even on those who don't deserve it.

Forgive and forget. Or at least let go.

You will find what you look for in life. 

So look for the good things.

They are all around you. Waiting. ' 

Love Lizzie x

- Some cheesey words of wisdom from yours truly there! 

Philosophical selection of beading goodies 

all from Spoilt Rotten Beads. 

Nougat Love

Some tasty inspiration sparked the making of this piece. 

A bar of Nougat!

I adore the stuff and the pink and white sides

are to me equally delicious, where as to some 

one colour is tastier than the other.

I don't notice a difference, I just love it all ;-) 

So the pink and white sides of this bead embroidery 

are representative of the two sides of the nougat bar. 

I sourced some lovely 'ingredients' for this necklace. 

Rose quartz cabochons, a mother of pearl heart bead, 

pretty pink and white pearly seed beads,

Swarovski crystals , rose quartz 'saucers',

all topped off with sterling silver findings and clasp.

Mmm. Mmmm. 

Delicious! 

Give Away Time!

Hello, hello and welcome to the give away draw. 

The time has come and gosh hasn't it just flown by as well.

The Bead Soup Blog party was so much fun.

There's not only the sending and receiving of beads, 

but there's the designing, the making, the photographing, 

the blog visiting, the shameless follow my blog 

for a chance to win giveaways... *ahem*! 

It has been great to participate again this year.

Enough waffling, you are here to see who the winner is right?!

So here we go: 

In lieu of a hat all the names have gone into a pretty 

chocolate box....

A good shake.....

....and we have a winner! 

Congratulations ACBEADS!

Please email me your details 

so I can send your prize out to you.

Thank you to everybody for joining in and playing along :-) 

Three Crosses By Sabine Lippert - Made By Me!

I do love the three crosses pendant pattern

from the book 'Beaded Fantasies'.

It looks so complex but it is so enjoyable to make. 

If you are familiar with Sabine's original pattern

you will notice that I have forgone the loop at the 

bottom of the pendant with the dangles

and kept it just to the main pendant.

I decided to pick my own colours

to use with the pattern. 

I love blue and 

 these Swarovski pearls were classed on the 

web (I buy all my beads online)  

as baby blue but in reality they are more of 

an icy steeley grey blue.  

Would it be insulting to call that a 'dirty' blue? !

Anyhow, I decided to bring out that silvery grey tone 

with the delica seed beads and I'm quite pleased with the result.

I can see myself wearing this quite a lot so I used a sterling silver 

closed jump ring  added a  925 snake chain

and quickly added it to my jewellery box! 

Beadsoup Blog Party Reveal *And Give Away*

Hi there and welcome to my corner of 

The Bead Soup Blog Party 2014.

This year I was paired with talented

polymer clay artist Andria Poole.

You can see the lovely goodies 

she sent to me in the picture above. 

*A quick interlude: 
I've been toying with the idea of doing a 
give away 
for a while and have decided 
that now is the time!
Here is a pic of the lovely heart shaped 
glass bead selection box that's up for grabs.... 

The give away prize in all its purple glory!

To enter the give away just 
1) follow this blog 
and 
2) comment 
to say you'd like to be in for the give away. 
It's open internationally, 
winner will be drawn at random and announced on 
June the 10th.
- so follow away and good luck! 

So,now, back to the blog hop - 

Ready to see what I made ?

Here we go... 

I started out by making this necklace

and matching bracelet.  

I chose the gold plated clasp 

to both compliment the shape 

of the focal pendant and bring out the gold 

highlights on the polymer clay beads.

I was pleased to see that the other 

set of polymer beads Andria had sent for me

were a perfect colour compliment 

for some moss agate rounds 

I had been saving in my bead stash

 for some time. 

It was lovely to get them out 

of the bead box 

and  be able to turn them into

 something wearable.

Last but not least the lovely hand made 

chain and clasp.

At first I had thought about making a charm 

bracelet 

with lots of wire wrapped dangles, 

but decided that would actually

 hide the chain to a large extent 

and I wanted to show it off 

in all its handmade 

glory. 

So I cut it into sections and rejoined it 

to make this 

panja.

Here is a pic of what I sent to Andria: 

you can see what she made with it 

by visiting her blog 

http://jewelleryartiste.blogspot.co.uk/

I've had great fun playing the Bead Soup 

Blog Party again. 

A big 'thank you' to Lori Anderson, 

the lady that makes the blog hop happen! 

Click here for full list of participants

Oh, and remember that the give away winner 
will be announced 
back here on June the10th. 
- Good luck! 

Sweet Like Candy

From beading mat to necklace, here is the piece I 

made from all the pastel coloured semi precious beads.

I love the rose quartz carved flower focal and was 

so pleased to find a floral sterling silver clasp to compliment the look.

I think that sterling silver and semi precious gemstones 

are a match made in heaven.

This is the kind of jewellery that goes straight into my jewellery box! 

I wore this at the weekend and my other half 

said the beads looked like little sweets. 

I think he's right.

I don't know about you but when I've got all 

my semi precious lovelies laying out on my bead mat 

I do feel a bit like a kid in a sweet shop!