A Purple Bracelet and Fun Earrings

Will someone please tell me the secret to photographing purple?  Sometimes I can do it and most times it comes out blue.  I *finally* got this bracelet to photograph its true color.  After about 5 days of trying.  :(  I used Swarovski tanzanite crystals.  I think it came out cool.  ;D  I wish the sparkling would photograph better, too.  I'm so demanding, no?  :D

Then I made these earrings.  I bought these lucite flowers from Nicole's Bead Backing and wondered why.  Then I made these earrings and they are just too cute.  I love them.  ;)

This pair are some brass filigree components I had that found themselves the recipient of Christi's Swellegants.  ;D  A few Swarovski crystals, my custom ear hooks and poof!  Cool earrings!

Spring Flowers and The Crusades

So, I was reading Chris Pellow's blog (go there!!) and saw all the wonderful things she is doing with Christi Friesen's Swellegants so I decided that I just couldn't LIVE unless I had some, too.  So, being me, I ordered the entire set.

Naturally, I couldn't make the iron work.  :(  I tried and tried to make a rusty heart.  :)  So, with lots of help from Chris and a phone call to the wonderful Christi, I managed to get rust.  The heart found its way into the garbage so I used an old faceted black glass button.  This button now looks like Richard Lionheart could have buttoned his hauberk on while on his Crusade.  :D  Now that I have achieved rustiness, I will go experiment with all the other cool metals and patinas.  The Swellegants are on Christi's site.  www.cforiginals.com.  Is this a great button, or what?

And here are 2 pins I made a while ago but just got out for your springtime viewing.  :D Oh yeah...and a pair of earrings....

Some New Beads and Holy Cabs

After an awful creative slump, I finally seem to have my *moejo* back.  So, I made some beads and cabs.  I have started putting holes through my cabs so people who do bead embroidery can sew the cab down as well as glueing it.  It seems that often I was running into the problem of having to do several rows of beads to hold the cab in place but not liking the fact that it covered so much of the cab.  And so.. a hole was the answer.  Since I started doing this, I've made several things using my *Holy* cabs.  ;)  It works great!  Now, if I want to just use one row of beading for my bezel, the cab is secured on the backing (use Nicole's Bead Backing!) with glue and thread.  There was no problem at all with beading over the hole of the sewn cab.

So, here are a couple new things.  I made this blue flowered one a while ago but the orange one I did yesterday.  It's actually burnt orange but is photographing lots brighter.  Bummer.  :(

Beej's Other Kid

Poor Not Heather!  As you guys all know, Beej had some problems with child names.  So she named her kids, Chopped Liver, Not Heather and Mystery Male.  Oh.  Wait.  *I* named them those names!  Oops.  :D  Anyway, poor Not Heather got lost in the shuffle so I made her this bracelet so she knows I'm thinking of her.  :D

And I made these earrings from a really cool border cane that Beej gave me.  I love her canes!

CaBezels and Stuff

Several months ago I bought a bunch of CaBezels to play with.  They are these fun mold shape that come from www.shadesofclay.com.  The molds have many different cab shapes with matching bezels.  So, you can cut out your cab then know that you have a bezel to fit.

The first one I made came out great.  Beginner's luck, methinks as I went on to have all kinds of trouble.  I couldn't get the cab to fit perfectly in the bezel without a space.  Then I tried putting canes on the cab and it came out great!
Rats, I thought I had the photo but in my delirium, I must have deleted it.  :(  But, it's in my Etsy shop so you can see it if you click on the link over there>>>>.  It's the red flowered one.

Then I decided to use up a bunch of beads I've had laying around doing nothing.  You know how we always have leftover beads no matter how much we plan?  Well, I have a ton of them so decided to use a bunch.  So, I went wild and made a big, bold, beautiful bracelet for the non-shy.  Even though these are not colors I would normally pick, I like this bracelet!  Oiks.  Blue. :(  Thank goodness for purple.  :D

Then I decided to make some cabs for bead embroidery.  More blue!!  hat is WRONG with me?  No.  Do NOT answer that!  But, I like these cabs, too.  :)  I decided that I will put holes in all my cabs which I guess, makes them beads.  ;(  I'm still gonna call them cabs.  I realized that if I merely glue on my cabs to Nicole's TERRIFIC Bead Backing, I have to bead up on the cab to make sure it doesn't come off the backing.  Sometimes, you lose a lot of the cab surface doing that so I thought, what if it had a hole and I could sew it as well as glue it?  Hmmmm, I is smart.  ;O  Worked great.  Now, if I have a cab that I want to really show off, I only have to sew one row of beads because it is really secure with gluing AND sewing!  So, here is the latest blueness from my table.  

Happiness Is A Full Tummy

Look at this adorable little kitty.  Our Allie got herself a full tummy and a nice space in her mommy's chair.  She's a happy kitty.