Surprise! My Pay It Forward Gift Arrived!

You may remember at the beginning of September I had a Pay It Forward post. The idea was after I was one of 3 people to comment on Patti Vanderbloemen's post to receive a surprise, I would 'Pay It Forward' by offering the same  opportunity on my blog. The only set rule was you have to mail out your surprises sometime in the next 365 days...fortunately Patti did not make me wait!

I gave a little information about myself...a few colors I like, wrist size, but otherwise I tried to leave it open to her creativity. I can't begin to tell you how great she did! Sizing is fantastic, colors...yum and beads from several of my favorite artists! As I work on my surprises to send I hope my recipents are as pleased as I am with their surprises!

So I'll just quit babbling and say here it is...

Lampwork beads from Sue Kennedy, Glass Bead Art and Sheila Davis. Here's a link to Patti's shop so you can pay her a visit and a get a piece of her beautiful jewelry for yourself!

Have a great evening!
~Kari

Bead of Clay Design Team Reveal!

Several months ago the opportunity came to be part of a wonderful design team through Bead of Clay. So many of us wanted to participate that we've been split into teams...each waiting our opportunity to participate in a design series. I was so excited to hear at the end of July that I would be part of the August/September round of designers.

Marla was so wonderful to give a sneak peak of all the loot that would be coming our way...the ideas of course began swirling at first sight. So many fantastic beads, components and even fiberwire to work with...did I mention I was excited!

Then Marla presented us with a challenge... She asked that we make a pair of earrings and a necklace OR bracelet. The catch, we had to use EVERYTHING  sent to us in our designs...leave nothing out. Did I mention we were getting a TON of stuff? Here's a picture of the all the loot...

I have to take a moment to say I love the color pallette and they all did a fantastic job with coordinating colors to each others items. Now back to that use everything and only 1 pair of earrings and 1 necklace OR bracelet...yikes! Best to just dig in...and take a few progress pictures along the way!

 

I picked beads for the earrings first. I really liked the purple rounds..I know hard to believe, lol. At first I was undecided about the teal tubes or the green rounds (slightly mismatched). So at this point I set the earrings aside and decided to move on for the moment...

Links, dangles, and more links... It is at this point I will tell you I decided to cheat, just a little, in my design. I actually end up with 2 necklaces, which can be worn together or separately and a pair of earrings that can be worn with either necklace. I wanted to follow Marla's request but felt I also had to let the beads 'speak' to me. Besides I'm an artist, not good at following directions by nature...LOL!

So the first necklace is a 3 strand chain style linked together with one of my hubby's new handmade copper rings...coming soon to our supply shop Asbury Avenue Designs. I love the way this necklace turned out, I was able to use most of the loot in this necklace without having the piece be "too much". wrapped links are spaced out on each strand and I've made this one adjustable to it can be worn close to the neck up to about 18-19 inches.

 

The adjustable style of this one perfectly compliments the extra lenth in the second necklace. It took me a bit to get past only having one of Kristi's beautiful copper cones...oh what I could have done with two! But the one I decided was perfect to create a focal with a few of the larger beads that just didn't sit right as links for the first necklace.

This simple style also turned out to be a great place to use the fiberwire and not have it get 'lost' in the design.

Right about now you're thinking what happened to the earrings...

and now that I've shown you all these beautiful goodies, in wonderful pictures and collages...I wanted to show how both necklaces can be worn together and how the earrings compliment everything but of course...I couldn't get a good picture to save myself! So pardon this horrible picture but you can atleast see how it all goes together.

My extra long post is almost over...just a little business and thank you left to do...THANK YOU to all the wonderful artists from Beads of Clay...without you we would not have this wonderful design group! I hope you will visit the other designers who participated. Links to their blogs are below along with links to all the bead designers for your shopping pleasure. :)

Designers:

CillaWatkins
Lesley Watt
MaryLou Holvenstot
Shannon Chomanczuk

BOC Contributors:

Karen Totten Starry Road Studio
Julie Rowe Beads, Birds and Bones
JeraLuna Designs
Marla James Marla's Mud
Kristi Bowman KristiBowmanDesign
Yarn Sweet Yarn

Thanks to our CBC Admins!

Today I'd like to say a big THANK YOU to 5 fantastic ladies! They put in alot of work a administrators for our Facebook group...Creative Bead Chat. We are 1,000+ members and still growing.

Help me show these wonderful ladies how much we appreciate all they do to promote, advise and support all of us in this wonderful chat group. Below are links to each of their shops, so stop by and check out all of their great products...I bet you'll find at least one thing you just must have...

Marla James of Marla's Mud
Melinda Orr of Melinda Orr Designs
Karen Totten of Starry Road Studio
Marla Gibson of Spice Box Designs
Keirsten Giles of Lune Designs

This group is so great with it's friendships, advice, encouragement and support...thank you doesn't really seem like enough.

Pay it forward

 

Saw this on Patti's blog this morning...looks like fun!

Here’s How It Works

I’ll send a surprise gift to the first three commenters on this blog post. The gift will be a handmade surprise by me and will be sent to you some time in the next 365 days (yep, mystery gift at a mystery time).

Here’s what you need to do, leave me a comment and make sure you include your email address (if your profile doesn’t include it). I’ll email you for your snail mail address and a ask a few questions (likes/dislikes, favourite colours, sizes general stuff like that).

To complete signing up you MUST play along too. To do this you must blog a similar post and pledge to make a surprise gift for the first three people who comment on it.

So, do you want to play? Comment below and I’ll sent a thoughtful handmade gift to the first three people who do.

Let the fun and games begin!

Happy beading!