All aglow

I know that I am biased but I do think that this is one of my most favourite necklaces I have ever made. It has been a long time in the making, not the actual putting together but the thought process. You might know what I mean if you make crafted items also. The germ of an idea is always there but you can only see half of the picture. Well finally all of the pieces fell into place and this is the finished article. So my make for Friday 9th April is All Aglow necklace. I even made a very quick pair of earrings to match.

Dog or Cat Person?

It seems to be that British people are split in two. You are either a dog person or a cat person. However there are a few of us who have had the fortune of being loved by both. I am one of those people we had a Westie for 12 years called Smudger, a mental springer for 2 years called Gizmo and currently have a very loving cat (when she wants to be of course) called Tink. I must admit I always thought that I was a dog person but I love my cat to pieces and wouldn't swap her for anything so I must fall into both camps. I wonder what you are? The reason for asking is that this week for Craftjuice Tuesday I decided to try and find both dog and cat related items. There are surprisingly lots and I have tried to pick items just that little bit different from the norm.

First up for all you dog people is this lovely greyhound from FlirtyMyrtle. She makes all her items out of paper mache, I remember putting paper mache around balloons at school but I am completely in awe of what she has achieved with this medium. This dog looks as if he has just realised you are coming in the door and you know by the tail that he is happy to see you. His name is Flicker and is for sale on etsy 

My other choice for dog lovers is this adorable brooch . He just makes me go aah and I know that all dog lovers will fall for that face. Yes I know it is a button but he still looks very animated. He has been made by ellies-treasures and is for sale on folksy.

Now for all you cat lovers. First up is this amazing oil painting. This would just look amzing on my living room wall although it may feel a bit like it would be following you around the room. It has been painted by ollina and is for sale on etsy

Finally for this week is this cute but functional cozy set. When I am doing the market stall on a Saturday one of these around my mug would keep my hot chocolate just that bit longer for a little longer. They are made by sharnemaniaknits and are for sale on folksy

  

I hope you have enjoyed my collection of items this week and please let me know are you a dog, cat or both person.

More Metal Effects

For Thursday 8th April I was still in a metal mood. I had lots of ideas in my head to do fancy things with the diamante heart pendant but after making my Ball and Chain bracelet yesterday I decided to stick with the metal effect and go for a simple necklace. I used silver metal effect beads and threaded them on with the heart pendant in the middle. Nice and simple, the necklace has quite a rigid shape and sits really well on the neckline. I have called it Silver Heart necklace.

 

Metal Effects

The make for Wednesday 7th April is metalized (is there such a word). I decided to have a day just using metal effect beads and chain. I am not entirely sure where this idea came from but after fiddling around with the beads and chain I came up with this as the finished article. It has three different shades of metal and the beads and chain seem to go really well together. I am really happy with it, it has quite an edgy feel and I am hoping that lots of different people like it. Let me know what you think. It is called the Ball and Chain.

Sparkle

The make for Tuesday 6th April is almost a carry on from the day before's make. Once again I started out with a silver plated chain. In my stash I have had for absolutely ages 2 round beads with these amazing crystals all over them - serious bling. The problem was only having two beads, they cost too much to justify turning into a pair of earrings and whenever I tried to incorporate them into a design they just never seemed to look right. After making yesterdays make and realising that sometimes less is more I decided to bite the bullet and make a necklace with just these two beads. I threaded them onto an eye pin, attached these to the chain and then for a final flourish added two chunky chain dangles from the bottom of the beads, hiding the join by using bead caps. I am really happy with the final result and I personally think this would look good on a little black dress or even jazzing up a plain jumper. I hope you like it as much as I do. I have called it Sparkle.

Teardrops

The make for Monday 5th April  won't make you cry but it might make you smile. I took some silver plated chain and just made the pendant the focal point. I started off with some acrylic teardrop shaped beads in lovely shades of pink and purple in various sizes. Each one of these was joined by a jump ring to a length of chain. Each chain was then attached by a larger jump ring to a silver plated large ring. I think that as the better weather comes along we need to try and make ourselves look summery (if there is such a word) and I believe that this particular necklace would look amazing with a lovely white dress on. Just imagine yourself on a summer holiday, skin a lovely shade of brown, nails painted and best of all you are feeling nice and relaxed. Have I painted a nice picture, I hope so now just imagine yourself with this necklace on.

Ok, now that I have painted this wonderful picture in your head, unfortunately I am going to bring you back to earth with a bump and say welcome back to Britain in April. However you could always purchase the necklace and still have the dream. The necklace is called Teardrops.

Links Galore

My make for Sunday 4th April (oh my god I am so behind, watch out for mass postings - hopefully - over the next couple of days) was a linking necklace with hot pink, black and metal beads. Each bead has been strung on a eye pin and then each eye pin has been linked together with a jump ring. This takes a little longer than simple stringing but it is quite satisfying when it is finished. I have called the necklace Hot Pink Links.

As a small bonus I even made a pair of matching earrings.

Spring has definately sprung

For Craftjuice Tuesday this week I took my inspiration from the garden. This past week or so the weather here in Devon has been glorious and because of this the garden is starting to start blooming. It is amazing how quickly things change. We have gone from bare branches to buds on everything. Lots of lovely flowers are starting to make an appearance so I decided to look for items that were flower based. My first choice is this stained glass window. It was made by amyorangejuice and was commissioned by a customer for a house in Devon. She actually made 7 windows and you can see the others on her blog. I would love to have one of these in my house.

Next up is this wonderful little girl's hat. While you are outside enjoying all this lovely sunshine looking at the flowers make sure that you keep your little one's heads covered. This hat is nice and sunny looking but functional at the same time. It has been made by mysparetimedesign and is for sale on etsy.

Next up are these fabulous flower earrings. They are lovely are just the kind of thing that I would wear day in, day out. They are made by jinjajewellery and are for sale on folksy.  Hope that you like them as much as I do.

Finally from  me don't worry if you don't have green fingers. If you garden is not as lovely as you would like and all off your house plants die, then cheat and use these fabulous felt flowers instead. They are made by fairyfox and the pattern to make them is for sale on etsy 

I hope that you have enjoyed my picks for this week and that they have brought a little bit of the garden into your lives. Hopefully the weather is nice where you are and you manage to get out into the garden and enjoy the sunshine over the next couple of days. Just don't forget to check out Craftjuice when you do come back inside and have a look at all the lovely goodies that are on there.

Craftjuice (Tuesday) Wednesday

As promised last night here are my choices from Craftjuice for this week. There is no theme this week, I just picked items that made me smile. First up is food, knew that would get your attention. Check out this redcurrant and strawberry pie, looks good enough to eat but unfortunately is has been crocheted. It has been made by Melbangel and it for sale on etsy

Next up is these amazing bookmarks.  They are just so different. I would love to have one of these marking the page on any book I was reading. They are made by umeorigami and are for sale on etsy 

Next up is this ice cream cone pattern. This could keep the children busy over the last of the Easter holidays. Nothing better than a bit of gluing to keep the children happy. It is made by fairyfox and is for sale on etsy

And finally for this week I have picked this Welcome hanging. It would be sure to brighten up any room. It is made by KnK and is for sale on etsy.

Hope that you have enjoyed my choices this week. Feel free to check out Craftjuice yourself, it's free to join and if you submit some items you never know that I may just showcase them here next week.

Where is Craftjuice Tuesday?

Just incase you are wondering where are my choices this week for Craftjuice Tuesday, there have been some technical difficulties. This morning as usual before I went to work I picked the items I wanted to showcase and sent my self an e-mail so that I could pick them up this afternoon and do a blog post about them. However whenever I have tried to go onto the website I keep getting error messages. So I do promise that I shall post tomorrow and for one week only it will have to become Craftjuice Wednesday.

Earrings to choose from

The makes for Saturday 3 April were some new pairs of earrings. I needed to replace some pairs that I had sold earlier in the day. I got out the stash of beads and decided to go for bold. I made three pairs in total. Are these your style or do you prefer small and dainty? The first pair are Bollywood. They remind me so much of Indian films, I couldn't resist naming them as such.

Next up is Daisies. These lovely rhodium plated flowers are amazing.We couldn't make our mind up what kind of flowers these are. We started off with Roses because of the centre part but ended up with Daisies because of the open petals. Are there any gardeners out there. What flower do they remind you off?

 

Finally for today's makes is Blue Butterflies. These are very interesting as only one half of the butterfly has any adornment on it. However I think that it works really well as when you move your head the sunlight will make the crystals sparkle.

Blue Bols

No, you can all calm down I am not offering you all a fancy cocktail. This is the name of the necklace and earrings that I have made for Friday 2 April's make. They are made from various sized wooden beads that have been sprayed light blue or silver. I think it meets three of the latest trends. It is wooden, chunky and also has the pastel colours that are very popular for this summer.

Petal Power

The make for Thursday 1st April definately lives up to the Glitz in Glitz and Glamour. The pendants were originally bought to go onto 5 seperate necklaces but sometimes you need to fulfill the dramatic side of your nature. Throw caution to the wind and just go for it. Well that is what I did when I decided to use all five flowers in the necklace. The flowers are covered in black enamel with a cluster of diamante in the middle to look like the stamen. I joined all the pendants together with jump rings and then put a simple silver plated chain on the final pendants on either side. I think it is definitely dramatic but also quite elegant. I have called it Jet Flowers.

More Craft Juice Tuesday

Oh my gosh, this Easter weekend has completely thrown me. I totally forgot that today was Tuesday. Just had a quick look through Craft Juice and decided to go for a purple theme. First up is Teddy with Parcel a lovely card in shades of purple with popcorn the bear on it. It has been made by boxofdelights and is for sale on folksy.

Next up is Purple Suede Heart bracelet, this is my kind of bracelet. It is simple but beautiful. It is made by Birdcage Creative and is for sale on folksy  

For my third choice I have picked the gorgeous hand dyed silk scarf  in blue and purple. It has been made by jpgallery and I would be ecstatic if someone gave this to me as a present. It is for sale on etsy.

Finally I could not resist this lovely scarf clip it would complete the scarf above. It jumped out of the page for me. It also has a hand died silk button and matches the hand tied element of the scarf. It has been made by Blueboxstudio and is for sale on etsy .

Well that's my choices for Craftjuice Tuesday this week. Hope you enjoyed looking at them as much as I enjoyed picking them.

Secret Easter Bunny

On a previous post I explained that I had been making a gift as my participation in the Secret Easter Bunny some of us was taking part in on the Craft Forum. Well on Easter Sunday we were all allowed to open our gift and finally see what had been sent to each other.  I received a lovely handmade mug, that had been fully personalised just for me from Daesul as she is known on the forum. She is actually called Claire Manwani and her beautiful pottery can be found at her website. I do suggest that you go on over and have a look at her makes, she does make some brilliant items. Oh and I forgot to say that inside the mug were some chocolate eggs, she is obviously a women after my own heart. I shall be taking my mug with me to work tomorrow and advertising my business each and every day but hopefully I can also point some people in her direction also. Here are the photographs of the mug that Claire made for me.

Also I did promise that I would share with you the pictures of the necklace and bracelet that I made for Lilac Moon Designs, so here it is. First up is the bracelet, followed by the necklace.

Elastic everywhere

The makes for Wednesday 31 March were basic elastic bracelets of various sized beads to fill up some spaces on my table for Saturday. The only problem was I got a bit carried away and I made 6 bracelets all together. This will definitely fill up a few spaces on Saturday.

  

Monochrome

The make for Tuesday 30 March is made up of some lovely acrylic flowers that I have had for quite a while but was never too sure what to do with them. However if you have been looking at the fashion magazines recently you will know that flowers are all the rage at the moment. The bigger the better. So I went and looked out my beads and sat and looked at them for about 5 minutes.. After much head scratching and a few attempts I came up with the final result. I had 3 white and 3 black flowers, so they were obviously going to be used alternatively. I just needed some simple metal effect beads to seperate the flowers so that the bracelet would fit better around the wrist. I have called it Monochrome Flowers.

Ribbon and Pearls

The make for Monday 29 March is really quite simple. Just some stringing but finished off in a slightly different way. Three lines of different styles and colours of beads, one row of small silver metal effect beads, one row of blue glass pearls with seed beads inbetween and finally larger cream coloured glass pearls again with white seed beads inbetween. These have all been joined onto a large ring and then cream coloured ribbon has been attached to the rings to give it a slightly different look. This also makes the necklace longer. I have called it Ribbon and Pearls.

Crystal Ball

Must have had my crystal ball out and working on Sunday 28 March when I made this necklace as the following day when my regular Jewellery Making magazine arrived they had provided me with some free leaf shapes. Watch out for some matching accessories in the near future. All it is, is some skeletal small leaves attached to a gold plated chain by jump rings. Some gold balls to balance out on the other side and finally to finish it off a large gold leaf as the focal point. I have attached an extension chain so the person who buys it can decide which length they would like it to be. I have called Golden Leaves.

How about a bit of bling

First of all major apologies for neglecting you recently. I have been making my one item every day but just had issues with finding enough time to actually post my new items here for you all to look at. Going to catch up today and tomorrow so watch out for a mass update. First up is the make for Saturday 27 March. First up was some simple gold effect beads and then I needed something to bring them to life. My local bead shop had a special offer basket and I cannot ignore a special offer basket. After a quick rummage I found these triple effect diamante beads in gold plate. Just some simple stringing and ta da the finished article. I have called it Saturday Night Out as I think it would be just the thing to brighten up the little black dress that I know every lady has in her wardrobe.