I wish you a Merry Christmas!

As you gather with family and friends to celebrate 

this wonderful day

I bring you a selection of Christmas beads

from Rings&Things

Have a Merry Christmas!
and
Happy Beading!

Ten Dollar Gift Cards for Ten People!

I am sure many of you are rushing around because time is running out and you still got all these family and friends on your list and you need to buy them gifts, and the weather is awful, and how can you get to the malls, and what can you get them???

Well, here is one way to get 10 people off your list and its free and you can do it at your computer in your PJs, while sipping a cup of hot chocolate, hot tea, hot coffee, red wine, whatever your beverage of choice!

Have I got your attention?

But there is just one catch!

You need to be an Artbeads.com customer!

If you are a beader and you are reading this, the chances are you have shopped at Artbeads.com.

But wait there is more... you have only till Wednesday December 22, 2010 to get the names and addresses of your 10 people to Artbeads.com and the gift cards must be used by February 29, 2011.

Artbeads will use This information will only be used to fulfill your free gift card requests. They will not sell or distribute any of this information nor will anyone be automatically placed on any of their email newsletter or marketing lists.


Thank you, Artbeads that is very important to us.

Colors of Fall - II - Pink, Purple and Green

Back in October, I posted the first of my designs for the Artbeads.com Colors of Fall design assignment  since then fall has left us and yes, its winter now, but somehow I could not get this piece together until this weekend. I hope you like the results. The colors I chose were inspired by Pantone's Woodbine colors by Peter Som.

I have not used much silk or fibers in my jewelry and I wanted very much to add some silk into this design. I started with a Blacklip Shell Rectangle Pendant, from Lillypilly, with a beautiful green and purple swirling wavy design. Lillypilly makes these gorgeous intricately etched shell pendants in a variety of shapes and sizes, beautifully colored and lightweight. Some of the smaller sized pendants make great earrings.

I made the bail for this pendant from Czech glass fire-polished rondelles of Peridot and Amethyst swirls. The beaded necklace was a mix green freshwater pearls mixed with larger Tourmaline Green and Purple rondelles and the little peridot and amethyst swirl rondelles. Artbeads.com carries a wide variety of  Czech Pressed Glass beads, almost in any color and shape that one could want and the prices are easy on the budget too.

For the clasp, I decided to check out their lead-free, made in the USA Pewter clasps, and I picked an antique silver plated Pewter hook and eye clasp to close the necklace. The wide selection of pewter clasps provides a nice alternative considering the rising costs of precious metal clasps.

I checked out their selection of Ribbons and picked out this beautiful hand-dyed silk Hydrangea ribbon around the bead necklace. This silk ribbon came with the splashes of green, pink and purple that I was looking for and the clasp conveniently had two rings that the silk ribbon could be slipped through. I love how the beads peep from under the silk ribbon! The best part of this design is that it can be worn with the ribbon or not. I like it with the ribbon, what do you think?

The earrings are a simple trio of the different beads I used in the necklace on a sterling silver Fleur de Lis lever back.

Do not forget to check the great designs, albums I and II submitted by Artbeads.com design partners, fellow beaders like me who use a variety of beads and supplies from Artbeads.com, to get their creative juices flowing.

Disclosure: Some of the beads described above I have received free of charge from Artbeads.com.

I have been asked to review these beads/supplies and give my honest opinion of them.  I am not being paid by Artbeads.com for my endorsement of any of the products received and reviewed in my blog postings.

Is it good enough for your vote?

Remember the What Inspires You Beading Contest sponsored by Artbeads.com? Just look to the left!
Well, I entered my Purple Passion necklace in the contest. If you would like to read about what inspired me to make this necklace, please check it out at the Artbeads.com contest site on FaceBook.

The contest is currently in the public voting stage and everyone gets to pick out 5 of their favorites from the entries, so I do not feel so shameful about this shameless plug after all! I hope  that my necklace will be one of the 5 you pick as your favorites. You have got to hurry though, voting ends on the 8th of December. Thank you and enjoy the talented beaders who have submitted some fantastic designs and talk about their inspirations.

Happy Holidays with Happy Mango Beads!

Celebrate this holiday season with Happy Mango Beads!

Happy Mango Beads is sponsoring a 'Trim the Tree' Christmas Party! Make an ornament for the Christmas Tree and win! Your beaded tree ornament can be of beads purchased from anywhere and anybody, not just from Happy Mango Beads, that's very nice of them! The ornament must fit into any one of the 10 categories that they have listed. Which means that there are 10 prizes, each a $25.00 gift certificate to Happy Mango Beads and a grand prize of a $100 gift certificate to the best of the best!

The ten categories for the ornaments are:

Peace on Earth – peace signs, doves
The First Christmas – nativity, biblical
Blue Christmas – blue
Here Comes Santa Claus – characters
Fruitcake – recycled, re-purposed
Around the World – ethnic
Let it Snow – white, snow related
Jingle bell Rock – gemstones
Old Fashioned Christmas – traditional
Rudolph & Friends – animals, pets

To enter the contest fill out the entry form before the deadline of Dec. 17, 2010.

Good luck with your entry!

Merry Christmas and Happy Beading!

Gifts from Andrew!

This week Andrew Thorton, known for his great Thursday Giveaways is giving away six, yes, I said six colorful spools of Soft Flex Craft Wire from the generous folks at the Soft Flex Company.

Hurry on over to his blog and read all about it and enter to win by leaving a comment. The deadline for this great giveaway is Tuesday, December 7th.

Talking about Andrew, in his shop he carries some of my favorite heart charms from Candice Wakumoto. Some months ago, I purchased some bronze heart charms made by Candice and made this cute pair of earrings with them, do you like it?

After I sold this pair I wanted get more of these charms and, he was all sold out!! I searched the www and found out that Andrew's shop is one of the few places, maybe the only place that you can buy her beads.

Then around Thanksgiving I found out that Andrew had got them back in stock and I got more... and as I write I am playing with these charms and planning more earrings. Thank you Andrew, and thank you for the wonderful little Green Girl Studio clasp that you sent along, just love it. You know I will be back for more.

Shibuichi Rose Flower Clasp! So beautiful!