I made these earrings for one of the reader’s challenges in Bead magazine, where the theme is Outrageous Earrings. The name of the theme made me think of the collection of unusual earrings I had in the early 80’s, including minature globes, tiny Rubiks cubes and even plastic toilets! I remember wearing a pair of big white plastic triangles to school one day but the teacher quickly confiscated them : (

So as a tribute to my rebellious old earrings I decided to make something similar with seed beads. This is my first time peyote-ing triangle shapes and after several attempts I found that the trangle was still too small so I stitched together the three sizes I had made. Not quite the same as the original earrings but I love ‘em all the same. I hope you do too!

This cuff had several working names…Vertigo, Vortex (sounds too much like a loo cleaner!) and Yeah Baby!…before I decided on Out of this Whirled. I love naming my pieces, I think it gives them a bit of character and hopefully will evoke a feeling or memory, but sometimes I struggle and it takes me longer to name something than it did to make it! It’s all part of the fun for me though.

Anyway, enough rambling. Here’s the cuff, made in peyote stitch using black & white Japanese Delica beads. It’s the first time I’ve ever made a peyote cuff from Delica beads and I just love the texture, it’s  like flowing fabric. I really enjoyed designing and making this, taking inspiration from this month’s colour challenge on the Bead Buddies forum. This one’s a keeper ; )

And here’s another Black Eyed Susan, this time using a yellow bead mix and I’ve used a button for the centre instead of a cabochon. Not sure what I’m going to do with this one yet, so it’s just a lonely pendant for now.

Here’s another piece of jewellery I made last week, for the Big Bracelet Bead Swap Challenge on UK Beaders. The idea is that you send a selection of beads to one member, enough to make a bracelet, and you get beads in return from another member. Here’s what I receieved, a bag of size 11 seed beads and a bag of mixed beads including seeds, cubes, drops, magatamas and greek silver washers…..

…..and here’s what I did with them. My first thought when I looked at the beads was that I wanted to make a peyote base with ’stuff on top’ and as usual I made it up as I went along. I made the base first, wanting it quite wide so I chose 2-drop peyote (for speed, I can be a bit impatient at times!) with a picot edge.

As you know, I’m addicted to brick stitch circles at the moment so I made three of them with some of the cubes, seeds and drops. The whole thing looks very complicated but basically I just started at the centre, adding the first circle and then worked out to the ends, stitching on all the other little bits and pieces on the way.

Finally I made a loop and added one of the large swirly beads as a clasp (I have two left over for matching earrings!). So whaddaya think? It was brilliant fun and I can’t wait for the next bead swap!

Had some great news today, I’m one of ten competition winners on the Make Jewellery magazine website with my Arctic Swirl necklace! I’ve won a lovely pair of jewellery pliers which will come in very handy : )

The new April/May issue of Bead is in the shops now and I’m very pleased to say that my floral charm bracelet is on page 14 – my very first published project! I’m not sure if I’m allowed to show the page so here’s a photo of the bracelet instead.

Here’s my card for this week’s Dutch Dare challenge. I’ve used a Paper Artsy stamp, DCWV floral papers and some Auntie Sarah’s Bloomers.

Here’s my card for the Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge, where this week you have to use your favourite colour scheme. I’ve chosen purple and green which is one of my all time favourites and made a card for my Nan for Mother’s Day. I’ve used a gorgeous Wendie Rhodes stamp coloured with Promarkers, Papermania papers, some Auntie Sarah’s Bloomers with some more flowers, brads and ribbon from my stash.

This card is for the Colour Create challenge, which is red and green with a wings option, and I’ve used this weeks Ismaki sketch with the flower option. The papers are Pink Petticoat and Papermania, I’ve coloured the butterfly images with Promarkers and cut and embossed my ‘flower’ with a Nestabilities die  and Swiss Dots in the Cuttlebug.

This card is for the Sketch and Stash challenge. I love this challenge, not only do you get a great sketch to play with but you’re also encouraged to use your new, unused or neglected craft items. Nothing neglected on this card, I use my Mucha stamp all the time! But the new things I’ve used are the Paisley embossing using my new Cuttlebug machine and the little white flower, which I’ve inked to match the image. I’ve used Papermania paper and some ribbon from my stash.

I really enjoyed this week’s Ismaki challenge sketch! The stamp is from a Grab Bag that I bought from Third Coast rubber stamps, coloured with Promarkers and I created the text on the computer. I’ve used Papermania papers, a button and brads from my stash and the shapes were cut and embossed on the Cuttlebug. Yes I finally treated myself to a Cuttlebug machine – no more rolling pin for me!

Wow two cards in one day, I am doing well! This one is for Mojo Monday’s challenge 77 and what a great sketch it is – definitely one I’ll be using again. I’ve coloured the image with Promarkers and glittered her wings in Crystal. The dotty paper is from Pink Petticoat, green paper was a magazine freebie and the floral paper and brads are from Papermania. I’ve also added a metal ’dreams’ embellishment which has been in my stash for so long I can’t remember where it came from!