December must be my lucky month! Not only was it my birthday and I received some beautiful cards, gifts and good wishes from my family and friends, including a gorgeous sewing box from my very good friend Sue. I also was lucky enough to win a box of amazing artisan lampwork beads from Sarah at FlameForceFive, thank you Sarah : )

Then I was so pleased to discover that I’d won the Artist of the Month challenge over on the UK Beaders forum with my Dark Twist necklace! As well as all that, my Enchanted Earrings project is in the latest issue of Bead Magazine (issue 19). I haven’t been too good healthwise lately with one thing and another, so all of this has cheered me up immensely : )

It’s been a while since I made any cards but I got the urge to make some this week. I’ve stuck to a very simple style; stamped Pollycraft Winter Elves and a polar bear by Anita’s coloured with Promarkers and glittered, Shabby Princess backing papers, some ribbon and sentiments printed on the computer. Hope you like them.

And here’s another of my Fairground Attraction pendants that sold before I had a chance to show you! I adore the colour combination in this one, based around the shades in the mix of cubes called Serenity, consisting of blue, purple, green and white.

I’m really excited to see my Enchanted Garden earrings in the new issue 19 of Bead magazine! They’ve done a brilliant job of photographing them, I’m chuffed to bits : )

I meant to post this freebie some time ago but there’s still time to stitch this design for a special Christmas card. For best results stitch it on dark fabric like navy or black and it looks amazing if you add some crystal blending filament to the white! Hope you like it.

>>> Click here to download the chart <<<

First of all, good news. Remember these earrings (bottom of the post)? Well Jean loved them and they are going to be in a future issue of Bead! I’m so excited : )

This is a bracelet I made over the weekend. I’m really pleased with it, partly because I’ve had these pink beads for some time and not really known what to do with them. They’re that strange shade of pink that I find really hard to match with other colours, but I put some copper next to them and wow! I have some left over so I think I’ll make a matching necklace. Watch this space ; )

Thank you so much for all your lovely get well wishes! I’m feeling a lot better now, got the old antibiotic bleurgh-ness but I’m getting up and about much more. I got loads of beading done while I’ve been recuperating, more of my ferris wheel pendants which are really relaxing to make – I just choose the colours and off I go! These are all available on my website. The first one to show you is Atlantis, gorgeous blues in this one…..

Next is Robin Hood – blame my sister for the name, she thought of it!

This one was a challenge to myself and I’m really pleased with how it turned out. I wanted to see if I could make one with just crystal beads and no other colours. It reminds me of a huge snowflake!

And if that wasn’t enough I got a pair of earrings made too. I’m planning on submitting the design to Bead magazine so keep your fingers crossed for me. Talking of Bead, my book thong project will be in the next issue and there’s a sneak preview of  it in the current issue on page 22!

Phew, I think that’s enough! Thanks for looking.

First of all some good news. Bead magazine has accepted another one of my projects! This time it’s for one of my book thongs, which I’m really pleased about : )

At the moment I’m working my way through The Beader’s Floral by Jill Devon and Liz Thornton. It’s a fabulous book and I’d highly recommend it to any beaders who love flowers. Hopefully I’ll be learning how to create a new flower every day and posting photos of the finished flowers as I make them. Eventually they’ll all be made into one piece of jewellery – no idea what, I haven’t actually planned that far ahead!

Here’s the first flower, a Stargazer Lily made with herringbone stitch.

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.

I’m so excited to share the news that my Enchanted Garden earrings have been accepted as a project for Bead magazine! They work so far ahead that it’s probably going to be about a year before it’s in print but hey, it’ll be worth the wait! My Ruby bracelet will be in the next issue, due out on March 18th : )

Here’s a sneak preview of the spiral rope I’m making for my beaded cab (in other words it’s not finished yet!)

What a nice surprise this morning to pick up my copy of Bead magazine and see my Garden Goddess in the Reader’s Challenge Gallery! There are some really lovely projects in issue 12 too so if you’re beadily inclined go get yourself a copy