It’s my birthday today and to celebrate I’m giving away not one but two blog candy prizes! For my fellow beaders I have a set of five 14mm beaded beads in gorgeous shades of blues and white, which I lovingly handmade myself…

And for non-beaders there’s a fab mini book thong in shades of zesty orange and turquoise…

All you have to do to win one of these prizes is to leave me a comment (link’s at the top of the post) and let me know if you would prefer ‘Beads’ or ‘Book Thong’ if you are one of the lucky winners. I’ll draw the winner next Saturday evening (12th) and the candy’s open to everyone, wherever you are in the world : )

…on this grey wet weekend. These book thongs were for a commission and I had so much fun making them, it was great to just lay out loads of bright funky colours and go wild! Don’t forget, you can make your own beads just like these using my tutorial ; )

My arm’s a little better today so I’ve managed to squeeze in a bit of beading. I really enjoyed making these little angels! They’re all available here  ; )

No special reason for this blog candy, I just thought it was time for a little giveaway. Up for grabs are these almost-edible mini book thongs, perfect for your Summer reading!

All you have to do to be in with a chance to win is to leave a comment on this post. As there are two book thongs up for grabs you’ll get two chances to win. Also, if you put a link on your blog telling your readers about my blog candy then I’ll enter your name twice, giving you four chances to win one of these unique bookmarks!

I’ll be picking the winner out of a hat (or something hat-shaped, I don’t think I actually own a hat!) at midday(ish) on Saturday 27th of June.

Good luck!

By the way the comment link is at the top of this post, not at the bottom like Blogspot posts – I know, it’s very confusing!

Well my resolution of making a card for every beady piece I create hasn’t lasted the month! I’ve been busy working on some bead tutorials and that’s been taking up most of my spare time. Here’s a peek at what I’ve been up to, hopefully some cards will appear very soon!

These earrings were made for a challenge on UK Beaders, where the theme is A Novel Idea. You have to base your piece on the title of a novel which I thought would be fairly easy but hmm…let’s just say…the books on my shelf…serial killers…horror…thrillers…not exactly jewellery inspiring titles on any of them! Thank goodness for Anne Rice’s “Blood & Gold” which was something I could work with.

I’ve also been busy making bookmarks using my beaded beads. These are available on my website and on Etsy,  Misi, Folksy and Coriandr as well as my Beaded Bead tutorial!

I’ve finally got around to listing some of my book thongs in several online marketplaces that specialise in handcrafted items. I couldn’t decide which one so I thought I’d try them all! You can now find me on Etsy, Misi and Folksy as well as my website. These marketplaces are brilliant for finding unique items from indie designers, I love them!

So here are my new book thongs, there are so many that I created a montage to save some blog space!

The theme on Inspire Me Thursday this week is to make a gift. Not a hard challenge for me as I usually make all my gifts! It’s not a cost thing, a lot of the time it would actually be cheaper to buy something. But I would much rather give a gift I’ve made with my own two hands, specifically for that person and always created with love. How many times can you say that about a massed-produced item? So here’s my handmade gift, a mini book thong for a friend of mine who always has a book on the go and loves flowers & plants. The buds are made from tiny seed beads woven around a wooden core.

Here’s a couple of new mini book thongs I’ve made and added to the website, along with the prism book thong I made last week. I love making these so much, I find it hard to stop!

This mini book thong will certainly brighten up anyone’s reading! I’ve used a gorgeous artisan glass  lampwork bead on one end and on the other a cluster of Swarovski crystals in a myriad of colours.

Here’s some of the bookthongs I’ve made recently, I really enjoy making these! They’re available in either regular for large/hardback books or mini for paperbacks.