Margie and Me - The Finals

As 2010 is nearing to an end so is Marcie's Margie and Me Challenge...hopefully not for good though!!

Here is the colour palette I have chosen for my final piece for 2010.

Lady and the Unicorn - #56

I have to admit I have had this piece unfinished for well over a year now but when I saw the gorgeous colours in the palette above I knew this piece was begging to be finished.

So here it is!

The piece was created using a lampwork cabochon which I have beaded using seed beads and delicas. 

The necklace has been stitched in tubular herringbone using an assortment of seed beads in various sizes as well as delicas.

The piece is then strung with Swarovski bicones and rondelles as well as a clay bead in the centre.

This was my first attempt at tubular herringbone and I am pretty happy with how the piece turned out.

What do you think?

Check out the other entries HERE to see what everyone else has created for the finals... word has it that Margie Deeb has contributed a prize... so be sure to vote for your favourite piece for each colour palette.

Enjoy!!!

♥

Rain? What rain!

Today I was awoken by the musical sound of birds chirping. 

I lifted my head slightly to see a ray of light shining through the crack in the curtains... 

...could it be sunshine?

Nope!

Today marks our 11th day of rain... in a row... non stop!

Everything is WET!

I was greeted by this sight when I let the dog outside.

A branch of one of our trees has come away.

We haven't enjoyed our new deck all holidays.

It's a good thing I didn't hang up the new paper lanterns I bought!

Our new outdoor table is desperate for some company other than pools of water!

On a serious note though there are parts of Queensland, the state of Australia in which I live, that are seriously flooded and they have started evacuating people.

I have never seen rain like this... well except for back in 2007 when the Newcastle floods hit and my sister lost nearly the entire contents of her home... but not here in Queensland.

It's no so much the heaviness of the rain... it's just its constant presence...relentless, constant rain.

The weather report is predicting sunshine and clouds on Thursday and Friday and then glorious sun from there  on but I am not convinced... we had torrential rain yesterday and the weather report said it was going to be 

CLOUDY!

Here's to some sunshine soon.

♥

A wet but White Christmas

Although we have had rain here in Queensland for the past week the White Family have still managed to have an enjoyable Christmas. 

Here are a few photos from the past few days.

Merry Christmas!

♥

Procrastination with a super duper P!

Well you may have noticed that I haven't updated my blog for a few days....wow 8 days to be precise! 

My reason?

P R O C R A S T  I N A T I O N!

I have been sitting around the house for 5 days now looking at lots of blogs, checking out Facebook, reading my emails and that's about it...oh hang on I did manage to do some washing and cleaning on Monday!

I hadn't picked up a bead all week until yesterday afternoon.

Why? 

Is it the weather?

We are having some crazy storms here in "sunny Queensland" this week.

I have no idea. 

When I am working I manage to bead in my lunch break as well as until about 11.30pm in the evenings but now I have the time to bead I am taking part in that annoying, filthy habit that is procrastination.

Anyone else do silly things like this? Wasting time when you actually have the time to do things?

I promise I will bead today... in between tidying the house, wrapping some Christmas presents as we are doing Christmas with the inlaws tomorrow, making an berry desert and...oh yeah...

P R O C R A S T I N A T I N G!

♥

My Creative Space

It's beginning to look a little like Christmas!

I've been working on these wee little snowflakes.

They are so quick and easy to make and when I say quick I mean around 10 minutes per snowflake!

Even though Australia celebrates Christmas during Summer we can't seem to escape the traditional "white christmas" of other countries and many of the decorations sold in Australia are very reminiscent of Christmas' elsewhere.

I've been beading up a snow storm with these little beauties.

They make great tree decorations and even bookmarks.

For anyone that is interested in the FREE tutorial for these snowflakes please visit About.com here.

Don't forget to show me what you make with them!!

♥

Marcie, Margie and Me - Mosaic of Colour - #129

I am a few days late for this one but as you may have already read I decided to use my Challenge of Colour piece for the Margie and Me challenge as the colour palettes were so similar.

So here is my piece which you may have already seen from my previous post.

Eagle Eye cabochon stitched with size 8/0 seed beads and delicas and strung on gorgeous Amazonite beads.

Be sure to check out what everyone else has made at Marcie's blog, La Bella Joya.

♥

Challenge of Color - My pieces revealed!

When I first signed up for this challenge my ''colours of choice" were browns, bronzes and golds. I was all geared up to create a piece using my favourite colours and even had the beads ready to go.

So imagine my surprise when my colour palette arrived by email to discover not a drop of bronze in sight!

The closest to bronze was Calilfornia Dreams....more like Mustard Dreams!

I was a little stumped!

But isn't that what challenges are all about... making us take that uneasy step outside of our comfort zone?

So with that in mind I found this Eagle Eye Agate cabochon in my stash... 

and realised the cabochon matched my colour palette to a T.

So here is what I created.

A beaded cabochon.

"Simply Sumptuous"

I love the earthy feel this piece has and can see me wearing it many times!

~~~~

Now apart from the wee speckles of blue/grey in the cabochon I felt my first piece didn't do Niabelle Blue any justice so I felt the piece was calling for more blue.

So... I decided to string the piece with these gorgeous Amazonite beads.

"Flourish"

I would never have strung this pendant with these beads in a million years but now that I have I think the colour combination is just divine!

Two necklaces for the price of one!

I actually loved this challenge as yet again I was forced to work with a colour combination I would not normally work with.

I think I might continue to challenge myself further and pick up a few paint palette cards next time I am at the hardware store!

Hop on over and see what everyone else has created with their palettes.

Alice Peterson

Amy Freeland

Beth McCord

Brandi Hussey

Cary Scholes

Catherine Pruitt

Cindy Wimmer

Claire Maunsell

Cory Tompkins

Courtney Breul

Cristi Clothier

Cynthia Riggs

Emanda Johnson

Holly Westfall

Janea McDonald

Jeannie Dukic

Jennifer Cameron

Judy Campbell

Keirsten Giles

Kelly Morgan

Kristie Roeder

Kristin Stevens

Lisa Godfrey

Lisa Tracy

Lori Anderson

Mallory Hoffman

Marie Voyer-Cramp

Mary McGraw

Nicole Keller

Nicole Valentine

Paige Maxim

Patty Gasparino

Rebecca Anderson

Renate Stark-Krammer

Rita Parra

Shannon Chomanczuk

Sheila Summers

Stefanie Teufel

Yelisa Rojas



And don't forget to visit Erin at Treasures Found:Inspiration is Everywhere.

♥

Marcie, Margie and Me - Mosaic of Colour - #129

I missed the last LaBellaJoya "Margie and Me Challenge''.

Thankfully I was able to finish my Ice Queen Challenge piece to allow me enough time to get something completed for this one.

This month Marcie selected

Colour Palette #129

~~

Mosaic of Color

Thankfully the inspiration colours are nearly identical to my colour palette for my Challenge of Color.



 As a result I plan on submitting my piece for both challenges with both requiring submission this weekend!

♥

The Challenge of Color

Erin at Treasuries Found:Inspiration is Everywhere is holding the first Challenge of Color.

Erin has selected paint chips (palettes) for each entrant.

We then have to create something using those colours.

Here is my colour palette.

The deadline is 3rd December and I have absolutely no idea what I am going to create yet so I guess I better get a move on!

I have one design in mind involving a donut...the turquoise variety not jam and cream!

Watch this space!

♥

Ice Queen - A Bead Mavens challenge

I think I have spoken about the Bead Mavens Ice Queen Challenge enough over the past few weeks so without further ado here is my entry.

(click on images for enlarged view)

This is the first collar piece I have ever made and it was designed and created specifically for this challenge. 

The piece features a gorgeous Czech glass button as the main focal, Swarovski crystal bicones and rondelles, Czech glass beads, freshwater pearls, bugle beads and lots of seed beads! 

The necklace consists of silver links and velvet ribbon and the piece is backed with leather.

I wanted the piece to have a definite icy feel so I have used lots of transparent beads as well as Swarovski crystal and Czech glass.

The silver galvanised beads were used to depict the cold, icy feel an Ice Queen would experience living in the snow.

The Czech glass button is reminiscent of a snowflake and the freshwater pearls represent snowballs.

Wish me luck!

♥

Ice Queen Challenge - another sneaky peaky

I am making steady progress on my collar piece which, as you will know from previous posts, I am entering in the Bead Mavens Ice Queen Challenge.

A few of my original design plans are now...shall I say... on the wayside... but I am still happy with the result so far.

All that is needed to do now is back the piece with leather, attach the edge beads and construct the necklace.

I am hoping the leather isn't too much of a bother to stitch.I usually use ultrasuede but silly old me didn't check to see whether I had enough cream suede and yep you guessed it... I don't have enough!

I figured I'd have plenty, not taking into account that this piece is a lot bigger than my usual pendant size embroidered pieces. Not to worry. I think the leather will give the piece a luxurious feel!

Mental note for next time though is to check how much suede you have before you start stitching the piece if you have a deadline to meet!

I've thoroughly enjoyed working on my very first collar. My crystal ball sees a few more collars in my future!!

Entries for the Ice Queen Challenge are due 28 November so I will be sharing the final product with you in a few days!

~~~~

Just a reminder also that if you haven't voted in the

Artbeads

"What Inspires You''
contest

then be sure to drop by and take a look.

Voting is open until 8 December but vote now as you may forget later!

Here is a link to the piece I entered

Happy voting!

♥

Shameless self promotion.. please vote!

I've just been checking out the entries in the
Artbeads

"What Inspires You"

contest.

Competitions like these are a great reminder that even though you may not be a famous beader...
...you are still an awesome beader!

The entries are fantastic...so much eye candy!

Here is a direct link to my piece.

I know it's shameless self-promotion but I'd really like to win and treat myself to some Swarvoski crystals!

I mean let's face it ...what beader doesn't want to win beads?

You can see my inspiration and my piece in my blog post below.

♥

Artbeads "What Inspires You" contest

I have just entered the Artbeads "What Inspires You" contest. 

You can check out all the details including the entries so far here.

Here is my inspiration

A pop art style picture depicting a beach scene

And here is my piece

Summer Daze

I actually made this piece as part of the Artbeads Design Partner Blogging Program and thought it would be fun to enter it into this competition.

Voting starts on Tuesday 23 November so be sure to visit the site to check out the entries, 

including mine!

♥

My Creative Space... and a sneek preview!

I've been beading up a bit of a storm over the past week as I am frantically trying to complete a piece I am entering in the Bead Maven's Ice Queen challenge.

As previously mentioned it will be a collar style necklace and is my first collar piece I have ever created so that in itself will be a challenge.

The piece is stitched with transparent and silver galvanised seed beads with a few Czech glass and Swarovski beads thrown in here and there as well as some freshwater pearls for good measure!

I have to admit I normally steer clear of transparent beads so they too have proved to be a challenge!

Here is a sneak peek of the front

and the back

I am making steady progress and feel relatively confident I will meet the 28 November deadline.

Watch this space!

♥