(Also take a look at this cool mixed media piece with ravens, too, from the AS Creative Team Blog.)
Showing posts with label halloween. Show all posts
Showing posts with label halloween. Show all posts
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Nevermore
Sand Fibers did a whole post full of ravens, including this one, which I adore:
Raven pendant from Etsy seller polkadotmagpie
(Also take a look at this cool mixed media piece with ravens, too, from the AS Creative Team Blog.)
(Also take a look at this cool mixed media piece with ravens, too, from the AS Creative Team Blog.)
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Halloween fun
I went in the book store earlier, and I saw some fun Halloween crafty things:
Witch Craft: Wicked Accessories, Creepy-Cute Toys, Magical Treats, and More!
Ruby slippers!
Also, has everybody seen the Martha Stewart thing? It doesn't show up as a book on Amazon, so I can't link it, but I've seen it on a couple of newstands already -- it's called "Halloween Handbook: the best of Martha Stewart." (Oh my, even after all these years, I am still secretly a librarian - I automatically switch to lowercase for a subtitle, which is an LC cataloging rule, or at least it used to be!)
- aha, here it is:
Martha Stewart Halloween Handbook Special Collectors Edition 2010
I didn't recognize Martha right away!
Oh, and there's also this one: Zombie Felties: How to Raise 16 Gruesome Felt Creatures from the Undead
This is one of those crafts I'd never get around to doing, but if it's your thing, they're pretty adorable!
When I checked out at the book store (I bought the Martha Stewart thing, I couldn't resist), the cashier made a random comment that it still felt early for the holiday stuff to be coming out, or something to that effect. I don't feel like it's especially early for Halloween stuff, though, do you? I feel like after Labor Day it's fair game. I don't really want to see Christmas stuff out yet, though, unless it's at Hobby Lobby or someplace. I figure you have to start early on craft things if you're going to do them and stay sane.
Witch Craft: Wicked Accessories, Creepy-Cute Toys, Magical Treats, and More!
Ruby slippers!
Also, has everybody seen the Martha Stewart thing? It doesn't show up as a book on Amazon, so I can't link it, but I've seen it on a couple of newstands already -- it's called "Halloween Handbook: the best of Martha Stewart." (Oh my, even after all these years, I am still secretly a librarian - I automatically switch to lowercase for a subtitle, which is an LC cataloging rule, or at least it used to be!)
- aha, here it is:
Martha Stewart Halloween Handbook Special Collectors Edition 2010
I didn't recognize Martha right away!
Oh, and there's also this one: Zombie Felties: How to Raise 16 Gruesome Felt Creatures from the Undead
This is one of those crafts I'd never get around to doing, but if it's your thing, they're pretty adorable!
When I checked out at the book store (I bought the Martha Stewart thing, I couldn't resist), the cashier made a random comment that it still felt early for the holiday stuff to be coming out, or something to that effect. I don't feel like it's especially early for Halloween stuff, though, do you? I feel like after Labor Day it's fair game. I don't really want to see Christmas stuff out yet, though, unless it's at Hobby Lobby or someplace. I figure you have to start early on craft things if you're going to do them and stay sane.
Friday, August 6, 2010
Early Halloween mania
I really have a thing about Halloween. I have tons of Halloween junk already - far more than one household of two people has any use for - and I am having to restrain myself from going out and buying all the new crafty stuff that's coming out for this year - for example, the stuff shown in these two YouTube videos from Two Peas. It's all just so cute! Meanwhile, what I ought to be doing, assuming I want to get in a Halloween state of mind, is making jewelry with all the skull beads I bought last year, but have I been doing that? Of course not. (Here's the Anna Griffin paper from the first video, in case you don't want to sit through it. This stuff from My Mind's Eye is also terrific.)
I did buy a Halloween punch on clearance a few weeks ago - a Martha Stewart haunted house:
(I don't know why Blogger is insisting on showing this sideways, but I can't seem to fix it!)
I think it was called a double punch, because it punches inside the punched-out area. It's cute but it's also terribly bulky - I don't really think I'll be buying too many of these! (Clearance items are my big weakness - as I imagine they are for many people. You can buy stuff and still feel virtuous. I'm always telling my husband, "But it was on sale!" and he just sort of rolls his eyes. I do try to at least restrain myself even there, and not end up with junk I don't even care about.)
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Completely unrelated to Halloween - but part of all the mass of coverage of CHA which has been coming out for the past two weeks or so - is new stuff from Nunn Designs. (look! actual jewelry! Lately you'd never know that this was supposed to be a jewelry blog!)
If I get around to doing another post, I do actually have some jewelry to show. Nothing fancy, but cute.
I did buy a Halloween punch on clearance a few weeks ago - a Martha Stewart haunted house:
I think it was called a double punch, because it punches inside the punched-out area. It's cute but it's also terribly bulky - I don't really think I'll be buying too many of these! (Clearance items are my big weakness - as I imagine they are for many people. You can buy stuff and still feel virtuous. I'm always telling my husband, "But it was on sale!" and he just sort of rolls his eyes. I do try to at least restrain myself even there, and not end up with junk I don't even care about.)
-------------------------------------------------------------
Completely unrelated to Halloween - but part of all the mass of coverage of CHA which has been coming out for the past two weeks or so - is new stuff from Nunn Designs. (look! actual jewelry! Lately you'd never know that this was supposed to be a jewelry blog!)
If I get around to doing another post, I do actually have some jewelry to show. Nothing fancy, but cute.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Can't. Stop. With the Halloween/DdlM Links!
Even though it's really too late to make much more stuff for this year, my excuse this time is that I want to remember this one for future reference:
HUGE round up of H'ween and Dia de los Muertos links!
Also, I love Cathie Filian's bat necklace
Cool DdlM dolls!
knitted pumpkins!!
Man, I realllly want to get in on this order of Alexander Henry Loteria fabric. Have I even mentioned here that I used to be a quilter?* I have not even been tempted by quilting fabric lately - except for this one. (I have a fair little collection of those AH DdlM-related fabrics. I was intending to make a quilt out of them someday, although the quilting has been on indefinite hiatus lately.)
*I ended up talking about that in the entry below this one, so look there if you're interested in hearing more about that!
HUGE round up of H'ween and Dia de los Muertos links!
Also, I love Cathie Filian's bat necklace
Cool DdlM dolls!
knitted pumpkins!!
Man, I realllly want to get in on this order of Alexander Henry Loteria fabric. Have I even mentioned here that I used to be a quilter?* I have not even been tempted by quilting fabric lately - except for this one. (I have a fair little collection of those AH DdlM-related fabrics. I was intending to make a quilt out of them someday, although the quilting has been on indefinite hiatus lately.)
*I ended up talking about that in the entry below this one, so look there if you're interested in hearing more about that!
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Crafty Halloween linkage
Now that Halloween's getting close, I keep nosing around and finding adorable craft things I hadn't noticed before (or had noticed ages ago and forgotten about):
Panoplie's tiny little pumpkin earrings (So cute - makes me want to run out and buy orange druk beads!)*
Smilin' Jack cuff (found on Bead Art Originals)
Alexa's painted mini-pumpkins
ilovetocreate's necklaces made entirely of paint!
Kathy Cano-Murillo is the goddess (or something) of Day of the Dead. Her Crafty Chica blog is awash with it - go check it out!
I could keep going all day, but I will stop or Halloween will be over by the time I post this!
Oops, one more: notmartha's meatloaf hand. (My husband wants me to make him one of these!)
-----------
*No, no, no. No shopping allowed for me right now!
Panoplie's tiny little pumpkin earrings (So cute - makes me want to run out and buy orange druk beads!)*
Smilin' Jack cuff (found on Bead Art Originals)
Alexa's painted mini-pumpkins
ilovetocreate's necklaces made entirely of paint!
Kathy Cano-Murillo is the goddess (or something) of Day of the Dead. Her Crafty Chica blog is awash with it - go check it out!
I could keep going all day, but I will stop or Halloween will be over by the time I post this!
Oops, one more: notmartha's meatloaf hand. (My husband wants me to make him one of these!)
-----------
*No, no, no. No shopping allowed for me right now!
Monday, October 26, 2009
Halloween leftovers
It's not even Halloween yet, so how can I have leftovers? (you may be thinking) -- well, this is leftovers from my necklace that I posted last Tuesday - I took a bead that I removed from that necklace, and a chandelier finding that I didn't use, and some chain that I had on hand, and made something new.
Here's the bead I took off of the other necklace:
It wasn't because I didn't like it that I took it off. And in fact it's basically a bead that I made myself (out of a bead and a charm - I'll go into that a bit more below). Here it is on an early version of the Day of the Dead necklace:
I liked the way it looked on the necklace, but the problem was that it was the only stone bead on the necklace, and it wasn't in the center, and I decided the weight of it was making the necklace hang funny. The easiest answer would have been to just move it to the center, but by that time I had already put something I really really liked there, and I didn't want to change it. So off it came, instead. But I didn't want to waste it, so I decided to use it to make something new, and this is what I came up with:
The bottom part is a chandelier finding that I already had, and some little jet-colored glass beads I already had, and the chain is a couple of different gunmetal-colored things that I had bought lately. I'm really pleased with the results of my improvising, actually!
=================================
I'm new at writing tutorials for my jewelry, and I'm already wanting to edit the heck out of what I wrote below (which I mostly wrote at about 5:30 this morning). But it gets the idea across and I really have other things I need to be doing right now, so I'm going to resist the temptation to change it all up. Think of it as a tutorial-lite!
Here's how I came up with that bead in the first place: I had pulled out everything Halloween-ish that I had, plus all black beads - and I happened to notice that this charm echoed the shape of this big stone bead perfectly:
I know where that stone came from - I bought it from FMG in a bag of mixed stones that they don't seem to have any more. Most of them looked more like this but there were a couple in that star shape. The spiderweb charms came from one of my local bead shops but I've seen those charms all over the place lately. I don't know if you're likely to be able to find a similar stone bead but it occurs to me that you could do the same thing with other shapes - I was thinking that if you could find a flat black rectangle, a headstone charm might look good on it! I'm sure there are others that would work as well.
Anyway, what I did was, I snipped the bail off the charm with my regular wire-cutters - it came off pretty cleanly, but you might need to file it a little. Then I cleaned both pieces up really well, and I mixed up some 2-part epoxy. If you haven't used it before, it's easy to use, at least if you have the kind in my link where the two tubes are connected - I got mine from FMG but I'm sure other places sell it. It automatically squeezes the same amount out of both tubes, so that makes it hard to mess up too bad! It's good to use something like an index card to mix it on, and a toothpick works really good for doing the mixing and applying. It just takes a tiny amount, and you put a very thin coat where the parts are going to meet - I don't think I put any at all on the stone side, just on the back of the charm.. And you have at least a few seconds to wiggle things into the right place before it starts drying. There was a little epoxy on the front after it dried and I think I scraped it off with a piece of wire. And voila! A whole new bead to play with. And that stuff sticks like a rock, once it's dry. I tried to pry it off with my fingernail, just to see if I could, and I definitely couldn't.
So there's your charm. For the chandelier, you need to add your little beads underneath - I think I used 4mm jet bicones on the two sides and a 4mm and 3mm jet round in the center. I just put them on with simple loops, although of course wrapped loops would be fine too. And then to connect the two, I had a gunmetal (or maybe just dark-oxidized) headpin that was long enough - 2", I think - to do all the connecting I needed to do - I made a loop at the top and the bottom of the stone bead, connected the bottom end of it to the chandelier and then set it aside.
As far as the chain, I had two kinds of gunmetal chain - big links, about 20mm ovals, and a smallish rollo chain, maybe 2-3mm wide. I cut off about 9" of the big links - the most important thing there is that you have an odd number of links - and then attach each end to the rollo chain to that piece with jump rings. I still haven't cut the rollo chain down from what I started with, so I have several options on the length - but I'm thinking it would look really good at choker length or just a bit longer. Anyway, figure out how long you want the necklace to be and cut it your rollo chain accordingly, and then add a connector at the back with jump rings. I'm partial to S-hooks for necklaces, but other things would work just as well. Then find that center big link in the front, pull it downward, and attach the stone-and-chandelier piece to it, and you're done!
Here's the bead I took off of the other necklace:
It wasn't because I didn't like it that I took it off. And in fact it's basically a bead that I made myself (out of a bead and a charm - I'll go into that a bit more below). Here it is on an early version of the Day of the Dead necklace:
I liked the way it looked on the necklace, but the problem was that it was the only stone bead on the necklace, and it wasn't in the center, and I decided the weight of it was making the necklace hang funny. The easiest answer would have been to just move it to the center, but by that time I had already put something I really really liked there, and I didn't want to change it. So off it came, instead. But I didn't want to waste it, so I decided to use it to make something new, and this is what I came up with:
=================================
I'm new at writing tutorials for my jewelry, and I'm already wanting to edit the heck out of what I wrote below (which I mostly wrote at about 5:30 this morning). But it gets the idea across and I really have other things I need to be doing right now, so I'm going to resist the temptation to change it all up. Think of it as a tutorial-lite!
Here's how I came up with that bead in the first place: I had pulled out everything Halloween-ish that I had, plus all black beads - and I happened to notice that this charm echoed the shape of this big stone bead perfectly:
I know where that stone came from - I bought it from FMG in a bag of mixed stones that they don't seem to have any more. Most of them looked more like this but there were a couple in that star shape. The spiderweb charms came from one of my local bead shops but I've seen those charms all over the place lately. I don't know if you're likely to be able to find a similar stone bead but it occurs to me that you could do the same thing with other shapes - I was thinking that if you could find a flat black rectangle, a headstone charm might look good on it! I'm sure there are others that would work as well.
Anyway, what I did was, I snipped the bail off the charm with my regular wire-cutters - it came off pretty cleanly, but you might need to file it a little. Then I cleaned both pieces up really well, and I mixed up some 2-part epoxy. If you haven't used it before, it's easy to use, at least if you have the kind in my link where the two tubes are connected - I got mine from FMG but I'm sure other places sell it. It automatically squeezes the same amount out of both tubes, so that makes it hard to mess up too bad! It's good to use something like an index card to mix it on, and a toothpick works really good for doing the mixing and applying. It just takes a tiny amount, and you put a very thin coat where the parts are going to meet - I don't think I put any at all on the stone side, just on the back of the charm.. And you have at least a few seconds to wiggle things into the right place before it starts drying. There was a little epoxy on the front after it dried and I think I scraped it off with a piece of wire. And voila! A whole new bead to play with. And that stuff sticks like a rock, once it's dry. I tried to pry it off with my fingernail, just to see if I could, and I definitely couldn't.
So there's your charm. For the chandelier, you need to add your little beads underneath - I think I used 4mm jet bicones on the two sides and a 4mm and 3mm jet round in the center. I just put them on with simple loops, although of course wrapped loops would be fine too. And then to connect the two, I had a gunmetal (or maybe just dark-oxidized) headpin that was long enough - 2", I think - to do all the connecting I needed to do - I made a loop at the top and the bottom of the stone bead, connected the bottom end of it to the chandelier and then set it aside.
As far as the chain, I had two kinds of gunmetal chain - big links, about 20mm ovals, and a smallish rollo chain, maybe 2-3mm wide. I cut off about 9" of the big links - the most important thing there is that you have an odd number of links - and then attach each end to the rollo chain to that piece with jump rings. I still haven't cut the rollo chain down from what I started with, so I have several options on the length - but I'm thinking it would look really good at choker length or just a bit longer. Anyway, figure out how long you want the necklace to be and cut it your rollo chain accordingly, and then add a connector at the back with jump rings. I'm partial to S-hooks for necklaces, but other things would work just as well. Then find that center big link in the front, pull it downward, and attach the stone-and-chandelier piece to it, and you're done!
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Terrorific Tuesday
My skull necklace is part of Terrorific Tuesday this week! I'm so excited!
Spooky Spider House
Silvia creates a miniature haunted house that is spooky and oh-so fun!
Witchy Embroidered Postcard
Sharron Westerfield brews up a whimsical witch postcard
The Impatient Crafter
Vintage plastic owls become the focal point of a charming necklace you can wear for Halloween and all year round!
Pumpkin and cat felt treat bag
Felt bag that can also be made as a wall hanging or door hanger
Cheryl Ball's Halloween Door Hangers
Create these door hangers from inexpensive gloves for Trick of Treaters
My Big Mouth
Make a creepy wire tree just in time for Halloween!
Mel's Day of the Dead Necklace
Linked chain, skulls and spiderwebs for Dia de los Muertos.
Crafty Chica's Matchbook Shrines
Adorable little folding shrines that fit in your pocket!
Paper Pumpkin
Make a plump paper pumpkin from some strips of paper plus a little Halloween craftiness!
Polymer Clay Zombie
Candace's diabolical plan to populate the world with zombies continues!
The Impatient Crafter for iLoveToCreate
Make a retro style styrofoam ornament into a fab Halloween Party centerpiece! Madge shows you how using iLoveToCreate products!
How to Make a Spooky Spice Rack
Come make a spooky spice rack with Crafterella, she's sharing her unique labels with everyone!
Halloween Treat Tote
Conjure up a quick Halloween cupcake basket using new ScoreBoard dies!
Brenda Pinnick's Halloween Banner
A little scary, a little fun, this delightful banner celebrates all things Halloween. Made using Brenda Pinnick Sizzix dies, glitter and ribbon.
Creepy Candlesticks
Pattie Wack turns mini pumpkins into a boo-tiful Halloween lighting idea!
Strands of Beads
Melissa explores the holiday possibilities in a black and white checkered bead
Glow in the Dork Wall Hanging
Turn off the lights and have a laugh with this goofy wall hanging from Alexa Westerfield!
Picture Perfect Pumpkin
Vanessa Coppola turns a traditional pumpkin into a decopauged masterpiece!
If you would like to join in the fun next week, e-mail Alexa at swelldesigner@yahoo.com and put in your subject line "Terrorific Tuesday". She'll get you added to the group!
Silvia creates a miniature haunted house that is spooky and oh-so fun!
Witchy Embroidered Postcard
Sharron Westerfield brews up a whimsical witch postcard
The Impatient Crafter
Vintage plastic owls become the focal point of a charming necklace you can wear for Halloween and all year round!
Pumpkin and cat felt treat bag
Felt bag that can also be made as a wall hanging or door hanger
Cheryl Ball's Halloween Door Hangers
Create these door hangers from inexpensive gloves for Trick of Treaters
My Big Mouth
Make a creepy wire tree just in time for Halloween!
Mel's Day of the Dead Necklace
Linked chain, skulls and spiderwebs for Dia de los Muertos.
Crafty Chica's Matchbook Shrines
Adorable little folding shrines that fit in your pocket!
Paper Pumpkin
Make a plump paper pumpkin from some strips of paper plus a little Halloween craftiness!
Polymer Clay Zombie
Candace's diabolical plan to populate the world with zombies continues!
The Impatient Crafter for iLoveToCreate
Make a retro style styrofoam ornament into a fab Halloween Party centerpiece! Madge shows you how using iLoveToCreate products!
How to Make a Spooky Spice Rack
Come make a spooky spice rack with Crafterella, she's sharing her unique labels with everyone!
Halloween Treat Tote
Conjure up a quick Halloween cupcake basket using new ScoreBoard dies!
Brenda Pinnick's Halloween Banner
A little scary, a little fun, this delightful banner celebrates all things Halloween. Made using Brenda Pinnick Sizzix dies, glitter and ribbon.
Creepy Candlesticks
Pattie Wack turns mini pumpkins into a boo-tiful Halloween lighting idea!
Strands of Beads
Melissa explores the holiday possibilities in a black and white checkered bead
Glow in the Dork Wall Hanging
Turn off the lights and have a laugh with this goofy wall hanging from Alexa Westerfield!
Picture Perfect Pumpkin
Vanessa Coppola turns a traditional pumpkin into a decopauged masterpiece!
If you would like to join in the fun next week, e-mail Alexa at swelldesigner@yahoo.com and put in your subject line "Terrorific Tuesday". She'll get you added to the group!
Monday, October 19, 2009
Day of the Dead necklace
I finally quit tinkering with my skull necklace and here it is:
(I lightened the picture up some so you could see it better. There's also a bigger version on Flickr.)
I wanted to write up a nice tutorial with very specific instructions, and I found that I just can't do it - or at least, not very specifically - because of the way I made it: I collected skull beads for over a year and then I just sort of winged it. But I can tell you what I did and how it's put together, anyway, and hopefully you can use some of these ideas to create your own version!
Ingredients:
I made this necklace in a very informal way – since the chain was unsoldered, I just unlinked it at random(ish) intervals and started adding beads. I looked through my beads and charms for anything that looked suitable for Halloween or Day of the Dead, and anything black or goth. I really intended to use round Czech beads as well as the little coin beads, but I happened to try the coin beads first and they looked so cute I just kept using them. I think they give a bit of unity to the assortment of beads. I decided to put the clasp in the front – and the decision to use two different colors of clasp was mostly driven by the fact that the bar that matched the oxidized toggle had bent and wasn't really usable. I also intended to put far more than one charm on this necklace – I had a whole collection of charms by the time I got done – but when I added the rusty skull and the lightning bolt below that, it just looked finished, and I decided to stop.
As far as how it’s assembled, I just linked everything together with headpins and jump-rings and whatever I had on hand. I used both bought jump-rings and ones I had made myself. Mostly I just used simple loops - I wrapped a few, but since I only had headpins to work with and no wire that really matched, I didn't have enough wire to wrap with a lot of the time!
Sources:
A lot of my sources were the places listed in my sidebar. Manto Fev is an especially good source for skulls. Or just try searching for "skull beads" on your favorite bead-seller's website, or on Etsy.
A few specifics:
Lightning bolt charms (The spiderwebs also came from the same seller, but she seems to be sold out, last I looked.)
Here’s a different rusted skull charm from the same seller I got mine from.
Copper skulls: http://www.magpiegemstones.com/catalog/item/5238630/6693716.htm
I think some of the other skull beads came from Elise Mathiesen’s Beads of the Month program (aka botmo) on Livejournal. I think the black AB glass skulls (which look like they might be pressed Czech glass) may have come from her.
About metals: my intention was to mix up my metals even more than I actually did. I decided that the antique brass chain was more in keeping with the mood of my necklace than the brightly-polished copper I started out with, but antique-finish copper or silver would probably look good too. I did use polished copper in the beads, and also heavily oxidized copper, and polished brass, as well as the antique brass; but no silver, in the end. This was more because of what I had on hand than any real design decision, though.
Note: I added a couple of detail pictures here.
(I lightened the picture up some so you could see it better. There's also a bigger version on Flickr.)
I wanted to write up a nice tutorial with very specific instructions, and I found that I just can't do it - or at least, not very specifically - because of the way I made it: I collected skull beads for over a year and then I just sort of winged it. But I can tell you what I did and how it's put together, anyway, and hopefully you can use some of these ideas to create your own version!
Ingredients:
- Skull beads in various sizes and materials (size range is about 6-20mm) (more on this below)
- Jet crystal coin beads, 6mm
- Antique brass chain – mine came from Michael’s and was unsoldered
- Antique brass wire, if you can find it - if not, antique brass headpins will do the job just fine
- Antique brass jump rings in sizes to complement your chain
- Bar and toggle clasp – I used a bright copper bar and an oxidized copper toggle, from two similar sets (but note that if you do this you need to make sure they fit one another!)
- Optional: charms - I used antique brass spider webs, and a brass lightning bolt
I made this necklace in a very informal way – since the chain was unsoldered, I just unlinked it at random(ish) intervals and started adding beads. I looked through my beads and charms for anything that looked suitable for Halloween or Day of the Dead, and anything black or goth. I really intended to use round Czech beads as well as the little coin beads, but I happened to try the coin beads first and they looked so cute I just kept using them. I think they give a bit of unity to the assortment of beads. I decided to put the clasp in the front – and the decision to use two different colors of clasp was mostly driven by the fact that the bar that matched the oxidized toggle had bent and wasn't really usable. I also intended to put far more than one charm on this necklace – I had a whole collection of charms by the time I got done – but when I added the rusty skull and the lightning bolt below that, it just looked finished, and I decided to stop.
As far as how it’s assembled, I just linked everything together with headpins and jump-rings and whatever I had on hand. I used both bought jump-rings and ones I had made myself. Mostly I just used simple loops - I wrapped a few, but since I only had headpins to work with and no wire that really matched, I didn't have enough wire to wrap with a lot of the time!
Sources:
A lot of my sources were the places listed in my sidebar. Manto Fev is an especially good source for skulls. Or just try searching for "skull beads" on your favorite bead-seller's website, or on Etsy.
A few specifics:
Lightning bolt charms (The spiderwebs also came from the same seller, but she seems to be sold out, last I looked.)
Here’s a different rusted skull charm from the same seller I got mine from.
Copper skulls: http://www.magpiegemstones.com/catalog/item/5238630/6693716.htm
I think some of the other skull beads came from Elise Mathiesen’s Beads of the Month program (aka botmo) on Livejournal. I think the black AB glass skulls (which look like they might be pressed Czech glass) may have come from her.
About metals: my intention was to mix up my metals even more than I actually did. I decided that the antique brass chain was more in keeping with the mood of my necklace than the brightly-polished copper I started out with, but antique-finish copper or silver would probably look good too. I did use polished copper in the beads, and also heavily oxidized copper, and polished brass, as well as the antique brass; but no silver, in the end. This was more because of what I had on hand than any real design decision, though.
Note: I added a couple of detail pictures here.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Halloween crafts, and a shoparrific day
Ooh, remember me saying (in that looong post about Hobby Lobby last week) that I really wished I could think of a use for a boa? Well, Alexa at The Swell Life came up with an adorable Halloween wreath made from a boa, as part of her 24 Halloween Crafts in 24 Hours marathon. (The logo is currently on my sidebar, but of course it won't be there forever, so I'll put it below, too, for future reference.) That wreath idea could easily be converted to use for other holidays, too, as somebody pointed out in the comments. She's really got some cool ideas, there - she's also had, so far, a really elegant vase and some cute button earrings and several things to do with pumpkins, and more! And I don't think she's even done yet!
OK, enough gushing. (I just like her taste, I guess.) I don't really have anything beady to report today. I went to Ikea and they don't have beads, unfortunately - although I still managed to spend plenty of money. I did buy some garland for my - still imaginary - Christmas tree. I keep eyeing trees in offbeat colors so there's no telling what I'm going to end up with. I bought a few useful things, like a dustpan and brush set, and then I bought a bunch of candles, because I really love candles this time of year, and a few children's Christmas presents, and some other odds & ends. The candles were what I really went for, because I have some candleholders in that jumbo-tealight size that nobody but Ikea sells the refills for, that I know of. And then I got an Ikea flyer in the mail that said they were having a sale starting today, and hey, I had an excuse and everything, so off I went.
Oh, gosh, I almost forgot, I did buy some beads today - I ordered from Lima Beads. I have been admiring their website without buying anything for some time now and I finally succumbed and ordered some stuff. Quite a bit of stuff, actually. So I'll report back on that when my order arrives!
OK, enough gushing. (I just like her taste, I guess.) I don't really have anything beady to report today. I went to Ikea and they don't have beads, unfortunately - although I still managed to spend plenty of money. I did buy some garland for my - still imaginary - Christmas tree. I keep eyeing trees in offbeat colors so there's no telling what I'm going to end up with. I bought a few useful things, like a dustpan and brush set, and then I bought a bunch of candles, because I really love candles this time of year, and a few children's Christmas presents, and some other odds & ends. The candles were what I really went for, because I have some candleholders in that jumbo-tealight size that nobody but Ikea sells the refills for, that I know of. And then I got an Ikea flyer in the mail that said they were having a sale starting today, and hey, I had an excuse and everything, so off I went.
Oh, gosh, I almost forgot, I did buy some beads today - I ordered from Lima Beads. I have been admiring their website without buying anything for some time now and I finally succumbed and ordered some stuff. Quite a bit of stuff, actually. So I'll report back on that when my order arrives!
Monday, October 5, 2009
Links and pictures
I added some store links and links to magazines - I'll probably add some links to other weblogs, too, later on. For the online stores, I mostly stuck to ones I've ordered from myself and had good luck with - and the ones with locations after them are local stores that don't seem to sell online. I also added a bunch of books to my Amazon store, just for fun.
I did take pictures; here's some of my Hobby Lobby loot:
And here's some other stuff I've bought lately: resin beads from Natural Touch Beads and Happy Mango Beads (see sidebar for those links):
Here are some (not near all) of the leftovers from my skull necklace - I didn't end up using many charms because I decided I liked the way it looked without them. Plus, I just have way more stuff than will fit on one necklace, period. Obviously there's going to have to be a series!
Some of these came from Bead Boutique and I think some from one of Nomadic Notions' San Antonio stores. Quite a few of the others I bought on Etsy. I also have tons of other skull beads left over, which I didn't try to put in the picture.
I would post the picture of my finished necklace but I'm not really happy with the picture; besides, I changed it after I took the picture. So I'll post a new one later. (If you can't stand the suspense and want to see, the ones I have are on flickr.)
I did take pictures; here's some of my Hobby Lobby loot:
And here's some other stuff I've bought lately: resin beads from Natural Touch Beads and Happy Mango Beads (see sidebar for those links):
Here are some (not near all) of the leftovers from my skull necklace - I didn't end up using many charms because I decided I liked the way it looked without them. Plus, I just have way more stuff than will fit on one necklace, period. Obviously there's going to have to be a series!
I would post the picture of my finished necklace but I'm not really happy with the picture; besides, I changed it after I took the picture. So I'll post a new one later. (If you can't stand the suspense and want to see, the ones I have are on flickr.)
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