Monday, April 8, 2013

Thank You For Being A Friend: Earring and Bracelet Sets

Four Pair o Earrings

So here's the story behind this post. Several years ago, my husband's parents retired to a small town on the Washington coast. To say it's remote is an understatement, but that's where they wanted to be. They quickly settled in and made tons of new friends. A few years after they moved, my father in law's brother joined them and he became part of their bunch. I've never seen retired people keep so busy with so many clubs and activities.


Since we started going to visit them, we've always gone to brunch at a local historic hotel owned by a sweet couple who decided they'd had enough of city life. They've been great friends to my in-laws and present for happy occasions and sad ones like when my mother-in-law passed away.

We recently celebrated my Uncle-in law's 80th birthday and they were no less gracious when we went to brunch at the hotel. They have some equally warm and funny ladies who work there and we have lots of laughs with them . I decided I'd make these ladies some things to show our appreciation for always making our extended family feel so special. I made four sets of coordinating earrings and stretchy bracelets.

Black and White Set

The first set is silver, white, grey and gold. Most of the beads and findings are Blue Moon Beads.

Black Silver White Gold Earrings

The second set is blues and berries, using dichroic glass beads along with faceted acrylic beads:

Raspberry and Blueberry Set

The third set is shades of toffee and purples with antique gold connectors:

Grape and Gold Set

And the last set is copper and amber using more of the copper toggle clasps from my birds nest pendant necklace:

Copper and Amber Set

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Saturday, April 6, 2013

April Birthdays Continue: Cards in Yellow and Gray

Yellow and Gray Birthdays

I wasn't kidding about April being birthday month for me. Here are two more cards for April birthdays. These use papers from Teresa Collins, Cosmo Cricket, and Recollections.

On a personal note, today would have been my daddy's 76th birthday so Happy Birthday Daddy.
For the first card I used:

Yellow and Silver Birthday
  • 5x7 white card ( made mine from heavy cardstock)
  • Cosmo Cricket yellow leaf paper
  • Teresa Collins yellow and gray floral paper
  • Silver paper
  • Washi Tape
  • Baker's Twine
  • Charm
I trimmed the yellow leaf paper to 4.75x6.75 then trimmed the silver and floral papers to 4x6 and tore the edges of the floral paper. Wrapped coordinating baker's twine around this panel and tied a small silver charm to the middle.

Stamped the birthday candle and sentiment ( also Teresa Collins) using yellow inks on white paper scraps, trimmed w/ decorative edge scissors and mounted on paper scraps. Assembled card as show using foam dots to add the candle and sentiment panels. Dotted the candles with silver liquid pearls and added coordinating washi tape.

Yellow and Gray Irises

For the second card, construction was the same. This time I used the reverse side of the Teresa Collins paper , a washed yellow, with a damask print gray paper For the focal I used dimensional stickers by K&Co, and a coordinating piece of green washi tape to match the leaves. Finished with silver and white polka dotted washi tape.

Yellow Irises

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Thursday, April 4, 2013

BFF Open House Link Party #99 and Carmex Giveaway WInner

The Answer Is Chocolate

Happy Friday Eve everyone and welcome to the first link party of April. I hope you all survived April Fool's Day...definitely not one of my favorite days especially since blogging because some of the "fake" ideas people share I think are actually legit!

The winner of the Carmex giveaway I held is : Allison ( #37 as selected by Rafflecopter). Allison has been notified. 

OK. let's start with some of the highlights from last week's party: 

Confetti Bowl 7

This gorgeous creation was shared by Carolyn at homework. It's paper mache! Isn't it amazing?! What a great way to use up paper scraps too. 


Carolyn's bowl would look great atop this made over end table by Sherry at Pondered Primed Perfected. You really need to see the before pics. You won't believe it. Love this color combo! 


Debi, from Adorned from Above shared this chic pedestal cake plate. It is so fresh and perfect for Spring. Pop over for the tute on how she made it. 

And what better to put on a cake plate than cake pops? Especially chocolate cake pops? Especially especially these gorgeous cake pops from Karyn at Pint Sized Baker?

Cake Pops, Flower, Fondant, Spring, Elegant, Fancy

So now, let's see what all of you incredibly talented creative folks have been up to this week! If you're new to the party, say hi in the comments. A follow isn't required (but appreciated) and I love meeting new bloggers. 







Wednesday, April 3, 2013

April Seems To Be Birthday Month: Rose and Gold Birthday Card

Rose and Gold Birthday

I didn't realize exactly how many April birthdays were in my life until I did the logical thing and wrote them all down in one place.

This card has to travel across the ocean so to keep myself from having to take out a loan for postage, I tried to keep it pretty flat and light. A challenge for me since I love dimension and embellishments.

Rose Birthday

I gathered up the things I planned to use in my card, starting with computer generating the focal image and sentiment using my My Memories digital scrapbooking software.  Printed on white cardstock and trimmed to size.  My card was guided by the colors in this image so I chose papers from my stash to match.

Gold Embossed Panel

I cut white cardstock to 5x7 card size, trimmed the rose paper to 4.75x6.75 and a white gold cardstock to 4.5x6.5. Ran the gold paper through my Cuttlebug to emboss it.

Cuttlebug Embossing

Mounted the panels as shown and added a scrap of the rose paper across the middle with a coordinating self adhesive scrapbooking sticker by K&Co. I may or may not hoard these. Just sayin'.

Rose and Gold Embossed Card

Mounted the focal image and sentiment as shown and finished off by adding drops of  liquid pearls ( bisque) to the butterflies and flowers.

Rose Gold Birthday Closeup

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Sunday, March 31, 2013

Spring Fever: Copper and Silver Chain and Bird's Nest Pendant

Copper Leaf Necklace and Bracelet

Maybe it's Spring fever or hearing all of the birds calling to each other. I was excited about my bird's nest Easter cards and had recently seen some wire bird's nest pendants somewhere and was drawn to them and wanted to try making one. As things often do with me, one thing led to another!

Birds Nest Pendants

As you can see, I made more than one. For the "how-to" on the wire bird's nest pendant, I'll point you to You Tube which has tons of tutorials.  This post is more about what I did with one of the pendants I made.

Blue Moon Beads Copper Leaf Clasps

Included in my Design Team supplies from Blue Moon Beads were these very cool copper leaf clasps. I loved them immediately but hadn't felt the right project for them until I started playing with the nests. What goes better with a bird's nest than leaves? I also had some antique silver and copper chain in my supplies.

Leaf Clasps

I decided to use some of the clasps not as clasps, but as focal pieces in the necklace and joined them together with jump rings.  I did use a clasp as it was intended:

Copper Leaf Clasp

attaching lengths of  the copper and silver chain to it using copper jump rings.

Leaf and Nest Necklace

I had some leftover chain ( necklace measures about 20 inches) so decided to make  a matching bracelet. Attached the chain to the leaf clasp, and then just added some of the beads from my nest and charms I had on hand.

Oxidized Copper and Silver Bracelet
Leaf Clasp Bracelet

The other nest pendant I made I just attached to a ribbon necklace using a silver bail , also by Blue Moon, and antiqued glass pearls for the eggs.

Pearl Birds Nest Pendant

These little wire nests are very forgiving since like real nests, they are not meant to be perfect and they all have slightly different bends and twists. They're also very addicting!

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Disclosure: I am a member of the Blue Moon Beads design team and as such, receive supplies from them to use. Designs and opinions are my own. 

Wishing You A


Thursday, March 28, 2013

BFF Open House Link Party # 98

The Answer Is Chocolate

It's time for weekly fun here at The Answer Is Chocolate. Thanks to all the regular and new linker uppers for continuing to make this such a fun party. Winner of the "Dear Lizzy" cards I had up last week is: Linda from Our Mush Push!   Second order of business: a few of the highlights from last week: 


Can you guess what these are? If you guessed gorgeous grown up fun bubble blowing wands, you're right. Is there anything more fun at any age than blowing bubbles? I think we could all use some more bubble blowing in our lives. Visit Rena at Jewelry Making Journal to get the how to details. 



This paper medallion from Laura over at The Shed would be a great addition to any party...birthday, shower, Mother's Day brunch. You can blow bubbles at your party too with the wands you make from the first link :) 



It might be too late for this Easter but you can definitely pin this for next Easter. Make your own gorgeous chocolate egg. Aimee from Twigg Studios will show you how. Swoon! 


My "baking bucket list" includes Macarons. Check out these Cadbury Creme Egg Macarons that new linker upper Tried and Twisted shared. New blogger, so let's give a warm bloggy welcome. 

OK, now onto this week's fun. Following is not required but I love finding new blogs so if you are a new follower, please be sure to leave a comment and I will be over to visit and follow back.