Halcraft Pretty Palettes Challenge

My friend Erin invited me to take part in this month's Halcraft Pretty Palette's Challenge. She sent me a very sparkly, icy inspired collection of beads and told me to create whatever I'd like and I could add in other beads. The inspirations were macro photos of snowflakes from a Russian photographer. You must go visit the Halcraft blog to see there beauties. 

So I gathered my Humblebeads, took a quick trip to Michael's to round out my color palette with a few more earthy options and set to work. I was a little afraid of all that pastel bling from the challenge, but a great challenge pushes you out of your comfort zone and allows you to put your stamp on it, stretching in the process. 

First up is a linked bracelet with a Humblebeads Winter Branches House Beads. I paired together the the snowflake charm, faceted glass and rhinestone beads Erin sent with faceted teardrops and metallic hematite from the Halfcraft Bead Gallery collection. A few copper hematite and copper jump rings added in darker colors to match my focal bead. 

Snowflake charm earrings with faceted glass and crystals from Halcraft.

Erin had sent in a few rose quartz beads inspired by Pantone's color of the year. I wanted to create a piece of jewelry in the pink hues that felt a little like spring might be on the way! I pulled out my Skeleton Leaf pendant, a disk bead and a Wedgwood bead in green from my Humblebeads stash. I paired with up with these unusual shaped sunstone beads that I picked up from a local bead store. My Halcraft beads are tiny dangle accents in between each link. Hurry spring...hurry.

I pulled some of the rose quartz colors to create a coordinating pair of earrings using art beads from Green Girl Studios and Gardanne Beads. 

This was a fun piece, I can't remember the last time I made a charm bracelet. As you'll soon notice, snow owls and woodland inspirations became my underlying theme for the challenge. This bracelet captures it all with art beads from my collection and tiny accents from Halcraft. 

 Snow owl charm earrings with tiny rose quartz crystals and lampwork beads. 

I wanted to create a multi-strand bracelet that captured those wintry hues and pulled out my Winter Wonderland spacers. I paired them up with faceted teardrops from the Halcraft Bead Gallery collection, each one on dark annealed steel wire to darkened my color palette.

For the multi-strand connectors I pulled out some metal blanks, cut them and hammered them to create a birch bark texture. I love how these turned out and tied the bracelet together. A Green Girl Studios owl clasp finishes the design.

Owl charm earring with Humblebeads disks and Halfcraft faceted glass teardrops. 

I love a good challenge and Halfcraft certainly provides a lovely one from Erin each month. Please head over to Halcraft blog and see what Erin created, she's kinda amazing you know! Thank you Erin and Halcraft for the opportunity to showcase art beads for the Pretty Palettes Challenge.

Featured Artist: Monica Pryor

This weekend in the Humblebeads VIP Party Facebook group Monica Pryor shared her bracelets with me featuring Humblebeads and Anne Choi. They were so amazing I had to share them with you today. I'm totally smitten with them. My house beads are among my favorite beads and I love seeing how creatively they get used in jewelry. 

I love the earthy mix of stones, Czech glass and art beads - so lovely. And I would have never thought of using my house beads as a dangle, but aren't they just perfect that way!

The silver bead from Anne Choi reads, "THERE IS NOTHING LIKE STAYING AT HOME FOR REAL COMFORT". Truer words couldn't express how I feel about home!

Who wouldn't like to retreat to a little cabin in the woods with a few good books, tea, watching gently falling snow with a fireplace roaring to keep you cozy. This definitely speaks to my soul!

This so beautifully captures the colors of the Caribbean that inspired my little beach hut bead. It has me pining for a tropical island on this cold January night! Anne's bead reads: "THE CURE FOR EVERYTHING IS SALT WATER. SWEAT, TEARS, OR THE SEA". Love that quote! 

Thank you Monica for sharing your work with me and for making my beads look so good! I love seeing what designers make with my beads - be share to share your creations with me.

Visit Monica's Etsy shop, Feminine Genius Jewelry to see her beautiful collection of art bead jewelry.

Winter Inspirations

Humblebeads on Etsy

Winter is settling into the fields and forests around my home. It's an icy winter wonderland with more snow on the way this week. I won't lie, I've enjoyed the warmer weather this year but once the snow is here and gently falling I'm transfixed by it's magic. Can we get a woot, woot for husbands that do the shoveling? .

I can't think of a better thing to do during winter hibernation than pull out my beads and get creative!

Try my muffin tin challenge to jump start your jewelry projects this weekend. It's a great trick to use to get 6-12 projects done quickly.

Image source: Pinterest 

Free Holiday Gift Tags

Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas. 

I was inspired to pull out my watercolors last night and make a new series of gift tags to share with everyone.

As you can imagine, my tree is filled with lots of special little boxes waiting for my nieces, sisters and daughters. We love wrapping gifts almost as much as we love making them. 

Download the gift tags here. 

Woodland Winter Ornaments

Hello friends - it's a quiet Friday night at my house. We have been working our tails off this week getting all your orders out. Just a few left to send out tomorrow and then the rush is done. It's time to relax, to make gifts, to finish decorating, to enjoy a few treats and most importantly to spend time together.

I always feel like my Christmas celebration starts Christmas Eve and goes through the week after Christmas. That's when life slows down enough for me to catch my breath. When I let wonder wash over my weary soul. It's the time when I stop and listen instead of rushing. It's my time to reflect and dream of the year ahead. I let the weight of winter settle in and enjoy the call of ancient times that the winter solstice brings.

The busy, crazy days before Christmas fly by in a buzz and I enjoy the anticipation but the stress of preparing can be draining. So I eagerly look forward to the quiet and rest after the celebration is over.

But for now, I'm a whiz of an elf. Making things from morning until night with lots of fun side projects sneaking into my daily to-do list. One such project were these fun ornaments that I created for our tree.

The painted wooden pendants are from Summer Wind Arts, a little gift to myself last month. I paired them up with my tiny snowflake beads, which have been a favorite of mine this season. 

I brought in a little more color with waxed linen in green, English cut glass and brass electroplated hematite. They remind me of cozy, knitted sweaters for some reason. 

This little guy, in an action shot.

My beloved snowflake beads.

Being a Michigan girl, I've always loved snow and snowflake patterns. This year we are enjoying a green Christmas. After two very rough winters, I'm cool with this. I'm sure it will snow soon enough. A white Christmas does holds it's own kind of magic, but a late snow in the season is just as beautiful and inspiring. 

I'm off to create for the rest of the night, I have some special gifts to make for the girls on my list. How are your gift-making adventures going? Are you done yet? 

Have a great weekend!