Archive for the ‘bead swap’ Category

Well Ladies, It is Saturday and it’s already been a week since the Bead Soup Party (scroll down for previous post). It’s been a gigantic blog hop party, 210 participants! It took me 3 days to go around all the blogs!

So here’s my giveaway, a lavender and lime polka dots coin purse with ring holder (to use it as a jewelry case instead of a coin purse if you wish)

102 comments (and more still coming as I write) , 51 blog followers and 83 fans on facebook…

That makes it 236 entries…(Biggest ever giveaway for me!!)

so the winner who was drawn is Julianna Cannon!

(Please contact me Julianna to let me know your shipping address)

Thank you so much to all the participants and look forward to the next BSP starting in August

A very earthly selection with blue crystals…blues, browns, ecrus…nice! (see more pictures here) Unusual for me as I do more colorful and lampwork and sterling silver Jewellery. Unfortunately, when Wire wrapping the handcrafted pendant, here’s what happened:

N o t     g r e a t.

So I had to rethink my piece ( using one of Rach’s lentil beads as pendant) and came up with TWO pieces. Hope you like…

I made all the copper links myself. Not bad considering I’d never used copper before in my life.

And added a cute little porcelaine birdie..

‘Copper Bird Song Necklace’

 and my second piece…

…From Balanced. I know, I have had them for a couple of weeks now. However waiting for a bit of sunshine in this part of the world to take pictures takes like forever. So in the end, I decided to stuck them on the kitchen counter, juggling between a rubbish camera and a non existing light lol.

Here they are…Thank you Rach for giving me the opportunity to challenge myself : I have never used copper before and I’ve been meaning to give it a go for ages, so that’s great !

 Beaded bead, round quartz beads, resin lentils

 Stone beads

 swarovski and czeck crystals, handcrafted pendant

Handmade copper toggle

See here the bead selection I sent to Rachel and you can actually check out what other BSP goers have sent here on Flicker

Bead Soup Party reveal on the 26th February!! Stay tuned…

I have been listing a few items…Purple and Orange Framed purses, a tea wallet and a tissue cozy. I’m quite pleased with the coin purses as I have been working on the pattern for ages and ages:  Pattern number 5 seemed to be fine until I realized that if I cut here, if I reduce the seam allowance there and bla bla bla I came up with different shapes and sizes. ONE pattern lol (Can you tell I’m a beginner!!?) 

So I’ve come up with different shapes and widths which I like but what I’m definitely happy with is the texture and the ‘feel’ of it. It means that even when you’re broke (as in NO money/coins in your purse) it still feels sturdy and comfy in your hand. You can even pretend it’s full ;)

Russian Dolls framed purse click here

Tea time Tea bags holder click here

Summer Soiree Tissue Cozy click here

I am definitely going to show you what the bead selection I received for the Bead Soup Party soon. I have been waiting for a bit of sunshine to take nice pictures…But the sun here in Ireland is shy…So I’ll show you pics anyway next time!

Thanks to Lori from www.PrettyThingsBlog.com and www.LoriAnderson.net who is the brain behind the Bead Soup Party Swap (please click on the link below right to know more about it ) I am now in the game and have been assigned a partner. And guess what?? I have been assigned to a fellow Etsy Ireland Team jewelry artist : Rachel from www.balancedcrafts.com. She is so talented, it’s a pleasure to work alongside Rach. In fact I’ve already done so during the ATC Etsy Ireland swap!

Here are the lovelies I sent Rach…Straight from my own stash. The focal is from one of my favorite lampwork artist, but each single lampwork bead here has been lovingly handmade by an artisan. Great quality and care. Love the colours. There’s more pictures (and really well taken) by Rachel here.

The toggle is sterling silver and I added amethyst swarovski crystals…Just as well I remembered to take pictures before I sent off the beads,  only minutes before heading to the post office!

Peach fresh pearlwater and copper earrings by balanced

Rachel’s boutique on Etsy here, go have a look at her jewellery and profile!

Everyone who loves jewelry welcome! This swap is hosted by Lori Anderson and This year’s Bead Soup Party was huge! Over 100 participants from all over the world. Click here to see what I came up with for the last bead soup swap…

Actually in TWO boxes. As promised, I managed to take a couple of pictures of the Petite Bead boxes I received. We all had to handmake the box or get a vintage box. The content would include a selection of beads with a focal, 5 unique beads and 20  matching beads no smaller than 4mm…Basically, unique beads you wouldn’t come accross in your local craft shop. Here they are and don’t forget to look at the PREVIOUS POST to look at the boxes I made …

From Cassandra www.myartfuladventures.blogspot.com :

and from Bryanna www.thecanaryscupcake.blogspot.com :

Thank you to the 2 lovely ladies I swaped with and Thank you for looking ^_^

I’m just back from France where I’ve spent 2 weeks with my family. It was great and I must say I’m a bit homesick at the minute but I’m sure it’ll pass . Dylan has started to  walk over there and he’s not 12 months yet!! Walking, crawling with his bum up lol by the end of next week he’ll be walking like a pro. Unfortunately, Dylan got back home with a cold and a rash…We thought he had developed chicken pox or roseola but the GP said it could be just a simple rash and cold…this morning we discovered more spots…But then, the teething, difference in temperature between ireland and France and different routine/food/travelling….Could be it.

So all that to say that I haven’t been able to take photos of the two boxes I received from Cassandra and Bryanna…I’ll try to post pics of them tomorrow if Baby’s better…But I already had taken pics of the boxes I sent, so without wasting anymore time, first a big thank you to you two girls and especially Cassandra for organizing the whole swap. I definitely have a taste for it now! If you (dear reader) know of a cute swap happening soon please let me know ^_^

Anyway, so here they are, first for Bryanna : Marie-Antoinette theme

I absolutely loved making these 2 boxes  using new collage and resin encasing techniques…They are my very first altered boxes! I’m a beginner you know…

I wanted to go for different handmade beads that I usually go for. (As you probably know, I mostly work with high quality artisan lampwork beads) So that was a challenge for me and I opted for  handcrocheted beads… They match fabulously the handmade and silver Rose pendant I got from www.dottyral.etsy.com She’s a brillant artist!

I handmade the card (oups forgot to take a pic) to match the box and sent it out lovingly packaged!

And then for Cassandra : A ‘Chic Parisienne’ theme

I simply went for black, silver and sparkly crystal…So hard to catch with the camera! I promise it looks even better in reality

Vintage crysal brooch and vintage chandelier crystals are the components…With mini handcrafted pink see through lampwork beads and big silver cotton handcrocheted beads. All handmade or vintage!

Card made by me to match and off the package went to Cassandra. You can go to her page here to see what the other participants have made…

Also, if you’d like to swap boxes or ATC with me or know of an other challenging swap, please let me know!

I’m actually organising an ATC swap, reveal first week of September…

Thanks for looking and hope you enjoy the blog , ^_^, Virginie

My latest adventure: Joining the Petite Bead Box Swap hosted by talented Cassandra (www.myartfuladventures.blogspot.com)

The point of this swap is to gather collections of unique beads to show off and share. So no cheap plastic, wood, or resin beads that can be picked up at a hobby store. I will be sending to my 2 bead partners:

1. One focal piece such as: cameo, cabochon, pendent, vintage jewelry piece.
2. At least 5 unique beads in coordinating colors. Examples of unique beads: multicolored, patterned, handmade, lampwork, etc.
3. 25 high quality beads in coordinating colors no smaller than 4mm

 And that’s not all. To accompany nicely these lovelies, we will send them in a decorated or vintage carton box…That’s the part I’m looking forward to getting into! As my beads are already selected and bought. At first, I was quite nervous as I wanted to go down the vintage road (something new for me really). But after a bit of patience and net surfing, I sourced a few interesting beads…vintage,crystal and handmade…

I’m chuffed! Even though when buying online, you never really know how well your goodies will match…I’m pretty confident though ^_^

My 2 bead buddies are Cassandra and Bryanna from www.thecanaryscupcake.blogspot.com (check out these 2 blogs, they’re gorgeous)

Will be updating you with the boxes deco soon…