Fa la la la LPA...

It has been a Lisa Peters Art kind of season in my house of late. I worked on a couple of pins/pendants to help with a fundraiser benefiting shelter animals (see post "For the love of animals") in November.

After those were completed and sent off, I worked up a couple of pieces to send back to Lisa - a ring using one of her wonderful little flower cabs and a poodle brooch/pendant.



The tiny flower cab has a hole in the middle, I started this one by anchoring the cab to a small piece of Nicole's Bead Backing with a 6mm Swarovski margarita crystal bead and a 15/0 seed bead.



I use a small about of E6000 to secure the edges of the cab to the bead backing material and added size 3mm Swarovski bicones in between each of the flower petals



Green seed beads were added around the outside of the cab and crystals



I used gray Ultrasuede to back the piece, first cutting a small hole it in it to fit the pad on the ring blank through. I add a tiny dab of E6000 to the pad of the ring blank and attach it to the back of the beaded flower cab, then let dry. The ring blank is adjustable, so it can fit a wide range of sizes.



Once dry, I whip stitched the Ultrasuede to the bead backing on the cab using blue charlottes.



And there you have it... a pretty little ring - perfect for every day or a special occasion!



How about a little poodle cab pin/pendant with a heart??? Double win! Some time ago, Lisa sent me two of these cute little poodles, (click on any of the images to see a larger, more detailed view). I glued it down to bead backing and started by adding vintage sequins around the outside. The sequins are anchored by dark red seed beads, then outlined by those same pretty red beads.



The poodle is edged with cream colored seed beads with a dangle of red seed beads, a couple of cream colored seed beads, a red garnet heart, then finished with a beautiful heart bead by Lisa Peters.



It is backed with tan Ultrasuede and has a brass pinback with bail so it can be worn at a pendant or a pin/brooch.



Lastly, Amy at Bead & Glass Boutique had a Facebook contest using LPA components. Each participant was sent a kit. We were instructed to used most of the kit and any thing from our own stash we wanted to add. I received a beautiful cab with a faint leaf pattern on it.



In addition to the cab, there were these beautiful tubular beads in a turquoise color and square glass beads in a reddish color. To the kit I added turquoise/raku colored seed beads and vintage dark gold seed beads salvaged from an old beaded cap found in an antique store.



Also added - size 8/0 gold seed beads, size 15/0 gold seeds beads used in the bezel and in the edging and 6mm topaz Swarovski margarita beads used in the dangle. There are 5 size 3mm Swarovski bicones in the bezel for a little extra sparkle (two in the top corner and three in the bottom). The edge is something new to me. It is called Side Petal Edge and found in Dimensional Bead Embroidery by Jamie Cloud Eakin - a fabulous book by the way and one I highly recommend you add to your collection if you enjoy bead embroidery.



Tan Ultrasuede is used as the backing with a pin back including bail for use as a pendant.



Not sure yet what all the new year will bring me in the way of beading inspiration, but I'm hopeful it will be a creative year filled with lots of projects!

A choker and a ring...

My older grand daughter recently requested a choker, she dug through my stash of small cabs and found just what she wanted, then requested beads in blue, silver and black.

The cab is one I was lucky enough to snag after my visit with the Beads of Courage boxes.



The choker is about 1 1/2 wide at it's widest point and 13 inches long.



There are glass seed beads in several sizes, Swarovski margarita crystals in black and vintage sequins.



It is backed with blue Ultrasuede and the clasp is a vintage Swarovski sew on.



I have wanted to try my hand at making a ring for some time now and recently I was gifted with this small raku cab by Marianne Kasparian aka MAKUstudio.



It is surrounded by glass pearls



It was mounted on an adjustable ring blank



And backed with black Ultrasuede



It was donated to a Northern Indiana business for a fund raising auction.

Photos are clickable for a larger view

Circus - Trash it Out - Art Doll Round Robin...

A girl named Circus came to visit, and would you look at her? She is an amazing little thing! I had her here for just about a month and even though she's gone now, she did leave a smile in my heart.

This is the third doll in the Trash it Out Art Doll Round Robin. With each arrival, I am SURE I have not seen a more amazing doll - then I receive the next one and am proven wrong in that thought.

I have been absolutely amazed at the transformations of each of these forms - the stories they have become and emotion that has been put into each doll by all the participants. I truly feel lucky to be part of this round robin.

One thing that caught me by surprise in the project are the journals. Each one is just as amazing as the dolls they travel with, honestly words do not adequately describe what I see when I open and carefully go through each box.

I will say that with Circus - I was stumped in what to add to her. I want so badly to add beauty to each doll however I find I am rather inexperienced in the diverse skills exhibited by my fellow round robin participants. FINALLY, I came up with what I thought was a brilliant idea - pink cotton candy hair! Well, my intentions were good, but the reality was a disaster. Thankfully I worked on the hair without actually attaching it to the doll.. whew, disaster averted.



So Circus left here with just those beautiful bows and a just a wisp of hair that was already placed by someone else.

I did find an old Austrian crystal pin in my stash and attached it to one of the bows on her head. At first glance, the little thing looks like a seal wearing a top hat playing with a ball. But wait... I see fins for the "feet", but the hands/arms look like paws - so maybe it's a cross between a cat and a seal? Regardless - perfect for a circus!



I moved on to the journal and man oh man what a journal. True to her "thread wild" name, Monica has produced an amazing artful journal made up of cloth, old quilts, lots of threads, it is a work of art in itself (as are all the journals).



Plenty of room to work in the journal, so I worked on 2 facing pages. As will all the journals so far - I added an Imagine A Woman postcard (poem by Patricia Lynn Reilly) on one side and a glimpse into the inside of the big top on the other side. (Note to Monica - the pink beads scattered throughout the page are a new shape and are called "peanuts", I couldn't resist).



As with the other dolls, I wanted Circus to deliver something to Monica when she arrives home. I found this itty bitty flower bead by Lisa Peters. I knew right away it had to be a ring.



The little flower is anchored by a Swarovski crystal bicone bead, the flower is surrounded by 24k gold plated beads and more Swarovski crystals.



It is backed with chocolate colored Ultrasuede and mounted on an adjustable gold toned hammered ring blank.



I wanted to make a little treasure chest to hold the ring. Found this perfect tiny cardboard box. I glued a little ceramic pink heart to a piece of Nicole's bead backing and started to bead around it. I added some beautiful vintage light aqua sequins and then glued that to the top of the lid.



I added a strip of pink felt around the lip of the lid and added lots of sparkly dangles to the lid. More vintage sequins were added tot he bottom of the box and 4 glass beads glued to the bottom as "feet".



The inside of the box is lined in red felt.

Two dolls left in the round robin - could it get any better? I think it just might...