The Balancing Act Charm Bracelet

Nothing like being snowed in by yourself for two days to really get the creative juices flowing. I was going through my bead boxes (yes, that's plural), yesterday, looking for something to do and I came across this little packet of charms my mom had probably given me as a stocking stuffer at some obscure point in time and I figured I'd try to do something with them.

This bracelet is two strands, one is simply a length of silver chain. The second strand is made of 2.5mm swarovski crystal bicones in silver AB finish and air blue opal, also an AB finish, 8mm czech fire polished glass beads in cobalt blue AB finish, as well as 8mm czech fire polished glass druk in aquamarine AB finish. I added the three Libra-themed sterling silver charms to the center of the bracelet, spacing them w/the blue opal swarovski crystals and the central one, the star burst, is also set w/a silver-finished swarovski crystal.

I finished the bracelet w/an antique silver "picture frame" toggle clasp that's inlaid with little white swarovski crystals.

Legal Stuff

The bead product, 8mm Czech

fire polished glass bead in cobalt blue

AB finish was provided to me by

artbeads.com free of charge.

I am part of their blogging project

and have not been paid for my use or

opinion of the above product(s).

I Wear My Heart. . . Cell Phone Charm

Just in time for Valentines day. This design is really simple. I'd had these cell phone charm things sitting in my craft box for a while and well, w/all the fun new beads I've been getting from artbeads.com, I needed to get rid of them, make some space, so I decided to make some cell phone charms. Unfortunately, my cell phone doesn't have anywhere that I could hang these from so I'm offering them up for sale.

For this design, I hung an antiqued silver heart charm w/a filigree pattern on it from the jump ring on the cell phone charm form then to create a cascade effect, for I do so love my danglies, I hung a length of silver chain from the jump ring so it would dangle below the heart.

To the length of chain I added 3 different sets of beads that included 3 glass beads of a funky geometric shape, alternating b/t a nice dark red and pink. On the red beads, I added a lighter red biconal, and to the pink bead, I added a 6mm czech fire polished glass bead in garnet w/an AB finish from artbeads.com.

This cell phone charm is available is for sale, $15 USD. If you're interested, you can contact me at MAlleNrOhSLVR@aol.com

Legal Stuff

The bead product, 6mm Czech Fire Polished

glass garnet beads were provided to

me by artbeads.com free of charge.

I am part of their blogging project

and have not been paid for my use or opinion of

the above products.

Seven Seas Cell Phone Charm

This design is really simple. I'd had these cell phone charm things sitting in my craft box for a while and well, w/all the fun new beads I've been getting from artbeads.com, I needed to get rid of them, make some space, so I decided to make some cell phone charms. Unfortunately, my cell phone doesn't have anywhere that I could hang these from so I'm offering them up for sale.

This charm was a fairly simple matter. I took a skull charm I had, which is made by Charm Gallery and is available at Michaels Arts and Crafts, attached it to the jump ring on the cell phone charm and then hung several varying lengths of chain from it. The longest is about 2 1/2 inches.

At the bottom of each chain, I hung a different coloured bead that I had done a wire wrapped loop on. The three beads included are an 8mm glass druk bead in aquamarine, an 8 mm Czech glass fire polished bead in cobalt and another in emerald, all three beads are an AB finish.

This cell phone charm is available is for sale, $15 USD. If you're interested, you can contact me at MAlleNrOhSLVR@aol.com

Legal Stuff

The bead products, 8mm Czech Fire Polished

glass cobalt beads, 8mm Czech Fire Polished

emerald AB finish beads were provided to

me by artbeads.com free of charge.

I am part of their blogging project

and have not been paid for my use or opinion of

the above products.

Poseidon: King of the Seas

Hey everyone, sorry it's been a while, been busy back at school, haven't had a chance to churn stuff out like I was over Christmas. It's a holiday weekend though (MLK day is on Monday), so school work's not so pressing that I couldn't take a break and focus on my artbeads.com work so yeah, I've spent the last 2 days working on this beauty.

I LOVE sea horses. Though, to be fair, I love most ocean/water related stuff, but sea horses are a particular favourite and I've had this little guy sitting in my pendant box for well over 2 years now, just waiting for the right time to use him and it finally presented itself.

I believe the sea horse pendant is from the Lost & Found collection by Blue Moon beads but don't quote me on that. I've had him so long, I'm not even sure he's available out of the collection any more. However, the chain I used, available in a length of 54 inches is also from the Lost & Found collection.

As is my want though, I generally tend to mix and match different brands, collections, even materials. The "pearls" I used are 6mm glass round beads w/a pearl finish from the Manor House collection. They are available in a lovely variety of pastel colours.

For this project, I chose an eggshell/tannish colour to offset the 6mm Czech Fire Polished glass beads in cobalt blue provided by artbeads.com then to compliment the lovely AB finish of the 8mm Czech Fire Polished glass beads in emerald I chose a pastel purple/blue colour, trying to play up the ocean theme.

I really liked the deep rich colours of the fire polished beads, they were so vibrant, despite being darker colours. Blue's always a favourite colour of mine to work with and green, well, green's just my favourite colour period. When I ordered the AB finish beads, I wasn't sure what to expect. I didn't even know what "AB Finish"meant, but I'm really quite pleased with the multi-faceted appearance of the emerald-coloured beads. The way they sparkle is slightly reminiscent of Swarovski crystal.

I broke up the "pearls" into clusters of seven using 6 and 8mm silver plated brass beads by Bead Gallery.

I used the beads provided by artbeads.com as centerpieces, capping the cobalt blue beads with the 6mm silver flared star bead cap, also from artbeads.com. I loved the star caps, they were very dainty and delicate and added a nice elegance to this piece. The only downside I had to them was they were a little hard to handle, I kept dropping them!!! They just slid right between my fingers!!! They were a little tricky to string too, if I didn't string them as a cluster w/the bead, they would get tangled in the wire. A minor annoyance but they are pretty against that dark blue bead.

To spice up the long chain that's supporting the sea horse, I created wire wrapped links of alternating 8mm emerald beads and 6mm cobalt beads which I strung from one side of the chain to the other below the two beaded strands to create the illusion of a fourth strand. To create the wire wrapped links, I used beadalon 20-gauge silver wire, available at most craft stores. I made sure to maintain a drape to the wire wrapped beads, when the necklace is worn, they fall just above the link that holds the sea horse pendant.

Legal Stuff:

The bead products, 6mm Czech Fire Polished

glass cobalt beads, 8mm Czech Fire Polished

emerald AB finish beads, and 6mm flared star

bead caps were provided to me by artbeads.com

free of charge. I am part of their blogging project

and have not been paid for my use or opinion of

the above products.