And the winner is …

I numbered pieces of paper for each comment I received on the 100th blog post, put them in a bowl and got my 8 year old to draw a number from it.

The winner of the necklace is

BEADLOVE

Congratulations! Let me know where you would like me to mail your necklace! And thank you everyone for playing!

Still time to enter giveaway!

There’s still time to enter the giveaway for this necklace. Leave a comment on the original post here before 11pm Australian Eastern Time (that’s 9am on the East coast of the US and 2pm in London). I’ll post the winner tomorrow!

Summer Color Surprise Blog Hop

Some months ago, Lisa Lodge announced another one of her fun challenges and blog hops, the Summer Color Surprise Blog Hop. Lisa’s challenges involve purchasing a kit from her, containing a selection of beads for creating something. In this challenge, we didn’t get to pick the colour of the bead selection, hence the surprise.

The bead kit I received was green. It contained a round Marsha Neal Studio pendant with a spiral design in a pretty shade of green, a handful of large round yellow turquoise beads and some tiny olivine Swarovski bicones.

While I was tempted to keep to greens alone, I decided the beads needed a pop of colour to pull the three shades of green together, I added some green and orange bi-coloured glass nuggets and some oval antiqued copper chain. Apparently I’m on a long necklace kick at the moment, because this one is about 30 inches long.

With some of the left-over Swarovski crystals and a couple more of the bi-coloured nuggets, I whipped up a pair of earrings too.

Thanks for the opportunity to create something with these beautiful beads Lisa! I’m looking forward to the next challenge in November. Now, go and check out what other people have made. We all got different packs, so there’ll be a great variety!

Your Hostess: Lisa Lodge, A Grateful Artist

Chris Eisenberg, Wander Ware Audrey Belanger, Dreams of an Absolution

Mary Govaars, MLH Jewelry Designs

Melissa Trudinger, Bead Recipes <– You are here!

Monique Urquhart, A Half-Baked Notion

Beti Horvath, Stringing Fool

Charlene Bausinger Jacka, Clay Space

Tara Plote, The Newbie Beader’s Blog

Renetha Williams Stanziano, Lamplight Crafts

Leah Mifflin Tees, My Beady Little Eyes

Kathy Zeigler Lindemer, Bay Moon Design

Toltec Jewels, Toltec Jewels for Jewel School Friends

Molly Alexander, Beautifully Broken Me

Alicia Marinache, All the Pretty Things

Laurie Vyselaar, Lefthand Jewelry

Eleanor Burian-Mohr, The Charmed Life

Julie Lockhart, Copar Aingeal

Dolores Rami, CraftyD’s Creations

Elizabeth Bunn, Elizabeth Beads

Mowse Doyle, Mowse Made This

Veralynne Malone, Designed by Vera

Candida Elkins Castleberry, Spun Sugar Beadworks

Shaiha Williams, Shaiha’s Ramblings

Christie Searle Murrow, Charis Designs Jewelry

Andrea Glick-Zenith, ZenithJade Creations

One hundred posts, a design update and a giveaway!

I recently reached a couple of blogging milestones—I’ve now got around 110 followers of my blog according to WordPress (this number includes those of you who receive an email from me every time I post a new update and those of you who follow through the WordPress Reader), and this is my 100th post!

So to celebrate, I’ve updated my blog theme (actually, if you’re a regular visitor, you’ll know I updated it a few weeks ago now) and added some new elements to it, to make it easier to navigate.

You’ll now be able to find links to all of my recipes on the Recipes page, which can also be accessed via the tab at the top. And I’m in the process of putting a link to all of the blog hops and challenges I’ve done on another page, which I hope to have up and running soon. This should make it a bit easier to find posts.

Now for the giveaway! Here’s a necklace featuring a gorgeous bead by Aussie ceramic bead-maker Natalie Fletcher of Peruzi, which I’ve used as a focal for a long necklace. The bead is glazed in olive green with subtle hints of blue and a bronze-y brown, and has a lovely embossed bird of paradise pattern. I’ve paired it with Czech glass beads and antique brass. It’s quite a long necklace, but could easily be shortened.

To win it, follow my blog—you can follow by email, through WordPress’s own reader if you are a WordPress user, or via an aggregator (there’s a button for Bloglovin’ in the side bar to the right)—and leave me a comment telling me how you follow my blog. I’ll randomly pick a winner from the comments I get!

Make sure you leave me a way to get hold of you. International entries are most welcome! I’ll close entries on Monday evening at 11pm Australian Eastern Time, which I believe is early Monday morning in the USA and Monday afternoon in Europe! (Can you believe I forgot to add a closing date and had to come back to edit this post? Doh!)

And come back this weekend for the reveal of the Summer Color Surprise Blog Hop, hosted by Lisa Lodge.

Something new for The Handmade Show

I’ve got a table at The Handmade Show this weekend and I’m busy getting a few last minute things ready for it (earrings anyone??). As it’s Father’s Day in Australia at the beginning of September, I thought I would make some cufflinks.

I had some antique brass cufflinks with round bezels and some silver-plated square bezel cufflinks. At the craft show I went to a few weeks ago, I bought some Japanese paper in various colours and patterns, which I cut to fit and set in resin. All in all I have made 8 pairs for the show, enough for a trial anyway! I think they turned out well. (if you’re wondering what the black grid is, I used a baking rack to hold the bezels flat while the resin was setting!)

I do have one small problem though, I have no idea how to display the cufflinks on my table. Any suggestions?

If you’re in Melbourne this weekend, think about coming to The Handmade Show. It’s nice and warm inside, there is great entertainment from crooner Frank Lee Darling, facepainting for the kids, plus 30 stalls packed full of great handmade stuff. And me, of course!

Saturday 17th August
10.30am – 3.30pm
St. Anthony’s Parish Hall…
164 Neerim Rd Glen Huntly, Melbourne Vic

PS: this is my 99th post. Stay tuned for something fun for post number 100!!!

Summer Colour Inspiration Challenge

Welcome to the Summer Colour Inspiration challenge, hosted by Sharyl McMillian-Nelson. My apologies to Sharyl for being a day late with this, I think I took on too much this week with 3 challenges in a row! Anyway, I got here in the end.

Sharyl provided us with a beautiful set of floral photos to use as inspiration for the challenge, asking us to pick one for our inspiration. I picked number 7, a beautiful combination of deep fuschia pinks and violet, with a touch of lime green foliage.

I had a few strands of glass and dyed stone beads in pinks and greens that I wanted to use, and while digging through my art beads I came across a gorgeous boho polymer clay owl made by Martha Eason of Menagerie Studios in just the right shades.  With so many bright colours, simple seemed best so I strung a repeated sequence of beads and added some sari silk woven through the chain.

Thank you for the challenge Sharyl, I loved the colours I had to choose from! And here are the other participants:

Sharyl McMillian-Nelson     Sharyl’s Jewelry   Hostess!

Kashmira Patel   …..    Sadafulee…always in bloom!

Lisa Lodge   …..   A Grateful Artist – Pine Ridge Treasures

Tanty Sri Hartanti   ….   TJewellicious by Tanti 

Kathy Lindemer ….  Bay Moon Design

Laren Dee Barton … Laren Dee Designs

Melissa Trudinger  … Beadrecipes <– YOU ARE HERE!