Earring Challenge Day 31

Todays earrings were a free pattern that I found called Trinket Earrings. Deborah Roberti came up with the pattern and I think these earrings are super cute and delicate. If you have never tried one of Deborah's patterns then you are missing out! Deborah writes wonderful step by step patterns with pictures. They are super easy to follow and can be done by beginner to advanced beaders. You can get the free pattern here : http://www.bead-patterns.com/shop/shop.php?method=itemnumber&keywords=16711

Earring Challenge Day 30

Hi Everyone. My name is Kelly and I'm addicted to Clothes...So today Sammy and I did a little shopping and I came home with a lot of stuff. The whole point of going out today was we were going to do a little thrift store shopping and we were going to Old Navy. Well lets just say that I racked up and spent less than $100.00! I was one happy girl!  Old Navy was starting to put out there short sleeve clothes and it was time to redeem Old Navy Cash.

This is one of my favorite purchases for the day! This is going to be a great spring dress!

All of the above was from Old Navy. All below is my thrift store finds. Below I got 3 Lane Bryant Button up shirts, a Lane Bryant Sweater, a long sleeved Old Navy Shirt and a brown Old Navy Jacket. I got it all for $29.00!!!!!

Once home it was time to go to work. Here is a shot of what my work table looks like today. We got these great new flowers in at the shop and I am busy trying to get some samples made to show people what they can make.

I think young girls are going to have a fit for these big flower rings!

Here is the start of a necklace I'm working on.

Earring Challenge Day 29

I love Sundays. It is my favorite day of the week. I am blessed to live across the street from my mom and dad and our Family tradition is on Sunday mornings my dad fixes a huge breakfast and I go over to there house and we all eat as a family. We have been doing this as long as I can remember. Sunday is also my nap day. I don't get to take a nap any other day of the week. As soon as I get home from Church I pile up under the cover and say goodbye to the world for a few hours. It is wonderful! Sunday is also what I call my "free day." Since i'm on weight watchers i am constantly having to watch what goes in my mouth. On Sunday I set that all aside. I eat what I want, when I want. I normally eat my large breakfast and then Sunday night's we go out to eat somewhere we normally wouldn't during the week. Its a nice break from having to be so obsessive over food.

Tonight will be a little bit different though. Here in the states the Pro Bowl is on. My husband will be on the couch watching football for 4 hours. Guess I'll do some beading. :)

My earrings for today's challenge are fun and dangly.  They are easy as pie to make. Each layer is on an eye pin. The bottom layer has 8 beads, the second layer has 4 beads, and the first top layer has 2 beads. Each layer is seperated by 5 links of tiny chain. It all comes together at the top with a jumpring and ear hook. These will be great to make for prom this year!

Earring Challenge Day 28

Wow! I seriously cannot believe that there are only 3 days left of the earring challenge. It seems like 2012 just started and a month is already almost behind us. I have really enjoyed this month because Challenging myself to make a new pair of earrings everyday has been an adventure.  It has forced me to try new ideas that I wouldn't otherwise have had the chance to do. I loved my green earrings so much the other day that I started trying to figure out how I could make more pairs without having the ear hoops I purchased from a store a few days ago. Well....I figured it out! I used some 1 1/4 inch bracelet memory wire and cut them into circles. I then whipped up these babies! I used 4mm Bermuda Blue bicones as well as size 11 transparent gray seed beads. Even though they are really easy and take no time at all to finish they are great because they are instant satisfaction! I can make a pair of these in 5 minutes and then run out the door for a busy day. I can't wait to wear these!

Earring Challenge Day 27

Earring Challenge Day 26

For todays challenge I wanted to make a pair of earrings that went wtih a certian top I had. A few weeks ago I purchased this green sweater. Before this purchase I have never owned anything in green! I don't know why it appealed to me but I thought it went great with my hair color. (Picture of shirt below) Problem with buying a color I have never owned is that I didn't have any earrings to wear with it.

I found the perfect thing for my earrings when I went to Ornamentea the other day. They had these earrings hoops that were made out of memory wire. They had a pair of earrings made up with them for a sample and I thought that they would be quick to make and would go great with my shirt. I purchased some Olivine and Lime crystals and in no time flat I had a wonderful pair of earrings that went great with my new green shirt.

I told Sammy that we had to take a picture so that people could see my earrings. Isn't he a sweetie?

Here they are again but you can't see them well. This picture was taken at the Confrence. The lady in the picture is Danielle Withrow. She is our Town Planner and has become a great friend over the past few years. It's always nice to go to the confrence but it sure is nice to come home!

Earring Challenge Day 25

So today most of my morning was spent driving to Clayton NC. Because I am the Merchants Association President we have to go to the NC Main Street Confrence. Since I knew that I would be driving most of the morning I went ahead yesterday and made my earrings for todays challenge. I love to look at foreign beading books. I don't understand a word they say but I am great with diagrams. These earrings are from one of those books. I can't say that I like these earrings but it was fun to be able to try a new pattern.

I was looking foward to my trip to Clayton for one main reason....to go bead shopping! There is a great bead shop in Raleigh called Ornamentea that I have been wanting to go to for a long time but have just never gotten the oppertunity. Sammy and I found it without problem and lets just say that I added to my bead stash.....

One of the first things I found were these great memory wire hoops that you can make into earrings. I don't have anything green and I am wearing a green sweater tomorrow so I decided to get me some Olivine Crystals and Lime crystals to make a quick pair of earrings to wear tomorrow.

I don't normally buy earrings, since I can make them, but I found these and I thought that they were so cute! I am getting spring fever and I thought these would be great and would go with a lot of my new wardrobe.

I always have and always will be a sucker for seed beads! I found these colors and even though I'm pretty sure that I have one of them I decided to go ahead and get them just in case. Besides I needed some so that I could work up my earrings tonight.



Earring Challenge Day 24

Today I helped one of my really sweet cutomers make the above pink bracelet. While she was working on the bracelet I made the earrings to match so that she would have a set. I love how the set turned out and the cutomers was super happy with it.

Earring Challenge Day 23

Sometimes things don't work out the way I want them to! I love Right Angle Weave and I decided today that I wanted to come up with a new earring using the technique. I started out with size 11 seed beads and then did a row of siz 8 seed beads and then wanted to transistion to 3mm bicones. I have been so busy today getting things ready for the week that by the time I started working on the earrings all my creativity was fried! The earrings did not turn out the way I wanted them to but I went ahead and finished them anyways. I hope to work on them again soon and figure out a really neat pair of fan style earrings.

Sammy and I will be gone Wednesday, Thursday, and part of the day Friday so I have been busy today trying to get things worked on and finished since I will be missing work. Normally I take work with me but that's not going to happen this week. We are going to the NC Main Street Confrence in Clayton NC because Sammy and I are receiving an award from the State Main Street Association. I will be traveling all day Wednesday and then Thursday I will be in the confrence all day. Part of Friday will be spent traveling home and then off to work. My goal is to leave early enough Wednesday that I will have time to catch a bead shop or two on my way to Clayton since we don't have to be there until about 2 or 3. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Earring Challenge Day 22

Back last summer I ordered these really neat crystal mixes for the shop that had crystal donuts in them. I sold some of the packs but all in all they were not a big hit. I clearanced the remaining packs out last week but kept 2 for myself. I sat down tonight and made these really cute earrings from my mix. I still have plenty of beads leftover so who knows what I will come up with next.

Earring Challenge Day 21

Earring Challenge Day 20

Day 20 Brings Earrings for a gift.  I have a very special customer who is going to get these earrings. Crystal Golden Flare in Preciosa Crystals are her favorite color. She brought in a ring back before Christmas for me to repair that was made out of the same color beads. I repaired the ring this week and I decided to make her a pair of earrings to match. These are the picadilly earrings that I made a few days ago but I tweaked the pattern just a little bit so that I wouldn't have to use a tear drop on the bottom.

I am making the earrings for her because she was sweet enough to bring me some clothes a few days ago. She and I both were on Weight Watchers last year. She hit her goal in no time by losing 25lbs. I, having to lose a good bit more, am finally down to the size that she was before she started WW. She was sweet enough to bring me some of her shirts and jackets and is going to bring me some pants as soon as she can get to them. I love losing weight but I am constantly changing sizes. I have lost 78lbs so far and have dropped 10 pants sizes and 3 shirt sizes.

Earring Challenge Day 19

A few weeks back Sammy and I went to the Beach for New Years. While I was there I visited my friend Heathers bead shop called Beach Beads. She had these really preety Lucite looking flower beads and I just fell in love with them! I came home and made a bracelet with them and had a few left over. We got some new shower part components in that I have been working with so I decided to use some of my left over flowers and stitch up a quick pair of earrings. Although there are a lot of beads on the earring it is very light weight. I have ordered some of the flowers for the shop and I can't wait for them to arrive!

Earring Challenge Day 18

I've been really busy over the last few days trying to finish up a custom order and re-doing a necklace that a customer gave me. One of my favorite customers used to live in Estonia. She went back to visit family in the spring last year and purchased me a necklace that is made out of Baltic Amber. She gave it to me at Christmas and I loved the large center piece but the necklace was just a simple single strand of amber. Well I couldn't leave such a beautiful center piece go to waste so I re-did the necklace and made it into something that I would love to wear. This is what I ended up with and I can't wait for the spring and fall to wear it.

These are the earrings I made for the necklace. I wanted something very simple so that I could let the necklace be the main piece. I think I succeeded.

After I finished the re-do I was finally able to finish up a special order. The bracelet turned out really cute! The bottom layer took me no time at all but boy the top sure took a lot longer than expected! But thankfully it's done so now I can move onto my next project!

Earring Challenge Day 17

I cannot believe that I finally made these earrings! My mother and father in law purchased this pattern for me during the 2010 Christmas season. I put it with all my other patterns and it just seemed to get further and further to the back. I sat in my floor at home last night and had tons of patterns laid out next to me. I tried to go through and find earring patterns so that I could work on them for the challenge. This pattern is by Picadilly and is called Tutorial #45 Alice.  Its been so long that I wasn't even sure if she would still be on etsy but when I checked she was. You can find her etsy shop here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/JewelryonPicadilly  She had the pattern listed still for $4.00 plus she had a lot more. Although her pattern was good when I make another pair I am going to tweak it a little bit so that it's more my style. I have a good customer named Linda who I think I might make a pair of these for. She, like me, has been doing Weight Watchers and she met her goal so I think a pair of these would be just the thing to say "Way to go!"

I wanted to show you guys another piece that I just finished. Earlier in January I posted a picture of the same thing in different colors. The pattern is by Nikia Angel. I needed something to wear with all sorts of blue colors so I used Montana Satin and Black Diamond 2xAB crystals. I love the way this pendant turned out! I made it Saturday and I have already worn it three times.

Tomorrow I will post pictures of another piece that I have been working on. Stephanie from TX has got me working on a new bracelet for her. The base wasn't bad and took no time at all but the top of the bracelet is taking a little longer than expected. I will post my progress tomorrow.

Earring Challenge Day 16

Todays earrings are a custom order for a customer going to a Marine Corps Ball in TX. Her dress is a really pretty deep purple color and she is going to wear a shaw that has specks of pink in it. The earrings I made for her are glass open squares in a Vitrail Color but they pull a lot of purple. I then added a 6mm Purple Velvet and a 4mm Vintage Rose over the square. They are really pretty and I hope she will like them. I love them but we'll see what she thinks.

Earring Challenge Day 15

I cannot believe that the earring challenge is almost halfway over with. It has been fun because it has motivated me to work on something everyday. Running the shop, I tend to forget to have fun and the earring challenge has reminded me to do that.  For todays earrings I found a neat pattern in a book Beaded Allure. I have had the book for awhile but I haven't had a chance to work on anything from it. I wanted to make these earrings because they look like little hearts to me. There is a bracelet to match and I think I would like to work in it at some point.

I used size 11 galvanized silver seed beads and 4mm Fuchsia pearls.

Earring Challenge Day 14

Day 14 Wow! For Todays earrings I sort of cheated a little bit. Back before Christmas I was at JoAnn's shopping and was looking through the bead section. I was looking at the Swarovski's and found these components that had the one crystal with chain hanging from it. They were on sale so I decided to buy them. I put them up and had honestly forgotten about them. I was looking on my bead table last night and found the components. I added the ear hook and they were complete. I really like these chain earrings because they can really be dressed up or you would wear them with jeans and a t-shirt.

Earring Challenge Day 13

Happy Friday the 13th! I wore a sweater yesterday that had a diamond shaped pattern. I needed earrings to go with it so I whipped up these cute earrings. These are size 11 delica's that i brick stitched into diamond shapes. At first I was going to make a few and connect them but when I connected them they were really stiff. As you can see I ended up taking them apart and hanging them off chain. I'm not sure if i'm happy with them yet. They may be one of those pairs that is a work in progress. I think I need to make a few more diamonds but right now I've got other projects i'm working on.



Earring Challenge Day 12

One of my regular customers named Rita came in Tuesday and seen my pink earrings. I was shocked to find out that after all the things I have seen her make that she didn't know how to do Peyote Stitch. I sat her down right then and taught her to do not only peyote stitch but also to make the peyote stitch tubes. While teaching her I made another pair of the pink earrings. I am going to put one pair out for sale and then I'm going to give one pair to my mom so she will have some cute earrings to wear for Valentine's Day.

I guess I can say that these earrings are my official Day12 Earrings. These earrings are a continuation of a project that I started and didn't like how it looked. The original earrings were supposed to be just one ring of 4mm bicones but you know me...I can never leave anything alone. I added a center and an extra ring of 3mm's. I thought that they turned out really good. I can see one as a ring too! Gonna work on this pattern a little and see what other little things I can do to it.

I'm so happy today because the SUN IS OUT IN NC! It seems like it has been day's since we've seen the sun. I need to see the sun because if I don't I feel like I start to get depressed! Yesterday is rained all day and then about 4:30 a tornado hit in the lower part of the county. Injured a lot of people but thank God that nobody lost their lives.