ZNet Summer Challenge 2015

Summer is my favorite time of year- beaches, sun, a slightly more relaxed schedule and hopefully lots

 and lots of time around water. So, when offered a chance to be part of a sea inspired challenge,

 I was delighted!  The cultured seaglass that ZNet Shows offers is truly a pleasure to work with.

 Because I'm craving some beach time, I chose to use gorgeous beaches from around the world 

as my inspiration. If you want to see more of the fabulous sea glass beads that ZNet has to offer, just
click on the link.
First up are some bangles inspired by Malibu Beach in Barbados- the orange and blues make for 

a beautiful combination. The products used in these two bangles are Cultured SeaGlass shell beads

in Saffron Yellow (S72-B57) and  Cultured Sea Glass puffed 20mm coin beads in Opaque 

Blue Opal (S15-B460. 
Here's a picture of Malibu Beach...

and here's the bangles I made.

I recently discovered Summer Wind Art by Ashley  Bonney ( www.etsy.com/SummerWindArt) and knew that her Sand Dollar Bracelet connector would be perfect to pair with the Cultured SeaGlass pebble beads in aquamarine (BDS1926-03).  Menorca Beach in Spain has the same lovely color pallette as this bracelet, don't you think?

Next up were these 32 mm Cultured SeaGlass starfish in Light Aqua Coke Bottle Seafoam ( S27-B88P). I wanted to keep it simple but with a bit of sparkle and shine so added some Chinese crystal and antique brass spacers from a local bead store, and voila! The Abaco set with the antique brass chain and earrings would be perfect for dinner out after spending the day on this gorgeous beach.

Abaco Beach

Finally, I used 20 mm starfish in  Aqua Coke Bottle Seafoam (S27-B882XST) and some Chinese crystal Aquamarine rondelle dangles (RS101-27) to create a sweet little  necklace and earring set  titled the Bora Bora set.

 

  I hope you've enjoyed this little tour of sea inspired jewelry and the breathtaking beaches that inspired them!

There's lots more to see in the Summer 2015 edition of Creative Spark, so be sure to take a peek

Creative Spark Summer 2015 

Hope your summer was fabulous!  Thanks to Crafty Hope for her great work, and to Znet Shows for the opportunity to be part of such a wonderful design team.

Grateful Living

I'm so excited to announce that yours truly is now a regular contributor to Molly Alexander's
Grateful Living blog.

There are several different contributors, but Molly's mission for these posts is simply this

Friends sharing together, doing our best to define grateful living as:

Seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary.

Finding the small blessings in the big storms.

Waking up, breathing in, and recognizing that each day is a gift.

Seeing the glass as half-full.

Stepping off the treadmill of life and standing still for a moment to stop and smell the roses.

Looking beyond faults and recognizing the good in others.

Being thankful for what you have and not worrying away all your time wishing for what you don't.


This,
and so much more,
 is what grateful living is all about.


Please join us as we share pieces and parts of our personal experiences with you as we do our best to walk on the sunny side of the street.

I hope you'll become a regular reader and find those splashes of grace and dashes of joy!
Christie

Creative Spark Winter 2015 Reveal

I do love being a part of the Znet Design team. We get to play with beautiful beads, and this challenge was no exception.

When I need inspiration for a certain season, I love to look at my friend Deni's pictures on Instagram ( @Denesiachristine) and once again, she didn't disappoint. The theme for this challenge was ice, something in short supply here in Florida, unless you look in my freezer! I was a little stumped when I received my beads.

 They were beautiful, but how on earth did I translate them into icy pieces? So, after picking out a couple of lovely pictures from Instagram, I went with a Tropical Ice inspiration.

Tahitian Ice was my first venture.  I used cultured sea glass beads in that beautiful Sea Foam Green,
added a strand of freshwater pearls and a strand of crystal rondelles, and wire crocheted 4 different strands with some silver colored non tarnish wire, then twisted them all together for a set that I call Tahitian Ice.

                                 

 
The next project was a pair of earrings using Cultured Sea Glass sand dollar pendants, and keeping with the Tropical Ice theme,  I used some crystal teardrops and sterling plated beads, ending up with Snowy Shells. I love Deni's picture of this bird sitting in the midst of a snowy backdrop, and used that sprig of icy leaves as my inspiration.

 

Next up was Frozen Flowers. I wanted to use the lovely cultured sea glass rondelle beads in Peridot. This design went through a couple of versions before I found this pendant in my stash from a stained glass store in Tallahassee. It's a piece of English china that Susan of Glasswork by Susan  repurposed into a pendant. Paired with copper chain ,copper spaces. and some antique bronze wire it blossomed

into a complete set.

This picture was my inspiration

 

The final offering is a pair of earrings using cultured sea glass diamond pendants in Periwinkle Changes.

  Hope had suggested the black ice idea, and so armed with some annealed steel wire from my friendly Ace Hardware store, Periwinkle Points were born. As you can see from the picture of all the beads I received, there were plenty of gorgeous options to choose from, but most will have to wait for another day.  

Here's the link to the Winter Edition of Creative Spark- there's lots of gorgeous beads and designs waiting to be seen inside, so I hope you'll take a moment and look

January Pretty Palettes Challenge

I'm officially hooked on this challenge! I am so enjoying seeing the inspiration picture and the beads that Erin Prais-Hintz posts on the Halcraft Pretty Palettes site. For January, Erin chose this picture featuring the Pantone color of the year, Marsala.

These colors are gorgeous together, and so, off to Michaels I went, in search of that lovely rich color. However, the selection at our local M's was very limited and I was hard pressed to find anything in the right color family. From the beginning, that beautiful purple gray succulent in the bouquet had caught my eye and when I found these beads below in that color range, I went off on a tangent.

Here are the beads that were used:
94760 Amethyst Glass Mix
91560 Amethyst Czech glass 6mm rondelles
80286 Amethyst stone Nugget Lustre

I added some 26 gauge Artistic Wire, threw in a little wire crochet, and here's the result:

Purple Mountain Majesty

    

                               

   

 I'm a February baby, so amethyst is my birthstone. Maybe that's why it called my name? At any rate I love the end result.

Hop on over to the January Reveal post to see what Erin and her guest, Sarah Ostriyznick, created, and links to the other contributors as well.

Hope your day is filled with just a little more joy and grace after seeing all the pretties!

Christie

Pretty Pallettes December Challenge

It's been way too long since I've blogged. With the changes that I mentioned in the last post, I've had a lot less time to do blog challenges and play with new jewelry endeavors. I've been busy with filling orders for bangles ( you can always find the latest offerings on my Instagram account) which has been a blessing, and then a Facebook friend (Heidi) posted that she was going to be the partner for the Pretty Palletes December challenge, and encouraged me to join in and play. With an invite like that, would could resist? The colors and inspiration picture that Erin Prais-Hintz had chosen were so pretty and perfect for a New Year's Eve party.

I loved the combination of colors and shapes. She challenged us to mix metals and to use either her choice of Halcraft USA beads ( found at Michaels) or use our own. Next time I was in the store, I found these beauties. Aren't they pretty? Those gorgeous black roundels were my starting point- I love the geometric shapes within the bead, as well as the mix of colors.

 Here are the SKU numbers that I used (from left to right)
81004 Mixed metal gears
94004  14mm Glass Faceted Crystal Rainbow bicones
91688 Multi acrylic pave roundel
93970 Glass black luster faceted roundel
80287 Amethyst drop small faceted

Here's the finished result. 

Gearing Up for New Things

Here's another peek. The gear components made me think of the clock and how time waits for no one. As another New Year awaits, so do new possibilities! Here's another peek

Gearing Up set

Before you leave, make sure you head over to Heidi Parviainen's blog, Heidi P Says, to see what she created.  She's an incredibly talented lady, who also writes tutorials for Wubbers University. Thanks, Heidi, for your encouragement!

I hope that your New Year is filled with dashes of grace and many, many splashes of joy!
Christie

Znet Shows Creative Spark

I've been remiss in blogging. Life changed lanes a few months ago and I was blessed with a new opportunity, which I am loving. However, being part of this new thing meant letting go of others, and I am no longer teaching jewelry classes or doing as much jewelry making. I'm also working an extra day a week, again, a blessing, but life got really busy very quickly. So, I'm sorting through beads and commitments to figure out what exactly needs to stay and what can be let go of. I've also discovered bangles, which are ever so much fun. I grew up in India, and bangles were a staple from the time that I was little. I love making them, I love wearing them and I love sharing them!

Znet Shows  is a great company to be part of. Their products are beautiful and their prices are amazing. For the fall issue of Creative Spark,  they came up with something different for us designers. Some would make fall themed jewelry, some would write tutorials and some would play with found object jewelry. I was fortunate enough to be part of the fall themed jewelry group.  Look at the gorgeous beads that came my way!

I went looking for some inspiration and found it on Instagram with my friend @DenesiaChristine. You'll see one of her stunning pictures inside the magazine, but please take a peak at her other breathtaking pictures.  They're a treat for the eyes. (And while you're there, I'm @CharisDesigns.)

I mentioned earlier that bangles are my new plaything, and so I got to playing. These were the first things that got made? Don't they just embody all the colors of fall?

There's a lot more beautiful things waiting to be seen inside. I hope you'll click on the link and take a peek at all the jewelry my fellow design team members have created. And, oh look!, I'm on the cover!!! How's that for a splash and dash of grace and joy?

   

        

Summer Days and Nights with Znet Shows

It's reveal day! As I've mentioned before, I love, love, love being part of the Znet Shows Design team. Their products are not only beautiful, but a great value as well. Here's a quick look at what I was sent as part of the Summer Days and Nights challenge:

You can find a more detailed description here, but let's get to the finished products.

For my daytime set, I chose those lovely opaque purple barrel nugget cultured sea glass beads.

Purple Haze

With the addition of some some purple stone beads and a few sparkly metallic crystal beads, this set came together very quickly.

I wanted to do something a little more dramatic for the nighttime set, and those Blossom Pink cultured sea glass free form flat pendants kept calling my name. While at a local bead store, I found some  light pink agate dagger beads, some light pink crystals and voila!

Pink Delight

Here's another look at this set:

 

 

But there were more beads waiting to be played with, and because I'm having SO much fun making wire bangles ( you can see some of the goodies on my Facebook page) these cultured sea glass rondelle beads in Cherry Red were just right to make this splash of color bangle.

Cherry Red Bangle

You can see all the lovelies in the Summer Edition of the Creative Spark Magazine here.

You can also visit the blogs of all those who participated:

Amy Severino

Andrea Trank

BeckyPancake

BobbieRafferty

BR Kuhlman

CharlieJacka

ChristieMurrow <---(you're here)

ChristinaMiles

ChristineStonefield

CynthiaMachata

CynthiaRiggs

DonettaFarrington

HopeSmitherman

KashmiraPatel

KathyLindemer

Kay Thomerson

KellyPatterson

KlaudeteKoon

Lee Koopman

Lisa Lodge

RenethaStanziano

SandraWashington

Shaiha Williams

SherylStephens

StephanieHaussler

TammieEverly

Hope your July 4th was filled with celebration, family and many dashes of joy and splashes of grace!

Christie