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.

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

Just a teaser...

I love being part of the ZNet Show design team! Their products are not only pretty, but so much fun to play with. A while back we were given the opportunity to be part of the ZNet Summer Days and Nights challenge Blog hop, and while I can't show you the finished products yet,  here's a look at what they sent for me to work with.

A whole tray of cultured sea glass in a variety of colors just begging to be made into summer pretties. You'd like a closer look? Yes, that can be arranged:)

Opaque Purple sea glass barrel nugget beads

Blossom Pink cultured sea glass freeform pendant and drops

Cherry Red sea glass beads

Turquoise Bay sea glass beads and pendants

As soon as Crafty Hope has the Creative Spark magazine ready to go, we'll be all blogging about our creations, so stay tuned!

Until then, may your summer days be filled with dashes of grace and splashes of joy!

Christie

Short but sweet

As you may recall, back in September I was invited to join the ZNet Shows Design Team. I shared one post where I participated in a lightning round challenge for 7000 Bracelets for Hope, which was a lot of fun. We were also asked at the time if we'd like to be part of the Winter edition of Creative Spark which would feature pearls. I was on board with that! Well, it's out now, and chock full of beautiful designs as well as a couple of tutorials. It's a honor to be part of it ( you can find me starting on page 47, and then at the back). Merry Christmas to me!! Click on the image below to see all the lovelies ( I'm jumping up and down right now because I figured out how to insert HTML to make it work). Hope did an amazing job of putting this all together, so a big shout to her.

Click to view Creative Spark Winter 13-14 on GLOSSI.COM

Hope it adds a splash of joy and a dash of grace to your day like it did for mine!

Christie