newest bead and button goodies

I have acquired a number of new bead and button goodies the couple weeks and thought that you would enjoy seeing many of them.  I am frequently inspired by crafting supplies and hope that you will be, too.  Enjoy!

The downtown Vogue Fabrics store in Chicago has a random button bin.  You can fill one of these bags for $2.  The selection changes frequently, but I've never been disappointed with the given lot.  Check out all of the flower buttons, wooden buttons, and metal buttons!

I have two favorite bead stores in the Chicago suburbs.  My parents live one block away from one of them so it's where I usually go when I'm back that way.  I almost always stock up on seed beads, Czech leaf beads, and other Czech glass.  I go through 6/0 and 11/0 seed beads more than any other beads so I always like to get a few colors.  The Czech glass selection varies but I almost always find some great leaves and other unique shapes.  Check out all of the leaf colors and the great dice beads.

My mom ordered a set of these tiny glass bottles and corks for me for my birthday.  I enjoyed using the sea glass bottle charm for my tropical destination challenge piece and would like to use bottles again for future charms.  Why not make some of my own charms?

I picked up some screws for the corks so I'm all ready to go as soon as I get inspired.  There are so many possibilities out there.  Check out these great Etsy listings as well as this bottle tutorial.

What would you put in your bottle?

Finally, I cashed in all of my Bead Trends gift certificates for Fire Mountain Gems and got this box of goodies.  Yep, I had to get all of it organized by bead type.

Thank you Bead Trends!  The hard work that I put into my submissions was well worth it.

Have you picked up any new craft goodies lately?  What are you going to make with them?

Where I Linked Up Today:

in the works: leaves and flowers

I was so excited to get started on my custom order that I took at my craft show this month that I didn't take any pictures of it until I was pretty far into the set.  At this point, I had finished the earrings and bracelet and was almost halfway done with the necklace.

Here's a picture of the remaining leaves that I had laid out for the necklace.  You can see the earrings hanging out in the corner of the box.  Yes, the box is a little crowded right now!  Getting ready for this order inspired me to get out leaf beads to make a new fall leaf bracelet and a new turquoise/medium-dark blue leaf bracelet.  I have those beads in there as well as all of the seed beads that I pulled for the custom order.

I'll be sure to take pictures of the completed set before I give it to the customer and will post them within the next couple weeks.

Here are the turquoise/medium-dark blue leaf beads that I pulled.  I sold the first turquoise leaf bracelet that I made a couple years ago before I even listed it on Etsy.  I've sold two dark blue leaf bracelets so I think that it's worth making another one (or two).

Here are the leaf beads that I pulled for my new fall design.  I'm only going to use a few orange and bright red and keep it darker with lots of brown, maroon, and gold.

Here is my seed bead mix with the larger glass bead focals for the fall design.  A few green beads got in there with one of the seed bead mixes.  They won't be in the bracelet.

I started the fall bracelet after I finished my custom order set.  The box is a little emptier now.

While I was pulling Czech glass, I also pulled out all of my flower beads.  They are still in the box.  I originally thought that I'd make another embellished peyote cuff, but with my new interest in herringbone, I'm now planning something similar to my new challenge piece but with flowers.

I included this post in Michelle's 10/28 Delicately Constructed Friday Link Party.

returning to an older button design and some more leaves for my next custom order

I don't make too many button bracelets like this anymore, but they continue to sell well so I roll a new one out every once in a while.

This bracelet is available here.  I actually sold the original one last summer and finally got around to updating this listing and renewing it, which is why it already has so many views.  These bracelets are simple, light weight, and fun.  They're pretty easy to put together in just about any color combination so if you have any requests, let me know.  As I said above, I don't make a ton of them these days, but as long as they continue to sell, I will keep making them.

Here are some of the final leaf beads that I purchased for my most recent custom order for a couple made to order leafy designs in custom sizes.  These are all from simplypie.  Click on the photos for the item listings.  How can you not love these little leaves?

leaf jewelry and supplies feature

As you probably already know, I am still not over my leaf bead obsession that started sometime in early 2009. I haven't done a feature on here in a while so I decided to feature some leaf jewelry pieces and supplies from fellow Etsy sellers.

BEADWOVEN FLORAL BRACELET by fashionsfrome

Pink Glass, Antique Gold - Charm Bracelet - Pink Spring Garden by Balanced

HANDMADE PORCELAIN MAPLE LEAF BUTTONS - RUSTY ORANGE by LisaPetersArt

HANDMADE RAKU FIRED CERAMIC LEAF BUTTON IN GREEN by LisaPetersArt

Large Green Leaf Earrings by FancifulForm

Brass Leaf Bracelet by Greenerica

EcleCtic Leafy Goodness Fiesta Charm Bracelet by LifeTravelsDesigns

Pretty Birds garden charm bracelet Summerpoint studios by poetsummer

sunkist bracelet by oceanhouse

Rose Garden Bracelet by Mandyshaner

trade completed, first leafy bracelet for sale, sneak peak

I completed my trade with Jo from Dogmaw Glass this past week. She sent me this beautiful glass sculpture in exchange for two of my bracelets. She wanted to be completely surprised with her bracelets. This is what I sent her.


If you like Jo's sculpture, I highly recommend following her blog and watching for future offers to trade. She just posted her third sculpture for trade this week. :) I am always open to trading with others as well. Please let me know if you're ever interested.

I finally created my first leafy bracelet to sell and listed it today. First, here is a picture of my own green leafy bracelet, after all of its reworking.

And here is the one that is now listed.
I am so happy with the result. I hope that others are, too! I put together an autumn version as well. I actually made two autumn leafy bracelets - one for myself and one to sell. I'd like to make a more blue/turquoise themed leafy bracelet next. After that, I'm not sure, but I know that there will be more because I don't think that will quite kick my leaf beads obsession. As always, I'm open to suggestions.

Here's a sneak peak at the autumn leafy bracelet that will be for sale, as well as a couple other newly finished pieces that I haven't listed yet.

new in blue

I listed my newest button embellished right angle bracelet this week.


I got on a blue kick a couple weeks ago. There will be a few more very blue pieces listed in the next week. I've challenged myself making jewelry to not make blue jewelry all the time and explore a lot of other colors. I love blue and tend to reach for it first when choosing clothes and beads. But I love a lot of other colors, too, and it's good for me to branch out. Every once in a while I have to indulge, though! My blue button charm bracelets like this one have done so well; I'm hoping this little number will get picked up at some point, too.

I'm planning on making a dark red with a little dark purple mixed in button embellished bracelet next. After that, I'm thinking about a yellow and orange one. I'm open to other suggestions, too!

I still don't have pictures of my wedding jewelry yet. I will most likely wait until I have a couple other new creations to photograph as well, which will be at least a few more days. I'm also going to have to rework my spring challenge bracelet...again *sigh*. It's considerably heavier than most of my pieces and my normal weaving is not holding up. I think I'm going to double the weaving for each layer and see if that will be sturdy enough. I really don't want to take out any of the beads. I did make improvements weaving it the second time. Hopefully the third time will be the charm!

I think I finally have all the leaf beads that I'll need to make several more similar bracelets. It's really a good thing that I ended up keeping this first one for myself so I could perfect it before trying to sell it. In good news with collecting all of my leaf beads, I did end up ordering some from Fusion Beads. The transaction went very smoothly, and I'm pleased with the beads. I highly recommend the site to fellow jewelry makers. :)