new bead and button goodies for Christmas

I'm sure that this is no surprise to anyone reading this, but I am always excited about new bead and button goodies for Christmas and my birthday (or any other time someone surprises me with a random gift).  I got both this year for Christmas!  Here's a little preview for everyone.

My mom got me the awesome set on the left from Jen (blueseraphim).  Some of you may remember that this exact set was on my 2010 Etsy wish list so I was super excited about that.  Then my brother's girlfriend got me the set on the right from a shop in Chicago called Beadniks.  I have never been there before, but I need to sometime!

My mom got the rest of this year's stash for me, largely from a craft or fabric store (I'm not sure which) that was going out of business.  It's always sad to see a craft place close, but it's nice when you can take advantage of clearance deals.  This is the shell set.  As you probably know, I've had a lot of success with my shell bead jewelry line.  This will be a fun new twist on that idea.  I am definitely going to make at least one shell button charm bracelet with this set.  A matching set of earring has potential to be awesome as well.  I'm open to other ideas, too.

My in-laws got me a huge set of clearance button strips like this last year, which I have used extensively.  They work wonderfully for earring stud pairs and can be worked into almost any button charm bracelet style.  I'm really excited to have more for my stash.  There are some great blue/red matching pairs in this set.  Christmas in July anyone?

There were a few other random cards, too.  I LOVE the silver Celtic knot design.  It will make an awesome clasp for a Celtic themed bracelet at some point in the future.

Finally, my mom found some more vintage American flag buttons in her own stash.  I got a handful of them a while back and have made a couple earring stud pairs from them as I blogged about here.  I would love to use these for a button charm bracelet, but they are so old (as you can tell from the way the cardboard is literally disintegrating) that I would worry about them wearing through.  So I will probably use them for an embellished button bracelet like this one.

crazy weather, new buttons

As I'm sure some of you know, the midwest has been hit with a lot of storms this past week.  It rained off and on all night and was still stormy this morning.

As promised here are some pictures of the new buttons that I got from my mom over the weekend.  She hit the vintage button bin at Vogue again and gave me most of the stash.

I keep meaning to make some more turquoise and red pieces.  I think that I have to now, right?

I also played around with some possibilities for new button magnets.  Most of my inventory is in great shape, but I really need to make some more button magnets before my next show in a few weeks.

Normally I design individual magnets.  I have only made a couple sets so far, but people have consistently asked for more.  I'm going to made a handful of the green, red, and marbled blue set (I have enough to do 3-4 more than what's pictured there).  While I'm working with all of the turquoise and red, I'm going to make half a dozen or so of those as well.  I have some pink/mauve/cream from my existing button collection picked out for a set, too.

new listing, goodies from the weekend, custom order

As promised, I listed a new pair of earrings tonight: fall striped peyote triangle earrings.

These are my largest peyote triangle earrings thus far.  They're designed to coordinate with my Autumn Explosion peyote cuff.  I used the same color delicas for the base of the cuff and for the earrings.  The smaller size has done really well so far, but I may make a few more in this larger size as well.  Let me know what you think!

Also, as promised here are my new goodies from this weekend.

I put all of the loose buttons into the little ziplocks that had held one or two buttons from a particular garment.

There were a number of buttons, mostly neutral shades, on cards as well.

I can use a few of the smaller buttons on cards for earring studs.  A lot of the new neutral buttons will be great for a neutral button charm bracelet.  As you can see in the corner of the last shot, I also got some bells and large gold shank buttons.  One of my friends has an idea for a crazy button/general charm bracelet for one of her grandmas for Christmas that the buttons and shanks will be perfect for.  I am going to remake my original Christmas button charm bracelet while the Christmas in July sale is still going on, but I wasn't planning to include any bells in it (unless there's interest...).

I cannot resist buying Czech leaf beads when they are in bulk like this because they are SO much cheaper than when they're priced individually.  Briolette had tons of green leaves this weekend.  I already had a decent stash at home and wondered why I thought I needed just a few more.  It turns out that it's good that I did, though, because I got a custom order for the leafy series - Indian Summer as a necklace when I got back to Iowa.  Needless to say, I will need a lot of them!  I will post progress/final result pictures of how that goes.  This will definitely be a new endeavor for me.