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:

new beads...an order and a surprise set

I have been trying very hard to hold back on major bead purchases until Christmas and focus on creating pieces on my "to do" list with what I have in stock.  One of the things that I enjoy most about making jewelry is choosing and working with beads so it's tough to hold off on bead purchases.

I'm sure that many of you know that I'm a big fan of Jen of blueseraphim.  I browse her shop very regularly.  When I saw that she was having a 35% off sale on orders of $50 or more, I knew that I couldn't pass it up.  I have asked for Jen's beads for Christmas the last couple years.  I figure that I'm just treating myself early this year.  If you like lampwork beads, please get over there and take advantage of this amazing offer.  The averaged price of these beads after the discount and including shipping was $1 per piece.

I'm planning to use the charm as one of the charm options for my new herringbone line.  The turquoise beads will be amazing focals for one or two pieces.  I'm looking forward to using the squares and other discs as buttons or for embellishments.

I also got a package from Erika earlier this month.  She had asked me if I'd be interested in her leaf beads that she isn't planning to use any time soon.  Of course I said yes.  Erika is so generous.  Look at everything that she sent me.

The green leaf charm will be another amazing focal for herringbone wrap bracelets/necklaces.  There is a lot of great Czech glass here, too, that I'll be able to use in my classic lines.  Thanks again Erika!

new goodies and contemplations for more

There has been so much going on lately that I haven't shared the donuts that I got from Deb at storybeader more than week ago.  After I'd mentioned that I was interested in getting some more donuts, Deb volunteered to send me her stash that she's not planning to use...for free.  Of course I had to accept.  There was some confusion in our EtsyBloggers thread about what kind of donuts we were talking about.  Nope, you can't eat these unfortunately, but that's about the only downside.

They've been hanging out on our coffee table since they arrived.  Jake loves to play with them while they're watching TV.  They will make beautiful projects, too.  Thanks again Deb!

As always, I'm trying to limit my purchases, especially when sales are slow.  But that doesn't mean that I'm not still doing a little browsing.  There are a couple things that I'm contemplating right now and would love your thoughts.  Click on the photos to check out the listings.

I've been thinking about getting some resin flower cabochons for my button magnets.  My more detailed buttons have always done well.  This includes anything with unusually shaped buttons, such as hearts and stars.  So I've been thinking about what else I can add that wouldn't be too expensive.  Cabochons may be a good option.

Of course I would have to go with mixes.  I have such a hard time selecting single colors for things like this.

Also, since this became available again, it has been tempting me.

It would be so perfect for cards to match my shop.

Nora also has a lot of neat leaf stamps in her shop that would coordinate well, too.

I haven't designed any thank you cards for my shop in quite a while.  I got some card making supplies last summer when I was on a card kick again so with a couple more stamps, I'd be more than set to take this up again.

new toys and goodies

My EtsyBlogger friends know that my mom brought me a sewing machine over Labor Day weekend.  One of her friends was moving across the country and wasn't taking it with him.  She got it for him for free and gave it to me, as she already has one.  I didn't have a particular purpose for that desk at this point so the sewing machine is perfect there.  Of course I had to take a picture of it.

Some of you may be wondering around my sewing skills, as I haven't posted a lot of sewing projects of my own here.  I do know basic sewing machine skills, but it's been years since I've practiced them.  I honestly don't even know what I'd like to make with it at this point, but how I could I say no to a free machine?  I'm open to suggestions for projects.

The guy very nicely included a lot of his sewing supplies and extra buttons.

While my mom was here, we went to El Rey.  I'd driven past it a handful of times but hadn't wandered in yet.  We got a few things for our taco dinner that night, and I got a few very inexpensive staples.  Each item here was only $3.50.  Yep, that is enough cinnamon to keep me set for at least the next 5 years.  I need to start making my own cinnamon rolls or something.  I'm looking forward to the sticks for cider and cocoa this winter.

Also on the subject of new goodies, this past week, I took advantage of the Labor Day Sale at Michael's.  Among other things, I got some new bead strands, which were almost 40% off.

I'm always hunting for new leaves so the green ones were a nice find.  I got the amethyst chips on the right for future rock garden bracelets.  The two middle strands were a random inspiration.  As I was thinking about the rock gardens and looking at the neutral rounds, I thought, why not a winter rock garden?  As I've been hunting for an anniversary ring lately, I've been drawn to this ring in one of my new favorite shops.  So the quartz chips fit in with that, too.  As you know, I've always got a lot of different projects going on, but that will be perfect for later this fall so I will do my best to fit it in then.

And yes, those beads are lying on a new piece of felt!  I bought three new felt squares while I was there for my light box.  I've mentioned wanting to experiment with a colored square and several people have urged me to try a lighter gray and/or white background.  So here they are.  I'll have more on that later this week so stay tuned.

final Iowa City bead purchase and a sneak peak

One of the last times I was down in Iowa City to get my hair cut, I made a final stop at the bead shop there: Beadology.

When I took the pictures for this blog post, I'd already torn down my light box set up so I took this shots in the living room with a Stauer catalog.  I'm way out of practice with that but I did all right.  Anyway, yes, I just went to a bead store in Chicago, but I wanted the packaged seed beads from Beadology.  The red beads are just plain red in person.  They look almost pink here.  Of course I had to look around at everything else and got a dagger strand and two leaf strands, too.

Sadly because our closing date got pushed back, I did not make it to Milwaukee in time for Bead and Button this year.  I will do everything that I can to be there next year.  For now, I will have to start scouting new bead stores in Milwaukee.

I finished my July EBW challenge piece over the weekend.  I'm not going to take the listing photos until I have my light box set up again, but you get a sneak peak for now.

I'll have lots more details about it when I list it.  For now, I'll just say that the biggest challenge of this piece is that it's the first time I've done true free form detail.  You can judge for yourself whether you think it was successful or not. :)

treasury round up and new goodies

As always, I'm so honored to have my pieces included in treasuries on Etsy.  Thanks much to all of my curators!

Angela (AngelaDesign) included my Beaded Bracelet - Black and Pink in her Black and Pink treasury.  I never get tired of this color combination!

Glass Flower Knitting Stitch Markers (N2) - set of 5 - ready to ship

Christina (BirgittasBeads) included my Silver Dangle Earrings - Pink Shell in her Make it pink, rose, or fuchsia! treasury.

Christina doesn't have anything available in that particular Etsy shop right now.

mellimoon included my Beaded Cuff Bracelet - Skinny - Sunshine Gold Accented in her The Sun is Coming Out to Play treasury.  I love the mix of items here.

Amy - mellimoon doll ooak

 I was in Chicago briefly last weekend on my way to Kenosha for my little sister-in-law's high school graduation.  I had not been bead shopping in Chicago in months so I had to hit one of my favorite shops again: Briolette.

I am always looking for more size 6 Czech seed beads.  I use a lot of them in almost all of my right angle weave designs.  Briolette has a pretty good selection so I usually pick up a few when I'm there.  Both the cream and yellow beads will be for my July EBW Challenge piece, as well as many other pieces, I'm sure.  I go through a lot of cube beads for my skinny embellished peyote cuffs, too, so picking up a couple more of those is always a good idea, too.

One of my favorite things at Briolette is their Czech glass mixed bowls.  They sort them by color and let you mix and match to fill the little bags.  I could seriously spend hours digging through them, filling many many bags.  Normally I limit myself to two bags, but I went for four this time, largely because they had so many leaf beads.  I hadn't seen this many there in a couple years.  I picked up a few other assorted shapes as well, including the adorable drilled Domino beads.  I think that they would make perfect little earrings.  I may work up a few of those for Christmas in July.

giveaway and some new goodies

I don't promote a lot of giveaways here, but I had to mention that my EtsyBlogger teammate Edi (memoriesforlifesb), one of my favorite people on Etsy, is having a giveaway on her blog right now.  You can enter it by clicking here.  In honor of her 28th birthday this month, she's giving away a $28 gift certificate for her shop.

You can use the gift certificate for anything in her shop.  Even if you don't need an album or other custom item for yourself, many of her items make wonderful gifts.  So please go enter if you haven't already.

I've been going through lots of jump rings lately with all of the button charm bracelets that I've been making.  So I've made a couple trips to Michael's in the past few weeks.  And of course I can never walk away with just the items that I intended to pick up when I went there.

Michael's has great coupons on their web site.  Between the two trips, I saved over $7.00 on about $35 worth of merchandise.  The pink and pale blue shells were on sale, which is why I splurged on those.  All of the other beads were either 50% off or ended up being 20-30% off with the coupons.  I've sold two rock garden bracelets this summer and wanted a few more components for my next pieces in that series.  The green and purple components on the far left will work perfectly for those.

newest goodies

I caved last week and purchased a few sets of buttons from Lisa Peters (one from her regular store and one from her destash store).  I've done an awesome job the last few months of only purchasing small things here and there to complete already planned projects.  So I didn't feel too bad about making a tiny splurge.  And I'm sure you can see why I wanted to.

The light colored leaf is actually a freebie cabochon that she included with my order.  And the green Christmas tree is a little charm, not a button.  Honestly I will most likely keep it for myself and string it on a simple chain.  I'm really excited to use some of the brown leaves as clasps for future autumn leafy bracelets.  I'm not sure what I'll do with the red buttons yet.  As always, I'm open to suggestions.

I only have two bracelets in my shop right now with a Lisa button because the pieces I've made with them keep selling!

This one is available here.

 And this one is available here.

Here are some past creations with Lisa's buttons.

new goodies

I finally broke down and started selling on Ebay tonight.  I am not a huge fan of Ebay, largely because I got hacked through it a few years ago, but hopefully it will be worthwhile.  My username there is randomcreative if anyone would like to look me up.  I'll post the link at some point when I have more items listed.  I was planning to post here earlier tonight, but I got wrapped up in the Ebay thing instead.

Here I am now, though.  As promised, I've been working on rock garden and leafy designs this weekend.  There are some of the new leaf beads that I'm including in my new pieces.

I also got the daggers that I ordered from The Beadin' Path this week.  They don't have a huge selection of items, but they have a nice collection of daggers.  Ever since I completed my blue dagger design, I've been thinking about lots of other possible dagger designs.

I can't believe how nicely the purple shade shows here.  Aren't these gorgeous beads?

new listing, new goodies

I sold and re-listed my Beaded Bracelet - Purple Shell design today.  It will be made to order (until I make another one at some point) and will still be 15% off for the rest of month.

I love this design!  I'm glad that it continues to do well.  I'm also still planning to make one in green.  For now, though, you can get coordinating Sterling Silver Dangle Earrings - Purple Shell, which I just listed tonight.

I know that the bracelet and earring shades of purple don't look perfectly matched, but they are very close in color in person.

I had several in person sales while I was in Chicago, too, as well as another Etsy sale.  I have really had a fabulous summer for sales, and I'm so excited that Etsy is finally picking up.  Hopefully this will continue!  While I was in Chicago, I got some new goodies, too.  I got lots of vintage buttons in bulk for $2.00 at Vogue Fabrics.  I will take a picture of them at some point.  I did not make it to Caravan in the city because Jake's test ended earlier than we originally thought so I made a short trip to Briolette instead.  Instead of splurging on lots of new Czech pressed glass (like leaves), I got a few glass pieces and some filler seed beads, which is just fine.  As I'm sure you can imagine, I'm far from out of Czech glass. :)

The first day of work went pretty well today.  It's nice to have one day of work and then a weekend to ease back into the regular routine.  Have a great weekend everyone!