The Last Valentine's Day Idea (#18) - Glass Bead Charm Bracelet

Only 16 Days Left Until Valentine's Day!

For the last Valentine's Day idea project I was basically inspired by a left over length of copper chain. It was just the right size for a bracelet, so I pulled out some copper bead caps, a copper heart toggle and grabbed my box of pink glass beads. I'd completely forgotten about some small pink hearts and the last of the Rings & Things blog partner lampwork heart beads which I'd put in the same box. I wrapped the hearts and other pink glass beads with antiqued copper wires and the fancy copper caps, and used some lovely iridescent coated dark pink matte beads for accents.

And that's it for the Valentine's day idea posts! Thanks for following along, it was a lot of fun and I have 18 great Valentine's gift suggestions to list and display at shows.

Also, today and tomorrow are the last days to enter to win the cute Valentine's Day bracelet, all it takes to be entered is a comment! Say "Enter me in the bracelet giveaway" on any post this month. If you're on Twitter and RT any of my tweets this month you'll get another entry. If you're a fan or become a fan of Dawno's on Facebook and leave a comment on any post there with "Enter me in the bracelet giveaway", you get another entry - so there's a total of 3 entries you can make towards the giveaway.

Random drawing will be held on Sunday - and if selected, you'll get the bracelet in plenty of time for Valentine's Day!



FTC compliance notice of material connection: The lampwork heart bead, as noted above, was provided to me for free, to be used for design and/or review purposes by Rings & Things.

Valentine's Day Idea #17 - Amber Glass Earrings

Only 17 Days left until Valentine's Day!

I wanted to do something a bit different for my next to last Valentine's Day project. So, I went on a search through my beads for heart shaped beads, but in a color other than red or pink. I found some dark amber colored ones and thought they'd be cute as earrings.

I also had a pack of small gold plated toggles, mostly circles, but there were a couple of heart toggles, too, that I'd set aside to use, which I thought would be just the right touch. With a bit of wire and two tiny jump rings, it took hardly any time at all to make these. Good thing too, with the State of the Union, I got to a late start on tonight's project.

I'm thinking about upscaling this design with gold filled heart charms and Swarovski hearts...but I'm trying to be good about buying new stuff, so I'm using available beads from my stash. I also, as you can see, used post and loop ear-studs for a change, as well.

Also, only three days left to enter to win the cute Valentine's Day bracelet, all it takes to be entered is a comment! Say "Enter me in the bracelet giveaway" on any post this month. If you're on Twitter and RT any of my tweets this month you'll get another entry. If you're a fan or become a fan of Dawno's on Facebook and leave a comment on any post there with "Enter me in the bracelet giveaway", you get another entry - so there's a total of 3 entries you can make towards the giveaway.

Random drawing will be held on January 31st - and if selected, you'll get the bracelet in plenty of time for Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day Idea #16 - Carnelian and Copper

I decided that for today's Valentine's Day idea, I'd show a bracelet I made quite some time ago. I'd gone back (way, way and deeply back) into my comfort zone with a vintage/romantic style, and made a bracelet with ornate copper bead caps, gold Swarovski pearls, Crystal Copper Swarovski 6mm bicones and large faceted carnelian beads. The bead caps are Tierra Cast copper plated pewter.

I think this would go nicely with the necklace I posted about in December, if you don't mind mixing metals (the necklace uses gold).

I've posted this and other Valentine's Day idea pieces on my Artfire shop, and sale priced them through Valentine's Day. If you'd like to have something I've posted recently for yourself, you can check there. More will go up throughout the week. Do you think it's tacky to maybe do a list of all the pieces and their shop links?

Also, only four days left to enter to win the cute Valentine's Day bracelet, all it takes to be entered is a comment! Say "Enter me in the bracelet giveaway" on any post between now and the end of the month. If you're on Twitter and RT any of my tweets this month you'll get another entry. If you're a fan or become a fan of Dawno's on Facebook and leave a comment on any post there with "Enter me in the bracelet giveaway", you get another entry - so there's a total of 3 entries you can make towards the giveaway.

Random drawing will be held on January 31st - and if selected, you'll get the bracelet in plenty of time for Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day Idea #15 - Garnet Glass Bordeaux Swarovski Pearls and Copper Necklace

Only 19 Days until Valentine's Day!

Since I had the box of garnets and garnet colored glass near by from yesterday's Valentine's Day idea necklace, I decided to make a garnet glass and copper heart necklace with the new copper spacers with loops I just received from ABeadStore.com. I threw in a few of the Bordeaux Swarovski glass pearls as well. The bead caps are ornate Tierra Cast copper.

I haven't finished the necklace yet - I'm not 100% sure of how long I want it to be. I think a fairly short length is called for with this design, so it'll be somewhere around 20", I guess. I've got some cute toggles in copper, but I'm not fond of using toggles at the back of necklaces - is that odd?

I've been listing my Valentine's Day items, and added some sale item logos (I've reduced the prices on all of these by up to $5.00) to a few other pieces, at my Artfire shop. I've also been working on some amethyst pieces to put up for February birthdays. Although it's really challenging, because of the day job, to make mention of my pieces on Twitter, I've noted that the ones I do mention have gotten numerous views, so I'm going to try harder to make a point of mentioning them.

I think the Valentine's Day ideas posts will make it to Friday, after that I'm back to my usual designs and posts. I've got some Artbeads items to write about - I'm really looking forward to it, they're going to push me out of the comfy zone again.

You only have until Sunday to enter to win a cute Valentine's Day bracelet, all it takes to be entered is a comment! Say "Enter me in the bracelet giveaway" on any post between now and the end of the month. If you're on Twitter and RT any of my tweets this month you'll get another entry. If you're a fan or become a fan of Dawno's on Facebook and leave a comment on any post there with "Enter me in the bracelet giveaway", you get another entry - so there's a total of 3 entries you can make towards the giveaway.

Random drawing will be held on January 31st - and if selected, you'll get the bracelet in plenty of time for Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day Idea #14 - Hammered Copper Hearts With Garnets

This one took me many tries, and probably a foot of copper wire, to finally get three closely matched hammered hearts for this necklace. I added some rough faceted garnet drops and round garnet beads for a bit of color. The chain was something I picked up at Michael's. To match the look of the chain, I used walnut stain Distress Ink and jet black Archival Ink. I'll probably need to coat it with something so it won't wear off - will have to do some research to determine the best product.

Since it's getting close to the end of the month, I'm trying to get as many of my Valentine's items as I can (and can bear to part with) up on my Artfire shop for sale. If you liked something I've posted recently, you should check there and throughout the week, I've got quite a few more ready to add, but want to spread the listings out over a few days in hopes a couple of them will get noticed when they show up on the "new listings" page.

Also, time's running out for entering to win the cute Valentine's Day bracelet, all it takes to be entered is a comment! Say "Enter me in the bracelet giveaway" on any post between now and the end of the month. If you're on Twitter and RT any of my tweets this month you'll get another entry. If you're a fan or become a fan of Dawno's on Facebook and leave a comment on any post there with "Enter me in the bracelet giveaway", you get another entry - so there's a total of 3 entries you can make towards the giveaway.

Random drawing will be held on January 31st - and if selected, you'll get the bracelet in plenty of time for Valentine's Day!

Weekly Wanderings Around the Beadosphere

A number of posts this week were about CHA, reviews of A Bead in Time and Valentine's Day jewelry. Despite the cold or rainy weather out there, it was a lovely week out there in the Beadosphere.

A Bead A Day - Lisa's great new book is officially released! plus, Egg Hunt Trios and Jill MacKay clasp bracelet.

Ahtee's blog - "Mechanical Butterfly".

Barbe St. John - Review of A Bead In Time

Beading Arts - Get your work featured at Beading Arts.

Beading Gem's Journal - Swarovski and Disney, new Alice in Wonderland jewelry tie-ins
and a review of Lisa (A Bead A Day) Crone's just released book: A Bead in Time.

Craft Critique - Lots of CHA pics

Deez News - the ups and downs of jewelry design with Davinia.

Designs by Victoria - lovely designs for the Artbeads blogging for beads program

Doe-c-doe shows how to change some great old clip earrings into a beautiful necklace. (via Beading Gem's Journal)

ErtheFae - riding out the "Super Storm" and trying to figure out the right design for some great beads and focal.

For the love of beads - support a worthy cause, Tanya Boden (Aardvark Silver on Etsy) needs surgery and other sellers are donating proceeds.

Just A Tish - "Don't rush the creativity!" with her Rings & Things blog partner goodies, green kyanite (really? green? cool!) necklace and odds and ends earrings.

Ladybead Beach Jewelry - a new bracelet with Swarovski pearls and Austrian crystal in a lovely multi-strand design.

Lampwork Diva - Rings & Things blog partner post - Valentine's Day heart necklace and cool "grunge beads" in polymer clay

Margot Potter posts a wonderful review of A Bead In Time.

Melissa J. Lee's Artbeads Beads for Bloggers CZ designs

Nikon Sniper - inspirational colors from the desert.

Pretty Things - Valentine's day heart designs from Lori Anderson - also, check out her new blog An Artist's Year Off.

Silver Parrot - Even though it's raining like crazy, Silver Parrot has lovely new designs to share and gives a peek at the great beads, chain and clasps from the Pasadena Bead and Design Show on the 14th - 17th

Willow Walker - gorgeous new Valentine's Day inspired jewelry, and start here then read the following day's posts to see how it happens.

Just Something I've Made - creating lovely crafts with vintage typewriter paper

And, while it's a non-beading blog it would be a huge favor if you can help my dear friend: Does anyone know what this flower is? Leave a comment on Lisa's blog.

Artbeads - The History of the Valentine's Day Card

The Beadin' Path - Weekly Beadditudes with Dara: Button Jewelry Part 1 - buttons with holes

Earthenwood Studios Blog - Melanie is on a bead cruise (I'm jealous! How about you?), but has prepared some posts for the week - this one about a tutorial on the Clockwork Coil Carapace necklace she'll be giving on the cruise.

Friendly Plastic - The Friendly Plastic booth at CHA

ModPodgeRocks - CHA Saturday SuperShow with ModgePodge

Ornamentea - Steampunk Art from The Graphics Fairy

Rings & Things - designers featured in Stringing who use Rings & Things in their designs

SoftFlexGirl - fashion trends


Don't see your favorite blog here? Just leave me the link in comments and I'll be sure to check them out.

Also, if you follow* this blog, you'll never miss the weekly wanderings because you forgot to check - I'll be delivered right to your reader or Blogger dashboard every day!

*Look up at the uppermost left hand side of this page - see the boxes that say "search blog" "flag blog" and "follow blog" - just click the "follow blog" box!

Hope you have a great week - see you tomorrow!

Valentine's Day Idea #13 - Rhodonite Heart Bracelet

24 Days until Valentine's Day!

Tonight I really only had time for another relatively fast and simple design. One of my favorite colors is pink - didn't use to be, but later in life I discovered that it's a good color for me. Because of this, I have a lot of pink beads, especially Rhodonite. So, for this one I used Rhodonite beads and a Rhodonite heart pendant with silver beads and a silver heart toggle on medium Premium Satin Silver SoftFlex.

You can find the Rhodonite heart pendant and heart toggle at ABeadStore.com. The silver roundel beads and round beads are from Artbeads. The other Rhodonite beads were purchased at my local bead store, Global Beads.

Don't forget, if you'd like to win a cute Valentine's Day bracelet, all it takes to be entered is a comment! Say "Enter me in the bracelet giveaway" on any post between now and the end of the month. If you're on Twitter and RT any of my tweets this month you'll get another entry. If you're a fan or become a fan of Dawno's on Facebook and leave a comment on any post there with "Enter me in the bracelet giveaway", you get another entry - so there's a total of 3 entries you can make towards the giveaway.

Random drawing will be held on January 31st - and if selected, you'll get the bracelet in plenty of time for Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day Idea #12 - Cosmic Valentine Lariat

25 Days Until Valentine's Day!

At work today I got an idea for another project, so I sketched the idea out with a pencil and a red pen.

And this is what I've got so far:

This one is still a work in progress as I'm not 100% sure I'm happy with the look yet. It's not a quick and easy one - I used two types of chain, plus oval solid links and some wrapped loops to connect various CRYSTALLIZED™ Swarovski elements in this lariat style necklace. I had to do some color manipulation in the picture to make all the beads the same color, since I didn't actually have a couple of the pieces in Crystal Red Magma, the original square and heart beads are Vitrail, temporarily, as placeholders until I can order the proper color replacements.

I got the beads from a number of suppliers, the ring and the twist are from Artbeads, the chessboard beads from A Grain of Sand. The square component and the heart from Rings & Things, as well as the gunmetal chains.

Don't forget, if you'd like to win a cute Valentine's Day bracelet, all it takes to be entered is a comment! Say "Enter me in the bracelet giveaway" on any post between now and the end of the month. If you're on Twitter and RT any of my tweets this month you'll get another entry. If you're a fan or become a fan of Dawno's on Facebook and leave a comment on any post there with "Enter me in the bracelet giveaway", you get another entry - so there's a total of 3 entries you can make towards the giveaway.

Random drawing will be held on January 31st - and if selected, you'll get the bracelet in plenty of time for Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day Idea #11 - Sweetheart Necklace

Only 26 Days 'til Valentine's Day!

I still have a couple items from the Rings&Things blog partner package that I haven't used yet so I decided to make a very simple necklace with the blue & pink striped white lampwork glass heart and some 4mm opaque white Czech glass beads. I considered using seed beads or silver spacers, but I really like the simplicity of the design without them. It reminds me of innocence, like the time before the first kiss or even before the first time holding hands, with your first love.

This was strung on medium satin silver SoftFlex. The heart is fixed with a simple wrapped loop made from a silver headpin.

Don't forget, if you'd like to win a cute Valentine's Day bracelet, all it takes to be entered is a comment! Say "Enter me in the bracelet giveaway" on any post between now and the end of the month. If you're on Twitter and RT any of my tweets this month you'll get another entry. If you're a fan or become a fan of Dawno's on Facebook and leave a comment on any post there with "Enter me in the bracelet giveaway", you get another entry - so there's a total of 3 entries you can make towards the giveaway.

Random drawing will be held on January 31st - and if selected, you'll get the bracelet in plenty of time for Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day Idea #10 - Gunmetal Beading Chain Necklace

Had a 3-day weekend and was a total slug throughout. Accomplished very little, but I did manage to make Valentine's Day project #10:

(Click to enlarge)

I think the gunmetal chain goes really well with the ruby colored glass beads, and for my first try with the beading chain, I'm pretty happy with the results.

Don't forget, if you'd like to win a cute Valentine's Day bracelet, all it takes to be entered is a comment! Say "Enter me in the bracelet giveaway" on any post between now and the end of the month. If you're on Twitter and RT any of my tweets this month you'll get another entry. If you're a fan or become a fan of Dawno's on Facebook and leave a comment on any post there with "Enter me in the bracelet giveaway", you get another entry - so there's a total of 3 entries you can make towards the giveaway.

Random drawing will be held on January 31st - and if selected, you'll get the bracelet in plenty of time for Valentine's Day!