THE NOTEBOOKS

Hi Everyone!

I've ALWAYS been a bit of a note book lover and journal geek. Love, love, love a brand new journal to sketch, draw and to junk up with paint and little tidbits of memorabilia. I have lots of different types of notebooks/journals and today I'm going to share a few with you.

My obsession started  innocently with a little green spiral bound book that went with me to a 3 day Quilting symposium the 80's, it spans over a decade of quilting classes and symposiums. A true treasure. 


 I jotted class notes and little tidbits down, diagrams and supply lists:

Attached a few samples I made in class:

Wore these goofy looking glasses in one class:

Next came the Beading classes and another "note" book was born, this book contains diagrams, notes and ideas for future bead works. 

"Design" is a notebook filled with lots of inspiration. Can you see that I graduated to a larger spiral bound notebook??

It started when I was thinking about making a Roman Shade for my studio.  Will tell you the whole story in my next post on Thursday. Promise. 

Come join me.

Bee Creative! Bee Happy! 

Suzy

Wedding Day Beads and Baubles

Hello Everyone! 

FLASH BACK: About 20 years ago it was love at first sight when I walked into a bead store to look for embellishments for a crazy quilted/silk embroidered purse I was making.  Every day, I would go to the bead store at lunch time and admire the bead work, soon the shop owner and I became friends and I signed up for my first workshop. My daughter, Amanda was 13 at the time and asked if she could come too, so I pleaded with my new friend to allow me to bring her along to an adult class. At first she was very hesitant to have a child in her class, but eventually she said OK when I assured her that Amanda was a very quiet child and well behaved. Turns out Amanda was a quick learner, good with beads and impressed the shop owner when she designed her very own project!  Well, that is how I got into beading and making beaded jewelry and where Amanda learned a love for crystal beads! I'll post some photos of our first beading projects soon. 

You must be wondering what this has to do with Wedding Day Beads and Baubles!  I guess it just reminded me of how we got started and where it has lead us to the beaded projects that I'm sharing now! 

First, before you get to see the wedding projects,  Here's a  shout out to my DD and DSIL on their FIRST Month Anniversary! Happy Anniversary you two love birds!!

PRESENT DAY: And now....I'd like to share a few handmade wedding accessories with you!  Amanda asked me to look at the hair pins she was considering as a purchase for her wedding day hairstyle. I checked them out and asked her if she might like me to make her some instead. She said she would love for me to make them so here's the design I came up with below (BTW not anything like the ones she was considering).  Please excuse the laundry list included in the photo!  

Pearl and Crystal Hair Pins 

The hair pins are made with almond colored pearls and clear crystals wired to a bobby pin.  Here's what they looked like in her hair below.

Hair pins 

It was a JOY to make something for my daughter to wear on her wedding day! 

NEXT PROJECT: Mama needs a necklace for the wedding! 

This is one of my favorite patterns! The beads are different sizes and make a wonderful spiral necklace.  I used pearls, crystals, metals and seed beads in creme, almond,copper and gold in the main piece and clear crystals and almond pearls for the single strand necklace.  

Spiral Pearls and Crystal Necklace

LAST PROJECT: Mama needs a purse for the wedding! 

I tackled my last project about a week before the wedding! I needed an evening bag and since I couldn't find what I wanted I made it!  The base of the purse is made of latte colored satin, envelope style (with gussets at the sides to make additional room inside) and a magnetic closure. The heavily beaded applique piece is actually a fabric created from sewing threads, beaded and then appliqued to the front flap of the bag! OK, Ok, I do realize that saving odds and ends of sewing thread is a bit odd, but over the years of sewing and quilting, I have amassed a collection of thread snippet left-overs. In my defense, they are organized by color and stored in plastic baggies to be used in making applique bases and designs. It's a form of recycling/upcycling. Anyhow, it is the perfect "fabric" base for beading, drapes nicely over edges and works well as a support for design. The threads are encased in a water soluable stabilizer and heavily sewn over with metallic threads in a random way to secure the threads and afterward the "fabric" is embellished with beads.  The roses are also handmade from satin ribbon and add a nice finishing touch.  

Beaded Evening Bag 

Thank you for stopping by to visit and I hope you have enjoyed the wedding projects I've been sharing with you!  I'll be posting our Seed Bead Applique Designs soon, so please come back again.

Suzy

Linking to: http://twenty-eight-0-five.blogspot.com/-Potpourri Friday