Bracelets, Layouts, Emails, and Other Fancy Stuff

Your bracelets are wonderful Cynthia. The photography looks like it came out of a Coldwater Creek catalog. I received an email from my sister Holly. She read our blog, and loves your bead tatting. She asked about the publications you used in your designs. Her daughter-in-law is in to beading, and Holly would like to get her one for Christmas. Or better yet, what if you made up some kits of your fabulous bracelets !

This scrapbook layout was my first ever "post" to Basic Gray. You know how wild I am about the BG line of patterned paper. Well this one is 100 percent Basic Gray "Obscure". The photo is of my Granddaughter McKinlee.

Hope you had a great Birthday!

Patty

Happy Birthday Cynthia

Thank you Patty for another beautiful hand made card. We don't really want to talk about which birthday this is. Let's just say it's the speed limit and you can guess whether that's a surface street or highway, better yet, a school zone! - Cynthia

Bracelets

Patty, you already know that I am obsessed with bracelets. Here are four I have made. The first is a pattern I found in Bead and Button magazine. I love the magnetic clasp. Its so easy to lock in place. The stitch is a variation on a daisy chain. The next is also a pattern from Bead and Button. The buttons are vintage Czech glass buttons I found at A Beaucoup Conge in Tucson combined with hemitite squares and some vintage black bicones plus other beads. Photographed nicely, don't you think? Neither pattern is difficult.

The black bracelet with the red drop beads is da da da dahhh! Beaded Needle Tatting. My sister Kathleen taught me how to do this pattern. It is a little trickier. Actually takes me longer to layout the pattern of beads and thread them on the cord than the actual tatting. I used a button closure.

Don't you love the colors in the last bracelet - periwinkle, lavender and blue with a mother of pearl button closure? The leaf fringe pattern is a bit tedious (another one I lifted off the pages of Bead and Button) but the effort is worth it to create the feathering effect. If you're thinking I take all my patterns from Bead and Button you are only partially right, since all of my best ideas are borrowed. I also refer to Bead Style and Bead Works among others- Cynthia

Oh By the Way

Creating cards began as an "Oh by the way" moment. Oh by the way, as long as I have all these scraps of paper left over after Scrapbooking, I might as well use them to make cards. Of course the designs have evolved over time, as all art should. My Ah! moment came when I layered cardstock and pattern paper, with vintage black and white photos. A bit of ephemera here, and a ribbon there, and I have..."Handcrafted cards made with bits and pieces, suitable for all occasions". Patty

Dios de Muertos

will soon be here. I made these for a Day of the Dead Swap sponsored by Linda in the Art Unraveled yahoo group. The basic technique for the bone finish polymer clay skulls is one I learned from Barbara McGuire in her class at Art Unraveled 07. Mix equal parts ecru and white clay. Shape the skulls. Use a burnisher to create eyes and nose. Outline the teeth with an awl then press where the lips would be and the teeth will seem to pop to the surface in a skeletan grin. Create a bead hole with the awl. Bake. Cool. Dry brush with burnt umber acrylic paint. The wet sand with a #400. Add beads on an eye pin and form a loop at the top to attach a chain with a bead marigold. The southwest celebration coincides with All Saints Day and honors the memories of dead loved ones with dances, altars, and favorite foods of the departed loved ones. - Cynthia