Big Beady Crafty Fun

Hey everyone, thanks for stopping by this week.  Last week I was going to tell you about my crafty misadventures but I was too tired.  LOL  But this week I can't wait to tell you.  You see, I am one of those kinds of people that find easy tings kinda hard and hard things kinda easy.  I am also the kind of person who is probably a direct descendant of Laurel and Hardy.  Yes both of them!

With the move I found a purse that I always really liked but it was a bit dirty and stained.  After a wash and a bit of bleach it was still stained.  It was a lovely shade of stainy Khaki.  Well, I know what you are thinking, "What will she do?", but no worries!  I got this!

Since I really like this purse and I really love teal I decided to buy some teal RIT dye.  How hard can it be to dye a purse, I mean really!  Well, my daughter and I decided to watch one of our shows while I was going to dye the purse.  THEN, I find out that you have to have very hot water to dye it and a big container.  Hit Pause and find a big container, thermometer and a few pots and a tea kettle.  10 minutes later we got a stuff box on top of a cheap plastic table cloth full of hot water.  Hit play while I read the instructions.  Hit pause while I heat some more water up and add 1 cup of salt.  Recheck temp of the water and find out that the stuff box has a HOLE IN IT!  5 sopping wet bath towels later I am back at the stove heating water all over again.

Finally get the water  right, the container right, the salt and then the dye, (Praise the Lord I did not have the dye in the original container).  Hit play and sit back down to read the rest of the instructions. Give up on show as I have to now stir the purse in the dye for 30 minutes!!!  But I will say this, through all of the wet towels and hot (very hot) water I got something that I really love.

Check it out!  Still looks a bit dingy from the stains but I am so happy about it.  The napkin next to it was the same color of he bag before I dyed it.  Cool thing is that there is nylon lining and the strap is also nylon and you have to use vinegar when dying nylon and salt for cotton.  So since I did not add the vinegar it did not dye the nylon so it looks like I bought this purse this color.  Whatcha think?  I am so happy with it.  BTW I wont be dying anything else for a very long time (if ever!).  

Now, lets get to some beady happiness, lol.  This week over at Every Inchie Monday the theme is Big.  Kinda interesting that we are doing something BIG in such a tiny space.  So that is what I went with.  Tiny.  I used 2 colors of delicas funny thing is that even though this and last weeks inchies were designed at different times they both have the same color in them.  Teal!  I did mention that I love teal!

 Also this last weekend I went to a bead show and met the awesome ladies from Dry Gulch beads and got some awesome beads.  Yay!  Which reminds me, there is a button on the right side of my blog that goes to their monthly color challenge page on facebook, fly on over and check it out, enter and you could win a $50 or $25 gift certificate and it can be anything, not just jewelry.  You could even make cupcakes!

Also don't forget to fly on over to EIM and check out the awesome creative ladies there.

Poetry on the Ranch

Hey everyone, I hope this finds you well.  I was going to be witty and have a few other things to show off but as time has not been my friend as of late.  I really don't know how we stopped being friends but since time doesn't talk to me I may never know!  ;)

This week over at Every Inchie Monday the theme is Poetry!  What a beautiful thing poetry is.  Poetry is so much more than can be filled into an inch!  As a teenager I loved to write poetry.  I wrote alot of things when I was a teenager.  It was a great release.  I still write when I can force myself to sit long enough without thinking about beads and designing.

But for this challenge I thought about beading a raven but it just did not transfer into beads like I was hoping so I went with the next best thing.  Dr. Seuss!!  I mean who doesn't love a little bit of green eggs and ham, or a cat in a hat, or hearing a who??  I always thought that Dr. Seuss was a genius.  I mean who can put words together that translates evenly to children and adults?  Only a genius I say!

So without further ado here is my inchie.  I know my name is not Sam but still I am who I am!

Like it?  Isn't it poetry in beads??  LOL well at least it is rhymy.

Also this week over at 2x2x2 the theme is Ranch.  I thought about making a bowl of ranch dip but for sure it would have looked like a bowl of potatoes. LOL  so my first thought was to go out of the box and make a Ranchero.  He is wearing a cowboy hat and a serape.  Check him out, I do love how cute he looks, don't you.  Looks like he is snapping his fingers and doing a little dance.  

That is it for me this week.  Don't forget to fly on over to EIM and 2x2x2 and check out the great art work over there and maybe jump in the pool and play with us!  I promise to not splash you....much.

Those Fishy, Bad, Bad Beads

Hey everyone, thanks for stopping by this week. I hope you are all enjoying the pollen warm weather.  I know I am! LOL

Let's just get down to it!  This week over at Every Inchie Monday the theme is Fish.  This one was kinda easy to design but not too easy to bead.  Why, you ask?  Well, glad you asked!!!  Those beautiful tiny seed beads that have enamored me my whole life many times need to be culled.  Culling is when you have to inspect the beads and take out all the ones that don't look right, are broken, or too small/big.  Usually when I bead my inchies I get 3-4 beads that need to be culled.  There have also been times when I missed a bead that needed to be culled and beaded with it.  I am usually the first (and many times only) one who notices.

But this time with this inchie in just 2 rows of beading I had this happen.

These are all the beads that I was unable to use when I was beading just 2 rows of the pattern.  There are only 19 beads in 2 rows!  ARG!  This is one of the frustrating things about beading.  I know beads are massed produced and sometimes there are mistakes made.  Lately the beads I use have needed to be culled more.  Which brings me to another conundrum, are beads being made in more mass production (causing more culling) because they are more in need or am I just hoarding so many that they need to keep up with my stash??  LOL   I really don't want to know the answer to that question!

Here, after all the culling, here is the finished product.

I used 3 colors of mostly good Delica beads ;).  I love this kinda fish.  So tropical and pretty.

I am also working on some competition pieces that I can not show yet.  But if you are interested in joining some fun competitions then check out Dry Gulch's monthly color challenge, Seed Beads and More's monthly beaded vessel challenge, Seedbeadsters, peyote triangle challenge, Beadwork Mentoring's Kaleidocycles challenge and of course EIM and 2x2x2

I would love to hear from all of you and thanks in advance for the great comments.Until next week, have a blessed and creative week!

Grandmother and her Oranges.

Hey everyone, I hope this finds you all well.  I am doing good.  My asthma is up a bit, the changing weather is not always my friend.  But I did get my beadwork done this week.  YAY!  I was not happy about missing that one week.

This week over at Every Inchie Monday the theme is Grandmother.  My first thought was the tree in Pocahontas, Grandmother Oak.  But that did not translate nicely into beads so I went with an abbreviated design that resembled an embroidered corner on a hankie.  Because, of course, all Grandmothers (or Mamaw,  as I will one day be called) have hankies to wipe babies noses. For this one I used 4 colors of Delicas.  I do like the white background beads and the metallic purple beads.

Also this week is 2x2x2 and the theme there is one that we have had before on EIM, Orange!  So first I will show you what I did for EIM back in 2014.

 Do you get it?  As a kid this was one of my favorite jokes.  For those who don't know it or get my odd sense of humor the joke goes like this.

Knock knock!
Whose there?
Banana!
Banana who?

Knock knock!
Whose there?
Banana!
Banana who?

Knock knock!
Whose there?
Orange!
Orange who?
Orange you glad I did not say banana??

So, yea, an orange GLAD!  LOL  I told you my humor is always a bit odd.

Well for this weeks twinchie I could not go the same route but what I did want to do was a whole citrus montage with a lemon, a lime and 2 orange slices.  This one is one I have waited for all year.  I just like how I used different colored and types of beads for the different colors of the fruit.

For this twinchie I used 9 colors of Delicas I love the transparent, matte and opaque look to each slice.  To make this pattern I had to do it in 3 parts.  First part was the Lime slice.

Then I had to make a lemon slice separately.

Then I made the orange slices last.

First I took the lime and copied it onto the lemon pattern.  Saved it.  Then copied the orange slices and pasted them on top of the lemon-lime slices.  Lastly I colored the middle white.  Parts of the lemon-lime slices are hidden by the more important orange slices.  I really love how it looks.  

Well, that is it for me this week.  I hope that you like what you see and maybe think about joining along with the fun in EIM and 2x2x2.  Trust me, the thrill you get from designing something for the simple joy of designing something is well worth it!  Have a blessed and creative week my friends.