Seussical The Musical Diamond Dangles

We get our design inspiration from all over the place and today's assignment was a super fun one for me ... to create a potential small ornament momento for cast members performing Seussical the Musical.  Great fun! The starting point for the concept was the shorter version of my button style dangles.

Any Aisle is Craft Aisle

Working on ... Beaded Diamond Dangles with Pretty Glass Beads

Most of us crafty types can be frequently found perusing pound shops, dollar stores and the various equivalents for bits and pieces that are essential and inspirational in our crafty pursuits.  If you can find components there, they'll be at fractions of the regular craft store prices,  The craft aisle regularly offers up new and interesting bits to get your creative juices flowing, becoming a fun challenge of "what could I do with this?".

Goodie Gum Drops ... these are ornaments

I just love a candy land theme to the Christmas decorating.  I'm not entirely sure why this is a great combination - other than the festive period is often a time of lots of lovely sweets and treats - but it puts me in mind of childhood and of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.  Are you singing along with me to "toot sweets"?  Ah, I digress.  See what happens when I think of childhood christmas fantasies.

Gum Drop Ornaments at FakeCupcakeCreations

There are several popular styles for ornaments in a Candy Land Christmas concept; cupcakes, candies, etc. and of course loads of methods and materials of production.  I've just seen a new-for-me concept and I think it's utterly brilliant.  The gum drop ornament.  I love gum drops and think they'd look fab on a tree.  Sparkly and pretty colours, what more could you want?

Seussical and More Diamond Dangles

What a lovely week-end we're having.  Lovely blue skies and sunshine and just hot enough.  After last weeks deluge it is a lovely change.  This afternoon I took my beading out to the sunshine on the deck and added the beaded spiral hooks to some of my assembly line 'bases' .  Time to do some catch up.

Holly and Berries Beaded Ornament

I've got a new variation on the holly and berries beaded diamond dangle ornament.  I made one last year, but this is an upscale version.  As I'm really taken with the beaded spiral hangers, I had to incorporate that element.

Painted Glass Balls with Diamond Gem Embellishments

I'm working to catch up with my craft photography for posting, and top of the agenda for this weekend is the painted glass Christmas balls.  They're 'painted' on the inside by swirling paint inside and it's super fun to see all the different patterns that it will make.  It's like those twirling paint art works - inside a Christmas ball.

Different from every angle, they're a lovely addition to the Christmas tree. I hadn't made any in ages, after making tons of them a few decades ago, but when I came across these slightly larger versions embellished with silver gem stones I just couldn't resist.

Simple and easy to make, the only thing is you'll need ample space to set them out for occasional rotating while they completely dry.  I use plastic or styrofoam cups for the balls to sit in while the paint drips out, and it's a good idea to cover the surface below for any spills.

Have a go, they're lots of fun, or if you want to take a look at mine, they're gradually making their way to the Christmas is Magical shop

Frosted Snowflakes .. on parade!

I have recently begun to embrace an assembly-line approach to my Christmas ornaments.  Here are just some of the renditions I've made of my frosted snowflake beaded ornaments.  I'm focusing on my "posh beads" - gem encrusted bling beads, stripy resin beads, berry beads, polka dot beads, sequin beads and, in general, huge chunky lovelies - to accompany these pretty frosted snowflake pendants

Frosted Snowflake Beaded Ornaments

My friend Catherine posted the other day that it was down to double digits until Christmas.  Where has the year so far gone?  Time for me to get my skates on and back into the Christmas groove with my online sites and Etsy shop.  Won't be long until Santa is visiting - 96 days!

I've been trying to catch up today with some photography and posting on the shop so I thought I'd show you these pretty frosted snowflakes worked up into beaded ornaments.

I've added pearl gem stickers and shiny gem stickers to the snowflakes for a little more sparkle, and they feature some of my prettiest bead assortments.

With really chunky and sparkly beads this design is substantial, measuring a little over 6".  Wiring them on to whimsical spiral beaded ornaments is just the right finishing touch to make them truly special.

Get ready to see all sorts of variations of these little snowflakes - even I don't know how many I'm currently working on but there are lots, lots, lots.  All of them, of course, are my favourites.

Heart 2 Heart

I've been making more heart dangle ornaments with my supply of crystal heart pendants and this red version is just perfect with the feature of a red bead with white hearts.  It's Heart 2 Heart!

Miniature Christmas Ornaments

The days are FINALLY starting to get a little nicer so I've decided I don't really need to be blogging about Christmas every day right now, but I will try to keep doing regular updates as it won't be too terribly long before "Christmas in July" which is somewhat of a kick-off for us crafters.  Here is something new I've tried recently - miniature Christmas ornaments. At least the colours are bright and spring like!

These sweet little miniature ornaments are just perfect for a table top small tree and I've done them up in stars and hearts.  The little faceted pendants are actually from pony tail hair bands which I just cut apart to rescue the hearts and stars.

The clear acrylic is ideal as it's unbreakable and the facets give them lovely sparkle.  With small ornament hooks, I've beaded them directly on with teeny tiny crystal clear seed beads and larger seed beads in co-ordinating colours, and for the stars, small pearls as well.

I'm rather pleased at how they have turned out and will be on the lookout for other small things to re-invent into miniature Christmas ornaments.

Super Large Faceted Beaded Snowflakes

I've been back to trying my hand at the beaded snowflake ornaments.  This time, I thought I'd try a version with these fab super large faceted beads. They're 22mm in diameter and I have them in a number of colours.

Hearts and Polka Dots

Hearts and polka dots.  Two of my favourite things, and don't they combine well with these lovely faceted crystal clear hearts and bright cheerful turquoise and white polka dot beads.

Gem Dangle Day

Yesterday was Gem Dangle day - in a big way.  The weather was still rather rubbish, so an ideal day for crafting and watching the wind blow by - hopefully to bring us some Spring.  In a recent period of 'organization' I decided to package away the main bead components by project so I decided to attack the box of these pear gem dangle ornaments that I'd set aside.

Willow Glitter Star Ornaments

It was a grey miserable day recently, and I didn't feel too much different to the weather, so I treated myself to just sitting and crafting.  I'm working hard on having a clear out of the craft room, so I decided to focus on my box of glitter covered willow stars.

Doctor Who Tardis Ornaments

I've got Tardis ornaments!  Needless to say, as a huge fan of Doctor Who, I rather love these Tardis ornaments.  I've actually had these lovely large pendant Tardis charms for ages, but it wasn't until recently - when I found the perfectly matching gem encrusted 'bling' beads that it all started to come together.

A New Day ... A New Snowflake Concept

It's a new day around here on the blog, and a new day calls for a new craft activity.  Okay, well, snowflake ornaments aren't new, but these type of snowflake ornaments are new - to me.

Glittery Snowflakes in Red and Lime Green

Glittery Red Snowflakes with Pearls

We achieved some productivity yesterday, the cats and I, making up a few batches of glittery snowflakes, photography them, packaging them and posting on Etsy. Aren't these red ones festive?  I must say, the cats really aren't much help at these things - quite the opposite - but it's always nice to have their company, even if they do end up sparkling for weeks and helping to spread glitter about the house.

Sonic Screwdriver Beaded Icicle Ornaments

Back to the bling. I have been working up more of the beaded icicles on beaded spiral hangers that I love, and this time I've incorporated the rhinestone encrusted beads.  Serious bling!  Don't the shiny silver beads go lovely with the deep rich colour of these cobalt blue faceted beads?

Beaded Icicle Ornaments on Beaded Spiral Hooks

Beaded Icicles on Beaded Spiral Hooks -  Red & White

Along came the next evolution of the beaded ornament/beaded hanger with the Beaded Icicles on Beaded Spiral Hooks.

Beaded Icicles on Beaded Spiral Hooks - Hot Pink & White with huge 24mm beads

 I have a few new lovely suppliers in the US and in the UK and all sorts of my favourite beads are used here in combination with other beads I've sourced from taking apart bracelets and whatever I can find.

Loads of my favourite beads here! Stripy beads, Glitter beads, Huge faceted beads  ...

I've worked them up on 5" lengths of coated wire and then I work them directly in to the beaded spiral hooks, so it is an all in one component.  These are divine and I love them.  The huge white 24mm acrylic beads are like snowballs and they are substantial enough that they will make a big impact on the tree.

These would be amongst my largest, most deluxe versions of the beaded icicle ornament but I'm looking forward to trying them in a wide variety of styles and they would also look nice with smaller beads.  We had icicle lights when I was a little girl so I am particularly fond of the icicle imagery.

More Diamond Dangles with Acrylic Paint Splotch Beads

Acrylic Paint Splotch Beads in Purple

These icicle style diamond dangles are pretty and the possibilities are endless.  I have so many styles of beads that I'm looking forward to playing with.