Evening Elegance

Some time ago I came across a really interesting stringing material called tubular nylon mesh. Ever since I first saw this product I just knew I would love working with it. I've made many unusual pieces with it and whenever I wear one of them it draws lots of admiring comments. But this is the first piece that has been published. It's called Evening Elegance and it appears in the August issue of Crafts magazine . If you're in Brisbane, all the supplies for this project are available locally, but if you're not, the stockists are listed in the article and you can buy them all online. Crafts is a great magazine which includes sections for stampers and papercrafters, jewellery makers, knitters and crocheters and also general crafters. You can order a digital or a hard copy of the magazine here . Or you can order just a single issue. 'Til next time..... If you can't get enough of My Tutorials and you want even more inspiration,  click here ......

Read more »

Retrofabulous Rings

Shy and retiring types, this post is not for you. I have new ring moulds and I got a chance to play with one of them on the weekend. Take a look at these fabulous retro rings. Great Turquoise Retro Wedge These knuckle dusters are perfect for extroverts and those wanting to make a statement. Wear one of these big, bold beauties and it will get noticed. The great Turquoise Retro Wedge is a swirling ocean of blues, greens and turquoise. The Superman angle! Another colour, another angle..... Charcoal Slate The marbling is very fine in this one and it looks like slate..... Lots of lovely swirly white marbling through this last one. It looks like it could have been carved from a chunk of marble rather than cast from liquid resin. White Marble This ring mould will be added to the selection of moulds available for use in the Resin Bangle and Ring workshop so lucky students can make one of their own. Or, if you prefer to have you own, the mould can be p......

Read more »

Butterfly Bouquet Wall Art

I got carried away with drawing butterflies last week and made so many that I decided to use them for the final frame in my black and white butterfly series. You can see the other ones here , here and here . Not being much of a sketcher, I found it challenging to create a pair of identical wings. But what I discovered is that the wings don't need to be identical. As long as the outline of the butterfly is symmetrical, then your eye doesn't notice the differences in the pattern from one half of the butterfly to the other. And the easy way to get a symmetrical butterfly is to use a die cut! Anyway, here it is: the final black and white butterfly shadow box in the series. For this project I die cut 7 Sizzix butterflies  (retired design) and 1 Cuttlebug butterfly . Then I went to town sketching/colouring butterflies with a Pigma Micro Pen  for the black-on-white butterflies and Inkssentials White Opaque Pen  for the white-on-black butterflies. To help with the patter......

Read more »

Bead Shopping in Canberra

I love visiting new places as I'm sure we all do, but one of the things I enjoy most is checking out the local craft shops. Whilst in Canberra, I stopped in at two bead shops to buy some goodies I haven't found locally. At Bead Street , I found these gorgeous acrylic petals which I just couldn't resist. They remind me of the sweet peas we planted in the garden a few weeks back. I can't wait until they flower, but in the meantime, I have this lovely selection of petals to include in my jewellery. At the Bead Barn I found a good selection of cloisonné beads, some fancy magnetic closures and a variety of spacer beads and slides which I haven't seen before. I like to keep a variety of fancy closures on hand for projects that need the closure to be integrated into the design. These will be perfect as they look more like beads than clasps. The Bead Barn is located in a tourist area outside of Canberra where there are a lot of other places that might interest ......

Read more »

Petal Napkin Ring

As a jewellery designer, it was only logical that beads would feature in the decorations for the celebration dinner. Here I've combined them with one of my favourite jewellery components, filigree stampings, to create a unique napkin ring that fits perfectly with the purple theme of the party. Making your own napkin rings is a great way to stamp your personal style on any celebration. Materials: Size 11/0 Delica beads: Fuchsia Lined Aqua AB; Silver Lined Crystal Preciosa 4mm bicones: 12 Amethyst; 12 Tanzanite Preciosa 6mm bicones: 6 Amethyst 3 square Silver Filigree brass stamping 6 silver eye pins 3 silver jump rings 26g purple wire Tools: Bead spinner Round nose pliers Flat nose pliers Flush cutter length of cardboard cut to 3.5cm (1.5") wide cardboard tube from paper towel To make the petals for the flower, I unwound about 1 metre (approximately 1 yard) of wire from a reel of 26g purple wire and made a hook on it. Don't cut the wire from the reel bec......

Read more »

After the Celebration is Over.....

What do you do with all the decorations after the party is over? Well, you could store them away for another celebration, assuming that you want everything to be the same colour and theme. Or, you could give them away to the guests as mementos. That's what I did! The napkin rings were a no brainer. I'd made them specifically with that idea in mind..... each guest got to take their napkin ring home with them. And of course, there were the bonbonnieres for the guests as well. But here's a couple of other things that went home with guests too. I roped my sister into making these. She's not a crafter, but I put her to work stringing all the crystals onto memory wire and then I turned the loops. These "bracelets" decorated the rims of the jars of glowing purple LEDs on the table. She's a bit of a purple girl too, so they went home with her and as the first piece of jewellery she has ever made. She's very pleased with the result! Rem......

Read more »

Doodling Butterflies

What do you do when you're staying in a motel room without access to your craft supplies? Sitting around with idle hands drives me crazy (just ask my DH!). So on a recent visit to Canberra, the only crafting supplies I could take were pen and paper. Keeping in mind the butterfly projects I've been creating lately, I die cut several butterflies and packed them into a ziplock bag with a fine black marker. Whenever I got a few spare minutes I whipped them out and started drawing. Here's a peek at what I've been working on. I haven't forgotten about the final shadow box in my black and white butterfly series - it's still on the drawing board. But perhaps some of these will make it into the last one. 'Til next time..... If you can't get enough of My Tutorials and you want even more inspiration,  click here to find my books and printable pdfs ...

Read more »