Skull & Needles Pillow

I've had this Marc Ecko "Cut & Sew" tee shirt sitting on my desk for ages.  I bumped into it at Ruggesd Warehouse, and would have bought one for each of my shop workers, if only they had more than just one men's small!  Since my new desk chair at work was clearly made for someone taller in mind, I needed a pillow to put behind my back while I'm at the desk.  Since the shirt was a small, I could only get a 14" pillow out of it, but it seems to be just the right size for me.  Plus it fits in so well with my dorky office decor.

Summer Strawberries Bracelet

While shopping for beads online the other night, I came upon the most lovely little lampwork strawberries, and knew I had to make myself a summer strawberry bracelet.  After making mine, I whipped up a second one for my shop.

The beads include lampwork glass strawberries, AB glass, Swarovski crystal, dyed green river shell leaves, Czech glass flowers, green turquoise stars, and faceted jade hearts. I'm very pleased with how they came out.  All in all, a subtle and more grown-up nod to my love of the Strawberry Shortcake of my childhood.

Team Edward Charm Bracelet

Another charm bracelet I finished and never got around to posting.  This was a custom order for a Team Edward bracelet. Oddly, after all the Twilight bracelets I've made so far, I had never made one with quite that theme. The beads are a mix of clear AB glass hearts, clear and purple cut glass beads, purple Swarovski crystals, Czech glass beads, and a plethora of pewter and Bali silver charms.

The charms include: Chess Pawn, Apple, "Edward" Heart, Leaf, Baseball Glove, Fork, Moon & Star, Piano

Truck, Swan, Crystal Heart, Lion, Key, Wolf,

Feather, Celtic Knot, Motorcycle, Crystal Ball, & Chess Queen.

Long Overdue Quilts for Kids Donations

While cleaning up my Shop this week I came across a small stack of quilts that were made for Quilts for Kids last year.  Somehow I never got around to taking photos or shipping them out.  Now they're in a box, labeled and ready to go!

 Each one is made from their pattern for NICU sized quilts.   The blue paisley was a gift from april again over on Craftster and the rest is scrap fabrics from my stash and the shop's stock.  

Outlander Series Charm Bracelet

I can't believe how behind I am on posting so many things!  This bracelet was also made for dear Melissa in our own private version of the Mini 12 Days of Christmas Swap.  It is based on Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series of novels, which we both adore, and which I'm going to reread this summer.

It is made with a mix of glass, wood, semi-precious stone beads, pressed glass leaves, and freshwater pearls, all in shades reminiscent of the Fraser hunting tartan. Warm earthy browns, soft heather-greens, deep forests, clear sky blues, creamy pearls and burnished coppers.

The charms include:
Goblet - for cousin Jared's wine business
Snowflake - for a Breath of Snow and Ashes
Letter - written by Jaime to Brianna living in the future
Nurse Cap - for Claire at the beginning of the series
Anchor - for Jaime & Claire's trip in Voyager
Highland Stag
French Coin - for the legendary Frenchman's gold

Celtic Cross
Ladies Fan - for Claire's time at court in France
Jaime's Sword
Celtic Heart
Dragonfly - for Dragonfly in Amber
Scottish Thistle
Horse - for all the horses Jaime cared for

Tree - for the family tree on Drums of Autumn

Kilt - traditional Scottish dress outlawed by the English

Teapot - for Claire's love of tea

Strawberry - from Clan Fraser's crest

Hourglass - for Jaime & Claire's time together

Let It Snow Charm Bracelet & Earrings

I am so very behind on posting here!  And not for lack of crafting.  It just seems everything I craft lately is more stock for my Etsy.  Feeling like I'm in a bit of a rut, creating more copies of the same items, I decided to go back to swapping on Craftster to get the creative juices flowing some more.  In working on the Mermaid earrings that I previously posted, I realized I have several other items that I completed for dearest Melissa in our private version of the Mini 12 Days of Christmas Swap, that never went up here!

Since my darling friend loves snow, but lives in Texas where there is hardly any, I decided to create a snow themed charm bracelet for her.  Now she can have her own personal snowy day whenever she wants!

The bracelet is made up of Tibetan silver snowflake charms, Swarovski crystal snowflakes in cobalt and sapphire, shimmering pressed glass leaves, and a mix of glass, AB glass, crystal and moonstone beads.

  I also included a simple pair of earrings to go with it.  I purposely used two different snowflake charms on long ear wires, as a nod to the idea that no two snowflakes are ever exactly alike!

Mermaid Earrings and Feather Bookmark

I recently ran another round of Bead Soup Swap over on Craftster.  Part of the swap involves creating 1 or 2 small-to-medium crafted items for your partner.  I created these mermaid earrings based on another pair of cluster style earrings on my partner's Pinterest.  She also had a silver ring with two mermaids holding up a pearl on there, so I decided to combine the two.  I switched the color scheme to an analogous purple, blue, teal and green set, made up of faceted fire polished glass beads, tipped with silver spacers.

After finishing them, I decided to make her a matching bookmark.  It was done in the same style, and with a similar color scheme, but with larger crystal and cut glass beads, on a feather shaped bookmark.

And a shot of the bookmark at work.  I love how the cluster of beads trails down the spine of the book.