making jewelry | Bead Happily Ever After

Giveaway Sea Breeze Bracelet

Posted on July 6, 2009 by crystal

Hi there! Thanks for visiting 🙂

Hope you enjoyed your 4th of July weekend!

To celebrate my recent blogiversary, I thought I’d raise the bling factor a little bit this week and offer a bracelet for the giveaway!

~Sea Breeze Bracelet in Teal~

Nothing sparkles like a Swarovski crystal, and this pretty bracelet features 19 of them!

I used both cube-shaped and bicone-shaped crystals in a fabulous shade of TEAL!

Bali silver spacers and silver-lined glass beads serve as lovely accents.

The bracelet closes with an elegant silver-plated toggle clasp with a delicate floral design.

Measurements: 7-3/4″ in length, and 1/4″ wide.

Contest Rules and How To Enter

This week, you will have up to four (4) chances to enter the weekly giveaway.

You can choose any or all of the following 4 ways to enter:

1st Chance:

Leave a comment answering the first weekly question:

Can you share a recipe for a summer meal? If you can’t think of a summer recipe, then share any recipe that you like!

2nd Chance:

Leave a comment answering the second weekly question:

Can you recommend a good book for summer reading? It can be a book you read a long time ago or a current favorite! By the way, is there any book that you have read more than once?

3rd and 4th Chances:

Come back another day this week and leave a comment any other post on this blog. It can be left on a very recent post or an old post. There are over 170 posts – take a peek at the “Categories” on the right side of the page for choices.

Please note: You do NOT have to tell me that you left a “comment” on another post. The blog program shows me all of the “comments” as they come in – so I do not miss any of them! 🙂

The Boring Stuff . . .
You must be 18 yrs. old. After the completion of the contest, the name of the winner will be listed here. The winner will also be notified by email. If no valid email address is given at time of entry, or if winner fails to respond to email within 3 days from the time notification email has been sent, the win will be null and void and a new winner will be chosen. The prize will be mailed by USPS First Class Mail.

All entries must be received by 9:00 p.m. EST on 07/12/09, and the winner will be selected on or about 07/13/09.

Giveaway – Garden Party Earrings

Posted on June 29, 2009 by crystal

Welcome! 🙂

This week’s giveaway is a whimsical pair of dangle earrings that I’m calling “Garden Party” because they remind me of the little lanterns you might string around your patio in the summer! They’d be the perfect earrings to wear to an outdoor event such as a cookout, a concert, or a . . . garden party! 😉

They’re made with Vintage Moonglow Lucite Beads in a beautiful shade of girly-girl pink. The beads have a soft glow, which gives the impression they’re lit from within, as a lantern would be.

I’ve accented them with textured gold-plated bead caps and Swarovski Crystals in rose pink! The earwires are 14k gold filled.

Measurements: approximately 1-7/8″ long, including the 14k gold-filled earwires.

Contest Rules and How To Enter

This week, you will have up to four (4) chances to enter the weekly giveaway.

You can choose any or all of the following 4 ways to enter:

1st Chance:

Leave a comment answering the first weekly question:

What is you favorite season and why do you like it best?

2nd Chance:

Leave a comment answering the second weekly question:

What makes you nervous?

(You can see my answers to the weekly questions in the comments section!) 🙂

3rd Chance:

Join my mailing list! Just mention “mailing list” in your comment. By doing so you will receive 3-4 emails per year with coupons and special offers for items in my Bead Happily Ever After web store!

4th Chance:

Come back another day this week and leave a comment on any other post on this blog. It can be left on a recent post or an old post. There are over 170 posts – take a peek at the “Categories” on the right side of the page for choices.

Please note: You do NOT have to tell me that you left a “comment” on another post. The blog program shows me all of the “comments” as they come in – so I do not miss any of them! 🙂

The Boring Stuff . . .
You must be 18 yrs. old. After the completion of the contest, the name of the winner will be listed here. The winner will also be notified by email. If no valid email address is given at time of entry, or if winner fails to respond to email within 3 days from the time notification email has been sent, the win will be null and void and a new winner will be chosen. The prize will be mailed by USPS First Class Mail.

All entries must be received by 9:00 p.m. EST on 07/05/09, and the winner will be selected on or about 07/06/09.

The Allure of the Vintage Bead

Posted on June 17, 2009 by crystal

When it comes to vintage beads, I’m often asked two questions:

1. Why are vintage beads so special?

2. Where do you find them?

I’ll answer the first question today, and then answer the second in a future post.

So, why are vintage beads special?

It may sound corny, but they don’t make things like they used to! This is definitely true with beads.

Sure, mass-produced contemporary beads are pretty, but they can’t compete with vintage beads in terms of color, cut, reflective flash, and the sheer artistry of the vintage designs.

There are several reasons for this, but to put it simply – the world has changed so much. It’s no longer cost-effective for beads to be produced with the painstaking care and time-consuming methods of the past. Just ask any lampwork glass artist in today’s world if it’s easy – in the current market – to be paid a truly fair price for the time and imaginative skill that she puts into her work.

As has been the case in the manufacture of many different products over the years, there often comes a time when certain processes of production become too expensive to maintain or are found to be environmentally unfriendly. Early bead makers often used finishes and coating formulas that had to be modified for these reasons. As a result, today’s crystal beads with an aurora borealis finish, for example, simply do not have the full spectrum of color and brilliance of a vintage aurora borealis crystal, and so that adds to the value and desirability of the vintage crystal.

Vintage plastics and Lucite are cherished for the same reasons – the old methods yielded beads that are often superior to the versions created today. Sometimes it’s a minor difference, but often it’s very obvious that the vintage beads were more finely crafted and are more beautiful.

If you haven’t used vintage beads in your designs before, why not consider using some in your next project?

You might just fall in love! 🙂

Crazy for Clay . . . Beads!

Posted on June 16, 2009 by crystal

With a website called Bead Happily Ever After, it’s probably pretty obvious that I LOVE beads! 🙂

I‘ve been collecting and designing jewelry with both vintage and contemporary beads for years now. More recently, I’ve begun to sell beads on my website and also on etsy.

My specialty is vintage beads, but I am crazy about all kinds of beads including those created by bead artisans – both in glass and polymer clay. There is such joy in making something special with beautiful beads!

Here’s a set I’m working on that incorporates some fabulous clay beads. Notice the lovely layering of shapes on the pendant.

(Click photos to enlarge.)

Aren’t the coordinating diamond-shaped clay beads pretty, too?

For accents, I’m using genuine amethysts (the rectangles), and Swarovski crystals (rounds and bicones).

As you can see by the tape on the ends, I’m still pondering the style of clasp I want. The little ziplock bag on the left holds the exact beads that I’ll use to make matching earrings. Gathering those “earring beads” in a bag is a tip I learned the hard way. It’s so much easier to do it when designing the necklace – in case there will be a delay between finishing the necklace and actually making the earrings. Trying to find exactly what you need later can be difficult, especially if you’ve cleaned up the worktable in the meantime. 😉

Giveaway – Raspberry Ice Earrings

Posted on June 1, 2009 by crystal

Welcome to the weekly giveaway!

Is it June already? 😉

The 4th of July will be here before we know it!

I’m behind on replying to your comments. I wish I could answer every one of them, every single week, but I run out of time. Please know that all of them make me smile!!! Thanks again for stopping by often. I’m truly fortunate to have such a wonderful group of readers. 🙂

If you should ever have a question that needs a quick reply, please email me using the “Contact Us” link located on the right side of this page. I do answer emails promptly.

This week’s giveaway is a bold and flirty pair of dangle earrings – perfect for the lady who doesn’t mind a little extra attention!

These “Raspberry Ice” Earrings feature pretty Vintage Moonglow Lucite oval beads in a mouth-watering shade of raspberry! I’ve accented them with faceted Czech Glass elongated ovals and tiny silver Swarovski Crystals. Lacey silver plated bead caps add a touch of elegance.

Measurements: approximately 2-3/8″ long – including the sterling silver earwires.

Contest Rules and How To Enter

This week, you will have up to four (4) chances to enter the weekly giveaway.

You can choose any or all of the following 4 ways to enter:

1st Chance:

Leave a comment answering the first weekly question: Who is your favorite cartoon/animated character of all time?

2nd Chance:

Leave a comment answering the second weekly question: What is your favorite time of the day and why?

3rd and 4th Chance: Leave a comment on any other post on this blog. It can be left on a recent post or an old post. There are over 150 posts – take a peek at the “Categories” on the right side of the page for choices. You can leave all of your comments today, or you can come back during the week to see what’s new and leave them then.

Please note: You do NOT have to tell me that you left a “comment” on another post. The blog program shows me all of the “comments” as they come in – so I do not miss any of them! 🙂

Of course, I’d be very delighted to receive as many comments as you want to leave, but only four will count as chances in this week’s giveaway.

The Boring Stuff . . .
A valid email address must be given at time of entry. You must be 18 yrs. old. The name of the winner will be listed here after the completion of the contest. The winner will be notified by email. The prize will be mailed by USPS First Class Mail. If no valid email address is given at time of entry, or if winner fails to respond to email within 3 days from the time notification email has been sent, the win will be null and void and a new winner will be chosen.
All entries must be received by 9:00 p.m. EST on 06/07/09, and the winner will be selected on or about 06/08/09.