Christmas Layovers, Part 2

Note: I clearly intended to post this 2 years ago, but hey, why not now?

--LJE

Hello, Readers! Today, I will show you the beaded projects I made for holiday gifts and one necklace I made for myself with the leftovers!

I showed you my supplies and methods before, but here's something I bought to make beading easier for only about $6 which is absolutely amazing--a beading board. Everything is so much easier. You can measure more easily, lay out your design, and use the recesses for seed beads and findings.

I made three necklaces:

I also made bookmarks, 2 of each kind: 

The bookmarks were very easy. Using beading pliers,  I opened, attached, and closed a jump ring to each shepherd's hook bookmark. For each one I opened one end of an eye pin and put on my beads. I closed the eye pin around the jump ring and voila! 

These projects were fun in the making, but also in the choosing of beads with the recipients in mind: colors, designs, styles, etc. I ended up with lots of leftover seed beads and decided it would be fun to try to make a two string necklace with seed beads. I think I have a lot to learn about technique for this type of necklace, but I'm enjoying the finished product. 

That's all for now, friends! 

--Lael

Christmas Layovers, Part 1

Note: I clearly intended to post this 2 years ago, but hey, why not now?

--LJE

Howdy, Everyone! It's been awhile! The holidays were super busy, and in this post and my next one, I'll show you why!

I made my own holiday cards this year and a bunch of beaded gifts for my friends. In this post I'll show you several of the steps to make my finished cards. I chose to make postcards because, that way, I wouldn't have to buy seals or use envelopes and cheaper postage! It was much easier to "assemble" the cards and mail them out once I had them finished than ever before. And, the entire endeavor cost me about half as much as my usual cards.

You could use Vistaprint or a bunch of other sites, but I used Staples. I was really impressed with the quality of the finished cards. I downloaded a template from their website and drew my design in Adobe Photoshop on my Adesso Cyber Tablet. (Were I to buy a new tablet, I would buy a smaller one. A year ago I was under the incorrect assumption that there would be more of a correlation between the size of paper I would traditionally use to draw and the size of the tablet space.)

I took my inspiration from folio 17r of the Ingeborg Psalter and created a loose adaptation. Here are a few stages of the development...You can see I made a few changes as I went along.

 

That's a wrap for today! Tune in next time for some beaded projects!

--Lael