I have been hard at work, sharing videos on the YouTube Channel this past month as there were several mixed media and art journaling challenges during that time. I hate to not share some of the fruits of that creativity here, so I like to post the images and links to those videos in case they strike your interest. These are in order of how I shared them on YouTube.
If you watch the videos or read their descriptions, you'll get a good idea about each of the four challenges I worked on this month. Basically, they were
1- Seek Gather Create - a mixed media scavenger hunt challenge in which you have five prompts each week of the month to create a single mixed media art piece.
3 - TUAC5MinChallenge - a challenge from The Ugly Art Club (TUAC) that takes place just before they open the doors to enrollment in the club in which they challenge you to spend at least five minutes each day creating art. This season of it, they had a single prompt each day.
4 - Collab with Consie - an art journal collaboration between myself and Consie to use three prompts from her inspiration deck and create an art journal page in fifteen minutes.
If you have any questions about my art journaling in any way, please don't hesitate to ask away!
The folks at Jesse James Beads surprised the Design Ambassadors with a fun little challenge. We were all sent the same beautiful components with which to work.
While we were only asked to create a single design, I couldn't stop playing with these gorgeous elements and made five pieces! You can watch me reveal the bits they sent as well as make all five pieces in my Five Beaded Designs video on YouTube.
But, if you just want to see what I pulled together, here's a reveal of each of the designs in the order that I made them.
I was smitten with those roses and the little crimson tassels and just had to pair them up.
This is the only appearance the crystal chain makes in my designs, but that just means that I have more of it to use later! Single links of it work as connectors for these pretty earrings.
Those feather charms work great on their own, but the red crystals help add a little weight to these earrings.
The maroon color of both the pearls and the tassels had me using them together, but the design changed mid-video, as you'll see if you watch. Of course, that large clasp is the real star of this bracelet.
I always love an owl and knew I needed to use this one somehow. It became the focal on this simple necklace that uses a few more of the beads on beading wire (What!? I never use beading wire anymore.) This was quick and easy to pull together.
And, those were my five designs.
I still have quite a bit of chain and beads left to use on another day. It's amazing how much you get in a MINI mix from Jesse James Beads. I've still got a whole Magical Mystery Bead Box from them that I haven't touched yet. Keep an eye on my YouTube Channel for that reveal! Oh, and if you want to see what the other Design Ambassadors made, use #JJBAmbassador throughout social media to find us. (Here's the Instagram tag for good measure.)
If you're interested, these are the links to the products we were sent:
The Magical Mystery Bead Box for May 2022 that I received from Jesse James Beads as a Design Ambassador was chock full of all kinds of amazing that I still haven't completely worked my way through. As I was showing off some of the beads to my husband, I realized that the large ceramic focal in the box would be perfect as a fan pull in our living room. And, y'all, it really is!
It took me less than ten minutes to pull it together. And, I know this because I let the camera roll in real time as I created the piece.
One of the challenges I've been participating in this year has been the Pirate Pretties Jewelry Challenge from Angela of Pirate Pretties Jewelry. This is a birthstone challenge that gives us four prompts each month to create something and reveal it on the 15th. There's a color, metal choice, project type, and optional fun element(s). Here are the parameters for August: color - Peridot, metals - silver or bronze, project - bookmark, and fun elements - tassel or dangle.
Since the only actual peridot I have in my stash were some little chips, I knew those would be used. And, because they are fairly small, I thought I might try my hand at using them to make tassels for a simple bookmark. It worked!
However, it was definitely a learning process. In fact, I recorded the whole thing (because of course I did) for a Bead Tassel Bookmark Tutorial on YouTube.
In the end, I think we all may have learned a little something - like how big of a dork I am.
Don't hesitate to let me know if you have any questions or suggestions about this process.
Here's my little monthly roundup of some of the jewelry and art challenges I've found online to inspire me. I hope they inspire you to play along too.
Sarajo of SJ Designs Jewelry has shared the inspiration photo for The August 2022 Honey Do List from her husband, Eric. I think it's a gorgeous photo that will hopefully spur some lovely jewelry designs. She's set the reveal for August 29th.
I need to get my booty in gear because the Pirate Pretties Jewelry Challenge reveal is on the 15th of each month, and I haven't started yet. 😳 This challenge takes place on both YouTube and in the Pirate Pretties Facebook group. It's a birthstone jewelry challenge with a couple of other prompts. For August, the color is Peridot, the metal choices are silver or bronze, the project type is a bookmark, and the optional fun elements are a tassel or dangles.
If you're into 2D or 3D mixed media art, you may want to check out the #4Core challenge from Ina Solsbery on YouTube. At the beginning of each month, she reveals what she made for the previous month, shares what other artists made for the challenge, and announces the four core ingredients for the current month. Once you have your project made, you can send in your picture (and link) to her email before the end of the month. This month, the four ingredients are to make wall art on a sturdy substrate, include a mosaic design, work with several colors and textures, and send in a 2nd photo that shows a closeup of your mosaic. I've really enjoyed these challenges from Ina this year and hope you will play along!
There is also Mixed Media Menagerie from Nicole, Erin, and Laura in which they have three prompts for you to use in your art journal. The reveal for this takes place on Instagram (and YouTube if you like). This month, the prompts are florescent. stapler, and graffiti and the hashtag is #MMMAug22.
Oh! And, #SeekGatherCreate for Summer 2022 has just begun. We're smack dab in the middle of week 2. This challenge comes from Lisa, Melanie, Jana, Tina, and Laura. The five prompts will be revealed on Instagram each Sunday for you to use during the week on any substrate. This week, the prompts are blooming flowers, tissue paper, something teal, stripes, and fabric. I've already revealed my contribution for this week on both Instagram and YouTube if you want to see it.
Terry of the Tapping Flamingo on YouTube has her #BeCreative challenge each month that is open to any medium you wish. Each month, she has a theme. This month, the theme is Beach and the reveal is on the 13th. She hasn't shared the hashtag yet, but I'll add it here if I see it! Check out her video from the beginning of the year that talks about the challenge.
I feel like I'm missing something, but it's just not coming to me right now. If you know what it is, drop me a comment so I can add it above. Are you going to be playing along with any of these!?
Holy Bead Box! How have I made it to number sixteen!? And, I don't see me stopping there either. Ha. Let me quickly explain my bead box for those of you who are just finding me (Hiiiiii! 👋👋) My bead box is a basic 17-compartment plastic organizer. I try to keep it stocked with one design per compartment to take with me when I travel or to use when I'm uninspired. It's come in very handy over the years. (I'll link all the other versions at the bottom of this post.)
I like to share what I've packed into each of these boxes and then reveal how (and if) they came together. This particular iteration of the box was actually stocked at the end of June but I haven't touched it yet. I suppose that's a good sign that I've been inspired in other ways. However, now that I'm looking at these designs, I'm not sure what I was thinking when I packed the box. Luckily, I did sketch out a few of them (but not all of them 🤦♀️). Here's what I've got.
This soldered word bubble, along with the beads, jump rings, and head pins will eventually become a necklace. I plan to use the larger beads as links for a chain and have the seed beads as dangles from the chain. Hopefully, this will echo the little loops on the outside of the charm. That's the idea anyway.
The focal to this necklace is that house-shaped soldered china shard. My sketch shows a large jump ring and the larger shell bead dangle hanging within the loop. (I've just added the jumping.) The other beads will be used for the chain of the necklace.
I seriously had to refer to my sketch to figure out what's supposed to be going on here. Of course, the soldered wire circles are part of the pendant. I'll have the soldered stone, the star, and a red bead dangling from them. The large red beads will also be used as part of the pendant while the small red ones and the silver beads will make up the chain. Easy enough, right?
I hardly ever create mismatched earrings, but that's the idea for these.
This simple mix of a word bubble and some pretty beads will make up a bracelet.
I'm kinda tickled that I could match these greens so well. The green stone beads, glass pearls, and silver seed beads will become a pretty beaded chain for this found shard pendant.
This shard charm in the shape of a heart is too neat not to use. While it would make a fine bracelet charm, I want it to be a bit more prominent, so it will be the solitary focal in a necklace. The selected beads and tin will be used in the chain. I expect to finish it out with some metal chain.
By now you can probably tell that I focused on using some of my soldered bits for this box. I love this little quartz point but it needs a little something else with it. The wooden flower has been in my stash (along with a few others) for quite a while. I think they pair up nicely together for a focal (along with a few tiny bead dangles.) The other wood and glass beads will make up some of the handmade chain for this necklace.
After so many necklace designs, I knew I needed to throw in a few earrings so I sifted through some brass charms in my stash. The little butterfly charms will dangle from some sort of stack of the other beads - maybe. 🤷♀️ I didn't sketch this one out. I'm sure it seemed like an obvious design at the time. I'll figure it out, I'm sure.
This earring design seems a bit more obvious. I do love both the brass leaves and those turquoise-colored beads. These should turn out quite lovely and simple.
There's one large compartment in the bead box, and that's where this design sits. The Lucky Duck Pendant was one of my assemblage projects for both my 100 Day Project and for Ina's #4Core. You can click the link to watch my tutorial on making it. It will be the focal piece to a green and black necklace chain with the beads gathered there.
Back to the earring designs...These brass connectors will be wire-wrapped to the beads here - somehow. Again, I'll figure it out.
THIS design I did sketch out. (Whew!!) I've had these pale, pale blue sequins for ages. I'm glad I'll be working them into a pair of earrings. I'll wire up and shape the sequins into a circle and the black beads will hang from the circles. They should be interesting.
This little soldered stone along with those mother-of-pearl heishi beads and the little Czech glass melon beads will become a bracelet. I think it will be a cute little thing.
I've moved those little alligator-skin-looking tin pieces around on my desk for a while now. The khaki-colored e-beads will be looped at the top of them for a pair of interesting earrings. They feel kinda safari-inspired.
I really wish I had sketched out what I had in mind for these. I know they will be earrings...but beyond that, I have only inklings of what I intended. I have an idea of what I can do but am not sure if it was my original intent. I suppose it doesn't matter anymore.
The design for these earrings feels pretty obvious to me and doesn't need a sketch. They should be pretty cute when they're finished.
And, that's what I have in mind for Bead Box 16. I haven't started on it at all yet as I've been so busy with ICAD and other projects. And, that's a good thing. This box isn't really intended for everyday use. I am itching to start on these now that I've been reminded of what's in it. Maybe another day! For now, here are the other Bead Box versions - stocked and reveals.
Index Card a Day (ICAD), a 61-day mixed media challenge to altered an index card each day, has wrapped up as of the end of July. I'm still a bit surprised that I was able to get a video up of my process for each of these cards almost every day (I think there were only one or two exceptions). Since I've shared the first 45 cards with links to their videos, here is the last batch for 2022.
