I read Art Jewelry Elements blog daily and this month I was lucky enough to be chosen to play along. YEAH! I received a pair of Melissa Meman's lovely teal flower charms. Here is the necklace that I made with them. I coiled copper wire for the bail and hung the charms on the end. The focal is a patinaed flower. Then I made links with teal sea glass and stone flowers for the straps. I hooked the links together with copper jump rings and teal rubber O rings. The end is copper chain with a lobster clasp. This necklace is a nod to spring which I hope comes soon. I really enjoyed being part of this challenge.

I have been hoarding these components from Kristen Stevens for quite a while because I wanted to do them justice. Since this months theme is use your stash I decided it was time to use them. I placed her stitched leaf in a wavy rings and made firepolished dangles as accents. Chain with more of the firepolished rounds makes the fringe to complete the focal. The bail is a green peyote stitched tube wrapped with wire. At the ends of the bail are Kristine's beautiful beaded beads . I painted bead caps to show them off and also to tie in with the strap colors. The straps are a four strand bracelet that I repurposed. I used fold over glue on bail leaves as accents which tie in with Kristen's lovely stitched leaf. The leaf bail idea came from Michelle Mach's new book "Unexpected Findings." I highly recommend reading her book as it contains many really unique ideas. I am sure this necklace will be worn often. I hope you like my designs. Now please check out what the other members, contributors, and guest made at http://artjewelryelements.blogspot.com/ 
I want to than the Art Jewelry Elements members for letting me play along this month. I really enjoyed it.

Bead-it-Forward is something dear to my heart. If you don't know what that is let me tell you. Beaders stitch 1 1/2 inch squares on a theme. They are assembled into quilts, ornaments, and other items. These items are sold and the proceeds go to benefit beast cancer.  This years theme is "wild about finding a cure." The squares are to be animal related. When I think of wild animals a lion is the first thing I think of so I chose to stitch a lions face. I googled lion images and chose one. Then I sized it to the graph paper. Next I cut out his face and laid it on the paper and roughed sketched it in. His mane was cut and traced around his face. I used colored pencils and made the pattern.  It took me a couple of tries but I like how it turned out. Jeanette Schanigan is who started this. She is a beader from Alaska who's Mother died of beast cancer. She started with about 20 people and this has grown to be a worldwide challenge with hundreds of beaders participating. I am proud to have been part of this for the last six years. The reason I hold this to my heart is that my Mom and Sister have both had breast cancer. I consider it an honor to help with this cause. If you want to know more about it here is the link http://bead-it-forward.com/ You can find patterns to stitch squares and see past years entries.  I want to thank Amy Severino for tanking over the task of making the quilts and selling them this year.

Today is the reveal for A Time To Stitch 6. The theme for this hop is make something from a charted design. When I see charted designs most are for bracelets, so not being one to follow the norm I created a pendant for my design. My friend Roberts designs charted bracelets. This is one of her patterns that I adapted to make my pendant. This designs was inspired by Ukrainian painted eggs. The bottom of the pendant has a crystal bicone and a pearls drop accent. The straps are ladder stitched and then embellished with the pattern from the pendant. The edges have picots. The clasp is from Diane Fitzgerald's book "Shaped Beadwork." I hope that you like my design. I had fun making it. To see what the other participants made please go to http://theresestreasures59.blogspot.com/ or http://onekisscreations.blogspot.com/. Thank you Therese and Christine for hosting this hop and inspiring me in my designs.

I want to wish all of my blog readers a Happy New Year. I hope that all of you find peace, happiness, fulfillment , and good health in the coming year. I want to show a few of the Christmas ornament I have made over the years before I put them away. All three of the ornament in this pic were made by me. The sled is teak wood which were scraps from the yacht factory where I worked. They were cut assembled into the sled and painted. The stocking I embroidered as part of a set of three designs. The silver, blue and pink ornament is wood that I turned on our lathe and decorated. These have been on my tree since the 1980's.

I got a knitting machine and made this pair of mittens years ago. The red, green, and gold snowflake ornament is a kit I won from Cyndi Lavin at http://www.beading-arts.com/ in 2012.

This egg was laid right here on my farm by one of our chickens. It is one of the ones  I decorated it in 1992.

I took a hardanger embroidery class at the local school and then I made this ornament. It is simple but I like it.

This star is beads on wire. It is about 4 years old.

I know that this pic is really blurry but this is one of my favorite ornaments and I just was not able to make the camera capture it well so I am showing it anyway. It is an antique button that I drilled and made into a mobile. The pieces are macaroni in Christmas shapes that I painted.

This ornament is not on the tree it hangs from a shelf above my tv. The pattern is from Bead and Button magazine I have it on an ornament turner which I got on our 25th Anniversary trip to Niagara Falls. It sparkles and looks wonderful as it turns. I hope you have enjoyed looking at a few of my Christmas creations.