The Beauty of Spring Challenge

Lately everything I have created has a spring theme to it! I am taking photos of bulbs coming up, creating greeting cards in shades of pinks and lime green, and creating jewelry with the same inspiration. Even though fall is my favorite season, nothing beats the anticipation of spring!


I recently received this gorgeous selection of beads from Artbeads. What inspiration! I fell in love with floral glass pendant first, then selected other beads I thought would complement the pendant. When I received my order, I was not disappointed!

Here are some pics of my final creations. First I created the necklace using the floral bead as my focal point/pendant. I added some Swarovski peridot bicones to hold it in place on the decorative headpin. The necklace was created with 4mm faceted glass rondelles in pink and olivine and matte glass beads in white.



I created some coordinating earrings from some pink and white swirled glass bellflower beads, peridot Swarovski crystal and a decorative headpin. They are finished with fleur de lis motif leverbacks. I think this makes a nice set.




Disclosure: The Kalera floral glass focal bead, peridot Swarovski crystal, pink glass bellflower beads and the 4mm pink and olivine glass faceted beads were kindly provided free of charge by Artbeads.com, as part of the Artbeads.com blogging program. The author of this blog has not received any payment from above-mentioned company. The post above represents only personal opinion of the blog author.

To see more selections from Artbeads you can click on these links: lampwork glass beads and pressed Czech glass beads .

Ready for Spring!

Here are a few new designs. Can you tell I am ready for spring?

Crafty Fun Finds

As you probably realize from my avatar, I love fleur de lis. I have quite a few fleur de lis in my collection, but I sure didn't have any FDL ribbon. Imagine my surprise when I found this ribbon at Hobby Lobby recently. It was all I could do not to jump up and down in the store! And they were 50% off that day!


Yesterday I went to Michael's and found these adorable stamps. I am on a cute bird kick lately. I really couldn't justify the purchase, but I was able to use two coupons as these weren't on sale. And I like cute birds. So there.

I thought these cute pink flowers would be good for Valentines or spring themed cards. Love the polka dots. And they might look cute with the bird stamps too.


I am planning my first giveaway on this blog and maybe it will have a Valentine's day theme! Stay tuned!

Hooray for Spring!

Spring has finally arrived! It was in the 70's here in Louisville and the sun was shining today. I love it!

I especially love moving all the heavy bulky sweaters out of my closet. They take up way too much room and I love packing them away in big Rubbermaid tubs. Off to the attic! That's one of my favorite things about the change to warm weather - getting out my spring and summer clothes.

I also love all the spring blooming flowers, like pansies, daffodils and hyacinth. Best of all is when the lilac blooms! I had a huge lilac bush at my old house and it is one of the things I miss the most. The Bradford pears are in bloom all around us. Unfortunately we lost two from our back yard as a result of the ice storm. The good news is that we are having three new trees planted tomorrow. I can't wait to see how they look.

Here is a birthday card I made for our niece Courtney who just turned 13 this month. She loves the color pink and absolutely loves cupcakes.
I had not made a card in quite awhile and it was fun picking out some spring paper and embellishments. I bought some of the paper stacks in citrus colors and bought some fruit and flower stickers in those same colors. I can't wait to make more cards!

Photo Tag Game

Okay, I've been tagged by KK with AllHorseStuff for a fun photo game. The idea is go to to your photos and choose the 6th folder and the 6th picture. Well, my 6th folder had to do with repairs to the roof, so that was not too exciting. Instead I went to my 7th folder, which is "Potted Plants." A little more aesthetic than roof repairs! My photo is of an arrangement I put together last spring for my mom. Each year she asks for potted flowers for Mother's Day and it's always fun to design something new. I just love spring! I have to pick out flowers that are annuals and that will hold up to our hot humid weather during the summer. The wave petunias always do well here. I like to put something tall and whispy in the middle. The flower colors are usually pinks, purples and whites, to compliment the colors of the brick on my parent's house. This was the day I put it together so it had room to grow and fill out during the spring and summer.

That's the story of my photo for this round of tag. Who is next?



The rules are:
1) Go to your picture folder, or wherever you store your photos on your computer
2) Go to the sixth folder and pick the sixth picture
3) Post it on your blog and tell the story that goes along with the picture
4) Tag five friends to do the same thing, and leave a message on their blog that they have been tagged~

I hereby TAG:

1. Jackie with GloryBeHerbals
2. Elayne with ChezChani
3. Devin with ExpressionsbyDevin
4. Carmen with Dented Halo
5. Corinne with DaydreamArtStudio