Linda's Crafty Inspirations: June 2016

Thursday, June 30, 2016

Free Graphics - Seed Catalog Calendar Series No. 1

Today's picture is taken from another wall calendar that I designed for 2013. This calendar featured collages using covers from old seed catalogs, lace borders from old postcards and other vintage images. This is what the inside of the calendar looked like:

And, this was the cover page for the calendar:

I actually created 18 different collages and let my friend Lorraine choose twelve of them to use for the final calendar which she printed and bound.

I will post more of these seed catalog pictures periodically when I don't have any beadwork projects to blog about. The images are much larger than the appear on my blog. Feel free to use them to make greeting cards, computer desktop wallpaper, calendars or scrapbook pages, etc. but please do not sell them.

Tomorrow I will be posting a new free bracelet pattern for download.

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Free Graphics - Jane Austen Quotes Series

A few years ago, I created twelve pictures for a calendar that featured quotes by Jane Austen along with fashion drawings from the era when Jane Austen lived. They came from a magazine by Rudolph Ackerman called "The Repository of Arts, Literature, Commerce, Manufactures, Fashion and Politics". Each issue of the magazine featured some of these pretty fashion plates. I found a blog article that tells a little about Ackerman's shop and magazine HERE.

After I created the twelve pictures, I emailed them to my friend Lorraine in England and she turned them into a beautiful wall calendar. Below you can see the calendar page for January 2012:

This is the cover page of the calendar:

You might recognize some of these calendar pages because I occasionally use them as backgrounds for my beadwork photos. The font that I used is called "Jane Austen" but I don't know if it's actually based on her real handwriting.

I will post more of these calendar pages periodically when I don't have any beadwork projects to blog about. I've removed the names of the months so that you can use the pictures for graphics projects other than calendars. The images are much larger than they appear on my blog. Feel free to use them to make greeting cards, computer desktop wallpaper, calendars or scrapbook pages, etc. but please do not sell them.

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Free Graphics - Cabinet Card Collage Series

This is the third set of collages from my Cabinet Card series. Read about the first set HERE. You can use these images to make greeting cards, calendars or scrapbook pages, etc. but please do not sell them. Note that these images are much larger than they appear on my blog and some of them have a transparent background.

Monday, June 27, 2016

Free Graphics - Cabinet Card Collage Series

This is the second set of collages from my Cabinet Card series. Read about the first set HERE. You can use these images to make greeting cards, calendars or scrapbook pages, etc. but please do not sell them. Note that these images are much larger than they appear on my blog and some of them have a transparent background.

Sunday, June 26, 2016

Bracelet of the Day: Starflower - Chalk Lumi Green

STARFLOWER BRACELET

11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
DiamonDuo beads "Chalk Lumi Green"
3mm fire polished beads "Bronze"
3mm druks "Opaque Gold & Smoky Topaz Luster"

I made this with Deborah Roberti's new bracelet pattern, "Starflower". I wasn't sure at first if I'd like wearing such a wide bracelet. I loved the motif so much though that I made one into an earring, which you can see below. In the end, I decided to go ahead and make the bracelet and I don't mind the width of it at all.

The Chalk Lumi Green DiamonDuos are very close to my favorite Chalk Lazure Blue so how could I not love it? The bronze fire polished beads give the bracelet a bit of sparkle. The druks that I used came from a batch of that color that have a lot more purple in them than usual and they give the bracelet a subtle pop of color.

This is a very fun pattern to make and it works up quickly. It does use a lot of 11/0 seed beads and thread. I took Deb's advice and measured out 4 foot lengths of thread to make each motif. This was plenty of thread with a little left over but I'd rather have a bit too much thread then run short. I used the alternate way of connecting the motifs because I was worried that the bracelet might come out too long for me with more beads between them. I did end up using the longer clasp loops though because it seemed like it might be a little snug with the shorter loops.

You can buy Deb's pattern at Around the Beading Table HERE.

Saturday, June 25, 2016

Bracelet of the Day: Duo Kheops - Pink & Pewter

DUO KHEOPS BRACELET

11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Duracoat Pewter" (4222)
8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Duracoat Pewter" (4222)
Kheops® Par Puca® "Metallic Matte Pink"
SuperDuo beads "Pearl Luster"

I love the soft, subtle colors in this bracelet. You probably won't be able to find these pewter colored "Pearl Luster" SuperDuo beads anywhere. I bought them in a local shop and the distributor, Nirvana Beads, no longer has this color. Although they're a brighter silver, probably the best available substitute would be "Jet Old Silver". I bought some locally from 1960 Beads but they're readily available online. Aura Crystals has them HERE, but they call them "Matte Antique Silver". You can get them at Red Panda HERE and they're called "Jet Silver Paste". Aria Design Studio has them HERE.

Red Panda is the only place that I know of to buy the pink Kheops beads. They're on THIS page.

You can buy Marina's bracelet pattern on Etsy HERE.

Friday, June 24, 2016

Bracelet of the Day: Diamond Band - Lila Gold Luster

DIAMOND BAND

11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
6mm 2-hole cabochons "Chalk White Lila Gold Luster"
Kheops par Puca "Metallic Matte Dark Plum"
MiniDuo beads "White Senegal Brown Purple"

I tweaked this cute bracelet a little but it only looks slightly different than the original design. The only obvious difference is that I omitted the seed beads between the pairs of Kheops beads. They made the bracelet longer than I wanted mine to be and I had some trouble keeping them looking tidy. What's not so obvious is that I used a different method for adding the seed bead netting. I altered the path to make it a little more stable and to get sharper points by creating picots then adding the netting beads on either side of them.

You can buy Iulia's "Diamond Band" pattern in her Beaded Treasury shop HERE.

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Bracelet of the Day: Flutter - Rose & Bronze

FLUTTER BRACELET

15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
SuperDuo beads "Crystal Gold Luster"
4mm fire polished beads "Red Umber"
4mm fire polished beads "Transparent Matte Smoky Topaz Gold Luster"
4mm Czech bicones "French Rose Celsian"

I tried one more "Flutter Bracelet" colorway and this one is quite different than the colors that I typically use. I hope that I've got something to wear this bracelet with because I love it. The fire polished beads are a lovely dark rose color. They're not quite red and not quite pink. As far as I can determine, the color is called "Red Umber" and they're from Nirvana Beads, which is a wholesale bead distributor. I bought them in a local shop where they don't put any names on their fire polished beads. I do know that one of their distributors is Nirvana Beads and I found some that look like this on their website HERE. They look a bit more red in their photo but I still think they're the same ones. I suggest doing a search on Etsy for this color because that's where you're most likely to find beads that come from Nirvana. Don't confuse this color with regular "Umber", which is more of a rusty brown color. These are definitely in the rose/pink family. In fact, Nirvana lists them as being in the "Marsala Palette".

These Czech "French Rose Celsian" bicones are one of my favorite bicone colors. The only place that I know of to buy them is on Red Panda, HERE. Unfortunately, Betsy indicates that they are discontinued. She still has quite a few of them in stock at the moment though. I did a Google search and Robin's Beads in the UK also has them HERE.

Although there is no mention of rose or pink in the name of the other fire polished beads that I used, they are definitely a pinkish rose color. I've discovered that they also go by the name "Matte Luster Transparent Rosaline". Red Panda has them HERE and Aura Crystals has them HERE.

The "Flutter Bracelet" pattern is from Around the Beading Table and you can buy it HERE.

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Bracelet of the Day: Flutter - Seafoam & Gold

FLUTTER BRACELET

15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Duracoat Pewter" (4222)
11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Duracoat Pewter" (4222)
8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Duracoat Pewter" (4222)
SuperDuo beads "Bronze Gold"
4mm fire polished beads "Aquamarine Celsian"
4mm fire polished beads "Halo Ethereal Heavens"
4mm druks "Fiesta Sage Green"

This is my favorite colorway of all of the "Flutter" bracelets I've made. The colors are similar to yesterday's bracelet but I used a combination of seed beads in two metallic colors this time. Read yesterday's post HERE. I wanted to use these gold SuperDuos and there aren't any seed beads that come in this color. But, for some reason they go quite nicely with the pewter beads. I only know of one place to buy the gold SuperDuos and that's HERE on Etsy.

The "Flutter Bracelet" pattern is from Around the Beading Table and you can buy it HERE.

Monday, June 20, 2016

Bracelet of the Day: Flutter - Aqua & Gold

FLUTTER BRACELET

15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Light Bronze" (457L)
11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Light Bronze" (457L)
8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Light Bronze" (457L)
SuperDuo beads "Metallic Suede Gold"
4mm bicones "Aqua-Tan" (Cousin brand - #34741056)
4mm bicones "Brown Medium AB - #C26 AB" (Beads One - not available online)
4mm druks "Metallic Suede Gold"

Today's bracelet is another "Flutter" bracelet made using some of the tweaks that I saw on the Neisz Piros gyöngyei blog. Read Saturday's post, HERE, for more information about the tweaks.

Note that the Suede Gold SuperDuos that I used are from a very light dye lot. I bought them when they first came out with the "suede" finish on beads. The Suede Gold beads that I've seen lately are a much darker olive green color and look more metallic. The original "suede" beads had a powdery matte look to the finish that wasn't quite as metallic-looking. What I'm getting at is that I don't know if you'll be able to find this lighter color anymore and I think that the new darker ones probably won't work as a substitute with the other colors that I used in this bracelet. Maybe I'm wrong about them changing the color though because the druks that I used are the same lighter color.

The golden yellow bicones that I used are Chinese ones from a local shop. They call them brown but they're really a golden yellow color. Swarovski's "Crystal Metallic Sunshine" looks like it might be about the same color.

I bought the aqua-tan bicones at Walmart quite some time ago and they no longer sell them. After some extensive searching online the other day, I managed to track down a website that sells the same ones that Walmart used to carry as well as two other colors that are very similar and equally gorgeous. I ordered all three colors a few days ago. They arrived on Saturday and they're all beautiful. The only thing is that the photos online aren't very accurate. I've edited the photos below to show you how all three colors look in real life. Below each photo is a link to the page where you can order them from the Prima Bead site.