Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Bracelet of the Day: Royal Wedding Bracelet - Pastel Burgundy


ROYAL WEDDING BRACELET
  • 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
  • 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
  • Rulla beads "Pastel Burgundy"
  • 4mm fire polished beads "Halo Regal"

I went back to Miyuki seed beads for this final "Royal Wedding" bracelet and once again I left off the picots.


You'll find this free bracelet tutorial by Sandra Halpenny HERE on her blog. She also has a YouTube tutorial HERE. If you need Rulla beads to make this bracelet, Supply Emporium has a very nice selection of colors.





Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Bracelet of the Day: Royal Wedding Bracelet - Amethyst Luster


ROYAL WEDDING BRACELET
  • 11/0 seed beads Toho "Nickel Plated" (711)
  • 8/0 seed beads Toho "Nickel Plated" (711)
  • Rulla beads "Opaque Amethyst Luster"
  • 4mm fire polished beads "Opaque Amethyst Luster"

I tried two different things with this bracelet. Someone had suggested that I try making a version that has the connectors between the motifs but no picots on the fire polished motifs. I did that with today's bracelet and I also used Toho seed beads for the first time with this pattern. As you can see, they do work but I had to use five seed beads on each side of the Rulla motifs instead of six. I really like how the bracelet looks without the picots. It's still very pretty but not quite as elaborate as the ones with picots.

I had some trouble getting the colors to look right in today's photos as well as the ones I'll be posting tomorrow. Hopefully the photos will give you some idea of the color of these beads even if they're not consistent from picture to picture.


Before making today's bracelet, I made the small sample below to see if the pattern would work with Toho beads. I've decided not to make a bracelet in this colorway but I thought you might like to see it anyway.


  • 11/0 seed beads Toho "Antique Bronze" (223)
  • 8/0 seed beads Toho "Antique Bronze" (223)
  • Rulla beads "Turquoise Blue Picasso"
  • 4mm fire polished beads "Antique Beige Luster Iris"

You'll find this free bracelet tutorial by Sandra Halpenny HERE on her blog. She also has a YouTube tutorial HERE. If you need Rulla beads to make this bracelet, Supply Emporium has a very nice selection of colors.



 

Sunday, May 27, 2018

Sunday Tangles

The contents of this post have been moved to my tangle blog HERE.

Saturday, May 26, 2018

Today's Tangles

The contents of this post have been moved to my tangle blog HERE.


Friday, May 25, 2018

A Tangled Birthday Card

The contents of this post have been moved to my tangle blog HERE.


Tuesday, May 22, 2018

Bracelet of the Day: Royal Wedding Bracelet - Teal & Bronze


ROYAL WEDDING BRACELET
  • 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
  • 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
  • Rulla beads "Luster Gold"
  • 4mm fire polished beads "Copper Teal"

Here is another elegant version of the bracelet with one of my favorite fire polished colors. Unfortunately, this color doesn't seem to be available anymore. The bronze Rulla beads perfectly match the seed beads.


You'll find this free bracelet tutorial by Sandra Halpenny HERE on her blog. She also has a YouTube tutorial HERE. If you need Rulla beads to make this bracelet, Supply Emporium has a very nice selection of colors.



 

Monday, May 21, 2018

Bracelet of the Day: Royal Wedding Bracelet - Chalk Lazure Blue


ROYAL WEDDING BRACELET
  • 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Metallic Chocolate" (461)
  • 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Metallic Chocolate" (461)
  • Rulla beads "Chalk Lazure Blue"
  • 4mm fire polished beads "Metallic Suede Gold"

As you can see, this also makes a cute bracelet without the picots along the edge. It has a more casual look.


You'll find this free bracelet tutorial by Sandra Halpenny HERE on her blog. She also has a YouTube tutorial HERE. If you need Rulla beads to make this bracelet, Supply Emporium has a very nice selection of colors.



Sunday, May 20, 2018

Bracelet of the Day: Royal Wedding Bracelet - Orchid Aqua


ROYAL WEDDING BRACELET
  • 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Metallic Gunmetal" (451)
  • 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Metallic Gunmetal" (451)
  • Rulla beads "Pastel Bordeaux"
  • 4mm fire polished beads "Polychrome Orchid Aqua"

Did you watch the Royal Wedding yesterday? I watched the whole thing on YouTube in the afternoon while taking a break after editing these bracelet photos. Tomorrow I'll be blogging about one of these bracelets that I made without the picots.


You'll find this free bracelet tutorial by Sandra Halpenny HERE on her blog. She also has a YouTube tutorial HERE. If you need Rulla beads to make this bracelet, Supply Emporium has a very nice selection of colors.



Friday, May 18, 2018

Friday Tangles

The contents of this post have been moved to my tangle blog HERE.
 

Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Today's Tangles

The contents of this post have been moved to my tangle blog HERE.


Monday, May 14, 2018

Royal Wedding Bracelet with various beads

Yesterday I blogged HERE about the free pattern by Sandra Halpenny called "Royal Wedding Bracelet". You'll find Sandra's tutorial HERE. The pattern calls for Rulla beads but I wondered if any other kinds of 2-hole beads might work with the design. I tried regular SuperDuo beads, Smooth Outline SuperDuo beads, Mini DiamonDuos, CzechMates Bricks and IOS par Puca beads. As you will see below, some of them worked quite well and others not so much.


  • 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
  • 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
  • SuperDuo beads "Pastel Pink"

I made the sample above with regular SuperDuo beads. They don't work well at all and the motifs don't have a distinct shape to them. They're pretty much a mess.


  • 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
  • 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
  • Mini DiamonDuo beads "Pastel Zircon Blue"

This sample was made with Mini DiamonDuos. Although the motifs have a different shape than when made with Rulla beads, they do have a nice shape. However, the motifs are unstable because the seed beads tend to flop in front of or behind the points of the DiamonDuos.


  • 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
  • 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
  • CzechMates Bricks "Opaque Rose Gold Topaz Luster"

The sample above has CzechMates Brick beads. They work quite well with this pattern and the motifs have a nice round shape.


  • 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
  • 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
  • IOS® par Puca® beads "Opaque White Ceramic Look"

This sample with IOS® par Puca beads looks very similar to the Rulla version. They're just slightly smaller than Rulla beads. I would definitely use these beads to make this bracelet sometime.


  • 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
  • 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
  • Smooth Outline SuperDuo beads "Blue Turquoise Picasso"

These smooth outline SuperDuo beads also work very nicely with this design. I did have to make one tweak though. Instead of adding six 11/0 seed beads on each side, I only added five.


  • 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
  • 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
  • Smooth Outline SuperDuo beads "Ivory"

This started out to be a bracelet but I ran out of thread and I also found a thread looped around a bead. It also is made with smooth outline SuperDuos. I'm posting this photo because I thought you might like to see how a bracelet made with just this motif would look. It's delicate and thin enough to make a wrap bracelet if you don't mind using a ton of seed beads.


Supply Emporium has quite a few colors in Smooth Outline SuperDuos. Note that the 15% off coupon code has changed from "15BLOG" to "CRAFTY15".
 

Sunday, May 13, 2018

Royal Wedding Bracelet


This is a new free bracelet pattern by Sandra Halpenny and the pattern is posted HERE on her blog. She also has a YouTube tutorial HERE. I'm always on the look-out for patterns that call for Rulla beads and I love how Sandra has used them here. The Rulla motif is what makes this bracelet special. I might even try making a bracelet with only those motifs.

If you compare the photo on Sandra's blog with the pattern diagrams, you will see that the one in her photo is a variation of the pattern. The pattern tells you to add seed bead connectors between the Rulla and fire polished bead motifs. The one in the photo doesn't have those extra seed beads between the motifs. I made a sample of each version and you can see the difference between them in the photo below:




The version with the connectors is very delicate and airy. The version without the connectors is more compact and and somewhat chunky. It's just as pretty as the other one and I might make one like that sometime. If you make yours that way, you will need a few more Rulla beads and fire polished beads than if you make the other version.

There is a typo in the supply list for the pattern. Sandra used 4mm Czech Cathedral beads but she mentions that you can also use other kinds of beads instead. It says to use 6mm crystals but it should say 4mm. I used 4mm fire polished beads and 6mm beads would have been much too large. I do have some 4mm Cathedral beads but not enough to make this bracelet. They are pretty much the same size as 4mm fire polished beads.

If you need to get some Rulla beads to make this bracelet, Supply Emporium has a very nice selection of colors. Don't forget to use the coupon code CRAFTY15 to get 15% off your order of over $30.


I got both of these fire polished bead colors at Aura Crystals. You will find the turquoise beads HERE and the Rosaline Moon Dust beads HERE.



ROYAL WEDDING BRACELET
  • 11/0 seed beads Miyuki/Czech "Aztec Gold" (55127)
  • 8/0 seed beads Miyuki/Czech "Aztec Gold" (55127)
  • Rulla beads "Aztec Gold"
  • 4mm fire polished beads "Gold Suede Turquoise"

The only place that I know of to get these hybrid seed beads is Potomac Beads. They have the 11/0 beads HERE and the 8/0 beads HERE. As you can see, the seed beads match the Rulla beads perfectly.


UPDATE: I found out that Simply Beads USA also has the Aztec Gold seed beads. The 11/0 beads are HERE and the 8/0 beads are HERE. By the way, I added the 8/0 beads to the ends of my bracelets. The pattern doesn't call for them.




ROYAL WEDDING BRACELET
  • 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Duracoat Pewter" (4222)
  • 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Duracoat Pewter" (4222)
  • Rulla beads "Opaque Violet White Luster"
  • 4mm fire polished beads "Rosaline Moon Dust"







 

Saturday, May 12, 2018

Tangles for Today

The contents of this post have been moved to my tangle blog HERE.
 


Friday, May 11, 2018

Friday Tangles

The contents of this post have been moved to my tangle blog HERE.