Love is in the air

The girls have been apart too long! I am so lucky to be surrounded by so many crafty ladies. Unfortunately it is a rare occasion when you can get us all in the same room. My good friend Jessica was gracious enough to offer up her home for a little girlie afternoon of Valentine making. I never used to be into scrap booking or paper crafts, but since learning how to use resin in jewelry making, our two worlds have collided. I stopped off yesterday at my favorite scrapbook store, The Scraping Lounge. Debbie had some darling valentine paper I wanted to grab for this gathering. 

I arrived this afternoon at Jessica's and as usual she had gone all out! Paper, glitter, & buttons as far as the eye could see. Not to mention the fabulous girlie lunch she made for us. Jessica is a fancy lady. She had out her beautiful plates and even made raspberry drizzle for the fruit salad...yummy!

Sue & Renee working diligently.

After our lovely lunch, we settled in to the task at hand. The scissors flew, doilies & glitter soon took over the whole table! Mayhem ensued, but the good kind. Even Jessica's cats were scared. They took to hiding out in her bedroom.

Diet coke & glitter...life is good :)

It was a good thing we had plenty of diet coke to see us through...

It really was a beautiful disaster.

Once the dust settled, we came out with this...

 

Not bad for beaders crossing over to the dark side of paper.

Dana we missed you! Get better! Jessica good job camera dodging:)

Bead Show Adventure

My good friend Tara & I decided we would venture out on a little bead excursion this week. We headed out to Pasadena's Bead & Design Show. There are so many amazing things to see at this particular show because it is not just the same thing over and over again. There are the usual suspects but also a wide variety of designers available to talk about their products and creations. Our good friend Melanie Doerman was there selling her amazing seed beading kits and one of a kind designs. She is truly an artist and every time I see her she has a fabulous new creation to share. If you don't know who Melanie is you must check out her website The Magpie. The gallery of work there is incredible.



Melanie & Tara at the Pasadena Show



Anyone that know me knows I have a million beads and a really didn't need to go to the show, but I really wanted to check out what was new and grab a few things. Well, to my shock and surprise when I got home a looked in my bag of goodies not one bead was found. There must have been a crack in the universe. I actually went to a bead show and did not by one bead! I got cabochons, a little brass, some bead caps which I guess are kinda sorta beads, but no actual beads. Very strange!  Here's a few things I did grab...

fun vintage zodiac pendant

itsy bitsy door knocker...it actually works!

All in all we had fun and it was a lovely adventure. Thank you Tara for coming out to play! Check out what Tara is up to on her blog

http://lulumaxjewelry.blogspot.com/

Jewelry Show at Renee's

My dear friend, Renee Redding, was kind enough to hold a Jewelry Show on November 18th, 2010 in Simi Valley. It was a collaborative effort between 4 artists. We went in with no expectations at all and we had a blast! Thank you to Renee's Parents for letting us invade your lovely home! Also, thank you to Tara and Irene for the extra displays! Check out the pics below :)

 Renee had some of her beautiful Fused Fine Silver pieces.

 Our other partner in crime Sue Lau sent her lovely Vintaj creations.

I brought a little of this and that.

 Ronnie Sanchez sent along a few of his amazing creations.

It was a whirlwind evening and in the end we were all pretty much wiped out! It was a great show I think mostly because of the variety. All four of our styles are so completely different, there was just something for everyone. I had made so many new things for this show. I do have to admit i was a little heartbroken to see a few of them go so quickly, but everyone who purchased them were so happy, I know they went to good homes. Thanks again Renee!

Adventures in Wonderland

  I seriously had a dream about this tree growing out of a book. While creating it, she transformed about 16 times and this is the result. The tree was sculpted with copper wire and solder. Funny thing about copper, I had to keep stopping as I built the tree. The whole thing would heat up and solder would move on the other side of the tree from where I was working. Something I didn't think about when I first set out to make this piece. All of the charms were handmade from sheet metal, and yes I literally painted the rose red. It had to be done :)

These photo were taken by Rico Molden. He took a bunch as a favor to me but these are my favorites! Rico was one of the lucky ones that got to see this piece grow from one small little branch into what you see now.

Original Mixed Media Piece by Crystal Basica

Thank you to his sister for modeling for us, sorry he woke you up :)

Click here to check out Rico's 365 Project