Polymer Raku Cactus Wreath

May your day be filled with joy and love.

Folks Dressed Up Like......

Yuletide carols being sung by a choir and folks dressed up like escargots. Wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas!

More Bead Crochet

I finished a very long "Color Band" bead crochet I can wear with my black and white patterns. I want to make three of these, but we will see how far I get. I will post my inspiration photo over the weekend.

Patterned Bead Crochet

The patterns include Steps, Dots, Stripes, Diamond within a Diamond and single Diamond. I just finished putting three magnetic closures on them so I can wear them separately or link all three together into one continuous rope.

Thank You Polymeri Online

Yay! I'm on Polymeri Online today (click HERE). Can I just say how much fun it is to be scrolling through my blogs this morning and find me on Iris' famous blog! Iris has excellent tutorials (click HERE) in her Etsy store and a beautiful collection of her work and tutorials on her Flickr site (click HERE). She is also a teacher at Craft Edu (click HERE). Check out her blog to see all the publications her work has been in. And, last, but not least, she is the creator of PolyPedia Online (click HERE) where, according to Iris, you can expand your skills and enhance your designs! Have fun.

Polymer, Beads & Paper

My gift to trade at our Bead Club's holiday party. I set several hanks of beads on my copier and made a color copy. I used the copy as gift wrapping. I made a mold of a vintage Christmas tree pin, sculpted on it a little, baked it and used it as a gift topper on the 3x5" small box after it was wrapped. I printed a 3x5 photo on card stock, cut it out and folded it in half. I glued a 1-1/2"x2-1/4" piece of card stock inside to hold the gift card. The photo was taken at one of our meetings and the gift card was from Michael's. And, yes, the party was fabulous. The gift I received was a gift card to one of our local bead stores. Yay.

Bead Crochet String Along

Judith Bertoglio-Giffin is having another string along. This one is "Native Stripes". You can learn more about it on her blog (click HERE). I am looking forward to starting mine January 1. I have my colors picked out and am working on the beads. I have been so busy I have not had time to post every day. I'm still working on my polymer pieces, just nothing I can post yet.

Santa Claus Amulet Bag Necklace

I had this Ann Paxton Santa Claus amulet bag made for me in 2000. I wear it every Christmas and treasure it. The front has Santa's jovial face and the back says "Joy". The strap has the year on it and the saying, "He knows if you've been good or bad, so be good for goodness sake. Santa Claus is coming to town." If you're interested in making one, you can purchase the pattern separately or buy the kit from Beyond Beadery (click HERE).

No "L" and TP Scarf

Get it? No "L"? My sense of humor. What can I say? The holiday season can be hectic and stressful. It just made me laugh. I was inspired by a TP cover I saw on Ravelry (click HERE). My little TP scarf is 20 across and however long you want to knit it. The yarn is Bernat Satin "Snow". I love its softness and how pure the white is. I also used it for the Snowball scarf. Makes incredibly soft snowballs.

Pipe Cleaner Holiday Tree

My instructions for the above tree are from an old Family Circle Magazine from the 1970's. This one measures 5" at the bottom and almost 10" high. It's loaded with faux pearls and lots of tiny shells. When I cut the pipe cleaners, I made enough for two trees. Hopefully I will get to posting that one next week. I am still working on finishing a crocheted vest and another snowball scarf. If you want to give the pipe cleaner tree a try, Martha Stewart has a really nice tutorial for the tree pictured above. You can find it HERE.

Snowball Scarf

I have wanted to make a snowball scarf every since I saw one on Ravelry over a year ago. It's no longer on Ravelry, so I winged it. JoAnn's sells the Clover Pom Pom Makers in lots of sizes and YouTube has an easy to follow tutorial (click HERE). Craft Stylish blog also has a good tutorial for making a cute pom pom tree and easy to follow instructions (click HERE). It's just something fun to wear to some of the holiday parties here in our part of Arizona where there are no snowballs.

Bead Crochet Bangles

I finished these bead crochet bangles last Wednesday. They have been sitting in the "To Finish" tray for quite some time. I know I have said it before, but I really love to bead crochet. I'm planning on a big bead crochet project in January. Hope your Sunday is full of warm smiles and hot cocoa.

Brrrrrrrr, Icicle Necklace

It's a statement necklace. I won't say what statement, but it's "out there" for sure. Just playing with white polymer, translucent and sequined snow. I am still going to play with this design, curving the center and bringing in the sides. I wanted it to look like icicles formed over the ribbon. I used a very large aluminum knitting needle to fold it over for baking and it was just too wide. I think this one will end up being a pin.

Strung Out

I don't think I have any words. Stringing them didn't help. Ever work on something for several days and not have it work out? Their only redeeming quality is they make me laugh.

Worry Beads

I sliced up some of my face cane and applied them to brown clay....thinking the brown clay might take the place of hair. One friend said they looked like monkey beads. Another friend said the faces look so worried. So, maybe I'll make them my worry beads. I'm drilling the holes today and hope I get inspired to make them into something. Happy December!