Blog for Beaders

When it comes to the holidays, the best gifts come from the heart. Show everyone on your gift list that you care by creating a handmade piece of jewelry. Artbeads.com has simple jewelry design ideas to help you create beautiful gifts for your loved ones, or make one for yourself and wear it to all of those fun holiday parties this winter season!

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Here at Artbeads.com we understand that keeping in touch with friends and family is an important part of the holiday season. So this year, instead of sending a store-bought holiday card, we suggest creating a handmade treasure using supplies from Artbeads.com. Imagine the smile on your loved ones faces when they open up the mailbox and see the card you created especially for them. Our talented designers created this beautiful card to send to vendors and other special friends of our website. In addition to a fun paper background, the card features beautiful Swarovski flatback rhinestones, Venetian glass beads, cubic zirconia and even a charming bird link. Feel free to use our design for inspiration, or get really creative and come up with a design of your own. No matter the inspiration, Artbeads.com has a wide selection of holiday beads and craft supplies to help you create a card your loved ones are sure to treasure.

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Watch this informative video to learn how to use ICE Resin® to create layered pieces that display your unique personality. Whether you are creating a necklace or embellishing a scrapbook page, ICE Resin® will help you add strength and color to your designs.

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Korba Paper Doll

I loved to play paper dolls when I was young. Often my dolls were store bought. Betsy McCall and her wardrobe could be found in every issue of McCall’s Magazine. Both would inspire me to create my own paper dolls, my mother would always draw the faces for me. I was lucky to have several friends that shared my enthusiasm, we would spend hours designing clothes and sometimes furniture for them. The actual play time took us across the neighborhood, or should I say the universe, but it rarely equaled the amount of time that we spent creating them. That was the true fun for us.

These Mommy and Me paper dolls are meant to inspire. Yours can be as simple or as ornate as you wish. You can help with the cutting, crimping and using the Bejeweler. Don’t know how to sew? Skip it and glue on some beads and glitter. It is a great project for sharing different crafting skills with your child. 

- Artbeads.com Designer, Cheri

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Today we are launching the first Mommy and Me project for 2009. This section is always about finding ideas for keeping kids busy and having fun with them. This year we have a theme : Crafting with Heart. Because of these difficult times, I wanted to focus on projects for others. So I planned a bead party with kids that don’t have opportunities to play with beads and to make something different than jewelry. We decorated visors that I found on sale in our local craft store. I also bought some cheap sunglasses and the kids made eyeglass holders. We used some of my leftovers beads and I added some charms. They had so much fun! Please, have a look at the pictures above. Kids can be so creative!

Cynthia Kimura,
President and co-owner of Artbeads.com

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Mrs. Kensington is my son’s cat. Her favorite things are watching the sparrows fly back and forth to their new nest on the back porch, eating, hiding under the bed waiting to strike at the unsuspecting dog, eating, nipping at the heals of our other two cats and did I say eating? Her collar was worn out, so I purchased a cute orange cat collar at our local pet store. The collar has a daisy pattern on it so I highlighted the centers of the daisies with CRYSTALLIZED™ hotfix flatbacks in sun and light topaz and covered the clasp for some real sparkle. I added a cute lady bug bell, so now the birds, dog and other cats will have a heads up when she is feeling mischievous.

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We recently had some of our favorite animals come in for a photo shoot to model some new pet-themed designs. We filmed all the exciting action as the dogs Moki and Nina posed in front of the camera showing off their embellished apparel. Check out the video, and watch as we struggle to keep their attention!

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We purchased a doggie t-shirt at our local pet store and made it magnificent for Moki, a sweet and always happy Goldendoodle. Moki loves to romp at the park with his friend Justy, and he can’t pass up a good mud puddle without diving in. Shirt off first please, Moki! To wind down, he likes to sit with his favorite ball and watch Family Guy. We used CRYSTALLIZED™ hotfix rhinestones in a variety of bright colors and sizes. Laying out the rhinestones can be tricky. Sometimes it is just easier to lay the rhinestones right on the fabric without a pattern and move them around until you are happy with the placement. For this idea I decided to draw it out on paper first. I placed all the rhinestones on the paper until I had them just the way I wanted. Then to be safe, I took a picture of it with a digital camera. I printed this image and used it as a reference as I moved the rhinestones to the fabric.

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I made the Abacus Plume necklace as a birthday gift for one of our designers Rebecca. Her love of vibrant blues, greens and purples and the porcelain peacock bead was my inspiration as was a beaded wire bracelet that I saw a while ago in a magazine. I wanted to show off the peacock bead and bring in as much color as possible with the crystals, cubic zirconia, Czech glass and Tohos. The necklace is confident, feminine and vibrant just like Rebecca. The pendent is a bit of a puzzle but the instructions take you step by step. If you are patient and can make a simple loop, I encourage you to give it a try.

- Artbeads.com designer Cheri

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Blue Grotto Necklace

This striking necklace has a peek of green dichroic glass in the center of the focal bead that is echoed throughout the necklace with 8g trans silver lined kelly green delicas. The colors are rich, and the design fairly simple to make!

For another gorgeous design using our seed beads, view The Lone Beader’s blog entry Beaded Sieve Rings.

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