Friday 31 May 2013

May Giveaway - The Winner Is....

May Giveaway Winner...





Thank you all so much for your entries to the giveaway. There was an overwhelming response and i would like to say a BIG thank you to everyone who entered for a chance to win the beautiful Travel Inspiration Tin. I am going to be even more generous and offer up runner up prizes too. So if your name is 2nd and 3rd on the list i will rustle up a little beady pressie for you too. So email your home addresses to me at carol@classycrystals.co.uk and i shall pop something in the post to you.



Congratulations to Tammy Norton. You are the lucky winner. Could Ericka & Esther Beads send me their addresses too please.

Carol xxx





The May Challenge - And the winner is...

Thanks to everyone who joined in with our May challenge. We hope you all enjoyed getting all glammed up with your silvers and gold! Before we announce the winner, here's a recap of the photo we posted at the beginning of the month...

Photo by Tind


And here are all the beautiful entries!























Everyone's names were entered into the list randomizer at Random.org and the lucky beader who's name is at the top of the list is...



Congratulations Marg, you've won the £20 worth of size 11 Miyuki seed beads from RB Beads!

We hope you've all enjoyed taking part in the challenge and seeing all the beautiful entries. Don't forget to check back tomorrow when we'll have a brand new challenge for June!

Friday 10 May 2013

May Giveaway
Here is what is up for grabs this month. One lucky beader will win this fantastic Beady Travel Inspiration Tin, full of goodies!



The contents of the Travel Inspiration Tins are:-
2 Beading Needles
Nymo B thread in brown
Bag of accent beads
Tube of 4mm Bronze Faceted Rounds 
Tube of 6mm Bronze Faceted Rounds
Tube of 4mm Bronze Cubes
Tube of !1'0 Seed Bead Soup in complimentary colours
Tin with lined lid for beading on.

To be in with a chance of winning this fabulous prize all you have to do is pop your comment in the box below and a way for me to contact you, and a winner will be picked at random on Friday 31st May 2013.

Good luck!
Carol xxx

Tuesday 7 May 2013

Creating Crystal Jewelry {Bead, Book & Bounce}

Hello! Hello! Are you all ready to find out what the next book in our Bead, Book & Bounce feature will be? I just love cracking the spine on a new book (or blowing the dust off an old one!) So, without further ado, let me tell you that the next book in the series will be Creating Crystal Jewelry by Laura McCabe. 

First published in 2008, Creating Crystal Jewelry was one of the first books to concentrate solely on working with Swarovski Crystal. Laura's book includes sixty-six amazing designs incorporating Rivolis, Crystals, Dentelles. There's a lot of sparkle! 


"Her instructions are very clear and easy to follow, with an excellent section on open-backed bezeling techniques - including a particularly useful chart on how many beads to use to begin a bezel for different sizes of rivolis." Silverhill Designs - Beader's Bookshelf Review

Projects In Other Places - 

There are several of Laura McCabe's patterns available as free downloads, via Lark Crafts. Starflower Earrings and Well Kept Secret Necklace are all from Embellished Beadweaving, which is part of the Lark Craft Beadweaving Masterclass Series. Laura's Artisan Patterns and Kits are also available from her website, Just Let Me Bead

And, If You're Interested - 

The Lark Crafts Interview With Laura McCabe includes information about Laura's sources of inspiration and influence and her website, Just Let Me Bead is a vertiable feast of eye candy. 

When's The Reveal - 

6th July.

Monday 6 May 2013

Beaded Allure: The Reveal {Bead, Book & Bounce}

Each month, as part of our regular feature - Bead, Book & Bounce - we choose one of the most popular beading and jewellery making books and challenge our readers to dust off the books on their shelves and create projects from their neglected library. 


Inspired by the beautifully, romantic projects included in Kelly Wiese's Beaded Allure, our members have been busy beading. And now it's time for us all to reveal the results of our efforts over the last two months.

Kristen has been a busy beader, creating three (rather fantastic) pieces from Beaded Allure. I'm guessing that she liked the book!



Wavy Rosette Necklace, P115


Scalloped Lace Necklace, P71


Crytal Bracelet, P42

Kristen has emulated the colour choices in Kelly's original pieces, aiming to keep her projects beautifully romantic. Personally, I thinked she's cracked it, aren't they wonderful?

If you have made any pieces from Beaded Allure, please share your own projects with us using the Mr Linky.

Please link directly to your Beaded Allure blog post, so that we can find it easily.
Please leave a comment here when you link up your project.
Please try to visit the blogs of other participants when you can. We all love a bit of love!

And don't forget that we're still working on projects from Classical Elegance by Maggie Meister, with a new reveal on the 6th June.

Wednesday 1 May 2013

The May Challenge

Welcome to the May challenge! This month we'd like you to go all glam and create something with Silver and Gold.

Photo by Tind


You must include both silver and gold in your piece for your entry to be accepted. You can use metallic beads, metal beads and/or silver/gold lined crystal. Please note that yellow or orange will not count as gold in this challenge. As always, beads with AB/rainbow finishes are allowed but due to the fabulous prizes on offer each month we’re pretty strict on the colours allowed, so no colours other than those specified please! *If you are using a cabochon or other focal bead in your design it can have small amounts of other colours in it, provided that the main colours of it fit our challenge. But the beads you use with it must be in our challenge colours only.

Now here's the twist...we'd like you to include TRIANGLES somewhere in your entry. These can be either beadwoven, embroidered, made from polymer/metal clay or actual triangle shaped beads or charms (or any other way you can find to incorporate a triangle!). The twist is entirely optional but if you choose to use the twist as well as the colour scheme then you will receive two entries into the draw!

How do I enter?
There are two ways...
1. Email your photograph to Liz at ottbs@live.com
2. Or add them to our Flickr group pool.

Choose whichever way is easiest for you, you don't have to do both. In either case, please mention that it's for the May Challenge so I know that it's your entry. We're happy for you to post your photos on our Facebook group as well but please make sure that you've also submitted as above. Entries that have not been emailed or added to the Flickr pool will not be accepted.

What can I make?
Anything as long as it involves beads! Any technique is accepted, from beadweaving and stringing to wire work and bead embroidery. Lampworkers and polymer clay artists are also welcome to submit beads they've made. I'm sorry but any entries that do not include beads in some form or another will not be accepted. Your entry must be made especially for the challenge, please do not submit something that was made before May 1st 2013.

Does it have to be my own design?
No. We're happy for you to make something using a pattern from a book, magazine or tutorial but if you do please let us know the designer's name so that we can give them credit.

What about findings?
Findings (clasps, earwires, metal spacer beads etc) are exempt from the colour challenge so you can use silver, gold or any other colour findings that fit in with your project.

When is the deadline for entries?
The deadline is 6pm (GMT) on 
Friday the 31st of May.

 
Can I enter more than once?
You can make as many pieces as you like using the chosen colourway. All entries will be shown here on the blog but you will only be entered into the draw once (or twice if you've used the twist).

I'm not in the UK, can I still join in?
Yes of course! We welcome submissions from around the world so don't worry if you're not in the UK. Our sponsors have agreed to post prizes overseas so you can still enter and be eligible for the prize!

Any other questions?
If you have any questions about the challenge please feel free to email Liz at ottbs@live.com

The Prize
This month our sponsor is Rachel of RB Beads and she's offering £20 worth of size 11 Miyuki seed beads of the lucky winner's choice!

The winner will be drawn by Liz after 6pm on Friday the 31st of May, using the random list generator at www.random.org and announced later on the same evening.

Good luck everyone and happy beading!