Inpsired by Harry Potter - Iron Craft #9 And the Oscar Goes To

This week's Iron Craft challenge was themed for movies....I initially wanted to do a jewelry piece from the movie Pride & Prejudice...which I recently watched and LOVED...so romantic! So I set out to make a neck piece that someone from the time period would wear....unfortunately, I don't have it finished.

Instead, I went with another movie (book) that I love as well. It is a simple piece that I've actually seen done already but I wanted to create my own version using a pretty enchanting glass bead I had...

So, my movie...Harry Potter....and my piece....

Golden Snitch Inspiration (also listed in my Etsy shop here.) 

Tropical Hometown - Iron Craft #8

Iron Craft Challenge #8 was about our Hometown. I was born in the Philippine Islands and thought that I wanted to create something very tropical to remember the beautiful beaches here....

So, on this Iron Craft Wednesday, I created my necklace...

Island Tropics

I used beads that are well known to come from here...the mustard color and black discs are mother of pearls beads. The white cylinder beads are made of carabao bone (or it kind of feels like cartilage, maybe) and the triangular centerpiece is made of shell.

A Happy Day (Plus Iron Craft #7 Midas Touch)

What a good day! First, I opened my mail this morning to find out that I won this bag from kellymoorebag.com. Yey!!! Happy Lucky Day!

Then I went through my pretty new beads and supplies that I purchased yesterday...

3 big bags of headpins in 3 tones..silver, antique gold and copper.

 8mm Mookait jasper beads.

 2 triangular shell beads and a string of carabao cyclinder beads.

 8mm Majorica pearls in assorted colors to restock my stash.

 Red  glass with gold foil inside.

 25 mm assorted cylindrical agate beads.

 2 meters pretty copper chain

 Assorted antique gold & silver  findings, beads caps and black toned shell beads.

I love them and I got a burst of inspiration to create! Oh! Happy Bead Day!

And lastly, while putting new supplies away, I found some of my old bead leftovers. I thought of a new pendant line using crystals and antique chains that I had. Here are a few to feast your eyes on...

I love how they turned out. There can be tons of combinations which, can actually be great as accessories for wedding parties. Great gift ideas for the bridesmaids & flower girls.

Happy Constructive Day!

I just realized these would work well with my Iron Craft Challenge #7 - Midas Touch since they are all made of antique gold. So, lastly, here's my entry for this week's Iron Craft...

To sum it up....today was a good day!

Winter Theme Contest - Iron Craft Challenge #6

There's a contest this week in the Iron Craft challenge with the theme of winter. I knew immediately what I wanted to do and I already had the needed materials for my project in my stash.

I live in a tropical country (the Philippines) where the current temperatures are between 32-36 degrees Celsius (that's 89-96 Fahrenheit) and we do not have winter. But, I did grow up in New Jersey and remember the cold, snowy winters there. I especially remember how beautiful and magical the trees were when the branches were covered with a blanket of white... 

So, for my contest entry, I submit my Winter's Magic. It is a beaded winter tree made of leaves of Moonstone and twisted together with silver toned aluminum wire and the frozen, rocky pond made from liquid resin.

Today, it is a hot sunny tropical day, but this challenge has taken me back to the nice cool winter breezes of my childhood....

a closeup of the twisted moonstone leaves

the frozen pond (made of liquid resin...its still drying because I just poured it today).... I love how the resin gives the rock a slippery, icy feel...

I added a bit of green mossy grass just to give a hint that spring is just around the corner....

My materials....

It was difficult to take pictures of me twisting the beads on to the wire but here are some photos on setting up the rocky base and the frozen pond...

Here's a view from the top....

Winter's Magic

(Magical Winter Tree with Frozen Pond)

You can read about the Contest/Challenge #6 here.....and view everybody's entries in the Iron Craft flickr page here...
Wish me luck! And happy cool breezes!

Get Cozy - Iron Craft Challenge #4

This week's challenge at the Iron Craft was to make a coffee cozy.I thought about crocheting one, however, I'm still a novice at crochet so I decided to create one in felt.

I actually thought about this design at night when I suddenly got a craving for a caffe latte.  However, as part of my new year's resolution to lose weight, I vowed to drink less coffee to minimize the fatty milk I take in. I am a coffee lover so, this is a big deal for me...it almost breaks my heart. I haven't completely removed coffee entirely..though...and I just have to look forward to those days that I do get to have it....

So here's how I made my coffee cozy...

1. First I brought out the felt...so many pretty colors. I had to chose which ones to use...

2. Trace out the shapes needed.... and cut out all the pieces....

3. Use the glue gun to glue the pink pieces together and the brown pieces together... 

4. Pink thread is used to stitch around the edges of the heart.... do this for both sides of the heart...

5. Use scissors along the flat edge of the heart to cut four small holes...then thread pieces of yarn like you would a shoelace. I used 4 pieces of yarn together...

6. I brought out my rhinestone hot fix tool and swarovski rhinestones for bling... lined up how the blings would look before heat fixing them on...

7. Now glue the heart to the band and decorate the band with the bling....here's the unfolded cozy....

And the cozy in action....on my coca cola collectible glass...

Hope you enjoyed making the cozy with me :-) You can check out other cozies on the iron craft flickr group - here. 

Lighting the Winter Gloom - Iron Craft Challenge 1

I decided to join a crafty challenge for 2011 over at Iron Craft!

They post a craft challenge every week for a total of 52 wonderful craft projects. I found them kind of late but I still decide to go ahead and submit an entry for the first week.

Challenge 1 was Lighting the Winter Gloom. The challenge was to create something to bring sparkle and light in this cold season. I decided to create a beaded candle holder/decor that definitely catches the rays of light in any candle. I was already a day late so I had to quickly come up with something. I used some beads that were part of my "bead soup" or bead leftovers and wire that I had all tangled up.

Halfway there.....

And tada...the finished project.....

Here's a link to the flickr group of all challenge entries - click here.

Ready for the next challenge!!!