Fini Friday! Ringing in for a Challenge!

Hello Everyone!
Welcome to Fini Friday! As some of you may know, Fridays are all about the creation process, particularly when I finish a creation that has been languishing in some state of growth for much too long! A 30 Day Challenge came across my email inbox a few days ago from the folks Fusion Beads in celebration of March as the Craft Month and thought it would be fun to do this! I doubt I'll be able to complete every day, as I have other things lined up for the month of March, but I'm almost always up for a challenge! The Challenge schedule is here for those that are curious! As we Challengers complete each day, we post on Fusion Bead's Facebook page, so you're welcome to check out the challenge there are well!

Ok! I've combined Day 2, 3 and 4 both because I'll be out and about this weekend and they dove-tailed nicely with my Fini Friday post! So, you'll get to see a bit of everything in this post!
Day 2 Challenge was to use leftover beads and so I have!
Title: Fascinating Ruby and Her Jewels
Ingredients: Swarovski crystals, Glass (Czech&India), brass beadcaps(USA), metal, gold-plated surgical steel earwires.

Those luscious ruby-coloured glass beads were actually hand-selected for me by a friend, who used them to wrap a birthday present a few years back now! How thoughtful!! I simply had to create something with them, and today's challenge of using left-over beads was the perfect springboard for that!

Day 3 encourages us to learn a new technique. I've chosen to expand on my wire-wrapped ring skills with this technique. The creation that unfolded also fit perfectly into Day 2's challenge of using leftover beads and Fini Friday, since I'm always on the lookout for ways to use my existing bead stash in different ways.
Title: Smoldering
Ingredients: Cut glass, Artistic Wire (permanently-coated copper wire, USA).


And last, but not least, Day 4's Challenge was Organize Your Bead Area. This fabulously fit into my ongoing Studio Reorg, so I took the opportunity to clear out another drawer in one of my Creation Cabinets!


Everything that was in the drawer found appropriate homes or were recycled and now I have another empty drawer with which to play! YAY!
So there you have it, a Ringing start (get it? A pair of earrings, a ring = ringing?) to the Challenge and a fabulous Fini Friday! WHEEE!!!
Have an awesome weekend!
See you on Magical Monday!
Ciao!
P.S. These earring and ring creations will be in my Etsy shoppe by Monday!

Fini Friday! Shopping, Squinkies and More!

Hello Everyone!
It is Friday and I have been out on Walkabout shopping on Black Friday for the first time in my adult life! I am not really a Black Friday shopping-sort of person, as there is no material thing I need to purchase for someone that badly. However, a good friend of mine convinced me to go with her and we always have fun together. That and it was understood that we absolutely did not leave the house before 8:30am. The tipping point came when an offer of chai tea was made and I was accepted the mission!! I am happy to say that I have made great strides on my Winter Holiday shopping, we had a lot of fun and I have shinies to show you!

And with that, here is a photo of some of the loot I brought home with me!


I was able to acquire lots of nifty antiqued brass chain (undoubtedly some is steel and some is bass metal) that just beg to grow into Steampunk goodness. The brightly coloured creatures are Squinkies! Yes! More Squinkies!! I had so much fun with the first small batch that I created with that I decided to revisit Squinkie-ness and create with more of them! I'm betting that this is about as far as I'm going to go in terms of investing in them, so I'm intrigued to see what they grow into!
The golden circles you see in the center-left are actually adjustable bracelets!!! I am excited about the possibilities with these! I could stamp, wire-wrap, glue old paper or various ephemera and seal with resin and so much more!! YAY!! I love having nifty materials to play with!

I also have nifty finished creations to show you! Below is a photo of completed wire-wrapped rings, some with beads and some with vintage buttons as the focal(s).


These don't yet have titles and I will remedy that soon! Look for these and more creations to be added to my Etsy shoppe over the weekend!

Speaking of weekends, before I finish this post so we can all start our weekend, let me draw your attention to my event schedule for the rest of the year! (Isn't it strange to think of it that way???!!!)
Holiday Geek Expo and The Women's Art Festival! And I have one more BlogTalk Radio Interview on Tuesday, Dec. 20th at 3pm CST(USA). This will be chalk-full of Messages From the Faeries and we will be concentrating on Message #2. What is Message #2, you ask? You'll just have to tune in and see!
And now, I give you...The Weekend!!!!
HAVE FUN!

On the Road

I wanted to showcase some of the creations that came forth while I was at Braham Pie Day!
I have had a lot of fun with creating the wire-wrapped rings and more wanted to come alive!
The first two are on my Etsy Shop:

Ancient Symbols

Sea Blue


The last three are on my ArtFire Shop:

Spirals!

The Glow Within

Window of the Past

Rings!

Well, I had a new category of creations to debut at Braham Pie Day! Rings!!
I was inspired by seeing another artist and her ring work, so I thought I'd try my hand (get it, hand?!) at making rings.
I *love* it. These work up more rapidly than many of my creations and I get to play with wire!

Here is a 'group photo' of my first batch. I hope you like what you see!




I'm pleased to say that the two cat rings found their people at the Pie Day, YAY!!!