Simple, Fun Spring Ideas

Does your wardrobe desperately need a dose of color this season?  Take your pick of spring flower beads  for inspiration.  Flower beads are perfect for creating accessories like necklaces, earrings and bracelets, and you can bead your own spring jewelry for a fraction of the prices you'll find in jewelry stores.

For a bright, playful look, mix pansy or daisy lampwork beads in a variety of colors.  If you're looking to create something a little more delicate and dainty, our flower glass beads or butterfly glass beads will look dazzling matched with a floral print spring dress.

You can also mix and match bead types for completely unique designs.  Try pairing jade with jasper - perfect colors for spring - along with a small flower accent bead to create a gemstone pendant necklace.

Until next week, be happy and bead on!

The Beading Bunch

"Charm"ing Ideas for Spring

With spring comes an abundance of delightful new charms for jewelry and home decor projects.  The whimsical designs provide just the inspiration needed to  create charming earrings with a matching bracelet and necklace to complement your new spring dress.  Or design decorative accents to give your home an added dimension of spring style. 

A couple of our favorite spring beading projects are the Lovely, Leafy Earrings and Wishing Earrings.  These delightful danglers are sure to turn heads, and if you can bear to part with them, they make great gifts for Mother's Day!  There's no better gift to make mom feel special than jewelry designed just for her by you.   

Has inspiration run dry?  By creating unique charms for wine glasses, you can make your designs the toast of the town!  You're sure to impress party guests with designs that match the party theme or occasion.  While you're at it, go ahead and whip up a wine bottle cover too.  Wine charms and bottle covers are projects that are relatively easy to create and they add a lot of style to your table. 

Until next week, be happy and bead on!

The Beading Bunch

Dizzy with Summer Ideas

With the summer months approaching, ceiling fans will soon be whirling in many homes.  What better time to add a decorative touch to your ceiling fan with a charming fan pull kit! 

Depending on your style, you can choose between Goldtone or Silvertone in color.   Each kit includes all of the basics you'll need - link chains, ball chains, headpins and jumprings to create six fan pulls.  Just add your favorite beads to coordinate with each room's decor.  Create a fun, whimsical look with fun, funky lampwork beads (the Beading Bunch's personal favorites) or design a more sophisticated look using foil or shell beads.

We were so excited for spring, we created our own Watch-the-Birdies Fan Pull. Let us know if you like it!

We're sure you'll have so much fun creating these fan pulls that you'll find yourself changing them seasonally!

Until next week, be happy and bead on!

The Beading Bunch

It’s more fun to bead than receive!

Now that we’re halfway through April, it’s clear that the gift-giving days of Spring will soon be here! Keep in mind that graduations, weddings, showers and Mother’s Day, not to mention lots of birthday and anniversary celebrations, are great upcoming gift-giving occasions. Fortunately, all these events give us an excuse to have fun beading lots of fabulous gifts!

Our graduation, wedding and baby-themed charms and exclusive lampwork beads make the cutest keepsakes!  In addition to beading them into adorable charm bracelets and earrings, we make them into dangles and use them on everything from photo holders and wine glass charms to Baby Shower Treat Wrap-Ups and gift wraps.

Need the perfect Mother’s Day Gift? See our Project Ideas for how to make our Oh Mama! Birthstone Necklace with Photo Frame, Moms and grandmothers love it and our sparkling cut glass crystals come in gorgeous birthstone colors so you can easily personalize your version for your own family.

Next week: beads-to-go!
Until then, be happy and bead on!

The Beading Bunch

Spring Has Sprung —Time to Create A Little Buzz!

Now that winter is behind us and the days are getting longer and brighter, we’ve been having fun beading up new things to wear. After all, while it still may be a little too chilly for a whole spring outfit, a spring accessory can really give your transition wardrobe a lift.

Our lampwork bead designers have created lots of adorable little bees, bugs, birds, and spring critters that we’ve been turning into charming dangle bracelets, earrings and more.  See all of our novelty beads.

We also love leaf beads and flower beads as they make the prettiest earrings and necklaces. You can string lots of them together or use just a few to make beautiful cluster earrings and pendants.

Be sure to check out the easy how-to's for our Ladybug, Ladybug Bracelet and Pretty Petals Necklace in Project Ideas. You’ll find lots of other ideas there, too!

Next week: Fun and easy gifts you can bead yourself!

Until then, be happy and bead on!

The Beading Bunch

Fashion Flash!

Fashion Weeks in New York, London, Milan and Paris ended recently and we have so many fabulous ideas for beading projects that we’ve completely sprung ahead to Fall 2008! We hope these latest trends will also inspire you to make something chic right now!

New York shows featured pale, icy colors with crystal accents and modern silver pieces. The colors of our pastel pearl and crystal beads look fabulously up-to-the-minute combined with silvertone beads in modern, geometric shapes!

London’s designers showcased beautiful chandelier earrings and multi-strand chokers. Make your own dressy or casual versions with our glimmering marcasite 9-ring chandelier earrings and three-ring hook clasps.

You can always count on Milan for high-fashion looks, such as black lace with a sparkle of modern flair. Create your own sophisticated accents from jet-black crystal and smoky freshwater pearls!

The Paris shows made a splash with madcap combinations of every color, mixed with wild abandon! Mix our fun and colorful freshwater shell disk beads with cut glass crystals in deep jewel tones, add a few silvery charms and whip up a fantastic fashion original all your own!

For more inspiration, see our online beading projects. They offer complete, easy to follow instructions as well as a convenient shopping list of the supplies you’ll need.

Next week: Spring has sprung!

Until then, be happy and bead on!

The Beading Bunch

Beadalon® EZ-Crimp™

Beadalon® EZ-Crimp™ Ends are the easiest way to give strands of beads a secure and professional finishing touch. Just follow these simple steps.

1. Place a single strand Beadalon wire (up to .024"), all the way inside the hole.
2. Place the smooth portion of the EZ-Crimp finding into the semi-circle of your crimping pliers.
3. Squeeze until the coiled wires of the EZ-Crimp begin to close down around the stringing wire.
4. Compress one more time (using the previous step) so the entire length of the EZ-Crimp finding closes onto the wire.

Beadalon® Wire Guardians™

Beadalon® Wire Guardians™ are an easy way to protect your stringing wire or cord from the wear and tear of jumprings and clasps. Just follow these simple steps.

1. Thread your wire or cord through the metal “U” … in one side …
2. and out the other…
3. then back through the crimp bead. Using crimp pliers, secure crimp. Slip end of wire or cord into the last few beads on the strand. Add a crimp cover.
4. Add your clasp as usual.

Take on exciting new projects with our helpful tips and tools as your guide! From crimping to working with jump rings, we'll help you with all of the essential techniques you'll need to bead something sensational.

How to Separate Links on a Chain