Archive: October ’11 on The Blog

This post is part of a series for the 2011 Holiday Season… Follow along on the Holiday Page!

With all of the great mixed-media jewelry supplies out there right now, it’s more fun than ever to create something that has a personal touch. This year, I’ll be designing some pieces that contain resin components, keepsake pendants, stamped blanks, and other personalized pieces.

Resin and keepsake pendants are fun because you can include anything you want, as long as it fits. It could be a photo, a birthstone, or even a little note, or any other little trinkets that have sentimental value.

If you’re comfortable with tools, stamping blanks is a great way to give a personalized gift. You can write anything you want and then texture the blank, or use gilders paste to add some color.

Here are some links to items that help you make it personal:

• Stamps and blanks
• Resin and bezels
• Keepsake Pendants
• … and more Tips & Techniques

It seems like this is becoming somewhat of a Halloween tradition around here. To keep you busy during Scream Week, we decided to resurrect the Fresh Pick Challenge! There will be 4 prizes, one for the winner of each of the following categories:

• Best Composition: The overall composition is one of the most important qualities of a beautiful Fresh Pick. It’s what makes Fresh Picks so unique. Creating the best possible color & texture arrangement is key to winning this category.
• Best Use of Color: When it comes to beading, is there anything more important than color? It doesn’t necessarily have to be all spooky colors. You can use things like your favorite Halloween candy, a costume that you remember wearing when you were younger, or even your favorite horror flick for inspiration.
• Best Story: We know how you love to write stories to go along with your Fresh Picks. That’s why we’re going to read each and every description that you take the time to write. It could be a scary story, a tale about your favorite childhood Halloween memory, or anything else your creative mind comes up with
• People’s Choice: We want our Pickers to make the call! The Fresh Pick with the most favorites will win this prize. Even if you’re not submitting a pick, be sure to add your favorite fresh picks to, well, your favorites!

With the exception of the people’s choice winner, the Lima Beads team will choose the winners of each category. We’re excited!

The Prizes

The winner of each category will receive a $25 Lima Beads gift certificate. Also, there is a special prize for the winner of People’s Choice: A beautiful assortment of gemstone beads, pendants and pearls!

If you can’t quite tell from the photo, there’s Carnelian, Amethyst, Kyanite, Amazonite, Peru Rhodochrosite and more!

When you’re ready to submit your Pick, just select it from the drop-down menu in the comment form below. You’ll be able to choose from your 10 most recent picks. Choose the one that you’d like to submit to the contest and “Voila!” Not sure what a Fresh Pick is? Find out on the Design Your Own Fresh Picks page!

Let me lay down a few ground rules before you get started:

• Only one (1) submision allowed per person. If you make multiple submissions, only your most recent one will be counted.
• All Picks must be submitted as a comment on this blog post by Monday, October 31st at midnight.

Here’s the Tricky Part

You have to use at least one product from ONE of these categories:

	Czech Glass Coins
	Luster Silver Crystal
	Red Creek Jasper

IMPORTANT: You DO NOT have to include one product from each category! We’re not that cruel.

We’re not done yet! You also need to include at least one product from our Artist Beads section. We have hundreds of artist beads and we think they’re the most creative beads in our entire shop. They should help to inspire some awesome picks!

All you have to do is create a new Fresh Pick and upload it in your comment below. Time to pick!

This post is part of a series for the 2011 Holiday Season… Follow along on the Holiday Page!

It’s always around this time every year that I start to feel the stress of holiday gift making. This year, I’ll be making an untold number of necklaces, bracelets, and earrings for all the wonderful ladies in my life. They all have different tastes, styles, and favorite colors.

Over the past few years, I’ve come up with a way to get my thoughts organized and my creativity flowing. I start by making a list of everyone that will need a gift. Then, next to each of their names I write down everything I know about their style and fashion preferences — what they like to wear, where they fall on the funky-to-conservative scale, where they like to shop, their favorite colors and anything else I think will help me design something they’ll love.

Starting off with this list has served me well. It has helped me design gifts that are well-received, decide which beads and supplies I need to purchase, and last but not least, it has helped me get a grip on just how much work I have to do before it’s too late!

I hope this helps. If you have something that works for you, please share it in the comments!

Here’s to all the creepy creatives on the Lima Beads site… we want to have a little fun this Halloween, starting with collecting some Fresh Picks and Designs that are scary, spooky, or just plain fun like those odd-shaped pumpkins carved with big silly faces. We’ll be featuring these Fresh Picks and Designs on at our Halloween HQ for the rest of the month. We think it’s going to be a cool source of October inspiration!

Here’s how to participate…

To join the fun, start by designing a Fresh Pick or uploading one of your beading designs to our Design Gallery. There’s an easy way to specify that your new pick or design should go on the Halloween 2011 page. If you’re uploading a design in the Design Gallery, you’ll see the following option when filling out the entry form:

If you’re designing a Fresh Pick, first finishing adding all the items to your pick. Then go to the My Fresh Picks page. You’ll see a choice next to each of your picks that allows you to choose the Halloween promotion. Just like the bottom of this example:

You can always go back and choose the Halloween promo later, so don’t feel like you need to finish everything in one sitting. One last thing… only picks that area created in September and October 2011 will be featured on the Halloween HQ page. No fair using “creativity of old” this season

As always, feel free to ask any questions in the comments. And have fun!