Author Archive: Matt on The Blog

We’ve been thrilled with the response to this year’s Easter Egg Hunt. Looking back, adding 100 more eggs made hunting more fun given the enormity of our site. If we keep growing, who knows, you could be looking for even more eggs in years to come! I think we’ll have to start hiding them in January if that’s ever the case.

We truly enjoy doing fun things like this on our site. Whether it’s the Crossword Sale in January, weekly Lunch Specials or the Big Green Bead Machine, there are lots of unique and interesting ways for you to save on beads. Stay tuned to see what we’re cooking up for the future.

Fun Facts

This year's most clicked egg

All of the eggs were found at least once. The hardest egg was only found once. I’d tell you where it was, but I think we’ll save that one for next year.

The egg clicked by the most hunters was the one on the main beads page. We were a little surprised that the giant egg on the home page that said “Click me to begin” wasn’t the most clicked…

The most talked about egg was the one hidden in the search engine. All you had to do was search for “Egg.” 702 of you found this one.

Is it an understatement to say that the check marks were a welcomed addition?

Here are a few more locations I had a lot of fun hiding.

This Year’s Winners

Congratulations to everyone who ended the hunt on the Leaderboard. As promised, we’ll be sending all of you a $20 gift certificate to Lima Beads.

We were watching the top ten intently throughout the hunt. It goes without saying that those hunters were determined to have their name in the hat for the grand prize. Speaking of, the winner of the $250 Grand Prize is… Hilda M! You can see a video of Kadie drawing her name out of an empty Twizzlers box on our Facebook page.

Gift certificate winners, keep your eyes peeled for an email from us in the next 24 hours!

Thanks for participating in this year’s Easter Egg Hunt. It’s going to be hard to beat, but we’ll give it our best in 2014. I love playing the Easter Bunny and look forward to stumping you all again.

The time has come for the 5th annual Easter Egg Hunt at Lima Beads! There are more prizes than ever, including more than $2,000 in gift certificates. We’ve also made the hunt a little easier and more fun by scattering double the number of eggs across our site. Read more about the hunt below, or check out the Hunt Page to get started!

The Basics

We’ve scattered 200 eggs across all corners of our website. The more eggs you find, the more prizes you get! We have a leaderboard to track the progress of hunters from all over the world, and the top hunters will all get gift certificates this year! The hunt lasts all week, and ends at 11:59pm Pacific time on Easter (March 31).

The Prizes

We have 5 different levels of prizes this year, including some great bonus prizes. You have to find at least 10 eggs to get your first prize, and you can unlock additional prizes after finding 25, 50, 75, and 100 eggs (for seriously insane egg hunters only) As a bonus this year, we’re giving away a $20 gift certificate to every single hunter on the leaderboard when the hunt ends. This means we’re giving away at least 100 gift certificates! Keep an eye on the leaderboard and read more about the prizes on the Hunt page.

The Rules

We have detailed rules and some FAQs on the hunt page, so we suggest you check those out. There are a few things we want you to know, however. When you place an order to redeem your prizes, normal shipping rates apply (as low as $2 for U.S. customers). We have lots of great gifts this year, but we can’t guarantee they will all be available when the hunt ends on Sunday. So place your orders early to make sure you get the gifts you want!

What are you waiting for? Start hunting!

We have our winners for the How Many Beads in the Jar? contest! R Rushka has just won all of the beads in the jar! We didn’t realize it when she first added her comment, but her guess of 1534 was exactly right!

The winner of the $25 Gift Certificate is SCW Designs with 1531! Just over an hour and a half after we posted the contest, I thought for sure her guess would last through the weekend and that she would be the winner of the beads on Monday.

We’re hoping to do more contests in the future, so stay tuned to the blog and our email newsletter for announcements. Thanks so much to everyone who participated and congratulations to our winners.

If you guess exactly how many beads are in the jar, we’ll give you the entire contents of the jar!

The rules are simple:

• You have until 12pm Eastern Time on Monday, September 17th, 2012 to make your guess(es).
• Guesses can only be submitted in the comments of this post.
• The winner will be the closest guess (without going over).
• If there’s a tie, the earliest entry will be the winner.
• You can guess up to once per day. At the end of the contest, only your most recent guess will be considered.

The Prize

The winner will receive the entire contents of the jar. There’s no way of knowing the exact dollar value, but guesses around the office have been between $200-$350! Just look at the photo and you’ll see just how much cool stuff is in there! There are agate slabs, pearls, crystal, coral roses, cubic zirconia, lapis, pyrite, fire agate, and much, much more. The winner will also be announced here on our blog by the end of the day on Monday, September 17th.

Also, the first person to guess within 25 beads of the actual amount (either over or under) will receive a $25 gift certificate, so hurry and start guessing, but remember — you only get 1 guess per day!

This entry continues: Read the rest…

First, we’ve added new selections to 3 of our most popular bead artists. We’ve also added 15 gemstone beads to the shop.

Artist Beads

Gaea and Kylie Parry have been doing some great ceramic work lately! We’ve added to the ever-popular selection of Gaea bundles with 12 new color mixes. We’ve also expanded the selection of Kylie Parry birds and pendants. Plus, Ricci at Rustic Charms sent us some beautiful new sterling silver pieces, including blanks, pendants, beads, and findings. Any of these artist additions could easily be the inspiration for an entire piece. See them all now.

Gemstone Beads

I have to admit, Lima Beads hasn’t been covering the gemstone bead basics very well. We’ve been adding lots of large, flashy items and neglecting the essentials that everyone needs. We plan to start adding more basics on a regular basis. Today, we’re adding some smaller rounds and rondelles that make perfect accent beads. They come in the great subtle colors of African opal, fossil coral, chalcedony, rose quartz and pink opal. We do have a few flashy pieces this week. Check out the large chalcedony rough slabs or the rustic orange agate slabs if that’s what you need! See the gemstone bead additions now.

We’ve been saving up jump rings for months and today we’re adding them ALL. You’ll also find new gemstone beads, Green Girl Studios, and some nifty wire working tools including the WigJig.

Jump Rings

We’ve added full lines of Artistic Wire and anodized aluminum jump rings. They’re colorful and they come in lots of different sizes and gauges. If you use Artistic Wire, we now have the matching jump rings. Check them all out.

Gemstone Beads

The new gems include fossil coral, Red Creek jasper, strawberry quartz, and Chinese turquoise. I’m really loving the Red Creek jasper graduated ladder strands.

Fun with Wire

There’s a new department in our tools section called wire shaping. In it, you’ll find the super popular WigJig line, a jump ring maker, and a wire twisting tool. Using these 3 items, you can get creative with your wire and make some great stuff!

Green Girl Studios

We’re only adding a handful of Green Girl pieces today, but there are some very special things here that are just fun to look at. An owl with sapphire eyes, bronze bunnies with sapphires, a huge shibuichi fairy pendant, and an intricate bronze toggle are a few of the pieces you’ll see.

Today we’re adding the largest item in Lima Beads history — the Vintaj BIGkick by Sizzix. If you work with metal, you have to see it. We’re also adding gemstone beads and some fab rubber sheet stamps.

Vintaj BIGkick by Sizzix

If you’ve taken the jump into mixed media jewelry design, you’ll love this user-friendly metal cutting and embossing machine. Start with a metal blank and end with something truly unique! We have all the resources you’ll need. Watch the video tutorials to get started and purchase accessories to create more and more! See everything you’ll need to get started.

Gemstone Beads

This week’s gemstone additions are very colorful. We have a hematite donut and faceted round that have been plated in titanium and then fired to create a bold rainbow patina. We first saw this new take on hematite a few months ago and had to try it out. We’re also adding 8 new shapes of ocean blue impression jasper and they look great for summer. See all of the gemstone additions.

Rubber Stamps

These new sheet stamps are large enough to create pattern on any component you may want to use. Made with the highest quality photopolymer, these stamps are a fresh and fun new clear stamp line hosting stamps that will last a lifetime. Unlike many other clear stamps, these are made with genuine trade-quality photopolymer, and work with virtually any ink.

It’s an exciting day at Lima. We have some awesome new golden pyrite beads and two ways for you to save a bunch of money.

Golden Pyrite

Golden pyrite gemstone beads are hot right now! We can’t seem to keep them in stock, so we’re very happy to add a fresh selection to the shop. You’ll find everything from tiny carved roses to large focal beads, all at great prices. See the golden pyrite now.

Check out these colors…

If it’s colorful, sparkly, (or both!) — it might on sale right now at Lima Beads. Steve has selected a huge amount of crystal, shell pearls, gemstones, TOHO seed beads, and Czech glass and lowered the prices for a few days. Now through Monday 5/28, you can save up to 25% on all of these items. These deals are on a first come, first served basis. Some items will most likely sell out before the end of the sale, so get your order in soon.

Our New Last Chance Section

We had a realization a few weeks ago — Lima Beads has never discontinued anything. We have a lot of items in our shop that we can no longer purchase from manufacturers, so it’s time to get them out of here. That’s where the Last Chance section comes in. When an item is discontinued, we’ll move it to this section and deeply discount the price. When it sells out, it’ll be gone forever! You can find the last chance section under the “Deals” menu on our web site. Right now, you can save on Stampt Metal, Green Girl Studios, Vintaj, gemstones, metal beads, and more. Next month, we’ll be doing a big gemstone bead clearance, so watch for that too!

Have an awesome weekend!

We’ve added three lines of products to the shop this week: New sparkly pave beads, all of TierraCast’s latest pieces, and of course, some gemstones beads.

Pave Beads

We’ve decided to try out a line of super sparkly pave beads. These beads are made with polymer clay and then set with hundreds of little crystals on their surface to give your designs a jolt of sparkle. They come in a lot of great colors and can be used for just about anything. They’ve been very popular in shamballa bracelets lately, so Ali made a tutorial on those. Things to see: pave beads – shamballa tutorial.

The Latest from TierraCast

TierraCast is constantly adding innovative stuff to their line and we want to carry it all! Today’s items represent their latest additions. You’ll find some great pinch bails, charms, and my favorite — buttons. They make great clasps.

Gemstone Beads

There is some awesome stuff here. The azurite malachite is crazy beautiful and the new lapis pieces are huge! There’s quite a variety from sunstone to Red Creek jasper, so take a look.

Here it is on an iPad

Over the last few months, we’ve been hearing a lot of people asking us to let them shop the Big Green Bead Machine on their iPads, smartphones, and computers that don’t have Flash installed. Well, a couple of weeks ago, we did just that.

One of the goals of our new website was to make sure that everything looks and works on mobile devices just as well as it does on our desktops and laptops. Now that we’ve updated the Big Green Bead Machine, every product is shoppable, every video is viewable and every page is accessible from your smartphone or tablet.

How Lima’s Big Green Bead Machine Works

For those of you who prefer to think of what we do as “magic” and don’t really care exactly how this stuff really works, you can tune out now.

When we first developed the Big Green Bead Machine back in February of 2008, the iPhone was just over a year old and nobody had ever heard of an iPad. Back then, we had to use a technology called Flash to build  interactive features on our site. Now that iPad and smartphone usage is on the rise, Flash is one of those things (along with mice) that is being left behind in what Steve Jobs called the “Post-PC Era.”

Most of the new web browsers out today allow you to build things that are pretty and interactive without the use of Flash. In fact, even Adobe, who owns the Flash technology, has decided to move away from it in lieu of these new browser technologies.

Now that we’ve removed the Big Green Bead Machine’s dependency on Flash, you can use it just about anywhere.

Over the last two years, look at how much mobile web browsing has grown! In March 2012, 13% of all visitors to our website were using a mobile device. Last March, it was 5% and March of 2010 was 1%. What do you think these numbers will look like in 3 years?

We hope you like this update to the Bead Machine. If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to leave a comment!

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

Give your handmade gifts the wrapping they deserve! Forget about the box and the paper, the tag is what can really separate your wrapping job from the pack. Using supplies that you already have at home, you can easily make handcrafted holiday gift tags for that special someone.

On the paper tags, I just cut out some shapes with nice, thick paper and covered them with varying combinations of alcohol ink, acrylic paint and stamps. The hardest part is waiting for the ink to dry before you can write anything on them. I used a refillable ink pen for the lettering, but a permanent marker would work just as well. To finish it off, use ribbon or hemp to attach the tags to your gifts.

As an alternative to the paper tags, consider picking up a few letter pendants from The Lipstick Ranch. I embellished this letter ‘K’ with a couple of wire-wrapped charms and some twisted hemp. The best part is that you can also use it as an ornament!

I think the scariest thing about these Fresh Pick Challenges is how creative our customers are! When Steve gave everyone the ability to create their own Fresh Picks, we weren’t sure how it was going to go. I think this goes without saying, but it’s been wildly successful.

Here are the four lucky Fresh Pickers who came out on top of the latest Fresh Pick Challenge:

Best Composition: Artful Accents’ “October Skyline“

We had a hard time picking just one for this category because there were so many picks with great composition. The more I look at this pick, the more I like it. You can tell just how much care went into picking each and every product. Just look at how that Lillypilly Verde Patina Copper Sheet works so well with the Red Creek Jasper!

Best Use of Color: D Gooding’s “PumpkinHead is Snoring“

I would bet that D Gooding was taking a shot at the “Best Story” prize for this one. Even though it was a finalist for that category, we really liked the bright, pumpkin-esque colors. If you haven’t already read the story, I suggest you give it a read.

Best Story: Kitty Chicky Cat’s “origami garden“

“The perfect hostess; gentle as a dove, with the willow’s grace, welcoming as a warm embrace. Yet she is mournful as the wind that ever caresses her dwelling place and cold as the stars that light the eyes of her pretty face.” This story literally gave me the chills. I think I’m going to have nightmares about being folded up into a pretty little lily…

Top-notch storytelling aside, this is a great-looking pick!

People’s Choice: Mary S – Sweet Chick’s “Pumpkin Vines“

I’d have to agree with all of you on this one! Great composition, great use of color and beautifully crafted. We’ve come to expect this level of creativity from a seasoned veteran like Mary. She has almost 350 Fresh Picks under her belt!

The winners will receive their $25 Gift Certificate code in an email from me within the next few hours. If for some reason you don’t get the message, just let me know in the comments.

Again, we really appreciate everyone who contributed to make this contest so successful. Hopefully, we’ll have another one of these up our sleeve in the coming months.

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!

We’d like to send a big “THANK YOU” to all the beaders who participated in the 2011 Easter Egg Hunt. It was a blast!

The Winners…

First of all, congrats to the winners of the 3 $25 gift certificates! Those golden eggs were certainly tough to find. Here are the winners:

• Golden Egg #1: Katie K
• Golden Egg #2: Natures Precious Gems
• Golden Egg #3: Cindy V

If you’re one of the three winners above, we’ll be sending you a gift certificate by e-mail today. Congratulations!

Now, for the moment you’ve all been waiting for. The winner of the $250 Lima Beads gift certificate is… Griffin! She found a total of 89 eggs, which qualified her for the Top 10 on the leaderboard and a chance to win the big prize. We selected her name out of a hat in a random drawing this morning. Congratulations, Griffin!

The Second Prize is a $100 Gift Certificate, awarded to Jenny R, who was in an 18-way tie for 59th on the leaderboard with an even 75 eggs found. Congrats, Jenny! We’ll be e-mailing you and the rest of the winners your gift certificates today.

We’d like to thank everyone who participated this year in the Easter Egg Hunt. We hope you had fun! Here are some fun facts about the hunt:

• A total of 109,839 eggs were found
• Over 3,610 people participated with a little over 60% finding more than 20 eggs
• Only 2 people found the third golden egg.

Since the third golden egg was so hard to find, we’re going to give you the location. If you look at this design, in the second comment, there are two photo attachments. When you clicked on the photo on the right, it was in that window that pops-up. Pretty tricky!

The eggs have since been taken off of the site, but here are some other crafty places that we hid some eggs:

• When you put your mouse over the Chocolate Strawberries photo on the Ribbon page.
• In the Humble Beads photo stack on the Artist Beads page.
• On the “Share” tab of your Wish List.
• Just hanging out inside of this bird house.
• Hiding out in the form of the “Add a Design” page.

Stay tuned for fun promotions in the future… we love having fun here! If you’re new to Lima Beads, here are some other cool things to check out:

• The Big Green Bead Machine – 9 crazy new deals every 5 minutes!
• Lima Lunch Specials – deals delivered to your e-mail every Tuesday at your lunchtime

There’s nothing quite as frightening as a bunch of beaders who are all competing to win free beads! Seriously, we’re all really impressed by the amount of thought that went into each and every submission for the latest Fresh Pick Challenge. There were certainly some bone-chilling combinations and thrilling stories. Thanks to everyone who participated in the contest.

Here are the winners of the $25 Gift Certificates:

Best Composition: BeadAddict’s “Before I Fly South“

One of the most popular trends in this contest was the use of C-Koop Enameled Metal leaves in Fresh Picks! It was a pretty obvious choice because of the crafty, colorful, autumn-esque designs. However, BeadAddict was able to surround those beautiful pieces with a nice supporting cast of gemstone beads, pearls and metal. Just one look at this pick and you’ll be longing for a fall retreat in upstate New York.

Best Use of Color: Brenda S’s “The Zombie“

We all really enjoyed her eerie story, but the most impressive thing about this pick is the way Brenda used color to complement that story. I’ve never compared our Labradorite to the decaying skin of a zombie, but the greenish-gray luster of the stone has never looked so creepy. The red accents of garnet are a bloody-brilliant touch as well. Great pick.

Best Use of Color: Kitty Chicky Cat’s “out of the seaweed rising“

“Seaweed comes to form her hair, a floating, tangled, grasping mass, writhing there like medusa’s snakes, free to hunt again and take hold like wet fingers anything that lingers.” This sounds like it belongs in the latest collection of Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories. We also really liked the composition. All around great pick!

People’s Choice: Eeka Mouse’s “Midnight Decision“

It’s the pick with the most favorites, and it’s not hard to see why. The story is great and the colors are fantastic. Not many of you were brave enough to throw Rainbow Fluorite in the mix, but Eeka Mouse did it quite well. As we mentioned before, the winner of the people’s choice award will also be receiving a pumpkin full of beads!

The winners will receive their Gift Certificate code in a message from me in The Garden. If for some reason you didn’t get the message, just let me know in the comments.

Again, we really appreciate everyone who contributed to make this contest so successful. Hopefully, we’ll have another one of these up our sleeve in the coming months.

I honestly can’t believe that it’s Halloween already! It seems like yesterday that we held our first ever Fresh Pick Challenge.

A lot has happened since that Valentine’s Day inspired contest. Our three new baby boys are almost 7 months old now, we’ve added Lima Studios epoxy and resin kits, how-to projects, 4 new artists and a ton of new gemstone beads!

Since we had so much fun with the last Fresh Pick Challenge, we decided to have a Halloween inspired contest to keep you busy during Scream Week. We’re giving away $25 gift certificates to the winners 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 our Fresh Picks so unique. Creating the best possible product 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 pinks, reds and purples. Maybe your favorite romantic movie, love song, or the restaurant of your first date inspires you!
• 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. But please, try to keep it as short as you can! I have the feeling that we’re going to have a lot of story-tellers submitting their picks.
• 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!

Also, there is a special prize for the winner of People’s Choice. A little pumpkin full of beads!

When you’re ready to submit your Pick, just select it from the drop-down menu in the comment form below. You’ll see 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.
• You must create a pick specifically for this contest. We all love recycling too, but we want to see some awesome new picks!
• All Picks must be submitted as a comment on this blog post by Sunday, October 31st at midnight.

Here’s the Tricky Part

You have to use at least one product from ANY of these stones:

	Labradorite
	Copper Green Opal
	Rainbow Fluorite

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

All you have to do is create a new Fresh Pick and upload it in your comment below. Now, get Picking!

We have our winners for the How Many Feet of Chain contest! jewel in NP has just won the $100 Lima Beads gift certificate! The correct number of feet was actually 2549, but she was the closest to that (without going over) with 2525.

The winner of the cool geode is Color Us Purple with 2454! After just the 8th guess of the entire contest, she had us thinking it wasn’t going to last very long.

We always have a blast creating these contests and watching the guesses come flying in! Thanks so much to everyone who participated and congratulations to our winners.

Update: We have our winners!

If you guess how many feet of chain are on this table, we’ll give you a $100 Lima Beads Gift Certificate!

The rules are simple:

• You have until 2pm EDT on Monday, July 12th 2010 to make your guess(es).
• Guesses can only be submitted in the comments of this post.
• The winner will be the closest guess (without going over).
• If there’s a tie, the earliest entry will be the winner.
• You can guess up to once per day. At the end of the contest, only your most recent guess will be considered.
• If someone guesses the exact amount, we will announce it immediately. That person will automatically be the winner and the contest will end.

The Prize

The winner will receive a Lima Beads $100 gift certificate. The gift certificate can be used for absolutely anything in the Lima Beads shop and must be redeemed within 1 year. The winner will also be announced on the blog, so the whole beading world will know how incredibly awesome you are!

The "Cool Geode"

The first person to guess within 100 feet of the actual amount will receive a cool geode, so hurry and start guessing, but remember — you only get 1 guess per day!

Helpful Hints

You’ll find a couple of helpful facts about the chain below. Depending on how things are going, we may or may not be giving you another hint tomorrow afternoon.

• 7/8 – There are a total of 34 spools on the table
• 7/8 – Depending on link sizes, one of the larger spools will contain up to 400 feet
• 7/9 – Someone has already won the cool geode!
• 7/9 – The length of chain is shorter than a mile
• 7/12 – The correct guess is a prime number

Looking for today’s new beads?

Check the out on out New Additions page

I’d say our first-ever official Fresh Pick challenge was an overwhelming success with almost 100 entries in 4 days! A big “thank you” to everyone who participated in the contest.

Before I announce the winners, I’d just like to say that we had a really hard time picking just one pick for each of the categories. It was obvious that a lot of time, reflection and love were put into every one.

Here are the winners of the $25 Gift Certificates:

Best Composition: Mirjam E’s “Happiness is a Blue Boat“

When you look at this pick, it’s hard to break down why it’s so nice to look at. That’s one of the keys to a great composition. What we really liked about this pick is the way the wide range of stones were arranged to make a cohesive, visually-appealing piece. Beautiful pick!

Best Use of Color: Wemai Coffee Chick’s “Once Upon a Time“

Using Ruby Impression Jasper and Apatite together is a pretty bold move. Doing it alongside the pairing of Ammonite and Shibuichi and a great supporting cast of pinks and aquas is brilliant. Great work!

Most Creative Title: CAS’s “Your Heart is My Home“

Not only does the title embody Valentine’s Day, this is a great looking pick! We love the subtle use of metal charms to tell the story.

Best Story: KarenDe-Challenge Chick’s “Faces of Love“

One line in the description says it all: “a grandmother and grandfather in sepia wedding day splendor – a celebration of love.” But, we’re also blown away by the vintage look and feel of the pick.

People’s Choice: Cuban Queen Crazy Chick’s “Sweet as Lilies“

It’s the pick with the most favorites, but I think all of us here agree with our little community on this one. The colors, the composition, the title, and the story are all top-notch. It feels like there’s an organic color progression between the Champagne pearls, Rutilated Quartz, multi Moonstone, and Peach Jade. Finally, the addition of the onyx CZ is very clever. Truly inspiring!

The winners will receive their Gift Certificate code in a message from me in The Garden. If for some reason you didn’t get the message, just let me know in the comments.

Again, we really appreciate everyone who contributed to make this contest so successful. Hopefully, we’ll have another one of these up our sleeve in the coming months. With the baby boom coming up soon, who knows what’s going to happen next…

We love Valentine’s Day so much around here, that we wanted to give you all a special Valentine surprise. We’re introducing the first ever, official Fresh Pick Challenge! Some dedicated Lima Beaders came up with this idea last year and we thought it looked like lots of fun. The theme for this contest is Valentine’s Day!

We’re giving away $25 gift certificates to the winners 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 our Fresh Picks so unique. Creating the best possible product 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 pinks, reds and purples. Maybe your favorite romantic movie, love song, or the restaurant of your first date inspires you!
• Most Creative Title: Some of the names you all come up with are truly amazing! Although we’re focusing on the title in this category, it’s important that your picks suit the name.
• 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. But please, try to keep it as short as you can! I have the feeling that we’re going to have a lot of story-tellers submitting their picks.
• 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!

It’s now easier than ever to add one of your Fresh Picks to your blog comments! When you’re ready to submit your Pick, just select it from the drop-down menu in the comment form below. You’ll see your 10 most recent picks. Chose 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.
• You must create a pick specifically for this contest. We all love recycling too, but we want to see some awesome new picks!
• All Picks must be submitted as a comment on this blog post by Sunday, February 14th at midnight.

Here’s the Tricky Part

You have to use at least one product from ANY of these stones:

	Impression Jasper
	China Chyrsoprase
	Bronzite

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

All you have to do is create a new Fresh Pick and upload it in your comment below. Now, get Picking!