The Lima Beads Blog News, Contests, Fun & More

The 2012 Easter Egg Hunt was a crazy ride! 4,338 people hunted for eggs and every egg was found at least once this year. I’d like to announce the winners and address some of the concerns from this year’s hunt.

The Winners

First of all, congrats to the winners of the 3 $25 “Golden Egg” gift certificates! Here are the winners:

• GypsyMom
• Jeanne S
• B Miller

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

Now, for the moment you’ve all been waiting for. The winner of the $250 Lima Beads gift certificate is… J Pilkington! She found a total of 77 eggs, which put her in 9th place on the leaderboard with a chance to win the big prize. You can watch the video of how we picked her name on Facebook. Congratulations, J Pilkington!

The Second Prize is a $100 Gift Certificate, awarded to Snowy, who was in an 8-way tie for 65th on the leaderboard with 55 eggs found.

Congratulations to you both! We’ll contact you directly with your prize.

The Golden Eggs

We never imagined how quickly the golden eggs would be found this year. We thought the hiding places were super hard! Here’s a picture of where the three golden eggs were hidden:

The pictures above show the golden eggs on the following pages: the 12mm Winter Shell Pearl Mix, a search for “golden egg”, and on the “Add to Fresh Pick” screen for the Abalone 1″ Silk Ribbon. Congrats to those who found the golden eggs first. We’ll contact you directly about your prize.

The Hardest Hunt Yet…

It’s been widely publicized that the hunt was more difficult this year than last year. We agree! We thought it would be a nice surprise to launch a new web site for the hunt, but doing so made the eggs difficult to find. We weren’t able to gauge how good our hiding places would be because we hadn’t had a chance to spend much time on the new site. As it turns out, they were very good hiding places. We’re sorry it was so difficult. We hope that the extra prize helped and YES, it’ll be easier next year

Shipping Fees

Some people expressed displeasure with the shipping fees. Our goal is to make the Easter Egg Hunt as cool as possible, and we wish we could ship the prizes for free–but we just can’t afford to. We always put a statement in the rules about how normal shipping rates apply to set expectations, but some people were still disappointed–and we want you to know that we totally understand. We know it’s not the cheapest thing out there (in fact, it costs us MORE than the $4.95 we charge you). Even though it’s a little more expensive, we keep using USPS Priority Mail because it’s fast and trackable. It wasn’t the most popular choice, but rest assured that we are never out to make money on shipping fees.

Thanks Again!

Even though it was hard, we hope that everyone had fun finding those blasted eggs. We’re turning our attention to the rest of 2012 now, and we have some awesome things in store. One thing is for sure… we think we have the best customers on the planet, and we’ll continue to try as hard as we can to put together fun & crazy promotions for everyone to enjoy. Thanks again for making this the most exciting week of the year for us, and keep your eyes on the blog for more fun in the future.

There’s a bunch of crystal and shell pearls that just got added to the special buy section. Special buys happen at Lima Beads for a number of reasons. In this case, some of the items in a shipment didn’t match the colors of our previous stock. We’re very picky about the color consistency of our crystal and shell pearls. So, if it arrives here and doesn’t match perfectly with the color we’ve sold you before, we won’t sell it as the same color — we make it a special buy. If you like the colors you see, you can pick them up at a discount, but you may never be able to get them from us again. When they’re gone – they’re gone! See all special buys now.

The 2012 Easter egg hunt is here! This is the fourth annual hunt! If this will be your first Lima Beads Easter Egg Hunt, it’s simple. We’ve hidden Easter eggs (a lot of Easter eggs) on our web site. Find them and win beads, supplies, coupons and even gift certificates.

This year’s hunt is very similar to last year’s with two exceptions:

1. We’ve tried to make the hunt a bit easier by not hiding eggs in any blog posts, designs or fresh picks that were created before 2012. So, you don’t need to go digging through thousands of blog posts, fresh picks and designs…
2. Second, there’s a BIG twist this year. We’ve just launched a completely new web site. We’ve been working day and night to get it ready for the hunt, which is why the hunt launched a few days later than normal We hope you love it. We set out to make it as easy as possible to find what you’re looking for… Unless you’re looking for eggs. We hid those really well!

100 Easter Eggs

That’s right, there are 100 eggs hidden on the web site RIGHT NOW (plus an additional 3 special GOLDEN eggs). They’re scattered all over the Lima Beads web site. The only pages where you won’t find eggs is on blog posts, designs or fresh picks that were created before 2012. As you find eggs, you’ll see this status bar:

We don’t want anyone to go crazy, so we should tell you up front: finding all the Easter eggs will be difficult. Some of them are very well hidden. It’s not really about finding ALL of the eggs this year, it’s about finding the most and getting to the top of the leaderboard!

The Leaderboard

Just like last year, there’s a leaderboard that shows the top 100 hunters. See the Leaderboard.

Prizes

The more eggs you find, the more prizes you get. When you reach 10, 25, 35, 50, and 75 eggs a new set of prizes will be unlocked. You can choose from a variety of FREE beads and even a collection of coupons worth 15% – 20% off various items. There are also prizes associated with the Leaderboard. At the end of the Easter Egg Hunt, the top 10 people on the leaderboard will be entered to win The Grand Prize, a $250 Lima Beads Gift Certificate. Everyone else on the leaderboard will be entered to win second prize, a $100 Lima Beads gift certificate. See all the prizes.

The Golden Eggs

This year, we’re also hiding 3 special golden eggs (in addition to the 100 eggs, making a grand total of 103)… If you’re the very first one to find a golden egg, you’ll win a $25 Gift Certificate to our store! If the same person finds multiple golden eggs, that lucky beader will win one $25 gift certificate for each golden egg they find. Yowza! The golden eggs don’t count towards your leaderboard total, and you can keep an eye on who’s found the golden eggs on the leaderboard.

Rules

• The contest ends at 11:59pm on April 8, 2012 (Easter). This means you need to make sure and do the following by this time:
  • Collect all the eggs you can find.
  • If you unlocked any prizes, add them to your shopping bag and place your order—all prizes (except the discount code explained below) must be redeemed by the end of the contest. Normal shipping rates will apply.
  • If you unlocked the coupon prize, write down your coupon code (you can use it any time until the end of 2012)
  • Watch the blog for an announcement about the $250 drawing
• There are a total of 100 Easter eggs plus an additional 3 “golden” eggs that we’ve hidden for you to collect. Those are the only ones that count toward the prizes, and you must click on them to collect them. You might see some picture of eggs in promotional materials (like the ones in the grass at the top of this page)… those don’t count toward your total.
• We can’t offer rain checks on the prizes, so make sure to place your order when you’ve unlocked the prizes, because they’re only available while supplies last!
• We think we have enough free beads to go around… but in case we run short, we reserve the right to substitute a product of equal value as your prize (hey, it’s free, right?) . We can’t offer rain checks on unavailable prizes. We also reserve the right to update this list of rules if it needs clarification later.
• Normal shipping rates apply. As much as we’d like to, we just can’t afford to give away free beads AND ship them for free too. If you add your prizes to an order over $40, you’ll get the same free shipping you always get (inside the USA). If your order is under $40, normal shipping rates will apply to it.
• Please don’t share the locations of the eggs. This ruins the fun for everyone Also, you must find the eggs yourself–you can’t have a robot (or a computer) do it for you. Location sharers and robots will be disqualified from winning prizes! Gotta keep it fair for the rest of us!
• The most important rule: have fun!

We’re sorry for the delay on the Easter Egg Hunt, it’ll be live shortly. We’re working on something big…

We have some beautiful gemstone additions this week. There are over 40 different gemstone strands AND 20 styles of gemstone bead chain.

Fine Gemstones

This week’s additions are cut from some of the most sought after gemstones on the market. My two favorites are beryl morganite and kunzite. Their light, happy natural coloring couldn’t be better for spring. We’ve been looking for a good factory for these and we finally found one. The price and quality are outstanding. Not to be outdone, the new kyanite has a deep blue color that makes me want to dive right in. There are over 40 total additions. Other stones include: apatite, sunstone, black onyx, golden pyrite, labradorite, spinel, rhodochrosite, and more. See them all now.

Gemstone Bead Chain

This isn’t your average metal chain — it has premium gemstones wire wrapped into it! You’ll find silver and gold chain with stones like tourmaline, labradorite, green onyx, moonstone, and pink sapphire. All of the styles are very light and elegant. The silver chains are all sterling silver, the gold ones are gold plated over sterling silver. The manufacturer selects a high grade of stones when making these chains and it shows. See the gemstone chain now.

UPDATE: The contest winners have been chosen, and will be announced on April 18th! Stay tuned to the blog for the results!

A few weeks ago, the designers at Vintaj picked out some of our beads to use in their “Spring Rain” theme. They made some fantastic pieces using a combination of their own items and the beads we sent. The color scheme they chose was so beautiful and their designs turned out so well, that we thought it’d be fun to turn their Spring Rain theme into a Lima Beads design contest!

We’ve packaged these items into kits that you can purchase below. Here’s how it works: purchase a kit, design some jewelry, and add it to the Lima Beads design gallery and be sure to select “Spring Rain 2012” from the seasonal options at the bottom. The people with the 3 most popular designs will each win a Lima Beads gift certificate. Full details are available below. Happy designing!

Embellish your design

As you’ll see in the pieces Vintaj designed (below), they chose to use patinas to color the piece of Arte Metal from the kit. They also chose to use ribbon in their bracelet. For the contest, it’s OK to make these sorts of additions, as long as the majority of your piece is composed of items from the kit. For example, you could use leather cord or chain in place of ribbon. You could color your metal with gilders paste, acryllic paint, or just leave it alone. It’s up to you!

Designs

Here are a couple of designs from Vintaj that were inspired by the “Spring Rain” theme. See all Spring Rain designs as they’re uploaded.

Spring Rain Bracelet by Jess Italia Lincoln from Vintaj

Spring Rain Earrings by Jess Italia Lincoln from Vintaj

Official Contest Rules

1. To enter your design in the contest, you must start with one of the two kits above. We have a limited quantity available… when they’re gone, they’re gone!
2. You can make anything you want–a necklace, bracelet, earrings, or anything else. Just make sure that about 75% of your design is made up from the items in the kit.
3. To submit your design to win, you need to add it to our Design Gallery. Make sure to choose “Spring Rain 2012″ from the seasonal options when you upload your design–that’s important! When you’re finished, your design should show up with all the other Spring Rain designs.
4. There will be three winners. First prize is a $100 Lima Beads gift certificate. Second prize is a $50 gift certificate. Third prize (you guessed it) is a $25 gift certificate.
5. Winners will be chosen based on a combination of how many times their design was viewed and favorited–the most popular designs win!
6. All designs must be submitted to the gallery by 11:59pm on April 15th. The winners will be announced a week later.
7. The MOST IMPORTANT rule is this: Be yourself, get inspired, and have fun!

It’s finally a wrap! We’d like to send out a big THANK YOU to everyone who took the time to follow along with the Crossword Puzzle Sale during January. Hundreds of people solved the puzzle, and thousands of products went on sale over 31 days. We couldn’t be more thrilled with your participation. But that’s probably not why you’re reading this post…

The Winners Are…

As we mentioned in the rules, there were three winners to be chosen to receive one of the bonus prize packs from Nunn Design, Vintaj, and TierraCast. And the winners are…

1. Anna C from Minnesota (she’s Anna C WonderChick if you’ve seen her around here)
2. Maria from New York (known as NY Bella on Lima Beads)
3. Joan M from beautiful Nova Scotia, Canada

CONGRATS! I’ve e-mailed the three winners, and I’m awaiting their choices for the bonus pack they’ll receive. In the meantime, I’ll take one last look at the bonus prizes before we pack them up and ship them out to the winners.

One Last Special Thanks

We want to give one more special thanks to our friends at Nunn Design, Vintaj, and TierraCast for sending along these awesome prize packs to give away. It was a great gesture, and we’re grateful to be able to pass along these cool collections to our customers. Thanks again!

Now… off to think about the next big promotion right around Easter…

The Crossword Puzzle Sale of 2012 ended with a bang, and we’d like to thank everyone for playing along. We’re doing a mad rush through all the bead shows in Tucson right now, but we haven’t forgotten about the bonus prizes. We’ll be contacting and announcing the winners in the next 24 hours… so keep your fingers crossed! We’ll be posting an update right here on the blog.

Good luck!

The Lima Beads offices will be officially closed from Tuesday (1/31) – Friday (2/3) next week for our annual trip to Tucson for the big gem and jewelry shows. Last year was my first year making the trip, and it was waaaaay bigger than I expected. You can’t possibly prepare yourself for that many beads.

Shipping and Customer Service

During these 4 days, you’ll only be able to reach us by email. A small (and super dedicated) portion of our team is staying behind, so orders will continue to ship, but it may not be as quickly as you’re used to. If you need something urgently in the next week, be sure to place your order by Monday (1/30) and if it’s super time-sensitive, it would be a good idea to choose UPS as your shipping option.

Stay Tuned for an Update

We’ll be sending along an update next week, so stay tuned! Don’t forget, the Crossword Sale ends on 1/31–and watch the blog for an update on the winners of the bonus prizes. Adiós!

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!

Shell pearls are an alternative to cultured and glass pearls. They look and feel more genuine than glass pearls and offer the consistency of size and color that can be difficult to achieve with cultured pearls. Shell pearls exhibit the weight and feel of a natural South Sea pearl. They’re available in an array of beautiful colors.

How they’re made

The production process for shell pearls is similar to the process that crystal companies use to make glass pearls. The major difference is that glass pearls have glass in the center and shell pearls have a solid carving of real seashell at their core. Stone cutters cut and polish pieces of this giant shell until they have a perfect shape (10mm round for example). Once the piece of shell is finished, they’re ready to coat it. The coating, which is made in the USA, contains genuine mother of pearl that has been ground into a fine powder. This mother of pearl content is what gives shell pearls their deep luster. The coating process is what differentiates some shell pearls. All Lima Beads shell pearls have a thick multi-layer coating that ensures durability and high luster.

Great things about shell pearls

The core of a shell pearl

Genuine look and feel: Because they have a real seashell at their core, shell pearls look & feel more genuine than glass pearls.

Resilience: Shell pearls are more resistant to sweat, perfume, and other contaminants that commonly affect cultured pearls.

Availability: The controlled manufacturing process ensures that we can continuously restock items in the same shapes and colors.

Shop our Shell Pearls >

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

We are always so focused on making jewelry for ourselves that we might forget to make jewelry for our tree! I wanted to make garland for our tree, so I took 2 different spools of hemp and cut 13′ lengths of each. Knot a loop at the end to be able to secure to a branch. Randomly string on large crystals or large sparkly beads by knotting them on each side. As you go along about every 10″ or so, knot a couple scraps of ribbon to add some fullness and contrast to the sparkle. It’s easy and super quick! Your tree jewelry will look beautiful on your tree or wreath–or you can give it as a gift. (I’m keeping mine!)

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

If there is any time to turn into a crazy list maker, now is the time. Those magnetic pads for your fridge are great. I make lists for everything this time of year. Between Thanksgiving being next week, preparing Christmas presents, getting ready to decorate the house, entertaining, and going to holiday parties I have no time left right now to process a complete thought or idea … so I make lists.

I have a list for:

• what I am making for Thanksgiving dinner
• what I need to make each of the dishes and what I need to purchase for them
• who is getting a gift & what they are getting
• what I need to decorate inside
• what I need to decorate outside
• what craft projects to do with the kids
• whom to make cookies for
• … and the lists go on

Any other list makers out there!

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

Have you ever been in the unfortunate situation of being the recipient of a gift without having anything to give in return?

Make a few extra gifts to have on hand. Keep them in your car, or in your purse. Everyone likes a simple pair of sparkly earrings or a “match everything” multi color bracelet. These gifts can even be made with your extra beads and findings, so you don’t have to spend more money than you have to!

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

I am always trying to find a spare second at home when I can try to be creative. Lately this task has become even harder with Payton not consistently taking an afternoon nap and Christmas gift creations looming. She loves to try an help me make jewelry, but isn’t always all that helpful, so I came up with something easy for her to do at my desk while I work on my own designs – button jewelry. I have a couple cigar boxes full of vintage buttons with big holes that make it easy to string hemp or twine through. She loves this because they are colorful and sparkly and she can do it all by herself. I love it because she stays preoccupied so that I can think straight and design something myself.

Here is a necklace that Payton made the other day. I made a loop clasp for her to put the final button through as closure.

Materials needed:
2′ hemp or twine
old buttons or even big hole beads

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

One of the things I don’t look forward to during the holidays is reaching my hand into that dreaded box of pointy ornament hooks, only to stab myself and ruin the spirit. This year, I’m taking a different route using some beads and leftover Artistic Wire.

With just a few inches of Artistic Wire and some sparkly helpers, you can hang your ornaments in style. Check out the tip on making ornament hangers on the Tips & Techniques page!

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.

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!